Village Gamer

Canada – First, a shout-out to our readers over at DFAIT – Happy Friday everyone! Also best wishes to Monika and Michael for a life full of adventure and happiness – make sure you come back to Vancouver every so often for a visit. Our other local adventurers, Brenda and Eli have reached Rankin Inlet in Nunavut, where you can apparently buy a Wii at the Rankin Inlet Co-op for only $799.00. Wow.

This weekend, Village Gamer will be at the Abbotsford Airshow. We’ll be at the VIP Chalet on Sunday, so if you’re on Chalet Row, stop in and say hi. We’ll also be visiting with our friends from the Canadian Armed Forces out on the static display field. Sadly, Captain Phil “Ritz” Smith and our friends from the US Air Force Strike Eagle demo team appear to be scheduled for a show in Ohio – but there is a flypast scheduled. Makes conversation difficult, though. Our favourites, though, will always be the Snowbirds.  Both Nintendo Wii and Microsoft 360 had a presence at last year’s airshow. We’ll be checking to see if they’ve returned to the static area as well.

The cavechild flew in one of Bud Granley’s Yak 11 planes yesterday – usually he flies with stunt pilot Ken Pietsch, but Ken was booked up with media types. Mike took video of the flight, but he hasn’t finished his editing yet so we can’t show you this year’s pre-show flight adventure. He was disappointed that they only hit a low G-force once or twice during the flight. Now he’s decided he wants his pilot’s license.

IUGO’s new game Spy Bot Chronicles has officially launched in the iTunes App Store with an introductory price of $0.99 usd. Toy Bot has been kidnapped by Thief Bot, and he needs you to rescue him. Play through four different zones to find the hidden levels and collect all of the rewards while experiencing the high quality of IUGO’s game design.

Ubisoft Montreal is asking for gamer input on some of the achievements for Assassin’s Creed 2. You can vote for one of these four achievements, as well as leave your comments. If you are a member of Ubi’s community, you can vote here; if you’re on Facebook, you can vote here.

The four achievements to vote on are:

The taste of revenge – Kill X Brutes (heavy guard)
Weapon Master – Use all weapons at least once
Victory lies in preparation – Get all available upgrades for Ezio
Mighty traveler – Travel X kilometers within the game

My choice was Mighty Traveler, because putting on lots of in-game miles means taking a look at the scenery and taking in all of the incredible artwork which has been done by the artists and level designers.

Vancouver’s indie developer Dingo Games has just announced its latest project, The Three Musketeers: The Game. Closely following the story of Alexander Dumas’ original masterpiece, The Three Musketeers: The Game is a unique action-adventure game for Mac and Windows.
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Vancouver – Deep Fried Entertainment COO Brenda Bailey has embarked on a big adventure with new hubby Eli Gershkovitch, owner of Steamworks Brewing Co., one of our favourite places to go in Vancouver. They took off from Vancouver Airport yesterday in their single-engine Cessna 172 for a transatlantic flight to Glasgow, Scotland. The flight path will take them over the northern Arctic regions of Canada, Greenland, Iceland and then the UK. Brenda and Eli have planned stops in Williams Lake BC, Edson and Fort MacMurray Alberta, Stony Rapids  Saskatchewan, with Rankin Inlet and Iqaluit in Nunavut being among their last stops in Canada. Then it will be over to Kangerlussuaq and Kulusuk in Greenland, Reykjavik, Iceland and Vagar in the Faroe Islands before arriving in Glasgow. You can track their flight on GPS and follow their adventures on BlogSpot. We here at Village Gamer wish Brenda and Eli a safe trip, and we look forward to hearing all about their big adventures through the daily updates.

The Turtles are back – Ubisoft Montreal has announced that the remake of 1991’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time Reshelled (developed by Ubisoft Singapore) has launched on XBL Arcade today. The download costs 800 Microsoft points, and has made the resident cavechild very happy – this was one of his favourite games when he was younger – and of course he now needs a new points card.

Pug Pharm Productions Inc. has announced that it has received funding from the National Research Council of Canada Industrial Research Assistance Program (NRC-IRAP). This contribution, in addition to both technical and business-oriented advisory services provided by NRC-IRAP, will enable Pug Pharm to develop innovative games. The company’s strategic focus is on the intersection between social networking applications and online games – combining the best technical and design elements of both areas. Pug Pharm is committed to developing online games that combine the engagement of traditional video games with the technologies of social networking applications. Led by Bocska—formerly of Radical/Vivendi, EA/BlackBox, Disney Interactive, and co-founder of Hothead Games—Pug Pharm endeavors to leverage this combination into never-before-seen gameplay elements that appeal to global audiences.

