Nobunaga's Ambition - Iron Triangle PlayStation 2 video game out in US

Build a massive military force and conquer Feudal Japan in this latest addition to KOEI's historical simulation series

KOEI, recognized worldwide as the premier brand of strategy and action games, today announced that Nobunaga’s Ambition - Iron Triangle has shipped to North American retailers. The historical simulation game set during Japan’s Feudal era will be available in stores starting today. Consumers can order the game now at Amazon, GameStop and GameFly.

Nobunaga’s Ambition: Iron Triangle is produced by Kou Shibusawa, and is exclusive to the PlayStation 2 computer entertainment system.

About Nobunaga’s Ambition: Iron Triangle

Compelled by a nation ravaged by war, it was legendary samurai Nobunaga Oda’s ambition to silence the cries of war and usher in a new era of lasting peace for Japan. In Nobunaga’s Ambition: Iron Triangle, video gamers can step into the role of Feudal Japan’s most powerful warlords and turn this magnificent vision of unification into a reality.

In this latest edition of the series, the acquisition of knowledge and a firm grasp of technology are even more crucial to establishing the groundwork for the future of the country. Embrace technology, govern wisely and shrewdly, and prepare a near-invincible military force for war on land and at sea. Only with the mastery of these three elements, the “Iron Triangle,” will the nation be united under one sword and will Nobunaga’s dream be realized.

The game itself is a stunning vision of Feudal Japan, with over 60 castles and 30 port towns. All of the game’s planning, diplomacy, construction, and warfare take place on an expansive 3D map; a first for the series. You’ll also maintain complete camera control to monitor the development of each region or town, and to monitor the field and naval battles that you command; all in real-time.

With over 1,000 daimyo and sub-officers, and a character creation tool, you will encounter a broad array of historical figures, and can even populate the game world with your own unique cast of characters.

Beginning with Nobunaga’s victory at Owari province through to his untimely death in 1582, conquer a combined total of nine historical and fictional scenarios in three modes of play.

Nobunaga’s Ambition: Iron Triangle is developed by KOEI Co., Ltd. and is for one player. This game is rated “E10+” (Everyone 10 and older – Alcohol Reference, Mild Violence) by the ESRB.

Guitar Hero - Metallica a Fact Sheet

“Ride the Lightning” with musical icons Metallica and over 20 other rocking acts in an all new Guitar Hero experience - Guitar Hero Metallica. Enter the world of Lars Ulrich, James Hetfield, Kirk Hammett and Robert Trujillo and experience the intensity and skill of one of the greatest bands of all time.
Shred on guitar, rip on drums and wail on the mic to a set list featuring over 45 explosive hits from Metallica’s illustrious career and a wide variety of other legendary artists personally selected by the band, such as Alice In Chains, Foo Fighters and Queen. Fans will be able to rock as Metallica while performing in venues reminiscent of the band’s epic album covers, themes from their music and real world locales.

FEATURES:

Becoming the Band – For the first time ever, Guitar Hero Metallica will allow fans to come together and thrash as the explosive, world-renown metal and rock band, Metallica, whose album sales have exceeded 100 million worldwide. Transform into metal legends Lars Ulrich, James Hetfield, Kirk Hammett and Robert Trujillo as full body scans and signature moves motion capture allow players to virtually experience the high intensity of a Metallica performance.

Live Like Metal Legends – Follow the path of the metal legends in either single instrument or band career game modes playing as the band to a soundtrack of their greatest hits while also rocking with over 20 additional artists selected by the band. Featuring in-the-round stage designs and custom camera angles new to Guitar Hero, further highlighted by custom lightshows, special effects and encores, gamers and Metallica fans alike can fulfill their rock ‘n’ roll fantasies in a variety of new and famous settings, ranging from Tushino Airfield to The Forum. All venues reflect Metallica’s most memorable tours including themes from their album artwork to offer the authentic Metallica atmosphere.

