Viva Piñata - Trouble in Paradise Microsoft Xbox 360 - Fact Sheet

Title: “Viva Piñata: Trouble in Paradise”
Publisher: Microsoft Game Studios
Developer: Rare Ltd.
Format: DVD for the Xbox 360 video game system
ESRB Rating: Rating pending (all ages)
Availability: September 2008

Product Overview: The original Rare Ltd. team behind “Viva Piñata” has reunited to bring gamers “Viva Piñata: Trouble in Paradise,” the newest piñata adventure that invites gamers to return to magical Piñata Island. Unfortunately, not all is well on the island, as Professor Pester along with his gang of Ruffians have wiped out Piñata Central’s computer records, which poses a threat to parties everywhere. To help Piñata Central, players must gradually rebuild the computer database by sending piñatas at full candiosity to parties all around the world. While thwarting Professor Pester’s evil plot, players still build and maintain piñata gardens — using their creativity and imagination to attract, trap, protect, train and manage more than 100 different piñata species.

Available exclusively on Xbox 360, “Viva Piñata: Trouble in Paradise” reinvigorates a colorful and engaging gaming experience on the Xbox 360 platform. Now with full cooperative and online gameplay modes, the “Viva Piñata” franchise opens its doors even wider with a new game that provides hours of fun for gamers of all ages, fans of the animated series and animal lovers alike.

Features: Top game features include the following:

• Social. The world of Piñata Island is an inviting and rewarding place to be. Family members and friend now can share in the joy of creating a garden by simply plugging in an extra controller. The second player has access to all tools, actions and activities, but he or she also can collect magic by helping. Player two can spend magic by tinkering items, healing a sick piñata or filling a piñata candiosity meter. It’s a new way to play.
  


• Customizable. “Viva Piñata: Trouble in Paradise” allows players’ imaginations to run wild by providing them with expansive freedom and choice.
• Your garden. “Viva Piñata: Trouble in Paradise” also offers a vast level of customization within your main garden. Now, along with planting grass, trees and flowers, and digging ponds and lakes, players can place sand and snow in their garden to make exotic species of piñata feel more at home. Players also can choose to enhance their garden with themed object packs — make your garden into a space center, a pirate cove or a haunted graveyard. Buy objects to change the weather, or new toys for your piñata to play with. You have total freedom to create any kind of paradise you want!
  


• Your piñatas. Thirty-two new species of piñata can run, crawl, fly and swim into your garden in “Viva Piñata: Trouble in Paradise.” Large, small, fierce and cute, the new piñatas will join all your favorites for thriving activity throughout your garden. Among these new species are sour piñatas that will infiltrate and wreak havoc in the garden. In “Viva Piñata: Trouble in Paradise,” players can choose to either tame sours, or feed them candy to keep them sweet.
  


• Piñata Vision. A never-before-seen feature called Piñata Vision allows players to plug in an Xbox LIVE Vision camera and interact with the game through the use of printed cards that feature a unique barcode. With Piñata Vision, gamers can simply flash a piñata card up to the Vision camera, and the content will drop directly into the game.*
  


• Accessible. “Viva Piñata: Trouble in Paradise” reinvigorates the franchise with additional game modes and features that make it even more accessible to players of all ages and skill levels.
  


• Just for Fun Mode. Designed for beginner players, kids and those just looking to explore Piñata Island, this mode allows players to jump into the garden and interact with the unique piñata world. In this mode the difficulty has been turned down and the fun has been turned up. Sour piñatas stay away, resident piñatas remain healthy, weeds don’t plague your garden and you have an infinite chocolate coin bank account, allowing you to turn your garden into a veritable utopia of colorful creatures.
  


• Standard Mode. Presenting a challenge for experienced piñata gardeners and dedicated gamers, the Standard gameplay mode provides a more tricky option, where players must keep a watchful eye on their garden. Sour piñatas, feuding species, weeds, illness and limited money call for you to exercise problem solving and creativity to build and maintain an environment where piñatas can flourish and grow.
  


• Player Guide System. Replacing the traditional tutorial, the optional Player Guide System directs players through a series of loose goals to help them master the fundamental aspects of “Viva Piñata: Trouble in Paradise.”
  


• Show Off. Using the new photo mode in “Viva Piñata: Trouble in Paradise,” you can snap, print and upload pictures of your unique garden or customized piñatas showing them off to your friends. You also can photograph your piñata and turn it into a piñata card, share it with your friends so they scan it and put it into their own garden using the Xbox LIVE Vision camera.
  


