Village Gamer

Funcom has opened the official beta registration for ‘The Secret World’, the highly anticipated upcoming massively multiplayer online game set in our own, modern-day world, and currently in development at Funcom Montreal. Gamers can now register to be evaluated for participation in the upcoming phases of beta that will be running up to the launch of the game in April 2012. During the next months Funcom will be increasing the number of beta participants gradually.

The launch of the beta registration also signals the start of the first phase ‘The Secret War’, an interactive online experience that engages community members in the conflict between the Templars, the Illuminati, and the Dragon – the three factions in ‘The Secret World’ – even before the game is released.

“One of the most interesting features of ‘The Secret World’ is the three profoundly different secret societies that players can join,” says Funcom SVP of Sales & Marketing, Morten Larssen. “Since we first announced the game we have gradually revealed more details about them, and what we have seen is that thousands of gamers in our community have come to identify with them and form a loyal bond to other community members belonging to the same society. With ‘The Secret War’ experience we are excited about the prospect of allowing for even more community interaction and engagement.”

The first phase of the experience allows users to take a unique personality test to determine which secret society they belong to and then choose which society to join. After making the ultimate choice the user is automatically registered as a beta candidate for ‘The Secret World’ and will also be eligible to take part in the upcoming second phase of ‘The Secret War’ interactive online experience.

The second phase of the experience will allow users to expand the influence of their secret society through a social media connected, web-based game. Here users can recruit friends and deploy them as agents for their cause, scoring points for themselves and their secret society. Users can also share assets from and information about ‘The Secret World’ to score more points, allowing them to climb through the ranks of their secret society and unlock achievements, exclusive in-game equipment and weaponry, in-game titles, and even the coveted guaranteed beta access reward.

Through ‘The Secret War’ interactive online experience users will also take part in weekly sweepstakes where they can win a trip to the Funcom Montreal studio, signed collector’s editions of the game, and even the opportunity to have their name integrated into ‘The Secret World´ game.

Other Ocean Interactive’s love letter to both the bygone era of cinematic platformers  such as Prince of Persia, Out of this World and Flashback, and the work of H.G. Wells in The War of the Worlds is nearing release. The studio is celebrating a new milestone with the launch of the game’s official website. On the new site, you will be able find a host of information on the game including screenshots, videos, and other exclusive media that you won’t find anywhere else on the internet.

The War of the Worlds takes a unique spin on the classic science fiction tale, putting players in control of Arthur Clarke, a man trapped in the midst of an alien invasion in 1950’s London. As Arthur, you’ll make your way through the assault by passing through a variety of London landmarks, avoiding alien drones and fighting for your very survival. Featuring the voice of Patrick Stewart as the narrator, The War of the Worlds is an exciting and atmospheric survival-adventure game that you will not want to miss.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUaHg4kUorE]

The War of the Worlds, which will be published by Paramount Digital Entertainment will be available on Xbox LIVE®Arcade and PlayStation®Network as a Digital Download title later this year.

From the floor of PAX Prime (no, we’re not there) here is the latest fact sheet for Dead Rising 2: Off The Record.

Photojournalist and original hero of Dead Rising’s Willamette incident, Frank West takes center stage once again in Dead Rising® 2 Off the Record. Forget what you know about Dead Rising 2, as players will experience a reimagining of the Fortune City outbreak.

The new “Off the Record” storyline means an all new Dead Rising 2 experience. Frank will face off against more twisted enemies, build more outrageous combo weapons, follow his own unique mission structure and explore brand new areas of Fortune City to get his biggest scoop yet. Join Frank as he indulges in the insanity of “Uranus Zone”, Fortune City’s very own theme park. Full of deadly rides and crazy attractions, the sci-fi themed Uranus Zone is a true zombie-killing paradise.

