Football Superstars, the world’s first virtual football world

Football Superstars, the world’s first virtual football world, has broken the quarter of a million, registrations barrier. The excitement amongst gamers and football fans in the run up to the now live CyberSports published game has been reflected in the huge increase in registrations since October, with the number signed up doubling in just seven weeks.

The marketing campaign began in May 2008, with 25,000 registrations signed up to the free to play and download football MMOG (massively multiplayer online game) and by October the first target of 100,000 had been reached. The recent publicity surrounding the game, available on www.footballsuperstars.com, has seen this double to 200,000 by the end of November. The number now stands just over an impressive 250,000. This strength of support amongst the online community has been echoed on the website’s forum, on which 60,000 registrants have interacted, and 220,000 individual games of football have already been played in the last eight weeks – an astonishing half a million man hours of game play.

In Football Superstars, players re-create themselves online as a footballer and then have free reign in a state of the art interactive virtual world. Players can play their way from 3-a-side up to full 11-a-side matches, gaining new attributes and skills in order to specialise in their chosen playing position. Away from the pitch players can socialise in restaurants, bars and clubs and visit virtual stores where they can buy equipment and clothes. Players can train in gyms and on training pitches to enhance their skills or flirt with the paparazzi in a bid to boost their fame and status and gain access to the most exclusive clubs and venues.

Phil Booker, CyberSports Head of Sales and Marketing, said: “Breaking the 250,000 barrier is an incredible achievement. It’s fantastic to see the results of the combination of strategic partnerships that we have set up and our marketing strategy using PPC, SEO and viral marketing paying off with such a large number of registrations. We’ve had great support from DBD Media and Infectious Media amongst others, and with their continued support, the registrations will continue to grow and Football Superstars will be the success that our hard work promises.”

Japanese Star Ocean video game series finally reaches U.S.

Star Ocean is a Japanese RPG series whose first game wasn't released in the United States until now. And now that it's here, it stands as one of the better role-playing games on the PSP.

"Star Ocean: The Second Story" was the series' debut in America; "Star Ocean: First Departure" is a remake of the original Super Nintendo game, which is set 20 years before "The Second Story."

But that's getting ahead of things. The game begins on the planet Roak, a relatively primitive world whose inhabitants appear mostly human, except for the tails and pointy ears.

Roak seems peaceful -- one of the game's young heroes, Roddick, even laments the boredom to be had even as a member of the defense force for the town of Kratus.

Roddick and his friends Millie and Dorne find more excitement than they bargained for when they encounter two strange beings who appear in a flash of light. These beings turn out to be Ronyx Kenny and Ilia Silvestri, humans from Earth who belong to a "Star Trek" Federation-like alliance that has a policy of noninterference with undeveloped worlds.

But Ronyx and Ilia are bending the rules because a petrifying contagion sweeping through Roak was introduced by a rival faction of humans.

They offer to help, and the group soon learns that the origins of this disease and its cure lie in Roak's past, and so they head to an ancient time gate to travel back and wrest the cure from the body of a legendary evil. But they have to leave behind their advanced equipment, and then something goes awry in the time trip.

Other "Star Ocean" games have had a similar mix of futuristic high technology with common fantasy tropes such as monsters and magic (called symbology here). It's a combination that has served the series well.

Battles are played out in real time. The player can have up to four characters in the party and can switch control between them at will. When controlling a character, the player can hammer on the X button to keep up a series of combo attacks, use the shoulder buttons to execute pre-chosen special attacks or pause the action to select items and magic. The fighting is fast-paced and can be pretty tough.

The overhaul "First Departure" has received is considerable. The graphics are the most obvious improvement: Where the original game had sprite artwork, here the characters and monsters are redrawn in high resolution, and pre-rendered backdrops take the place of the old tile-based locations.

Star Ocean: First Departure
Publisher: Square Enix
System: Sony PSP
Price: $39.99
Age rating: Teen

Source: Post Bulletin

Aliens - Colonial Marines video game

First-Person Shooter Based on Popular Motion Picture Franchise on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Windows PC

SEGA details the squad-based first-person shooter video game, Aliens - Colonial Marines. Licensed through an exclusive agreement with Twentieth Century Fox Licensing and Merchandising and developed by Gearbox Software, the game is available on the Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, PlayStation 3 computer entertainment system and Windows-based PC in late 2008.


In Aliens: Colonial Marines, players are part of a United States Colonial Marine squad and must prepare to face an alien assault more intense and horrific than ever before. Driven by a compelling and original story penned by renowned writers Bradley Thompson and David Weddle Aliens: Colonial Marines will retain the atmospheric look and feel of the original films while leveraging next-generation technology to create an entirely new interactive Aliens experience.