• Piñata and character interaction. All your residents are now capable of performing dazzling tricks, which you can teach them using the new trick stick tool. Watch as piñatas play together, perch on each other and interact in new ways to make them more appealing.
  


• Spontaneous. “Viva Piñata: Trouble in Paradise” is a constantly changing world where anything can and does happen. Rivalries, injuries, illness and fights — if you turn your back, who knows what your piñatas will do?
  


• It’s happening outside. Pester knows where your garden is, and he’s got a few nasty tricks up his sleeve to make piñata life difficult. Foil his plans by sending your piñata around the world to save parties everywhere. Also, you must deal with new, untamed sour piñatas with bad attitudes and more troublesome Ruffians who will try to spoil your creation.
  


• It’s happening inside. Pester will try to block piñatas from ever reaching your garden, but you can break the blockades and teach him who is in charge on Piñata Island. However, don’t underestimate Pester — he’s likely to make some personal appearances to attempt to put you in your place.
  

Penny Arcade Adventures - On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness - Fact Sheet

Format: Xbox LIVE Arcade
Download: Windows, Macintosh, Linux
Publisher: Hothead Games
Developer: Hothead Games
Release Date: May 21, 2008
Category: RPG-Adventure
ESRB Rating: M for Mature
Website: www.rainslick.com

On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness is an RPG-Adventure game set in the comic-book-meets-pulp-horror-meets-H.P. Lovecraft deranged 1920s universe of New Arcadia, delivering mature and compelling entertainment to gamers via accessible episodic delivery. The creative collaboration between Penny Arcade creators Mike ‘Gabe’ Krahulik and Jerry ‘Tycho’ Holkins, legendary game designer Ron Gilbert and veteran producers Hothead Games results in a 100% authentic Penny Arcade experience that pushes bizarre characters, outrageous combat, and adult humor to the precipices of darkness.

Players join Gabe and Tycho, the crime-solving team of the Startling Developments Detective Agency, to combat savage enemies and solve mysteries hidden deep in the sinister heart of New Arcadia. The ominous 1920s landscape features distinct artwork and characters designed exclusively by Krahulik and brought to life by the Hothead team.

On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness 2008 Hothead Games, Inc. Penny Arcade, the Penny Arcade logo, and the Penny Arcade Adventures logo are trademarks of Penny Arcade, Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries. Hothead, the Hothead Games logo, and the On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness logo are trademarks of Hothead Games, Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries. All Rights Reserved. All other trademarks and logos are the property of their respective owners.



Episodic Game Play

Each episode of On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness brings the Startling Developments detective team closer to discovering the sinister and bizarre mystery of New Arcadia, and truly takes advantage of the episodic genre by integrating features like

• The ability to carry over character, stats, abilities, inventory and look across all episodes
• A complete experience available in 5-10 hours of game play per episode
• A price point of $19.95 (or 1600 Microsoft points), offering tremendous value that fits into the modern gamer’s busy schedule
• Pick-up-and-play capabilities from any episode, allowing players enjoyment without the need to play previous instalments

Key Game Features

• Create-a-Player System lets you design and develop your own character, seeing it come to life in 3D and in the comic-style 2D cut scenes
• Dynamic turn-based combat system, over-the-top animations, and team-up moves during enemy battles
• Classic adventure game play combines with RPG elements to unravel the game’s mysteries and puzzles
• Authentic Penny Arcade story and dialogue written exclusively by Jerry Holkins
• Includes Gabe, Tycho, Annarchy,  and many other favorite Penny Arcade characters, plus new characters designed by Mike Krahulik

Velvet Assassin coming to Xbox 360 and Windows PC

Beautifully Realized Stealth-Action For Gamers

Gamecock Media Group today announced that ‘Velvet Assassin’ will be available on the Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system from Microsoft and Windows-based PC when it releases in fall 2008. Developed by Replay Studios, Velvet Assassin is a stealth-action game set in World War II and is inspired by real-life British secret agent Violette Szabo.

“This is a project we’ve been incredibly excited about from the start,” said Sascha Jungnickel, Creative Director at Replay Studios. “Velvet Assassin is going to be an amazing experience both in its visual style and gameplay, it will be awesome to get it to such a massive audience.”

