Village Gamer

Editor pre-amble: First, let me clarify that I was asked to review Krabbitworld: Origins last year, and as of yet haven’t done so. I have apologized in the past to its creators, and I will do so again now. I try to approach every game objectively and as though I have little to no gaming experience, except for franchises like Mass Effect or Assassin’s Creed, where I’ve played all of the titles. I have always openly stated that the PC is not my gaming platform of choice, I prefer console, and probably always will. I also try to find positive aspects in every product I look at; the Cavechild has no such compunction. He says what he thinks, and I guess, to an extent, that is also a commendable quality.

My initial experience with Krabbitworld: Origins was not a positive one, as I had problems with the game’s default command settings, and I honestly was not compelled to try the game again. I was not drawn in by the characters nor by the graphics. I’m not new to the RPG genre, I do play Guild Wars, but Krabbitworld just wasn’t doing it for me. Perhaps I didn’t give the game enough of a chance, I can consider that to be a possibility and easily admit that may be so. Perhaps I should have let the developers know at that time how I felt, and rightly so, but I kept hoping that I would get back to it, and it did cross my mind several times, and as my daughter so often points out, I have little concept of time, and all of a sudden it’s months later.

So why is the review being posted now, and why is the Cavechild doing it? Well, yesterday I posted a small rant on my personal Facebook page about Activision’s decision to shelve True Crime: Hong Kong, and basically stating that I will no longer be supporting the Call of Duty franchise with game purchases, and that no one here has ever liked any Halo title. (yes, I hear your collective gasps over that one). I further stated that we would no longer purchase any Activision title unless it was made in Canada, and that they’d better not be planning on putting the brakes on Prototype 2.

Understand that I personally know people who work at United Front, along with pretty well all of the local game studios including Radical, which experienced downsizing last year. They are “in real life” friends, and I am concerned for them and those who work at other studios, as one would be about friends in any other situation. The reply on that rant by one of the two developers considered my opinion laughable and called into question my support of local industry. I will not go into details, and I do thank other friends in the industry who have replied with positive messages in my defense.

That said, and as I stated above, I am remiss in not giving Krabbitworld: Origins a review, and I am willing to own that. I have two other game reviews also outstanding – one just because I haven’t completed the story, the other because I’m conducting experiments with it (which I have discussed with one of the creators, and he’s good with that). That said – all of these titles have been given promo in earlier posts, so it’s not like I am completely ignoring them, I just haven’t given them as much blog time as I should have.

I know it’s not easy to run a small company or to develop an original IP, let alone grow it; I have lots of experience in that department – however I also try to constantly research and learn, as well as connect with people who may be able to offer some form of advice. I also am able to take other people’s opinions and look at them from both sides and try to maintain an open mind on many issues, whether I agree with them or not. I imagine that there will be backlash to do with this whole issue, but I don’t care for drama, so won’t be going there. As an aside, here is one other review of the game which I found via Google, so you as a reader can easily find another opinion on Krabbitworld Origins.

As many of you already know, The Cavechild is a hardcore gamer – he will take on pretty well any type of game at least once, and has been successful on the competitive level at tournaments, to which James, one of our other reviewers, can attest. He is well-versed in the RPG, FPS and RTS genres and openly very opinionated (and stubborn), so without further preamble and heavy editing, here are the Cavechild’s honest thoughts on being tossed into Krabbitworld: Origins with no background on the game, its lore or much else other than it was an RPG-styled title. I did not tell him why the characters have big ears (as you’ll see), or what type of world the game was set in. I sent him the extra key and the download link and told him to play. He played it for about 30 minutes, which probably isn’t long enough for some circles, but if a game fails to engage quickly, chances are it will not easily make it in the open market.

On Playing Krabbitworld: Origins –

Well, let’s get this review on the way. First thought of playing Krabbit online was “Why the hell does everyone have giant ears?” and I thought this looked like a really bad rip-off of World of Warcraft, though I was wrong. This is worse than WoW, far worse. World of Warcraft looks better than Krabbit, plays better too and also lags less.