“As a Canadian start-up, this generous support from NRC-IRAP is integral to our growth and development. It allows us to build new and exciting technologies that will facilitate deep, rich online social networking experiences,” stated Steve Bocska, CEO of Pug Pharm. “We are excited about the tremendous opportunities that are emerging with the convergence between online games and social networking technologies. We are looking forward to announcing specific games as they near launch.”

New Media BC has put out a call for entries for the Digital Springboard Mentorship Programme. This programme will pair successful applicants with a Mentor for 4 months or more to help you move forward with your company. Digital Springboard is a free advisory service and mentorship programme for emerging companies being administered by New Media BC and supported by the National Research Council – IRAP:

– 6 or more companies will be selected to be matched with veteran experts
– These mentors will provide free advisory service for at least 4 months
– They will help companies solve specific business/technical problems
– Deadline for submission: Aug 12, 2009

Eligible companies must be developing products for interactive entertainment (games), interactive design and marketing, digital animation/film and mobile content.

Audiokinetic will be taking Wwise on the road this fall, with stops in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle and Vancouver. The presentation will include presentations and training sessions for Wwise and SoundSeed, an audio post-mortem by an Audiokinetic customer and a networking cocktail. Wwise is the platform being used by Ubisoft to deliver the sound in Assassin’s Creed 2. Audiokinetic is also hiring – they are looking for a Senior C++ Designer/Developer and a Development Team Leader.

Thank you to my friends, readers and colleagues for the many notes of condolence and support after the passing of my Grandmother, they are all greatly appreciated – as is your patience while I try to get back up to speed on thought processes and writing. Thanks to Scott’s place of employ, we were able to enjoy a nice distraction Friday evening with box seats at the Opening Ceremonies for the 2009 World Police and Fire Games at GM Place. The Opening Ceremonies were extremely well done and very entertaining. I particularly enjoyed the drumming and cultural dancers at the official start of the ceremony. All of the athletic events which are taking place around the Lower Mainland are free to attend, great family events, and if you get the chance I highly recommend them. The schedule of events can be found on the official web site.

For those who haven’t had enough of the recently-ended Toronto garbage strike and the mess in the city’s parks, check out Q-kmbr’s free browser game, Trash Wars. Game play involves keeping the rats from taking over a garbage dump by shooting them. You have unlimited ammo and three available upgrades for your gun.

Fuel Games has released their latest mobile game for the iPhone and iTouch. Lifeboat’s gameplay has players frantically fighting to save passengers as they topple overboard from a rapidly sinking ship. It’s the player’s task to tilt them into the available lifeboats and try to save as many as possible. If passengers fall in the ocean, players will need to tap them to bring them back onto the boat before they drown, or worse, become shark bait.

Saving passengers will net players cash, which can be used to upgrade the experience for quicker controls, sturdier ballasts, and swimming lessons for the passengers. The game also makes use of OS 3.0’s customizable music feature, allowing players to play god to rhythms of their choosing.

Featuring both accelerometer and touch-driven casual gameplay, along with humorous original voice acting and incredible 3D visuals, Lifeboat is now live on the App Store at a limited introductory price of 99 cents.

Vancouver’s IUGO Mobile Entertainment has also just announced a new iPhone – iTouch title from the Toy Bots universe Thief Bot, the greedy kleptomaniac, has kidnapped Toy Bot, and plans to use him as a shiny, golden trophy. Enter Spy Bot, the only one who can rescue him! Take control of Spy Bot as he jumps, shoots, and hacks his way through a varied 2D world of fun and adventure. Find Thief Bot’s hideout, save Toy Bot, and recover all the other stolen goods Thief Bot has swindled throughout the galaxy!

