Village Gamer

Vancouver – PowerUp Studios, the creators of Night of a Million Billion Zombies, proudly announces the release of NOMBZ: HEADSHOT! for the Apple iPhone and iPod Touch, available now through the Apple App Store, where you can pick it up for only 99 cents.

The Night of a Million Billion Zombies virus spreads to the iPhone as a 3D tap ‘n’ shoot action game that challenges you to defend against mobs of zombies, all hungry for your delicious human brains!

Choose your weapon and battle for survival against different types of zombies in a variety of settings, including city, suburbs, mall… and a secret setting!

Fight! Survive! Escape! We hope you enjoy the zombie apocalypse!

System Requirements:
Compatible with iPhone and iPod Touch
iPhone OS 2.0 or later

NOMBZ Headshot is rated E10+ for Infrequent/Mild Cartoon or Fantasy Violence and Infrequent/Mild Horror/Fear Themes

Vancouver – Game publisher Paradox Interactive today announced that in anticipation of the upcoming expansion pack Sword of the Stars: Argos Naval Yard from Vancouver’s Kerberos Productions, Sword of the Stars: Ultimate Collection is temporarily available for $7.99 on GamersGate, Steam, Direct2Drive, and Impulse. This special price promotion lasts through this Sunday, June 13, 2009. Sword of the Stars: Ultimate Collection contains the original Sword of the Stars game and the two expansion packs Born of Blood and A Murder of Crows.

Paradox Interactive took over as publishers for the Sword of the Stars franchise in April of this year.  The original Sword of the Stars title was hailed as a major milestone in 4X Space Strategy games upon release, praised for its unique combination of turn based strategy and real-time space combat.

“We’re thrilled to be a part of Sword of the Stars series,” says Fredrik Wester, CEO of Paradox Interactive. “We look forward to continue bringing this game to market and further developing the IP with Kerberos for many years to come.”
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Edmonton – Leading video game developer BioWare™, a division of Electronic Arts Inc., will bring Dragon Age™: Origins to the San Diego Comic-Con, GamesCom, Gen Con, Fan Expo Canada and Penny Arcade Expo (PAX) over the course of summer 2009. This summer consumer show tour gives fans the chance to experience the game’s dark and gritty world of violence, lust and betrayal first-hand, before it hits stores this fall on the Xbox 360® videogame and entertainment system, PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system and PC. Dragon Age: Origins promises gamers an epic adventure as a Grey Warden where they set on a course to defeat the Archdemon in a dark, stunning world. Dragon Age: Origins offers an engrossing story, unprecedented player choice, and bone-crushing, visceral combat, making it one of the most highly-anticipated releases of 2009.

“Dragon Age: Origins is the biggest, most ambitious BioWare game to date, and we will be delivering that great experience simultaneously on Xbox 360, PS3, and PC,” said Dr. Ray Muzyka, CEO and co-founder of BioWare and General Manager and Vice President, Electronic Arts. “Whether you’re a PC or console gamer, Dragon Age: Origins reinvents the fantasy experience, combining a great story with raw emotion and brutal action. We’re excited to share it with gamers before it ships this fall.”
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Sim City – Electronic Arts Play Label, Sims Studio and Montreal’s Artificial Mind & Movement announced today that MySims Racing for the Wii™ and Nintendo DS™ will be zooming into retail outlets this week. The latest title in the popular MySims franchise starts players as wannabe speedsters and after working their way up the ranks, it is time for them to burn rubber against the toughest MySims rival racers on the trickiest tracks in Speedville. The excitement never stops as the more successful the player is on the track, the more they will be able to customize their kart and trick it out with new engines and bodies. Designed specifically from the ground up for the Nintendo platforms, MySims Racing offers something for everyone who wants to live life in the fast lane.

“The MySims have had many adventures and conquered many challenges, but for the first time we find them behind the wheels of their own customized vehicles,” said Tim LeTourneau, General Manager of the MySims Franchise. “MySims Racing combines the fun and quirky MySims spirit our fans love with fast-paced action-packed arcade racing. We can’t wait for players to take this game for a spin.”
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Burnaby – Electronic Arts Inc. announced today that Orlando Magic center, Dwight Howard, will be the cover athlete for NBA LIVE 10. A three-time NBA All-Star, Howard is currently looking to lead the Magic franchise to their first NBA Championship. The No. 1 pick of the 2004 NBA Draft was the 2009 NBA Defensive Player of the Year presented by Kia Motors, an All-NBA First Team selection the last two seasons, and stole the show at the 2008 NBA Sprite Slam Dunk Contest with his superhero antics. Additionally, Howard was the starting center of the 2008 U.S. Basketball Men’s Senior National Team which won the gold medal at the Olympics in Beijing. NBA LIVE 10 is currently in development under the EA SPORTS™ brand by EA Canada in Vancouver, B.C. and will be available worldwide this October.