The customization of this game is the worst I’ve ever had to deal with. The colours are messed up and when you choose your character’s colours, they lag like hell while applying the scheme you chose. I made my giant-eared ogre a crimson reddish-looking colour and gave him a dark green vest and ice blue shoes. Now keep in mind I didn’t think I’d be getting a neon coloured ogre on an acid trip from hell, though.. guess what happened? I GOT A RAVE OGRE! BRIGHT COLOURS! Minus the techno music. The graphics however don’t mean much to me, if there is a good community and high player base to do co-op or fight against, then by all means I will play regardless, others should as well. Another thing that bugged me a little bit is that some of the animations are not complete, such as rolling, doing a side flip and such, it was quiet annoying but at the same time, laughable. Read the rest of this entry »

Montreal-based Di-O-Matic has revealed details about Voice-O-Matic v1.61 for Maya. Created to meet the needs of 3D character animators all over the world who require an easy-to-use, lip synchronization plug-in for their Autodesk Maya software, Voice-O-Matic is used by top 3D animation studios to achieve highly accurate voice-to-character matching. Voice-O-Matic v1.61 for Maya is available now for US $349.

Di-O-Matic heard your call animators. Spending hours to create lip sync animations for CG characters is tiring, and manually generating every lip movement is a long and tedious task. That’s why Voice-O-Matic was designed! Combining a user friendly interface with a highly efficient and time saving system. Some of the most admired CG characters including Batman, Spider-man and Superman carry Voice-O-Matic at the heart of their facial animations.

Designed for animators by animators, Voice-O-Matic v1.61 for Maya only requires an audio file to automatically produce an accurate lip sync animation. Afterwards, the results can be easily tweaked to perfectly match any style of animation. Voice-O-Matic v1.61 for Maya works with any type of character setup and with every language. Voice-O-Matic has also already earned its stripes with its use in leading feature films, popular television shows, commercials and award winning video games.

Oscar Marquez, coordinator of the 3D department at Cromosoma reveals “Not only did we manage to increase our productivity with Voice-O-Matic v1.61 for Maya, but it allowed us to focus on other aspects of our animated series. What we liked most about Voice-O-Matic is that it can be set up easily, the lip sync of several characters can be done at the same time and we barely need to modify the animation curves. If you make a good setup and integrate it properly you can have very good results. Thanks to Voice-O-Matic, we could do all the lip sync we needed in the series with just 10 mouth shapes and only one control for the most extreme poses.”

No matter which type of character setup you wish to use: from blend shapes to complex bone-based rigs, and no matter the language for which you wish to create lip synchronization, Voice-O-Matic v1.61 for Maya delivers, and can save up to 80% of the time it takes to manually animate lip synchronization. 3D animation artists can benefit by using both the automatic phoneme matching features and the manual tools to fine-tune the animated character to achieve highly customized results.

Interactive entertainment company Ludia today announced its ‘The Bachelor: The Videogame’ App is available on the App Store for iPhone, iPod touch for $2.99 USD and iPad for $4.99 USD. Based on the hit franchise created by Mike Fleiss, hosted by Chris Harrison and airing Mondays 8:00–10:00 ET/PT on ABC, the app features characters inspired by the actual Bachelors and Bachelorettes from the top rated series’ “The Bachelor” and “The Bachelorette,” including current Bachelor Brad Womack and the most recent Bachelorette, Ali Fedotowsky.

Fans of “The Bachelor” and “The Bachelorette” can now live their own show experience anywhere, anytime, as they compete in a collection of exciting mini-games and challenges to win the attention and, ultimately, the heart of the Bachelor or Bachelorette. Players vie for the final rose, playing as either a female or male contestant.

“The Bachelor is one of the most successful dating competitions in the reality genre, and we are pleased to bring the romance and heated competition that are the hallmarks of the TV show to iPhone, iPod touch and iPad users,” said Alex Thabet, Founder and CEO of Ludia Inc. “This release reinforces Ludia’s strategy of delivering highly entertaining games, based on the most popular television brands.”

