CG-Animated Film "Igor" game deal announced

Exodus Film Group announced today a videogame deal with Interactive Game Group (I2G) and Legacy Interactive for a multi-platform game based on Exodus' CG-animated feature film "Igor." The game will be distributed on Nintendo DSTM and WiiTM, PC (retail, downloadable, online), and wireless. Legacy Interactive will publish the "Igor" licensed game in North America and I2G is financing and coordinating the project on a worldwide basis. "Igor" is a Weinstein Company presentation being distributed in U.S. theaters by MGM on October 24, 2008. The Weinstein Company is handling international sales for "Igor."

"The principals at Legacy and I2G have proven track records in creating and distributing exciting and innovative games," said Bruce Auerbach, Exodus president of consumer products. "The audience experience will be greatly enhanced by not only seeing the movie, but being able to 'play' the movie."
"The incredibly rich world and characters the film offers are well suited to the action puzzler genre," said Ariella Lehrer, Legacy Interactive's CEO. "I think this is a game that will have crossover appeal among casual and more core strategy gamers alike."

Frederic Chesnais, I2G's founder and general manager, added, "This project is exactly why I have created I2G, to bring talented people together and facilitate the creation and distribution of interactive entertainment."

The film version of "Igor" is a playfully irreverent comedy that brings a new twist to the classic monster genre. In a world filled with Mad Scientists and Evil Inventions, one talented evil scientist's hunch-backed lab assistant has big dreams of becoming a Mad Scientist himself and winning the annual Evil Science Fair. The stellar voice cast includes Steve Buscemi, John Cleese, Jennifer Coolidge, John Cusack, Arsenio Hall, Sean Hayes, Eddie Izzard, Jay Leno, Molly Shannon, and Christian Slater.

Exodus recently announced a nationwide promotional program with Carl's Jr. and Hardee's restaurants. The videogame deal adds to the extensive line of "Igor" consumer products aligned with the film, which currently includes a master license for toys and collectables with Corgi International, a major publishing deal with award-winning global leader Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing Division and a comic book series with IDW Publishing. Corgi will release a wide range of products including action figures, play sets, electronic role-play games, pocket money toys, vinyl figures, plush, statues, busts and other associated products. Simon & Schuster plans nine "Igor" books, which will be published under their Simon Scribbles and Simon Spotlight imprints.

Award-winning animation writer Tony Leondis (Disney's "Lilo & Stitch 2") is directing the screenplay by Chris McKenna (Fox's "American Dad!"). Exodus CEO John D. Eraklis and President Max Howard are producing with Jean-Luc De Fanti executive producing on behalf of Exodus Productions in Paris. Eric Robinson, Senior Vice President of Production and Development, is overseeing "Igor" on behalf of The Weinstein Company.

Age of Empires III: The Asian Dynasties $3K Tournament at iGames

Exclusive Competition, December 22-23, to Celebrate the Next Chapter in the Acclaimed Age of Empires Series to be Held Online and at 16 Select iGames Centers

Cash Prizes for the Best Gamers, PLUS Special Giveaways

WHAT:

Leading game center organization iGames will host a special online tournament for Age of Empires® III: The Asian Dynasties, the latest chapter in the acclaimed RTS series, published by Microsoft Game Studios and developed by Big Huge Games and Ensemble Studios.

WHEN & WHERE:
Saturday and Sunday, December 22-23, online and at 16 select iGames centers

PRIZES + FREE STUFF:
The Age of Empires III: The Asian Dynasties $3K Tournament is a 1-v-1 competition featuring $3,000 in CASH prizes for players. Gamers will be able to compete from any of the Official 16 Game Centers, or from anywhere else over the Internet.

Players who compete from an Official Game Center location will receive an Age of Empires III: The Asian Dynasties t-shirt. The competition features a prize pool of $3,000 in CASH to be distributed among the finalists:

1st: $750
2nd: $500
3rd: $350
4th: $250
5th-6th: $150
7th-8th: $125
9th-16th: $75

Saturday - Single Elimination (Max of 128 Players), until only 8 players remain. The 8 players will advance to Sunday for Double-Elimination finals.

ABOUT THE GAME:

Prepare yourself to experience Age of Empires III: The Asian Dynasties - the next chapter in the acclaimed Age of Empires III series from Big Huge Games and Ensemble Studios.