Drum Like Lars – In addition to using the redesigned, more responsive and advanced Guitar Hero World Tour guitar controller and microphone, Metallica fans will truly be able to pound like Lars on the drums with a second bass pedal compatible with the Guitar Hero World Tour drum kit controller. The all-new “Expert+” difficulty level gives gamers access to the double bass drum note track which offers the authentic Metallica experience with a note-for-note translation of many tracks appearing in-game and adds a new difficulty option to all gameplay modes.

Seek and Destroy – Immerse yourself in themed Battle Mode attacks, such as briefly blacking out your fellow rocker’s note track or modifying the amp overload to include the signature Metallica lightening.

Test Your Metal – After nailing a song, test your Metallica know-how by replaying the song with trivia pop-ups. The on-screen displays give information about the song being played, and with guest artist songs, information about how the band is tied to Metallica will be displayed along with details such as band history and lyrics.

Off to Never Never Land – Guitar Hero Metallica is loaded with tons of bonuses throughout the game, such as unlockable venues, commentary, videos and behind the scenes footage, giving all Metallica fans exclusive content to enjoy.

All that Remains – Guitar Hero Metallica cranks all the great features, gameplay and fun of Guitar Hero World Tour to a new level with updates to the Music Studio featuring samples from James Hetfield’s ESP Truckster guitar and of Slayer fame, Tom Araya’s signature ESP bass guitar, GHTunesSM, and the Rock Star Creator. Online game modes allow competing gamers to see who tops the charts in Face-Off, Pro Face-Off, eight-player “Battle of the Bands” and Battle Mode as well as the online Quickplay mode that allows up to four gamers to shred together regardless of physical location.

Publisher: Activision Publishing/RedOctane
Developer: Neversoft (Xbox 360 and PS3)
Budcat Creations (PS2 and Wii)
Release Date: Spring 2009

X-Blades - More Spells and Beasts ...

More Action from X-Blades, the fast-paced action adventure game, featuring a blend of cinematic style and beautiful anime-inspired characters, combat and environments

Light Blades: The power of Light is just as strong as other powers. Perhaps more so? I can actually use the Power of Light to envelope both my blades and guns and use it to inflict awesome damage! I can’t get over how beautiful it looks…or how deadly it is. (Requirements: Lightform)

Ray Of Light: Hmm…this is Ray of Light is actually very impressive. This spell consists of a ray of glittering light that is hurled against an opponent. It explodes upon impact, dealing out damage points galore. I’ve seen it do incredible amounts of damage to creatures of the dark. It will be interesting to what else it can do. (Requirements: Light Blades)

The Queen Spider: The Queen Spider is able to control her offspring. Covered in armor and gifted in the use of magic, she guards the upper floors of the castle. Apart from the spiders, which block the way to the Queen, small creatures that are invulnerable to magic attacks, to which the Queen is particularly vulnerable, surround her.

The Ancient Six-Winged: The oldest living Six-winged has been hiding in cliffs, where his only friends were the little Pangos, which used to share their food with him. They protect him desperately during attacks, so you can only hurt the Ancient Six-winged after freezing the Pangos. He prefers to attack his opponents from a distance due to his extreme sensitivity to heat. He is, of course, vulnerable to light and Fire magic.

New trailer for Elite Forces - Unit 77 released

As part of the Super Bowl XLIII festivities, EA SPORTS and Xbox 360 will host the 15th annual Madden Bowl in Tampa, Florida. The only official Madden tournament featuring NFL players, Madden Bowl XV will include the league’s brightest stars as they compete to see who has the best skills on the virtual gridiron.
This year’s event will bring new meaning to the words “bragging rights” as players from each Super Bowl team – Willie Parker (Pittsburgh Steelers) and Edgerrin James (Arizona Cardinals) – will both be in the mix just days before they duke it out on the field.

The Madden Bowl is an annual event where eight current NFL Players will go head-to-head in Madden NFL 09 on Xbox 360 in a single elimination tournament. The winner is named as the 2008 champion and awarded the EA SPORTS Madden Bowl Cup.

In addition, for the first time ever in Madden Bowl history, two of the top projected quarterbacks in the upcoming NFL Draft – Mark Sanchez (USC) and Matt Stafford (University of Georgia) – will face off, one-on-one in Madden NFL 09, to determine who is the 8th, and final player, in the Madden Bowl XV tournament.

