Village Gamer

Vancouver – IUGO is proud to announce the release of Cliffed, its latest game featuring casual play with online, multi-player action!

Challenge your friends to the most addictive race to the bottom! IUGO presents its latest sensation in casual gaming with this frantic 2D scrolling racer. WARNING: This game will get your heart and fingers racing!

Features:

• 10 unique and playful characters to choose from
• Pick up and play! Great for all ages
• Endless game play
• Online multiplayer! Race up to 8 players in real time over 3G and wireless networks
• Local and global leaderboards
• IUGO’s new VIP program: Tell your friends, earn points and unlock an exclusive mystery character sooner
• Stylized, clean graphics
• IUGO’s signature quality and polish

Edmonton – On the eve of the release of Dragon Age™: Origins, Seattle’s Umbra Software has announced that Bioware has licensed Umbra’s visibility optimization technology for Mass Effect™ franchise, Dragon Age™: Origins and other future titles.

Umbra is a highly robust, GPU based, visibility optimization solution that allows game developers to create highly dynamic game worlds without pre-processing. With Umbra game developers can increase their polygon budgets significantly and create highly complex game worlds which were previously impossible.

“BioWare has proven their excellence with a multitude of award-winning projects,” said Farhad Taherazer, VP of marketing for Umbra Software. “We are proud to have a studio with their track record recognize our abilities with a broad integration of our tech, it gives us credibility in this market place and puts us closer to becoming an industry standard.”

Montreal – Ubisoft Montreal has announced that the soundtrack for Assassin’s Creed 2 will be released for digital download on November 16, one day before the game’s official release.

Award-winning composer Jesper Kyd has created an epic soundtrack for Assassin’s Creed II, the

North American Collector's Edition

sequel to the fastest-selling new IP in video game history. Following his atmospheric score for the original Assassin’s Creed, Kyd takes the music in an adventurous new direction and crafts an immensely diverse, melodic and progressive musical pallet featuring acoustic and symphonic orchestrations with emotional depth and diversity. The original score was recorded with A-List musicians and a Hollywood orchestra and choir at the world-renowned Capitol Studios.

“Jesper Kyd’s score for Assassin’s Creed II brings players into the Italian Renaissance by providing a true sense of depth for the poignant moments, while also giving a jolt of adrenaline to the action-packed sequences. We are thrilled to have Jesper Kyd back with us in making Assassin’s Creed II an epic title on all levels,” said Patrice Desilets, Creative Director at Ubisoft, while Jesper Kyd had this to say about the new soundtrack: “We created a unique musical identity for Assassin’s Creed II that reflects the character and story of Ezio and elevated the music, both in terms of creativity and live production, to a whole new level.”

Assassin’s Creed II is the product of over two years of intensive development by the original creative team behind the Assassin’s Creed brand, featuring a new hero, Ezio Auditore da Firenze, a young Italian noble, and a new era, the Renaissance. The game tells an epic story of family, vengeance and conspiracy set in the pristine, yet brutal, backdrop of a Renaissance Italy. Ezio befriends Leonardo da Vinci, takes on Florence’s most powerful families and ventures throughout the canals of Venice where he learns to become a master assassin. The music propels the action, captures the allure and mystery of the story and immerses players in the breathtakingly detailed settings.

Vancouver – Grab your machete and run! To the App Store that is. Zombie Attack! Second Wave has hit. The elaborate sequel to IUGO’s smash hit Zombie Attack! has launched with more maps, hordes of zombies, bigger and better weapons and tons of brand new challenges.

Zombie Attack! Second Wave

Just when you thought it was safe…ZA! is back! Lovers of zombies and tower defense-style games combined have a second chance to tear into more zombies with more weapons and in more locations than ever before.

IUGO built upon what you loved best about the original Zombie Attack! game making it bigger, better and bloodier! Your mission: play as a survivor from the ultimate Zombie Apocalypse, protect your shack and stay alive. Kill zombies, earn points and cash to upgrade your weapons and bolster your fire power. Easy tilt and touch-screen controls make ZA! 2 an instant iPhone-exclusive favorite.

Features:

• 7 turrets (3 new, including the Pulsewave)
• New upgrades to super turrets
• 4 maps of varying sizes including Backyard and Trailer Park
• Hordes of challenges, 5 for each map
• 6 zombie types (4 new, including the Hound and Cheerleader)
• Instantaneous save when quitting the app
• Online high scores list for each map, local lists for challenges and personal records
• Automatic iPod music support (Just play your music and start the game)
• 3.0 USERS!! Additional iPod music playback option
• IUGO high-quality and polish

Quebec City – Beware of living deads around Halloween…Frima Studio’s Zombie Tycoon is launching today as a PSP® (PlayStation®Portable) mini title in North America, Europe and Asia. The hilarious zombie horde has been released to contaminate and infest the PlayStation®Network.

