Astro Boy the video game HD trailer and HD movie trailer

In ASTRO BOY: THE VIDEO GAME, players become the iconic hero, Astro Boy, and take to the streets and skies on an epic adventure to save Metro City from the clutches of the evil President Stone and his robot army. Utilizing Astros entire arsenal of iconic weapons and abilities--Finger Lasers, Arm Cannon, Butt Machine Guns and Drill Attacks, players will battle hordes of robot enemies and colossal bosses including some never-before-seen enemies across Metro City and the mysterious Surface.

Using an intuitive combat system that adds depth to gameplay, players will experience classic platform action and exhilarating flight combat levels as they use Astros unique rocket boosters to hover, avoid enemies and zip out of the way of danger. ASTRO BOY: THE VIDEO GAME offers numerous unlockable and collectible elements that include exclusive art work, different versions of Astro Boy and more, as players live the story solo or side by side with a friend in 2 player co-op mode on Wii and the PlayStation 2 system.



ASTRO BOY: THE VIDEO GAME for Wii, PlayStation 2 system and PSP system is under development by High Voltage Software and Nintendo DS by Art Co. Ltd. The game is currently rated RP (Rating Pending) by the ESRB.

Extend Your Paradise on June 11 with Burnout Vacation to Big Surf Island HD video

Burnout Paradise Big Surf Island expansion pack will be available to download for $12.99 on the PLAYSTATION Network and Xbox LIVE Marketplace (1000 MS Points) on June 11 Worldwide.

Burnout Paradise Big Surf Island is a brand new playground that enhances and expands the amazing world of the award-winning driving game, Burnout Paradise. Highlights include fun challenges and events for groups of friends to play online, an exciting new world to discover, the biggest and wildest jumps yet, plus a set of nine new vehicles to experience it all in.



Burnout Paradise Big Surf Island also features an Island specific driver’s license for single player progression, challenging players to explore the World, find secret areas and experience a host of new events and challenges.

“Big Surf Island is the most fun players can have in Burnout Paradise and provides incredible value for money,” says Pete Lake, the Big Surf Island Producer at Criterion Games. “We listened to our community and built this massive new playground for them, taking everything they loved about the game and using it to make the Island as much fun as possible. Big Surf Island is packed full of action, everything is bigger and better, from the jumps, to the challenges, to the fun you’ll have playing there.”

Developed at Criterion Games in Guildford, England, Burnout Paradise has won over 55 awards worldwide and is available now for $19.99 on PLAYSTATION 3 computer entertainment system and Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system. The game has been rated E10+ by the ESRB and 7+ for PEGI.

Iron Maiden Flight 666 joins Wii Rock Band on June 9th

Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Disturbed and others also come to Wii Rock Band

Harmonix and MTV Games today announced 25 tracks from artists coming this week to the Rock Band Music Store catalog of downloadable content for the Nintendo Wii system, including the highly anticipated 12 tracks from Iron Maiden, one of the world’s most successful rock bands.

As previously announced, the release of this week’s downloadable Iron Maiden tracks coincides with the U.S. release of Flight 666 on Blu-ray and DVD as well as a double-CD soundtrack album and limited edition double-vinyl picture disc. Flight 666 documents the first leg of Maiden’s legendary SOMEWHERE BACK IN TIME WORLD TOUR, which took them 50,000 miles around the planet, playing 23 concerts on five continents in just 45 days. One of the stars of the movie is the band’s customized Boeing 757, Ed Force One, which carried the band, all their crew and 12 tons of stage equipment and was piloted by Maiden vocalist Bruce Dickinson, a fully qualified and active Airline Captain with Astraeus Airlines.

Live recordings of “Aces High,” “Hallowed Be Thy Name,” “Fear of the Dark” and “Iron Maiden,” featured on Flight 666, are among those available for download in the Rock Band Music Store for Wii June 9. The other eight songs were among those featured on the band’s Somewhere Back in Time World Tour, during the first leg of which Flight 666 was filmed. This will mark the first time master recordings from Iron Maiden have been made available on Rock Band games.

