Village Gamer

Vancouver –IUGO Mobile Entertainment has announced that all three chapters of the Toy Bot Series are now available in one convenient download in the iTunes App Store. IUGO’s hit series and one of the first iPhone exclusive titles are now bundled for hours of platforming fun. The Toy Bot Diaries Compilation containing Toy Bot Diaries 1,2 and 3 is available for $3.99 US while individual chapters are now on sale for $1.99 per title. Toy Bot Diaries follows the adventures of Toy Bot who, in Chapter One, needs to recover his memory. The Toy Bot titles is one of the few iPhone/iPod games which uses fully blended controls – its tilt and touch features makes this game one of the best mobile titles ever. Add to this the high quality graphics and excellent audio for a winning combination that results in a high quality IUGO title which provides above-average amusement return for the investment.

Kelowna – Cosmic Logic Inc., a new gaming force in the indie revolution, has officially announced details on their first game release: “Cosmic Lacrosse”. A throwback to the days of classic 2D sports games, “Cosmic Lacrosse” is an arcade-style lacrosse game with an emphasis on fun over simulation. With stylized art and sci-fi themes, it’s lacrosse like you’ve never seen it before. “Cosmic Lacrosse” will be available on Xbox Live Indie Games in Fall of 2009.

Some features in this new title include:

· Arcade-style 3-on-3 Lacrosse with fast and furious gameplay
· 3 different player classes with different attributes and unique super abilities
· 2D hand-drawn artwork by Luke Fimio
· Local multi-player and co-op

Andrew Roberts, President and CEO of Cosmic Logic, will be presenting at the Kamloops Canadian Information Processing Society’s monthly meeting, where he will be discussing how radical changes in the video game industry have created new opportunities not available only 3 years ago.

Longueuil – D-BOX Technologies Inc. has been named a 2009 EXC!TE award winner in the Home Theatre category at this year’s CEDIA expo in Atlanta, Georgia for its new Hybrid Motion System, the GPH-120. Due out in the market this fall, the

I Want This Chair

GPH-120 offers motion effects that work in perfect sync with the onscreen action for both video games and movies. A first-of-its-kind in the industry, the GPH-120 offers unmatched, realistic motion effects, creating a unique experience for movie and gaming fans alike. The company was honoured at the awards dinner during the Custom Electronic Design & Installation Association’s Banquet on September 10th.

Presented by CustomRetailer magazine, the annual EXC!TE awards honour companies whose products stand out for being innovative, high-performing and solutions-oriented for the custom installation professional. This year’s winners have an important impact on the industry, which is felt in the installers’ productivity, the dealers’ profitability, the clients’ satisfaction and the industry’s vitality.

“It has been an incredible year thus far for D-BOX Technologies,” said President and CEO, Claude Mc Master. “We are proud to be named an EXC!TE award winner at this year’s CEDIA and honored to be recognized by our peers for this new motion technology system. We have participated in CEDIA in previous years and are pleased to have the opportunity to showcase our motion technology for the entertainment industry at the show.”

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Vancouver – IUGO Mobile Entertainment has announced another upcoming game title for the iPhone and BlackBerry platforms. Slated for release this fall, Cliffed will allow you to challenge your friends to the most addictive race to the bottom! IUGO presents its latest sensation in casual gaming with this frantic 2D scrolling racer.

Features:

• 10 unique and playful characters to choose from
• Pick up and play! Great for all ages
• Endless game play
• Online multiplayer! Race up to 8 players in real time over 3G and wireless networks
• Local and global leaderboards
• IUGO’s new VIP program: Tell your friends, earn points and unlock an exclusive mystery character sooner
• Stylized, clean graphics
• IUGO’s signature quality and polish

Ubisoft Montreal has released three new videos for their highly anticipated titles on their YouTube channel. Gamers can get their twitch on with a commented walk-through for Assassin’s Creed 2, featuring a variety of game play scenarios with narrative from AC2 Production Manager Jean-Francois Boivin. The only disappointment I have experienced thus far in regards to AC2 is the planned product releases for the Master Assassin Limited Editions. I want the Black version, but it is apparently only being released in other parts of the world, not North America. Those of us in North America are getting the White version, which does not appear to contain all of the same perks as the Black Version, such as Ezio in black and the same number of bonus quests. The North American White version only has one bonus quest while the Black version has three, and at this time it is unknown if the Black version will be region locked. There are also rumours circulating that the Black edition is sold out. Maybe Ubisoft will have a change of heart and at least give those of us in North America the opportunity to obtain the additional two bonus quests.

