NHL Superstar Alex Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals as Cover Athlete for NHL 2K10 video game

"Ovi" and friends hold 2K Sports' first-ever outdoor motion capture session tonight at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas

2K Sports announced today that Alex Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals, the 2009 Maurice “Rocket” Richard Award winner and Hart Memorial Trophy candidate, will be featured as the cover athlete and spokesman for the next iteration of the popular NHL 2K franchise, NHL 2K10.

While leading the National Hockey League (NHL) in goals scored for the second consecutive season, Ovechkin has become one of the most recognizable faces of the NHL in only his fourth season, and will bring his electrifying personality and unmatched passion for the game to NHL 2K10 this year.

"It's a good time to be Ovi!," said Ovechkin, left winger for the Washington Capitals. "It's an incredible honor, and I look forward to working with 2K Sports to make NHL 2K10 the most fun and amazing hockey video game experience ever. I can't wait to put some of my moves in there."

In celebration of the announcement, Ovechkin will be participating in 2K Sports’ first-ever outdoor hockey motion capture session tonight in the Roman Plaza at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas from 8:30-11:30pm PT. The open-air rink recalls the September 27, 1991, LA Kings vs. New York Rangers hockey showdown when Wayne Gretzky led the Kings to victory in a similarly unusual and picturesque open-air setting at the famed Las Vegas resort. Joining Ovechkin on the ice will be Vancouver Canucks center and 2009 Selke Trophy finalist, Ryan Kesler, along with play-by-play commentator for the San Jose Sharks, Randy Hahn, who will act as host MC. Only media will be allowed into the rink area for this private event, as synthetic ice will be laid down to create a special hockey rink and 2K Sports’ game producers will put Ovechkin through a number of dynamic drills to capture his signature style data for NHL 2K10.

The 2009 NHL Awards™ will take place on Thursday in Las Vegas, and Ovechkin is one of three finalists that are being considered for the highly coveted Hart Memorial Trophy, an annual award given to the player judged to be the most valuable to his team. The winner is selected via a poll of the Professional Hockey Writers' Association in all NHL cities held at the end of the regular season. Ovechkin is also a finalist for the Lester B. Pearson Award, which honors the NHL’s most outstanding player as selected by the members of the NHL Players’ Association. Ovechkin was the winner of both awards last year, and has already received this year’s Maurice “Rocket” Richard Award for leading the NHL in goals scored during the regular season.

Ovechkin, also known to fans as “Ovi”, was the first overall selection in the 2004 NHL Entry Draft and is one of the most heart-pumping players to watch in the NHL today. After winning the Calder Memorial Trophy for Rookie of the Year in 2005-06, Ovechkin went on to lead the NHL during the 2007–08 season with 65 goals and 112 points to capture the Maurice “Rocket” Richard Award and Art Ross Trophy. That season, he also won the Lester B. Pearson Award and the Hart Memorial Trophy. He is the first player to win all four awards in the same season, and has participated in the NHL All-Star game in 2007, 2008, and 2009. This past season, Ovechkin led the NHL again with 56 goals, winning his second Maurice “Rocket” Richard Award in as many years, joining Jarome Iginla and Pavel Bure as only the third player to win the award twice, and the second player after Bure (2000–2001) to win the award in back-to-back seasons.

Developed by Visual Concepts, NHL 2K10 is not yet rated by the ESRB and will be available this fall for Nintendo Wii system from Nintendo, Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, PLAYSTATION 3 computer entertainment system, and PlayStation 2 computer entertainment system.

EverQuest II Monument and Might Game Update Reveals Kurn's Tower and its Secrets to Norrath!

EverQuest II’s game update, Monument and Might reveals the true appearance of Kurn’s Tower to Norrath; panicking the inhabitants of Kunark and intriguing adventurers to its doors. A new void anchor emanates from the tower, as if a ghastly chord has tied its fate with the invading void. A warlord from a far-off land has turned his conquering eye upon the lands of Kunark and will stop at nothing to find a great power that may lie just within the tower’s walls!

UPDATE FEATURES:

• Let someone else do the work for you! Monument and Might introduces Research Assistants which allow players to train their spells up to higher grades one at a time! They are available around Qeynos and Freeport, Neriak, Haven, Gorowyn, and Kelethin. Check out the research guild hall amenity that allows you to access the research system in the comfort of your own house or guild hall!
• More than 80 new quests in the Rise of Kunark overland zones!
• Player-written books - Leave your permanent mark in Norrath by writing and distributing books! Books look and act just like the current books in the game, and you can hold them in your inventory or place them in your house or guild hall for other players to read. Read Rothgar’s blog about user-written books here!
• All-new Charasis West Wing group quests!

