Village Gamer

EA Mobile has announced two new iOS titles:

Pictureka challenges players to spot and tap objects hidden on their within pictures crammed with crazy cartoons – just like the original board game. Delve into the all-new Adventure Mode or Pass ‘N Play with family and friends. Get drawn into the popular picture-pointing puzzler that’s as easy to play as it is challenging.

Adventure Mode: Turn Pictureka into an adventure! Hunt for quirky items on 5 intriguing islands. Encounter different game boards and bonus challenges. Race against the clock and score more time for every challenge you successfully complete. Think fast on your daring, drawing-filled journey!

Pictureka With Your Friends: Pass ‘N Play with up to 3 other players right on your iPhone or iPad. It’s great for play on the go or for a stay-at-home game night! Pictureka is made for fun with friends and family.

Pick Up and Play Solo: For casual fun, you can also enjoy a solo challenge or take on the crafty computer. Fun for everyone, Pictureka is easy and intuitive to play – especially on iPhone & iPad. So start right in!

Designed for the iPhone and iPod Touch, High Calibre Hunting is designed to maximize the visual intensity of Retina Display, focus on the strategy of the hunt as you escape into realistic natural environments and seek more than 20 types of wild game. Capture the noble feeling of the ultimate sport with brand-name firearms and precision gear. Whether you’re a dedicated or recreational sportsman, EA™ is proud to bring you the most authentic hunting simulation game on the App Store.

Enter A Wild World: All the hunting environments spring to life in stunning detail, especially with Retina Display. Hunt in dawn, daytime, and dusk scenarios. No detail was overlooked to deliver the most honest hunting experience possible.

Encounter A Wide Range of Game: Hunt various Deer (including Whitetail, Mule, Sitka, and Fallow), plus Bear, Moose, Boar, and smaller critters like Squirrel, Fox, Rabbit, and Raccoon.

Hunt and Shoot In Multiple Locations and Modes: Use your best hunting strategies to make trophy kills up in up to 6 locations, including Texas, Alaska, Canada, and Iowa – plus additional downloadable treks in Africa and Australia available for purchase at a low price.

Get A Bullet’s Eye View: Strategically navigate the map, and then scope out an animal using “Vital Vision” to get an X-ray or thermal view of its heart, lungs, and brain. Trigger the “Bullet-Cam” with a heart shot and trace your ammo’s point-of-view from your firearm right to the heart of the animal for a clean kill. Experience hunting from a whole new perspective.

Access Over 30 Real, Brand-Name Firearms and Equipment Items: Remington® rifles and shotguns…Bushnell scopes…PSE bows, plus Calls and more. Equip yourself with the finest hunting products from real-world manufacturers and enjoy an added touch of authenticity.

I’ve come across two release notices for two new iOS games from Calgary studio Robots and Pencils, but as these titles are not listed on their web site, I don’t know if they are the actual developers or are acting as publishers. I had sent the studio an email earlier this week in regards to CookBookie, another title credited to the studio, but as yet have received no reply or clarification from them. So, barring any response from them, here are three new products now available in the App Store:

For the iPad, there is Enchanted Cave, a classic adventure game with a casual play style. Equip your character with the best equipment as you dive into 100 levels of critter packed adventure, playing the hero in a quest to reach a horde of treasure and a princess in distress. If you run low on health, you can warp back to the beginning of the cave – but be warned, you will only get to keep the rarest of artifacts that you find.

The second title, which is compatible with the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad, is TextTiles, a word game that is OpenFeint enabled and tests your word knowledge by challenging you to try and complete the words when given just a few letters as a hint. Any word that matches will work – but – answer quickly or your time will run out.

Test your brain power against TextTiles in an onslaught of words and puzzles. In Rapid Fire mode you’ll be given the first three letters of a word. All you have to do is enter any word that matches to keep playing. With each lightning fast response, you’ll earn bonus points and extra time. In Puzzler mode, you are given a word definition and the first three letters. If you can guess the word that matches, you’ll move on to the next round.

For the cooks in your house, this third app release listed for Robots and Pencils is CookBookie, which allows you to search for recipes in your cookbooks. Why search the internet for recipes when the thousands of dollars invested in your cookbooks sits unused on your bookshelf. Cookbookie has over 100,000 recipes from the most popular cookbooks in its database so that you can search them as you would the internet.

Cookbookie comes fully equipped with the following features:

Recipe searching: Searching for “+beef pasta -parsley” will bring back all recipes that have beef, optionally pasta and no parsley in the title.
Ask a foodie: Take a picture of unknown foods and ingredients and Cookbookie will use its special network to identify what it is.
Socialize your kitchen: Use Cookbookie to post your favourite recipes to Facebook and Twitter. Just watch that all your friends don’t show up at your house asking for meals that have sugar, bacon, chocolate but no broccoli.
Recipe Diary: Keep track of your favorite recipes and keep notes about modifications to each recipe.
Great support: Can’t find your favorite book? No problem, Cookbookie will help you out by setting up an email to our team so we can get it in there right away!

Toronto book publisher Harlequin Enterprises Limited and Big Fish Games have launched the Blackpool series of Mystery Case Files® novels by announcing The Mystery of Blackpool $10,000 Sweepstakes. The Blackpool series of novels are based on the extremely popular Mystery Case Files franchise of games.

The Mystery of Blackpool $10,000 Sweepstakes allows entrants to experience firsthand the greed, jealousy and murder at the heart of the cozy English seaside town that is the setting for the Jordan Gray novels based on the popular Mystery Case Files game. Registrants are automatically entered into the $10,000 Grand Prize drawing and have the opportunity to instantly win one of fifteen copies of Stolen or Vanished, the first two books in the series. Also, thirty lucky Instant Win Game winners will receive an online coupon for a free game from Big Fish Games.

The next books in the Blackpool series, Submerged and Unearthed, will be published in February and May 2011, respectively. Meanwhile, Mystery Case Files: 13th Skull, the newest Mystery Case Files game, is available now from Big Fish.

One bonus entry per day into the Grand Prize drawing and the Instant Win Game are available by locating codes posted on eHarlequin.com and the eHarlequin Community page, Harlequin’s Facebook and Twitter pages, the Harlequin Blog, the Paranormal Romance Blog and the I Heart Presents Blog. The Mystery of Blackpool $10,000 Sweepstakes website also features book excerpts where readers can enjoy a preview of the Blackpool series.

