Village Gamer

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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Official Website: Chains
Format: PC
Genre: Action

One of the first things I noticed about Chains is that there was no tutorial; that’s fine, I could probably figure this out. When the first level, Trident, loads there is a clear message on the screen “Clear 100”. After a moment the level loads and the balls begin to fill in the empty spaces. I sat and watched them fill it, waiting for some kind of direction as to exactly how to clear these multi-coloured balls that had filled in the level and after a short time a box came up and with instructions. This was going to be a lot of fun, no more mind numbing word games, just a brightly coloured and interesting version of connect the dots!

On to the next level! Clear 200 without losing any, and the balls start falling down into this little trapped area with a gate held closed by a counterweight. This was the first time I actually lost a level; sad probably since the first went by so well. My second biggest complaint with the game was that the helpful hints would take enough time to read that by the time I was back to the game the number of balls piled up caused me to fail the level. This happened a couple times before I learned that the game auto pauses when it loses focus. Awesome idea, I really liked this. Now when the hints would come up I would alt tab to some other program and move it out of the way so that I could take my time to read over the hints.
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Vancouver – IUGO Mobile Entertainment is proud to release their newest Freeballin’ update – a new pinball table based on their ToyBots franchise. The table features artwork from ToyBots, and brings the number of table maps up to five.

I’ve been playing Freeballin’ since its release, and the game is truly fun to play. Each of the levels features highly detailed artwork and in-level missions to achieve. Each of these missions involves getting the ball to go where needed and hit specific targets, such as crushing cars. All of the level maps vary in setting from an inner-city locale to tropical jungles and a colourful dreamscape table. In true game play fashion, there are boss battles to win and high scores to make higher. The audio track for this game is energetic and fits each table perfectly. The only problem I’ve had with the game at all is sometimes pressing the screen a little hard for flipper control, and I keep waiting for the “TILT” message to light up.
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Montreal – Today Ubisoft® announced that it is collaborating again with Olympic Gold Medalist Shaun White in Shaun White Snowboarding: World Stage. Developed by Ubisoft Montréal, the game will be available exclusively for the Wii™ system from Nintendo and will be on store shelves for the holiday season in 2009.

“Working with Shaun on the first title was an excellent experience,” said Antoine Guignard, producer of Shaun White Snowboarding : World Stage at Ubisoft. “The great public reception of Shaun White Snowboarding and the wonderful collaboration with Shaun made it a slam dunk for us to reunite to create a fun, new adventure for fans.”

Players will hit the slopes with Shaun White and his crew, but this time the stakes are higher as you pursue the world’s top competitions from a half-pipe in the middle of New York’s Time Square to the most prestigious competitions of France, Canada and Japan.

“Ubisoft has been a great partner, and I’m excited for World Stage,” said action sports phenom Shaun White. “It’s cool to give people insight on what my life is like on the competition circuit.”
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Vancouver – Today Ubisoft® announced a new addition to its sports portfolio, Academy of Champions™, an arcade soccer game featuring legendary sports icons Pelé and U.S. soccer champion Mia Hamm. Developed for the Wii™ system from Nintendo, the game will deliver an engaging, interactive experience for kids and their families. Academy of Champions is scheduled to be released in 2009.

Academy of Champions

“We made our mark in the sports genre last year with the global success of Shaun White Snowboarding,” stated Yves Guillemot, chief executive officer at Ubisoft. “Now, with Academy of Champions, Ubisoft offers another sports game with a fresh approach that has something unique to offer young gamers and sports fans.”

Created by an experienced team of sports game developers at Ubisoft Vancouver, Academy of Champions engages players in a rich, story-driven adventure around the world’s most popular sport. The journey begins with enrollment at an extraordinary Academy where your coach is the legendary Pelé and U.S. soccer champion Mia Hamm is your team member and mentor.
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Burnaby – EA SPORTS™, a label of Electronic Arts Inc., announced today that EA SPORTS Active™ is now available in North American retail stores and will be available worldwide by May 22, 2009*. Developed exclusively for the Wii™ by EA Canada, EA SPORTS Active is an innovative, virtual fitness product that offers personalized, customizable workouts that can be done from the comfort of home. Developed in collaboration with fitness experts, including Bob Greene – renowned exercise physiologist, author and Oprah’s personal trainer – EA SPORTS Active is a fun and cost-effective way to achieve a healthy lifestyle. The product will be the first in a new line of EA SPORTS virtual fitness products to improve the well-being of people of all ages.