Features of The Bachelor: The Videogame App include:

* Play to earn the love of the Bachelor or the Bachelorette, guided by Chris Harrison.
* Characters based on favorite Bachelors and Bachelorettes, including Brad Womack, Jake Pavelka, Jason Mesnick and more!
* 23 mini-game challenges to play in one-on-one or group date scenarios.
* 3 levels of difficulty to chose from.
* Humorous “Fantasy Suite” videos where your performance in the game determines the outcome; will you share an embrace in the hot tub or be hung out to dry?

For those looking for employment, Ludia currently has several positions that need to be filled.

The S-3D Gaming Alliance has just released the 2011 edition of the U-Decide Initiative. U-Decide is credited as the only S-3D gaming report shaped by consumer opinion, industry analysis, and hands-on experience. The initiative gives readers a candid outlook of what needs to happen to make stereoscopic 3D gaming successful in the long term.

“DDD is a leading provider of 3D game conversion software for the PC market, and our success is dependent on delivering what gamers want. The U-Decide report provides this helpful insight and more, and we recommend it to anyone that also markets to the growing S-3D gaming community,” said Chris Yewdall, CEO of Dynamic Digital Depth. Read the rest of this entry »

Reminder: one week left to register for Prime Time in Ottawa

Pursuant to yesterday’s announcement by Shaw Communications in regards to their delaying Usage Based Billing, a reply from the corporation has shown up in my email box in regards to their upcoming “User Meetings”

Thank you for the Email dated February 8th, 2011.

We’re glad to hear you are interested in Usage Based Billing and want to join the conversation with regards to managing bandwidth usage. We are still setting up venues and times for the discussion so at this point we cannot say when or where they will be but we will contact you with an invitation as soon as these details have been worked out. We do expect to be sending out invitations next week so look for that in your Email.

We hope this answers your question but if you do require further assistance please feel free to contact us again by Email, Chat or Phone.

Today is release day for the third and final episode of Assassin’s Creed: The Fall, a comic book based on the Assassin’s Creed franchise and created by Karl Kerschl and Cameron Stewart. All three comics in the series are available at comic book stores or can be ordered online at the Ubiworkshop store.

For those unfamiliar with the comic series storyline, readers follow 19th century Russian assassin Nikolai Orelov as he strives to claim an artifact of immense power from the hands of the Templars, leading to a climactic and violent showdown with the ruthless Tsar Alexander III aboard a speeding train. Nikolai’s modern-day counterpart is a troubled young drifter who tries to cope with unsettling visions of a possible past life – visions that have irreversible consequences for the present.

Interactive Ontario has announced that registration for INplay 2011 is now open, and early adopters can benefit from the Kick Off ticket price of $629.00 (plus HST), which is available until February 23rd, when prices increase to $719.00 (plus HST). INplay is a conference that “connects kids creative industries with insights and opportunities in the interactive space,, encompassing all facets of the industry from the video game business to the broadcast industry, from toys to toons.”

This year’s INplay event will be held in Toronto on May 17th and 18th, and will feature three main tracks:

* Inspiration – creativity and content stream
* Investment – business stream
* Insights – research stream

INplay 2010 was held at Toronto’s Liberty Grand, welcoming 334 participants to the experience and featured three keynote presentations and 27 educational sessions lead by 106 international speakers.

Brock University has put out a call for papers for its third biennial conference on the Interactive Arts and Sciences. This year’s theme is Interacting with Immersive Worlds, with a focus on exploring the growing cultural importance of interactive media. The conference subject matter offers sessions in four different tracks:

The Challenges at the Boundaries of Immersive Worlds: creative exploration and innovation in immersive media including ubiquitous computing, telepresence, interactive art and fiction, and alternative reality.
The Critical Approaches to Immersion: look at analyses of the cultural and/or psychological impact of immersive worlds, as well as theories of interactivity.
The Immersive Worlds in Education: examine educational applications of immersive technologies.
The Immersive Worlds in Entertainment: examine entertainment applications of immersive technologies, such as computer games. Read the rest of this entry »

So, in a press release earlier today, Shaw Communications announced that the corporation will “invite customers to participate in consultation sessions to share thoughts on Internet usage allowances and billing.”