The Mystery of Blackpool $10,000 Sweepstakes is now open to legal residents of the 50 United States (and D.C.) and Canada (except Quebec) who have reached the age of majority in their state, province, or territory of residence at the time of entry (void where prohibited by law). The Sweepstakes closes on January 26, 2011 at 11:59 p.m. ET.

Instant Win Game Prizes available to be won: 15 copies of “Stolen” and “Vanished” by Jordan Grey (ARV: $10 USD each); 30 online coupons for Big Fish Games (ARV: up to $9.99 USD each). Grand Prize Drawing Prize available to be won: 1 – $10,000 cash prize. Odds of winning depend on the number of eligible entries received.   Instant Win Game Sponsor: Harlequin Enterprises Limited, 225 Duncan Mill Road, Don Mills, Ontario M3B 3K9 Canada. Grand Prize Drawing Sponsor: ePrize, LLC, One ePrize Drive, Pleasant Ridge, MI 48069 U.S.A Please see the Sweepstakes site for complete contest rules.

To date, more than 100 million people have played a Mystery Case Files game. Mystery Case Files is widely credited with establishing the popular hidden object puzzle adventure game genre. Games in the series include hidden object scenes, puzzles and engaging storylines that challenge players to solve mysteries in a quest to achieve Master Detective status. Harlequin is the first publisher to release women’s mystery fiction for Big Fish Games. Harlequin titles have enjoyed a total of 232 weeks on the New York Times bestseller lists in 2009 with three titles achieving the coveted #1 position. Since its inception, Harlequin has sold approximately 5.93 billion books.

Big Blue Bubble Inc. announced today that their in-studio Rapid Game Development Competition games have arrived on Apple’s mobile platforms, the iPhone and iPod Touch. The internal competition held by the studio provided teams with complete creative control to make a game in 72 hours or less. The games were developed for the Apple iPhone 3G/3Gs, iPod Touch. First two games launched on iTunes are:

Aaah! Chompsters! – The Chompsters are here and they’re hungry, so it’s up to you to make sure they get fed! Use the explosive power of your touch to blow smaller monsters into the gaping mouths of the Chompsters. Aaah! Chompsters! is an explosive physics-based title with 60 levels and 4 worlds to complete and lots of replay value to keep you coming back for more. Aaah! Chompsters is available in the App Store for 99 cents (USD).

An action packed alien shooting arcade game for your iPhone, Invaders from Uranus is available now on iTunes as well, also for only 99 cents (USD). The player simply touches the screen to shoot the enemies and tries to last as long as they can while trying to obtain a new high score. With a super fantastic and original sound track, spectacular 100% organic, homemade sound effects, big explosions and a huge variety of enemies to destroy, Invaders from Uranus will keep you coming back for more.

Bioware has introduced another new Dragon Age 2 character. According to her bio, Aveline is a soldier, a master of sword and shield, and up to a point, a tireless guardian. She is the daughter of an exiled chevalier, and not the knight her father wished her to be. “Although fully trained in chivalrous combat, she was raised in the shadow of a lost life and will not lose another for the sake of honor. Protecting her adopted home of Kirkwall becomes a chosen duty, not a privileged calling. The people she stands for will not be wasted on lost causes or protecting the foolish from themselves. Pride can be bandaged like any other wound—when threats are dead and everyone is safely home.”

The studio has also unveiled The Gallows, a courtyard in Kirkland which stands as testimony to the city’s ghastly past. Adorned with statues, this courtyard is not meant to pay homage, the statues are not monuments to the suffering of slaves. Every inch and angle of the courtyard was designed by magisters bent on breaking the spirit of newcomers. Executions in The Gallows courtyard took place daily, sometimes hourly, and corpses were hung from gibbets throughout the yard. New slaves trudging in from the docks saw what fate had in store for them, and they were not greeted with a friendly smile.

From November 26th to 28th, Canadian writer MCM (Michael Milligan) is writing a full-length novel live on the internet, using suggestions from his audience to help craft a story that will keep you on the edge of your seat. Creator of the award-winning animated series “RollBots”, MCM pioneered the livewriting format in 2009 with the sci fi thriller “Typhoon“, mixing a virtual concert-like atmosphere with the written word.

This time around for the sequel, “Polarity“, 1889 Labs tapping into the social networking power of Twitter, Facebook and Ustream to provide a richer experience for readers. Suggestions submitted by the audience are picked at random and integrated into the storyline, adding an unpredictable twist to an already exciting endeavour. During “Typhoon”, a major plot point was interrupted when the question “stop or go?” was answered the wrong way, altering events all through the series.

“Polarity” follows a group of mercenaries called dustrunners, tasked with shepherding contraband mineral shipments back from the asteroid belt in the year 2038, but ruthlessly hunted by law enforcement at home. Kani, a Canadian teenager pulled into this world against her will in “Typhoon”, now finds herself in deeper trouble than before, as allies turn against each other and a maniacal undercover cop aims to clean up the mess he’s created for himself.

Because of the real-time nature of livewritten books, the events of the story can better reflect the events of the day, as they happen. Kani must contend with invasive security theatre in airports, protests against G-20 meetings that turn violent, a draining American occupation of war-torn Mexico, and a crippling world economic depression that shows no signs of abating. “Ripped from the headlines” has never been so immediate. “Polarity” is a live performance, free for all, and starts November 26, running until very late on November 28.

Gil Moore, drummer in the band Triumph, and owner of the renowned Metalworks Studios in Mississauga, has joined Balanced Copyright for Canada (BCFC) in support of efforts to advocate for strong copyright laws that reflect the reality of today’s digital environment.

“The scale of piracy is simply off the charts and it’s had a dramatic impact on every aspect of the music industry,” explains Gil Moore. “We can, and have, diversified our product lines but the speed and volume at which creative products are being taken without permission, is simply too high to be ignored. The government has a responsibility to ensure laws reflective of the digital environment are in place in order to protect intellectual property.”

“The progression of Bill C-32 through the legislative process is a welcome sign that all the federal parties agree that our copyright laws must be amended with urgency,” adds Moore. “I hope, in the weeks that follow, that the bill will be reviewed and passed in a way that best supports jobs in the creative sector.”