Madden fans at home will also get taste of the Madden Bowl XV action. During the evening Xbox 360 will offer fans the rare opportunity to play a game of Madden NFL 09 against one of the athletes in attendance as part of the latest Xbox LIVE online entertainment network Game with Fame session. For a chance to battle NFL All-Pro Linebacker Ray Lewis (Baltimore Ravens) on Xbox 360 direct from the Madden Bowl, send a friend request to the Xbox LIVE gamertag “RLewisGWF” between 8:00 – 9:00 PM EST.

Immediately following the Madden Bowl tournament will be the Madden Bowl XV Party celebrating 20 years of Madden NFL Football, featuring Joel Madden (of Good Charlotte) as DJ.

Madden Bowl Eight-Man Tournament Participants:

• Antonio Bryant – WR, Tampa Bay Buccaneers
• Edgerrin James – RB, Arizona Cardinals
• Maurice Jones-Drew – RB, Jacksonville Jaguars
• Willie Parker – RB, Pittsburgh Steelers
• Justin Tuck – DE, New York Giants
• DeMarcus Ware – LB, Dallas Cowboys
• Mark Sanchez – USC/Matthew Stafford – University of Georgia (Rookie play-in game)

Athletes in Attendance:
As part of the Super Bowl XLIII festivities, EA SPORTS and Xbox 360 will host the 15th annual Madden Bowl in Tampa, Florida. The only official Madden tournament featuring NFL players, Madden Bowl XV will include the league’s brightest stars as they compete to see who has the best skills on the virtual gridiron. This year’s event will bring new meaning to the words “bragging rights” as players from each Super Bowl team – Willie Parker (Pittsburgh Steelers) and Edgerrin James (Arizona Cardinals) – will both be in the mix just days before they duke it out on the field.

The Madden Bowl is an annual event where eight current NFL Players will go head-to-head in Madden NFL 09 on Xbox 360 in a single elimination tournament. The winner is named as the 2008 champion and awarded the EA SPORTS Madden Bowl Cup.

In addition, for the first time ever in Madden Bowl history, two of the top projected quarterbacks in the upcoming NFL Draft – Mark Sanchez (USC) and Matt Stafford (University of Georgia) – will face off, one-on-one in Madden NFL 09, to determine who is the 8th, and final player, in the Madden Bowl XV tournament.

Madden fans at home will also get taste of the Madden Bowl XV action. During the evening Xbox 360 will offer fans the rare opportunity to play a game of Madden NFL 09 against one of the athletes in attendance as part of the latest Xbox LIVE online entertainment network Game with Fame session. For a chance to battle NFL All-Pro Linebacker Ray Lewis (Baltimore Ravens) on Xbox 360 direct from the Madden Bowl, send a friend request to the Xbox LIVE gamertag “RLewisGWF” between 8:00 – 9:00 PM EST.

Immediately following the Madden Bowl tournament will be the Madden Bowl XV Party celebrating 20 years of Madden NFL Football, featuring Joel Madden (of Good Charlotte) as DJ.

Madden Bowl Eight-Man Tournament Participants:

• Derrick Brooks – LB, Tampa Bay Buccaneers
• Marshall Faulk – RB, St. Louis Rams & Indianapolis Colts (retired 2006)
• Antonio Gates – TE, San Diego Chargers
• Tony Gonzalez – TE, Kansas City Chiefs
• Steven Jackson – RB, St. Louis Rams
• Chad Johnson – WR, Cincinnati Bengals
• Darren McFadden – RB, Oakland Raiders
• *Willis McGahee – RB, Baltimore Ravens (*last year’s Madden Bowl winner)
• Terrell Owens – WR, Dallas Cowboys
• Reggie Wayne – WR, Indianapolis Colts
• Roddy White – WR, Atlanta Falcons
• Evan Longoria – 3B, Tampa Bay Rays

Additional guests in attendance will include athletes from the NFL, NBA and MLB, television and film celebrities and music recording artists. ESPN’s NFL analyst Trey Wingo will be the host of this year’s event.

