Village Gamer

Canada – As always, it’s nice to start our Fridays with some cool links and information from our favourite tech info guru, Bradley Shende of MEDIA2O and ConnectedLife. Bradley appears every Friday morning on Global BC’s morning news show. Today’s cool links included BoardTracker and BoardReader – two great services for busy people. Be sure to catch his segment next week for more great info. You can view past GlobalTV ConnectedLife segments on Global’s site – just scroll down the index and choose Connected Life. Also, congratulations are in order to Bradley and Sarah, who are expecting twins in a few months’ time.

Ubisoft has launched the official dev blog for James Cameron’s Avatar The Game. There isn’t very much content up yet, but UbiGabe is working on it. The dev blog promises the latest news, links and info regarding Avatar. UbiGabe says he is also looking forward to telling some of the secrets which have been kept, well, secret about the game. Avatar is also available now for pre-order at most game store locations, and will be available for Xbox 360, PS3 PSP, DS and Wii.

Also announced by Ubisoft today is a chance to win a trip to Ubi Montreal to play Assassin’s Creed 2 with the developers. The cryptic details were released on Twitter, with a coded URL to follow. We will share the link with you right here – good luck in the contest. All you need to do is have an account on Ubi.com, grab and share the widget and hope you win. If you win, take us with you – we’d greatly appreciate it.

Sheridan Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning has released their comments about the recent Ubisoft Toronto announcement.

“The investment by the provincial government is another key step in securing Ontario’s future as a global hub for digital media companies,” said Dr. Rob Turner, President and CEO, Sheridan Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning. “Not only do these moves make economic sense, they make tremendous business sense. The Greater Toronto Area is home to some of the most highly skilled artists and technical trades people these industries rely upon for their workforces. It’s the perfect environment for digital media industries to grow and thrive.”

In regards to the Ontario government’s support of digital media development, Dr. Turner added that “the province’s investments into animation and gaming will undoubtedly attract other companies to locate here as well. Sheridan has long been a leader in digital media education and has close relationships with industry. We look forward to playing a key role in ensuring the graduates supporting this burgeoning sector of Ontario’s economy are experts in the latest technology and have the skills the industry needs to compete in a global market for entertainment and gaming.”

Rogers Communications has announced that they are now in the netbook business – sort of. The new HP Mini 110 netbooks come embedded with mobile broadband technology to connect directly to the web over Rogers 3.5G wireless network across Canada. Available exclusively at Best Buy and Future Shop, the HP Mini 110 is available for $299.99 with a two year plan. Wireless data plans for Rogers mobile Internet ready netbooks start at just $25.00, plus $6.95 system access fee and other fees a month for 500 MB. Featuring a 10.1-inch display and a keyboard that is 92 per cent the size of a standard notebook PC, the HP Mini 110 starts at 2.57 pounds and measures just over one-inch thick. Powered by an Intel Atom Processor, the HP Mini 110 supports up to 1 GB of memory and comes equipped with a 160 GB hard drive.

Meridian4’s fifth anniversary celebrations are continuing by offering gamers great specials on Impulse for the next 10 days. The sale includes discounts as much as 50% to 80% on their unique catalogue of games.

Pavel Sebor, CEO at SCS Software says; “Congratulations to Meridian4 for making it 5 years in the business. We initially began our relationship with Bus Driver, but due to their professionalism and dedication to us and our product, we have since signed on two more titles. Meridian4’s communication and cooperation with our company has been fantastic and is at the heart of their success. Well done and all the best for the next 5 years.”

The 5th Anniversary celebrations continue on Impulse with a 50% savings on all of our games and packs, including recent releases such as Chains, Big Rig Europe, Obulis and others. Meridian4 and Impulse have also created a Complete Pack that includes over 30 games for a special price of $79.99. The sale begins July 9th and continues until July 19th.