Keith Chegwin stars in Cheggers Party Quiz

Loveable TV icon Keith Chegwin stars in Cheggers Party Quiz, launching today on PC and PlayStation 2 from Oxygen Games

The Christmas party season starts early with the arrival of the ultimate party guest. Keith Chegwin – the legendary TV star and personality better known to millions as ‘Cheggers’ – lends his cheeky talents as the virtual host of Cheggers Party Quiz on PlayStation 2 and PC – out today (and coming soon on Nintendo Wii)

The game features eight exciting competition rounds (Opening Night, Big Break, Picture Show, Star Turn, Prime Time, Typecast, Channel Hopping and Final Cut) that can be played on your own or, even better, with up to seven of your mates, on the PS2. Gather round to discover who is the most clued-up member of your family when it comes to answering thousands of questions that span the entertainment worlds of film, music, TV and much more.

Keith Chegwin, the virtual star of Cheggers Party Quiz, says:
“I’ve been a gamer since the days of the Atari, so being a star in my very own title is fantastic. I had a right laugh being the host in Cheggers Party Quiz and made sure that it’s a fun game for all the family to enjoy.”

Keith Chegwin rose to prominence in the mid-1970s with presenting slots on Multi-Coloured Swap Shop and Saturday Superstore, as well as hosting classic TV game shows like Cheggers Plays Pop. More recently, Cheggers has appeared in Ricky Gervais’ critically-acclaimed Extras comedy show and has a regular outdoor segment on GMTV.

Cheggers Party Quiz is on sale today, 26th October, on PC and PlayStation 2, with the Nintendo Wii version due for release on 30th November.

For more information about Cheggers Party Quiz, go to
www.oxygengames.net

StreamMyGame launches Game Streaming

StreamMyGame.com is set to revolutionise the gaming industry. This free to join website provides its members with a free plugin that converts computer games into IPTV channels called Game Streams.

StreamMyGame enables games to be played remotely by converting a game's video and audio into a Game Stream and sending it over a home network to a laptop or second PC. The game can be played on the laptop without any lag and the laptop does not need to have the game installed.

StreamMyGame is compatible with both Windows XP and Vista, with all computer games based on Microsoft's DirectX8, DirectX9, DirectX10 including the latest games such as FIFA 08 and BioShock and OpenGL standards. Game Streams can be created with resolutions up to Super HDTV 3200 x 2400.

"We are embarking on a new paradigm in the gaming industry fuelled by advances in computer hardware, network speeds and the want of gamers to have more freedom," said Richard Faria CEO. "We network the power of their main PC so it can be used to play high end games on other PCs and laptops around the home. I believe the demand for high resolutions will drive the sales of high end PC hardware".

"We will release a Linux version in Q4 2007 which will enable PC games to be played on the PlayStation 3 and many other devices including DVD players, set top boxes, networked media devices and mobile phones," he said.

StreamMyGame will extend its services in Q1 2008 to enable games to be played remotely over broadband networks that have sufficient capacity such as Verizon's FiOS. Publishers will be able to use StreamMyGame to establish Pay-for-Play services.

StreamMyGame also offers its members the ability to record and broadcast gameplay and includes a free MP4 video player. "An easy solution to record your gameplay and upload it to the web has been demanded by gamers and StreamMyGame delivers that. Our YouTube ready MP4 format keeps file sizes low," said Joanna Softly, Marketing Manager, "and broadcasting games at LAN parties so everyone can watch the final from the comfort of their own PC makes so much more sense than crowding around one monitor".

You can try out StreamMyGame for free by simply registering at http://www.StreamMyGame.com/

Hellgate - London video game Opens Wide at iGames

Exclusive Launch Party, Showcase, at Select iGames Member Centers Across North America to Celebrate Release of Hotly Anticipated Action RPG

Events Sponsored by 3D Monitor Manufacturer iZ3D, with exclusive event coverage provided by Premier MMO Community MMOABC.com to Include Launch Party, Nov. 10; Two-Week Showcase, Nov. 12-25

WHAT:
Leading game center organization iGames will host a series of special events to celebrate the release of Hellgate - London by EA, the hotly anticipated action RPG from Flagship Studios, the core team behind Diablo.

WHEN:
Co-sponsored by 3D monitor manufacturer iZ3D, the events will include a one-day launch party, Saturday, November 10 at select iGames member centers, followed by an expanded showcase, November 12-25, allowing gamers one free hour over a two-week period to sample the game.

