Planetstorm - all-out battle of Man versus Machine

Challenge Online Games, Inc. (Challenge Games) is releasing its newest massively-multiplayer, collectable card game Planetstorm (www.planetstorm.com). The world had been a lush utopia, but after having been ravaged by a generation of warfare of Man versus Machine, the world is now in ruins. It is now up to every player to build a team to crush the Machines and determine the fate of humanity.

Planetstorm is a free-to-play, massively multiplayer, collectable card game which can be played asynchronously with your friends even if they are online at different times. Planetstorm is the first spinoff of the successful Warstorm (www.warstorm.com) collectable card game series. While Planetstorm maintains a familiar layout, the developers have created a universe that is unique in its game play. The military influence flows throughout the design whether cards are infantry, armor, aircraft or even structures which can be strategically used for cover or offense. Players can complete missions and challenges to acquire rewards, or they can buy in-game currency to purchase new card packs. Developers have added new daily missions which can reward a player for specific tasks.

Planetstorm can be played for-free directly from any browser. Signup is made even easier due to Planetstorm's integration of Facebook Connect. A Facebook user can simply click-to-register and a fully authenticated Planetstorm account will be created within seconds. The player will be asked to create an avatar and join the battle. This same technology was used by CNN.com to let Facebook users share comments with their friends during the live-streaming Presidential Inauguration of Barack Obama. Challenge Games is well known for early Facebook integration since their initial launch title Duels (www.duels.com), and Planetstorm now supports the latest updates in Facebook platform technology.

Duels, was the first massively multi-player role-playing game (MMORPG) to be integrated directly with Facebook. It currently has over a quarter of a million players worldwide. Challenge Games' second title, Baseball Boss, is an official licensee of MLB Advanced Media and the MLBA, and it is the first game to combine baseball simulation games with collectable card games. Warstorm takes collectable card games (CCG) into the massively multiplayer online (MMO) world. Planetstorm builds on the success of Warstorm as a collectable card game where mankind must prevent machines from causing the end of the human race.

To play Planetstorm, visit http://www.planestorm.com. To play Duels, visit http://www.duels.com or http://apps.facebook.com/duelsfb. To play Baseball Boss, visit http://www.baseballboss.com. To play Warstorm, visit http://www.warstorm.com. For more information on Challenge Games, visit http://www.challengegames.com.

PikMin and Mario Power Tennis New Player control series for Nintendo Wii

Lateral thinkers and tennis fans alike will delight in NEW PLAY CONTROL! Pikmin and NEW PLAY CONTROL! Mario Power Tennis - two Nintendo classics originally released on Nintendo GameCube but now which have been reworked in widescreen for Wii’s NEW PLAY CONTROL!, a new series of games powered up to take advantage of the Wii’s unique control system!

Fun and challenging gameplay will delight a whole new generation, while some additional features will excite existing Mario Power Tennis and Pikmin fans.

The compulsively cute Pikmin, available on 6th February 2009, will test the brain and stun the senses, while Mario Power Tennis, available on 6th March 2009 will challenge your hand-eye coordination and see you pitting your abilities against friends and family.

NEW PLAY CONTROL! Pikmin – Pikmin just got a bit more perfect! Whether you are a Pikmin fan or have yet to be bewitched by its charms, NEW PLAY CONTROL! Pikmin now makes full use of the Wii Remote’s point-and-select capability, which will delight anyone who enjoys a real-time strategy adventure.

You control a spaceman called Captain Olimar who has crash-landed on an unusual planet. The planet is inhabited by Pikmin - strange flower-like creatures that are half-animal, half-plant – as well as a variety of hostile creatures who will try and stop you in your mission. Captain Olimar must collect 30 sections of his crashed vessel which have been scattered across the planet to reassemble his ship and continue his galactic quest: luckily the obliging Pikmin are there to help him.

Each type of Pikmin has unique strengths, which Olimar must use to his advantage. Red Pikmin can withstand high temperatures, blue Pikmin can survive in water, while yellow Pikmin can destroy obstacles by using bomb-rocks. Players can control 100 Pikmin at any one time organising them individually, in groups, or in an army of 100 – and the Wii Remote makes selecting, grouping and giving orders to your Pikmin more fluid and more intuitive than ever before making it more accessible to all levels of players.

The NEW PLAY CONTROL! version of the game also sees an updated save mechanism, which now allows you to restart play from any day you please – perfect for retrying a particularly puzzling challenge! Pikmin will keep your brain burning for hours as you race against time solving puzzles and battling foes with an army of cute and loveable creatures to help you.

NEW PLAY CONTROL! Mario Power Tennis – Grab the opportunity to play as your favourite character from the Mario world, such as Mario, Bowser or Princess Peach and unleash some Power Shots on the tennis court – now using the Wii Remote to make the action more intuitive than ever before!

