Village Gamer

Montreal – Interactive entertainment company Ludia today announced the launch of its Hell’s Kitchen game for iPhone and iPod touch on the Apple App Store. Based on the Granada America television phenomenon, iPhone and iPod touch owners can now feel the show’s pressure-cooker atmosphere anytime, anyplace along with the acerbic commentary of Gordon Ramsay who judges and rates player performance at each stage of the game. Players can also unlock recipes from the show as a reward for progress in the game.

“Hell’s Kitchen viewership has grown each season and fans of both the show, and of Gordon Ramsay, have become increasingly dedicated,” said Katrina Moran, executive vice president for Digital Media, Granada America. “We are pleased that new and existing fans can now enjoy a Hell’s Kitchen experience on-the-go via the revolutionary iPhone and iPod touch.”

Read the rest of this entry »

Montreal – Meridian4 and Frogames have been hard at work tweaking Penguins Arena, their action-packed, non-stop battle for survival – FPS (First Penguin Shooter) and have fixed a few things and added others.

The update to Penguins Arena: Sedna’s World has been released and is available through normal digital distribution channels. The specific changes include:

• Added “Custom maps” game mode, which allow players to play maps created with PAME (Penguins Arena Map Editor)
• Added 4 new custom maps created by fans (Thanks!)
• Fixed case of penguins falling into the water but are still alive (The ‘Tread Water’ bug)
• Fixed some achievements not being able to be unlocked
• Fixed crash when a player tries to join a full server
• Fixed not being able to bind the ‘E’ key
Read the rest of this entry »

Chapter 1 of the Trilogy Now Available on iPhone and the iPod Touch

Toronto – TransGaming Inc., announces the immediate availability of Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords®, Chapter 1: The Battle of Gruulkar at the iTunes App Store for USD$9.99.

Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords is an award-winning title that has been customized for the iPhone and iPod Touch and will be uniquely released as three dynamic chapters in an episodic manner with a downward pricing model through the App Store. The trilogy gives consumers the choice of an instant-action play option or over twenty hours of immersive game play in each chapter based on an epic storyline. Delivering over eighty hours of total game play through the trilogy, Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords redefines what a mobile game should deliver. This award-winning game is a must-have for casual and hard-core gaming enthusiasts.
Read the rest of this entry »

Second Update Released for 4X Space Strategy Game A Murder of Crows

Toronto – Leading video game publisher Lighthouse Interactive and acclaimed developer Kerberos Productions continue to prove their commitment to the dedicated Sword of the Stars community, by releasing the second update (1.6.4) for A Murder of Crows (PC) to the public shortly after a surprise, early release to gaming fans on the Kerberos and Lighthouse message boards.

The following key features are included in Update 1.6.4:

• Auto-pause feature added to single-player games.
• Added tech negotiation news event art.
• Fleet list can now be filtered by Flagship or Deep Scan.
• Slavers are back!
• Research bonus added for killing the VN grand menace.
• New avatars are available Read the rest of this entry »

Title: Crash Bandicoot – Mind Over Mutant
Developer: Radical Entertainment
Publisher: Sierra – Activision
Platforms: Xbox 360, Wii, DS, PSP, PS2
Release Date: October 7 2008

Mind over Mutant is the latest addition to the Crash Bandicoot franchise from Vancouver’s Radical Entertainment, and the general consensus among those of us at the Village Gamer HQ who played the 360 version over the holidays is that “Crash rocks!”

The plot line for Mind Over Mutant requires Crash to save his friends and everyone else from the evil clutches of the nasty Dr. Neo Cortex and the equally warped Dr. Nitrus Brio. The squabbling and delusional duo have released a new device called the “NV” on the Bandicoot world, a mind controlling unit which bears an odd resemblance to today’s real world mobile devices. The NV has not only affected Crash’s sister CoCo and his best-friend Crunch, but also each of the Titan “clans” which also populate Crash’s world.

Mind Over Mutant is full of player achievement objectives, ranging from health and skill upgrades for Crash and his small army of Mutant Titans to missions, side-missions and treasure hunts. Skills and health can also be upgraded by collecting mojo jewels, while main mission objectives are obtained from characters in the story. Completing percentages of the game results in achievement awards, and some objectives which can only be successful through co-op play.