WHERE:
• Launch Party: 50 select iGames member centers across the United States and Canada.
• Showcase: 100 additional iGames member centers.

ABOUT THE GAME:
From Flagship Studios –fathers of the action role playing genre – comes Hellgate: London, the next benchmark in the evolution of the RPG genre.
Combining the depth of traditional RPGs with the frenetic, visceral feel of first-person shooters, Hellgate: London offers infinite replayability with dynamically created levels, monsters, items and events that gives each player their own unique hack-and-slash experience.

A post-apocalyptic London has been overrun by hordes of terrifying demons, leaving the city desolate and scorched by hellfire. Those who were unlucky enough to survive now gather in the only sanctuary left, the Underground, banding together in order to gain a foothold against the minions of darkness and ultimately save the bloodline of humanity.
It is no surprise that these sole survivors come from three of society’s most elite factions, each of whom are masters of a robust number of skills and weapons essential to demon-thrashing.

The Templar, a secret society preserving the rites of the original Knights Templar, mix futuristic technology with ancient artifacts to create powerful weapons and armor perfect for short-ranged and melee attacks.
The Cabalists are students of the dark arts and edges of science which often leaves them standing right on the line between good and evil. Their mystifying spells make them suited for mid-range combat.
The Hunters are mysterious, highly trained ex-military operatives who lay waste to their foes with hyper-advanced weapons that blend theoretical science and the latest in technology – and their bullets can come from almost any distance.
Hellgate: London delivers an amazing gaming experience to PC gamers of all types – delivering the eye-popping DX10 visuals demanded by the hardcore, and scaling to ensure the masses of casual RPG players can still get the best performance on older PCs.
Hellgate: London is rated “M” for “Mature” with descriptors Blood and Gore, Mild Language, Violence, by the ESRB and comes with a MSRP of $49.99. For more information about the title, visit: http://www.hellgatelondon.com.

European Gamers Set to Unleash Fury!

Codemasters Online announces European wide release of Fury as gamers get set for the ultimate in Free-to-Play MMO carnage!

Codemasters Online are pleased to announce that Fury, the Unreal Engine 3 powered Free-to-Play PvP MMORPG is now available for purchase throughout Europe.

Available at major games retailers, Fury is priced at £29.99 / €39.99 respectively. The full retail box includes a free month of ‘Immortal Membership’ which offers VOIP privileges (in-game voice chat), additional item roll slots, access to various tournament ladders, web based personal statistics, rested gold bonus and priority queuing. FURY offers hardcore players the opportunity to subscribe to Immortal membership for additional benefits.

Based on the Unreal Engine 3, Fury is a unique fusion of adrenaline fuelled, fast paced action blended seamlessly with competitive PvP combat creating a truly unique online experience like never before.

“Codemasters Online are thrilled to be launching Fury across Europe. The combination of combat and fast paced action as well as an abundance of awe-inspiring visuals and dynamic game play characteristics create a truly unique MMO.” commented Adam McGowan, Product Marketing Manager, Codemasters Online.

Out now on PC, Fury is a unique persistent online action RPG giving players an unrivalled player vs player experience. For more information on Fury visit www.unleashthefury.com

SouthPeak Party With Nintendo Wii

Definitive Pool and Snooker Title Coming to Wii in 2008

SouthPeak Games continues to reveal its expansive 2008 catalogue by announcing details of its first Wii title, Pool Party. Scheduled for release in February 2008, Pool Party is a fully-featured pool and snooker simulation featuring a diverse range of game modes and settings and, of course, will make the best possible use of the Wii’s control system.

Pool Party will feature 13 different single player and multi-player game types, encompassing the standard 8-ball, 9-ball, snooker game modes, but including more exotic game types such as Rotation and Black Jack. Play takes place in a choice of 10 stylised environments, ranging from the seediest dive bars to opulent mansions and supremely luxurious yachts and players will also be stepping into the shoes of a range of distinctive characters, as well as facing off against formidable player AI. With shot placement, targeting and adjustments mediated through the Wii’s motion-sensing control system, Pool Party represents the most definitive pool simulation yet seen on Nintendo hardware.

Melanie Mroz, Executive Vice President, SouthPeak Games comments “Pool Party is a major milestone for us, being our first title for Wii. In line with our philosophy of publishing games with an emphasis on distinctive individuality and outright fun, Pool Party’s light-hearted settings and characterisation make it a perfect title for us and we’re certain it’ll be a group-gaming favourite when released in February 2008.”

