My Make-Up - video game for Nintendo DS

Make over, pamper, or face paint yourself and your friends!

Featuring game design based upon the real-world interests and next steps of its young female gaming audience, My Make-Up is a perfect fit. Offering aspirational subject matter, personal and social play, complete customization options and most importantly, full touch screen support, My Make-Up, joined by its sister titles; My Dress-Up and My Secret Diary, hits the shelves this autumn.

About My Make-Up
Make over, pamper, and face-paint yourself and your friends, or check your messages to see whose makeover dreams you can make come true!

With brushes, colours and creams, face masks, hydrating fruits and facepaint palettes, you’ll experiment with new styles and techniques, plus be awarded new colours and stencils to try out on your friends. Check your inbox for messages, give yourself a makeover, or visit your friends for makeover and pampering practise. Do makeovers for parties, weddings and special events. Pamper your skin with facial treatments, or invite up to three of your friends to a makeover party via Nintendo DS Wireless Communication.

Save favourite makeovers in your photo album and send them to your My Make-Up friends, or for a complete new look, to friends with My Dress-Up. Sit back and chat with all of your My Make-Up, My Dress-Up and My Secret Diary friends, with exclusive MyGames Chat via Nintendo DS Wireless Communication.

My Make-Up offers players their very own makeup box on Nintendo DS. My Dress-Up offers players dressing up, fashion and design for themselves and their friends, with their very own dressing-up box. My Secret Diary provides a place to store secrets, keep a journal, have fun with mini-games, or send secret messages and event invitations to keep in touch with their friends.

With the added benefit of all titles in the MyGames series working together with the exclusive MyGames Chat feature, My Make-Up, My Dress-Up and My Secret Diary will be in-store this autumn.

Character & Arena Profiles for Xbox - Double D Dodgeball

A Closer Inspection of Summer's Most Competitive XBLA Dodgeball Title

YUKE'S Company of America, the U.S. publishing arm of Japanese game developer YUKE'S Company Limited, today released a new crop of character and arena profiles offering gamers a deeper look into its upcoming Xbox LIVE Arcade title Double D Dodgeball for the Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system from Microsoft. In addition to the barrage of new assets, a collection of wallpapers have been included, created by the game’s own creative development team. An arcade twist on the classic playground sport, Double D Dodgeball is set to induce heated dodgeball matches when it launches this summer.


The latest package of assets includes new character screenshots complete with a profile sheet, detailing each player’s special attributes which include superior catching abilities, power shots, and unbeatable speed, among other skills for gamers to find their winning combination. Screenshots of the various arenas are also included, showcasing both Eastern and Western dodgeball grounds as well as the various defensive obstacles.

Double D Dodgeball will cost 800 MS Points and is rated E for Everyone by the ESRB. Additional information can be found by visiting the Double D Dodgeball teaser site at: www.yukes.us

WoW Patch 2.4.3 notes are now live with a few surprises

Highlights include mounts at level 30, changes to non-combat pets, Curse of Shadow and Curse of Elements have been combined, Hunter pet changes, Magisters' Terrace Nerf, changes to Rogue's Cheat Death ability and more!

read more | digg story

European version of hit MMORPG Fiesta Online

English, German, French and Spanish versions of Fiesta Online, a “free to play” Online Roleplaying game that has already enjoyed massive success in the US and Asia. Featuring detailed 3D graphics and a rich game world with numerous quests and epic storyline, the high quality game already enjoys a thriving European community. Players can now pre-register for the Beta-Test by signing-up on http://fiesta.gamigo.com.

Inviting Adventurers on a free trip to a magical land
At first sight, Fiesta Online is an unlikely candidate for the free-to-play model: Boasting detailed cell-shaded characters in a rich and vast game world packed with epic quests and endless challenges, the MMORPG rivals most subscription titles in terms of scope and quality – making it one of the biggest genre-hits in the US. Thousands of players explore the magical island, fight numerous enemies, solve mysteries and develop their unique avatars with new skills and equipment.