Shaun White fans can see a new video dev diary for Shaun White World Stage, due for release on November 8. Featuring members of the dev team and Shaun White, gamers get an advance look at how it feels like to be in the boots of a pro snowboarder. After watching the dev diary for Splinter Cell: Conviction, we have added it to our list of “must play” games. The development team gives an excellent explanation of what gamers can expect from the latest iteration for the Splinter Cell franchise, and you can get a look at the dev video on Splinter Cell’s site.

IMC Vancouver – As the Internet grows in importance as a communication channel for business, it’s important to understand how to move away from the diminishing returns that TV, Radio and Newspapers are delivering. IMC Vancouver provides the venue for businesses, government, social activists, agencies, consultants and students to take advantage of the new, and rapidly changing, way media is being consumed. Also economic pressures are making change in the marketing world even more urgent than before.

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Surrey BC – Independent game developer KrabbitSoft has returned to its origins with the release of this Gothic Fantasy 3D Action RPG. Defined by its players as having the charm of a wonderland and the bizarre quality of a nightmare, this great psychedelic gothic romp will pique your curiosity then capture your heart.

You are a powerful Krabbit, one of a giant humanoid species with a lovable bandity, ferret inspired face and form. You have the huge ears, feet and tremendous speed and jumping ability of a rabbit. You are so agile that gravity itself cannot contain you.

KWO offers 6 playable and customizable characters. Featuring a dynamite colour engine, all 11 character surfaces can be changed at any time at the local Dye Vendor. Be as creative and unique as you can dream.

Each character commands unique ultimate powers:
As Kria – your Heavenly strike soars on golden wings to pounce and annihilate the enemy.
As Krei – your Sonic Boom obliterates every opponent within a 360 degree range.
As Cleria – your Wrath of the Valkyrie descends to hold and destroy.
As Teella Live – your Rain of Fire pounds multiple foes and expels them in all directions.
As Ogre – your Yorg dispatches a cyclonic whirlwind of your bugbear self spinning and slaying many hostiles one after the other.
As Teella, the fallen – your Wall of Fire incinerates all adversaries crossing its path.

About the story:
KrabbitWorld, lush and fertile, is home to Krabbits from eight different Realms. Following the Great Guardian War, your adversaries the Necrotechs, who resulted from a vindictively motivated combining of technology and magic with Krabbits must be stopped from endangering the Celestial Shard and returning Chaos to the land.

Key features:

* Engaging Hack n’ Slash Combat: The combo hud allows players to increase damage with every strike based on timing and accuracy.
* Choose from 4 Henchmen: Utilize RTS style Henchman hud to command your assistant.
* Character Building: Build your character to level 99 while continuing to build your unique ultimate powers to 999.
* 3D Inventory and Paper Doll System: Drag n’ drop from 3D inventory to 3D paper doll window to equip items.
* Linear & Sandbox Gameplay: The linear gameplay reveals the lore through quests but you can continue to play sandbox style by exploring forests, caverns and beaches. The Land of the Dead, coinciding with The Land of The Living, mirrors its maps.
* 6DOF Camera: Camera and character controls allow the player 6 degrees of freedom and movement abilities akin to superheroes.

Krabbit Online which is playable on either Max OSX or Windows PC offers a free demo and the full version is available for purchase via digital download for only $14.95. Krabbit Online also invites you to check out their informative and fun interactive game features page located on their site, but note that the free Unity Web Player is required for this website, which involves a very fast and easy one-click installation process.

