Sims 2 Apartment Life Expansion Pack

In August, The Apartment Is Where It's All Happening!

The Sims 2 Apartment Life for the PC, and The Sims 2 Apartment Pets exclusively for the Nintendo DSTM. The Sims 2 Apartment Life brings the adventure, fun and drama of close quarters of apartment living to your Sims. Launching simultaneously, The Sims 2 Apartment Pets places your Sims in their very own apartment with a variety of pets. Also, just downstairs from your Sims apartment is their own pet spa where they must take good care of a variety of visiting animals, including their own personal pets. Both titles are due for launch on August 22nd.



The Sims 2 Apartment Life Expansion Pack* for the PC
This expansion pack for The Sims 2 takes your Sims out of the suburbs and into a brand new busy apartment building! Adventure, fun, and drama await them as they explore their new neighborhood, mingle in coffee shops, visit a playground, meet new friends, and much more. Because there is now the ability to control multiple households in The Sims 2 Apartment Life, your Sims can live in happy harmony, or comical conflict.

New social networks and character types, including artsy bohemians, sports fans, gadget-loving techies,spice up your Sims life. And, with a new reputation meter, your Sims can build up the respect they deserve from other Sims to be the most admired – or least-desired -Sim in the neighborhood. The better the reputation, the easier for your Sims to find the right friends to help them achieve their goals.

Make your Sims’ space look great in The Sims 2 Apartment Life! Five new building types that range from converted lofts to roomy and posh studios or luxury apartments with their own butler add to the creative and customized adventure. Enjoy a myriad of new decor options, including spiral staircases and lofty, high ceilings. Your Sims will get a whole new kind of experience through the drama of close quarters living!



The Sims 2 Apartment Pets for Nintendo DS
In your Sim’s new apartment adventure on the Nintendo DS, care for a variety of local pets, including loveable cats and dogs, slithery snakes, hamsters, colourful birds, and cuddly rabbits to make sure they receive the right treatment so that they stay happy, healthy and looking good. Simoleans earned can be used to furnish the perfect apartment and buy fun pet accessories like hats, shoes and toys. Players can use the Nintendo DS touch screen and stylus to play cool mini games and unlock new objects for their Sim and their pets. And in one mini game you can charm a snake by blowing into the Nintendo DS microphone, which serves as your musical instrument.

“The Sims 2 Apartment Life and The Sims 2 Apartment Pets are two new entertainment experiences that put your Sims in the midst of all the drama and humour of busy apartment life,” said Rod Humble, Head of Studio for The Sims Label. “These two games reflect an aspect of real life that players can relate to, and now for the first time, their Sims can explore that same lifestyle in The Sims 2 Apartment Life on the PC and make pets part of the fun in The Sims 2 Apartment Pets for the Nintendo DS.”

Bring on the night and celebrate with your Sims! Also available in August, is The Sims 2 Apartment Life Limited Collection, which includes The Sims 2 Apartment Life and The Sims 2 Double Deluxe (which consists of The Sims 2, The Sims 2 Nightlife Expansion Pack, The Sims 2 Celebration Stuff and a video DVD with a host of tips and tricks). A great value to get your apartment life started, coming in August, 2008!

* Requires The Sims 2 Double Deluxe, The Sims 2 Deluxe, The Sims 2 Special DVD Edition, or The Sims 2 Holiday Edition for PC to play.

Crysis Warhead next installment on PC this Autumn

The Next Installment of One of the Highest Rated Games of 2007 Blasts its way onto PCs this Autumn

Maximum freedom, maximum explosions and maximum Psycho! Electronic Arts Inc. and award-winning independent studio Crytek today announced Crysis Warhead – the parallel story to Crysis, one of the most critically-acclaimed first person shooters and PC games of 2007. Shipping exclusively for the PC this autumn Crysis Warhead is the first title to be developed at Crytek´s Budapest studio, and is built on a new, enhanced and optimized version of Crytek’s CryENGINE 2 technology.