Players assume the role of Violette Summer and head deep behind enemy lines with no support or official backing from the British Government. Violette risks her life fighting to defeat the German war machine one stealth mission at a time. Velvet Assassin combines lush, surreal visuals and a ground-breaking stealth combat system to deliver a gaming experience which is truly the first of its kind.

Rappelz extension unveils its two new Unique Creatures

The upcoming Rappelz extension “Epic V : Dragonc Age” for the free MMORPG Rappelz unveils some informations on its two new unique creatures: the White Dragon and the Cerberus.

Coming from ancient legends of the world of Rappelz, the White Dragon and the Cerberus are the two first creatures of the “Unique” type. Even rarer than the Centaure and the Angel, these two new creatures can be found in new zones and donjons of the Epic V. As all other creatures, they gain experience and level as normal characters, and change their appearance at level 50 and 100. They also have their own skill tree and can be controlled independently, making them a perfect companion for the adventurers.

The White Dragon is a majestic legendary creature coming from an ancient age and whose eggs have been conserved in the Veiled Island. The young dragons are hard to tame because they refuse to obey to one unique master and prefer freedom, but the rare adventurers who will be able to tame one of them will have access to the terrible powers of the Dragons…

The Cerberus is a terrifying three-headed dog defending the Dragon’s Lair. Powerful guardian, this legendary dog still is an animal, and the youngest Cerberus can feel as soft as puppies. But be careful, because once they are covered with an iron armor, the elder Cerberus are powerful war machines…

Just Flight add Vulcan to PC Flight Simulator X

Label: Just Flight
Developer: PSS / Just Flight
Genre: Flight Simulation
Release: 23rd May 2008
Price: £19.99 / €29.95 / $39.99

The mighty Vulcan is back in Flight Simulator X

RAF Vulcan has now been updated and is available now to download from Just Flight’s website. A DVD-ROM version with a new printed manual will be released on 23rd May and is available now to pre-order. As well as FSX compatibility, RAF Vulcan has been updated to make it compatible with Windows Vista and (with some minor limitations outlined below) the Flight Simulator SP2 service pack and Acceleration expansion

Existing owners of the Just Flight FS2004 version of RAF Vulcan can purchase a downloadable upgrade to FSX/Windows XP compatibility for £4.99 from www.justflight.com.



The Avro Vulcan’s beautiful lines and distinctive shape make it an icon of cold-war aviation. The Vulcan first flew in 1952, entered RAF service in 1957 and the final Vulcan flight was back in 1993. Thankfully, the last of these milestones has changed - Vulcan XH558 is airborne again, courtesy of a Heritage Lottery Fund grant and the tireless work of its dedicated fans.

Now updated for FSX compatibility, RAF Vulcan includes a faithful model from acclaimed developers PSS of XH558 as it appears currently, an additional eight all-new liveries from some of the aircraft involved in the Falklands conflict of 1982, and some of the preserved aircraft in the UK.

Fully licensed by the Royal Air Force, RAF Vulcan contains a total of eighteen examples in different Squadron liveries and with different model variations, including the 2K air-to-air refuelling tanker variant and those carrying the Blue Steel British nuclear cruise missile, the Shrike anti-radar missile as used in the Falklands, and the ‘project cancelled’ Skybolt missiles. The FS2004 version also includes scenery of RAF Cottesmore.

Just Flight’s Wolfgang Schwarz, who co-ordinated the FSX update, remarked: “We have responded to the huge demand from our customers and done what we think is an excellent job of upgrading RAF Vulcan for FSX. We have added eight new aircraft and given the whole package a complete tune-up. However, a couple of minor features from FS2004 have not been carried over to FSX. These are the one-button ‘quick start’ function and autopilot, which only operate in FS2004.”

SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS
Microsoft Flight Simulator X or 2004 – Windows Vista or XP, Acceleration or SP2 compatible

MINIMUM HARDWARE REQUIREMENTS
PC with 2.0GHz (3.0 for FSX), 512Mb RAM (1.0Gb for FSX), graphics card with 128Mb (or higher) video memory, DVD-ROM drive, Hard disk space 2.0Gb



About Just Flight

Just Flight, part of the Mastertronic Group, is the world's leading flight simulation specialist, publishing a wide variety of digital aviation products. Their range comprises a multitude of different titles, including stand alone flight simulations as well as add-ons for Microsoft’s multi-million selling Flight Simulator and Combat Flight Simulator. Just Flight also has Just Trains, a specialist label devoted to stand alone train simulators as well as add-ons for the ever-popular Microsoft Train Simulator.