“We’re thrilled to have Gil’s support in our efforts to ensure Bill C-32 is passed in such a way as to support jobs and investment in Canada’s creative industries,” says Randy Bachman, a member of the BCFC Advisory Board. “Gil has enormous respect in the industry. He’s one of the few who has transitioned from a successful career as an artist into an award-winning studio business, a school and a live production company, that together produce some of Canada’s greatest talents and best trained professionals.”

Bill Baker, who has helped business leaders of organizations such as Relais & Châteaux, Johnson & Johnson and Dubai Holdings as well as the Toronto International Film Festival, Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport and others advance their brands, businesses and people through strategic storytelling, has started a new firm, Bill Baker &Co. Previously, Baker was Chief Strategic Officer of Vancouver-based branding agency Envisioning + Storytelling (E+S).

“While there is a ton of talent and creativity in branding, too often what’s missing is meaning. Strategic storytelling creates meaning, connecting people to ideas, to a vision of the future and to each other. BB&Co will focus on helping leaders use strategic storytelling to position their brands, transform their businesses and, perhaps most importantly, engage and align employees around a vision that they can not only see, but see themselves in,” says Baker.

A recognized expert on the strategic storytelling process and an engaging speaker, Baker has appeared at The Canadian Sponsorship Forum, Canadian Coaching Association Conference and the Relais & Châteaux Congress and is a sought after speaker. Through his “Leadership Through Storytelling” course, Baker teaches top executives of Fortune 500 companies how to use storytelling to be better communicators and, as a result, better leaders. He also writes and blogs frequently on strategic storytelling and related topics.

Baker says, “There are a lot of gaps between what top executives envision for their brands and business, what employees experience in their jobs and what consumers experience in the marketplace. Strategic storytelling can bridge those gaps, reaching beyond dry facts and information to help everyone understand not only what they’re doing, but why. For thousands of years, leaders have used storytelling to get people to see and work towards a future that has yet to unfold. That same strategy can be used by business leaders to advance their organizations today.”

Mob4Hire has announced that it has expanded its line of crowd-sourced mobile testing, usability and market research products in order to help Brands create engaging mobile experiences leading to increased customer loyalty.

Mob4Hire’s announcement of its Version 4.5 platform today includes the enhancement of MobExperience as well as new products  (* denotes new product):

1) Mobile Usability Testing and Certification:  MobExperience, MobAccelerator and MobStar Certified*.
2) Mobile Functional Testing:  MobTest, MobSIMTest*, MobSMSTest*
3) Mob4Hire Mobile Usability Products:  MobSurvey, MobA/BTest*
4) Mobile Jobs:  MobTasks*

The product expansion adds tools for companies across the mobile ecosystem, including mobile developers, market researchers, product managers, network operators, handset manufacturers, mobile operating system platforms, developer networks and app stores.

All Mob4Hire projects now include a dedicated Project Manager who is an expert in both executing projects and managing the crowd, so developers will be able to leverage that experience to get projects completed faster and at a lower cost. Customers can choose to use Mob4Hire on a project-by-project basis, or retain Mob4Hire’s ongoing MobTestSuite services for end to end mobile functional and usability testing.

In reaction to the rapid increase in the number of testing and market research projects in its system, Mob4Hire has added a live chat support / sales instant messaging window to ensure quick customer response. Version 4.5 also finishes the migration of the Mob4Hire platform to the Amazon AWS services using the Scalr.net cluster for managing growth with a much better fault-tolerant and scalable system.

Users of the new Kobo Wireless eReader now have even more opportunities to experience the joy of reading as Kobo, a global eReading service, today announced that Canadian Kobo Wireless eReader customers now enjoy free, unlimited access to Bell’s Wi-Fi network at any one of Bell’s over 800 Wi-Fi network hotspot locations across Canada.

Canadian Kobo Wireless eReaders are pre-configured and ready to go on the Bell Wi-Fi network, and once at a Bell Wi-Fi network hotspot location, customers simply visit the Kobo Store area on their Kobo Wireless eReader and they will be seamlessly connected and able to browse, download and buy eBooks, magazines and newspapers from the Kobo store – and start reading instantly.

“At Kobo we’re passionate about delivering customers the best possible reading experience. We’re thrilled to partner with Bell to enhance the reading experience for Canadian Kobo Wireless eReader users providing free, unlimited access to Canada’s largest Wi-Fi network,” said Michael Serbinis, CEO of Kobo. “Our customers love reading and now they can easily shop our collection of over 2.2 million books – including over 1 million engaging free classics – from their favorite Bell hotspot locations.”

Oh no! Vampire-bears! Global video game publisher 505 Games and developer Behaviour today announced the latest chilling downloadable chapter for Naughty Bear. The new Chapter 10 has fangs, and sees everyone’s favorite bear facing off against an onslaught of mystical creatures intent on taking over the island. Including 4 new multiplayer modes, new costumes and challenges and a showdown with the Vampiricorn make this a must-slay adventure. Downloads will be available from 23rd November 2010 in the US and from 01st December 2010 in European (PAL) territories.

After Stardust summons a vampire hoard to the island, lead by the legendary and terrifying Vampiricorn, the throng of blood-sucking bears start the hunt for Naughty Bear to suck his fluff. Fright your way through a beariffic new story, disguise yourself with new costumes and bring an end to the un-dead with the terrifyingly new Vicious Vampire Claw!

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qVw0evBjA8g]

4 new multiplayer modes offer plenty of defluffication:

Left 4 Ted: Zombear Horde!!!! The bears must do what they can to stay alive against a Zombear invasion. Can you stay alive long enough to win the game?

Defluffication: Defluff other players with any weapon you like to rack up points in this sweet and simple deathmatch mode!

Dancing King: A mystical Unibear appears at a random location Find him, get close to him and don’t let anyone else near. The player who dances with the Unibear longest wins!

Vampicorn: Elimination match where each player has limited lives and constantly depleting health, which can only be stopped by attacking, hurting and killing the competition. Last vampire-bear standing wins.

The downloadable Chapter 10 will be available on Xbox LIVE Arcade for 800 MS points and PlayStation Network for the local equivalent of $9.99 USD. Naughty Bear is available now for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

Autodesk, Inc. and Ubisoft have issued this press release about the Autodesk 3D art creation and animation products to help create “Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood,” its latest video game, released last week. Ubisoft artists created and populated the vast, ancient city of Rome using Autodesk 3ds Max and Autodesk MotionBuilder software. Autodesk HumanIK middleware was also integrated into Ubisoft’s proprietary game engine to help produce more realistic in-game animation for both the game’s human characters and horses.

“Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood” is the newest title in Ubisoft’s hit franchise, delivering stunning animations, beautiful environments and immersive game play. The game’s hero, Ezio, now a Master Assassin, is on a mission to end the oppression of the Roman people by the evil Borgia. Gamers must help rebuild the five districts of Rome, win over the public and recruit new assassins to fight against the powerful Templar Order and usher in the Renaissance.

Rome is the largest city ever featured in an “Assassin’s Creed®” title. As a result, Ezio can now bring his horse into and through the city, opening vast new game environments for player exploration. Autodesk HumanIK middleware helps to make sure that the game’s characters move more realistically through the city, whether characters are walking on uneven terrain, scaling walls, riding on horseback or jumping from rooftop to rooftop.

“HumanIK middleware has been a part of our game engine for all ‘Assassin’s Creed’ titles,” said Danny Oros, technical art director for the game. “We knew that with HumanIK we could address our inverse kinematics challenges quickly without sacrificing results or performance.”

As Ezio helps to rebuild the city, each of the five districts of Rome evolves through three distinct atmospheres. Therefore, Ubisoft created three different versions of each of the districts. “Autodesk software provided efficient tools and workflows that helped us create a huge amount of great content in a short amount of time,” added Oros. “The game’s environments were almost all created from scratch, and much of the character content and animation clips were new.”

New animations highlight the advancement of Ezio’s assassin skills. Animators at Ubisoft developed a number of intense fight animation clips, including “combo kills,” where players can eliminate multiple enemies in one move.

“Ezio is now a highly skilled Master Assassin, so we wanted to reward players for a more aggressive combat strategy, instead of the defensive style that was required in ‘Assassin’s Creed® 2,’” said Mike Mennillo, lead fight animator for Ubisoft.

The Ubisoft team shot new fight concepts in a motion capture studio and brought the data into MotionBuilder. This data was then used as a base for the final animation clips created in 3ds Max.

To view an in-depth presentation about how Ubisoft developed the new fight animation in “Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood,” visit the “Auditorium” on Autodesk’s virtual Digital Entertainment Conference site.

Congratulations to DHX Media Ltd., who has signed multiple broadcast and home entertainment deals from its extensive preschool slate in Asia, as it prepares for Asian Television Forum next month.

In Malaysia & Brunei, the Astro platform has picked up the exclusive rights to all episodes of the preschool series Franny’s Feet, as well as all episodes of the reading-based preschool show Super WHY! which has also been picked up by InnoForm Media for home video in the territory, and by Media Link for home video in Thailand.

Further deals in Asia include a video-on-demand (“VOD”) deal with Korea’s JCG for Franny’s Feet and Super WHY!, and with Tarra Group Indonesia for home video for Franny’s Feet and additional episodes of Cbeebies hit show Grandpa in My Pocket.

Craig McGillivray, Territory Manager for Asia at DHX Media said: “There’s always a solid market for quality preschool programming in Asia, and we’re pleased to see continued demand across the region for our established hits Franny’s Feet and Super WHY! as well as newer titles such as Grandpa in My Pocket. Deals for VOD and home entertainment are particularly strong right now and we’ll be attending ATF looking to consolidate the presence of all our shows across the region.”

Montreal game publisher Meridian4 and Headup Games release a patch for their very successful parody/strategy/RPG title Grotesque Tactics – Evil Heroes.

The patch (Version 1.1.5.0) addresses issues with the configuration tool, camera angles and more. For a full list of fixes see below.

* optimized english language texts
* trinigy vision engine update to 7.6.24, may improve stability (depends on DirecX SDK February 2010, you may need a local directx update)
* optional code for positioning hardware cursor (better results on lower framerates)
* performance improvements in quest- and dialog-system (fixes cyclic fps drops)
* config tool: added background music
* config tool: added windowed option
* config tool: added disable intro-videos option
* config tool: removed tahoma font dependancy (fixes a crash on some machines)
fixed a bug where pressing escape in the option menu the first time would mess up the menu system
clamped the mouse speed to 0.1 (thus the cursor does not freeze any more if you set the slider all to the left)
* more error outputs if the gfx hardware does not meet the requirements
charmed chars are auto-uncharmed if game goes into explore mode (fixes misc potential quest deadlocks)
* camera: iso move speed has been increased
* camera: height angles have been changed to avoid level collisions
necessary release files are now copied into the related MyDocuments folders (write access is required, otherwise an error occurs)
* alternate improved exception handling with the option to send debug reports anonymously
* fixed a bug where you could not attack anymore after a levelup
* fixed a bug where the conversation would not continue if the related partners were out of processing range
* changed chocochicks fraction to friendly in order to avoid some movement deadlocks
* changed fraction of three soldiers in riverwind in order to avoid a movement deadlock situation
* dawnclaude is set to invisible before he joins the party (otherwise it was possible to kill him in advance)
* fixed a tooltip for dawnclaude not showing up
* added cheats (tba later)

Toronto publisher Dreamcatcher Games, Spellbound Entertainment, BVT Group and JoWooD have released a new patch for ArcaniA – Gothic 4. This update slightly alters specific gameplay dynamics, increases the overall performance and gets rid of rare crashes.

Detailed Patchlog:

FIXED: Interruption of interactions with sword strikes
FIXED: Acknowledgements playback after loading a save game
FIXED: Jump interrupted by FMV character freeze
FIXED: Cool down in the inventory screen
FIXED: Reduced ocean clipping problem for Stereoscopic 3D
FIXED: Arrows stick on already disintegrated Demon
FIXED: Stamina consumption while sprinting with equipped spells added
FIXED: SLI issues & optimizations
FIXED: Crash on vista machines when starting the game on the second adapter while the first adapter was disabled
FIXED: Stereoscopic 3D can be deactivated from the NVIDIA control panel before launching game
FIXED: Pickable item restoration
FIXED: Multiple CPU profiles in process manager
FIXED: Clouds use dynamic vertex buffer for frequent locking
FIXED: Performance problem with terrain tile generation
FIXED: Performance bug in trails
FIXED: Rare crash when arrows stuck in players vanished
FIXED: Additional unnecessary loading screen when using a teleport stone-need

This patch will be installed automatically via the auto-updater on November 23rd.