Fans have asked for it and now Dead Rising 2 Off the Record delivers a fully realized Sandbox Mode! Available from the outset and supporting both single and co-op modes, players can now explore all Fortune City has to offer without having to worry about the clock. In addition, Sandbox Mode offers a selection of gruesome and unique challenges such as ‘Rumble in the Jungle’, ‘Chop Suey’ and ‘Silver Strip Smackdown,’ all with online leaderboard support.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gz0RcXXrc60]

Frank’s come-back also means the return of his trusty camera, with players able to earn Prestige Points (PP) for specific photo opportunities that are graded against criteria such as horror, drama, erotica and brutality. In addition to the new scenario, Sandbox Mode and gameplay enhancements, Dead Rising 2 Off The Record offers a suite of technical updates including load time optimizations, improved network performance and a host of system upgrades to deliver a more satisfying Dead Rising experience.

To celebrate the launch of Eidos Montreal’s latest title Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Square Enix has commissioned filmmaker Rob Spence, who goes by the pseudonym EyeBorg, to investigate prosthetics, cybernetics and human augmentation. As a real life cyborg, having replaced his eye with a wireless camera, Spence is in a unique position to comment on how close we are to the cybernetic future presented to us in Deus Ex: Human Revolution.

The film Deus Ex: The Eyeborg Documentary, looks at pioneering work in sight restoration, augmented reality, advanced prosthetic limbs and trans-humanism.  Travelling the globe Spence interviews other real-life cyborgs and leading creators of biotechnology.

During his travels he interviews a number of people including a blind man given sight by cutting-edge technology, including a former US army Sergeant whose new legs have enabled him to compete as a professional skier, and the creators of a revolutionary firefighter mask which incorporates augmented technology.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TW78wbN-WuU]

Pioneering online fashion retailer musterbrand LLC has unveiled its latest range of high-end gaming fashion – the Deus Ex: Human Revolution^TM collection. Set to launch on the same day as the long-awaited Deus Ex: Human Revolution game,  the officially licensed clothing line allows gamers to ‘become’ Adam Jensen, the iconic, trenchcoat-wearing hero of Square Enix’s forthcoming blockbuster videogame. Fans can gear up in Adam’s signature outfit, or purchase clothing and accessories from other in-game characters, as well as other items inspired by the game.

Available in North America and Europe at the Deus Ex store, the Deus Ex: Human Revolution range of clothing has been designed in partnership with game developer Eidos-Montreal, ensuring the closest real-world version of the virtual items as possible.

The standout item in the Deus Ex: Human Revolution is Adam Jensen’s coat—a futuristic interpretation of a trench coat. This slick trench, adorned with signature vented holes, and structured sleeves, is inspired by Deus Ex: Human Revolution’s cyber-renaissance art direction. Just remember that you’re not actually augmented before leaving on your adventures.

“Standard logoed T-shirts, sweatshirts, and hats are the norm,” said Knut Jochen Bergel, CEO, musterbrand. “musterbrand’s clothing lines are designed by top stylists, woven from the highest quality material, and cut so sharply they should come with a warning. Deus Ex: Human Revolution is already drawing praise for its unique design and playability – we’re aiming to replicate the game’s popularity with our clothing line too.”

“musterbrand has done an amazing job at not only bringing the clothing in Deus Ex: Human Revolution to life, but producing cool, wearable clothing inspired by the game,” says Jonathan Jacque-Belletete. “It’s of utmost importance to me to always retain the integrity and signature look and style of the game in everything we produce. I think Deus Ex: Human Revolution fans will be stoked at musterbrand’s offerings!”

Deus Ex: Human Revolution will be releasing in North American stores tomorrow, August 23rd for the PlayStation®3, Xbox 360®, Windows® PC, Steam® and OnLive®.

Funcom and EA Partners announced today at Gamescom that the highly anticipated modern-day, Massively Multiplayer Online Game (MMO), The Secret World™ will release for the PC in April 2012. Starting August 26^th, gamers can register to join upcoming betas through a unique interactive social media campaign that will be made available on the game’s web site.

Imagine a world where secret societies pull the strings of kings and presidents, where vampires are more than just a Hollywood fantasy, and where all the myths, legends and conspiracies are true. The Secret World is an MMO that breaks free from the confinements of character classes and levels and allows players to explore real-world locations with an engrossing storyline. Funcom will not only challenge but redefine long-established MMO standards.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBrZfrrmTbM]

“It has never been more rewarding working on The Secret World than it is now,” says Senior Producer and Creative Director Ragnar Tørnquist. “The progress we are making in development allows the whole team to really enjoy just playing the game for hours on end. We are all looking forward to bringing in players through upcoming betas, and their feedback will be crucial to the further development of the game as we progress toward the April 2012 launch.”