Burnaby – Electronic Arts Inc. today announced the track list that will propel players to the finish line in Need for Speed™ SHIFT when it hits retail stores in North America on September 15 (in stores across Europe on September 17, 2009). The SHIFT soundtrack features some of today’s most influential hip hop and rock artists including Kanye West, The Prodigy, Kasabian, and MSTRKRFT. Each song was hand selected to provide a pounding score that matches the intensity and bone-crushing power of this year’s Need for Speed.

The game has already received several positive reviews including one from Official Xbox Magazine which referred to Need for Speed SHIFT as a “brilliant turn in a new direction” and “deep and addictive.”

“Intense music has always fueled the sound of Need For Speed,” said Steve Schnur, Worldwide Executive of Music and Music Marketing at EA. “For SHIFT, we truly went underground to bring together some of the edgiest new tracks in electronic music, hip-hop and rock from around the world. These artists are the radical equivalents of real outlaw racing. The result is a white-knuckle soundtrack of pure global adrenaline.”

The complete soundtrack is listed below. To hear samplings of each song, please visit EA Trax.

Need for Speed SHIFT is the first racing game that accurately reproduces the intense physical and emotional experience of being behind the wheel of a race car. SHIFT’s true driver’s experience redefines the racing genre with the combination of real world physics and perception based G-forces including the brutal first person crash dynamic, to create a cockpit view that is easily the most realistic and intensive racing perspective ever.

Need for Speed SHIFT will be available for the PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system, Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system, PC and PSP® system and is rated “E” by the ESRB.

For those among us who are awaiting the release of Thief 4 which is currently under development at Eidos Montreal, Mastertronic has released Thief – The Complete Collection for PC, which contains all three original Thief titles. Defining stealth adventures, including the ultra-rare Gold edition of the first Thief game, the Thief franchise puts the player in the silent shoes of acolyte Garrett as he prowls his way around the City, treating gamers to an astounding visual experience. Thief – The Complete Collection retails at £9.77 on Mastertronic’s retail site. I did check several Canadian game retail sites, but could not find any listings for this compilation for sale on this side of the Atlantic.

According to a statement on Eidos Montreal’s site, General Manager Stephane D’Astous says that, “Eidos Montreal is in the early development stages for Thief 4, but this is an incredibly ambitious project and a very exciting one. It’s too early for us to offer any specific game details, right now we are focused on recruiting the very best talent to join the core team at the studio and help us make, what we believe will be one of the most exciting games on the market.” To that end, there are several job openings listed on Eidos Montreal’s web site for both Thief 4 and Deus Ex 3.

By all accounts, Klei Entertainment had a very successful presence at PAX 2009, thanks in part to the promotional efforts of Carolyn Carnes of Flash Fire Communications, who conducted a unique and intriguing marketing campaign prior to the expo. There are few details being released about Klei’s upcoming game Shank, but we can tell you that it’s a 2D side-scrolling action adventure title featuring a hero named… Shank. It appears that there will be a wide variety of weaponry, moves and enemies in the game and it’s perhaps scheduled for release in 2010. Klei has not confirmed which platform or platforms the game is being developed for, but they did hint at a possible Mature rating due to levels of violence and splattering of blood which occurs during gameplay.

BattleGoat Studios has released a demo for its upcoming war strategy title, Supreme Ruler 2020 GOLD which will give players the opportunity to engage in three different scenarios including “California Dreaming”, “Ethiopian Empire”, and “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.” Additionally, strategy fans will have the opportunity to play up to four in-game months at a time.

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Burnaby – EA Sports today announced that the Live Season premium service has been expanded into a new game mode for FIFA 10 enabling subscribers to feel the weekly pulse of football with dynamic updates of real-world information to make the game as close to real life as possible.

