Village Gamer

Canada – First, a shout-out to our readers over at DFAIT – Happy Friday everyone! Also best wishes to Monika and Michael for a life full of adventure and happiness – make sure you come back to Vancouver every so often for a visit. Our other local adventurers, Brenda and Eli have reached Rankin Inlet in Nunavut, where you can apparently buy a Wii at the Rankin Inlet Co-op for only $799.00. Wow.

This weekend, Village Gamer will be at the Abbotsford Airshow. We’ll be at the VIP Chalet on Sunday, so if you’re on Chalet Row, stop in and say hi. We’ll also be visiting with our friends from the Canadian Armed Forces out on the static display field. Sadly, Captain Phil “Ritz” Smith and our friends from the US Air Force Strike Eagle demo team appear to be scheduled for a show in Ohio – but there is a flypast scheduled. Makes conversation difficult, though. Our favourites, though, will always be the Snowbirds.  Both Nintendo Wii and Microsoft 360 had a presence at last year’s airshow. We’ll be checking to see if they’ve returned to the static area as well.

The cavechild flew in one of Bud Granley’s Yak 11 planes yesterday – usually he flies with stunt pilot Ken Pietsch, but Ken was booked up with media types. Mike took video of the flight, but he hasn’t finished his editing yet so we can’t show you this year’s pre-show flight adventure. He was disappointed that they only hit a low G-force once or twice during the flight. Now he’s decided he wants his pilot’s license.

IUGO’s new game Spy Bot Chronicles has officially launched in the iTunes App Store with an introductory price of $0.99 usd. Toy Bot has been kidnapped by Thief Bot, and he needs you to rescue him. Play through four different zones to find the hidden levels and collect all of the rewards while experiencing the high quality of IUGO’s game design.

Ubisoft Montreal is asking for gamer input on some of the achievements for Assassin’s Creed 2. You can vote for one of these four achievements, as well as leave your comments. If you are a member of Ubi’s community, you can vote here; if you’re on Facebook, you can vote here.

The four achievements to vote on are:

The taste of revenge – Kill X Brutes (heavy guard)
Weapon Master – Use all weapons at least once
Victory lies in preparation – Get all available upgrades for Ezio
Mighty traveler – Travel X kilometers within the game

My choice was Mighty Traveler, because putting on lots of in-game miles means taking a look at the scenery and taking in all of the incredible artwork which has been done by the artists and level designers.

Vancouver’s indie developer Dingo Games has just announced its latest project, The Three Musketeers: The Game. Closely following the story of Alexander Dumas’ original masterpiece, The Three Musketeers: The Game is a unique action-adventure game for Mac and Windows.

Players take on the role of the young gentleman d’Artagnan as he sets off for Paris in hopes of becoming a Musketeer. D’Artagnan makes dangerous enemies along the way but soon befriends the famous three Musketeers: Athos, Porthos and Aramis. A plot to disgrace the Queen emerges and the four friends must rely on their wits and their swords to preserve her honor from the evil Cardinal Richelieu.

The Musketeers game features a top-down perspective and hand-drawn 2d graphics. Players gather loot, duel enemies, fire flintlock muskets, and play the occasional mini-game as they make their way through the main story. In addition, numerous side-quests exist for players who want to explore all the game has to offer.

Another Vancouver studio, Cackleberries, has successfully completed beta testing on their next generation of the Cackleberries.com kids web site, due for release as early as September 2009. This intelligent technology provides a single point of entry from a desktop icon that whisks a child into a magical, fantasy world and allows them to play fun, safe internet games, without access to any internet browser or be subject to any virus, hack or predator. Free online games for kids that are safe from spyware and malware are almost impossible to find.

Cackleberries.com is an ethical, educational web site for children aged 3 -8 and has always been a leader in promoting responsible kids games and screen media for children. British Columbia is a hot bed for high tech talent and some of Vancouver’s brightest minds are behind the creation of these elaborate online kids games. The living cartoon is a leader when it comes to fun websites for kids.

Parents love the site as much as the kids because it does not promote bullying like other sites and is completely ‘advertising free’. Now, with a hi-tech upgrade, cackleberries.com is safer, more secure, and has become the first kids game online to bypass an internet browser. The response has been so overwhelmingly positive by the parenting community, that sources predict it will soon overtake it’s closest competitors. Cackleberries.com is full of kids activities and children can play free online games during the upcoming promotional launch period.