Village Gamer

Corridor for Advancing Canadian Digital Media’ will be Canada’s largest concentration of digital media R&D and commercialization expertise

Waterloo ON – Communitech and the Stratford Institute of the University of Waterloo have been awarded $10.7 million from the Minister of State (Science and Technology) to establish the Corridor for Advancing Canadian Digital Media (CACDM), which will focus on commercialization and research.

The digital media sector is one of the fastest growing industries in the knowledge economy, expected to reach US$2.2 trillion worldwide in the next five years. Digital media is created by using visual images and video, as well as sound and user interaction software, to communicate and use information from large data sources.

The CACDM, which will provide a common space for the corporate and academic communities to come together around digital media, will have hubs in Kitchener and Stratford, ON:
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Vancouver – Black Box, an Electronic Arts Inc. studio announced today that the highly-anticipated Skate 2 has shipped to retailers worldwide. Skate 2 ups the ante in delivering all the grit, creativity and culture of skateboarding with all-new tricks that allow players to truly skate it their way – on and off the board.

“Skate 2 is the perfect next chapter for the Skate franchise,” said Executive Producer, Scott Blackwood. “We expanded and deepened our original ideas and incorporated feedback straight from our passionate fans. With all new features, more challenges and a rich world, the game continues to celebrate skateboarding, while still innovating the genre in an unparalleled way.”
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Vancouver – Relic Entertainment’s newest RTS title, Dawn of War 2, is now available for pre-purchase on Steam for $49.99 USD. But wait, there’s more! Gamers who already own Dawn of War: Soulstorm (either a retail or digital download version) can enter into an early access beta. If gamers don’t already own Soulstorm but want to get in on the early beta, Steam is offering the expansion pack for 75% off of the retail price. The beta will open to everyone on January 28. Gamers can play on five unique multi-player maps, and it will be available for download free of charge via Steam.

Tyranid Ambush

Early reports from Village Gamer’s own rabid Dawn of War staffer include several expressions of approval, however many of the descriptive words he utilized can’t be repeated here. He did emerge from the beta long enough to say that the new GUI is great, along with several game mechanics which have been carried over from Company of Heroes, another Relic title. He likes the new squad tactics and objectives which require more strategical thought and planning on the part of the gamer – he followed this with an ominously Orkish sounding “if you want to beat the enemy, you have to be the enemy.”

Mike also reports that the voice-acting and audio quality are top-notch, with some great character writing and one-liners. So far, his favourite in-game expression has something to do
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Atomic Cartoons, creators of the international hit series Atomic Betty, partners with high powered creative team, Punktuition LLC, to develop and produce Sally Boyden’s new CG kids’ comedy series, PUNKTUITION

Vancouver – Atomic Cartoons, creators of world famous Atomic Betty have announced a partnership with New York-based Punktuition LLC on the new animated comedy series, Punktuition. Vancouver-based Atomic will debut the project to buyers and broadcasters at the 2009 Kidscreen Summit in New York in February.

Punktuition is the brainchild of Australian singer-songwriter, Sally Boyden, a former child star and Jason Lake, son of British icon, Diana Dors. The colorful comedy has been developed for television by Sally Boyden and former UK Daily Mail writer, Tania Shakinovsky. Creative consulting was provided by Christopher Cerf (Sesame Street, Between The Lions) and Atomic Cartoons co-founder, Rob Davies. “We are very fortunate to be guided by such high caliber creative advice in bringing Punktuition to fruition. says co-creator, Sally Boyden.” And in Atomic Cartoons we know we have a partner with as much passion for the project as we have.”

The series is random comedy with a dose of adventure about a cast of fun young characters who are lost on a purple planet in the center of the Luniverse, not knowing how they got there or why they now bear more than a passing resemblance to punctuation marks. As if that wasn’t perplexing enough, they were in possession of mysterious super powers that definitely weren’t there before. The central theme of Punktuition is the gang of friends finding their way home, and on the journey Read the rest of this entry »

Virtual Mechanics has released SiteSpinner Pro, a versatile Windows web authoring tool that makes it easy to design web pages that are optimized for the desktop, iPhone, Blackberry, SmartPhone, PDA, cell phone, and any mobile device

Sidney BC – Virtual Mechanics has released SiteSpinner Pro, a versatile Windows web authoring tool that makes it easy to design web pages that are optimized for the desktop, iPhone, Blackberry, SmartPhone, PDA, cell phone, and any mobile device. There are more than 3.5 billion mobile phone users worldwide, and nearly a billion of them access the Internet with their phones.

