Village Gamer

Vancouver – *content warning – please see below* – Over 22 uncensored animated films including great titles such as the recently acquires masterpiece “Eleven Roses”, “Home Honey, I’m High”, “Fantaisie in Bubblewrap”, “Happy Tree Friends”, “Washington”, “Crab Revolution” “The Mosquito Who Gave Up Blood” & “Dr. Tran” will be featured during Spike & Mike’s Sick and Twisted Animation Festival which opens on February 20th at The Rio Theatre in Vancouver.

It’s been over ten years since Spike himself made the trip up to Vancouver he will be present opening weekend to sign “everything” and introduce the show. The Sick and Twisted Animation Festival will include a few of the all time classics plus a ton of premiers! Spike handpicked the films himself and invites everyone to watch ninety minutes of the sickest, most brilliant, artistic and funniest animation shorts he’s ever put together!

Show Times: February 20th – March 5th will have daily shows at 7 and 9pm with weekend matinees at 4:30pm. Friday and Saturday will also feature midnight showings with Bar Service provided by R & B Brewing for the late shows on opening weekend. There will also be FREE Spike & Mike DVD’s to the first 25 people Fri & Sat night as well as free Happy Tree Friends swag PLUS you can get in FREE if you bring your refrigerator with one of the Festival’s flyers attached to it. There will also be some in-house contests happening with great prizes.

*Content Warning – Content on the Spike & Mike Festival Website and at The Sick & Twisted Animation Festival may offend some viewers. We are not responsible for the content on their site or at their Animation Festival.*

Vancouver – The folks over at the Centre for Digital Media would like to let our readers know about these upcoming events taking place on the Great Northern Way Campus:

MDM Programme Open House Hosted by Electronic Arts
Join MDM on the evening of February 25th for a special Masters of Digital Media (MDM) Program information session sponsored by Electronic Arts. Get your questions answered about the MDM curriculum, admission requirements, the application process and career prospects by current MDM students, faculty, staff and industry affiliates. Pre-registration is required as space is limited. To register, email rsvp-at-gnwc-dot-ca with “Feb 25 – Open House” as the subject. A confirmation with event details will be sent to you once your registration is received.

MDM Program Portfolio Showcase

Join MDM on February 26th for a showcase of portfolios and select industry projects developed by students of the Masters of Digital Media Program (MDM). The Centre is excited to open our doors at the Centre for Digital Media to prospective employers, projects and industry affiliates in advance of their first graduating class in May 2009.

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Toronto – In a documentary which may be of special interest to many Canadian game developers, COMBAT SCHOOL follows – for the first time ever – Canadian infantry soldiers as they undergo the most technologically-advanced, intense and realistic combat training in military history.

Premiering Tuesday, March 10 at 10 p.m. ET/PT on Discovery Channel, this six-part, one-hour Canadian documentary series goes directly to the heart of modern warfare by following a platoon of 40 men and women from the time they commence their training until they are declared battle-ready and deployed. Granted unprecedented access by the Canadian military and combat trainers, cameras are then embedded with the platoon in the war fields of Afghanistan where viewers witness how the soldiers’ skills are put to the ultimate test when they encounter insurgents for the first time.

In COMBAT SCHOOL the training is intense and the expectations high. Those who are unprepared won’t make it, and those who are ready leave everything behind to risk their lives in a war zone. Following soldiers from 1 Platoon, Mike Company, 3rd Battalion, Royal Canadian Regiment – based out of Petawawa, Ontario – COMBAT SCHOOL captures every step of the mission-specific training as the men and women prepare for the most intense combat situation they have
ever faced.

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Montreal – Expanding on its existing lockdown delivery service, MXI Security™ today announced it is now allowing customers of its ACCESS Enterprise device life cycle management suite to order portable security devices preconfigured with a unique management code. This guarantees that devices that leave the factory cannot be used or modified by anyone except the end customer.

