Village Gamer

Toronto – TransGaming Inc., announces a partnership with Tale of Tales to bring their biggest project to date: a highly original, artistic, horror game, entitled ‘The Path‘, to the Mac. The Mac version of The Path was enabled by TransGaming’s Cider Engine and will be digitally distributed globally. Available immediately, The Path for Mac can be downloaded by the Mac community for $9.99 US at Tale-of-Tales.com, GameTreeOnline.com and other GameTree Network sites.

“The Path is a unique and intriguing journey designed to encourage inquisitiveness and adventure. As an Indie title that has received broad acclaim, The Path is a natural fit for the Mac,” commended Vikas Gupta, President & CEO of TransGaming. “With most of the gameplay being entirely optional, the player has all the freedom in the world, an aspect we believe is very well aligned to the essence of the Mac community.”
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Vancouver – SwitchIn.net, a leading portal for casual 3d MMO’s has acquired the distribution and rights to the portal Armored Legion.

“By acquiring not only the rights to the distribution of the portal but also the key technology base of Armored Legion it allows us to grow in the more traditional RPG sector,” said Derek Young , President of SwitchIn. “This means we can continue to make great casual games but also some very exciting upcoming MMORPG games.”
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Edmonton – Leading video game developer BioWare™, a division of Electronic Arts Inc., today announced that Seattle-based Green Ronin Publishing will launch a pen and paper role-playing game (RPG) based on the highly anticipated video game, Dragon Age™: Origins. The pen and paper game extends the Dragon Age universe, making it more accessible to passionate RPG fans looking for another way to experience the epic fantasy world of Thedas.

“We’re delighted to be working with Green Ronin to explore more of the Dragon Age universe through a pen and paper role-playing game. We’re excited to deliver Dragon Age’s unique dark, heroic fantasy to our audience in a brand new way – a perfect complement to the landmark game we’re launching on PC, Xbox 360 and PLAYSTATION 3 this fall,” said Dr. Ray Muzyka, General Manager and CEO, BioWare and General Manager and Vice President, EA. “Our development teams craft rich, deep worlds, and this is an excellent way to expand the franchise.”
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Burnaby – EA SPORTS™, a label of Electronic Arts Inc., today announced that both EA SPORTS Grand Slam® Tennis and the Florida-developed Tiger Woods PGA TOUR® 10 will ship to stores June 8 in North America, one week earlier than originally announced. EA SPORTS recently announced that the Wii™ version of Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 10 will be available packaged with the Wii MotionPlus™ accessory in both North America and Europe. In Europe only, EA SPORTS Grand Slam Tennis will be available with Wii MotionPlus at launch.

“This was important for us to bring in our ship dates for Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 10 and EA SPORTS Grand Slam Tennis to hit right at the launch of the new Wii MotionPlus accessory in North America,” said Todd Sitrin, Group Vice President Global Marketing, EA SPORTS. “Fans deserve great games that use the new accessory, and now they’ll have two that deliver authentic sports motion as soon as the Wii MotionPlus hits stores.”

Both Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 10 and EA SPORTS Grand Slam Tennis have been rated “E” by the ESRB. Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 10 has an MSRP of $59.99 when bundled with the Wii MotionPlus. Both products will be available for $49.99 without the accessory.

Title: Afro Samurai
Developer: Surge
Publisher: Namco Bandai Games
Release Date: January 27 2009
Platforms: Xbox 360 – PlayStation3
Genre: Action-Adventure
MSRP: $69.99
ESRB: Mature

Why do you want the headband? – Bad Guy
For revenge – Afro Samurai

Made by Surge for the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360, Afro Samurai is a third person action adventure game released in February this year, and is one of the best hacking and slashing titles this reviewer has played in the last couple of years. Based upon Afro Samurai the Japanese manga created by Takashi Okazaki and made into an animated movie voiced and co produced by the original BMF Samuel L Jackson is where Surge got their inspiration. The question lingers though how well do they translate that source material into a game?

The world of Afro Samurai is set in a futuristic feudal Japan, there exists 2 magical headbands held by only the strongest men/samurai in the world, legend has it that who wears the number 1 headband controls the world and granted the powers of a god. Since man is power hungry there exists the number 2 headband it is for those who wish to challenge the number 1 but can be challenged at anytime by anyone who chooses to take up the fight with the number 2.