WHEN: The Monument and Might game update is scheduled to go live on June 16, 2009.

Cate West Seek and Solve game comes to Europe

Visual clues to help Cate West unravel the mystery of the Vanishing Files!

Oxygen Games presents the trailer for Cate West’s first European seek & solve console adventure – The Vanishing Files – which is coming to Nintendo DS and Nintendo Wii this Autumn.

In Cate West: The Vanishing Files, a series of unsolved mysteries are plaguing Arcadia City. The police have no leads, and so they turn to Cate West, a crime novelist, for help. Do Cate’s visions hold the key to solving The Vanishing Files? And how are the crimes linked to a mystery from Cate’s past?

Clues to the answers to these questions can be found in the gamer trailer here

Cate West – The Vanishing Files coming to Nintendo DS and Nintendo Wii in Europe, Australia and New Zealand in Q3 2009.

Rock Band Unplugged PSP game in European stores this week

Harmonix, the world’s premier music video game development company, and MTV Games, a part of Viacom’s MTV Networks, along with distribution partner Electronic Arts, announced today that Rock Band Unplugged for the PSP (PlayStation Portable) system will be available in retail stores across Europe beginning this week.

Developed by Harmonix in partnership with Backbone Entertainment, a Foundation 9 Entertainment studio, Rock Band Unplugged creates a full band experience in the palm of players’ hands by combining traditional beatmatch gameplay with key elements from both Rock Band™ and Rock Band 2.

The game features 41 master recordings including nine songs new to the Rock Band music catalog that are exclusive to the PSP system for a limited time, spanning all genres of rock, from punk and metal to alternative and classic rock. Rock Band Unplugged also features the first in-game store for downloadable content on the PSP system leveraging the PSP system’s wireless capabilities and powered by PlayStation Network. The first 10 DLC tracks available at the Rock Band Unplugged music store now are:

• 30 Seconds to Mars “The Kill”
• Belly “Feed the Tree”
• Disturbed “Inside the Fire”
• Lynyrd Skynyrd “Gimme Three Steps”
• Muse “Hysteria”
• Mute Math “Typical”
• No Doubt “Just a Girl”
• Oasis “Wonderwall”
• Paramore “Crushcrushcrush”
• Red Hot Chili Peppers “Under the Bridge”

In Rock Band Unplugged your hands are the “peripherals,” allowing players to take direct control of the lead/bass guitars, drums and vocals. In addition, players can capture a deep and interactive Rock Band experience by taking their band on the road in World Tour mode, practicing their chops in the Band Warmup Mode, or by taking on the most extreme musical challenge imaginable in Band Survival mode.

Rock Band Unplugged is available at a MSRP of €39.99 in Continental Europe and £29.99 in the United Kingdom. The game is rated 12+ by PEGI. Please visit www.pegi.info for rating information.

My baby video game is back and he talks!

Nobilis is proud to announce that MY BABY is back in a new sequel on Nintendo DS and Nintendo Wii!

Remember, last time you saw him he just made his 1st steps and today, in My Baby 2, he’s 15 months old.

Plenty of new challenges for you : you’ll have to teach him to talk but also dancing, climbing the stairs, jumping… but above all you’ll have to give him all your attention and loving!
New cool features, amazing and improved A.I., enhanced graphic engine… EVERYBODY WILL FALL FOR HIM!

INFORMATION

• Genre: baby life simulation
• Editor: Nobilis
• Developer: Dancing Dots
• Platform: Nintendo DS™ & Wii
• Release date: Winter 2009
• Pegi: +3

Legend IV Plus, The Next Chapter In The Saga Of Fantasy MMORPG Silkroad Online

All-New Dungeon, the Roc's Nest, to be Unveiled with the Launch of Legend IV Plus this July

Joymax, an independent developer and publisher of interactive entertainment for the global market, today unveiled the teaser site for Legend IV Plus, the next update for historical fantasy MMORPG Silkroad Online. Launching this July with a celebratory Jewel Box event, Legend IV Plus will open the way to the peak of Roc Mountain and an all-new dungeon for players level 80 and above.