Features Include:

* Innovative hack ability allows Spy Bot to change the world around him
*4 different zones (content is equivilant to TBD 1,2,3 COMBINED)
*Hidden levels to find
*35 unique collectibles
*Over half a dozen characterful enemies
*Distinct music for each zone and major challenges
*Interactive animation and art

IUGO’s latest release, Star Hogs is currently available for an introductory price of 99 cents (USD) in the App Store. Rig up your hogs, strap yourself in, and head out into orbit for the fiercest turn-based battles this side of Uranus. Obliterate the competition with a Cruise Missile or close in for some potshots from your Vulcan gun. Not your style? Don’t worry, you’ve got more than 20 ways to kill someone. Nuke some asteroids for an extra payday, but remember, they’re the only thing protecting you from a re-entry hangover you won’t wake up from. Take out some chumps and unlock heaps of new gear in 32 campaign levels, or ride into the online arena to face curly tails from all over the universe. But remember, in space no one can hear you squeal.

Features Include:

* 32 levels for hours of gameplay
* Loads of weapons and customization options
* Global online leaderboards
* 3 game play modes: Freeplay, Campaign and Multiplayer mode
* Gorgeous 3D graphics
* Elegant, intuitive HUD and UI

Upcoming Event Reminders:

The BC Chapter of the Graphic Designers of Canada will be holding their annual free barbeque in partnership with New Media BC, Canadian Association of Photographers and Illustrators in Communications, National Advertising Benevolent Society, and the British Columbia Industrial Design Association. Members of these participating associations are encouraged to RSVP for this event, which will be featuring burgers, socializing, games and more for the whole family at Trout Lake Park in Vancouver on August 27.

BCIC has announced that tickets are now on sale for Connect 09, which takes place on October 19th in Vancouver. Early bird pricing is in effect until August 28th, and every early bird ticket offers a chance to win one of two seats in the Strategic Sales Leadership course offered by the Sauder School of Business. Tickets purchased before August 28th are $40.00 each, after August 28th the price increases to $50.00. Internationally recognized technology entrepreneur, venture capitalist and best-selling author Leonard Brody will be presenting a featured keynote, and there will also be a showcase of many “must-see” technologies developed at several BC academic institutions. Tickets also include the BCIC Awards and a stand-up buffet.

Just a reminder that if your Canadian organization, school or studio has news, we’ll be happy to post it on Village Gamer for you, all you need to do is send in the information to news.at.villagegamer.net

Calgary – There’s a new playmate in town, and it comes in the form of Mom or Dad’s iPhone with the release of Mantaray Creative Lab’s newest app, iBabyBuddy. Designed to keep babies and toddlers entertained when there’s not a toy box in sight, the first release of iBabyBuddy features iconic animal characters that make noises and vibrate in response to baby’s movement and interaction.

“Busy parents often find themselves juggling fussy babies and a long list of errands and there’s rarely enough time to pack a bunch of toys for the road,” said Tamara Rosenblum, principal and creative director of Mantaray Creative Labs. “Most people have their phone at their disposal regardless of where they are so with that in mind we developed iBabyBuddy to be a traveling playmate that never leaves your side,” she said.

Designed to work with both the iPhone and iPod Touch, iBabyBuddy entertains, stimulates and teaches through interaction and discovery. The first release includes three must-have themes: animals, musical instruments and whimsical toy sounds. Combined with a Shake-n-Change feature, iBabyBuddy guarantees an endless array of non-stop, educational fun…and an opportunity for Mom or Dad to take a quick break from being the constant entertainer.

New themes will be added regularly (free of charge) to ensure iBabyBuddy grows alongside its earliest fans. iBabyBuddy is available in the iTunes App Store for $1.99 usd.

Waterloo – Research In Motion today announced new and enhanced tools for developing web applications for BlackBerry® smartphones. The tools include the new BlackBerry® Web Development Plug-in for Eclipse and the BlackBerry® Plug-in for Microsoft Visual Studio version 1.2. These tools are part of a complete portfolio of BlackBerry® developer tools for web and Java development and a rich set of APIs that enable developers to easily create a wide variety of mobile applications that connect BlackBerry® smartphone users to the information they care about. The BlackBerry application platform also incorporates significant advantages, including real-time push technology, unmatched security and highly efficient data compression and network bandwidth utilization, allowing developers to deliver optimized applications on the most powerful, secure and efficient platform in the industry.

“The BlackBerry developer tools portfolio aims to bring together the best of Java and web development for the creation of web applications that are integrated with core BlackBerry smartphone functions for a seamless, intuitive and robust user experience,” said Alan Brenner, Senior Vice President, BlackBerry Platform Group at RIM. “The evolving portfolio of web development tools for the BlackBerry platform allows developers to work in familiar development environments to create, debug, profile, test and optimize their web applications for BlackBerry smartphones.”