Packing classic Aliens weaponry ranging from pulse rifles to flamethrowers as well as brand-new equipment and skills all within a squad-based combat system, players will become an elite United States Colonial Marine. Featuring claustrophobic environments, a brooding soundtrack, and a multitude of surprises and shocks, players will battle against menacing alien hordes in strikingly detailed levels that include the stark interiors of the abandoned Sulaco and unique environments created specifically for the game.


Aliens: Colonial Marines will feature a story driven single-player mode and an all-new four player co-op mode allowing players to share the chilling experience with three friends. In co-op mode, each player will assume the persona of a Colonial Marine and have a distinct role to play in the completion of every mission. Additionally, more multiplayer modes will be revealed later in the year that will complete the Aliens video game experience.

Since its 1979 debut, Alien and its three sequels have grossed more than $557 million worldwide.

Twenty vintage video game adverts...

And when I say vintage, I really mean vintage. The new gaming generation would most certainly be too young to even know about most of the games that were around in the early 80’s. Hell I was just sucking my thumb in those years.

But to see some of the campaigns these guys came up with for the likes of Pole Position and Pitfall are pretty outstanding...

See the others in the original post here...

CSi New York the video game

For the first time ever, immerse yourself in the world of CSI - NY. Experience five original cases written by CSI writers and solve mysteries alongside your favorite characters from the hit TV crime show.

Watch the trailer on my YouTube channel here... (please subscribe)









Key Features

Solve crimes in the big apple

Finally, CSI fans can experience the world, characters and mysteries of CSI: NY. Piece together clues and uncover hidden evidence in the biggest city in America. Explore five brand-new, bizarre crimes and bring suspects to justice.

Play as the stars

For the first time, you can take on the role of CSI stars as you play the characters of Detectives Mac Taylor and Stella Bonasera.

More gameplay

A new, moody graphic-novel art style and more user-friendly interface will assure accessibility and hours of replay for all types of gamers. Improved gameplay includes new mechanics for conversations, blood work, computer use and much more.

Control interrogations

For the first time in CSI, control interrogations and use evidence to reveal a suspect’s lies. Take part in dramatic interrogations, and create atmospheric reenactments while exploring grisly crime scenes inspired by the show.

Dig deeper with new mini games

Includes an incredible variety of new mini-games, including code breaking, facial reconstruction, identify locations from photos, triangulate shooter locations, manipulate the X-Ray scanner, physics simulation reconstructions, identify poisons, compare samples for differences, Internet searching and more!

Shaun White Snowboarding soundtrack list and video

Ubisoft announced the soundtrack for Shaun White Snowboarding, a brand new video game franchise built around Olympic and X-Games gold medalist Shaun White.

Shaun’s love for classic rock played an important role in inspiring the final list of songs for his video game.

Featuring an eclectic mix of genres and artists, the soundtrack flawlessly aligns fresh alternative beats, hardcore rock and old school classics, forming every thrill-seeker’s ideal playlist. Some featured standout artists include Kasabian, Audioslave, MGMT, Heart, Blue Öyster Cult and Bob Dylan.
Below is the full list of tracks featured in Shaun White Snowboarding:

• “The Press Corpse” - Anti-Flag
• “Gasoline” - Audioslave
• “Berlin” - Black Rebel Motorcycle Club
• “Weapon of Choice” - Black Rebel Motorcycle Club
• “Don’t Fear the Reaper” - Blue Öyster Cult
• “Hurricane” - Bob Dylan
• “Someday Baby” - Bob Dylan
• “Acceptable in the 80s” - Calvin Harris
• “Clean My Wounds” - Corrosion of Conformity
• “Time to Fly” - Dunk
• “We Come 1” - Faithless
• “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised” - Gil Scott-Heron
• “Counting the Days” - Goldfinger
• “Jump into the Fire” - Harry Nilsson
• “Barracuda” - Heart
• “The Fashion (Do or Die)” - illScarlett
• “Anna Molly” - Incubus
• “White Rabbit” - Jefferson Airplane
• “Reason Is Treason” - Kasabian
• “Stuntman” - Kasabian
• “Cult of Personality” - Living Colour
• “Working for the Weekend” - Loverboy
• “Control” - Metro Station
• “Of Moons, Birds & Monsters” - MGMT
• “Time to Pretend” - MGMT
• “Dashboard” - Modest Mouse
• “Stompbox” - Overseer
• “Rock Box” - Run DMC
• “Ill Placed Trust” - Sloan
• “Ring of Fire” - Social Distortion
• “Save Yourself” - Stabbing Westward
• “The Ballroom Blitz” - Sweet
• “Perfect Wave” - The Beautiful Unknown (Formerly Barlow)
• “Keep Loving Me” - The Draytones
• “Waiting for Go” - The Dykeenies
• “Alive & Amplified” - The Mooney Suzuki
• “Great DJ” - The Ting Tings
• “Every Inambition” - The Trews
• “Animal I Have Become” - Three Days Grace
• “Play That Funky Music” - Wild Cherry