Before I get into the crux of their official press release – I am a Shaw customer. Our household subscribes to the Extreme-I residential plan, and as I addressed on Sunday, we are not happy subscribers. When we signed up for Extreme-I, we were given a data transfer cap of 125gb. This was not a promotional offering, there was no special price other than the “bundled with other Shaw services” price of $47.00 per month plus $10.00 per month for our third IP address.

In mid December 2010, 25gb disappeared off of our plan. Without any advance notice or any communication whatsoever from Shaw – including any notification that our Terms and Conditions had changed, we were suddenly sitting at a 100gb data transfer limit – and still paying the same price. So, we have a decrease in service, but no decrease in price. We don’t want a decrease in price – we want our 25gb back. Decreasing the price is not going to win back the trust Shaw destroyed with that move.

We have been with Shaw for well over a decade. We have been loyal Shaw customers, we’ve even brought them new subscribers. I was poised to convert the company where I work over to Shaw Business Internet and Phone. Now I’m not so sure I want to do that – even though we’ll save a bundle on long distance calls – because I no longer trust the corporation. I’ve waded through the financial documents they are required by law to post publicly as they are a publicly traded company. I know what the Corporation has been telling its shareholders about how wonderful and speedy and redundant the service pipes are. I’ve seen the revenue and expenditure columns, and I know how to read them.

We do not have a lot of choice as to internet carriers where we live. We have Shaw, Telus or the reseller Uniserve, whom I would never sign up with to begin with, simply because of the way Uniserve conducted business way back in the day of it being a small internet start-up whose offices were a few blocks from where I live. I choose to not go back to Telus, because  their phone service is far more expensive compared to Shaw Digital Phone, and I do not want to sign a contract, nor is their customer service outstanding. At least Shaw does have that going for it – the CSRs I’ve dealt with over the years have always been polite and willing to assist in any way they could. Shaw has even been an ISP sponsor for LAN events we’ve run in the past – and they provided incredibly good service for the event, assigning us with a dedicated service representative to get the connections up and running smoothly – but now we fast-forward to today, and Shaw honey, we have trust issues.

“We have been listening to the discussion taking place and determined that we want to hear directly
from our own customers before we roll out any kind of program. Wherever we end up needs to work first and foremost for our customers,” said Peter Bissonnette, President of Shaw Communications.

Shaw will conduct customer discussion sessions in all its serving regions in addition to creating opportunities to contribute feedback online. Customers will be invited to share their ideas with senior Shaw leaders who will participate in the sessions throughout February and March.

Until this thorough consultation with customers has taken place, Shaw will not implement Internet usage billing. To date, no Shaw Internet customer has received a bill for any usage based charges.

“Bandwidth is not unlimited and that is the crux of the issue. There are many potential solutions to
this challenge and we’re asking for our customers’ help to build a solution that works for everyone,”
said Bissonnette.

“Our customers choose to use the Internet in different ways and it has become an essential part of
our daily lives,” continued Bissonnette. “We want to build pricing and packaging options that deliver
choice, quality and value to all our customers.”

Well – that press release started circulating the net around five hours ago. We still haven’t received a notice from Shaw giving us the link to find out how to request an invitation to one of their customer meetings. I found the link on the DSL Reports forum, and I dutifully sent off a request for an invitation, but there was no auto-responder saying “thank you for your request” so I hope it isn’t just floating around in our congested, over-used internet pipes.

In my final word on the matter for today, here is the latest screenshot of our data transfer for the month. Our billing cycle ends at midnight, so we’ll be back within our limit. Oh, wait – at 123gb we still are within the limit we signed up for. It’s Shaw sneaky new lower-capped 100gb plan that we’re over. If you want to take a step in the right direction, Mr. Bissonnette, give us back what your company took away.

The digital media division of Breakthrough Entertainment announced today that it will create an online social game based on the animated television series, Crash Canyon. Targeted for youth and adult audiences ages 13-35, Crash Canyon Adventure will roll out September 2011 in French and English and will debut on TELETOON at Night/La Nuit websites. Breakthrough Entertainment will team with London, Ontario-based game creator, Big Blue Bubble, for development.