In light of IUGO and Capcom’s recent success with their social game title Lil’ Pirates for the iPhone, IUGO announces a sweeping price drop to 99¢ on the following titles:

Zombie Attack!
Daisy Mae’s Alien Buffet
Toy Bot Diaries 1,2,3
Toy Bot Compilation
A.D.D.
Zombie Attack! Second Wave XL
Implode! XL
Cliffed XL
Star Hogs
Spy Bot Chronicles
Freeballin’
Toy Bot Mini Missions

The IUGO sale begins early morning this Thursday, November 25th and will last until Sunday evening. Grab these premium games for 99¢ while you can! Don’t forget to download Lil’ Pirates for FREE while you’re at it too!

Also for the American Thanksgiving, Toronto publisher Wicked Interactive and SUBA Games thanks its user base for playing Mission Against Terror, its popular free-to-play shooter. Rather than offering up virtual turkeys and pilgrim hats in a free to play first person shooter, SUBA has prepared something extra-special this Thanksgiving.

On Thanksgiving day, two Game Masters will be in-game delivering M.A.T.’s usual Thursday “Kill The GM” event at 5:00 PM – 6:00 PM EST(GMT -5) where winners earn themselves 1,000 SUBA Points to use in the item shop. In addition, between the hours of 6:00 PM – 9:00 PM EST(GMT -5), players will be enjoying +50% honor from playing games and +50% silver coins from playing games.

Set in a near-future not so different from our own time, M.A.T. pits teams against one another in a bitter battle for the survival of the human race. Unanimously hailed for its solid gameplay and wide variety of game modes, M.A.T. has taken North America by storm, after becoming quite popular in Asia and other parts of the world.

Toronto’s Little Services recently released Version 1.9 of Logistrics Taxi – an Android PDA-based Taxi Solution. Logistrics Taxi is a full featured application that works on any Android PDA device and can allow Taxi Companies to run a successful taxi business at a fraction of the upfront and monthly operating costs of Desktop and Mobile Dispatch Terminal (MDT) based solutions.

The Device Update includes auto-status updates, quit option from main menu, speed optimization, etc. Server side updates include invite functionality, permission modifications for company admin & an enhanced date picker on order screen among others.

The solution is offered as a fully managed service and can be downloaded from the Android Market directly from the PDA. Logistrics Taxi is aimed at small taxi operators seeking a low cost dispatch and tracking solution. The solution supports is currently used by several taxi companies worldwide. Drivers will need an Android PDA with a data plan to access the service. The solution is being offered free for 60 days from Registration date.

Starting today, customers can purchase a new Kobo Wireless eReader pre-loaded with any one of five exclusive eBook bundles. Customers can save up to $30 and give the perfect gift for readers – an eReader already loaded with a bundle of hot new books, ready to start reading right out of the box.

Kobo customers can share the joy of eReading: the exclusive eBook bundles each appeal to a different taste or reading mood -Books on Film, Vampire Diaries, Spicy Romance, Millennium Trilogy and Made in Canada . This offer features some of today’s most popular and bestselling fiction, non-fiction, biographies and romance titles conveniently offered in a single package. In addition, customers can build their library for life with Kobo and read eBooks, Newspapers and Magazines on any device. Today, Kobo is available on iPad, iPhone, Blackberry, Android, PC, MAC, Samsung Galaxy Tab, new tablets and eReaders.

“The Kobo eReader comes in a variety of colours and is already an amazing gift for the traveler, the constant reader and the hard to buy for on your holiday list. Combined with our great new eBook bundles, Kobo is the perfect gift to get your loved ones,” said Michael Tamblyn, Kobo Vice President of Content, Sales and Merchandising. “With Kobo, ebooks are the ultimate last-minute gift – delivered in seconds and you never have to worry about shipping or something being out of stock.”

With the new Kobo Wireless eReader, consumers can now wirelessly shop on the go, anytime, anyplace, directly from their Kobo Wireless eReader with one touch of the “Shop” button. Adding more than hundreds of thousands of titles in six months, the Kobo store now boasts over 2.2 million books including today’s new releases and bestsellers, timeless classics and thousands of free books.

Race To A Million is the first ever “Social Reality” TV show – where Social Media meets Reality TV. Our goal is to prove that business can be fun, socially conscious, environmentally responsible, and sustainable while still profitable. We say “Nice People CAN Finish First!”

The “Race to a Million” is a contest devised by the co-founders of Canada’s Mastermind Development Corporation (CMDC), namely, Peter Cameron-Inglis and Dean Pierson. It is more than a contest though… it is an experiment specifically designed to prove the effectiveness of the Mastermind concept as well as an opportunity to give back to the community by raising significant financial support for a variety of charitable organizations.

The “Race to a Million” is a money making contest involving 5 teams, the original 4 Master Mind groups from CMDC based in Kamloops and 1 team of MBA students from Thompson Rivers University (TRU). These groups include Mastermind Team Matrix, Mastermind Team Nexus, Mastermind Team Genie, the flagship Mastermind Team Alpha, and the team from Thompson Rivers University – Team TRU.

Even though their official contestants are already chosen for the first “Race to a Million”… you can still play along and (if you choose to do so) you could duplicate the strategies and make your own million! Follow along on the weekly racetoamillion.ca blog as we share specific details of the winning (and losing) strategies and the results of those strategies with everyone. We will be using Facebook, Twitter, Google Buzz, Linked In and will even be posting weekly You Tube updates so that you can get to know the contestants and see how their thoughts and personalities will help their teams. We are also making it possible for you to send along hints and tips to your favorite team and potentially win participation prizes.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwsClh_wX9U ]

Here’s the best part … all of the tips … all of the information … all of the insights … and all of the fun are absolutely free and available to anyone who wants to either play along or just cheer for their favorite team.

Note: I would like to publicly thank Allison over at WestJet for going above and beyond the duty of a great CSR person and getting my daughter home from CFB Borden via Toronto after her original flight was canceled. This is just one example of how Twitter can work for business – not only did the airline make it right (sorry Mike Holmes, I know that’s your ® tag line) – but Allison got her on a flight landing in Abbotsford tonight, which is much, much more convenient for us than Vancouver International. That said, the “distraction” of getting flights sorted and the fact that I actually slept in this morning, means a bit sparser news for now – but there will be more later, because Canada’s digital media community is always creating new things for me to tell you about.