While the co-op areas can be accomplished with one player using two controllers, we found it far more fun to actually play co-operatively. Other achievements throughout the game include unlockable skins (or costumes) for Crash and art collections. The art collection featuring fan art must have thrilled the many young artists whose work was included, and I feel this was a very special and thoughtful way to thank Crash Bandicoot fans.

Read the rest of this entry »

Rusty Axe Games, a developer and publisher of downloadable game software located in Terrace, BC, is proud to announce the release of Big$hot! Big$hot is an exciting new financial strategy game about buying and developing business properties from the team that brought you Real E$tate Empire.

In Big$hot you play the role of an entrepreneur whose job is to build a portfolio of properties that can be leveraged into a business empire.

Big$hot is easy to learn how to play with a complete tutorial system, context sensitive help and an online Q&A system that can be launched from within the game.

What to hold, what to fix, what to package up and deal off – it’s all about risk and reward as you try to build your property monopolies and acquire strategic businesses that will help you build and promote your burgeoning business empire.

Game Features:

Build monopolies to reduce costs and increase profits.
Drive down repair and improvement costs by picking up construction companies.
Reduce advertising costs by owning media companies.
Control a realty business to fast track sales of your own businesses.

Read the rest of this entry »

Crash is Back in Another Ginormous Adventure! Crash Bandicoot: Mind over Mutant, developed by Vancouver’s Radical Entertainment, has hit store shelves worldwide and is available on the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, Wii™ home video game system, Nintendo DS™, PlayStation®2 computer entertainment system and PSP® (PlayStation®Portable) system.
In the deepest Crash adventure yet, Crash: Mind Over Mutant arms players with new features, including the ability not only to control enemies once they are ‘jacked,’ but to store the mutants in Crash’s pocket, upgrade them and utilise their unique powers. Players can also roam through Wumpa Island in a two-player cooperative mode with Crash’s sister Coco.
Read the rest of this entry »

World War III is only a mouse click away… Supreme Ruler 2020 expansion – Global Crisis announced

Ontario – Paradox Interactive today announced a new expansion pack for the Geo-Political, Military Strategy game Supreme Ruler 2020, developed by BattleGoat Studios.

“This is the first time we’ve developed an expansion pack and we wanted to ensure that we had significant new content for our dedicated players to enjoy,” remarked David Thompson, BattleGoat’s Lead Designer and Co-Founder.
Read the rest of this entry »

Girls Sing and Dance Their Way to Stardom in the Hottest New Music Game

Montreal – The Casual Entertainment Label of Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ:ERTS) provides tween girls with the ultimate superstar experience with this week’s release of Boogie™ SuperStar, exclusively for the Wii™. Boogie SuperStar shipped on October 14 in North America and Canada, and will be available October 16 in Asia and October 17 in Europe. Girls around the world will have a blast singing and dancing their way to stardom, performing today’s hottest music hits.

“Boogie SuperStar provides girls worldwide with a gaming experience that is truly for them,” said Russell Arons, Vice President of Marketing, EA Casual Entertainment. “We listened to what girls wanted in a music game and aimed to provide those elements with Boogie SuperStar including total character customization, today’s most popular songs, engaging game play, and the ability to play with their friends.”

Read the rest of this entry »

Spore is the first of its kind for the simulation genre of video games. Playing this game takes you through the journey of being a small little cell fighting for survival slowly evolving into an actual creature that will allow you to create a tribe, civilization, and even as far as outreaching to space. I guess the sky isn’t the limit with this game.

The interface for Spore is very easy to use. A simple drag and drop interface is used for creating creatures and objects of all types. The possibilities are endless! When in a 3D world, normal WASD keys can be used to navigate as well as the mouse. The true test was to see if I could use WASD, Click-Navigation, and Mouse-Navigation — this game passes that test! You can use all 3 traditional navigation methods.

A big part of this game is the artificial intelligence. Your own creature has AI as well as your enemies and allies. One of the cool concepts I love about this game is your ability to make friends or foe. You can approach another creature that knows nothing about you. If you sing to it, you can make friends. If you bite it, it’s going to bite back and be a foe. So what if there’s a creature that you approach that already doesn’t like you? Simple! You can either be mean to it and kill it off or you could be the better creature and make friends with it. How cool is that?

Read the rest of this entry »