The new My Live Season premium service in FIFA 10 will feature weekly updates of player form, transfers, injuries, suspensions, fixtures, results and league standings, creating a mode that mirrors the real world, where gamers play their favourite real-world teams’ games in complete authenticity in any of the following leagues: Barclay’s Premier League, La Liga BBVA, Ligue 1, Bundesliga, Serie A and Mexican Primera Division. The game mode enables you to visually track your results against real life as you progress.

“Every Wednesday is Live Season day where dynamic real-world data and analytics will be updated in FIFA 10 to match the weekly rhythm of real-world football and subscribers will have the chance to rewrite their clubs’ history,” said David Rutter, producer of FIFA 10.

My Live Season is available for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. The service is valued at a recommended retail price of £3.99* for the ongoing season on PlayStation Network and 400 points on Xbox Live Marketplace for each individual league. A package of all leagues will be available for the recommended retail price £7.99* for the ongoing season on PlayStation Network and 800 points on Xbox Live Marketplace.

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Vancouver – After a very busy and successful weekend at PAX 2009, independent developer Hothead Games has officially released further details about their upcoming multi-platform RPG title, DeathSpank. Scheduled for release in 2010 and created by Ron Gilbert of LucasArts adventure game fame, DeathSpank will bring to life the hilarious adventures of the game’s titular hero. Set on a wrap-around world map with a unique art style utilizing 2D elements in a 3D world, DeathSpank will roam the world on his many varied quests without ever encountering a load screen.

Gameplay is divided between uncovering the story via conversations, solving complex puzzles, equipping your character to maximize his strengths and battling anything else that moves. The single-player quest allows players to explore the world, where they can get to know the many interesting characters who inhabit the game’s environment. They will also be able to battle a large variety of enemies, collect from over 100 different types of weapons and over 100 types of armour. As he conquers his enemies, DeathSpank will be able to level up, collect loot and acquire new abilities.

The development team has been creating a unique gaming experience by focusing on humour at every turn, perpetually fun and visceral combat as well as an engaging story with deep and complex puzzles. DeathSpank will feature witty dialogue, improbable scenarios, unexpected villains and a robust collecting system for weapons, armour, items and abilities. The action is easily accessible for short bursts of fun, but the story is revealed over more than 15 hours of gameplay. In addition, players can choose to search out rare items and tackle the game’s many hearty side quests and will also have a chance to co-op with sidekicks in single-machine multiplayer.

Key Features:

•RPG Gameplay – Movement and combat is perpetually fun and visceral, making it easily approachable to many gamers. Combat stats are easy to understand and are influenced by different collectible items and abilities earned by the player throughout the game. DeathSpank will battle a large world full of interesting and challenging enemies.
•Adventure Quests – Help DeathSpank be a hero to the downtrodden. Players will enjoy deep and complex adventure game puzzle scenarios as they work to dispense justice and vanquish evil, as well as entertaining and informative dialog puzzles with the world’s many inhabitants.
•Customization – Through collectible armor, weapons, and varying abilities, players can customize DeathSpank to their liking and to suit their style of play. They can also choose from several sidekicks that will be acquired while travelling around the world.
•Charged With Humour – This game has humor everywhere. Hilarious quests, witty dialog, silly puzzles, ridiculous characters, visual gags, and over-the-top animations all contribute to the game’s humor. The elaborate storyline begins as DeathSpank searches for a mysterious artifact known as The Artifact.
•Depth of Gameplay – DeathSpank keeps track of his adventures in a Quest Log, listing both ‘Important Things I Need To Do’ and ‘Unimportant Things I Need To Do.’ Players who have completed the story mode can choose to play additional quests and will be rewarded with exclusive equipment.
•Unique Art Style – The game’s eccentric personality extends to its art style, which uses charming 2D elements in an immersive 3D world. The different areas of DeathSpank’s world are laid out on a globe, and the character is shown at an angle which gives a rolling perspective as you move about. There is an expansive world to explore and there will be no load screens.

DeathSpank has not yet been rated by the ESRB, but its target rating will be T for Teen.

