Cocoto Platform Jumper now on WiiWare!

Neko Entertainment, an independent game developer, are proud to announce that their latest title, Cocoto Platform Jumper, is now available on the Nintendo Wii through the Wii Shop Channel, priced at 700 points.

Leading free-to-play online gangster game announces latest new features!

Omerta Game Ltd, publisher of Omerta, the Mafia-themed MMORPG (massively multiplayer role playing game) has announced the latest batch of new features to be released in the hotly-awaited new version release Omerta 3 (O3)

Omerta Game Ltd is releasing information about the new features on a weekly basis, until now these have been a closely-guarded secret. The all-new version of the web's hottest Mafia-themed game has been in development for two years, but is now only weeks away from launch.

Omerta is free-to-play, can be played with any web-browser.

The game is about crime, power and Mafia family connections. Omerta players try to climb to the top of the gangster underworld by racketeering, racing stolen cars, smuggling contraband and banding together with other players to form powerful, crime-controlling families.

The Mafia families fight turf-wars with each other, the Feds and Police for control of cities based in The United States and Sicily of the 1930s.

Omerta 3 introduces several new features which are designed to make the Mafia-family part of the game more fun and more challenging. The first of these new features is called 'city spots'.

City spots

“City spots are mostly businesses like Bars, Restaurants, Car lots, etc. Players of the new version of Omerta will be able to own these. But keeping them will be a challenge as other gangsters can raid, driving by with armed friends or setting explosives off, to try to take the City spot object away. If one family keeps possession of the city spot object, intact and profitable after 23 hours, then all members of that Mafia family benefit from significant in-game rewards” explains Otto Adang, Product Manager and Lead Designer of Omerta 3.

"Spot objects and raids are closely linked," says Otto Adang. "First of all, you can never simply buy a spot. The only way to gain ownership is to raid it with a partner. Once you have become the owner, your task will be to keep it protected from rival families. They will all be trying to raid you because the spot will give benefits to all your fellow family members, every day, unless they rob enough of your profit to prevent that. A family that is based in the same city as yours could even steal your spot through raiding."

Raids

The biggest change announced is the all-new feature of raids. In Omerta 3 players will be able to get together in pairs and try to raid the city spot object of another family, to try to prevent that family from enjoying the advantages of having that city spot object. “Raids are an exciting new feature which will make sure that there are even more inter-family wars and chaos than before” said Adang.

Player power

Spot objects and raiding are only open to members of one of the many player-created families in Omerta. The aim is to provide players, with an interesting game feature that will create strong family bonds and intense inter-family rivalries. It will reward players who have many loyal friends in their family and have a talent for organization.

“We also moved back to an earlier family system, from before Omerta 2.1 (2004). Now each family will have a fixed-size headquarters. This effects how many city spot objects each family can own.” added Adang. “This is player power in action as many of our long-established players have been crying out for a return to the old system of family headquarters.”

Defence.

But life won't be all easy for gangsters on a raid; “City spot object owners will try their best to defend each object with increased protection. They can invest their money earned by each object in protection, or choose to keep it” commented Adang.

The actual launch date of Omerta 3 is still to be announced, but players have the opportunity to pre-register at http://www.omerta3.com

We will award all players that pre-register for Omerta 3 with bonus items when the new version is launched. These bonus items will give players a kick-start on their journey to become the #1 Mafioso.

Omerta can be played in 29 different languages.

About Omerta:
Omerta – www.barafranca.com – began in 2003 as an amateur project, in a bedroom in Groningen, the Netherlands.

Omerta Game Ltd was founded in 2004 to manage and further develop Omerta. It now boasts a full-time staff of 18 people in four countries and a network of over 200 volunteers, spread out across the whole globe.

Omerta is free to play. The only requirements are a modest PC with an internet connection.

Omerta is available in 29 languages, all of which are updated for the forthcoming launch of Omerta 3. Regional (single-language) versions are available in Chinese, Dutch, French, German, Portuguese/Brazilian, Turkish and the 'Nordic' languages (Swedish, Norwegian, Danish and Finnish).

Apart from the International version, the Dutch, Turkish and Portuguese versions are the biggest versions.

Already more than 3.5 MILLION people have played Omerta!

Omerta players like to spend time chatting with their friends on Omerta's own IRC server. There are typically 4000 people or more logged into this.

Omerta boasts typically more than 70,000 players logging in every day to chat, race cars and kill each other, all in the name of fun!

NFC South team and player ratings revealed in Madden NFL 10 Season preview!

Madden NFL fans, start your season early with an in depth look at the teams of the NFL. Who will be the powerhouse teams this year? What players have improved? What players have seen better days? See how your favorite team and players will fair – according to the Madden NFL 10 Season Preview.