Zombie Tycoon was specifically designed for the PSP minis,” commented Frima’s CEO Steve Couture. “One of the biggest minis up to this date, our zombie game will give the player several hours to build his army and achieve complete world domination… It is not a port from a mobile game, but a whole new strategy game with a lot of funny and horrifying content.”

Frima’s team thought that it was about time their zombies got some brain food being in prison for 6 months in our offices! While usually, players have to face and stop an undead menace, as human, Zombie Tycoon lets you maneuver your very own ravenous zombie horde through towns and buildings.

This unique tale of intrigue and betrayal spans over 10 challenging levels, animated cut-scenes and in-game dialogues, and lots of humorous references. The combat system allows players to burn cities to the ground as they attack humans and the places they call home. As players alternate fast-paced action and strategic execution, they can choose from over 100 quirky items to arm their zombies and attempt to spread the undead across the globe!

The game is ready just in time for Halloween at a mini cost! Zombie is available for all models of PSP systems exclusively as a download through the PlayStation Network at $7.99 in North America and is rated T by the ESRB

Meanwhile, Big Blue Bubble invites gamers to Give ‘Em Hell…in High Heels with Garters & Ghouls for iPhone/iPod touch

Get ready to command the not-too-dead Marie Dupois in the haunting new franchise, Garters & Ghouls, now available on Apple’s App Store. Namco Networks has announced the release of Garters & Ghouls for iPhone and iPod touch, available for $4.99.

In this new action shooter, players control Marie as she is summoned to battle the minions and horrors beyond description! Garters & Ghouls features a twisted world in the form of 25 action-packed levels, providing hours of unique game play. Players help Marie on her quest by unearthing devastating weapons and massive power-ups! With downloadable content the fun never dies!

“Interesting characters, a compelling and humorous storyline and lots of undead destruction are just a few things that distinguish this from other titles,” said Jonathan Kromrey, general manager of Apple Games for Namco Networks. “What will keep fans coming back is the insatiable appetite for more…just like a zombie.”

To produce Garters & Ghouls, Namco collaborated with Big Blue Bubble, an award winning developer specializing in casual games for mobile devices for over 6 years. “As we’re constantly focused on innovation, we were really excited about helping launch this new property,” said Damir Slogar, CEO of the Canadian based developer. “Working with a major publisher like Namco allows us a great opportunity to get these games out to ever-expanding audiences. Namco offers unparalleled reach and support.”

Garters & Ghouls also features Facebook Connect, allowing users to post their rankings on Facebook and share achievements with their friends. Garters and Ghouls is rated T.

Montreal – Wicked Studios and Majesco Entertainment are pleased to announce that the official Dawn of Heroes Blog is now accessible on the game website.

Expect news, commentary, gameplay videos, exclusive wallpapers and music tracks to be posted on the blog. Wicked Studios invites players to inquire about Dawn of Heroes by commenting and asking questions in the blog. A Facebook page is also available for players wishing to join the fan club and get all the latest news about Dawn of Heroes!

Dawn of Heroes – A new breed of SRPG

Brimthule is cursed, filled with malevolent characters, and separated into baronies. Cities have fallen, beasts of all weft and warp are becoming bolder in their attacks and the once beloved six Barons have become evil.

Who’s going to clean this mess up? Heroes will!! Don’t they always? But where are they? Unwilling to deal with an old prophecy to save the realm, a disparate band of mercenaries will learn, through a hilarious adventure, that the reward of being Heroes cannot be counted in gold, jewels, or fame.

• Travel through breathtaking 3D graphics whilst encountering a wide variety of characters from 12 different factions.
• Fight through over 60 missions with optional and hidden objectives.
• Experience a rich storyline filled with action, fun and humour.
• Select a team from over 25 playable classes.
• Test your strategies against other players and trade items through Nintendo DS wireless Play, or Nintendo WFC.

Vancouver – After hanging in the review queue for nearly 3 months, IUGO’s Star Hogs game for the iPhone/iTouch has received a major update to its look, features and content. This massive update includes the following new features, tweaks and fixes:

New Features:

• Additional free 32-map Alpha Centauri Campaign! (This was originally intended to be DLC as in-app purchase but has been switched to a FREE update)
• In-game messaging system. Tease, taunt and congratulate each other in-game!
• Players announce their entry into online battles.
• Ability for losers in a 3 or 4 player battle to receive their earnings first then decide whether to spectate or leave an online battle.
• Improved in-game graphics with updated textures and parallexing background 3d objects
• Scrolling window will now remember their previous position
• Automatic backup & restore system to prevent save file corruption
• IUGO VIP System for rewarding game referrals
• Invite friends feature
• Save/Resume for Campaign & FreePlay modes
• NEW WEAPON: Nuclear Strike
• NEW WEAPON: Matter Missile
• NEW MINE: Paint Mines
• NEW circular map for FreePlay & Online
• NEW flat map for FreePlay & Online
• Camera control when it is not player’s turn
• Audio & Vibrate alarm when a match is found in QuickPlay