A British company, based in Huntingdon, Just Flight has been established for over twelve years. It prides itself on quality, value and customer service, which it backs up with a unique money-back guarantee on all its products.

FANCY A FREE DOWNLOAD? SIGN UP WITH JUST FLIGHT AND JUST TRAINS TO START WINNING

Get the newsletter – you’ve got to be in it to win it!

Just Flight is pleased to announce that the first instalment of its regular newsletter will be winging its way by e-mail to Just Flight customers very soon. As well as the inside track on all the latest products in the Just Flight hangar and Just Trains shed, there is also going to be a super prize competition in each issue and ten lucky recipients, drawn at random, will win a free download product of their choice from the Just Flight or Just Trains range.

Readers of the newsletter will also get links to exclusive offers on the Just Flight and Just Trains sites as well as exclusive previews, demos and videos of forthcoming products.

If you already receive e-shots from Just Flight or Just Trains then you don’t need to do anything – just check your inbox! However, if you haven’t signed up to receive the newsletter then simply visit the Just Flight or Just Trains sites, follow the ‘subscribe’ button, enter your e-mail address and you’re done.

There’s no need to worry about unleashing a flood of spam - at Just Flight and Just Trains we obey three simple rules:

1) We will not send you any e-mail information unless you have asked us to do so.
2) We guarantee that none of your details will ever be sold or passed on to any third party.
3) You can unsubscribe from this service at any time.

So, make sure you’ve signed up and have a think about what you’d like to download if you win!

About Just Flight and Just Trains

Just Flight, part of the Mastertronic Group, is the world's leading flight simulation specialist, publishing a wide variety of digital aviation products. Their range comprises a multitude of different titles, including stand alone flight simulations as well as add-ons for Microsoft’s multi-million selling Flight Simulator and Combat Flight Simulator. Just Flight’s sister label, Just Trains, is a specialist publisher and developer devoted to stand alone train simulators as well as add-ons for Rail Simulator, Trainz and the ever-popular Microsoft Train Simulator.

A British company, based in Huntingdon, Just Flight has been established for over twelve years. It prides itself on quality, value and customer service, which it backs up with a unique money-back guarantee on all its products.

Grand Theft Auto IV Breaks Guinness World Records

The Popular Franchise Trumps All Other Entertainment Title Sales

The famed Grand Theft Auto series has made headlines yet again! As newly-released sales figures show, Grand Theft Auto IV has crushed the competition by selling 3.6 million units and earning $310 million in its first day of release, earning Guinness World Records™ for the Highest Grossing Video Game in 24 Hours and the Highest Revenue Generated by an Entertainment Product in 24 Hours. These records establish GTA IV as the most profitable entertainment release of all-time, far surpassing other video game, film and book releases. According to Guinness World Records, this is how the game stacks up against the competition:

• Fastest-selling video game in 24 hours: Halo 3 at $170 million
  
• Fastest-selling theatrical movie in 24 hours: Spider-Man 3 at $60 million
  
• Fastest-selling book in 24 hours: Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows at $220 million
  

For more spectacular gaming records see Guinness World Records: Gamer's Edition 2008 (RRP £15), the first Guinness World Records book devoted solely to the world of gaming, is on shelves now and bursting with new records, high score statistics and fascinating facts.

CHARTTRACK WEEKLY UK CHARTS

All formats

(Full price) Week ending 10 May 2008

1 GRAND THEFT AUTO IV ROCKSTAR
2 WII FIT NINTENDO
3 MARIO & SONIC AT THE OLYMPIC GAMES SEGA
4 IRON MAN: THE OFFICIAL VIDEOGAME SEGA
5 CALL OF DUTY 4: MODERN WARFARE ACTIVISION
6 PRO EVOLUTION SOCCER 2008 KONAMI
7 MARIO KART WII NINTENDO
8 GUITAR HERO III: LEGENDS OF ROCK REDOCTANE
9 TOM CLANCY'S RAINBOW SIX: VEGAS 2 RED STORM
10 COOKING MAMA 2 505 GAMES
11 FIFA 08 EA SPORTS
12 UEFA EURO 2008 AUSTRIA-SWITZERLAND EA SPORTS
13 HALO 3 MICROSOFT
14 SEGA SUPERSTARS TENNIS SEGA
15 NEW SUPER MARIO BROS. NINTENDO
16 MARIO KART DS NINTENDO
17 ASSASSIN'S CREED UBISOFT
18 LEGO STAR WARS: THE COMPLETE SAGA LUCASARTS
19 FOOTBALL MANAGER 2008 SEGA
20 SUPER MARIO GALAXY NINTENDO

Get physical with - Family Trainer on Nintendo Wii

- Active Fun for Everyone with Total Body Gameplay Coming to Europe in September 2008 Exclusively for Wii -

Atari today announced the forthcoming European release of NAMCO BANDAI Games’ Family Trainer exclusively for Wii. Family Trainer lets all the family and friends get physical by engaging the whole body in a variety of easy-to-understand, fast-paced and wildly entertaining activities. Family Trainer is scheduled for European release in September 2008.