Because Virtual Mechanics and Opera Software partnered to integrate the popular Opera web browser into the latest release of SiteSpinner Pro, it offers features that are not available in any other web authoring software. With SiteSpinner Pro it is possible to design and preview web pages as they’ll look using standard mobile device resolutions. This enables the user to create a web site for desktop and laptop devices, and then design a separate layout for mobile devices, ensuring that content looks good on any PDA, cell phone, or mobile device.
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Toronto – Stealth.com Inc. (Stealth Computer) a leading ISO 9001 manufacturer of industrial rugged computers and peripherals has released our most powerful mini pc yet, the LPC-650 Series LittlePC. The new Stealth LPC-650 small form PC offers tremendous power in a tiny package that measures 6.5″ x 6″ and less than 2″ tall or about the size of a hard cover novel yet surpasses the performance of most desktop and notebook PCs available today. Engineered with the latest Intel® Core™ 2 Duo processors featuring 64-Bit EMT64 Technology, you’ll experience blazing speed performance that will handle your most processor intense applications.

“The Stealth Model: LPC-650 is the most powerful small form Little PC we have ever offered. This full featured machine utilizes the latest Intel core 2 duo processor technology and we believe it offers the most processing power per square inch of any personal computer available today,” stated Ed Boutilier President & CEO of Stealth.com Inc.

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Toronto – Astral Media’s Family Channel is enriching its online offering and presence by extending its long-standing relationship with Disney-ABC-ESPN Television to provide users with hit Disney Channel programming on Family’s website, Family.ca. With this deal, Family Channel will feature a selection of top-rated Disney Channel Original Series such as Hannah Montana, The Suite Life On Deck and Wizards of Waverly Place, and internationally popular Disney Channel Original Movies on Family.ca.

This new content complements online offerings from Family’s existing lineup, including Canadian original series, and will be presented on a re-designed broadband player that will provide enhanced functionality for users and new opportunities for promotional partners targeting Family’s coveted demographic of 8-14 year olds.

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THQ and Relic Entertainment to Deliver Innovative Tactical Gameplay and Stunning Cinematic Visuals in Highly Anticipated Sequel

Vancouver – THQ Inc. today announced that Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II, developed by the award-winning Real-time strategy (RTS) developer, Relic Entertainment, has reached the gold master stage of development and is now entering manufacturing. Set in the grim, war-ravaged world of Games Workshop’s Warhammer 40,000 science fiction universe, Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II delivers visceral combat, stunning visuals, and destructible environments throughout a non-linear single-player experience as well as a fully cooperative multiplayer campaign via Microsoft’s free Games for Windows – LIVE service. Developed exclusively for Windows PC and powered by an enhanced version of Relic’s proprietary Essence Engine 2.0, Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II is scheduled to be on store shelves at retail outlets nationwide on February 19, 2009.

“Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II will build on the critical acclaim and commercial success of the Dawn of War franchise, letting players experience RTS gaming like never before,” said Kevin Kraff, vice president of global brand management, THQ. “Combining non-linear gameplay, cooperative multiplayer, cinematic visuals, and destructible battlefields brings a new, innovative dynamic to the genre.”
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Canada’s leading On-Demand eCommerce provider builds streamlined shopping cart checkout for online shoppers into SaaS platform

Toronto – OrderDynamics Corporation, a Canadian On-Demand eCommerce solution provider, is pleased to announce continued enhancements to its Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platform in order to solve the real business challenges of online merchants.

OrderDynamics Customers have another powerful eCommerce Shopping Cart feature to streamline the checkout process for their shoppers. Shopping cart abandonment occurs when shoppers leave the checkout process before completing the sale. With the click of a button, online merchants can include shipping options onto the same web form, and remove the final confirmation page, unlocking a single-page checkout while still maintaining brand flexibility, design control, and a standards-based layout.
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Canadian software publisher ParetoLogic is pleased to announce newest utility software, ParetoLogic DriverCure. This is the 11th product in the ParetoLogic product lineup which includes popular applications such as RegCure Registry Cleaner, XoftSpySE Anti-Spyware, and the award winning free PGsurfer parental controls program

Victoria BC – Recently named one of Profit Magazine’s “Hot 50”, Canadian software publisher, ParetoLogic, is the creator of the ever-popular registry cleaner RegCure and anticipates a similar level of success with its newest product, ParetoLogic DriverCure. Designed to alleviate the common problem of diagnosing outdated hardware drivers and software applications, DriverCure promises to quickly identify all the drivers and software programs on board a given computer system, indicating available updates and facilitating the download of said updates. The software features an impressive database of vendors, ensuring that even the lesser known brands of hardware (bios/motherboard, hard disk controller, network devices, CD/DVD/, ), input devices (keyboard, mouse) , and peripherals (digital camera, printer/plotter/multi-office, scanner, game controller) can be detected and updated. Read the rest of this entry »