Ubisoft has just announced that the Animus Project Update 1.0 downloadable content (DLC) for Assassin’s Creed® Brotherhood for the Xbox 360® and the PlayStation®3 will be available as a free download on December 14th, 2010 on XBOX LIVE® and PlayStation®Network.

The Animus Project Update 1.0 will include a brand-new game mode and brand new map for Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood Multiplayer. The game mode, Advanced Alliance, will make the original Alliance Mode with target identification and engagement more difficult than in original Alliance Mode, thus providing a more challenging experience for players. With three teams of two players each, Advanced Alliance is a tougher test for players and rewards teams that use stealth techniques to hunt their targets.

Located on a rocky tidal island of Normandy in France, the new map, Mont Saint-Michel, offers breathtaking scenery sure to enchant all. Its particular topography of narrow streets, high-perched bell tower and multi-leveled architecture is perfect for hunters and predators alike to surge from out of nowhere to execute their prey. To survive, recruits will need to use free-running and narrow roads to their advantage.

“We are very thrilled to be able to offer the first Multiplayer DLC for Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood for absolutely free,” said Sebastien Puel, executive producer, Ubisoft Montreal. “We wanted to say thank you to our fans for making Brotherhood such a huge success its opening week. We are very proud of the unique and innovative Multiplayer mode it offers, and hope the fans enjoy the new content.”

Last week I told you all about Game Prototype Challenge – well the first round has been completed, and there are some great game prototypes up for you to play. The theme for this first round was Dreams and Collectibles; here is who submitted prototypes:

Sleep Harder! by Cale Bradbury
Chased by Monsters by Jason P. Kaplan
Part Of A Machine by Damian Sommer
Dreamcatcher by James An
Sleepscape by Jonathan Remedios
ProjectKyoto by Arthur Marris

These games were all built in one week, from start to finish. Check them out, they’re rather good (not that I’m surprised, because Canadian game devs are the best). Version 2 of the Game Prototype Challenge will be coming in December – keep an eye on their site and ours for the theme and time frame announcement.

Toronto app developer Ripe Apps has just released their latest title. Geo Alerts is an app that lets you set reminders for specific locations by placing pins on a map, choosing an address from the Address Book or by typing an address in search. Geo Alerts gives you 20 custom alert sounds with an unlimited number of alerts and notifications. With background processing on iOS 4 (3GS or Newer), Geo Alerts can help you in these ways:

* Remember to pick up “Milk” every time you pass by your usual convenience store (if I had an iPhone, this alone would be worth it!)
* Drop by and pick up the mail at an old address
* If you are a real-estate agent and need to remember to stop by at a few locations
* Are you a Pool Cleaner, Gardner, or any Profession that require multiple stops per day?
You can pre fill your stops on the app and it will remind you every time you are near you next closest client.
* Fun & Experimentation
* Remind yourself to flirt with that house you are looking into buying whenever you’re there
* It can remind to do something when you get home from work, even if you don’t know when that will be
* Organize your driving; look at the app (in NSEW mode) and know what you need to do “North of Here”.
* Wake yourself when sleeping on the bus but only when you get home.

BCIT is looking for mentors for their Games Development Bachelor’s Degree students. The first crop of students will be graduating Spring of 2011. These students will be available to work on their practicum from January to April 2011. I encourage you to participate in this practicum program and to include one of the students in your projects. Doing so will help cultivating and grooming our next generation of IT professionals in the games industry. This is also an excellent opportunity to evaluate potential employees while getting cost-effective development assistance.

With a focus on advanced programming, the BCIT Games Development Degree is designed to also equip students with critical skills in multidisciplinary areas including graphics and audio design, higher level Mathematics (3D graphics, calculus, analytical geometry), Physics and artificial intelligence. Students learn to develop games for PCs, consoles (e.g. Xbox) and mobile devices (e.g. iPhone).

Rocket 5 Studios, an emerging independent game developer, today announced the release of their latest iPhone app, Alien Booth. The app features the ability to easily transform pictures of friends, family, coworkers and even pets into amazing looking aliens. Alien Booth is available on the iTunes App Store today for $0.99.

Using simple on-screen controls, create fun and realistic looking aliens from pictures taken with the iPhone camera or that are already stored in the iPhone, iPad or Touch photo library.

Easily share aliens on Facebook, Twitter or email from within the app. Save aliens to the photo library and then send them via MMS. Shake the device to see before/after versions of the alien or toggle between before/after portrait and side-by-side views.

Alien Booth features a cool, interactive interface that includes a fingerprint scanner, animated laser image scanner, sound effects, detailed help screens with tips and more.

Alien Booth is fun at parties – it’s a great way to meet new people and share contact information. There’s virtually no limit to the wild alien effects that can be created with Alien Booth. And the aliens make great avatars for use on social networking sites.

How it works:

1. Take a picture or choose one from the photo library.
2. Position the markers over the eyes and mouth.
3. Press “GO” to see the face magically transformed.
4. Adjust the color of the alien.
5. Share with friends and family.

Alien Booth is available exclusively through the iPhone App Store in the Entertainment category.

Quebec’s Frima Studio and Bolt Creative, a San Francisco-based developer of original iPhone applications and games, have announced that the best-selling game Pocket God will officially make its way to Facebook later this fall.

Originally developed by Bolt Creative for iPhone and iPod Touch, the Facebook version of Pocket God is being developed by Frima Studio and will feature a brand new way to experience the colorful, death-inducing, all-powerful and hilarious universe of Pocket God across the world’s most popular social network. With all-new socially integrated features, episodic updates and a host of hilarious ways to both dispose of and resurrect the immortal pygmies of each island, the Facebook iteration of Pocket God will offer a fresh experience for both fans of the iOS versions, and those looking for an omnipotent new twist in online social gaming.

“There were very few partners who could truly understand the essence of what Pocket God has become to its legion of devoted fans,” said Dave Castelnuovo, CEO of Bolt Creative. “Frima knew exactly what needed to be done in order to take Pocket God from being an application for millions of individuals, to a shared experience for hundreds of millions more.”