Seattle and Montreal – Screenlife is pleased to unveil the latest home console iteration of the bestselling Scene It?® brand. Scene It?® Bright Lights! Big Screen!™ will be the first videogame in the Scene It? franchise available for Wii™ and PlayStation®3 computer entertainment systems and marks a return for the brand to the Xbox 360® videogame and entertainment system from Microsoft. Previous product success on the Xbox platform combined with casual gaming’s explosive growth create a tremendous opportunity for Screenlife to bring its unique brand of entertainment trivia game play to millions of new consumers.

To be developed by Artificial Mind & Movement (A2M), Scene It? Bright Lights! Big Screen! offers a wide variety of media-rich trivia that provides movie fans and social gamers with a lively, competitive group gaming experience. Trivia content in the game will include recently released 2009 movies as well as fan favorite Hollywood hits from the last four decades. There are numerous game improvements, including:

* Thousands of new questions
* A new and improved single player option
* Party play modes
* Many new puzzle types
* 12 all-new player avatars
* A simplified game interface
* A new, very entertaining game host
* New, unique mini-game content

Scene It? Bright Lights! Big Screen! brings it all together and provides incredible fun for the whole family. Single-player mode challenges player speed and entertainment trivia know-how, while multi-player mode creates a challenging social gameplay experience.

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Burnaby – Electronic Arts has announced that its first downloadable boxer pack for Fight Night Round 4 is now available on the PlayStation® Network™ and Xbox Live™ Marketplace. Featuring Oscar De La Hoya, Vitali Klitschko, Wladimir Klitschko, and alternate versions of George Foreman and James Toney, the downloadable boxer pack retails for 400 Microsoft points and $4.99 on Xbox Live Marketplace and the PlayStation Network, respectively. Named the Game Critic Awards “Best Sports Game of E3 2009” and according to NPD data,  sold over a million units in its first month, Fight Night Round 4 has been winning over reviewers and fans since its release on June 23rd.

In addition to the boxer pack, EA Sports™ announced that a free downloadable game update that enables players to use the face buttons on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 controllers to throw punches is also available now. A new demo featuring the button controls will be available to all Xbox Live and the PlayStation Network users by early September. The 10 round demo will feature Mike Tyson, Muhammad Ali, Manny Pacquiao and Ricky Hatton as playable boxers.

Designed with a revolutionary physics-based gameplay engine, Fight Night Round 4 replicates the sweet science to an unprecedented degree of realism. Witness gloves grazing off an opponent as he dodges at the last second, or watch as a vicious uppercut rips through the block of a boxer who turtles for too long. With realistic physics, no fight is ever the same in Fight Night Round 4

Fight Night Round 4 is currently available for the PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system and Xbox 360® video game system from Microsoft. This game has been rated T for Teen by the ESRB.

Montreal – Meridian4 and RTL Interactive Games Publishing, are pleased to announce that their line up of games for North America are rolling out over the internet, beginning with the release of Crash Time 2 on Steam. Crash Time 2 is now available on Steam and if you purchase before September 3rd you’ll save 10% off the regular price of $19.99.

For more information on Crash Time 2 and the other RTL games being published by Meridian4, visit the games section of the Meridian4’s web site or visit Steam to pick up your copy of Crash Time 2 at the special low introductory price.

About Crash Time 2

Solve exciting criminal cases on the mean streets as member of the autobahn police force – or freely explore the open game world while chasing down high-octane racers. Escort politicians, transport precious goods or take down the criminal element with over 500HP and close to 200MPH. With fully destructible cars, arcade gameplay, outstanding graphics and stunning slow-mo effects, Crash Time 2 puts you right in the driver seat, ready to burn rubber.

The game features:

·5 huge criminal cases to solve with up to 10 missions each
·Solve cases or freely pursue crimes in the game world
·Many bonus assignments and more than 40 new tracks
·Over 20 AI cars with visual damage system
·Spectacular pileups with impressive and realistic graphics
·3 different difficulty settings
·Additional tasks and mini games are hidden to be discovered