“We were very pleased with the reception of Crysis from both gamers and media after our launch last year,” said Cevat Yerli, CEO and President of Crytek. “That being said, one of the key principles of our studio is to always raise the bar. With Warhead, we are focusing on refining our storytelling and game performance, while also delivering more of the visually stunning graphics and immersive, free-roaming gameplay everyone loved in Crysis.”

“The best result of a partnership that we can ask for in the EA Partners program is when a world class independent studio like Crytek chooses to continue to work with us,” said David DeMartini, Vice President and Global General Manager, EA Partners. “Crysis was an amazing game and is going to be a blockbuster franchise. We could not be more excited to be working with Crytek to launch another hit with Crysis Warhead this year.”

In Crysis Warhead, players will don the Nanosuit of Sergeant Sykes, also known as ‘Psycho’, one of the most memorable characters from Crysis. More brash and aggressive than his Delta Force squadmate Nomad, players will experience Psycho’s parallel story during the events of the original game, finding that life on the other side of the island is even more intense and explosive than they ever could have imagined. Luckily, Psycho’s Nanosuit is just as capable and he’s equipped with an even bigger arsenal of fully customizable weapons and new vehicles, giving players access to the tools they need to dominate any situation. Aside from this new, exciting single player campaign, Crysis Warhead will also feature new multiplayer content. Stay tuned for more details this summer.

Mount and Blade - Website

Welcome warrior, to the Website tavern!

Within the Website you may hear a rumor or two of the latest news. If ye feel peckish, the Website menu be having many courses such as: 'Game' Info, 'Stuffed Artichokes' – er Articles, 'fried leeks' - erm Forum Links, or just Down-loads o' 'cheap ale'. Ye also be able to obtain Purchasing Information on 'Mounts' and 'Blades' and more!

Official website www.paradoxplaza.com/Mount&Blade

Tower Bloxx Deluxe Puzzle game for PC out today

The award-winning mobile hit game Tower Bloxx is available for PC! Block dropping has never been as fun nor looked as good…

Reach for the skies in this wacky skyscraper construction game! In Tower Bloxx Deluxe, your task is to build brand new homes for the Tower Toons - funny little people who move in and turn the lights on before they even have a roof over their heads! It’s a test of skill - the better you drop new floors on the swaying tower, the happier they will be. But it’s windy up there, so you better keep your cool since a mistake might cost you a bunch of floors! Casual one-button game play will get you into building tall towers in no time - but it takes practice to really master Tower Bloxx Deluxe. Tower Bloxx Deluxe improves on the award-winning original with amazing new visual effects, more in-depth game play and two brand new game modes and brand new minigame.



As in the original Tower Bloxx, the blocks are dropped on top of each other with an intuitive and extremely fun one-button game mechanic. In Tower Bloxx Deluxe, the beloved core game play remains the same, but sub-goals are added along with achievements, enhanced city building mode and midway targets such as tower upgrades and balcony blocks that add population boosts to your tower.



In the “Play Story” mode the mayor A.Z. Millspaugh and city architect Ava Dandelion of Sycamore Vale has asked you, a renowned tower builder, to quickly help in rebuilding the city since the old residences are falling apart. Luckily your amazing building block system is perfect for the job! And you have Ava to guide you all the way!

Five new districts have been opened for construction on a fresh plot of land for you to work on. By successfully building and improving the districts, you will help the town to grow into a thriving metropolis. The trick is to solve the puzzle for each district – maximizing the number of citizens by building different kinds of Towers, each one getting higher than the former. You will also have to solve the puzzle of placing the Blue Residential, Red Commercial, Green Office and Yellow Luxury towers onto the city grid. But remember, whilst Blue can go anywhere, Red needs Blue as a neighbor, Green needs both Blue and Red and lastly Yellow needs all three colors as neighbors. It sounds easier than it is to get the best score possible!

In Quick Game mode your goal is to make your tower as high as possible and only your improving building skills set the limit to how high you can really go. Build all the way up into space and admire colorful planets and shooting stars amongst many other things.