WHEN: Thursday, January 29, 2008
7:00 PM – 2:00 AM

New trailer for Elite Forces - Unit 77 released

New trailer for Elite Forces: Unit 77 released by Gammick Entertainment

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Gammick released a new trailer for the game Elite Forces: Unit 77 presenting the action packed, squad-based game play of this title for Nintendo DS.

In Elite Forces: Unit 77 a series of mysterious disappearances of high profile personalities from the worlds of science, industry and entertainment reveal a horrific global terrorist threat. With the clock running and the lives of the hostages and millions of others in danger, the international community’s last hope lies with an extremely covert and highly specialized military team: Unit 77. Made up four professionals who are the best in the world at what they do, Unit 77 must combine skills to stop massive world destruction by the hands of terrorists.

Elite Forces: Unit 77 for Nintendo DS is a game of action and strategy in which the player must strategically use the abilities of all four members of Unit 77 and they are: Bill "The Drill" Matic technology specialist and legendary hacker; Kendra Chase, ex-government black-ops agent and the most accurate sniper on Earth; TK Richter, jet pilot and explosives expert, and Dag Hammer, a hulking heavy artillery soldier capable of incredible physical feats.

The group must infiltrate the bases where terrorists hold the famous hostages, each base set up in one of the most treacherous and remote places on Earth. Unit 77 must battle their way through inhospitable jungles, scorching deserts and endure harsh and deadly arctic conditions as they fight to rescue the hostages and defeat the terrorists.

The countdown has begun, and it’s time for the few and the brave. Will you become a ter-rorist’s victim or do you have what it takes to be on the team of Elite Forces?

The game is expected to be released in the first quarter of 2009.

Street Fighter IV Arcade Machine UK Tour

Play Street Fighter IV And Win Exclusive Merchandise

Capcom, a leading worldwide developer and publisher of videogames, can today announce a whirlwind Street Fighter IV tour of locations up and down the UK, allowing gamers a chance to sample the greatest fighting game of all time in its original form ahead of the console release, and potentially win some exclusive Street Fighter IV merchandise.

Starting in Edinburgh, the machines will sweep down into England crushing all other games that fall before them. The tour is expected to continue beyond release, with further dates to be added, but the current dates and locations are as follows –

29th January – 1st of February
Edinburgh’s Gamestation on Princes Street (EH2 4AH)

5th February – 8th February
Sheffield’s Gamestation in Meadowhall Shopping Centre (S9 1ER)

19th February – 22nd February
London’s HMV in Oxford St

26th February – 1st March
Birmingham’s Gamestation on New St (B2 4NS)

5th March – 8th March
Hull’s Gamestation in Prospect Centre (HU2 8PW)

Street Fighter IV is set for release on February 20th on PS3 and Xbox 360.

First Ghostbusters developers diaries - Origin and the making of part 1

It Begins

So he looks across the conference table over his impressive beard at us. Pauses. Then he says, “It’s Ghostbusters. We’re going to make a Ghostbusters game. The first really good one.”

And the other one, who for the first time since we met has paused talking for almost two consecutive minutes, adds this: “And we think you’re the right guys do it. You up for it?”

Nobody says anything for a long time. They think that after all the buildup and mystery maybe we’re disappointed, that maybe we’re trying to assess the fastest way of out of the room. But that’s not the case. The fact is that Brendan is sitting in stunned silence and I’m just trying to keep from swallowing my tongue. Mark Randel (Terminal Reality President & Chief Technologist) is taking it better: he’s just near-catatonic.

It was January 2006. We arrived at the publisher forty minutes ago, one of a few stops on a tour to show off our Infernal Engine next-gen technology demo and an original game IP we’d been developing (‘the publisher’ at this time being Vivendi, before Atari took over the title in 2008: look up ‘Activision Blizzard merger’ on Wikipedia for more info). In addition to cutting-edge lighting, materials, and rendering, the tech demo depicted squad gameplay action, heavy emphasis on chaotic environmental destruction, and extremely realistic physical interaction.

It was the massive destruction is what really got their attention. Seriously: fiery explosions & debris will get your foot in any door.