Pool Party will be released for Wii in February 2008

£15,000 a year . . to play computer games

A Liverpool teenager has become one of Britain’s first full-time professional computer game players.

Adam Brown of Formby is now being paid £15,000 a year to enjoy his favourite pastime.

The 19-year-old former pupil of Merchant Taylors’ school in Crosby was head-hunted for this dream job, which will take him all over the world.

Fellow Merseysider David Kelly, 18, from Maghull, is joining him in a new game-playing squad to take on opposition from different countries.

Both play for a team called Birmingham Salvo and compete in the Championship Gaming Series.
League organisers are trying to increase the profile of gaming so the public will regard it as sport with the same popularity as football or rugby.

Adam today said being a professional game player was his first proper job.

He said: “I didn’t think when I was at school that I’d end up doing this for a living.

“It’s probably something I’d be doing anyway so it’s pretty good to be paid to do it.”
Adam is paid to play the “shoot ‘em up” Counter strike.

He has been playing the PC game for nearly seven years and practices for at least four hours a day. Adam, who lives with his mother in Church Road, said: “She’s always been a bit weird about it and doesn’t understand it really, but I don’t think she minds.
thing I’ve always enjoyed.”

The Championship Gaming Series, launched this year, is the only worldwide professional video gaming league.

To get in the Birmingham Salvo team UK gamers had to attend a four day interview and compete in tournaments.

Some of the players will feature in a televised show on Sky 1 due to be aired some time before Christmas.

Source: Liverpool Echo

Hell’s Kitchen To Become A Video Game

One of the most popular reality TV shows on FOX will soon become a video game. Interactive entertainment company Ludia Inc. is creating a video games based on Granada’s Hell’s Kitchen television show. Hell’s Kitchen video games will be produced across all major platforms including PC, console and mobile.

“We are thrilled that Granada, a highly respected and successful global media company, is entrusting us with the ‘Hell’s Kitchen’ property,” Ludia founder and CEO Alex Thabet explained. “The show has millions of viewers, and the game will bring the fun of the kitchen boot camp experience from the TVs to the PCs and consoles of this rapidly growing audience.”

Katrina Moran, Executive Vice President of Granada America Digital Media commented, “Our strategy is to exploit our brands on as many platforms as possible and to get our content to consumers when and where they want it. The casual games market creates added opportunities for us to engage existing and new fans of the show. Ludia has come up with a truly original and immersive gaming experience which fully meets this brief. We are delighted to work with them to expand the ‘Hell’s Kitchen’ franchise to the video game arena.”

And yes to answer the big question that is on everyone’s minds, Chef Gordon Ramsay is prominently featured throughout the game. The video game version of Chef Ramsay will taste and comment on the culinary creations of players. Chef Ramsay will also judge the players’ overall performances.

The release date of the game is planned to coincide with the upcoming fourth season of Hell’s Kitchen in the United States, which will air in 2008. In addition, the game will feature a recipe book containing several of Gordon Ramsay’s favorite food concoctions that players can print out and cook up in the real world.

Source: Reality TV Magazine

Game on: Console makers in three-way shoot-out

As the Chistmas season approaches Nintendo has been winning market share from rivals Sony and Microsoft by targeting consumers outside the hard-core market.

The balance of power in the Japanese electronics industry has tipped further towards Nintendo and away from former bellwether Sony after the phenomenal success of the Wii gaming console helped the Kyoto-based company almost triple its profits in the first half of the year.

Both Nintendo and Sony reported results yesterday and heading into the crucial Christmas trading period, the contrast between the fortunes of two companies could hardly be more stark. Nintendo, which overtook Sony in terms of market valuation in May, has continued its upward march after increasing its forecast for the number of Wii and DS devices it will sell this year. The games company behind classic characters such as Super Mario, Donkey Kong and Zelda, is now the second most valuable company in Japan, trailing only the automotive giant Toyota. Meanwhile, shares in Sony, which has lost almost 30 per cent of its market value since May, slipped further after the company admitted that it could miss its sales target for its flagship PlayStation 3 console.

The reversal of fortunes within the games console sector has been stunning and highly unexpected given Nintendo's Wii was tipped to struggle to compete with its competitors. Sony – which had achieved unparalleled success with the first two incarnations of its PlayStation mach-ine – and Microsoft were widely expected to dominate the market for next-generation consoles with state-of-the-art machines. With Nintendo's GameCube spectacularly flopping only four years ago, many observers wondered whether it had a future in the console market and whether it should instead focus its energy on handheld devices, due to the success of its GameBoy series, and on developing more hit games around Mario and his adventures.