The NEW PLAY CONTROL! Mario Power Tennis, sports different replay camera options and a two-player split screen that will be familiar to fans of Tennis on Wii Sports. But the biggest advance is the ability to use your Wii Remote to play a wide range of different shots, from overhand strikes to backhands – and, of course the famous Power Shots, which are different for each character!. The game also offers levels of control types which increase in difficulty ensuring players of all levels of gameplay experience can enjoy the game.

The game also enables you to play on a range of courts as well as Gimmick courts. These feature elements that influence how the match will be played, such as the ghosts in the Luigi's Mansion court, which trip you up by placing banana peels under your feet. To keep the ghosts at bay, your tennis skills will have to be at their best to direct the ball onto light switches in order to turn on the lights and scare away the ghosts.

The central mode of the game is Tournament Mode, which is split between matches on regular surfaces and matches on Gimmick courts, and features a standard ladder-style advancement system. Winning tournaments can unlock new characters, new courts, and new gameplay styles for the Exhibition Mode.

A series of tennis-themed mini-games will also keep you coming back for more. "Artist on the Court" lobs special paintballs at you and challenges you to knock them onto the appropriate areas of an uncoloured picture that's sitting where the net would usually be. In "Terror Tennis", you have to keep a bunch of ghosts under control by hitting balls at any of them that start moving around. Five of these mini-games are available to begin with, but if you win enough tournaments you will unlock several more.

Single player mode enables you to choose your opponent and their ability, the court used and the number of games and sets required to win the match, whilst singles or doubles mode with friends will see you pitting your serving skills against them in a split screen affair!

Reworked exclusively for the Wii’s NEW PLAY CONTROL! series, Pikmin and Mario Power Tennis are now more fluid and intuitive to play whilst still providing the entertainment and challenges of the original Nintendo GameCube games, If that has got you excited than 2009 will be your year as Pikmin 2 and Donkey Kong Jungle Beat are also just one of many games which will be making their way to the NEW PLAY CONTROL! series - only on Wii.

Hotel Dusk's Heart Throb in Song -

http://www.gamepeople.co.uk/audio_ds_hoteldusk.htm

This week Hotel Dusk's Karl Hyde captures Rebecca Mayes’ heart. After a week of interviews with the national press and two video game song commissions, Rebecca Mayes is happy to get back to the song writing. Her latest Video Game Review song accounts her novice's experience of the film noire DS game.

With her first two video game song reviews - Press A [http://www.gamepeople.co.uk/audio_wii_wiisports.htm] and I'm a Wolf [http://www.gamepeople.co.uk/audio_wii_okami.htm] - still going strong, she can't wait to hear what people make of her latest creation. In it she engages with the story and characters of the classic DS adventure Hotel Dusk in a way you've never heard before.

What started out as a hobby is fast becoming a full time concern for Rebecca as various parties line up to get their games covered. As her followers on twitter (http://www.twitter.com/audiogamer) will know, she has a new song in the pipeline about the new Hello Kitty game on DS. After that she'll be turning her attention to the mighty PopCap games library.

Keeping her going through the recording has been a stream of comments and praise from all directions. Of particular note are the emails and messages from non-gamers and parents who have heard the song and want to learn more.

Are you smarter than a Disney character? Disney Think Fast...

Playing Disney TH!NK Fast is a bit like going to one of their movies; it’s probably not something you would elect to do on your own, but you’ll tag along for the sake of the kids - and just like one of their movies, the game follows a tried and true formula, with a couple of tweaks to set it apart from the rest of the herd.

Featuring content from Disney’s animated movies both past and present, the kid-friendly quiz game parallels its ‘grown up’ counterpart in terms of general format and gameplay: there’s an over-the-top game show host in the form of Genie from Aladdin, flashy sets with Disney themes, up to four contestants eager to battle it out over rounds of buzzer-busting action, and of course tacky prizes and bragging rights for the overall winner.

Prior to play you select the game’s duration, however at five rounds the shortest option runs for approximately thirty minutes, while the longest drags on for about an hour. We found this to be too drawn out; imagine how it would feel for kiddies with their notoriously brief attention spans!

Some flexibility is provided with the custom game menu. You choose the rounds you want and the duration, but again you are limited to five, seven or nine rounds. We would have liked to have had an option for a shorter game – say three rounds max.

The usual pre-quiz routine follows, with selection of characters (all classic Disney favourites such as Micky and Minnie, Donald and Goofy), amusing buzzer sounds and difficulty level. The game caters to those with limited knowledge of Disney animated movies, which is a nice touch. It’s no fun trying to answer questions on an unfamiliar topic. Also worth mentioning are the four themed locations you can select as the backdrop to your game. Each is based on a well known movie such as The Lion King or Lilo and Stitch, and each features a ‘special guest’ character from the film. Small details perhaps, but they help distinguish Disney TH!NK Fast from the rest.