In Crash Canyon Adventure, players create a unique character and join the residents of Crash Canyon. As fledgling members of this sometimes chaotic, sometimes absurd, but always funny community, they are sent on quests, play mini-games, craft an escape vehicle or build a home — and buy, collect and trade a huge array of items. All the while, players interact and socialize with the other new Crash residents as well as the many characters from the series.

A few of the game’s main features include:

• The Crashbook: Players will have available a wide range of social networking tools in the game.
• Full Character Creation: The player can fully customize the look of their character, their clothes, their accessories and even their personality.
• Two Game Goals For Players To Choose: The player can choose between attempting to escape the canyon or settle into their cozy corner and decorate and customize their home in the canyon.
• Quest Driven Game Play: A hugely popular game play mechanic where the colorful characters of the canyon will send the player on funny and exciting adventures, challenge them to mini games and trade or gift items to them.

Breakthrough Entertainment’s digital media division secured funding for Crash Canyon Adventure from three sources: the game is made possible through the generous support of the Bell Broadcast and New Media Fund, the Ontario Media Development Corporation (Interactive Digital Media Fund) and the Shaw Rocket Fund’s Digital Media Stream.

“We are delighted to be producing this game for TELETOON. The show’s gregarious characters and wildly hilarious story lines lend well for an online social game: Crash Canyon Adventure perfectly captures the humor of the television series,” said Dorothy Vreeker, Director, Digital Media at Breakthrough Entertainment.

Crash Canyon (Television Series Synopsis) — The Wendell family doesn’t usually do too much together; the parents work a lot and the kids have developed their own lives. This year however, Norm, the Wendell patriarch, has decided to schedule a family vacation. He rents a van and a camper trailer, forces everyone inside and the family sets off on a week of heavily-scheduled fun.

With all four Wendells in a confined space, motoring between tourist attractions, scenic vistas and the occasional point of interest, the trip turns out to be a disaster – in fact, an actual disaster – Norm accidentally drives the van over a cliff!The van plummets two miles straight down into a canyon. When the Wendells stumble out, they realize that not only are they alive, but also that they are not alone. The same fate has befallen several others before them and the Wendells are just the newest residents of a community of everyone else that has driven, cycled, sky-dived or even crashed their NASA landing capsule there.

So, the Wendells live in their camper trailer in the heart of a shanty town of all the other crashed vehicles, scattered wherever gravity set them down. Their neighbors include an astronaut and his chimp companion, a wealthy family (who live in the summer house they were transporting), a has-been British punk rocker and many more. All these characters hope to escape, but until one of their plans actually work, they make up this impromptu community known only as “Crash Canyon”.

Tiny Hippos released a small update to its Ripple Emulator product today. The Version 0.4.8 update includes Compass support for PhoneGap and Accelerometer bug fixes. Ripple is a multi-platform mobile environment emulator that runs in a web browser and is custom-tailored to HTML5 mobile application testing. Ripple aims to reduce the challenges being faced by mobile developers caused by today’s platform fragmentation in the marketplace.

AChecker 1.1 by ATutor has been released. Built with the assistance of the Ontario Government’s Enabling Change Program, AChecker is a free open source Web content accessibility evaluator used to assess Web pages for conformance with international accessibility standards. This release adds a number of significant new features, including:

*CSS Evaluator: Access the validity of external stylesheets, embedded stylesheets, and inline styles while evaluating the accessibility of a Web page.
*Colour Contrast Evaluation: Ten new accessibility checks have been added to evaluate foreground and background colour contrast to ensure text is readable by everyone.
*Paste HTML from Clipboard: Evaluators can now paste the source HTML of a Web page into AChecker to have it evaluated. This makes it possible to assess pages that are not accessible from the Web, such those on an Intranet, or on a local personal computer.
*Updater: Administrators can now keep their AChecker installation up to date in between releases with the AChecker Updater. The Updater lets them apply patches to fix bugs, to add new features as they become available, and to add new accessibility checks as they are created.
*AChecker Translator Site: There are currently English and Italian translations of AChecker. Sign-up for a translator account on atutor.ca if you don’t already have one, and help translate AChecker into your language.

