Village Gamer

August 21st will be the day when everyone will get to have a first look at James Cameron’s Avatar. Twentieth Century Fox and Cameron debut the film’s trailer everywhere – while select cinemas and IMAX® theaters will screen extended footage prepared by the renowned filmmaker for this global “Avatar Day” event. The movie’s official site went live this morning, allowing viewers to sign up for Avatar updates.

Avatar The Game Screenshot

In addition on the 21st, Ubisoft® will unveil the trailer for their videogame James Cameron’s Avatar: The Game. Ubisoft is at this weekend’s Comic Con in San Diego – make sure you stop by and say “hi” to Avatar Community Manager Gabe if you’re there. A Flickr account was opened yesterday, and fans are encouraged to upload their photos from Comic Con and the upcoming Penny Arcade Expo.  Avatar the Game will be available for the 360, PS3, PSP, DS, and Wii with a release date of November 24 2009. Pre-orders are being taken at most game stores.

The worldwide trailer launch will be presented in all formats, including IMAX® 3-D, IMAX® 2-D, digital 3-D, digital 2-D, and 35mm 2-D. The trailer will also be available online. In addition to these events, Mattel will reveal the action figures for the film’s Avatar and alien Na’vi characters.
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Montreal – Today marks the first day of Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed 2 Twitter Assassination Experience (Beta). I’ve seen several tweets about the game, and it appears that the Frag Dolls are in on the experience as well. This real time game allows participants to assassinate other players via Twitter, SMS or other Twitter client. Twitter assassins are assigned random targets throughout the day via Tweets from the Assasin’s Network. Players need to carry out their assassinations within a set amount of time. For those who wish to the rogue, players can enter “aggressive mode” and directly attack other players. Targets are able to launch counter attacks, but again, only within a certain amount of time.

As players move through their list of targets, they gain skills and weapons as well as increased rank on the leader board. Watching the game through the Visualizer can be mesmerizing. At last glance, there had been 7441 matches,  4369 assassinations and 56 escapes made by 349 players. Ademdevincent was in the lead with 2270 points when I checked the leader board.

Skills & Weapons Visible On Profile Page

The Twitter mode is played exclusively in Twitter, using “reply tweets” to respond match assignments from the Assassin’s Network. The Aggro Mode, for you rogue assassins, is played exclusively on the Assassination Experience web page. Here you can attack up to five opponents as once – or, conversely, you can be attacked by up to five opponents. When you attack someone in Aggro Mode, their Twitter icon will be added to the victims’ column, along with the time remaining for them to respond to an attack. Players also have the option of turning the assignment mode “off”, meaning that they will not receive Tweeted assignments until they switch their mode back to “on”.

Players are given 100 points for a successful assassination, 150 points for a successful counter attack, and 50 points can be earned by escaping. Level one weapons include a dagger, axe and sword, but more weapons become available as skills are improved. In keeping with the ESRB rating for Assassin’s Creed, players must be 18 years of age and over; logging in with your Twitter account is required in order to participate in the Assassination Experience game.

Montreal – Ubisoft will lead a detailed panel featuring Assassin’s Creed II today from 1:45–2:45 p.m. in Room 6A at Comic-Con in San Diego. The panel entitled “Assassin’s Creed II: Video Games and Hollywood Converge” will touch on the evolution of entertainment creation and distribution while highlighting the bridge between video games and film. Panel hosts will be Yannis Mallat, chief executive officer at Ubisoft Montreal and Pierre Raymond, founder and chief executive officer of Hybride Technologies, the visual effects studio behind 300 and Sin City, along with special guest Corey May, Assassin’s Creed II video game scriptwriter.

Recently, during the E3 Expo in Los Angeles, Ubisoft announced production at Hybride Technologies on a series of short films based on the upcoming Assassin’s Creed II video game. The Comic-Con panel will include a discussion of the production of these short films, a viewing of a teaser video showing new shots from the filming and development of the short film series, as well as the first public demonstration of the Assassin’s Creed II video game.

“Ubisoft has detailed our vision for convergence over the past two years. Now, at Comic-con, we are exclusively revealing one of the first building blocks to this strategy: Assassin’s Creed II: Lineage,” said Yannis Mallat. “We’ll be discussing the links between the game and the short film series with some of the key players of the project. We are thrilled to be able to share the results of our efforts with the Comic-com audience.”
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Montreal – EA Montreal has announced that renowned comic artists, Chris Bachalo and Jock have lent their artistic talents to Army of Two™: The 40th Day. The sequel to the 2008 multi-platinum co-op shooter, Army of Two: The 40th Day sees the return of the ultimate two-man private military team, Salem and Rios. As the action heroes fight for survival in a city under siege, the soldiers must make moral choices cooperatively that affect the pair as a team. Each moral decision sets players on a course that affects the gameplay and direction of the storyline. Bachalo and Jock have been enlisted to illustrate the long term impacts of these ‘morality moments’.