“Fans have been asking us to do something with Rock Band for some time, and this seemed to be a perfect opportunity,” said Maiden manager Rod Smallwood. “Our recent Somewhere Back in Time tour was perhaps the most enjoyable one we have ever undertaken and certainly the most successful with almost 2 million people catching the shows around the world. So it just seemed a good idea to make some of the songs we played available now so fans can play along with the band on the tour. Then we shall see if they can keep up with the band!!”

Also coming to Wii DLC this week are tracks from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Disturbed and a special track from Stephen & the Colberts. These tracks come from the back catalog of Rock Band music already released to owners of Xbox 360 and PLAYSTATION 3 system. Wii fans can expect a rollout of previously released downloadable Rock Band content until the entire back catalog of more than 700 songs is available. With the addition of these tracks, there are now more than 290 tracks in the Wii Rock Band Music Store.

Tracks:
Blur “Beetlebum” (cover)
Die Toten Hosen “Hier Kommt Alex”
Disturbed “Indestructible”
Disturbed “Perfect Insanity”
H-BlockX “Countdown to Insanity”
Iron Maiden “Aces High (live)”
Iron Maiden “2 Minutes to Midnight”
Iron Maiden “The Trooper”
Iron Maiden “Wasted Years”
Iron Maiden “The Number of the Beast”
Iron Maiden “Run to the Hills”
Iron Maiden “Can I Play With Madness”
Iron Maiden “The Clairvoyant”
Iron Maiden “Powerslave”
Iron Maiden “Hallowed Be Thy Name (live)”
Iron Maiden “Fear of the Dark (live)”
Iron Maiden “Iron Maiden (live)”
Juli “Perfekte Welle”
Les Wampas “Manu Chao”
The Mother Hips “Red Tandy”
The Mother Hips “Time-Sick Son of a Grizzly”
Pleymo “New Wave”
Stephen & the Colberts “Charlene” *
Tokio Hotel “Monsoon”
Yeah Yeah Yeahs “Date With the Night”

(All tracks are original master recordings, unless otherwise noted

Price: $2.00 (200 Wii Points) per track

Pixie Lott joins the Sims 3 video game EA announce

Electronic Arts announce the collaboration between exciting new pop singer Pixie Lott and the highly anticipated PC game from the EA Play Label, The Sims 3. Activity kicks off with a Simlish recording of Pixie’s debut single, Mama Do available for simultaneous download with the English version of the game plus a music video showing Pixie singing a duet with her Sim character

"The Sims 3 takes the infinitely creative world of Sims to the next level, and once again its music is no exception," said Steve Schnur, Worldwide Executive of Music and Music Marketing at EA. "Pixie Lott now joins artists like Black Eyed Peas, Lily Allen, Robyn and Natasha Bedingfield in bringing her tremendous vocal talents to the Simlish arena. Her amazing talent and love for the game makes Pixie a perfect ambassador for The Sims."

Pixie Lott releases her incredible debut single Mama Do available on the 7th June, through Mercury Records. Pixie’s personality, her rich vocals and her magnetic persona are all over her first single Mama Do, an archetypal teenage tale of sneaking out on mischievous dates under the cover of night and an appetite for adventure, action and the unknown. Pixie learned and recorded this song in the unique language of The Sims, Simlish.

“It was really good fun re-recording Mama Do in Simlish,” Pixie Lott added. “Singing Simlish words to a tune you know really well was a really strange experience and had me in fits of giggles but I got the hang of it and I love the end result. The Sims 3 allows for so many fun adventures, which fits how my world is so I’m happy to be a part of their newest creation!”

Get inspired by the endless creative possibilities and unexpected moments of surprise and mischief in The Sims 3! Customize your Sims’ appearances and choose up to five traits to create individual personalities. From the “romantic” trait or “kleptomaniac” trait to “evil” trait, create millions of unique Sims from the vast amount of personalities. New goal-oriented game play enables you to choose which short or long-term objectives you want your Sims to pursue and even determine your Sims’ destinies in life. Create and edit your own movies by capturing your gameplay moments or select from a library of clips. Then join The Sims 3 online community where you can show off all of your creations, receive additional content, hear the latest news, and more! Download exclusive content and hear the latest news of The Sims 3 at www.TheSims3.com.