Fixes and Optimizations:

• Better disconnection handling (Online game delayed due to lag will resolve within 60 secs)
• Improved online multiplayer synchronization
• Certain detectable non-cheating disconnection situation will result in players being disqualified to avoid point deduction (However, the loss will still have to be taken)
• Numerous hanger issues/crashes fixed
• Possible rankings page crash fixed
• 10-pt font fixes
• Introduction camera panning issue fixed
• Airplane mode crash fixed
• Load to 50% crash fixed
• Username/password saving bug fixed

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Vancouver – No Robots Interactive has announced that Apple’s approval has been given for their massive update to Jamble, plus the free version Jamble Lite has also gone live on the App Store. New products Jamble Dance and Jamble Dance Lite are now in review at Apple and should be out in early November.

About Jamble:

With the touch of a finger, Jamble lets you combine a variety of musical loops from international hit songs into your own impossibly great mashup mixes immediately making you sound like a pro-DJ and mashup master.

Jamble comes with 24 musical loops that you can mashup into infinite combinations. You can play with 16 active loops at a time and easily hot swap them with additional loops in your Jamble loop library while you play.

Jamble features live, real time music creation as well as allowing you to record, save and playback your mixes. Share your mixes with your friends via email, Facebook and Twitter.

You can get more loops directly from within the app and create custom set lists of your favorite loops to load them fast. The range of artists in Jamble include:

• Lady Gaga
• Gwen Stefani
• Kardinal Offishall
• Kid Cudi
• The Killers
• Asher Roth
• David Bowie
• Will.i.am
• All-American Rejects
• Gorillaz
• Blur
…and many others.

Toronto – Incubator Games, a group of young industry professionals, is proud to announce the launch of their new website along with 18 new screenshots for their first game, Tribes of Mexica, which was an entry in Microsoft’s 2009 Dream Build Play contest.

Tribes of Mexica is an action-puzzle title deeply steeped in Aztec mythology. The game’s core mechanics center on rotating concentric rings to match coloured units, powering up spells, and timing attacks and defensive maneuvers. An adventure element ties the battles together, allowing the player to explore exotic locales in ancient Mesoamerica while building up a magical arsenal. Currently in development for the Xbox 360, Incubator Games has plans to port Tribes of Mexica over to the PC/Mac/Linux platforms, and is investigating other platforms as well.

Samsung Electronics, a leader in consumer electronics and information technology, and Handmark®, a world-leading creator and distributor of mobile applications and services, today announced the launch of a new Global Venture Fund to invest in companies and/or individuals with innovative, market-changing game ideas for next generation Samsung mobile phones. Companies and/or individuals selected will receive up to $250,000 each to fund the development of winning ideas.

The fund will be managed by Handmark out of its Kansas City and London offices in partnership with Samsung Electronics. The companies are searching for games that best showcase Samsung mobile phones and the advanced features they offer. Both current and new content ideas are encouraged, taking timing and cost into consideration.

“We know there’s a wealth of great ideas out there waiting to be discovered,” said Chris Barnett, senior vice president of Global Sales and Strategic Partnerships for Handmark. “This is a fantastic opportunity for anyone, including big brands, mobile developers or any individual with a unique, creative idea to make it a reality.”

“Samsung recognizes the importance of content and applications for today’s mobile phone users,” said Ho Soo Lee, executive vice president for Samsung Electronics’ Media Solution Center. “We are pleased to broaden our partnership with Handmark to help lead the Global Venture Fund, using their expertise to support us capturing great ideas and raise the standard of mobile innovation.”

In addition to funding those selected, Handmark will also provide assistance with development, testing and certification, as well as distribution of the application through the Samsung Application Store. Deadline for applications is November 20, 2009 at 5 PM CT.

Game peripheral company SteelSeries has announced a new distributorship deal with Best Buy Canada. A solid supporter of competitive gaming events in Canada including our own Digital Storm LAN, SteelSeries also purchased Canadian game keyboard maker ZBoard in 2008.
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Montreal – Today marks the launch for Ubisoft’s live action and CGI Assassin’s Creed 2 movies which tell the back-story to Ezio’s Florentine Italy. Lineage Part One went public earlier today on YouTube, and you can also watch the short Lineage: Intro Movie below.

Starring Romano Orzari as Giovanni Auditore, Ezio’s Assassin father, and Devon Bostick as Ezio, the story begins with events surrounding the brutal murder of the Duke of Milan, which is part of a conspiracy against one of Lorenzo de Medicis allies, whom he works for.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VioI6ZwRBtI]

Failing to save the Duke’s life, Giovanni is dispatched to investigate the crime. His mission is to determine who is responsible and why. The answers he uncovers implicate Italy’s most powerful families reaching all the way back to the Vatican itself. As Giovanni draws closer to the truth, he becomes hunted himself. He must expose the conspirators before he joins their ever growing list of victims.