Funcom and EA Partners, a division of Electronic Arts Inc. would like you to know that the highly anticipated modern-day, Massively Multiplayer Online Game, The Secret World™ will release for the PC in April 2012. Starting August 26^th, gamers can register to join upcoming betas, through a unique interactive social media campaign that will be made available on the game’s official site.

Imagine a world where secret societies pull the strings of kings and presidents, where vampires are more than just a Hollywood fantasy, and where all the myths, legends and conspiracies are true. The Secret World is an MMO that breaks free from the confinements of character classes and levels and allows players to explore real-world locations with an engrossing storyline. Funcom will not only challenge but redefine long-established MMO standards.

“It has never been more rewarding working on The Secret World than it is now,” says Senior Producer and Creative Director Ragnar Tørnquist. “The progress we are making in development allows the whole team to really enjoy just playing the game for hours on end. We are all looking forward to bringing in players through upcoming betas, and their feedback will be crucial to the further development of the game as we progress toward the April 2012 launch.”

THQ Inc. has announced that Relic Entertainment will be releasing a playable demo for the upcoming 3rd Person Action/Shooter, Warhammer® 40,000®: Space Marine® on Xbox Live®, PlayStation® Network and Windows PC. The demo is planned to launch simultaneously for the Xbox 360® and Windows PC on 23rd August and then on PlayStation®3 on 24th August.

Players who have pre-ordered the digital PC version of Space Marine through Steam will receive an exclusive early access period starting on the 18th of August, running through the weekend.  Steam will also be running a Warhammer 40,000 bundle sale at a very special rate during the same period.  Check out STEAM for more details.

The Space Marine demo features two very different areas of the game. The first pits the player against an Ork horde outside the gates of a munitions factory. Armed with six devastating weapons, including the iconic bolter and lethal chainsword, the player will get to experience Space Marine’s seamless mix of melee and ranged combat first hand as they take on the rampaging invaders. The second area gives players a taste of the exhilarating Jump Pack sequences where the game’s hero—Captain Titus—takes to the skies to rain death from above.

Space Marine ‘Honour Guard’ community members will also get the chance to play the demo early on August 22nd, 24 hours prior to the public launch. For more information on how to sign up to get the demo visit the Space Marine site and make sure you have registered with the Honour Guard.

Electronic Arts will showcase the best of interactive entertainment at this year’s gamescom in Cologne, Germany. The company’s top intellectual properties are set to delight visitors, highlighting this year’s blockbuster launches and offerings for console, mobile phones, tablets and the Web. The publisher will also be providing 350 gaming stations at the EA booth allowing more consumers than ever before to get hands-on play with each game.

Jens Uwe Intat, Senior Vice President of EA European Publishing, said, “The old model of making games every few years to coincide with new hardware launches is gone. We have a very powerful set of games for today’s consoles, and now we offer that IP to players as year-round entertainment across all of their devices and platforms. We’re looking forward to our fans’ response when they get hands-on with our line-up at the show – we think they’ll like what they see”.

Canadian-made games at the show include:

• FIFA 12: Huge space that puts players on the pitch to experience the gameplay action.
• Need for Speed™ The Run: Get behind the wheel in a race for your life from the Golden Gate to the Empire State.
• Mass Effect™ 3: Bioware’s high octane alien invasion adventure explodes in an all-out galactic war. The time has come to join the war effort and experience the industry’s most critically acclaimed RPG first-hand.
• The Secret World: Funcom producers will be showing an exciting live demo in one of many dungeons, highlighting combat, progression and boss fights.

It appears that there were loads of news announcements made while we were at SIGGRAPH with very sketchy wireless. The media room where we could have had a wired connection was two floors and a long walk away, but we wouldn’t have had long enough on the wired connection to catch up on everything. Here are just a few of the stories that broke during the past few days:

The Montreal International Game Summit announced its keynote speakers. The conference will open with Jason Rohrer, an independent Game Designer, and Richard Lemarchand, Lead Game Designer for Naughty Dog, on November 1st and 2nd respectively. Yves Guillemot, Co-Founder and CEO of Ubisoft, will have the honour of delivering the conference’s closing keynote.

