Village Gamer

Montreal game publisher Meridian4 and European publisher Headup Games are pleased to announce that the unique parody/strategy/RPG – Grotesque Tactics – Evil Heroes is now available digitally for $19.99 on most digital portals and is currently on sale on Steam with a 20% discount for the first week.

Grotesque Tactics combines the features and clichés of Western and Asian console RPGs like Fire Emblem or Final Fantasy Tactics and provides a highly addicting and entertaining change to the current, more serious role playing games. The game is focused on providing the fascination of the Strategy RPG genre, but also weaves a humorous storyline and plenty of amusing dialogue, poking fun at some of the most successful RPGs, such as Oblivion, Final Fantasy and Lord of the Rings. In chess, a Grotesque is a problem or endgame study which features a particularly unlikely initial position, especially one in which White fights with a very small force against a much larger black army. Grotesques are generally intended to be humorous.

To protect the kingdom from the merciless cult “The Dark Church” which has murdered all of the kingdom’s heroes and knights, you will have to hire dubious soldiers and rescue jealous maidens who will follow you into combat as your groupies. Up to 10 heroes are deployed in tactical battles to take on the Dark Church with their mysterious special abilities.

Features

· Turn based tactical battles with humorous animations not seen in any RPG
· Distinctive party members such as the arrogant Holy Avatar, the blood thirsty Vampire Solitaire, the sweet but hot-tempered Angel Angelina and many more
· Gorgeous village landscapes and dark, sinister dungeons
· Scantily dressed maidens to be freed from the grasp of merciless monsters
· Enormous, highly detailed and very angry end bosses
· Classical RPG elements: quests, treasures, trade, leveling up and out­fitting a party of unique heroes
· Enjoyable multiple choice dialogues and conversation puzzles in the style of classic adventures, such as Monkey Island or Maniac Mansion

As competitive FPS fans eagerly await the arrival of Clan Mode to Mission Against Terror next week, Wicked Interactive pulled out yet another surprise today when it announced a new 1v1 ladder for its popular free-to-play shooter M.A.T. that is chock-full of prizes and fun for gamers of every skill level, particularly those who enjoy their fragging with a healthy side order of competitive play. Read the rest of this entry »

Capcom® Mobile and Vancouver’s IUGO Mobile Entertainment have announced Lil’ Pirates, a brand new title that will be available for free on the App Store later this month. The development of more accessible general audience games is in line with Capcom Mobile’s strategy of reaching a more casual audience as powerful smartphones become more ubiquitous and mass market. Capcom Mobile also announced two other titles in development which will be released over the coming weeks.

“The release of these titles marks a new direction for the company as we complement our traditional premium pricing model with freemium social games for our customers,” said Midori Yuasa, President and COO, Capcom Interactive, Inc. “By creating a line of casual freemium games we can appeal to consumers not serviced by our more ‘hardcore’ IP and cast a much wider net over the burgeoning smartphone app marketplace.”

In Lil’ Pirates the player recruits their own band of scurvy dogs and sets upon the high seas seeking, adventure, treasure and camaraderie. Starting with a small ship and a tiny crew of scallywags, players can upgrade their vessel and expand their crew by undertaking special missions and jobs. Once they start to amass resources and loot, players will be able to battle other vessels, play mini games with the crew and bury booty to increase its value. More than 100 premium content items including ship upgrades and custom gear will be available at launch as DLC.

The other two announced titles were Zombie Café and a third licensed title based off a children’s entertainment property. In Zombie Café, the player partners with an evil corporation to use zombies as free labor to build their café empire. To thrive, players must prepare food, direct their zombie staff and manage supplies. If the competition gets too fierce they can always direct their zombie workers to attack a neighboring café and steal their secret recipes. Zombie Café will be available for free on the Apple App store and is expected to release in November.

The floral experts at Grower Direct want to share their love of flowers with you in a brand new way: the Grower Direct iPhone App. This exciting and very practical application has been developed for iPhone users in the hopes that it will make everyday life a snap when it comes to researching, viewing, and ordering flowers from anywhere, at anytime. The Grower Direct iPhone App provides information on hundreds of topics about flowers and everything flower-related.

Developed in conjunction with crazedCoders of Edmonton, the free app will answer questions such as:

* How old the world’s oldest rose bush?
* How do flowers affect people’s moods?
* Which flower is associated with a 25th Anniversary? Read the rest of this entry »

Toronto-based start-up Clickbox Software has unveiled the full commercial release of ilumii.com, the world’s most complete Social Learning Community & Marketplace. ilumii.com allows individuals to take their knowledge and skills and teach them to people around the globe by offering live, online classes–for fun and for profit–and by connecting those who want to learn with those who want to teach.