The Asian Dynasties brings the triumph and turmoil of some of history's greatest Asian civilizations to stunning life. Wielding the symbolic power of immense Wonders of the world, lead the armies of China, India or Japan in a struggle for dominance against the European powers, or against each other. Crush opponents with ranks of new military units, such as the Chinese Flame Thrower, the Indian Siege Elephant, or the fierce Japanese Shogun. Or play the role of master diplomat, and befriend your allies at the Consulate, biding your time and building a force of foreign weaponry that will topple your enemies. In Age of Empires III: The Asian Dynasties, players use the might of the East to bring the world to its knees.

Age of Empires III: The Asian Dynasties adds three new civilizations, 15 monumental Asian Wonders, the new Export resource, new random maps, three five scenario-campaigns that feature all new Age of Empires III characters, Eastern native tribes, and a wealth of exciting new Home City content.

Explore, conquer and extend your empire as you clash with the invaders on the battlefield and drive them into the sea!

Features:
• Playable Asian Civilizations
Command one of three fierce Asian civilizations: the Indians, the Chinese or the Japanese each with its own unique armies led by powerful warrior Monks, Daimyo, Mansabdars and other special units
• Exciting New Single Player Campaigns
Age of Empires III: The Asian Dynasties introduces thrilling new stories into the popular Age of Empires III mythology. Play through three new mini campaigns with new heroes and villains who find themselves in the midst of some of Asia's most pivotal historical events, both factual...and fictional.
• New Ways to Play Age of Empires III
With the addition of Wonders of the world and the new Export resource, Age of Empires III: The Asian Dynasties injects an intriguing level of depth to existing Age of Empires III strategy. If used wisely, these new features can mean the difference between rousing a victory or a humiliating defeat.
• An Immersive World
Players will explore an exotic Asian setting over 11 new Random Maps, three new Home Cities, and interactions with new native civilizations, all while battling opponents in new game modes, including King of the Hill, Regicide, and Treaty No-Blockade.
Age of Empires® III: The Asian Dynasties for Windows is rated “T” for “Teen” by the ESRB and comes with a MSRP of $29.99. For more information about the title, visit: http://www.ageofempires3.com/asiandynasties/.

THE LEGENDS OF NORRATH CHAMPIONSHIP STARTS DECEMBER 15th

Prepare Your Deck With the Firiona Vie Loot Tournament Weekend Card Illustrated by Legendary Artist Jim Lee!

Legends of Norrath Championship Qualifier Tournament Series Kicks Off December 15th!
Starting next Saturday, December 15th, Sony Online Entertainment’s (SOE) Legends of Norrath players can truly test their strategic skills and throw down in the first of the Legends of Norrath Championship Qualifier tournaments. Expected to run monthly, each qualifier event will have no entry fee and will feature a prize pool of approximately $5,000 USD. Winners of these qualifier events will receive an automatic entry into the Legends of Norrath Championships to be held at Gen Con Indy 2008 in Indianapolis, IN where they will compete for cash and prizes in excess of $100,000 USD in total. Don’t get lost in the shuffle, join the action December 15th!

Double Threat Firiona Vie Loot Tournament Weekend, December 8th and 9th!
This weekend, SOE will be hosting a weekend of major loot tournament events where players can receive extraordinary promotional cards and in-game loot rewards! The new "Loot Tournament Weekend" tournament queues, featuring the opportunity for players to receive new promotional and loot cards, will be running all weekend long. Each event will start when all slots have filled in the tournament.

Each player who participates in one of these tournaments will receive a Firiona Vie, Guardian of Growth (1P8) promotional card (illustrated by Jim Lee) and a choice of either an EverQuest® Visage of Queen Pyrilonis or EverQuest II Burning Touch loot card! Please note that participation is limited to U.S. residents only.

To get started on the fun, players can download the client for free, test their skills against AI and real opponents, and then head over to the tournament lobby to play. Tournament eligibility limited and subject to official rules. Residents of certain territories are ineligible to participate in LoN tournament play. Please see the Official Tournament Rules for details. For a schedule of events, rules and further details see the LoN Events Page or the LoN Tournaments webpage.

New Expansion Coming Soon – Loot Cards Announced!
In preparation of the release of Legends of Norrath’s first expansion, Forsworn, scheduled for December 19th, a sneak peak of the highly anticipated EverQuest and EverQuest II Set 2 loot cards have been released to the player community at large! Check out all 44 of them here!

Free Linux Video game - ManiaDrive (Trackmania clone)

ManiaDrive is a free clone of Trackmania, the great game from Nadéo studio, and is an arcade car game on acrobatic tracks, with a quick and nervous gameplay (tracks almost never exceed one minute), and features a network mode, as the original. Lots of crazy driving involved.