Vivendi Executive Producers John Melchior (tall, quietly fast-talking, awesome), and Pete Wanat (beard & soda also awesome) introduced themselves and let us know immediately that they were the two most hated men at this publisher. John O’Keefe (Terminal Studio Director) asked if maybe there was someone else there we could talk to.
They watched our demo politely, exchanged mysterious raised eyebrows, asked a few pointed questions, and then left for a private discussion in the hall.

When they came back they seemed to have agreed on something. They told us they’d been working on developing a movie license IP. Brendan Goss (Terminal Reality Executive Producer) shot a look my way: Uh-oh. Here we go again. But this was a really big one, they continued: a really great one. And it wasn’t tied to an upcoming theater release in less than twelve months.

Then they dropped the G-bomb.

There it was, out in the open. Ghostbusters. Maybe one of the greatest movies made. Definitely one of the funniest. We were getting a crack at it. To say we were thrilled is a lazy understatement. Pleasantly electrified is closer to the truth. It wasn’t until later, after the shock wore off some, when we realized the depth of the responsibility we had staked ourselves to when we finally stammered, “Y-yes! Of course we’ll do it!”

Stars Align

The Ghostbusters game finally happened as the result of a fairly rarefied confluence of elements, a sort of Hollywood fairy tale.

Sony Pictures Consumer Products (Mark Caplan & Keith Hargrove) knew that the time was ripe for a Ghostbusters revival, and wanted to wrap it around a centerpiece game. Sony felt that game technology had finally arrived and were looking for a developer with the right mix of passion and skills to do the project correctly. First, Sony knew they needed to do two things: 1. Make sure all IP holders—which includes the director, three of the original Ghostbusters stars, and Sony Pictures itself—would be totally on board; and 2. Find a publisher that could make the game happen with as much of the original talent involved, as possible (i.e. the Ghostbusters).

Across town at the publisher, John and Pete had been talking about doing a GB game for quite a while, and had started talking to the owners of the property. They were also trying to sell their own upper management on the concept. Some reluctance is certainly understandable. The reason we jumped at the chance was the same reason the finance people were shy: a major movie-license game that’s not actually attached to a theatrical release can be a tough sell. There’s no built-in multi-million-dollar studio-financed marketing campaign. With a high-profile title, securing the license can be very expensive, especially when that license is one of the highest-grossing and most beloved films of all times (market research by Vivendi revealed that the enduring ‘no-ghost’ logo ranks just behind Coca-Cola and the Nike Swoosh stripe in order of worldwide recognition). Securing the talent can be both cost-prohibitive, if not impossible to do: Murray, Aykroyd, Ramis, and Reitman haven’t worked as a group for years, and each has his own successful career to manage.

In the meantime, Dan Aykroyd had been trying to get a Ghostbusters film sequel off the ground for years, but was having a hard time reassembling the cast and generating studio interest. He had decided that a CG-animated movie would be the best way to go, since the GB III script called for a daunting budget if shot practically. A few voice-acting sessions would require a much smaller time commitment from the cast. And the now almost-sixty-year old principals wouldn’t have to strap those brutally heavy proton packs back on and run through NYC streets. So, from his perspective, moving to a game format for a true sequel wasn’t too big a leap for him.

The three sides found one other and liked what each was bringing to the table. They worked on pulling the rest of the group back together. And the snowball starts to roll. We jumped on as soon as we could.

UFO - Afterlight PC patch 1.7. released

1C Publishing EU, ALTAR Games and IDEA Games are pleased to announce the latest improvement to squad based strategy game UFO: Afterlight. Over two years from the original release of the PC game UFO: Afterlight, the developer’s continue to support their dedicated fan community with game updates and gameplay optimizations. Amongst other things, the UFO: Afterlight 1.7 update includes an application which allows the user to change the game’s language. You can download the patch from
http://www.ufo-afterlight.com/pages/support.html#patch_1.7

The UFO: Afterlight 1.7 update includes the following:
This patch supports the following language versions: English, French, German, Russian, Spanish, Hungarian, Czech, Polish, Italian & Chinese.
This patch adds an application called Localization Pack Manager which can be used to change the game's language.
It is recommended to start a new game when upgrading from v1.5 or any earlier version of UFO:AL.