The rounds themselves offer a good deal of variety for young minds. The (extremely simple) questions largely revolve around general knowledge and Disney animated movie trivia, with true/false statements, observation-based questions and clue-based picture recognition thrown into the mix. There are even a few mini-game rounds to offer a little more variety and boost point scoring potential for players at the younger end of the scale.

The single player game has a lot more to offer than previous quiz games, the aim being to amass time and points over six rounds, before the final ‘beat the clock’ round. There are also several unlockable characters available only in single player; an incentive to try your best and score well. The developers obviously wanted Disney TH!NK Fast to be as much fun to play alone as it is with a bunch of friends, which it certainly is.

Being pitched at a younger audience, Genie’s in-game patter is more of a good natured slapstick style than the witty-but-derisory digs of that other game show host, Buzz, and the Robin Williams sound-alike does a remarkable job of his voice. As you might expect from a Disney title, graphics are stylishly executed, flashy and in glorious cartoon colour, with some genuinely entertaining animations from the contestants. No complaints here.

While Disney TH!NK Fast does not have an awful lot to offer adult players, you can rest assured the kids – especially younger ones - will have a good deal of fun with it… plus it provides another opportunity to dust off (and disentangle) those buzzers.
Source: GamePlanet NZ

New Mafia 2 Pc, PS3 and Xbox 360 video game screenshots released

2K Games have released five more screenshots for the highly anticipated release of Mafia 2 on PC, PS3 and Xbox 360.




More screen shots...




2K Games have released five more screenshots for the highly anticipated release of Mafia 2 on PC, PS3 and Xbox 360.

Noby Noby Boy PS3 video game release date and price

Unique PLAYSTATION 3 system Game from the Creator of Katamari Damacy Available for Download from PlayStation Network on February 19th for 3.99€

Leading video games publisher and developer NAMCO BANDAI Games Europe S.A.S, today announced that NOBY NOBY BOY will be available for download from the PlayStation Network for the PLAYSTATION 3 computer entertainment system in the PAL territories on February 19th for a price of 3.99€.

The latest game from Katamari Damacy creator Keita Takahashi, NOBY NOBY BOY lets players expand their imaginations as they stretch a creature named BOY to incredible lengths across the playground-like planets of the solar system.

Offering a unique play experience from one of the video game industry’s most creative minds, NOBY NOBY BOY gives players complete freedom to create gameplay suited to their tastes. As BOY, players can eat and spit out nearly everything they encounter in the game, from people and animals to trees and buildings, helping them to gain length as they stretch their elongated body. Players can control BOY’s front and back ends using the PLAYSTATION 3 controller’s two analog sticks, allowing for incredibly detailed movements such as tying themselves into knots or threading BOY through holes in clouds. NOBY NOBY BOY allows players to record video footage as they play and upload it directly to YouTube for easy viewing.

Delivering a new and innovate approach to online gaming, NOBY NOBY BOY lets players collaborate to unlocks new game stages. As players stretch BOY in their individual play sessions, the lengths to which they grow are uploaded to a persistent character known as GIRL, who grows at the same rate of all the players in the world. GIRL starts at Earth and expands through the solar system as more games are played and BOYs from all players continue to grow. When GIRL reaches a new milestone in the solar system, these areas are unlocked as playable stages in the game for everyone around the world.

You can't stop gold farming in video games...

Kerry Fraser-Robinson, founder of virtual worlds developer RedBedlam, has called on the sector to embrace gold selling and realise the importance of economy in MMOs.

Speaking to GamesIndustry.biz, Fraser-Robinson explained that gold farming would always exist so long as it offered the path of least resistance and that it has the potential to ruin games unless action was taken against it.

"It's going to happen whether you like it or not," he said. "People will always find the path of least resistance, if you stop them buying your gold then they'll buy that gold from somebody else who is gold farming."

"If you don't build that into your system then you're not going to be able to compete with the gold farmers and that will ruin your in-game economy, which will in turn ruin your game. At the very least having the recognition that virtual economics is a discipline and is a very important integral part to being a virtual world," he added.

Full post on Gamesindustry here...

Ubisoft to publish World in Conflict - Soviet Assault for PC

Ubisoft announced that it will publish World in Conflict: Soviet Assault for PC in March 2009. World in Conflict: Complete Edition, the retail version of the much awaited add-on to the critically acclaimed strategy game will include the entire original World in Conflict title, as well as the Soviet Assault add-on and other exciting all-new features. Players that already own World in Conflict will have the option to download the Soviet Assault expansion pack exclusively online.

“The teams at Massive Entertainment have worked hard to ensure that they are bringing new original content to the popular World in Conflict brand,” said John Parkes, marketing director at Ubisoft EMEA. “Fans have been eagerly awaiting Soviet Assault, and Ubisoft is excited to be able to bring them great new material.”