Get the game here... http://maniadrive.raydium.org/

From: Gamesuy

Free Linux Video game - Scorched 3D

Scorched 3D is a 100% free turn-based artillery game modeled after the classic DOS game Scorched Earth ‘The Mother Of All Games’. Operatable across all operating systems. What started as a 3D landscape generator has now become a cool 3D game that requires skills to master. Players are supposed to take turns homing in to hit the target by adjusting the angle, rotation, power and a weapon of choice every other turn. Hits and kills will generate income for you to buy better weapons and items. Note that items are as important as weapons.

Get the game here... http://www.scorched3d.co.uk/

From: Gamesuy

Free Linux Video game - The Open Racing Car Simulator

TORCS is an open source 3D racing simulator using OpenGL technologies. It is runnable on all Linux, FreeBSD, MacOSX and Windows platforms. There are 50 different cars, 20 tracks and 50 opponents to race against. The multiplayer mode can accommodate up to 4 human players. Several of the simulation include damaged models, collisions and aerodynamics like ground effects, spoilers, etc. Development is currently being carried out to enable online racing mode.

Get the game here... http://torcs.sourceforge.net/

From: Gamesuy

Free Linux Video game - True Combat: Elite

TC:Elite happens to be a total-conversion modification of Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory by Team Terminator and Groove Six Studios. The game is free and playable across all platforms. Notable features include iron sights aiming (no crosshair), multi layer object penetration, letterbox / wide screen view modes, lag compensation, client side bullet prediction and support for PunkBuster, the anti cheat software.

Get the game here... http://www.truecombatelite.net/

From: Gamesuy

Free Linux Video game - Alien Arena 2007

Alien Arena is a completely free FPS (first person shooter) started by COR Entertainment in 2004 comprising of a science fiction ambience and a Quake like gameplay. This game is playable in single player mode against bots, but the action and thrill lies at the online multiplayer mode. Features of the Alien Arena 2007 include an internal server browser for finding other people to play online and an external program that acts as an IRC interface. There are 6 game types and 6 game mutators that changes the gameplay. Cattle Prod is a new game type that requires you to herd robotic cattle to earn points. Alien Arena 2007 is playable in Linux, Windows and FreeBSD.

Get the game here...http://red.planetarena.org/

From: Gamesuy

FREE Linux Video game - Nexuiz (Doom clone)

Nexuiz is a free, cross platform, FPS (first person shooter) distributed under GNU General Public License by Alientrap Software. It started back in May 31 2005 with version 1.0 using DarkPlaces, a significanlty modified Quake engine. The current version, 2.3, was released on May 31, 2007. Available for Linux, Mac and Windows.

Several notable features of the game include

* ability to multiplay up to 64 players
* ability to generate bots for practice sessions
* dynamic lighting system similar to Doom 3

Get the game here... http://www.alientrap.org/nexuiz/

From: Gamesuy

Free Linux Video game - Tux Racer

Tux Racer is a newbie friendly, open source, 3D computer game starring the Linux mascot, Tux the penguin. Like many open source games, the replay value of Tux Racer is extended by easy modification of the game. New maps can be created by making three raster images to indicate height, surface, and object placement. The last release of Tux Racer was version 0.61, 29th October 2001.

Get the game here... http://tuxracer.sourceforge.net/

From: Gamesuy

Free Linux Video game - Tremulous

Tremulous is an open source team-based FPS (first person shooter) with a game play that is similar to Gloom (a Quake 2 mod) and Natural Selection (a Half-Life mod). The game features two teams, humans and aliens, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. The game has been downloaded over 200,000 times and was voted “Player’s Choice Standalone Game of the Year” in Mod Database’s “Mod of the Year” 2006 competition.

Get the game here... http://tremulous.net/

From: Gamesuy

Video game sales ahead of DVDs this Christmas

DVD sales are lagging and game sales are up. Something's gotta give, as they say.

Retail shelf space is a finite thing in the world of brick and mortar, so each inch has to be maximized with product that is going to sell. As video games continue their rise, we're likely to see less and less shelf space given to DVDs, and more to video games and related merchandise.

NPD analyst Anita Frazier weighed in on the record game sales last month when talking about October's sales numbers. "This year [video game] sales have already achieved the annual sales number for 2005—and the two biggest months are yet to come. I think we'll see not only record-breaking revenues but record-breaking year-over-year growth when the final numbers are tallied," she said. The month previous, Frazier made another hopeful comment about the industry: "Although we've been confident for many months now that the industry was poised to realize it's best year ever in terms of revenue, the results in recent months makes me even more bullish." In other words, the sales keep getting better and better, with titles like Guitar Hero 3 and Halo 3 leading the charge.

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