Following in the steps of its award-winning predecessors, Teach My Toddler and Teach My Baby, Teach My Preschooler is the third product from the Toronto-based Teach My brand and recently named one of Dr. Toy’s 100 Best Children’s Products and received iParenting’s Greatest Products of 2010 award.

Developed with education consultant, Judith Rowlands, M Ed., Teach My Preschooler is designed to give preschoolers a head start, develop fine motor skills, encourage parent/child interaction and increase school readiness skills. The kit is divided into four sections; Ready to Read, Print, Count to 100 and Early Math. Each section is fully-coordinated with books, flashcards, posters, a print guide and a magic drawing board.

“There is an increasing demand among parents to find simple, educational products without the technology of lights, sounds or music to help their children master the basic fundamentals of learning,” says Christy Cook, mompreneur and founder of Teach My. “Teach My Preschooler is a back-to-basics, all-in-one learning kit that provides modern, educational tools to help preschoolers master reading, printing, numbers to 100 and early math.

Teach My aims to take the guesswork out of early learning. The award-winning Teach My Baby is the first and only all-in-one learning kit for babies 6 to 18 months. The kit introduces First Words, First Numbers, Self and Sound & Touch. For children 18 months to 3 years, Teach My Toddler, is designed to help toddlers master the basics: alphabet, numbers, shapes and colors.  Teach My kits are available online and at specialty retailers across North America for $49.99, and will be at Booth #5748 at the NY Toy Fair.

PNI Digital Media has selected the Strangeloop Site Optimizer to accelerate its Digital Media Platform, which allows the world’s largest retailers to offer personalized products such as photo prints and photo books, ordered online and produced on demand for pick up and purchase at a consumers preferred retail location. The PNI Digital Media Platform connects 14,000 retail locations, 9000 of which offer a one-hour pick up of photo prints and photo gifts ordered online. The implementation of the Strangeloop Site Optimizer came just in time for PNI to take advantage of the peak holiday season, which typically sees more than 5 million image uploads and more than 150,000 orders during a single day.

“We tested Strangeloop’s Site Optimizer after a careful review of all the delivery-based web acceleration technology available in the market,” said Aaron Rallo, President of PNI Digital Media. “We were immediately impressed with Site Optimizer’s ease of deployment, performance benefits, and its ability to scale across our enterprise.” Read the rest of this entry »

2K Games has unveiled the new web site for The Darkness™ II, the sequel to the million unit-selling 2007 title, The Darkness™, will be coming to the Xbox 360®, PlayStation®3 and Windows PC in fall 2011. Developed by Digital Extremes and based on the supernatural horror comic book series created by Top Cow Productions, Inc., The Darkness II takes players down a brutal and personal path as Jackie Estacado, wielder of The Darkness – an ancient and ruthless force of chaos and destruction.

The Darkness II breaks out of the sea of conventional first-person shooters with its fervid Quad-Wielding gameplay, which will allow players to slash, grab, and throw objects and enemies with their Demon Arms while simultaneously firing two weapons. The game is layered with the use of dark versus light, steeped in deep and twisted storytelling, and engulfed in stylistic violence that is visualized through a hand-painted graphic noir technique that stays true to its comic book origins.

“The Darkness II is a well of dark and imaginative violence, and it’s a stylized and beautiful nightmare,” said Christoph Hartmann, president of 2K. “The Darkness II continues the 2K Games tradition of delivering quality, innovative games that are filled to the brim with atmosphere and deep storytelling. The game takes a unique stance on fighting in the dark versus light. Combined with the arsenal of weapons at Jackie’s disposal and the gruesome attacks of the supernatural Demon Arms and Darkness powers, we’re proud to announce another title that delivers on our core values of creating games for gamers.”

The Darkness II will feature award-winning comic book writer, Paul Jenkins, who will provide a tightly integrated narrative that weaves dark humor with hardcore tenderness.

Take a step back from the familiar and comfortable, and prepare to embrace The Darkness.