Adventurers resourceful enough to reach the summit will find themselves face-to-beak with the ancient king of the Rocs, a monstrous, crimson bird that stands nearly 100 feet tall. His anger at the humans who disturb his rest knows no bounds, so those who wish to steal his treasures should be prepared for an epic battle. Of course, he has collected some incredibly powerful items over the centuries, so that reward might just be worth the risk!

To find out more about the Legend IV Plus update, including details about the new dungeon, visit the teaser site at http://www.joymax.com/silkroad/.

Classic Mad Dog McCree Arcade Games Debuts in August as the First Live-Action Shooter on Wii

Three-In-One Collection of Classic Mad Dog McCree Arcade Games Debuts in August as the First Live-Action Shooter on Nintendo Wii

Mad Dog McCree Gunslinger Pack for Nintendo Wii will be released in the UK on the 28th August 2009, priced £24.99. When ruthless outlaw Mad Dog McCree goes on a rampage with a nasty pack of wanted fugitives in tow, they leave death and destruction in their wake. You are the only gun-slinging bounty hunter who can take him down in this three-in-one collection of classic arcade games that includes: Mad Dog McCree, Mad Dog 2: The Lost Gold and The Last Bounty Hunter.

Players use their Wii Remote or Wii Zapper accessory as the ultimate six-shooter in this Wild West adventure featuring live actors. Fast reflexes and precision shooting are the keys to survival when outlaws ambush from every angle and nail-biting showdowns are only a bullet away. As they pursue Mad Dog and four other wanted fugitives, players can choose from three different difficulty levels to hunt them alone or join forces with others in two multiplayer modes – Posse and Rebel. In Posse Mode, players work together with up to three friends in pursuit of a combined high score, while in Rebel Mode they work independently with up to four bounty hunters for individual high scores. Whether sharpshooting solo or with a posse, the Mad Dog McCree Gunslinger Pack lets players deliver their own brand of Wild West justice and walk away with their gun smokin’!

Developed by Digital Leisure, Mad Dog McCree Gunslinger Pack for Nintendo Wii is BBFC rated 12 or above and packs three complete arcade classics onto one game disc.

Bonsai Barber Nintendo Wii video game

Bonsai Barber (Nintendo, 1-4 players, Rated E for Everyone-Comic Mischief, 1,000 Wii Points): The village residents are hungry for the latest in foliage fashion, and it's up to you, the new barber, to fix them up. Use the tools of your trade: scissors, clippers, spray can, and more in this humorous, first-of-its-kind "first-person-groomer" game. Bonsai Barber features a colorful cast of 12 intriguing customers, including a temperamental shallot starlet (don't call her an onion), an oddball strawberry boffin, a cactus cowboy, a daredevil carrot, and a suave banana with top-secret clearance.

Each day, five customers arrive to test your stylistic skill. If the customer requests a specific style, you'll plow that furrow, or you can rely on your expertise to pick from more than 30 popular fashions. Or, why not turn over a new leaf? Be creative and see how they react. They're a demanding bunch, so if you miss an appointment, you'll hear about it-on your Wii Message Board. If you do a good job, you may receive a gift or even a postcard from an exotic destination as your happy customers travel to distant lands and show off their exquisite coifs.

Golemizer MMORPG now out on Facebook

Machine 22, an independent game developer, announced today that the free MMORPG Golemizer is now available on Facebook. Golemizer is a free browser-based MMORPG where players are set in the role of mad scientists creating strange creatures in a steampunk universe.

Accessibility being of major importance to Golemizer (the game requires no download or plug-in), allowing players to use their Facebook account to play the game is another step in that direction. Players are free to create a new character or link an existing one to their Facebook account. Once this process is completed, playing Golemizer from Facebook is as simple as clicking a single button.

MySpace users will also be pleased to know that Golemizer will soon be available on MySpace by the end of June, making Golemizer one of the easiest MMO to join on the web.

Golemizer has a growing community of more than 23000 users registered since its release in September 2008. Since then, players have created more than 1 800 quests, crafted 1 million items and built over 8000 dungeon zones.

FIFA 10 new features and gamesplay explained for Xbox 360 & PS3

We’re really proud of FIFA 09. Quality wise the game was up there, but being football and football game fanatics we’re never satisfied. So with FIFA 10 we wanted to address 3 key things.