This is where we start the story, as a child our hero Afro (named for his hair style) is forced to watch his father the current number 1 beheaded in a battle for the mysterious number 1 headband by the evil Justice the current number 2. So after seeing his fathers headband taken by Justice and having his fathers head tossed to his feet. Justice casts away the number two headband and tells Afro that if he wants his revenge, he better go train so he can get the number 2 headband and come back and avenge his father’s death. This is where the story of the video game kicks off.
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Vancouver – Black Box, a studio of Electronic Arts Inc., announced today two new content packs for Need for Speed™ Undercover. The Challenge Series is free and features 60 events across two new game modes including the opportunity to earn up to three new cars. The premium Boss Car pack will give players access to Undercover’s specially customized boss vehicles for $5.00 (400 MS points).

The Challenge Series and Boss Car packs are available now on the PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system and coming soon on the Xbox 360® videogame system from Microsoft and the PC. This new content reflects an ongoing commitment of post-launch support to Need for Speed fans.

Challenge Series:

• Highway Wars is the ultimate fusion of Undercover’s signature Highway Battles with the adrenaline fueled competition of sprint racing. In this mode, players will race at top speeds through traffic filled highways against three AI opponents in a winner take all battle to the finish line.
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Gormley ON – Sharpen your sword and get ready to guide Dirk the Daring as he races through time to save the beautiful Princess Daphne from the clutches of the Evil Wizard Mordroc in Dragon’s Lair II: Time Warp. This long awaited sequel to the award-winning game Dragon’s Lair has been completely restored and enhanced with an all-new 5.1 surround sound mix and is now available on Blu-ray from Digital Leisure.

From legendary animator Don Bluth (‘An American Tail’, ‘The Land Before Time’) Dragon’s Lair II: Time Warp allows you to play the heroic Dirk the Daring, who must stop the Evil Wizard Mordroc as he has kidnapped Princess Daphne and taken her through time! But you must hurry, for once the Casket of Doom has opened, Mordroc will place the Death Ring upon Daphne’s finger in marriage and she will be lost forever… in the Time Warp!

Dragon’s Lair II: Time Warp was authored in the Blu-ray Java environment (BD-J) and features completely remastered animation, and an all-new surround sound mix, creating a fully arcade-authentic experience.
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Toronto – Emanuel Rosen, author of “The Anatomy of Buzz Revisited”, will give a keynote presentation at Search Engine Strategies (SES) Toronto 2009. The largest search engine marketing conference in Canada, which will be held at the Sheraton Centre Toronto June 8-10, 2009, also announced that it is adding “Monetizing Your Audience: Live Site Clinic” to the agenda.

Emanuel Rosen

Now in its sixth year, SES Toronto is considered the definitive digital event for marketers, corporate decision makers, webmasters and search engine marketers (SEMs), including pay per click (PPC) advertisers and search engine optimization (SEO) professionals. The event is organized and programmed in cooperation with the SES Advisory Board, Search Engine Watch and Andrew Goodman, the founder and president of Toronto-based Page Zero Media.
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Sword-and-Gun Action Fighting Title to Return at Holiday 2009

Montreal – Today Ubisoft® announced Red Steel®2, exclusively on Wii™ system from Nintendo. Red Steel remains one of the most successful Wii titles and the only brand created specifically for the launch of the platform.

Red Steel 2 returns with an artistic style and flair created just for Wii. Set in a desert-bound, high-tech metropolis, Red Steel 2 is a revolution in the action-fighting genre, taking full advantage of the capabilities of the Wii MotionPlus™ accessory. Your movements are faithfully replicated on-screen, putting the emphasis on swinging, shooting and fun! With the ability of the Wii MotionPlus to sense the strength of a swing, you will literally be able to make an impact on your adversaries through power and precision.

“Red Steel was a unique opportunity for Ubisoft to work in tandem with Nintendo to create a title exclusively for the launch of the Wii console,” said Olivier Ernst, general manager at Ubisoft Canada. “Red Steel 2 is another milestone for the company as it is the first Ubisoft title with full Wii MotionPlus integration.”

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Developer: IonFX
Publisher: Meridian 4
Genre: Puzzle
Platform: Windows PC

Background: Based on IonFX’s award-winning mobile game of the same name, Obulis takes things to the next level by fusing highly compelling gameplay with outstanding graphics, music and state of the art physics effects.

I have had Obulis for a few weeks now, and while I generally try for a quick turn-around on game reviews, this one took me a bit longer than normal. The reason being was that I wasn’t sure if I liked the game and didn’t play very far into the game at first. I then set it aside for a few days, and as it turns out, there are some areas of the game-play which I truly liked, admittedly much to my surprise.  There were only two or three areas which I felt were negative, but they relate directly to my personal preferences – and as I advanced through the game, one of those negative issues became not so important anymore.
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