The failure of the GameCube – which went head to head with Sony's PlayStation 2 and the original Xbox – triggered headlines proclaiming that Mario – the animated plumber that symbolised Nintendo's dominance of the computer games market in the 1980s – had finally run out of tricks and the company's valuation collapsed as analysts fretted that Micro-soft's entry into the video games sector may have been terminal for the Japanese company. Nintendo's demise was attributed to a serious strategic error as analysts derided its attempts to target older gamers and a more mainstream audience at a time when sales of violent action games such as Halo and Grand Theft Auto were all the rage.

Yet Nintendo stuck to its guns and despite concerns that the Wii would be another also-ran compared with the top-end Play-Station 3 and Xbox 360, the console has sold like wildfire and proved the doubters wrong. It has outsold the PS3 three-to-one in the Japanese market and five-to-one in the US and has taken the PS2's mantle as the fastest selling console in history in the UK after shifting 1 million machines in just eight months.

More from The Independent

By Nic Fildes

The future of video games

Quentin Hardy's panel on "Beyond the Video Console" is fascinating. Increasingly video games take centerstage in the online world going forward.

One of the panelists made the point that every generation worries about a new "technology" that will corrupt children: once upon a time, that "technology" was jazz music; then rock and roll. Fast forward and today it's video games.

Video games become a dominant means of telling stories. Even more compelling--multiplayer games where the "community" can engage in playing a game. The "game" aspects, of gaming, matter enormously.

That doesn't make SecondLife the answer, though.

As one panelist pointed out, once you have created an avatar and dressed it, there isn't too much to do in SecondLife.

Call that a work in progress. Eventually, however, the industry will figure out this emerging digital world, and invent engaging ways to play games and interact there.

For now, though, I confess I made a note to myself: better buy the kids more video games!

Source: Forbes

'Simpsons' game delivers big laughs for devoted fans

Fans of The Simpsons, the longest-running animated television series in history, have played through related video games worthy of yelling Woo hoo! (such as 2003's The Simpsons: Hit & Run ) and some deserving of a "D'oh!" (2002's The Simpsons Skateboarding ).

Now America's favorite yellow, four-fingered and dysfunctional family has gone interactive again with EA Games' The Simpsons Game, and the good news is that it's the best The Simpsons game to date — but you do need to be a fan to appreciate all the inside jokes.

With a zany story line crafted by the Emmy award-winning writers from the TV show, the Simpsons family — Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie — are aware they're trapped inside a video game, and so they use their newfound special powers to live out their fantasies and help save their town of Springfield. For example, the overweight father Homer can unleash a serious belch or change into a giant ball of fat to roll over enemies, while bad boy Bart, armed with a slingshot, can peg off baddies with ease or glide through the air with his Bartman cape.

Most missions let you play as one of two characters, and in some cases you'll need to use one in particular to take advantage of their abilities. When playing alone, the game's artificial intelligence controls the other family member, but at any time a second player can pick up a controller to start playing.

Not only have the TV show's cast members provided voice talent to the characters in the game — including all the Springfieldeans you will come across in your adventures, such as Lenny and Carl, Chief Wiggum, Krusty the Crown and more than 100 others — but this video game also enjoys smooth "cel-shaded" animation that resembles the TV cartoon, even with the move to 3-D.The game offers 16 distinct "episodes" and more than 8,000 lines of dialogue.

The hilarious missions include running through Homer's dream in "Chocolate Land" at the beginning of the game; Marge and Lisa trying to get the violent video game "Grand Theft Scratchy" banned (The Simpsons Game parodies many other video games, including the World War II shooter Medal of Honor ); stopping the Lard Lad statue, which has come alive, from wreaking havoc on Springfield; and a personal favorite where Homer and Bart must run through an eating contest divided into different countries.

The game is also loaded with collectible items such as Duff beer bottle caps, "video game cliches" as discovered by Comic Book Guy, unlockable costumes and an optional time challenge mode to add to the game's replayability.

While a fan of the TV show will get a lot more out of The Simpsons Game than someone who is not, it's evident a tremendous amount of effort and detail went into this ambitious game. The end result is an adventure more fun than crank-calling Moe's Tavern.

Source: USA Today