It’s been two years since Jackie Estacado, now the Don of the Franchetti crime family, used The Darkness to kill the men responsible for his girlfriend’s murder. He’s been unable to shake the memory of Jenny’s death since bottling up his supernatural power, and now The Darkness wants out. A sudden, unprovoked attack on Jackie’s life heralds the start of a full-scale mob war, which has clearly been orchestrated by some outside force. The botched attempt opens the door for The Darkness to reemerge, and sets Jackie on a journey to hell and worse, as he unravels the mystery behind the attack and the motivations of The Darkness itself.

“Sometimes that whooshing sound you hear is that of comic fans holding their collective breath,” said Marc Silvestri, founder and CEO of Top Cow Productions and co-creator of The Darkness comics. “So often disappointed when a favorite character gives birth to a lame movie or video game, us fans have come to expect the worst. And sometimes we get it. But not with The Darkness II. Yeah, call me biased, but this second installment of Jackie Estacado’s epic saga is – in my humble opinion – one of the most brutally cool games I’ve ever played. 2K Games hammered this one out of the park.”

Fans of TransGaming Studio’s Garage Inc. game will be happy to know that the title will be available on the Big Fish Games portal tomorrow – unless you’re a BFG Game Club Member, then you can play it via the portal today.

Today’s PlayStation®Network update will include the long-awaited demo for HOARD™, Big Sandwich Games’ critically acclaimed action strategy game about dragons and their treasure. The full game is already available for purchase on the system.

“HOARD™ is at its strongest with a controller in hand,” says Tyler Sigman, the game’s designer. “We know that the addictive gameplay really sells itself when players get a chance to try it. We also know that a lot of consumers still don’t know HOARD™ exists, so we’re glad to finally make the demo available and remove that obstacle to new people trying the game!”

The demo will allow gamers to sample their fire-breathing, gold-collecting skills on several maps and game modes, including a 2-player local (“couch”) co-operative level. The full game includes 4 game modes, over 35 maps, leaderboards, trophies, and any combination of local and online multiplayer making HOARD™ one of only a few great options for 4-person couch-party style play.

HOARD™’s innovative gameplay and design focus on rock-solid short-session experiences earned it a “Best Quick Fix” award and “Best Competitive Multiplayer” nomination in IGN’s Best of 2010 Awards.

The full version of HOARD™ is for sale now on the PlayStation®Network for $14.99, and includes dozens of hours of gameplay and over 100 unique badges to be earned. HOARD™-themed avatars and wallpapers are also available.

Building on Burn the Rope’s phenomenal success in the App Store, Big Blue Bubble, Inc. is pleased to announce its upcoming major update to the top-selling iOS game. Praised by critics and gamers alike, Burn the Rope will be better than ever with new bug types, fast-paced bonus rounds, a new world of 16 never-before-seen-levels and beautiful Retina display support! We have also created a new “Burn the Rope Lite” version for those of you who prefer the try before you buy approach. Read the rest of this entry »

2010 was a banner year for Vancouver’s airG, who saw its mobile social network grow to more than 55 million cumulative unique users worldwide, sending more than six billion instant messages on their mobile devices. Through partnerships with more than 100 mobile operators in 40 countries and support for more than 30 languages, airG is the most widely available mobile social network in the world.

“What distinguishes airG from other online social networks is its unique blend of social discovery, social utility and social entertainment,” said Vincent Yen, Co-Founder, airG. “Over the past ten years we have seen the popularity of airG grow consistently to more than 55 million cumulative unique users, with more than one million new users experiencing airG each month.”

airG enables mobile users to easily find, connect and share their world with their existing friends as well as millions of new people from around the world. airG’s proprietary social entertainment platform includes features like user identities and status updates, photo and video sharing, social games, instant messaging and virtual goods.

As a testament to the phenomenal power of airG to connect and entertain people on their mobile phone, in 2010 airG’s users shared more than 2.3 billion photos, sent more than 74 million virtual gifts, had an average of 30 new friends they met in the community, generated more than 7.9 billion minutes of use, and spent more than 77 minutes each day using airG.