Clickbox Software CEO, Daniel Del Mastro, says, “ilumii.com is a revolutionary concept because it completely reshapes who can deliver educational services, the earnings potential of teaching, and the breadth of topics a person can teach or learn online. ilumii.com is ushering in an era of collaborative learning that will forever change the face of education.”

ilumii.com gives individuals everything they need to make live, online teaching fun and simple: it lets users offer courses on any subject–ranging from academic tutoring, to language lessons, to hobbies and skills, to whatever else they can imagine. It allows instructors to easily schedule lessons, manage course enrollment, and securely accept payments from learners around the world. And, of course, it provides both learners and instructors with a state-of-the-art Live Learning Space with video and audio, an interactive whiteboard, presentation and file sharing, and other features that replicate the feeling of being in a real-world classroom like never before.

Clickbox Software’s Chief Digital Officer, Raquel Torres, says, “In a time when unemployment has affected millions of people, ilumii.com gives anyone with the ability to teach a channel to transform his or her intellectual capital into a new way to earn a living. Our goal with ilumii.com is to create a space where people can leverage technology to exchange knowledge and skills, and to be able to monetize their services.”

ilumii.com is powered by the concept of “Knowledge on Demand” – the idea that anyone around the world can find live, instructor-led classes on any topic imaginable through a single web destination. Users can sign-up for free at ilumii.com to be a part of the world’s best knowledge marketplace.

Ottawa’s Klipfolio, Inc. has announced the immediate availability of Klipfolio Dashboard version 5.5. This latest release, which offers a fully-functional 30 day trial, provides additional charting and formatting options, keyboard shortcuts and support for varied depth drill down analytics, adding flexibility and depth to the real-time presentation of critical business data.

“As the only pure play operational dashboard, we’re uniquely suited to address the needs of fast-paced teams. We enable some of the industry’s leading healthcare, financial, technology and transportation companies to stay on top of what matters by presenting meaningful and actionable data to those that need it,” said Allan Wille, Klipfolio President and CEO. “To remain competitive, operational data needs to be visible to the right audience, at the right time, to accelerate decision making based on empirical data, not gut feel.”

The amount of data being stored by the enterprise is increasing year over year. The ability to leverage this information and provide operational visibility into meaningful performance metrics is driving profitability. According to a recent study by Aberdeen Group, companies that employ operational dashboards and ensure intra-daily metrics are visible to employees, are more than two times better than the average for both financial operating performance, and year-over-year sales pipeline performance.

Best Buy Canada released an official statement today to directly address a false claim circulating through email chain and spam letters regarding a “re-stocking fee” for product returns. Any suggestion of a “re-stocking fee” is completely false and Best Buy Canada wishes to confirm that they do not nor have they ever charged this “re-stocking fee” to customers.

Director of Communications, Christopher Bennett clarifies, “The information circulating about a 15 per cent re-stocking fee issued on returns at Best Buy is false. Best Buy Canada Ltd has never issued and does not currently issue a re-stocking fee on return items. This is a popular spam chain-letter we see resurface each year likely created by individuals looking to create a negative story around our brand in advance of the holidays.”

Best Buy Canada return policy:

* If for any reason you are not completely satisfied with a product you have purchased, we will gladly give you a full refund (except for certain items described below) or exchange if you return it to any Best Buy store within 30 days after you receive it (14 days for computers, monitors, printers, notebook computers, camcorders, digital cameras, radar detectors, cellular and wireless devices, portable DVD players and air conditioners) in its original condition (including all packaging, accessories and manuals). Read the rest of this entry »

Attention game developers: Microsoft has launched its App Hub for Windows Mobile and Xbox Indie Games. This new hub will provide free tools, sample code, community support, and educational resources to help you develop your apps and games for Windows Phone and Xbox 360. Remember though, that while the tools are free, and just like the iTunes store, there is an annual subscription fee for those wanting to submit games and apps to the Windows Phone Marketplace or Xbox LIVE Marketplace, whether your app will be free or for sale. According to the site, you will be able to?

Publish your apps and games to App Hub and reach every Windows Phone 7 user.

* Develop your app using Silverlight or XNA Framework in Visual Studio 2010 or Expression Blend
* Unlock connected experiences with Location Services, Web Services, and Windows Azure
* Free or pay apps – it’s your choice with Windows Phone Marketplace
* Apps are certified through Windows Phone Marketplace submission

Reach 25 million Xbox LIVE members worldwide over Xbox LIVE Indie Games.