“It’s an honor to be named as the cover athlete for NBA LIVE 10,” said Howard. “This year has been a crazy ride and this is a cool way to cap it off. Of course – there is one more thing I’m on the hunt for that would complete it.”
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Kingston Technology Company Inc., the independent world leader in memory products, today announced it is holding a contest for Canadian residents* to win a HyperX^® gaming system or other prizes. Register online for a chance to win.

HyperX

“Kingston is proud to hold this contest as a thank you to all of our supporters and fans of the HyperX line of enthusiast memory in Canada,” said Jennifer Shih, marketing coordinator, Kingston^® Canada. “The HyperX name has become a trusted brand worldwide and continues to gain popularity with the recently released T1 heatspreaders, 12GB triple-channel kits and the new HyperX Fan which looks cool while keeping the memory cool.”

Eight prizes will be awarded:

• One gaming system powered by Kingston HyperX memory worth $3,000 (U.S.)
• One Kingston SSDNow M Series 80GB solid-state drive
• One HyperX DDR3 2GHz 6GB triple-channel memory kit
• Five DataTraveler^® HyperX 16GB USB Flash drives (one per winner)

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Toronto – Wicked Interactive Ltd., a leading North American video game publisher, today announced the upcoming release of ACE Online Episode 3.2, a patch to the current Episode 3 -War of Pandea, that offers all new content including a new Nation War System, a revamped game interface, new maps, an all-new slot machine and new cash shops items. The game, which is part of the Suba Games library of free MMOs can be downloaded at the Suba Games web site.

“We are excited to launch this new update for ACE Online,” said Garvin Yeung, CEO of Wicked Interactive LTD. “Episode 3.2 offers several updates throughout many different areas of the game and we think players will be thrilled with the new content.”

Nation War System Updated
The mothership war system has been completely revamped. No longer will motherships be summoned based on nation points, instead they will be scheduled at a specific times decided by the nation leaders. In addition, Outpost Wars occur more frequently and are now activated concurrently of each other. Also, rewards earned within the war system are now totally performance-based. The better a player performs in combat, the better their reward.
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Stratford – The Canada 3.0 forum concluded Tuesday with the declaration that all Canadians should have the opportunity to participate in a fully digital world and reap the economic benefits of commercializing innovation.

“We have the opportunity to lead the world in digital media and create a national advantage by investing in innovation and turning that into commercially viable content and technology,” said Tom Jenkins, newly named Chairman of the Canadian Digital Media Network’s Advisory Board, and Executive Chairman and Chief Strategy Officer of Open Text.

To be a leader in digital media all Canadians should be connected to content and able to access that content on an equal level, organizers agreed. Content needs to be respected and copyright and ownership protected, says Ian Wilson, Strategic Advisor for the University of Waterloo Stratford Institute. “We need to connect Canadians to content on a fair and transparent basis,” said Wilson. “And every citizen in Canadian society regardless of geography – whether in an urban area or not – should be able to connect to Canadian content in an increasingly mobile world.”
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Toronto – Ancestry.ca, in partnership with Library and Archives Canada (LAC), today completed the world-first online launch of the Historical Canadian Censuses, 1851-1916. Never before have all of the nine available national censuses⁽¹⁾ been published online, fully indexed and including original document images.

Together, these censuses contain more than 32 million names – all searchable for the first time – of those living in Canada from the mid 19th century through to the early 20th century – a period of nationhood, new arrivals, great change and significant growth.

It is estimated that half of all living Canadians (16 million people)⁽²⁾ will be able to trace their ancestors in the censuses – Ancestry.ca has found those of Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Opposition Leader Michael Ignatieff, jailed businessman Conrad Black, singer Alanis Morissette and actress Pamela Anderson (original images available).

So what is a Canadian? Canadians have been asking themselves this very question for as long as we have existed as a country.
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Montreal – Newly-founded Montreal-based game developer and publisher Gamesmith Studios is the latest company to board the iPhone games train, and it’s doing so in grand fashion by releasing 8 fresh new titles simultaneously.

The company’s founders, both under the age of 30, promise that this initial launch is the first of many, hinting that they have already signed a number of partnerships which will be revealed in the future. “Publishing great Apps conceived by other developers is an intricate part of Gamesmith’s strategy. We like to think of our arrangement as a collective of small independent developers, working together to increase our exposure on Apple’s App Store, and collaborating to create great new innovative products“ says Jasson Michaud, co-founder of Gamesmith Studios. “We want the Gamesmith name to be synonym of fun, high-quality interactive products.”
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