Blitzkrieg - Panzerkrieng Burning Horizon 2 video game

Panzerkrieg is the new battle strategy PC title inspired by the cult game Blitzkrieg. Due for release in June 2009 by Ascaron Entertainment, Panzerkrieg is a real time strategy that combines the historical accuracy of World War II with thoroughly engaging, yet easy to master gameplay.

Based on three story-driven single player campaigns, Panzerkrieg provides gamers with over 50 hours of tactical combat and engaging strategy. Players can choose between the Allied, German or Soviet campaigns, reliving key battles from history such as the Battle of the Bulge, Operation Sturgeon Catch and Battle of the Frontiers.

German campaign: Lost Victories
Operation Barbarossa is one of the authentic battles that players can relive in Panzerkrieg. The mission begins with German troops located in the East and West, with the surrounding terrain at the enemy’s advantage. Players must deploy their troops to storm the USSR border where the enemy lie in wait. Just like the real invasion, many of the attacks will be from fighter planes in the sky. However, players can also make use of the souvenir H39 French light tank with lethal flamethrowers, for obliterating infantry and light armoured vehicles at short range.

Soviet campaign: Red Horizon
The Soviet missions begin in Orshca, 1941, when Europe was dominated by the German Reich. Players must eliminate the enemy Flak gun and take control of the Katyusha rocket launcher, a formidable weapon with immense fire power. Commanding as Marshall Voroshilov, this tactical mission provides a small number of units that must be carefully deployed. The sniper unit is particularly powerful, as camouflage mode can be used to scout out the enemy, making covert stealth attacks.

Allied campaign: Blitzkrieg Rolling Thunder
After tackling the German and Soviet campaigns, players can truly test their skills as a great war leader in the challenging Allied missions. These include the retreat to Burma from Singapore in 1941, where players can command as General Patton. Quick and strategic thinking is required, as enemy attacks are constant, rapidly diminishing the number of Allied troops. Using the right units is also important, as correctly positioned Bofors anti aircraft guns and British Cromwell and Churchill tanks will help protect troops from airborne and tank attacks. Players can also deploy snipers or officers to see further afield than other units, gaining important information on enemy positions.

Fast facts:
Publisher: Ascaron Entertainment
Developer: United Publishing
Release date: 12th June 2009
PEGI: 12+
Format: PC
Genre: Battle Strategy
Price: £19.99

Nintendo WiiWare downloads Final fantasy IV, Kubos, Animal Crossing

This week, lots of WiiWare and Nintendo DSiWare games have been added to the mix, with something for everyone.

Continue the story of the role-playing classic in FINAL FANTASY IV: THE AFTER YEARS, exclusively on WiiWare. Coupled with this, several new DSiWare titles are arriving at once: Art Style: KUBOS, Animal Crossing Clock and Animal Crossing Calculator.

WiiWARE - FINAL FANTASY IV: THE AFTER YEARS
(SQUARE ENIX, 800 Wii Points):
FINAL FANTASY IV: THE AFTER YEARS is the sequel to the hit RPG, Final Fantasy IV. The story takes place many years after the original and centres on a young man named Ceodore, the son of the paladin, Cecil, and the white mage, Rosa, who with their loyal and steadfast friends once saved the world from the evil born of the second moon.

Monsters have now begun reappearing in a world that had finally attained peace. The second moon has returned anew. What tidings does this ominous harbinger bring? Familiar faces and new allies join the battle to save the Blue Planet once more from a yet darker threat.

Plus – continue the adventure with additional chapters to download via Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection; the first of which, Rydia’s Tale, is available from today for 300 Wii Points.

NINTENDO DSiWARE - ART STYLE: KUBOS
(NINTENDO, 500 DSi Points):
The Art Style series brings you unique, simple-to-play games with striking visuals and immersive sound.

In KUBOS your aim is to climb a tower of cubes which becomes higher as new cubes drop from above. Walk across the cubes to score points, avoiding being crushed by the falling cubes; but keep climbing or you’ll fall when the lower cubes disappear.