* Use XNA Game Studio and Visual Studio 2010 to unleash high-definition graphics and multiplayer play over Xbox LIVE
* Easily develop and test your game on Xbox 360 using XNA Game Studio Connect
* Choose a price point and sell your game on Xbox LIVE Indie Games
* Games are peer-reviewed by developers just like you

Vancouver’s Themis Solutions, Inc. announced it has integrated its cloud-based practice management application Clio with Google Apps™ and has added Clio to the Google Apps Marketplace™, Google’s online storefront for Google Apps products and services. Clio is a feature-rich web-based practice management system that allows lawyers and other legal professionals to easily manage client information, matters, contacts, time-keeping, bills, documents and other aspects of their law offices.

Clio’s integration with Google Apps includes calendar and contact sync between Google Apps and Clio. Additionally, Clio’s recently-released e-mail integration feature fully integrates with GmailTM. Google Apps users will also be able to access Clio directly with Single Sign-On (SSO) via the Google universal navigation bar.

“We are very happy to have Clio in the Google Apps Marketplace,” adds Scott McMullan, Google Apps Partner Lead for Google Enterprise. “Through the Google Apps Marketplace, software vendors like Themis Solutions are helping us build a rich ecosystem of integrated apps that work seamlessly with Google Apps, allowing IT administrators to leverage the benefits of cloud computing and extend Google Apps to meet more of their business needs. We are excited to make legal practice management easier for the millions of Google Apps users who have embraced the cloud.”

Clio Co-Founder and President Jack Newton adds, “We are extremely excited to bring the first cloud-based application for the legal industry to the Google Apps Marketplace. We have seen tremendous demand from our customers to deeply integrate Clio with Google Apps, and we’re happy to address that need with today’s announcement. As more lawyers choose to put their practices in the cloud, we expect they will find Google Apps and Clio to be a perfect match.”

The Google Apps Marketplace makes it easy for more than three million Google Apps businesses to discover, purchase and deploy integrated business applications and related professional services. By integrating with user account and application data stored in Google Apps, these cloud applications provide a simplified user experience, increase business efficiency, and reduce administrative overhead.

The largest ever global research project into people’s online activities and behaviour – Digital Life – was released today, Digital Day, by TNS, the world’s largest custom research company. Covering 88% of the world’s online population through 50,000 interviews with consumers in 46 countries including all of the BRICs (Brazil, Russia, India and China), the study reveals a number of very significant findings and provides indicators for the future of the world’s online behaviour.

Core data from the study is being made publicly available via an interactive website, with TNS providing more detailed reports and breakdowns to its clients.

“This study covers more than twice the markets of any other research of this kind. So, it will really allow us to determine Canada’s position in the online world.” said Michael Ennamorato, TNS Canada’s Managing Director. “Plus, we have taken the research to the next level by going beyond basic behaviour to provide more detailed data into attitudes and emotional drivers of that behaviour.”

A main take-away is that when it comes to online behaviours, Canada, despite being a mature market with advanced infrastructure, is being hopscotched by the rapid growth markets:

* Canada lags in digital engagement. When looking at behaviour online, rapid growth markets such as Egypt (56%) and China (54%) have much higher levels of digital engagement – that is, they are more active with the technology – than mature markets such as Canada (37%), Japan (20%), Denmark (25%) or Finland (26%). Read the rest of this entry »

Corel has released Corel® Paint it!™ Show, the first photo-painting slideshow app created specifically for the iPad™. Offering a fun way to show off favorite photos from Facebook® and the iPad photo library, Corel Paint it! Show draws you in and offers a photo-viewing experience unlike any other.

Fun to watch and virtually effortless to use, Corel Paint it! Show automatically turns your snapshots into a customizable slideshow of painted masterpieces, right before your eyes. Select an album from your Facebook account or images from your iPad, start the slideshow and let Corel Paint it! Show do the rest. You can also save your favorite painted images on your iPad, post them to your Facebook account, or email them to friends and family.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGldXXeqtq0]

“At Corel, we’re continuously inspired by the question, ‘What else is possible.’ For 25 years, this question has motivated our teams around the world to come up with new and better ways to help our customers express their creativity and become even more productive,” said Nick Davies, Senior Vice President, Corporate Marketing at Corel. “With our first iPad app, we wanted to take the photo-viewing experience one step further. Corel Paint it! Show transforms your iPad into a portable art gallery, using a variety of painting effects to transform each photo, brushstroke-by-brushstroke, into a beautiful masterpiece. It’s a unique and eye-catching way to enjoy and show off your favorite photos and, watching people play with Paint it! Show, I can tell you, it’s addictive!”

