10th October 2009

More Awards, Game News and the Weekend Wrap

Canada's Top 100 Employers 2010First, congratulations to game studios Next Level Games, Bioware and Digital Extremes for being named in the Top 100 Canadian EmployersResearch In Motion was also named to the list. Next Level is consistently named as a Top Employer by several agencies, and Bioware has also won previous awards for being a Top Employer.  Word Search

Digital Leisure’s Word Searcher puzzle game has been released on WiiWare. You’ll need a sharp eye and a quick mind to complete these 100 themed word search puzzles. Word Searcher contains fun words from multiple categories including anatomy, world cities, ancient weapons and 97 other subjects. Packed with a huge assortment of subjects to choose from, there’s sure to be a puzzle everyone will enjoy. Help improve your vocabulary, memory and problem-solving skills with these addicting puzzles. Keep track of, and try to beat your own completion times again and again as words are scrambled every time you play. Get your thinking cap on and conquer all 100 today!

Kristin BellUbisoft has announced that Hollywood actress Kristen Bell will reprise her role of Lucy Stillman in Assassin’s Creed II. Bell’s character will once again play a major role in the game’s intricate storyline. “Being a part of the first Assassin’s Creed video game was an amazing experience. Video games is such a creative entertainment medium, and to be able to see and play myself as a video game character was surreal,” said Kristen Bell. “As an actress, it’s both challenging and rewarding to play a complex character with this great mysterious background. I’m very happy to be Lucy once more, and I look forward to fans discovering more about her – they will be pleasantly surprised.”

Also available for viewing is a new video vignette showcasing the Assassination Arsenal. Media Labs is holding an AC2 film contest with a $10 000.00 first prize, but it’s only open to US residents over the age of 18.

EA Montreal has announced that renowned film composer Tyler Bates will be creating the impactful score for the highly anticipated third person co-op shooter Army of Two™:The 40th Day. The sought-after Army of Two 40th Daycomposer, best known for his work on the blockbuster films 300 and Watchmen, is crafting an immersive score that will highlight the epic co-operative battles gamers and their friends will face in the first major videogame release of 2010.

“Set in Shanghai in the middle of a major a disaster, Army of Two: The 40th Day dials up the action through a series of powerful scenes where players have to work together as a team to survive and escape the city,” said Lewis James, Audio Director at EA Montreal. “Tyler examined every part of the game and how players will move through the world to craft a score that truly represents their actions and the chaos unfolding around them.”

“The 40th Day is one of the most intense games I’ve seen,” said Tyler Bates. “The setting, characters and action in the game provided me the perfect backdrop to create an equally intense and dramatic score that compliments the gameplay.”

With more than 50 films and 15 years experience, Bates is one of Hollywood’s most sought-after Army of Two 40th Daycomposers. In addition to Watchmen and 300, he has scored hit films such as The Day the Earth Stood Still, Rob Zombie’s Halloween and Halloween 2, and Showtime’s hit comedy series “Californication”.

“Tyler Bates’ score for The 40th Day is not only a stellar addition to this tradition but takes the Army of Two franchise to a whole new level,” said Steve Schnur, Worldwide Executive of Music and Marketing. “Most of all, our collaboration with a composer of his caliber furthers EA’s continued commitment to creating the most groundbreaking new soundtracks in the entertainment industry.”

In this sequel to the multi-million selling 2008 break-out hit, private military contractors, Salem and Rios must fight their way through Shanghai to survive a carefully orchestrated series of catastrophes that are dragging the massive city to the brink of ruin. Now, the Army of Two are trapped and must work as a team to survive relentless enemy assaults and escape the city collapsing around them. Army of Two: the 40th Day has not yet been rated by the ESRB. The game will ship on January 12, 2010 in North America and will be available for the Xbox 360®,  PlayStation®3 and the PSP®.

PresagisPresagis™, a leading provider of commercial-off-the shelf (COTS) modeling, simulation and embedded display graphics software, today announced the release of STAGE 6.0. This new version allows programmers and non-programmers alike to work in a flexible, integrated simulation environment to build dynamic and interactive tactical and operational scenarios. STAGE 6.0 supports the development of simulations for applications such as: network centric operations, battle-lab evaluations, command and control applications, military embedded training, operational research, and future system performance evaluation.

“The simulation community is demanding more comprehensive off-the-shelf solutions to minimize technology investments, ease development timelines and reduce delivery risks,” said Robert Kopersiewich, Vice President Product and Program Management, Presagis. “To address this need, Presagis drew from more than 15 years of experience to deliver STAGE 6.0, which takes the user experience to a new level by providing customers with the most complete set of out-of-the-box capabilities provided in a simulation solution.”

With STAGE 6.0 Presagis has delivered on its vision of a flexible, integrated simulation environment that offers an open, standards-based architecture while providing an enhanced feature set and seamless support for a full range of Presagis software products, third party applications, and industry database and communication standards. This complete simulation solution helps customers avoid additional technology investment and project cost overruns by including access to the Presagis Worldwide Database as well as providing an application programming interface (API) that offers the flexibility required to quickly integrate with any existing infrastructure.

Ushering in a new generation of user experience, STAGE 6.0 is a powerful computer generated forces (CGF) application with a superior interface and visual quality achieved through integration with Presagis Vega Prime, resulting in 2D and 3D visualization that is based on the industry’s leading technology. Built-in integration and support of other Presagis software products, including AI.implant, Creator, FlightSIM, HeliSIM, SIMOneNet, and Terra Vista, also means that users can seamlessly incorporate artificial intelligence and high fidelity models into scenarios and easily create large scale urban, air and marine simulations leveraging virtual environments that can be quickly tailored to specific application requirements. STAGE 6.0 provides support for legacy databases, DTED and GeoTIFF while also allowing users to take advantage of innovative industry-standard database formats, including OpenFlight and the common database (CDB).

Presagis has also worked closely with its partners, including AGI, Camber Corporation, DI-Guy and HPC Project, in the development of STAGE 6.0 to provide off-the-shelf support for leading vendor applications. Simulation users can therefore focus their time and resource investment in application development because Presagis has delivered third party integration out-of-the-box.

Customization and integration of STAGE 6.0 within any modeling and simulation development workflow is made possible by its extensive API and ongoing support of networking and communications standards such as DIS, HLA and CIGI. Open and flexible, STAGE allows users to easily integrate new libraries, components and software applications. Using the STAGE API users can seamlessly integrate STAGE 6.0 with their infrastructure, create dockable windows, customize the GUI as required, and personalize both the views and the application itself.

This entry was posted on Saturday, October 10th, 2009 at 11:45 am and is filed under Action Adventure, Awards, Contests, Mature, Rating Pending, Shooters, Upcoming Releases. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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