The game includes the specially designed Family Trainer mat controller which, when combined with the Wii Remote, lets players get totally physical in a series of crazed challenges. Unlike other games for the Wii which only focus on the arms, Family Trainer gets the feet involved too for total body gameplay. Simple controls and intuitive play make the game easy to just pick up and play, and let players of any age get involved, get physical and have maximum fun.

There are over a dozen frantic single and multiplayer challenges to choose from all based on outdoor challenges amusingly interpreted for the world of Family Trainer, such as river rafting, mine karting, log jumping, rope skipping and much more. The activities take place in a variety of colourful locations including jungle forests full of ancient ruins, a haunted mansion complete with hordes of zombies, and a fairytale world where riding on toys and floating amongst the clouds is the order of the day.

Players can challenge friends or family members on the same mat, or cooperate together, for example trying to balance a runaway mine kart as it hurtles round a gravity defying track. Players can track their progress and set new records for their friends and family to beat, bringing a dose of healthy competition into the madcap mix.

Family Trainer is scheduled for European release in September 2008 exclusively for Wii.

Alone in the Dark - Developers Diary 3

Hervé Sliwa, Lead Designer, Eden Games

Technology, Iteration and Central Park

To build all this variety of gameplay elements and features in Alone in the Dark we built our own technology. There is a full R&D department working on the tool we use at Eden – it’s an in-house tool called Twilight 2. The interesting thing about Twilight 2 is it’s the same tool we used for TDU. It was so flexible that with updates on it we can make all that we need for Alone in the Dark.

There is another technical team working on the game engine specifically for all the different platforms to run everything in the game. We had the chance to develop a very open engine to bring together everything in the game – I don’t know if it would have been possible with another engine. The great thing for the designers is that everything has been thought of like Lego blocks, so if you have an idea you can pick a little part of the engine, add another part, meld them together and you have what you expect to have. After that you can play with it inside the game and build some specific situations or puzzles. The designers were able to prototype the game mechanics themselves and the engine helped us a lot to do that.

How we managed to balance the innovation with fun in the game is by working nights (a lot) and the key word is iteration. You don’t have any other method. If something was never done before you need to build it, test it, see what goes well, what goes wrong, and you need to improve it and improve it, test it, improve it. We do this for all the features in the game, lots of iteration, iteration, iteration.

It was fun because when we talked together about some gameplay situations in the game after some discussion we realised that nobody in the development team played the same situation the same way. Sometimes we talked about it and someone would say “we need to improve that because when you use this object to fight these monsters and…” I would say, “but you used that object to fight these monsters? You’re supposed to do that!” “No, no you can combine this with that and it gives you this result”, and I’d realise that yes it’s logical. We had lots of unexpected situations just from the creativity of the player – that was really, really interesting.

On the other hand, it was difficult to manage lots of people on the project, and the new generation of game console brought lots of new issues. The team grew so fast that we needed to re-think all our processes to build a game. With this new type of content it created a new type of issue so our everyday work was re-thinking everything, which was very, very hard.

The choice of Central Park is important, because what we want with Central Park is to give to the player some realistic environments to put all the extraordinary things in perspective. If you have a realistic environment everything not normal seems very, very weird. If you are in a completely weird environment the weirdness is normal, so what we want is to use the park to give the perspective on all the paranormal activity.

Of course the park is also very useful in terms of environment because it’s very rich in terms of variety, there are plenty of buildings, there is a huge museum, lots of lakes, there are some parts which are very cute and charming and there are some more wild forest parts, and you have lots of bridges and roads.

When we went to Central Park to do some research in terms of environments, we took tons of photography and we walked miles and miles. When we saw something we stopped and said oh, we can have something here, and we thought about how to build specific situations. Sometimes we simulated the situations of the game in the park, so it was quite dangerous sometimes, but it was interesting!