Corel Paint it! Show includes 5 different painting effects. The app will apply effects to your images randomly or you can select specific effects to be applied. In addition, you can also customize your slide transitions and access your iTunes® Library to add songs or personalized playlists.

Built on Corel’s ground-breaking digital painting technologies, Paint it! Show is Corel’s first iPad app and the latest addition to the Corel Paint it! product family. Recently, the Corel Paint it! photo-painting software for Mac® and Windows® was honored with the PTPA (Parent Tested, Parent Approved) Seal of Approval, recognizing excellence in family products.

Corel Paint it! Show is available in English in various markets worldwide and is priced at $0.99 in the US and Canada from Apple’s App Store.

Barrett Xplore Inc., under the Xplornet brand, announced that this Fall it is commencing a next-generation 4G network for rural Canadians, starting with terrestrial fixed wireless, and quickly followed by a new satellite network. This is the first commercial deployment of a national 4G network in Canada. For rural Canadians, the deployment of this technology will mean they have better access to faster, affordable broadband with higher bandwidth allowances – and this state of the art technology is coming to rural Canada first.

4G wireless and satellite means a new world of opportunity for rural Canadians. “Barrett Xplore’s mission is to bridge the urban/rural broadband divide in Canada,” said Barrett Xplore CEO John Maduri today. “4G means the goal of bringing fast, robust, affordable broadband to all Canadians, regardless of location will be achieved in the very near future. The potential impact of rural broadband can’t be overstated. From telecommuting, to new business in rural areas, to distance health and education, rural broadband can change the face of Canada,”

The 4G network will have both terrestrial and satellite components. The terrestrial wireless network, which will be comprised of roughly 1200 towers, will be capable of speeds over 40 Mbps improving to over 100Mbps by next year. While speed is important the key to a great experience is more bandwidth, and the new network will provide the capacity for more robust service packages – ranging from 3x – 10x the capacity of today’s HSPA. The terrestrial 4G network will initially be based on Wimax, and is software-upgradable to the future Wimax protocol or to LTE – whichever will offer rural customers a better experience. BXI’s investment in the terrestrial wireless network is roughly $150 million.
Read the rest of this entry »

Opera Software and Guelph’s Netsweeper, Inc., have announced today a partnership that will provide added security and Internet content filtering to operators who ship and distribute the Opera Mini browser.

With Netsweeper’s technology, Opera will be able to offer mobile operators increased ability to block phishing, fraud, viruses, trojans, malware, access to adult content or other sites, services that are deemed inappropriate, and also add in an extra level of security, especially for enterprise networks. This new solution leverages the latest caching technologies and is capable of processing interactive, user-generated Web 2.0 content that will further strengthen online user protection.

“Our operator customers have requested the ability to control and filter content for our Opera Mini browser, due to legal requirements in the countries where the operators are established,” said Christen Krogh, EVP Products at Opera Software. “This partnership with Netsweeper, which has the most advanced and scalable solution in the market today, will make Opera Mini very attractive to the world’s operators.”
Read the rest of this entry »

GameString is pleased to announce the Beta sign up for its free personal cloud gaming service GameString Adrenalin™.

“At GameString we asked the question ‘what if you could remotely play the PC games installed on your own computer in a browser’ – everyone told us that would be pretty cool.” said Chris Boothroyd, CEO of GameString.com. “For the cloud gaming market to really take off, we need to start with a nice easy toe-in-the water approach for game developers and publishers. What better way, than to work with what is already installed out there on PC gaming gear. Publishers don’t have to do anything different, players get to remote play a game they have already purchased and others get to watch the games being played by their friends, live.”

GameString created the specially built Adrenalin application to let gamers access the games installed on their own PC, remotely in a web browser. Adrenalin can also broadcast the remote gamers session to online video streaming services like Justin.tv for others to watch en masse. Optimized for OpenGL and DirectX, Adrenalin is designed to lets gamers play their PC games when they are away from home, invite friends to watch and even let others drive the game remotely.

“It’s like the gamers version of WebEx™ combined with Go-To-My-PC™ and ProCaster™. If you have a buddy who has just bought a killer game like StarCraft II, he can remote you in to watch and even let you try it out – but watch the smack talk, he can boot you anytime.” said Boothroyd. “If you gotta play but you are away from home, this will let you jump in and play a quick round before your boss, significant other or grandma cuffs you one.”