The BlackBerry Web Development Plug-in for Eclipse is a new plug-in that allows developers to create web applications and content for BlackBerry smartphones within the familiar Eclipse 3.4 environment. Using this plug-in, developers can debug and profile Internet/intranet web pages displaying HTML and CSS content in addition to more complex rich internet applications using AJAX, Silverlight, PHP, ASP, Ruby on Rails, JSP, and Python.
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Montreal – Today marks the first day of Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed 2 Twitter Assassination Experience (Beta). I’ve seen several tweets about the game, and it appears that the Frag Dolls are in on the experience as well. This real time game allows participants to assassinate other players via Twitter, SMS or other Twitter client. Twitter assassins are assigned random targets throughout the day via Tweets from the Assasin’s Network. Players need to carry out their assassinations within a set amount of time. For those who wish to the rogue, players can enter “aggressive mode” and directly attack other players. Targets are able to launch counter attacks, but again, only within a certain amount of time.

As players move through their list of targets, they gain skills and weapons as well as increased rank on the leader board. Watching the game through the Visualizer can be mesmerizing. At last glance, there had been 7441 matches,  4369 assassinations and 56 escapes made by 349 players. Ademdevincent was in the lead with 2270 points when I checked the leader board.

Skills & Weapons Visible On Profile Page

The Twitter mode is played exclusively in Twitter, using “reply tweets” to respond match assignments from the Assassin’s Network. The Aggro Mode, for you rogue assassins, is played exclusively on the Assassination Experience web page. Here you can attack up to five opponents as once – or, conversely, you can be attacked by up to five opponents. When you attack someone in Aggro Mode, their Twitter icon will be added to the victims’ column, along with the time remaining for them to respond to an attack. Players also have the option of turning the assignment mode “off”, meaning that they will not receive Tweeted assignments until they switch their mode back to “on”.

Players are given 100 points for a successful assassination, 150 points for a successful counter attack, and 50 points can be earned by escaping. Level one weapons include a dagger, axe and sword, but more weapons become available as skills are improved. In keeping with the ESRB rating for Assassin’s Creed, players must be 18 years of age and over; logging in with your Twitter account is required in order to participate in the Assassination Experience game.

Vancouver – Yummy Interactive, Inc. today announced the release of GameShield Version 4.5 that provides protection and licensing options for Flash-based games. By supporting Adobe® Flash applications, GameShield’s Digital Rights Management system delivers new distribution and revenue opportunities for game developers and publishers who create content with Adobe® Flash.

“Flash developers can leverage GameShield in order to sell their Flash content alongside other types of games on retail websites, or on their own websites, in ways they may not have considered before,” said Christopher Hennebery, Director of Software Distribution at Yummy Interactive.

With GameShield Version 4.5, Flash application executables can now be protected and packaged in the same way as standard Microsoft Windows® executables are. SWF movies can also be directly protected with minimal effort. Unique to GameShield’s wrapper technology is the ability to embed resource and peripheral files, such as audio, video, dlls and data, along with the source code, into a single wrapped executable.
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Developer: Radical Entertainment
Publisher: Activision
Official Site
ESRB: M

Platform: Xbox 360, PlayStation3 and PC
Release Date: June 2009

It was a long wait for me to play Radical Entertainment’s newest title – from the day I first heard about the game at the 2007 Game Design Expo. The Activision – Blizzard merger didn’t help the matter by delaying the game’s release, and my envy grew as there were reports back from various conferences and expos where people were getting hands-on playtime. So, was it worth the wait? Oh yes – although this has been a difficult review to pen, simply because PROTOTYPE is so full of things to do and accomplish.

One bit of caution, though – PROTOTYPE is rated M by the ESRB for a very valid reason. The game is violent and involves massive amounts of blood and gore, which I do mention in further detail throughout this review. If you do not want your kids playing games like PROTOTYPE, the ratings are there for a reason, please don’t blame the industry if you allow your kids access to a game outside of their age rating. Okay, end of brief soapbox stance on that topic. On to the review.

First, a quick plot rundown for those who may still be in the dark as to what the game is all about.