In TEN FLOORS mode, try to reach the 10th floor while scoring as many points as possible. In TOWER mode, simply climb as high as you can. Quickly defuse Bomb cubes before they blow a hole in your tower, and remove obstructing cubes with a gentle shove or a huge Cube Blast!

NINTENDO DSiWARE - ANIMAL CROSSING CLOCK
(NINTENDO, 200 DSi Points):
With the Animal Crossing Clock, wherever you go, you’ll always have time! Wake up with your favourite Animal Crossing music, or simply use the Nintendo DSi as a desktop clock complete with authentic Animal Crossing background. You can even compose a Town Tune to play at the top of every hour!

Customise the clock to your liking: choose from analogue or digital displays, 12h or 24h modes, and set up to three separate alarms with different Animal Crossing tunes, or use your own saved sounds from the Nintendo DSi Sound application.

NINTENDO DSiWARE - ANIMAL CROSSING CALCULATOR
(NINTENDO, 200 DSi Points):
Make maths more fun with this Animal Crossing-themed calculator! Simply use the Touch Screen to enter figures and make calculations, and you’ll see and hear your favourite Animal Crossing visuals and sounds

As well as a fully-featured calculator, also included is a Unit Converter for converting to and from a variety of different measurements such as weight, length, speed, temperature and more. You can even convert human years to animal years!

As the Wii Shop Channel is continually updated with exciting and refreshing games, make sure you keep checking the Channel and www.Wii.com for all the latest WiiWare and Virtual Console news and releases. Downloaded games can be saved to Wii’s internal memory or SD card and added to the console’s Wii Menu or SD Card Menu allowing them to be easily accessed at any time.

Gold Giveaway Event for Ultimate Soccer Boss Players

New and existing players will receive gold for their soccer clubs

The Ultimate Soccer Boss team is proud to announce the first gold giveaway event for Ultimate Soccer Boss players. Players will receive 5,000 gold for their soccer clubs and will be awarded only once during the giveaway event. Players can participate by logging in and or signing up for this event at http://www.ultimatesoccerboss.com starting on June 8 and ending on June 22.

“We are happy to award players extra gold to help them enhance and improvement their clubs in matches,” said Nicole Chen Marketing Manager of Ultimate Soccer Boss.”

About Ultimate Soccer Boss
Launched on April 2009, Ultimate Soccer Boss is an MMO Sports Manager Game powered by Digenetics, Inc. Ultimate Soccer Boss (USB) is the first ever free-to-play soccer manager browser game powered by Digenetics' patented adaptive evolutionary learning technology which enables players' traits to evolve. Unlike other sports manager games, Ultimate Soccer Boss feature players that actually evolve their skills over time based on variables such as numbers of plays, training matches, and overall management of the club, thus resulting in a truly unique game play.

Batman Arkham Asylum - Gliding Into E3 screenshot trailer

Featuring the world-renowned characters of DC Comics, Batman: Arkham Asylum, developed by Rocksteady Studios, will be playable on The PLAYSTATION 3 computer entertainment system, offering show visitors a journey into the depths of Gotham City's psychiatric asylum for the criminally insane as Batman faces his greatest challenge yet. Visitors will have the chance to experience a selection of the game's extensive FreeFlow Combat and Invisible Predator Challenge Maps.



Also playable for the first time will be one of the eight maps that will allow fans to play as The Joker, a character that is playable exclusively in the PLAYSTATION 3 Challenge Maps that will be made available as a free download for owners of the game through PlayStation Network. Rated “T” for Teen, Batman: Arkham Asylum will be co-published in North America by Eidos, Inc. and Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment for the Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, Games for Windows, and PLAYSTATION 3 computer entertainment system. The game will be available in North America August 25th and throughout Europe August 28th.

Interactive 3D TV take gaming to new level with Project Natal-style body control of games

A revolutionary interactive 3DTV system is being created by De Montfort University Leicester (DMU) researchers.

The €4.2 million (roughly £3.7 million) project aims to develop a television that can recognise where somebody is sitting in a room and what they wish to view and interact with on their television.



Researchers believe it is a step towards truly interactive 3D video games where gamers use their bodies to control the action without the need for a controller.