Shaun White is an Olympic gold medalist with 42 professional wins, including seven Winter X-Games gold medals. He was also the first athlete to win gold medals in Winter and Summer X-Games in unique disciplines. White collaborated with Ubisoft’s award-winning development team to create Shaun White Snowboarding. The game features open world mountains across the globe, where players are free to define their own experiences and express themselves through tricks, unique riding styles and highly customizable avatars. Players can also hang out with their friends and have fun off the board by throwing snowballs, hiking to access secret spots, and filming their friends doing tricks.

Shaun White Snowboarding will be available for retail beginning Nov. 14, 2008 for the Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, the PLAYSTATION 3 computer entertainment system, the Nintendo Wii home video game system from Nintendo, the Nintendo DS system, the PSP (PlayStationPortable) system, the PlayStation 2 computer entertainment system, and Windows PC.

Shaun White Snowboarding

The story of Shaun White Snowboarding is a tale of two fun, distinct games that, if joined together, probably would have formed something better than either attempt on its own.

Unsurprisingly, the feature nod goes to White's beautiful Xbox 360 PlayStation 3 incarnation, which boasts four (or five, if you get the Target-branded special edition) huge mountains, lets you tackle challenges in whatever order you please and features open-world online multiplayer (16 players). It also plays nicely, with easy controls and smooth animation leading the way.


Problem is, a major chunk of the game's single-player objectives center around platformer-style item collection, which isn't exactly the best use of a forward-moving snowboarding game. A clumsy interface makes locating these items trickier than it should be. While the ability to set a warp-to marker at will makes it easy to take multiple stabs at nabbing an item, the process feels intrusive when you'd rather be racing down a mountain and racking up trick points.

That's something the Wii version - a completely different game in every respect - does much better. Road Trip is less attractive, less ambitious and more linear than its Xbox 360 PlayStation 3 cousin, but the events fall more consistently in line with what one expects and wants from a snowboarding game.

Trip also benefits from excellent use of the balance board as a mock snowboard, although the game also works surprisingly well with just the Wiimote. The Wiimote scheme is considerably easier, but mastering the board is considerably more fun. In a nice touch, the game adjusts the target times and scores for every event to reflect your control method, and you're free to change back and forth between events without sacrificing your overall progress.

The downside to either method is a familiar song for Wii games: less flexibility in controls. With buttons at a premium, your range of acrobatics is sorely limited. While pulling tricks off isn't a mindless cakewalk, the sense of risk and danger is considerably less than what the other game allows. "Trip" would have benefited from some kind of nunchuck attachment support, but the disparity between that degree of control and that of the available methods probably was too large for Ubisoft to justify its inclusion.

In the end, neither game completely nails it. Fortunately, neither game blows it, either. Issues await you no matter which poison you pick, but if you're steeled for those issues, a good time awaits, as well.

SHAUN WHITE SNOWBOARDING
Developer: Ubisoft.
Systems: Xbox 360, PS3 (also available for PC, DS, PSP, PS2).
Price: $60 ($30-$40).
Rating: Teen; lyrics, mild suggestive themes, mild violence.

SHAUN WHITE SNOWBOARDING: ROAD TRIP
Developer: Ubisoft.
System: Wii.
Price: $50.
Rating: Everyone 10+; comic mischief, lyrics.

Source: Star Tribune

Enter a snowboarding world of total freedom. You can create your own experience in this game, and choose when, where, how and with whom you want to ride.

Developed in close collaboration with Olympic Gold Medalist Shaun White – the most successful snowboarder in the history of the sport – Shaun White Snowboarding is the next-gen game that redefines the action sports genre.

Key Features :

• Open-World Mountains : Choose how you ride in open-world mountains across the world: Conquer the extreme peak conditions, create your own paths in the back country or compete with fellow riders in the terrain parks.

• Your Friends Are Always Around : Play in a world where your friends are always around. Do your own runs on mountains populated by real gamers, or join your friends for a quick session from anywhere in the mountains.

• More than Just Snowboarding : Have fun with your friends on and off the board: Throw snowballs, hike to access secret spots, film your friends doing crazy tricks. You can also upload your videos online to share with the world.