Alex Mercer Concept Art

PROTOTYPE takes place in New York City, more specifically on Manhattan Island – but in actuality the story began decades earlier in a small town called Hope, Idaho. It appears that the US military was engaged in a partnership to develop a deadly virus – one which affects not only humans but the environment as well, and along the way Alex, who apparently worked for Gen-Tek, the private contractor developing the virus strains, became some type of host, turning him into a part human-part super weapon entity. Or maybe he is a viral PROTOTYPE, released on the American public for in-the-field testing. Even with watching the Web of Intrigue vignettes a few times, I’m still not 100% sure – and to be honest, I kind of like it that way. A little mystery is good – and it makes for good fodder among the conspiracists out there on the web.

PROTOTYPE is a single player game, with the gamer taking on the persona of main character Alex Mercer. Whether Alex is good or bad is unclear at the beginning of the game, but either way it does appear that he has a conscience, which is revealed in mysterious cinematic vignettes between each task – but like all other parts of this game’s story, Alex’s motives remain infected (pun intended) with intrigue.
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EA Sports has announced that the release date for FIFA 10 will be available in stores internationally from October 2nd for the PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system, Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system, Wii™ home video game system, PC, PlayStation®2 computer entertainment system, Nintendo DS™, PSP® (PlayStation®Portable) system and mobile.

*Volunteer Canada has harnessed the power of social media to aid in matching corporate Canada with volunteer opportunities across the country. Through the Centre for Excellence in Corporate Community Involvement, businesses and non-profits from across the country are joining the nationwide membership of Volunteer Canada in an effort to better communicate and work together in partnership as they exchange ideas, best practices, tools and resources.

“This online tool will build upon a solid foundation of corporations that have already engaged their employees to give back to their communities,” said Ruth MacKenzie, president of Volunteer Canada. “Through partnership and communication, we will ensure that this engagement meets the needs of non-profit organizations across the country.”

*Microsoft Canada is giving students (proof of enrollment required) a chance to win $5000.00 in tuition aide along with other great prizes. Beginning today and continuing until 11:59 EDT Wednesday September 30, 2009, students and their family members can buy any Microsoft hardware product and enter online to win.

“Microsoft Canada wants to help provide students with all the tools they need to succeed, from money that could be used for their tuition to hardware.” said Charles Chang, product manager, Microsoft Canada Hardware. “It’s a challenging time to be a student. With a shrinking, competitive job market and tough economy, there is added pressure to get a good education and increasingly limited options for funding. ”
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Ottawa – Playbrains, an independent game development studio specializing in the digital download arena, are excited to announce that their pride and joy, the love-child of their silicon loins, Madballs in…Babo:Invasion (MiBI) will finally be available for excitable gamers everywhere to purchase and download from Xbox LIVE® Arcade on Wednesday 15th July.

Following highly successful US and UK media press tours, the gaming journalistic community have lavished Madballs in…Babo:Invasion with a rarely seen level of praise for a debut title from a new development studio. Universal in their undiluted acclaim, The Koalition.com had no hesitation in claiming that “…this will be the best arcade game released on Xbox Live this year”, while Team Xbox stated that this was “…one of the most innovative ideas in multiplayer gameplay we’ve seen in a really long time.” Resolution-Magazine simply declared, “Without a shred of doubt, Madballs is the best Xbox LIVE Arcade title that I have ever played.”

Commenting on the impending release of Madballs in…Babo:Invasion, President of Playbrains, Scott Simpson said,

“Having spent the past two years of our lives working so hard on MiBI, the entire Playbrains team are so gratified by the response the gaming media have given our game. We always felt that we had a special title on our hands, offering an unprecedented level of gameplay features, options, depth and polish, not yet seen in a digital download title. We are unbelievably proud and excited to finally be able to let players everywhere get their headshot on…”

Madballs in…Babo:Invasion (MiBI), is available to purchase and download for 800 Microsoft poinst from Xbox LIVE® Arcade on Wednesday 15th July.

About Madballs in…Babo:Invasion

A gameplay rich, feature laden “casually hardcore” action shooter, Madballs in…Babo:Invasion (MiBI) is that rarest of gaming commodities: a genuinely unique title. Featuring the recently re-released Madballs™ characters, Oculus Orbus™ and Horn Head™, from the popular 1980’s toys best remembered for their outrageously bad looks and graphically colorful names, MiBI is an arena-based 3D shooter where players are able to design their own combat maps almost instantaneously by placing a combination of map tiles to create a never-before-seen map before gameplay starts. Truly, no two games are ever the same.

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