1- Refine our gameplay
2- Respond to feedback from our Fans
3- Innovate in some really cool ways.

About 70% of our effort went on the first 2 items, whilst the remaining 30% was spent on the very cool new innovations we have already revealed and others that we will be revealing in the coming months.
Taking each in turn
Refining our Game
When we look at FIFA 09 the overall quality of the gameplay is good. We’ve been building our ‘Next Gen’ gameplay for three years, and we have managed to address most of our fundamentals to a really satisfactory level. However there were still some frustrations – and we wanted to address them. Week in and week out when we watch real football games we see things that help us to identify how real football players behave, and express themselves on the pitch. With this in mind we focused on a heap of things this year, namely:

Urgency: We wanted to replicate the degrees of urgency on the pitch. When players aren’t involved in immediate ‘action’ they’re more relaxed. As play gets closer they become more alert and responsive to what’s going on around them. So in FIFA 10 this year you’ll see a lot of different motions being used dependent on the state of the play, and the ‘threat’ of the situation. We’ve also worked on new Face Ball logic, to ensure that players are correctly following the play and better prepared to react to the situation. This work even moves into players getting out of the way of teammates passes and shots, and players throwing themselves at the ball with effort – things like diving headers, sliding shots, falling clearances etc.

Trapping: Trapping is how the player gets into a position to control the ball, and how they control it. This year we wanted to get away from inappropriate ‘earliest’ trapping, where a player might move to a position where they would get the ball to touch them as soon as possible, to an ‘easiest’ trapping system, where players move to a position to get the ball under control as easily as possible. Essentially we gave the players more intelligence and awareness of where the most ‘natural’ trapping position is. The net result – a more responsive ball control mechanic to get the ball on the ground, and under control.

Positioning: This year we wanted to ensure that players had more awareness of where their teammates were. A new system call ‘Position Priority’ makes sure that Defensive Midfielders cover at the back if a Centre back has gone up for a corner – and they won’t leave their post until it’s safe for them to do so. Similarly in attack supporting players make more elaborate runs, analyzing space more effectively to curve, stay onside and create space for passes.

Passing: Yet again there was a lot of ‘threat’ analysis work going on. Passing players now have a greater understanding of the space ahead of teammates to make through balls more effective.

Shooting: We really wanted to improve the way the ball moves this year. So we created a tool that enables us to create a context sensitive shooting mechanic. What this means is we can tune the error on shots based on the situation. Factors during a shot like the ball, foot and movement of both now will have the correct effect on the ball and lead to some really cool looking shots.

Defending: We worked not just on the positioning as mentioned above, but also on the slide and standing tackles, and momentum on both. For slide tackling, good players now slide further, so you’ll have more reach. They also have better targeting – so you’ll generally go for the ball rather than the player. Obviously with more reach, you’ve got to time them better, otherwise you’ll be picking yourself up, as the attacker is bearing down on goal. The standing tackle, which was very powerful in 09, is now less forgiving. Defenders will use more momentum in these tackles, so again, if you miss time – you’ll be committed to the wrong direction.

Keepers: Lots of improvements here. We’ve looked at interception logic – calm and collected in low threat situations, through to punches under pressure. Again, lots of urgency work too. The keepers are now far more aggressive coming off their line, but if caught off their line they can scramble back to scoop the ball out of danger. We also worked on the goalies momentum to ensure his saves are realistic.

There’s a heap more too – and I’m sure in upcoming blogs by Creative Director Gary Paterson and gameplay producer Aaron McHardy they’ll be discussing these, and much more, in lots of detail.

Responding to Feedback:

So as I’m writing this we’re nearing the 300 millionth game of FIFA. What a number. And what a lot of feedback. For me feedback has taken 2 forms.

1 – Frustrations
2 – Requests

and I’ll take each in turn…

Frustrations: I’m on the forums a lot, posting and reading. There are a lot of people who love the game, and there are a lot of people who discover, report or exploit things in our game that they’re unhappy with. So, we really want to make the people who have legitimate gripes happy, and the exploiters play fair. Some of the things we’re changing are:

1. Stopping lofted through balls leading to 1 on 1 with the keeper.
2. Preventing goals being scored from kick off
3. Improving shooting so you don’t hit the woodwork so much
4. Making our movement animations look better
5. Working to make offsides less frequent and the advantage rule more intelligent
6. Starting to remove scripted graphical sequences and adding quick free kicks.