• Ride Your Way : Express yourself through tricks, riding styles and highly customizable avatars – both in single-player and in the online world. Use the intuitive dual analog control to pull off a huge variety of tricks that express your style.

• Next-Gen Technology : Built on the Assassin\'s Creed™ engine, this game creates a massive world with gorgeous visuals and realistic NPC interaction. This is also the first time a snowboarding game is completely driven by physics instead of animation.

• Authentic Snowboarding : Ubisoft has worked closely with Shaun White to infuse the gaming experience with authenticity, personality and humor. Shaun is a friend and mentor in the game, and will help you with your skills. And if you are deemed worthy, you may even be able to play as Shaun in the game…

Quantum of Solace video game review 2009

Quantum of Solace
Playstation 3, Activision, T (Teen)
Uh, oh, another video game based upon a movie. Someone please ring the alarm and get a can of air freshener. It's no secret that video games based on movies, especially games that slip out on the market around the same time of a big movie premiere, can be a dicey product.
At best they are solid representations of the characters and scenarios included in the big screen adventure. At their worst, they are hackneyed advertisements that cost too much ($60) and run too long (6-10 hours).

Given that "Quantum of Solace" centers on an iconic character, James Bond, the need to be at least a passable game is crucial to the franchise.

"Quantum of Solace" is combines story cues and characters from both the recent movie release and the "Casino Royale" movie. If you never saw either movie then the story of the game will not connect neatly. The problem is that the dialogue is sparse throughout the game, with most of is coming between missions. And it sets up the next snippet of action, instead of establishing a stronger link between events. The action takes places across 14 stages in locales such as Madagascar and Miami, and settings ranging from caves to estates.

The individual stages are short. If you are familiar with video games you can breeze through most of them in 30 minutes, including multiple deaths. The game presents an interesting mix of foot chases, hand-to-hand combat and some decent gunfights. The "Call of Duty 4" game engine was used as a template but they forgot to give the game the same level of intensity. Only the timed missions have a sense of urgency. The enemies are not very aware. They are bright enough to chase and flank you, they also should be bright enough not to take cover behind explosive containers.

The game is played from first- and third-person perspectives. The controls get caught in the middle at times. The main example is when you have to remove yourself from cover then hop over an object. Bond will remove himself from cover but instead of immediately hopping over the barrier you might have to step back to try to clear it. The weapons targeting is decent, much better at mid-range and long distance when in first-person view. At up-close range you have some of those "how did I miss?" moments.

The environments are fully destructible. In some instances they are falling down around you as you are moving through them. Exploding melons in market gunfights, splintered fences and shattered windows are just a few of the effects. The explosions, which look nice, have a Hollywood soundstage feel. But it is cool how the ripple from a nearby grenade or large explosion can shake your aim.

"Quantum" is not a terrible effort. It just needs more intensity and more robust dialogue to remove the standard movie video-game release stigma that comes with its title.

Source: Cleveland.com

Guitar Hero - On Tour Decades Nintendo DS game review

Guitar Hero - On Tour Decades
Nintendo DS, Activision, E 10+ (Everyone 10+)

Description: A pint-sized version of the music-rhythm game.

Features: The game features 28 tracks from the '70s, '80s and '90s. A palm-sized color-coded keyboard attaches to the DS through the GameBoy cartridge slot, allowing players to hit the notes as they strum the touchpad. 

Due to limitations of the DS speakers the game is best enjoyed with headphones. 

Players can challenge each other to a duel via a Wi-fi connection and sabotage their performances. The oddest feature is the use of the DS microphone (yelling, "Rock On") to activate the star power feature. For those who "just have" to play Guitar Hero in some incarnation every waking minute of the day it can be enjoyable. For casual fans it's more like spraying salad spritzer on a heaping bowl of lettuce. Grade: C

Pro Evolution Soccer 2009 on PlayStation 3

PES 2009: Pro Evolution Soccer
Playstation 3, Konami, E (Everyone)

Description: The latest installment of the soccer franchise that focuses on the international game.

Features: "PES 2009: Pro Evolution Soccer" is one of the more technical soccer games on the market. The immense move set is filled with player-specific tricks and skills.
The majority of the moves require button combinations to complete, which makes pulling off advanced moves in game situations difficult.

The computer AI doesn't make many mistakes with the ball. The auto-switch system (player takes control of the nearest man to ball) feels sluggish. The "Master League" features remain a draw for fans of international soccer by allowing them to take day-to-day control of a club. The graphics are rich and detailed. Announcers keep up with the action fairly well and even comment on your coaching skills (or lack thereof).