Developed by Ubisoft’s Hybride Technologies, the visual effects studio behind 300 and Sin City, Assassin’s Creed: Lineage combines live action and computer generated imagery (CGI) to explore the events that happen just before the Assassin’s Creed II game starts.  We are able to see and learn more about the ancient creed which governs Giovanni’s life and guides his blade as he fights for family, justice and honour.

The film series will whet the appetite of game players and fans of this type of cinematography in advance of the in-store release of the video game on November 17, 2009. Assassin’s Creed: Lineage will also introduce some of the characters that players will meet in the game: both foes and friends of the family, like Lorenzo de Medici, the Italian statesman and de facto ruler of the Florentine Republic during the Italian Renaissance period.

I’ve have watched the first two videos – the intro and Lineage Part One, and all I can say is “Wow!” – the attention to detail, historic accuracy, the costuming and props – all are absolutely incredible. Writers Yves Simoneau and William Reymond have created an atmosphere of dangerous beauty, one which leaves the viewer wanting more and the gamer hungry to get into the game. The cinematography, lighting and atmosphere in these movies serves to set a very high plateau for the game environment’s designers, but judging from what I’ve seen thus far of the game play, I think the team rose to the challenge and have produced a title which will leave gamers in awe.

22…more…days…

Vancouver – From an apocalyptic world full of undead, Kerberos Studios prepares for a weekend of horror as its PC light action/RPG title Fort Zombie is confirmed for a Halloween release.

Though the screams have died down and the immediate terror may have past, the sea of undead lurch forever forwards. Closer and closer they come. Make ready! For it is time to make a break from your latest hiding place. Grab whatever weapons you can find. Run and fight through the mass of undead. Make your way towards the last place of safety on Earth. Seek out precious caches of weapons, food and fuel, while rounding up the few people that remain. Rally them into a unit and begin the fight of your life.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGX2dZrfan0]

In Fort Zombie, players must save the town of Piety, Indiana from an impending wave of zombies migrating from a nearby major city. Players are challenged to take control of a single building throughout the entire campaign. By effectively building this structure into the ultimate fort, as well as carefully searching for supplies and finding and training survivors in Piety, players have a chance at conquering and outlasting the flesh-hungry zombies.

Fort Zombie will be available on October 30, for purchase exclusively through all major digital distribution channels for the hauntingly low suggested retail price of $9.99

Edmonton – Bioware is pleased to announce the Dragon Age: Origins Wardens’ Quest, a 24 hour gaming event for the upcoming dark, epic fantasy Dragon Age: Origins. To celebrate the launch of this award winning new game, BioWare is inviting gamers and press from North America and across Europe to put their skills and endurance to the test as they embark on a tense, epic journey of discovery. On October 28, at 10:00 AM GMT, ten teams of four players each will live, fight and explore the game as the drama unfolds in their 24 hour quest to claim the grand prize. Each winning team member will receive $12,500. Official rules can be found online at Quest headquarters.

“We’re extremely excited about the Dragon Age: Origins Wardens’ Quest – it’s going to be an awesome chance for gamers to band together to prove they’re the best at navigating the world of Dragon Age,” said Mark Darrah, Executive Producer, Dragon Age: Origins. “In the game, putting together a strong team is essential to success – in the same way the overall strength of the competing teams will decide who walks away with the money.”

There will be ten participating teams representing their countries: the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, France, Netherlands and Belgium, Spain, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, Hungary, Poland and a specially selected team comprised of the most loyal BioWare fans from around the world. The competition will take place in the Debating Chamber at County Hall in London, England. This space will provide a grandiose setting for the competitors to play the game, discuss strategy and battle for the grand prize as teams are eliminated throughout the day. Around the chamber, screens will be used to display leader board stats and show highlights. BioWare staff and costumed actors will further enhance the environment, theatrics and dramatics of the day.

In Dragon Age: Origins, players take the role of a Grey Warden, one of the last of an ancient order of guardians. Now, as a rising evil threatens to destroy all life, it is up to players to unite the shattered lands and slay the corrupted dragon known as the Archdemon. To restore peace, players must make ruthless decisions and be willing to sacrifice their friends and loved ones for the greater good of mankind.

Dragon Age: Origins will be released on November 3rd in North America on the PlayStation®3, the Xbox 360® videogame and entertainment system and PC. The game will ship on November 6th in Europe on PC, the Xbox 360® videogame and entertainment system and later in November on the PlayStation®3. Dragon Age: Origins is rated M by the ESRB.

8….more….days….