Other featured speakers at MiGS 2011 include David Hego, Artistic Director for Rocksteady Studios, who will be presenting in the Arts & VFX Track. Alain Tascan, President & CEO at Sava Transmedia will be participating in the Business track while Lee Perry, Senior Gameplay Designer for Epic Games will be on the Design track. Over on the Technology track, attendees will find a presentation by Stefan Boberg, Technical Development Director at EA DICE, while the Production track will feature a presentation by David Anfossi, Producer – DX: HR at Eidos Montreal. A new track has been added for 2011, and Tom Salta, Music Composer known for producing scores featured in popular franchises such as R.U.S.E. and Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands will be the featured presenter for the brand new Audio track. Please visit the MiGS site for an up-to-date speaker list.

Ubisoft announced that PlayStation^® gamers will be able to test their assassination skills beginning on September 3rd with a multiplayer beta of the highly anticipated Assassin’s Creed Revelations that will run until September 11th. PlayStation^®Plus members and Uplay members will enjoy exclusive access to the multiplayer beta on PlayStation^®3. The multiplayer beta offers access to nine characters – The Sentinel, The Vanguard, The Guardian, The Vizier, The Thespian, The Deacon, The Bombardier, The Trickster and The Champion, three maps – Knight’s Hospital, Antioch, Constantinople, and four playable modes – Wanted and Manhunt, as well as two new modes, Deathmatch and Artifact Assault. The rest of us will apparently have to wait until the game’s release on November 15th.

Bioware’s Dragon Age franchise has expanded to Google+ games. Dragon Age™ Legends, the popular dark fantasy Play4Free® RPG developed by BioWare San Francisco (formerly EA 2D) has launched, and is the only game of its kind on Google’s new real-life social project. Dragon Age Legends extends the award-winning Dragon Age franchise and reinvents it for social play on Google+. The game blends accessible and engaging tactical combat, progression and exploration in the Dragon Age universe, and is perfect for co-operative and competitive gameplay across players’ Google+ Circles and Hangouts.

Vancouver’s WordLogic Corporation, a provider of advanced predictive text software for smartphones, PCs and other devices, has announced the availability of WordLogic Intelligent Input™ technology for licensing to manufacturers and software developers. The technology is ideal for mobile app developers, search providers, and device OEMs looking for the best possible predictive text or search technology.

WordLogic Intelligent Input™ helps make text input on touchscreen smartphones, tablets, and other consumer electronics devices faster, more accurate and helpful. Devices like smartphones, tablets, automotive infotainment systems, Internet TV, and game consoles are proliferating by the billions. They enable the Internet and employ touchscreens, body motion, infrared controllers or other non-mechanical keyboards to enter text, search and control applications. WordLogic Intelligent Input™ brings next generation text input to these text-hungry devices.

Current predictive text methods, which rely upon adjacent key prediction or misspellings, are frequently so inaccurate use that people simply turn them off. Alternatives require too much of a learning curve for mass adoption. Voice input has improved, but even server-based voice recognition is frequently insufficient in environments subject to background noise, such as groups where conversation is taking place, in vehicles, and on the street.

Gorilla Nation Media Canada has announced that it will exclusively represent the online advertising sales for European news site Figaro Medias in the Canadian market.

“Group Figaro is enthusiastic to join the Gorilla Nation family. We share the same vision of the digital business, which is to guarantee premium, innovative and engaging contents (video, chat session, etc.), to join our audience on all devices and platforms and to respond with care to our advertisers the same way we care about our content. The adaptability and the service quality of Gorilla Nation bring a new dynamic to the Figaro Medias offer in Canada,” says Eileen Lemuet, International Commercial Director at Figaro Medias.

“With the addition of Figaro Medias to our roster of sites, it shows our commitment and seriousness in increasing our offer in the French Canadian market, while complementing some of the new business sites we have recently added,” says Jean-Sébastien Tremblay, Director of sales, East of Canada, at GN Media Canada.