On July 24 and 25 from 2pm – 4pm PST during San Diego Comic-con, Chris Bachalo will be signing original Army of Two: The 40th Day artwork at EA’s booth (# 5213).

“Chris and Jock are amazingly talented artists. We’re excited that they have been able to contribute these evocative illustrations to depict the long-term consequences of the players’ key moral decisions,” says Reid Schneider, Executive Producer, EA Montreal.

“These new morality choices are an innovative new feature that we believe will give a new layer to the cooperative experience in the game. Chris and Jock’s work give players’ decisions real weight and resonance,” added Alex Hutchinson, Creative Director EA Montreal.
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Vancouver – On July 26, Nintendo Canada invites everyone to kick back and transform their living rooms into a tropical island adventure with the Wii Sports Resort™ video game, the next chapter in the Wii Sports phenomenon. Wii Sports Resort introduces a new era of motion controls with 12 resort-themed sports enhanced by the included Wii MotionPlus™ accessory. This accessory attaches to the base of the Wii Remote™ controller to bring exacting precision to games that are specially designed for it. Wii MotionPlus recognizes the slightest twist or turn of the Wii Remote controller to bring players deeper into their games. Wii Sports Resort leverages this technology as players escape to a virtual resort and experience all the fun activities of the island setting.

The 12 sports (archery, basketball, bowling, golf, table tennis, Swordplay, Air Sports, canoeing, cycling, Frisbee®, Power Cruising and wakeboarding) allow players to use the Wii Remote and Nunchuk™ controllers in different ways, and while some sports require both controllers, others can be played using only the Wii Remote. In archery, players hold the Wii Remote vertically like a bow while drawing back the Nunchuk. In Frisbee, players motion with the Wii Remote as though they were tossing a real Frisbee. And while playing wakeboarding, players hold the Wii Remote sideways as though they were hanging onto the end of a tether behind a speedboat.
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Developer: Radical Entertainment
Publisher: Activision
Official Site
ESRB: M

Platform: Xbox 360, PlayStation3 and PC
Release Date: June 2009

It was a long wait for me to play Radical Entertainment’s newest title – from the day I first heard about the game at the 2007 Game Design Expo. The Activision – Blizzard merger didn’t help the matter by delaying the game’s release, and my envy grew as there were reports back from various conferences and expos where people were getting hands-on playtime. So, was it worth the wait? Oh yes – although this has been a difficult review to pen, simply because PROTOTYPE is so full of things to do and accomplish.

One bit of caution, though – PROTOTYPE is rated M by the ESRB for a very valid reason. The game is violent and involves massive amounts of blood and gore, which I do mention in further detail throughout this review. If you do not want your kids playing games like PROTOTYPE, the ratings are there for a reason, please don’t blame the industry if you allow your kids access to a game outside of their age rating. Okay, end of brief soapbox stance on that topic. On to the review.

First, a quick plot rundown for those who may still be in the dark as to what the game is all about.

Alex Mercer Concept Art

PROTOTYPE takes place in New York City, more specifically on Manhattan Island – but in actuality the story began decades earlier in a small town called Hope, Idaho. It appears that the US military was engaged in a partnership to develop a deadly virus – one which affects not only humans but the environment as well, and along the way Alex, who apparently worked for Gen-Tek, the private contractor developing the virus strains, became some type of host, turning him into a part human-part super weapon entity. Or maybe he is a viral PROTOTYPE, released on the American public for in-the-field testing. Even with watching the Web of Intrigue vignettes a few times, I’m still not 100% sure – and to be honest, I kind of like it that way. A little mystery is good – and it makes for good fodder among the conspiracists out there on the web.

PROTOTYPE is a single player game, with the gamer taking on the persona of main character Alex Mercer. Whether Alex is good or bad is unclear at the beginning of the game, but either way it does appear that he has a conscience, which is revealed in mysterious cinematic vignettes between each task – but like all other parts of this game’s story, Alex’s motives remain infected (pun intended) with intrigue.
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Ever had dreams of quiting your job and moving out to a farm to try your hand at growing crops or animals?

Well now you don’t have to thanks to Zynga’s new game for the Facebook platform called FarmVille, which was released to the general public this year.

FarmVille puts you directly on the farm with a nice piece of land to call your own. You start the game by customizing your farmer’s look from suspenders to glasses. As soon as you get your virtual farmer looking snazzy you’re taken to your farm where your job is to plow some land and plant some seeds. Zynga must have spent some time thinking of this concept because it’s really quite unique.I know comparisons can be made to the other farm games on Facebook or other systems, but we’re here to look at FarmVille itself.