“The EA SPORTS brand is known for award-winning sports video games, but today marks our entrance into the entirely new genre of virtual fitness as EA SPORTS Active hits stores,” said Dave McCarthy, vice president, EA SPORTS. “Now more than ever consumers are seeking economical solutions to getting exercise and living a healthier lifestyle, and with EA SPORTS Active we’ve designed an experience that will appeal to a variety of audiences and deliver a truly fun yet challenging workout in the home.”
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Burnaby – EA SPORTS™, a label of Electronic Arts Inc., today announced that both EA SPORTS Grand Slam® Tennis and the Florida-developed Tiger Woods PGA TOUR® 10 will ship to stores June 8 in North America, one week earlier than originally announced. EA SPORTS recently announced that the Wii™ version of Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 10 will be available packaged with the Wii MotionPlus™ accessory in both North America and Europe. In Europe only, EA SPORTS Grand Slam Tennis will be available with Wii MotionPlus at launch.

“This was important for us to bring in our ship dates for Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 10 and EA SPORTS Grand Slam Tennis to hit right at the launch of the new Wii MotionPlus accessory in North America,” said Todd Sitrin, Group Vice President Global Marketing, EA SPORTS. “Fans deserve great games that use the new accessory, and now they’ll have two that deliver authentic sports motion as soon as the Wii MotionPlus hits stores.”

Both Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 10 and EA SPORTS Grand Slam Tennis have been rated “E” by the ESRB. Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 10 has an MSRP of $59.99 when bundled with the Wii MotionPlus. Both products will be available for $49.99 without the accessory.

Toronto – Emanuel Rosen, author of “The Anatomy of Buzz Revisited”, will give a keynote presentation at Search Engine Strategies (SES) Toronto 2009. The largest search engine marketing conference in Canada, which will be held at the Sheraton Centre Toronto June 8-10, 2009, also announced that it is adding “Monetizing Your Audience: Live Site Clinic” to the agenda.

Emanuel Rosen

Now in its sixth year, SES Toronto is considered the definitive digital event for marketers, corporate decision makers, webmasters and search engine marketers (SEMs), including pay per click (PPC) advertisers and search engine optimization (SEO) professionals. The event is organized and programmed in cooperation with the SES Advisory Board, Search Engine Watch and Andrew Goodman, the founder and president of Toronto-based Page Zero Media.
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Developer: IonFX
Publisher: Meridian 4
Genre: Puzzle
Platform: Windows PC

Background: Based on IonFX’s award-winning mobile game of the same name, Obulis takes things to the next level by fusing highly compelling gameplay with outstanding graphics, music and state of the art physics effects.

I have had Obulis for a few weeks now, and while I generally try for a quick turn-around on game reviews, this one took me a bit longer than normal. The reason being was that I wasn’t sure if I liked the game and didn’t play very far into the game at first. I then set it aside for a few days, and as it turns out, there are some areas of the game-play which I truly liked, admittedly much to my surprise.  There were only two or three areas which I felt were negative, but they relate directly to my personal preferences – and as I advanced through the game, one of those negative issues became not so important anymore.
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Burnaby – EA SPORTS™, a label of Electronic Arts Inc., today announced that the Wii™ version of EA SPORTS Grand Slam® Tennis will be bundled with Nintendo’s new Wii MotionPlus™ accessory for its European launch. Tiger Woods PGA TOUR® 10 will also be bundled with MotionPlus™ when that title launches in both North America and Europe.

“This exclusive and limited-time offer is exciting news for sports fans who want to enhance their Wii experience for a great value with the new Wii MotionPlus right at launch with Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 10,” said Peter Moore, President, EA SPORTS. “The functionality of the Wii MotionPlus will help us deliver the authentic, true-to-life sports motion for Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 10 and EA SPORTS Grand Slam Tennis that will redefine the sports experience on the Wii.”
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