World in Conflict: Soviet Assault allows players to relive the Cold War in a dramatic, gritty, real world setting driven by compelling characters and storyline. This one of a kind strategy game offers players a unique team-oriented experience on chillingly realistic battlegrounds. Soviet Assault features all-new characters, gameplay from the Soviet perspective, ten new films, new multiplayer maps and more.

Official War Plan Pacific Scenario Mod Guide Released!

War Plan Pacific, the exciting new Pacific theater grand strategy computer wargame from KE Studios and Shrapnel Games, is an easy game to expand thanks to its .XML scenario files. Using a text editor players can modify the scenarios that come with the game or create their own. Now, thanks to developer KE Studios, an official reference guide has been made available to help with these tasks.

The War Plan Pacific Scenario File Reference guide provides users with a quick and dirty guide to the .XML structure and explanations of what all the entries actually mean. With guide in hand players will be able to easily change any number of parameters (although the map itself and aircraft capabilities cannot be modified) to create their ideal scenario.

One of the most exciting abilities is the chance to create new vessels or edit existing ones. Want to see how warships that were planned but never actually built would fare? Create and add them in. Maybe you just want to cheat and create a super SUPER battleship. Can do. Or for those feeling really ambitious turn back the clock and create a completely new order of battle based on World War One era vessels. Modders can even change individual gun statistics independent of the ship type for maximum flexibility.

The War Plan Pacific Scenario File Reference is available as a .PDF document and can be downloaded directly from the official War Plan Pacific product page.

From that page you can also download a limited demo of the game in case you have yet to experience the elegance that is War Plan Pacific.

War Plan Pacific is a wargame for the Windows OS developed by KE Studios and published by Shrapnel Games. Designed from the beginning to hearken back to the glory days of fast playing board games, War Plan Pacific allows players to fight the entire conflict in the Pacific during World War Two in a single session.

Playing either against the AI or another opponent (direct play online, no PBEM) gamers will command an historically accurate order of battle consisting of individual ships of light cruiser size or larger, transport fleets, and air groups (land combat is abstracted). Turns represent one month of real time and movement is simulated through a point-to-point method (a la GMT's Paths of Glory) covering twenty-nine strategically important locations. Unique victory conditions for both sides present the player with interesting choices depending on whether they are commanding the Japanese or the Allies, while allowing for a range of strategies to be implemented.

War Plan Pacific is available for immediate purchase for only $39.95 and can be had either as a physical product, shipped worldwide in a DVD case, or as a digital download. It is only available for Windows.

On Tuesday, January 27th, Shrapnel Games will be hosting a chat with John Hawkins of KE Studios. The chat will begin at 9 PM EST/6 PM PST and will be found on the Shrapnel Games forum. Look for "Chat" on the top bar of the forum. Please note that in order to participate, even passively, you must first register.

For more strategy games of excellence, along with a great selection of unique titles, please visit us at www.shrapnelgames.com. Now entering our first decade in business, Shrapnel Games is dedicated to bringing gamers the very best in the genres snubbed by the mainstream industry, as evidenced by our most recent releases: War Plan Pacific and BRAINPIPE.

Zu Online - Little Sky Strategy

When travelling to Little Sky in Zu Online (http://zu.igg.com/), you may doubt whether you are in a dangerous place, because it looks so peaceful. Do not let this beauty fool you into letting your guard down. Little Sky was originally the place where the Boulder Immortal resided and cultivated his spirit, but then it became a forbidden area to imprison immortal beings. So, what will you encounter while you are exploring Little Sky?

Water Goblin (Level 142)

They are gentle winged creatures that live in Little Sky. They like to fly over the water and look a bit like a horse. Some of them are extremely clever. Some of them can even speak to immortal beings and serve as a mount.

Tablet Trapper (Level 157)

They were talismans of Purple Mansion and originally the tablets used in the Trapping Formation to help trap immortal beings. When some immortal beings infused vigor into them, they became talented creatures. Many immortal beings then created Tablet Trappers to fight for them.

Impudent Taoist (Level 163)

They were originally uncommonly strong men who made great achievements and then got the third eye. By using the third eye, they can see the world more clearly than others and even attack their enemies with fire.

Skullcap Taoist (Level 179)

They seldom speak. They exude power. But actually, they have traded their spirit to a mystical, talented person in Purple Mansion for the power they posses. This terrible deal they made has caused them to lose not only their souls, but their minds as well.

Cheen (Level 190)

Cheen is one of the three talented masters of Purple Mansion. The weapon in his hand is amazingly powerful. He always acts arbitrarily. Rumor had it he fought against the Immortal Tansoo, but in his haste to kill his enemy, he went to Little Sky and was trapped there.

Danger lurks everywhere amidst the tranquility of Little Sky. Be careful and reap great rewards!