This expanded service complements an already rigorous production process that ensures devices are free of malicious software and sealed in tamper-evident packaging before they leave MXI Security’s US-based manufacturing facility.

The management code capability has been an in-hardware security feature of every MXI Security MXP portable security device for the past several years. Known only to the issuing organization, the code ensures that no attacker can alter the contents of the read-only drive, protecting it against malicious software such as Trojans, worms and viruses. Furthermore, if a device is ever lost or stolen, the code prevents anyone from recycling the device to reuse as their own.

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Ottawa – Corel Corporation today announced Corel® InstantON™ technology is now included in the award-winning Sony® VAIO® P series Lifestyle PC.

With Corel InstantON technology, VAIO P series Lifestyle PC users can surf the web, check email, chat online and play back photos, videos and music in seconds after turning on their notebook, saving the time of booting up their Windows operating system.

“We are pleased to work with Sony to provide a superior instant-on solution for their VAIO P series Lifestyle PC,” said Jeff Hastings, President and General Manager, Digital Media at Corel. “Users will find an all-new, custom-designed interface that provides a complete, efficient and secure way to quickly access online content at home or on the go.”

“As the world’s lightest 8 inch notebook at 1.4 pounds, the VAIO P series Lifestyle PC deserves a superior instant-on solution to meet the needs of today’s mobile computer user,” said Bob Ishida, Senior Vice President, Corporate Executive, President of VAIO Business Group, Sony Corporation. “By adopting Corel InstantON technology, users will enjoy a stress-free and exciting user experience through an easy-to-use interface that accesses the internet faster than ever before.”

Currently only available in Japan, the VAIO P series will be available in North America this month and can be pre-ordered on the SonyStyle website for $999.99.

Montreal – amBX today further strengthened its partnership with Ubisoft via an agreement to amBX-enable Tom Clancy’s EndWar on PC.

Set on the battlefields of World War III, Tom Clancy’s EndWar is a pioneering real time strategy game that pushes the envelope of technology with its revolutionary voice-command system. The addition of amBX enhances this innovative game with real-world sensory experiences – using light, colour, rumble and even air flow – through licensed amBX peripherals, including LED lights, variable speed desktop fans and rumblers.

The agreement to amBX-enable EndWar will see a huge range of lighting effects add realism to the theatre of war, including colours that reflect the changing landscape, environment, weather formations and time of day, as well as creating a real sense of movement and immersion. Of course, dynamic weapon fire will flash fiercely whenever large weapons are discharged.

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Vancouver – Over the past two weeks I haven’t had as much time as usual to search out the news from Canada’s digital media industry, so I’m taking a different angle tonight to catch up on a few things. One of the reasons for the busy schedule on our end was a visit to Vancouver by representatives of World Cyber Games, Inc. They have been visiting cities around the world scouting possible future locations for a variety of World Cyber Games events. During their visit, the representatives had a chance to tour Relic Entertainment, EA Burnaby, the Great Northern Way Campus, the Electric Playground studio, then attended a small reception hosted by Radical Entertainment and the SIGGRAPH presentation of Modern Princesses given by Ubisoft Montreal – but more on that later in this post. Thank you to everyone who took part in the tours and events.

The month began in the best way possible with the Game Design Expo presented by Vancouver Film School. This two day expo which features the top guest speakers is one of the consistently best-run events around. Every seminar and panel topic was relevant to today’s game development industry, and it’s small wonder why GDX sells out every year. Over the next short time, I will be posting articles about the seminars – and hopefully once you’ve read them, if you weren’t at GDX this year, you’ll make a note to attend next year. Aside from the myriad of topics and opportunities to learn, the biggest announcement at this year’s event was the estalishment of the Women In Games International $30 000.00 – $47 000.00 full scholarship. This scholarship will provide full tuition for a female game design student to attend the VFS Game Design Programme. Other scholarships announced range from $2000.00 to $7000.00, and are sponsored by G4techTV, EA, Big Fish Games, Annex Pro, Obsidian Entertainment, and Radical Entertainment.

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