Pocket God throws players into the role of an almighty deity, commanding a small island full of god-fearing followers who unquestionably bend to the user’s whim. Benevolent players can choose to feed and care for their subjects while vengeful gods will have more fun torturing the Pygmies in a variety of wacky ways that have entertained players since the title’s iOS debut.

“Working in the Facebook space, we simply could not have asked for a more exciting and irreverent franchise so perfectly suited for the world of social gaming,” said Steve Couture, CEO of Frima Studio. “What Bolt has created has become more than just a game or an application; Pocket God is a true pop culture phenomenon with millions of fans across the globe. Everything fans have grown to love about this game and its characters has been happily fed to the sharks and tossed into the volcano, only to be resurrected onto Facebook in a way that fans are truly going to love.”

Pocket God will officially move into a closed beta later this year on Facebook, with exclusive access being given only to some of the game’s already rabid fanbase.

Florida-based EPIC Weapons announced today that it has launched the auction for the Grey Warden Sword and Darkspawn Greatsword as seen in BioWare’s Dragon Age. Each sword is embedded with a Game-to-Gear RFID chip for easy identification and certification, and comes with a Certificate of Authenticity and wall mount. Each participant who registers will be guaranteed the opportunity to purchase a Grey Warden Sword or Darkspawn Greatsword (of their choosing) with delivery following the auction winners in the order of sign-up. All auction participant shipments will be completed prior to any Christmas or introductory offers.

Epic Weapons will be offering a Christmas introductory offer for the first 200 Grey Warden Swords and Darkspawn Greatswords.

Grey Warden Sword:

The chantry teaches us that it was the mages who brought the horror of the blight down upon the world of Dragon Age. Twisted and corrupt, the magisters of the Tevinter Empire decayed into the malformed Darkspawn and were driven underground. There, they spread. The ancient dwarven kingdoms were all but obliterated, leaving their ancient empire a festering breeding ground for these twisted creatures. When they rose to the surface, in countless hordes, led by an undying draconic Archdemon, the first blight began, and the world stood on the brink of destruction.

That is, until the Grey Wardens. Men and women of every race, these battle-hardened veterans counted mage, warrior, commoner and king among their ranks, sacrificing all to turn aside the Blight, and restore some semblance of peace to the land. Blades much like this were forged with the Warden’s iconic gryphon symbol, remember the mighty flying mounts the Wardens once rode into battle. While the gryphons are extinct, the Wardens fight on, grimly remembering that in war, victory, in peace, vigilance and in death…sacrifice.

Darkspawn Greatsword:

Of the brutal, corrupt “race” known as the Darkspawn, the Hurlocks are by far the most numerous. While they share some physical similarities to humans, their unnerving grin, pallid skin and beastial nature mark them as anything but. Constantly fighting amongst themselves like packs of animals, the Hurlocks pose less of a threat than they could, until the awakening of an Archdemon unites them under a single purpose.

Marching to the surface in endless swarms, these inhumanly strong creatures arm themselves with wickedly sharp blades, often coated with their own blood, blood that infects any who taste the razor sharp edge. The mighty greatswords wielded by the strongest of the Hurlocks makes for a terrifying sight on the battlefield. A single Darkspawn wielding one of these might blades can scythe through opponents, cleanly cutting through armor, flesh and bone while leaving a deadly infection that will finish off any unlucky enough to survive the initial assault.

Toronto’s Game Bridger Entertainment has announced an update to their new free-to-play parkour racing game, FreeJack. The free update, which is available now, brings new character clothing items and “MyRoom” decorations, in addition to the all-new track “CosmosJack”, and an achievement system with more than 50 in-game achievements for players to collect.

Set in the dark recesses of space, “Cosmos Jack” lets players run along planetary rings, vault over orbiting satellites, and even grind through a wormhole! Upon their return from orbit, FreeJackers will be happy to discover that they can now unlock and collect more than 50 in-game achievements. The achievements are earned by completing various in-game tasks, with each one offering a valuable reward. This substantial free update is available now.

FreeJack is a free-to-play parkour racing game for Windows PCs supporting Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7. Players race head-to-head across the urban metropolis of New Jack City in high-octane foot races, chaining together stylish flips and tricks into combos to increase their speed and cross the finish line first!. Players can personalise their character with fresh outfits and running gear and even customise their own unique in-game living space with cool furniture and accessories to show off to friends! FreeJack also supports online leaderboards, a club/clan system, in-game friend lists, and more.

iStockphoto today announced that voting for the new “Stockys” award competition is now open to the entire iStock community. The Stockys were created to recognize excellence in stock photography, illustration, video and audio in 10 categories including Technical Achievement, Stockiest Stock and Coolest Abstract.

Throughout the first part of November, iStock has collected more than seven thousand submissions and the company’s panel of judges has chosen 20 finalists for each category. iStock’s community of more than 6 million members will select the winners in each category by popular vote and everyone who votes will be entered for a chance to win $2,000 cash and 2000 iStock credits.

While iStock has held competitions to honor its artists’ work in the past, those awards were segmented by medium. The Stockys take things in a completely new direction and focus on the different aspects of great stock rather than the specific file type. This allows the competition to focus on what matters most – great content and the ability to help tell a story or define an idea, feeling or concept.

“The concept of stock has come a long way in the decade and we wanted to create a contest that would reflect that,” said Kelly Thompson, COO of iStockphoto. “We have fantastic artists and this is our way of showcasing their amazing talent and rewarding the best of the best regardless of how that talent is manifested.”

Each type of file available on iStockPhoto is eligible for every part of the competition. The complete list is as follows:

* Technical Achievement
* Artistic Vision
* Best Composition
* Funniest File
* Coolest Abstract
* Concept Execution
* Stockiest Stock
* Most Emotionally Evocative
* Story Telling
* WTH (What the H*ck?)

The results of the competition will be announced on December 13. The winning contributor from each category will be awarded a $2,000 cash prize. An additional $3,000 will be awarded for “Best in Show,” as selected by iStockphoto judges.

