Village Gamer

Attention Vancouver-area freelancers – there is a full day event planned just for you on Saturday May 29th from 9:00am – 4:00pm at The Network Hub. Freelance Camp Vancouver is an opportunity for freelancers, entrepreneurs, independent business owners and individuals to come together to learn from one another, connect with opportunities by expanding their network, and finding answers to some of the questions enabling them to expand their business, start their business or develop additional income streams. Tickets are only $11. 24 including the paypal fee (all going to charity) and are available online until May 26th.

There are still some tickets left for the ACM SIGGRAPH Vancouver Chapter presentation of Designing Assassin’s Creed 2. This session will take place on the evening of May 18th at the VanCity Theatre. If you’ve never attended one of our local SIGGRAPH events, you don’t know what you’re missing. Tickets are $15.00 for members and $20.00 for non-members. Annual membership is $35.00 ($25.00 for students), with the immediate benefit of lower ticket prices and cool networking opportunities.

EA Sports™ 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa™ is in stores now with eight new celebrations for the PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system and Xbox 360® videogame and entertainment system. The videogame is also available on Wii™, PSP® (PlayStation® Portable), iPod® touch and iPhone®.

The 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa videogame will feature all the emotion and passion of the fiercest national rivalries battling on the world’s biggest stage, with all 199 national teams that took part in qualification and all 10 official stadiums to be used in South Africa. Gamers will be able to play as their home nation from qualification right through to a virtual reproduction of the FIFA World Cup Final™ and feel what it is like to score the goal that lifts a nation.

Fans can unlock the new celebrations through EA Sports and Coca-Cola™ channels in participating countries. After unlocking each celebration, fans can score a goal, use the controller to activate the celebrations and admire the performance via a new dynamic camera angle that delivers the emotion of each goal scored. Consumers can also admire their celebration and share with fans online by uploading to EA Sports Football World.

In addition, to honor the legacy of the FIFA World Cup™, EA Sports unveiled its Classic 11 team that features 35 legendary players from past tournaments, including star striker Roger Milla of Cameroon, who scored four goals in the 1990 FIFA World Cup and in 1994, at the age of 42, became the oldest player to play in the tournament. Fans who carry the hopes and dreams of a nation into battle against fans from rival countries and win the 2010 FIFA World Cup TM will unlock the Classic 11 squad.

New players to the FIFA franchise can also compete for the 2010 FIFA World Cup utilizing new Two-Button controls designed to enable new gamers to pass and shoot with an accessible control scheme that utilizes just two buttons. The game is rated “E” for Everyone by the ESRB

St. John’s-based Celsius Game Studios is proud to present Chromodyne Lite, the free version of its unique and exciting match-3 puzzle game, Chromodyne! Chromodyne Lite is available for the iPhone and iPod Touch, on the Apple App Store.

Chromodyne Lite features a brand new 5 chapter story introducing the player to the Chromodyne as they work their way through the Chromodynamic Academy’s accredited Accelerated Chromodyne Operator’s Course. Through this program, you too can learn the skills necessary to save the world from impending doom from outer space!

Well, you might expect to pay tens of thousands of dollars and rack up years of crushing student debt at some “university” to learn how to save the world. Not so at the Chromodynamic Academy. No, you too can learn all this today for the low, low price of FREE!

Get Set Games has submitted their latest title to Apple for release in the iTunes store. According to their site, “MegaJump is an Action/Arcade jumping game where the goal is to climb as high as possible through beautiful multi-layered, hand painted backdrops while collecting as many coins, power ups, boosts, combos and loot pickups as possible. While Doodle Jump is an obvious inspiration, we’ve pushed the graphics and arcade action as far as we could to make the game incredibly fast paced and explosive. Our tiny protagonist will be battling his way from the placid mossy earth of the forest floor through the treetops, ruins, sunlit clouds, and up to the moon and galaxy and beyond.

Maplesoft™ has announced the simultaneous release of MapleSim™ 4, the high-performance, physical modeling and simulation tool, and Maple™ 14, the technical computing software for engineers, mathematicians, and scientists. These products are based on Maplesoft’s core technologies, which include the world’s most advanced symbolic computation engine and revolutionary physical modeling techniques. Together, these technologies provide cutting-edge tools for design, modeling, and high-performance simulation, including real-time and hardware-in-the-loop applications.

MapleSim 4 introduces a new 3-D construction feature, which saves engineers significant time when developing multibody models. MapleSim provides instant, realistic feedback of multibody systems by dynamically rendering the model as it is built. In addition, the 3-D construction environment lets engineers add and manipulate multibody components directly in the 3-D workspace. Other new features include flexible probe management tools, including an easy way to add new probes to previous simulation results without having to rerun the simulation; a new semi-stiff solver that provides good results for stiff systems without the overhead formulation costs of a true stiff solver, and new and enhanced analysis tools, including tools for working with multibody equations.

Unlike other physical modeling tools, MapleSim is built on a foundation of symbolic computation technology which efficiently manages all of the complex mathematics involved in the development of engineering system models. At the core of MapleSim lies Maple, the technical computing software that contains a highly advanced symbolic computation engine, powerful numeric solvers, and an intuitive technical document interface. Enhancements to Maple automatically benefit MapleSim users, as well as the many engineers who use Maple directly.

Maple 14 contains increased depth and breadth of math for engineering applications, including new control system design tools, linearization tools, and new solvers that allow engineers to apply advanced techniques to control design problems. Enhanced performance means solutions can be found even faster, and larger problems can be tackled. New tools and resources improve the work environment, including expanded connectivity with MATLAB® through the integration of the Maple Toolbox for MATLAB® directly into Maple 14, and improved search capabilities for the help system.

“Every year, engineering systems are becoming more complex and time-consuming to develop and improve,” said Jim Cooper, President and CEO of Maplesoft. “Symbolic computation is quickly becoming one of the most important, defining technologies of next generation modeling techniques. Because MapleSim 4 and Maple 14 are based on a world-leading symbolic computation engine, engineers across many different industries are saving weeks and months of time while developing better solutions for their customers.”

Single-user professional licenses of MapleSim 4 are available for US $4,595 and Maple 13 for US $1,895. Prices listed are for installation and use in the US. Volume, upgrade, and academic discounts apply. Both products are available directly from the Maplesoft Web Store.