After an intuitive introduction in the home city, players can choose to hunt down enemies or follow hundreds of quests on their own or group with others in parties and guilds, together solving epic kingdom quests that offer adventures for up to 30 players. Another innovation is the “housing” system: Players can transform into their mushroom-like, but fully customizable, house at any time to rest or trade items. And with the autumn update, the interiors can be decorated and used to invite friends – apart from levelling, socializing is a big part of the Fiesta Online experience!

The international MMOG-Hit is coming to Europe!

gamigo exclusively publishes the Korean-developed MMOG in Europe, starting with German and English versions this summer, followed by French and Spanish later in the year. Currently the game is being modified for local tastes, including a complete rework of the English translation. Numerous improvements and new features will keep players engaged while the free-to-play model offers the title to a broad audience.

“Fiesta Online is our biggest game so far and has already proven successful in the US and Asia”, explains Sven Ossenbrüggen, CEO gamigo AG. “Improving the international versions with a completely reworked translation and storyline, we are offering players a high quality game to enjoy for free!”

The English European version of Fiesta Online is set to launch soon after the German version. Interested players can sign up for the Beta Test on http://fiesta.gamigo.com.

Users create, and share over 250,000 Spore Creatures

The Countdown to the Launch of Spore Blasts Off With Fans Uploading 

More Than Two Creatures Every Second Since Launch.

We’re not alone in the galaxy! Spore fans and the creatively curious have designed and shared more than 250,000 new alien life forms since yesterday’s launch of the Spore Creature Creator – currently more than two creatures are being shared every second! Anyone can download their own copy of the Spore Creature Creator or check out thousands of amazing creations from around the world in the Sporepedia at www.spore.com.

“The response to the Spore Creature Creator has been overwhelming,” said Lucy Bradshaw, executive producer of Spore at Maxis. “The creativity and passion that the community is putting into their creatures is spectacular. The development team has spent the last 24 hours checking out the amazing creations racing in from all corners of the globe – with peak volume hitting more than 1,000 creatures being shared a minute.”

The Spore Creature Creator is a stand-alone product and creativity toy box where players create their own unique creatures, bring them to life with entertaining animations, and share them online with friends around the world. The full version of the Spore Creature Creator will be available for $9.99 at retail stores or by visiting www.spore.com. A free trial version of the Spore Creature Creator is also available today at www.spore.com. The trial version features 25% of the creature-making parts from Spore and lets players shape, paint and play with their custom-created creatures. Creatures made in the Spore Creature Creator can also be imported into the full Spore game, allowing players to populate their own galaxies when the game ships worldwide later this year.

The Spore Creature Creator lets players create their own creatures, take them on a test drive, snap pictures, and make movies of them. Sharing pictures or videos with friends is as easy as the click of a button. Players can also share their creations with others by uploading to the Sporepedia at www.Spore.com. The Sporepedia is an extraordinarily vast online destination where people worldwide can search for and share Spore creations, comment on other player’s designs, check out celebrity creature creations and much more.

The Spore Creature Creator is rated E for Everyone by the ESRB. The downloadable demo version is free. The complete version has an MSRP of $9.99 in North America. Spore ships for the PC, Mac, Nintendo DS and mobile phones on September 5, 2008 in Europe and September 7, 2008 in North America and Asia. Visit www.Spore.com to download a free version of the Spore Creature Creator, sign up for the Spore newsletter or check out all-new screenshots and videos from the game.

Zoids Assault - slips to September - New Screenshots

“Zoids Assault is going to slip out of late August and into early September - the 9th to be exact... Hey, are these new Zoids Assault screenshots? These are great! Let’s focus on these instead,” pleaded Aram Jabbari, Assistant Manager of Sales and PR, holding a set of awesome new Zoids Assault screenshots above his head.



The latest addition to Atlus’s lineup of strategy RPGs for the Xbox 360 system, Zoids Assault is loaded with deeply engaging strategic gameplay featuring giant biomechanical war machines that can be customized with over 60 different parts.
Zoids Assault is now set to release on September 9, 2008.