Congratulations to all of the Canadian nominees in Machinima.com’s Inside Gaming Awards 2010:

Game of the Year: Mass Effect 2 and Assassin’s Creed® Brotherhood
Best Trailer: Deus Ex: Human Revolution E3
Best MultiPlayer: Assassin’s Creed® Brotherhood
Best Animation: Shank
Best Game Play Cinematography: Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell Conviction™
Most Compelling Character: Jack (Subject Zero) – Mass Effect 2
Best DLC: Lair of the Shadow Broker – Mass Effect 2 and Dead Rising® 2: CASE ZERO
Best Control: EA Sports MMA
Best Original Score: Mass Effect 2
Best Weapon: Chainsaw Bike – Dead Rising 2

Vancouver indie studio All Seeing Eye Games is pleased to announce that its new game Drum Studio: Platinum Edition will be available this December on the Xbox LIVE indie games channel of Xbox LIVE Marketplace.

Record songs, share them online, and jam with your friends in real-time over Xbox LIVE in Drum Studio: Platinum Edition. The follow-up to the multiple award-winning Drum Studio expands upon the original virtual drum recording tool with all-new graphics, Xbox 360 Avatar support, and extensive online features. Players will be able to meet online, chat, share songs, listen to each other play, and jam together in real-time. Lead Programmer Darren Joe says, “Music has always been about sharing. Drum Studio put music creation in the player’s hands. Now, Drum Studio: Platinum Edition allows players from around the world to share their creations with each other.”

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZNIowRt3gSQ]

Drum Studio: Platinum Edition also features all new art by graphic artist Terry Wong (Cirque Du Soleil, National Geographic, Electronic Gaming Monthly) and full Xbox 360 Avatar support, allowing players to turn their Xbox 360 Avatars into full-fledged animated virtual drummers. It features the same simple yet powerful song recording interface as the award-winning original and hundreds of high-quality drum sounds to choose from. Players can play with any combination of one to four Xbox 360 drum kits or controllers.

The original title in the series, Drum Studio, received widespread critical acclaim & multiple awards upon its release, including an Editor’s Choice Award from teamxbox.com, who declared that it “takes music games to a whole new level”. You can get the original Drum Studio game now from Xbox Live Indie Games for 80 MS Points.

Once again the clock tells me that it is high time I head for my day job at “the salt mine” but before I go, I’d like to draw attention to two events currently underway – the first is Desert Bus for Hope – which, according to the event’s FAQ, is an “internet telethon by accident – you give donations to Child’s Play, and we play Desert Bus.  It’s really boring and mind numbing and generally unpleasant. The more you donate the longer we play. To keep you and us amused, and to increase the donations we auction off  and give away prizes, have celebrity guests stop by, and become your monkeys. Want us to sing “Still Alive?” Sure, we’ll do it for a $20 donation.  We play 24 hours a day until you stop donating.” Be sure to visit the site and check out their Challenges, Giveaways and Auctions.

The second event is happening at Velocity, the University of Waterloo’s Start-Up Incubator. The involves a group of coders who, beginning on November 20th, locked themselves in for seven days with, to quote “food, energy drinks, and beanbag chairs” during which time they will attempt to write an app a day for seven days. The group has promised video summaries of each day, and according to the Project’s site, the participants firmly believe “that seven smart people with perfect communication, mutual trust, and an agile mindset can get more done in a day than anyone would believe. And if all that isn’t enough, we have no intention of being timid. We’ll choose difficult problems, and we’ll probably fail once or twice. If we didn’t, we would know we didn’t shoot high enough. We’ll work insanely hard, probing the limits of human creativity and team productivity.”

One of the most iconic characters in video game history has made a triumphant, chest-pounding return just in time for the holidays. The game Donkey Kong Country™ Returns is now available exclusively for the Wii™ system, giving new and experienced players a wild new way to get acquainted with the legendary Donkey Kong™. Combining imaginative new features and dynamic motion controls with classic elements from the original Donkey Kong Country games for Super NES™, this side-scrolling jungle adventure also marks the first time in the series that friends can play together in a cooperative two-player mode.

“The Tsunami” Takeru Kobayashi, the king of competitive eating consumed a bunch of bananas at Nintendo’s Donkey Kong Country Returns Banana Eating Challenge last weekend in Toronto. Kobayashi competed against a Donkey Kong fan who played the new game to determine how many bananas Kobayashi would have to consume in 60 seconds. “The Tsunami” ate 16 bananas, exceeding the challenge of consuming at least ten.

Donkey Kong Country Returns takes place on scenic Donkey Kong Island, where the mischievous Tiki Tak Tribe has plundered Donkey Kong’s banana stash. Players use either the Wii Remote™ and Nunchuk™ controllers or a single Wii Remote held horizontally to maneuver the famous ape as he runs, jumps and climbs on a quest to recover the stolen bananas. Players can feel the power of Donkey Kong by shaking the controllers to perform moves such as the mighty Ground Pound or forward-tumbling Barrel Roll as they advance through more than 70 beautifully rendered levels. The new simultaneous two-player mode lets a second player (with his or her own Wii Remote and Nunchuk controller or Wii Remote held horizontally) swing into action as Donkey Kong’s agile sidekick, Diddy Kong™, whose special talents include riding high on Donkey Kong’s back, using his Barrel Jet to defy gravity and firing his Peanut Popgun.

“Players of every generation know they can count on Donkey Kong to deliver timeless video game experiences, and with Donkey Kong Country Returns, they can also pair up with a friend and enjoy the fun together,” said Ron Bertram, Nintendo of Canada’s vice-president and general manager. “Whether you’re a longtime fan or just getting your first video game console, Donkey Kong’s latest jungle adventure is right at home on Wii with collaborative multiplayer action, fun motion controls and colourful worlds to explore.”

The creatively designed levels in Donkey Kong Country Returns contain loads of hidden items for players to discover, keeping them coming back for more to uncover all of Donkey Kong Island’s secrets. By finding hidden puzzle pieces and collecting “K-O-N-G Letters,” players can unlock fun enhancements like new stages and behind-the-scenes concept art as they progress through the game. Donkey Kong Country Returns also includes a built-in Super Guide feature, which players of all kinds can activate to help make it through tricky levels.

The Donkey Kong character was originally created by veteran Nintendo game designer Shigeru Miyamoto, and first appeared in the 1981 arcade classic Donkey Kong, which also marked the debut of Mario™ (then known as Jumpman). Donkey Kong has since been featured in countless games across multiple console and hand-held platforms, selling a combined total of more than 49 million units worldwide to date.