Let The Games Begin! by QuickSloth @ 4:27 PST
Over at Impossible Creatures Planet the pairings for all the first round matches of their 2v2 tournament have been posted. If you signed up, take a look at the list to check out the competition, and also check your e-mail account to find a notification about your match-up. Everyone have fun and kick some iC butt. :)

On a belated note, the crew at iCP is now the official stop for the Insect Invasion Stats page. Congrats to the hard-working fellas on the iCP staff.

Finally, iCP has improved there downloads system by instituting a new map review section of the site. Finding the perfect map for a great game is now much easier to find. Check that out here.

New Insect Invasion Critters! by QuickSloth @ 19:25 PST
Over at Gamespot there is a new article up revealing the Termite and the Walking Stick!

The walking stick has a special camouflage ability that allows it to blend into the surrounding environment, making it ideal for ambushes. ... The other new insect, the termite, has an infestation property associated with it, making it very efficient at destroying buildings.

Read the article to learn more about their abilities and be sure to check out the screens for more new critters slated to be released in IC:II.
Thanks to Voodoo Extreme for the dirt. ;)

iCP Contest Winners by Changeling @ 19:06 PST
10 new winners for iCP's Insect Invasion Creature Contest have been selected, and all will have the oppurtunity to participate in the Insect Invasion MOD beta. Head on over to iCP to find out who the lucky winners are!

New IGN Insect Invasion Article by Changeling @ 18:56 PST
IGN.com has released info regarding four new creatures for Relics upcoming MOD, Insect Invasion. The four new animals include the Anaconda, the Shield Bug, the Black Widow, and the Bombardier Beetle. Some of the new abilities that will be included with the multiplayer MOD are also mentioned.

Take also the new Loner ability. Found in a couple of creatures including the Black Widow Spider, this new ability give creatures the ability to be extraordinarily powerful when attacking on their own. This means no other creature can be in its area of influence. But the area of influence for a Loner is pretty damn big, so you'll need to think carefully about how you want to use these beasts.

You can check out the feature here.

Our First Weekly iCC Contest Winner. by Changeling @ 18:08 PST
We would like to congratulate Bill_Brooks of our forums, for he has won the first ever iCC Weekly Playbacks Contest! Bill_Brook's winning submission, 'Zoltron_Bill vs Teoh' can be downloaded here.

This round was somewhat slow, and there weren't very many playback submissions, so we hope this is a reminder to the iCC community how much fun can form from our weekly contests. We encourage all of you to check it out, and consider submitting a playback of your own!

Insect Invasion Interview /w John Johnson by Changeling @ 13:50 PST
GamingXP, an Austrian gaming site, has had the oppurtunity to interview Relic Producer John Johnson regarding Insect Invasion, an upcoming Relic-based MOD.

Will there be new location-settings or even maps to play on? Are there any improvements to the - already very good - graphics and sounds?
We introduced a new environment to play in, "swamp biome". It has areas of swamp that directly affect gameplay. Units that move through the swamp will move slower depending on their size, so using smaller faster units in the swamp areas is much more effective then having larger creatures as they will get bogged down in the mud. The art for the swamp biome is really nice; it's my personal favorite. We've also added new sound for all the creatures as well as ambient sounds for the new biome.

The english version of the interview can be found near the middle of the page - head over and check it out!

New Batch of Strategy Articles! by Changeling @ 18:56 PST
I know this is a tad late, but there has been a new batch of iC Strategy Articles written by some of the top online players.

Aron's Guide To Army Building by Aron.

I believe armies should be tailored to the map. There’s nothing to stop it, after all, and you may as well make the army as appropriate to the terrain as you can, rather than trying to make an army that is superior on all maps. Some might disagree with me, and there are certainly many great players that only really use one or two armies, but I think you may as well tinker with them all. If nothing else, it might make you unpredictable.

The article offers some great info regarding army-designing, more specifically in-depth unit creating tips through all 5 research levels.

Advanced Stink Cloud Usage and Flier Utilization by Timeless_OMO

You must make several of these level 4 eleskunks, along with your level 5 melee units and upgrade them asap. Most important is their stink cloud radius, then defense, speed, etc. This tactic involves a bit of micro and requires, often enough, that you individually trigger these stink blasts instead of wasting them all in one shot. Escorted by air units, this strategy/tactic is deadly. Not only do the air units that I'm using (level 4 rhino/hornets) benefit from the safety of the clouds, but also create a swarm effect that will often confuse the enemy and make it more difficult for them to micro attack your units.