Farmlands - A Next Generation Board and Collectible Card Game

In Farmlands you build farms, plant crops, and battle for control of land. The goal of farmlands is straight forward....Increase your net worth to meet the goal of the map or have the largest net worth when time runs out. Players move around the outside of the board building farms and planting crops. If a player lands on your farm they will have to pay a toll equal to the value of the farm and its connected crops. It gets interesting when you start connect multiple farms together to combine their values. To prevent other players from connecting farms a player can initiate a battle by placing one of their crops on an opponents square. The outcome of battles between players are determined by slot machine mini games.



The collectible aspect of the game comes in with the pack of cards you are drawing your items and seeds from. During your turn you will draw items or seeds from your pack to use in the game. Seeds are used to plant crops or boost your attack in combat. Items are used to modify the behavior of things in the game. At the end of any map in single or multi player the player will receive additional items or seeds which they can use to customize their pack.



For more information about Farmlands as well as screen shots, renders and wallpapers please check out www.farmlandsgame.com.

Of Two Minds - Brains in Video Games

Check out Mother Brain from the Metroid series.

read more | digg story

Puzo estate sues over 'Godfather' games

The estate of author Mario Puzo has filed suit against Paramount Pictures, claiming the studio owes it at least $1 million in revenues from the series of video games based on the Oscar-winning film "The Godfather."

read more | digg story

RSNO - Video Games Live concert live in Glasgow Scotland

News from my home town...

As the RSNO prepares to play a concert of music from videogames in Glasgow, Dave Cook looks at the history of game soundtracks

Last year in the UK, videogames overtook the music industry in terms of money made and it looks like the film industry could be next. But today’s gaming technology is working in tandem with these industries in interesting new ways, making cut-scenes increasingly cinematic and soundtracks more atmospheric. Music in particular, has been used as a gameplay tool as opposed to an accompanying feature.

But who could have foretold, as Mario Brothers creator Shigeru Miyamoto was putting his now iconic 8-bit soundtrack into his game, just how big an influence music in games would have on pop culture? Back in the early 80s, music in games was embedded in chipsets incorporating said consoles’ technology to produce various pitches of blips and bleeps that sound distinctively primitive by today’s standards.

However, these songs were composed nonetheless, from the madcap preamble that preceded a game of Pac-Man to the insanely infectious main theme from The Legend of Zelda on NES, and each composer had a vision of how these tunes should sound. Incidentally, both of these songs have stood the test of time and are used in modern incarnations of each series.

The 16-bit war between Sega and Nintendo circa 1992 was crammed full of releases boasting superb soundtracks, from Sega’s dab-hand with multi-layered techno beats à la Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and Streets of Rage, to Nintendo’s penchant for the cute and catchy. This was something of a golden age in composition, with many of these tracks being parodied, covered or remixed by droves of fan websites and bands (Google and ye shall find). Over the years the trend would continue and a whole new level of orchestrated music scores and licensed soundtracks have become possible thanks to the advances in technology.

So here we are in 2008 with a very special gaming event about to hit the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall. The brainchild of composer Tommy Tallarico, who has worked on such fantastic series as Prince of Persia and Splinter Cell, Video Games Live is something of an orchestrated cover gig devoted to delivering classical renditions of classic video game tunes past and present.

‘We really had two goals in mind with Video Games Live,’ says Tallarico. ‘Our first was to prove to the world how significant video games have become and how culturally and artistically relevant they are. They are pieces of art. VGL isn’t just about the music, but about all the other elements of games, visuals, art, special effects, characters, interactivity, storyline.’

With the help of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Tallarico will be belting out music from such legendary scores as Final Fantasy, Outrun and Halo, all set against the backdrop of a state of the art, synchronised light show. Tallarico concludes: ‘If Beethoven were alive today, he’d be a videogame composer.’

Now that would have been interesting.

Source: The List

Already have my tickets...