CHANGES IN VERSION 1.7.
Fixed:
Add-on duplication bug.
Expedition Commander and Expedition Soldier mix up in research item names.
Drones no longer get paralyzed by Beastman paralyzing ammunition.
It is no longer possible to get additional characters to join your team by allowing a drone to get killed during a mission.
It is now possible to fix the "corrupted ground textures" problem by disabling bump mapping for ground models in the "Graphics" option menu (thanks to Stucuk and Lord Storm).

New/changed features:
Removed some shader restrictions to allow the game to run on a wider variety of graphics cards.
The game now displays a dialog box when an enemy attacks your home base.
It is now possible to change the item mode for all selected units at once.
Enemies use different fire modes based on the distance to their targets.
The game will now use different quick save files for tactical and strategic modes.
The game no longer generates capture missions on enemy main bases.

Modding related changes:
Third armor add-on slot is now visible when using mods that enable it

New sports brand with BAFTA award-nominated Football Tycoon

BAFTA award-winning developer spies new silverware at the 2009 Independent Games Festival Mobile awards

Award-winning mobile game developer Dynamo Games has today announced plans to launch a new line of sports titles under the 'Dynamo Sports' banner, premiering with the launch of mobile game Football Tycoon. The forthcoming title is also the only Java game short-listed for a 2009 Independent Games Festival (IGF) Mobile Award for best technical achievement. Winners are to be announced at the Games Developer Conference 2009 (GDC) in San Francisco, March 23-27.

Dynamo Games are hosting a stand at the IGF mobile area and are also inviting attendees to meet with the developer at GDC. Interested parties should contact Managing Director Brian McNicoll directly via the company's website: www.dynamogames.com

Available early Summer 2009, Football Tycoon follows a similar format as the popular Rollercoaster Tycoon series, while adding a unique twist to the standard football game genre. Moving away from traditional management simulator gameplay, players step into the shoes of a wealthy business owner and live out their dream of running a football club. From hiring managers, controlling finances, developing your stadium and orchestrating intense media campaigns, the game gives players an unprecedented degree of freedom.

The title boasts two expansive single player modes; The rags to riches 'Grass Roots', which tasks players with taking a small team to the top of the Tycoon Owner Rich List within 30 years and 'Scenario Mode', which allows owners to tackle a variety of challenges, such as taking over a small club and pulling them out of administration.

How gamers achieve these goals is entirely up to them. Will you give some of your hard-earned cash back to the local community or save the spoils to fund your fight to the Premiership and elite European competitions? The shift away from traditional management simulator gameplay, an unmatched wealth of player options and a rich, detailed visual style makes for a winning hat-trick.

Brian McNicoll said: "That Football Tycoon has already been short-listed for an industry award is testament to the creativity of our team and their ability to consistently produce fun, innovative titles for the thriving mobile market."

"We will also be creating versions for Baseball, American Football, Basketball, Ice Hockey, Golf, F1, NASCAR, Cricket & tennis. We are also looking to take the series to different handheld platforms such as BREW, iPhone, Android, Nintendo DS and as such, we are on the lookout for potential distribution partners to take these games to market."

Football Tycoon will be released early summer 2009.

The Land of Magic free-to-play game portal reveals its new MMO

Lizard Interactive (www.lizardinteractive.com), one of today's most popular free-to-play online game developers and publishers, announces that their new MMORPG ‘The Land of Magic’ is almost ready for its CBT in February 2009 through global game portal NeoFun.(www.neofun.com)

The Land of Magic, already proven to be a big hit in Korea, is almost ready to welcome global users to join its mystic world. This new 2D MMORPG provides unique world of RPG gathered by massive contents and easy interface for all ages to play. If you are to remember and fantasize the Zelda series in early 90’s, ‘The Land of Magic’ will surly satisfy your thrust by bringing back the good old memories.

Detailed information related with ‘The Land of Magic’ is still kept secret by Lizard Interactive. But more information will start to reveal with their official website opening on the 11th of February.