Lacking a podcast last weekend as an excuse to harp on about Stormrise I'm forced to wait until Mick and Derek have gone to bed to instead slip a blog post in about it under their noses.

Insert evil chuckle and steepled fingers here.

The hype train for Stormrise is leaving the station now and if you want to be one of the cool kids you must hop on. Glory and riches await. In case you weren't familiar with the game at all here's the short version. Stormrise is an RTS game that focuses on the gritty intimate aspects of war as opposed to keeping everythin from a birds eye view. A special control called a whip camera is used to access and coordinate the various units that you have around the map. There are multiple levels that units can operate in, sky land and underground, and units such as snipers can take advantage of structures to gain a height advantage. The game features two playable factions: The Echelon cold and technology focused, the Echelon have been hiding underground for hundreds of years following a massive world war to retake the surface. Unfortunately the Sai are all ready there, the humans who didn't make it to the bunkers who have mutated and evolved on the surface, main of whom have gained psychic powers.

Head on over to www.stormrisers.com and take a stroll through the community site to learn a bit more about the game, read character profiles and check out screenshots. A whole bunch of videos have recently been added to the site which highlight the innovative gameplay, patented whip camera and some of the games key units including the Echelon Stalker mechs and the creepy Sai Rift Worms. But you just need to see some of the concept art, like this bit, to know that Stormrise is going to kick butt when it releases. 

The release date is actually a little bone of contention for me at the minute, I have read that us good Australian citizens would have access to the game on 24 to 26 March the same as the US, with Europe following a few days later. But there's also an ominous 'Oceanic' release date of April 17. You can be sure I'll blog immediately when I have the date confirmed by a higher power.

Stormrise is an innovative and completely new IP and given every big release this year has been a sequel or a spin off, that's pretty damn exciting. Don't take my fawning word for it though, head over to www.stormrisers.com and checkout the game for yourself. It's currently slated for the Xbox 360, PS3 and PC.