We’ve done a lot more too – but this should give you a sense of how much we are actually listening to the frustrations people are telling us about.

Requests: The second part of responding is requests. This year we’re proud to announce that we’re including a Practice Mode within FIFA 10. Using the Back/Select button from the 1 on 1 arena, you’ll be able to bring up a menu enabling you to choose to play a practice match or set pieces. You can change the number of players on each side, and a little blog exclusive here – it’s multiplayer too. Only locally though – you can’t have your online friends join your practice match. But 5 v 5 outfield players, on a full size pitch is now a reality 

Innovations

This year we really wanted to change the way the game played. One of the big things we wanted to do was firstly change the player control mechanic, but also to give people more freedom to express themselves realistically on the ball. We’ve managed to do this in 3 ways this year:

1. 360 Degree Dribbling
2. Skilled Dribbling
3. Freedom in Physical Play.

360 Degree Dribbling:
Believe it or not the players in FIFA 09 could only move in 8 directions. Up/Down, Left/Right and Diagonals. You might not have noticed it, but at times this led to a feeling of frustration in the way players dribbled and turned with the ball. 360 Degree dribbling totally frees you from those 8 directional constraints. It’s the first time ever in a football game. Literally a super fluid way to move with the ball. We’ve introduced a larger area of ‘control’ in front of the players, wider dribble touches and a much more responsive and accurate pad reading system to allow you to go wherever you want. With practice it’s even possible to switch the ball from one foot to the other.

Skilled Dribbling
In addition to the 360 system above we wanted to give skilled dribblers the ability to rapidly move the ball laterally. Imagine you’re down near the corner flag and are being pressed by a defender. By pressing the top left bumper you can take rapid, high fidelity touches of the ball to jink left and right to throw defenders momentum. It’s also useful in other areas of the pitch. I like to think of it as a more accessible skill move.

Freedom in Physical Play:
With the wider dribble touches we added a new collision sharing system. In combination with the increased area of possession you’re looking at ‘overlapping’ areas of control. A true fight for possession when you’re shoulder to shoulder. It’s more varied, and when the players are evenly matched, can lead to some great extended and less predictable physical interactions on the pitch.
It’s not just all about gameplay though.

Manager Mode:
We’re fully aware on the team that Manager mode is HUGELY popular. Outside 1 v CPU and 1v1 play it’s the most played gamemode in the game. Using our ‘responding to feedback’ tag line, we just couldn’t ignore the volume of requests coming in to address a number of areas in this mode. We’ve improved 50 major components to Manager mode in the following areas:

1. Match Realism
2. Transfers
3. Player Development
4. Football Atmosphere

Match Realism:
We’ve totally reworked our simulation engine. Results for Sim’d games are now generated minute by minute and are based on individual team strengths and weaknesses - down to the level of individual players, defensive, midfield and attacking lines, and formation. From the simulations we run here – we’re really happy with the realism of the results we’re generating, and our league tables look pretty believeable too.

Authentic Transfers:
In 09 we were guilty of using financial clout as the main decider for transfer success. This year there’s more decision points. Whilst money is still very important, career prospects and squad opportunity also play an important role in the success of a player’s decision. You’ll also have much more intelligent AI competing against you.

Player Developments:
We wanted to make sure that players developed believably for FIFA 10 – so we’ve invested heavily in making intelligent player growth curves based on a number of factors. These physical, mental and technical curves effect how well a player will develop, as well as where the developing player is based and how we’ll they’re performing.

Football Atmosphere:
The world of football is constantly changing, at a high and low level, and we wanted to inject some much needed authenticity here. You’ll see AI rotating squads based on match performance, have real-time transfer updates on a week by week basis and summaries of what’s going on in your football world.

The Future:
We’re looking at Manager mode as a multiyear investment for us. It’s going to take us a little while to get to a Manager mode that matches the quality of our on pitch gameplay – but we’re really committed to pulling this off

In Closing:
As I mentioned that’s about all I can talk about at the moment – and I know the guys here will be doing more in-depth blogs concerning their ‘features’ as the weeks and months go by. We’ll also be releasing more info on what’s going on regarding our other ‘unannounced features’ over the coming weeks too.

I’m looking forward to reading the feedback from this ‘blog’ and hope that you’re as excited about hearing this stuff, as we are making it.