This game is identical to farming and because it’s played in real time and mimics the pains/pleasures of farming. Once you have farmed some plots of land you’re asked what kind of plants/trees or animals you would like to grow and are only limited by the amount of coins in your virtual account. Each type of plant/animal has a certain amount of grow and harvest time. Strawberries grow in 4 hours so you’ll find that if you plant these, you will have to come back to your farm so you can cash in your crop. If you don’t, they will wither and die. This is a unique mechanic because it makes you think how farming fits in your schedule like a real farm. You can’t just plant and walk away, this game requires a little attention each day since each crop of produce is different. With this mechanic Zynga has been able to increase their ADU (Average daily users), but at the same time it is strangely satisfying when you are harvesting and thinking what to grow next.
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Montreal – Ubisoft Montreal has released the following development update featuring a conversation with 3rd Party Producer Frederic Lefrancois, who is overseeing production for Assassin’s Creed: Bloodlines. Frederic is overseeing the title’s development, working closely with Kirkland, WA development studio Griptonite. The game, which will be available this winter, is exclusively for Sony PSP. As liaison between Griptonite and Ubisoft Montreal’s Assassin’s Creed Core Team, it falls to Frederic to ensure that Bloodlines will be an outstanding game and respect all of the Assassin’s Creed brand pillars.

Click To Play Video - wmv

“Assassin’s Creed: Bloodlines” follows Altair’s story right after the events of Assassin’s Creed as he hunts down the ascending Templars in Cyprus. It’s the only game that explains the link between Assassin’s Creed and Assassin’s Creed 2. If you want to understand how Ezio is born and where the Codex comes from you need this game. Well,  time to dig out the PSP which is located somewhere in the cavechild’s domain…at least I have a few months…or maybe get the new generation…decisions, decisions…

Assassin’s Creed PSP picks up right where Assassin’s Creed ended. After the death of Robert De Sable by Altair’s blade, the Templars, led by Armand Bouchart, fled the Holy Land to settle on the island of Cyprus. Following their tracks, Altair has the firm intention to put an end to the Templars’ quest for power. Altair will help the local resistance fight the Templars’ occupation and get rid of the Templar commanders.
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London – Guinness World Records and Warner Bros. Digital Distribution today announced an opportunity for iPhone and iPod touch owners to become a certified Guinness World Records holder. The top player of the new Guinness World Records game app “Video Game Score” challenge, who secures the most points by August 15, 2009 will be officially crowned the iPhone gaming champion and shortlisted for inclusion in the Guinness World Records 2010 Gamer’s Edition.

In order to participate, consumers will need to download the Guinness World Records Game from the App Store and create a GameSpy account so their score can be verified and recorded remotely. Once the app is installed players can roam the globe to find and enter anyone of 36 the solo or multi-play mini-games using a customisable avatar. To take part in the Guinness World Record contest players will need to navigate to the “Video Game Score” competition found in the Cape Canaveral area. With the press of a button, players can sync their score for each game to their GameSpy account.

Offering endless gameplay that showcases the powerful capabilities of the iPhone and iPod touch, Guinness World Records features 36 entertaining game challenges based on real life world records. These digital competitions are as wacky and bizarre as they are challenging and fun. From crushing watermelons with the player’s head and plucking feathers from a turkey, to throwing a washing machine the farthest, all using the touch screen and motion sensing technologies of the iPhone and iPod touch, the fun never stops.
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Ottawa – Playbrains, an independent game development studio specializing in the digital download arena, are excited to announce that their pride and joy, the love-child of their silicon loins, Madballs in…Babo:Invasion (MiBI) will finally be available for excitable gamers everywhere to purchase and download from Xbox LIVE® Arcade on Wednesday 15th July.

Following highly successful US and UK media press tours, the gaming journalistic community have lavished Madballs in…Babo:Invasion with a rarely seen level of praise for a debut title from a new development studio. Universal in their undiluted acclaim, The Koalition.com had no hesitation in claiming that “…this will be the best arcade game released on Xbox Live this year”, while Team Xbox stated that this was “…one of the most innovative ideas in multiplayer gameplay we’ve seen in a really long time.” Resolution-Magazine simply declared, “Without a shred of doubt, Madballs is the best Xbox LIVE Arcade title that I have ever played.”

Commenting on the impending release of Madballs in…Babo:Invasion, President of Playbrains, Scott Simpson said,

“Having spent the past two years of our lives working so hard on MiBI, the entire Playbrains team are so gratified by the response the gaming media have given our game. We always felt that we had a special title on our hands, offering an unprecedented level of gameplay features, options, depth and polish, not yet seen in a digital download title. We are unbelievably proud and excited to finally be able to let players everywhere get their headshot on…”

Madballs in…Babo:Invasion (MiBI), is available to purchase and download for 800 Microsoft poinst from Xbox LIVE® Arcade on Wednesday 15th July.

About Madballs in…Babo:Invasion

A gameplay rich, feature laden “casually hardcore” action shooter, Madballs in…Babo:Invasion (MiBI) is that rarest of gaming commodities: a genuinely unique title. Featuring the recently re-released Madballs™ characters, Oculus Orbus™ and Horn Head™, from the popular 1980’s toys best remembered for their outrageously bad looks and graphically colorful names, MiBI is an arena-based 3D shooter where players are able to design their own combat maps almost instantaneously by placing a combination of map tiles to create a never-before-seen map before gameplay starts. Truly, no two games are ever the same.

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