Village Gamer

Montreal – Via E3 – Earlier today Ubisoft unveiled their lofty list of upcoming titles at E3 – and I will admit that they did surprise, thrill and tantalize my tingly gamer senses. Ubisoft’s trailers have always been well done, but in this round, I have to say that the creativity, especially with the Red Steel 2, Shaun White Snowboarding: World Stage and R.U.S.E. trailers, has advanced to new levels. Even the new Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Convictions may have won me over – this new incarnation of Sam Fisher looks like my kind of game hero – and the trailer appears to have some pretty intense game play and storyline happening.

A very pleasant surprise in the bevy of trailer reels was the preview of Academy of Champions. The game is very colourful with stylized characters and a highly-detailed environment, and judging solely from the trailer, Academy of Champions looks like the kind of game a player could end up investing a lot of time in. It would be easy to become drawn into the story and work hard to make sure that the good guys are victorious over the bad. My favourite though, is of course Assassin’s Creed 2. I am very much looking forward to seeing how the continuation of the story will unfold – along with all of that sneaking about with shiny blades stuck up my sleeves.

Continuing on with Ubi’s big announcements, filmmaker James Cameron made a surprise appearance on the press stage, introducing the first details for Avatar: The Game along with Yannis Mallat, CEO of Ubisoft Montreal.
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Vancouver – Via E3 – Big Park Studios, which was recently acquired by Microsoft Game Studios has announced their new Xbox 360 title, Joy Ride. The title will only be available to Xbox Live silver and gold subscribers, and will allow players to race their XBL avatars against friends.

Game Details:

Put your avatar behind the wheel of a vehicle you select and customize to match your personal style, and drive your avatar WILD. Trick out your avatar with styles and animations to guarantee you’ll stand out in the crowd. The game universe constantly evolves and expands with new downloadable content, including new stunt parks, tracks, cars, car upgrades, avatar clothing and animations, and new events. Once you’re all customized, take your avatar out for a spin. Make friends around the world as you catch huge air, pull off crazy stunts, and participate in fun community events.
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Burnaby – Via E3 – EA SPORTS™, a label of Electronic Arts Inc., announced today that EA SPORTS Active™ has eclipsed 600,000 units sold worldwide at retail in less than two weeks on the market. EA SPORTS Active, which hit stores on May 19^th in North America and by May 22^nd worldwide*, is a virtual fitness product developed exclusively for the Wii™ and offers the benefit of a personal trainer in a box with customizable workouts that

EA Sports Active

can be done from the comfort of home.

“We’re delighted by the overwhelming response to EA SPORTS Active,” said Peter Moore, President, EA SPORTS. “This is, by far, the most successful launch of any Wii title in EA history, and even more encouraging is that our second week sales worldwide were as strong as our first week. Not only are we off to a great start at retail, but the feedback from people who are getting off the couch, breaking a sweat and using EA SPORTS Active to support living a healthier lifestyle, is that it is changing their lives.”

Critics and consumers alike have praised EA SPORTS Active. “EA SPORTS Active finally bridges the gap between house and gym, earning it top honors as the best exercise game currently out for the Wii,” according to 1up.com. In its five star review, Green Pixels says, “EA SPORTS Active easily wins top honors in this rapidly growing genre.” Read the rest of this entry »

Burnaby – Via E3 – EA SPORTS™, a label of Electronic Arts Inc., announced today the relaunch of EASPORTS.COM, a brand new online destination in public beta that features unprecedented levels of digital content, new ways for fans to connect and share, and product enhancements that carry over into some of the most popular EA SPORTS console games. EA SPORTS existing sites, www.easports.com and www.easportsworld.com, are merged into the all new destination, currently available at beta.EASPORTS.COM, creating a single EA SPORTS hub on the Web.

“EASPORTS.COM is a logical extension of the EA SPORTS brand – it creates a truly immersive experience that puts the control in users’ hands, and once you do that, the options are endless,” said Steven Chiang, SVP and Group General Manager for EA SPORTS. “The new EASPORTS.COM will give our fans a gateway to competition and feature more ways in one place to connect with their passion for sports and share content. It will also allow EA SPORTS to push the boundaries of customization and new online features to bring gamers around the world coming back for more.”
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Toronto – Search Engine Strategies (SES) Toronto 2009 today announced the addition of copywriting, landing page and Twitter sessions to the already packed conference agenda. The largest search engine marketing conference in Canada will be held at the Sheraton Centre Toronto June 8-10, 2009.

According to Hitwise, Google received 80.2 percent of all Canadian searches conducted in the 12 weeks ending April 25, 2009. MSN search properties, Yahoo! search properties and Ask search properties received 8.8 percent, 7.3 percent and 2.8 percent, respectively. By comparison, Google accounted for 72.7 percent of all U.S. searches conducted during that period, according to Hitwise. Yahoo! Search, MSN Search and Ask.com received 16.3 percent, 5.7 percent and 4.0 percent, respectively.
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Montreal – Activision announced earlier today that Artificial Mind & Movement (A2M) will be the developer for the Nintendo DS version of the upcoming title Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs.

The talent from Twentieth Century Fox’s highly anticipated Ice Age™: Dawn of the Dinosaurs feature film will reprise their roles in the upcoming video game. The game features the voices of Ray Romano, John Leguizamo, Queen Latifah and Josh Peck as members of an unlikely herd of prehistoric pals on a rescue mission across the tundra and beyond as they meet new friends and discover a mysterious world teeming with lush vegetation and fierce dinosaurs.

“The actors have brought life and familiarity to these admired prehistoric Ice Age characters,” said Rob Kostich, head of marketing for licensed properties, Activision Publishing, Inc. “Their presence in the game brings authenticity to the experience, immersing players in the Ice Age movie universe.”
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Vancouver – The Golden Joysticks have released their shortlist of nominees for their annual players’ choice awards, and FIFA 09 is nominated in eight out of the eleven categories in which it could compete. The eight categories include: Handheld, Mobile, Multiplayer Console, Nintendo, PlayStation, Xbox 360, Online Game, and Ultimate Game of The Year.

Other Canadian games which have made the shortlist are Bioware’s Mass Effect 2 and Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed 2 in The One To Watch category. It would appear that gamers are going with titles which are making a sequel appearance, as all of the Ones To Watch who made the short list are sequels or franchise titles – none of the new IP titles, including Radical Entertainment’s highly anticipated game [PROTOTYPE] made it to the second round of voting. Relic Entertainment’s Warhammer 40 000: Dawn of War 2 and Bioware’s Mass Effect are both contenders in the PC Game of the Year – a category which FIFA 09 is surprisingly absent from.

Over 250 000 gamers voted in the first round of the awards competition. The short list voting is expected to be quite heavy – last year the total number of votes cast exceeded 850 000. Final results for the Golden Joysticks will be announced on October 30 2009 at the London Games Festival in the UK.