This article was written to counter those level 5 Baboon/Sonic attack and Chimpanzee/Sonic Attack units that seem so brutal and uncounterable. A must read.

iCP Insect Invasion Creature Contest by Changeling @ 18:44 PST
The folks over at iCP are holding an Insect Invasion Creature Contest. The winner will receive a chance to participate in the Insect Invasion Beta!

- Only one submission per user. Using multiple usernames will get you disqualified.
- Only creature details may be posted in this thread. No comments about other submissions, no pleading to win, no duplications of already posted creatures. All non-submission posts will be deleted.
- If you need to edit your creature, use the EDIT button at the bottom of your post, do not double post. If you do, both posts will be deleted.
- This thread will close sometime on May 5th, 2003 and no more submissions will be accepted. At this time, a second thread will be opened and open voting will begin. More on that when the time comes.
- You MUST either be over 18 or have a parent that is willing to sign the Relic Non-Disclosure Agreement to participate in the BETA testing.

Head on over and check it out.

iCC Welcomes SimTycoon. by Changeling @ 21:30 PST
On behalf of iCC, I would like to welcome SimTycoon to the staff. Sim is the Impossible Creatures Editor webmaster, and holds a very respected position in the iC community. Sim has been here since day one; I am happy to announce that he will be contributing in the areas of content management, news posting, managing our forums, and helping iCC become more of a MOD/Map Design-friendly fan site.

Again, welcome, Sim!

Insect Invasion Interview @ HomeLan Fed by Changeling @ 15:46 PST
HomeLan Fed has had the time to sit down with Relic Producer John Johnson for an interview on Relic's upcoming Impossible Creatures add-on, Insect Invasion. John comments on some of the new creature abilities, a new biome for maps, and some of the new base creatures that will be included with the MOD.

HomeLAN - What new abilities will be featured in the new expansion?
John Johnson - We are not giving away too much information yet on this, but 3 of the new creatures & their Abilities are the Black Widow Spider, which can throw webs around other creatures. The Shield Bug (stink bug) which has deflection armor that will cause a percentage of direct Range attacks to fire back at creature that attacked it (as well as the stink cloud ability) and the Bombardier Beetle which is like a long range artillery unit that shoots a volatile chemical Spray.

Info regarding the release of new and improved MOD tools, as well as 2 new in-game Insect Invasion screenshots are included with the interview.

Catch the interview here.

Patch Confirmation by Changeling @ 15:36 PST

After grievance over certain balance issues, iCO server problems, and few in-game bugs, sauce, a Relic Developer, has verified in this thread that a patch will be coming soon, more specifically near the release of Insect Invasion.

Thanks, Ian!

Impossible Creatures: Insect Invasion Revealed by Sabin @ 18:05 PST
Relic Entertainment announced today that it is working on a free add-on to its real-time strategy game, Impossible Creatures, called Insect Invasion. Scheduled for release online this spring, Insect Invasion will add 15 new creatures, 9 new abilities and other game enhancements. Relic also plans to release updated tools and the IC SDK to the mod community shortly after the release of Insect Invasion. Check out the official site for full details and take a look below for the first bits of concept art from the free add-on.

Excited about 'Insect Invasion'? Groping for more? Let us know in our official 'Insect Invasion' MOD thread.

Happy Easter! by Changeling @ 8:36 PST
On behalf of iCC, I'd like to wish you all a a Happy Easter. May the day spent with family & friends be a wonderful and memorable one.

iCE is All Fired Up! by QuickSloth @ 7:47 PST
The once silent iCE has gone through a major resugence and is primed for re-entering the iC community. Just a week ago, JFranco (aka SimTycoon) updated Impossible Creatures Editor and has posted many happenings there.

First, check out the Tournament page, then grab a friend and sign up for his 2v2 tourney! Hurry though, there is limited spacing and sign-ups end soon. Next, check out Map Discussion area to see what JFranco has been working on lately. He even has a new original map available for download! Finally, iCE is once again hosting the user-voted Critter Combat which pits one Impossible Creature against another to see who the fans think will win. Check it out and make sure you vote for the survival of the fittest!