In Time Challenge mode you get to see how well you do under pressure. Or you can enjoy the game together with friends in the Party Game mode, where up to four people can build towers on the same machine with split-screen fun!

The look and feel of the original Tower Bloxx is taken to a new level with colorful and cheerful graphics, filled with eye-candy and detail never before seen in a casual game. The bright saturated colors and the cartoony blue skied world is enhanced by the 3D aspects of the game.

The improved camera angle really shows how high you are and induces a vertigo feeling while climbing up to space…

Musical Duo Storm Castle in The Princess Bride Video Game for Macs

Eagerly Anticipated Adaptation of 1987 Classic Features Grammy-Winner Steve Horowitz as Lead Composer; "This Spartan Life" Creator Chris Burke as Sound Designer

Grammy Award-winner Steve Horowitz, best known for his work on Morgan Spurlock’s Super Size Me, is serving as audio director and lead composer on the upcoming The Princess Bride Game, with Chris Burke, the 8-bit musician and creator of Halo machinima talkshow, This Spartan Life, providing the sound effects.

“We know that we selected the right person to manage the complex audio demands of this game,” said Christopher Romero, CTO, Worldwide Biggies. “With Steve, we have an artist who understands both film and games. It’s rare, even today, to find such a unique combination of talent and experience. Steve’s choice to bring Chris Burke into the project was perfect. The way they worked together to underscore the action sequences and pace the narrative breaks is absolutely brilliant and adds so much to the game.”

This is not Steve’s first foray into the world of interactive entertainment. He started creating audio for games way back in the early 1990’s, composing and directing for companies like Sega, Sony and Rocket Science. His resume includes both BDA & Webby awards for his work with Nickelodeon Digital where he has literally worked on hundreds of projects with many of Nick’s most beloved characters like Sponge Bob, Jimmy Neutron, Dora the Explorer, and The Wonder Pets.

The Princess Bride Game will go on sale as a digital purchase at the official game Web site and other major game portals on June 11. The game comes with a MSRP of $19.95, and is available for Mac OS X / Windows 2000, XP and Vista. For more information, as well as to pre-order a copy, visit:
http://www.princessbridegame.com.

Steve Horowitz's music is available for purchase online from both iTunes and Amazon.

However, the best place to start is at his official Web site, www.thecodeinternational.com .

Etrian Odyssey II - Heroes of Lagaard Nintendo DS Character Profiles

Medic

These healing specialists have a few new tricks up their sleeves, including a skill that heals the entire party’s full HP, and the ability to sacrifice their own lives to resurrect and fully heal the rest of the party. They can also remove the entire party’s bindings or status ailments at a stroke, and reduce the damage taken from hazard floors through pre-emptive medicine.

Force Skill: H. Touch
This formerly weak ability has received a major upgrade, allowing the medic’s healing hands to recover the entire party’s HP and status.

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Troubadour

Troubadours have no skills that directly deal damage, but they are masters of supporting their fellow warriors. With a troubadour’s songs, any attack can gain elemental properties, any enemy’s status boosts can be nullified, and any deficiencies in the party’s make-up can be smoothed over. In addition, the troubadour’s music has charms to soothe the savage beast—or to rile it! Their voices can draw FOEs to a given position, or lull them to sleep entirely.

Force Skill: Crusade
This stirring battle hymn increases the entire party’s attack power, defensive strength, and maximum HP.

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Protector

The protector’s role is better-defined when fighting in High Lagaard. New skills allow more versatility when choosing who to defend: the front or back line, the entire party, or a single member. The protector is now the only class that can raise the entire party’s defence, whether from physical damage or elemental attacks.

Force Skill: Painless
Granting the entire party the ultimate defense, the protector completely blocks all forms of damage for a single turn.

Discontinued 60GB PS3 is the stuff of legend it was the best PS3 ever made

The discontinued 60GB PS3 is the stuff of legend, and for good reason: it was the best PS3 ever made. When ours broke, we braved the wild and woolly world of retail and customer service to see if we could get our beloved 60GB model replaced.

read more | digg story

Sid Meier's Civilization Revolution Sneak-Peek at iGames from June 5

Demo Showcase to be Held at Over 50 Select iGames Centers across North America


WHAT:
Leading game center organization iGames will host a demo showcase to get gamers ready for the release of Sid Meier’s Civilization® Revolution, the console debut of the blockbuster strategy game from Firaxis and 2K Games.