The project, called HELIUM3D (high efficiency, laser-based, multi-user, multi-modal 3D display) is also exploring ways of allowing viewers who are watching the same television to each view a different channel at the same time and could even let them choose different viewing positions within the image.

For example, groups of people watching a football match in the same room could each pick the part of the stadium from which they would like to experience the action.

The 3D effect will be seen without special glasses and will use head-tracking technology developed during previous 3DTV research projects led by DMU to deliver the perfect image to every viewer.

The system will not only display standard 3DTV, it will also allow viewers to experience an effect known as motion parallax or the ‘look-around effect’. This is where the image has a ‘holographic’ quality, giving it a greater sense of depth and movement than standard 3D.

Researchers at DMU’s Imaging and Displays Research Group (IDRG) are leading the work, with partners from: Fraunhofer Heinrich-Hertz-Institut; Philips Consumer Lifestyle; Eindhoven University of Technology; Nanjing University in China; Barco, a display hardware manufacturer in Belgium; University College London; and Koç University in Turkey.

The project is supported by £2.8 million funding from the European Commission’s Framework 7 programme.

Researchers working on HELIUM3D will also be exploring the display’s potential in professional applications, including medical imaging, video conferencing, engineering design and oil and gas exploration.

DMU’s Dr Ian Sexton, Head of the Imaging and Displays Research Group, said: “The inherent flexibility of the HELIUM display takes it beyond mere 3D and will open up a whole new world of exciting interactive possibilities.

“The display will give gamers a new freedom to enjoy interactive 3D television and games – for example viewers or gamers will be able to see 3D on the HELIUM TV and also interact with the game through the viewer sensing built into the system wherever they are in the room and without 3D glasses. This will make 3D games more natural, exciting and ‘real’.”

He added: “The system will also be used for more serious uses such as medical imaging; doctors and surgeons will be able to intuitively ‘fly’ through a 3D scan of a person to make a diagnosis or to prepare for an operation, making a 3D display that will be useful to a wide audience.”

Previous 3D systems have used flat panel displays in their design but HELIUM3D will use a new type of front screen.

The Gabor superlens screen used by DMU researchers replaces the usual LCD screen found on commercial television sets and is much more efficient than other technologies.

This will allow brighter whites and darker blacks, meaning the resulting image will be much more vivid than in previous 3D projects due to the use of a novel red, green and blue laser illumination source.

The HELIUM3D funding from the European Commission is the latest in a string of projects which the IDRG has worked on over the past seven years, worth nearly £14 million in total.

HELIUM3D runs until 2010 and researchers hope the system will lead to commercial production of interactive 3DTV sets within the next decade.

Germany to ban violent video games

Violent video games look set to be banned throughout Germany. Ministers of the country's 16 states, Deutscher Bundesrat, has just agreed to ban the so-called 'killer games'. Now all that's needed to ban such games is a regulation drafted and ratified in parliament.

Such a law would not only ban the sale of violent games in Germany, but also their creation. Crysis developer CryTek has already promised to move production out of Germany if the law becomes reality.

Germany's current moral panic of videogames stems from an incident in March where a mentally ill teenager shot 16 people in Winnenden.

It is claimed that German ministers have today agreed to ban the production and distribution of all violent video games, with the law only having to go through parliament in the next few weeks.

Ministers of all sixteen German federal states came together for a conference in Bremerhaven where it was agreed to forbid the production and distribution of all video games “where the main part is to realistically play the killing of people or other cruel or unhuman acts of violence against humans or manlike characters.”

The country has been hard on video games in the past with bans on Manhunt & DeadRising taking place, but an outright ban on every potentially violent game would result in a huge loss for the video games industry in one of its most successful European countries. The law would result in no Call of Duty, no World of Warcraft, no BioShock, no Uncharted, and no Grand Theft Auto. Any development firm based in Germany would have to outsource future project developments on a violent game since it would now be banned to even create any such content in that country!

Ministers are hoping the for the law to come into effect before the German federal elections this September, The minister of the interior of Lower Saxony commented:

“Violent games lower the inhibition level for real violence and spree killers always played such games before they did the crime.”

However for violent games and the developments of such games to become illegal, the law must be passed through parliament in which an outcome will be decided within a couple of weeks.

Source: Various websites...