“As Smartphones and mobile devices become the de facto channel to access the internet, we believe mobile social networking will grow at a faster rate than online,” added Dejan Mirkovic, Vice President Marketing and Corporate Development, airG. “With the extraordinary rate of growth airG experienced in 2010, we are on track to double the size our mobile social network by 2012.”

Some Canadians will enjoy even faster mobile internet access speeds this March when TELUS launches its new Dual Cell upgrade to HSPA+ (DC-HSPA+). This new network capability supports extremely fast manufacturer’s rated peak download speeds of up to 42 megabits per second (Mbps) and upload speeds of up to 11 Mbps( depending on the device being used, network congestion, distance from the cell site, local conditions and other factors). TELUS’ HSPA+ network is now a fourth generation (4G) network according to current International Telecommunications Union (ITU) standards (December 6 2010 ITU News Release:  ITU World Radiocommunication Seminar highlights future communication technologies), and this latest innovation will ensure that TELUS continues to bring the latest in mobile technologies to Canadians.

The first device to take full advantage of this new Dual Cell capability will be the Sierra Wireless AirCard 319U 4G Internet Key, available to TELUS customers in March on Canada’s fastest coast-to-coast mobile network. That is, the fastest according to TELUS’ tests of data throughput speeds in large Canadian urban centres available from national HSPA+ service providers. Internet access speed provided by the network operator may vary due to the device being used, network congestion, distance from the cell site, local conditions and other factors. Speed on the Internet is beyond the wireless network operator’s control and may vary with your configuration, internet traffic, website server and management policies, and other factors. Read the rest of this entry »

You can’t travel back in time, but you can travel across Canada to experience a wide variety of historical and interactive getaways. From the monumental struggles between the British and French and the eventual Acadian expulsion, to the Klondike Gold Rush and the sacred sites now guided by the Haida Watchmen, the crucial turning points that define our history still resonate with us today.

“These places bring the past alive in a way books and television can’t. People young and old can get a feel for what things were like in the past. And for young people, a positive experience at a historic site will often ignite a lifelong interest in further explorations of our history and heritage,” said Nelle Oosterom, Senior Editor of Canada’s History magazine. “This special project is a fun way for us to do two things: draw attention to ten National Historic Sites that we feel are leaders in creating unforgettable visitor experiences and secondly, encourage Canadians to tell us how they have been impressed, enthralled, entertained, or enlightened at the historic places they’ve experienced.”

In honour of Parks Canada’s centennial, Canada’s History magazine and Adventure Canada invite you to share your stories. Whether your experience is as a visitor, an employee, a volunteer or someone who has helped to build or construct one of almost 1,000 National Historic Sites, Canada’s History wants to hear about your memories of these storied places.

Canadians of all ages are encouraged to write an essay of no more than 500 words about their favourite National Historic Site, and submit it online along with a photograph. Entries to the Storied Places Contest will also be accepted by email (storiedplacescontest@canadashistory.ca) or by regular mail at:

Storied Places, Canada’s History
Main Floor, Bryce Hall
515 Portage Avenue
Winnipeg, MB, R3B 2E9

The grand prize is an all expenses paid cruise for two from Greenland to Newfoundland tracing the Voyages of the Vikings and visiting one of our top national historic sites, L’Anse aux Meadows. Other prizes will be awarded for runners-up and honourable mentions. Deadline for entries is July 25th, 2011.

There is also a school-based contest that will run until December 31st, 2011. Teachers and students who submit entries as part of a class project will be eligible to win the “ultimate class field trip” to Ottawa. Five regional prizes, involving a visit to a National Historic Site are also available to be won.

Canada’s History has selected its top ten places that bring history alive in Canada on the basis of historical significance and visitor experience. This is the definitive “bucket list” for Canadian historical tourism. They are:

Fortress of Louisbourg, N.S. – Shine a Light on Canada’s Seafaring Past
Louisbourg was once one of the busiest seaports in North America, thanks to the lucrative cod fishery of the Grand Banks. France spent 26 years constructing the strongest fortress on the continent. During the siege of 1758, the British dismantled every stone and brick. In 1961, the Canadian government began reconstructing the Fortress of Louisbourg and it now spans five hectares and features fifty buildings. Read the rest of this entry »