WHEN & WHERE:
June 5 at over 50 select iGames member centers

ABOUT THE GAME:
Built from the ground up solely for console and handheld gamers, Sid Meier’s Civilization Revolution features fast-paced, pick-up-and-play action involving strategic global domination and history's most intrepid leaders, as well as a highly competitive multiplayer experience. Sid Meier’s Civilization Revolution brings the renowned Civilization franchise to consoles for the first time, delivering the vast re-playability and unmatched addictive gameplay that has become synonymous with the works of Sid Meier. New graphical touches and a streamlined interface will transport the Civilization franchise to a level that fans have never seen before.



The game will be released in the U.S. and Canada on July 8, 2008.

3D Buzz announces Old School Level Design Contest for Unreal Tournament 3

3D Buzz is pleased to announce the official launch of the Old School Level Design Contest for Unreal Tournament 3!

The Unreal mod community is in need of some new recruits, and we want you to be one of them. This contest is unique in that ONLY those assets included with the retail version of Unreal Tournament 3, published by Midway, are permitted; absolutely NO custom content can be used in your level. This means that even if you’re completely new to the modding scene, you still have a chance to win some incredible prizes, including a chance to have your level reviewed by none other than Epic’s Design Director, Cliff Bleszinski!

Contest Prizes:

Grand Prize Winner:

• $1000 cash prize
• PlayStation 3 game console (or $500 cash)
• Autographed copy of Unreal Tournament 3 signed by the developers
• Video review of your level by the staff of 3D Buzz
• Video review of your level by Epic Design Director Cliff Bleszinski

First and Second Runners-Up:

• PlayStation 3 game console (or $500 cash)
• Autographed copy of Unreal Tournament 3 signed by the developers
• Video review of your level by the staff of 3D Buzz

This first contest involves the creation of a Deathmatch type map. Entry requires that all contestants create a frequently updated Work-In-Progress forum thread over at 3D Buzz’s website.

For more information, or to get started right away, visit the official 3D Buzz Old School Level Design Contest homepage, and be sure to check out 3DBuzz.com, where you can watch hours of free video content over Unreal Tournament 3 to get you started!

Naruto - Clash Of Ninja Revolution 2 Set to Transform the Wii Experience

The First Original NARUTO Game for Wii Promises Polished Gameplay, Completely Original Storyline for North America and a Robust Character Roster

NARUTO - Clash of Ninja Revolution 2, a fighting game for Wii. As the first NARUTO Wii title designed specifically for the North American audience, Clash of Ninja Revolution 2 promises an impressive list of playable characters from the NARUTO universe, a polished and well-balanced fighting engine, and a deep, original storyline that expands upon episodes from VIZ Media’s hit animated TV series NARUTO. NARUTO: Clash of Ninja Revolution 2 will support widescreen (16:9) and progressive scan at 480p when it hits stores this fall.

“Because Clash of Ninja Revolution 2 is an original title for the U.S., we have had the opportunity to blend new features with the best elements from the previous games,” said Laura Yoshioka, director of consumer software at TOMY Corporation. “In addition to the new storyline, we have worked closely with the development studio, Eighting, to implement fan feedback. We actively pursued advice from tournament players to update the fighting mechanics and create balanced characters to improve the gameplay experience.”

NARUTO: Clash of Ninja Revolution 2 will provide players with quality fighting game mechanics and a fast-paced gameplay experience on Wii. Set after Sasuke leaves the Leaf Village to gain more power from Orochimaru, the title offers a slew of playable characters, including those developed especially for the storyline. Clash of Ninja Revolution 2 features destructible stages and four-player multiplayer battles, along with gameplay modes and characters not yet seen on the Clash of Ninja series.