We continue our look at each team’s overall rating and individual player ratings with a focus on the NFC South division. In addition to the player ratings, a wealth of team-specific assets will be made available, for both the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Wii versions of Madden NFL 10.

Everything culminates on August 3rd, where Madden NFL 10 will predict the 2009 NFL division winners, season MVP, and more.

To view the overall team ratings for the Falcons, Buccaneers, Panthers and Saints, as well as download the complete team roster ratings, visit the official Madden NFL 10 website below:

• Madden NFL 10 Season Preview

Meet Max the virtual guide dog on Second Life for PC!

Online virtual world Second Life now has its own virtual guide dog available to help blind and partially sighted people – meet German Shepherd Max.

Max revolutionises how people with a visual impairment navigate the global community and can even read signs, using text to speech technology.

The cyber pooch is keyboard controlled, rather than having to use a mouse. It simulates the experience of the ‘real world’, listening to sound and other helpful messages to find its bearings; so being unable to see the screen isn’t a problem.

Max makes it easy for visually impaired users to log on. And he’s a problem solver; designed to help people with sight loss navigate by finding any object (including other avatars (online character) and taking the blind person’s avatar to a virtual meeting.

He gives constant feedback about the immediate surrounding area, so like a real guide dog, he helps visually impaired users avoid crashing into other people and objects. He assists them in navigating the virtual world, reading messages and information with text to speech technology... even a real guide dog can’t do that!

Bridget Warr, chief executive of Guide Dogs said: “This is a significant technological development, meaning blind and partially sighted people now have greater mobility and enhanced vision in the virtual world. Max is one clever dog, opening up new opportunities for those with sight loss.”

Max is free to use, and will be launched on June 20th with a ‘Vision Quest’, designed to help participants experience what it’s like to work with a guide dog and to write stories about those experiences.

Second Life is an ideal place for blind and partially sighted people to explore social networks, take classes, start businesses, and experience a wide range of languages and cultures. Second Life also offers access to vast range of audio content, including live music performances, presentations by speakers, and educational forums.

See http://www.tvwsp.com/questing/visionquests.html for details.

Battle of the Brits! The best computer gamers in Britain compete for £30,000!

The second season of the Electronic Sports League in UK, the ESL Pro Series, reaches its conclusion with Finals in London. The UK's best gamers in the disciplines Counter-Strike: Source, Call of Duty 4, Quake 3 and Trackmania Nations Forever will compete on Saturday the 4th of July 2009 for the championship title and a total prize money of £30,000. The event takes place at the Congress Centre in the heart of London's West End.

Twelve Counter-Strike: Source teams, Twelve Call of Duty 4 teams and twelve players each in the disciplines Trackmania Nations Forever and Quake 3 have been competing for the past four months to decide who is the best team in electronic sports (eSports) in the UK. The finals will be the proving ground to determine the next British eSports champions.

"We are proud to be able to announce the second ESL Pro Series Finals in UK", says Ibrahim Mazari (34), spokesperson of the league operator Turtle Entertainment. "The success of the second season lets us look forward to establish more professional eSports in the UK."

The show will feature live commentary and interviews and the breaks in between the matches will be sweetened with onsite entertainment, numerous raffles and give-aways by the ESL and its partners such as Intel®. The finals will be broadcasted live by the IPTV channel ESL TV available at: http://tv.esl.eu

More information regarding the ESL Pro Series UK Season 2 Finals is available at: http://www.esl.eu/uk/pro-series/news/71696/UK-Pro-Series-finals-announced/

General information about the ESL and eSports: www.esl.eu/uk & www.turtle-entertainment.com

Freesky Online Looking to Release Palm Pre App Version on PC!

Freesky Online (http://fo.igg.com) is an online strategy game featuring RPG and SLG that will soon have you looking for any excuse to check your cell phone. That’s right, the Freesky development team is planning to bring this great game to a Palm Pre near you!

A few months ago the FO dev team was working on a transplant that would allow Freesky to be played on the Apple iPhone 3G, using their touch screen tech. Controls were being specifically designed for players to be able to build their Empire’s, attack enemies and manage their armies simply by touching the screen of their phone. All this changed when the smart phone company that started it all jumped in the mix with the release of their new handset, the Palm Pre. The Pre featured a Web Operating System that would be ideally suited for the Freesky app, and had the stylish appearance, and performance that would rival the vaunted iPhone. The FO dev team is excited about the prospect of working with Palm and their new phone to develop an app for it.

Although the Apps aren’t near completion yet, both phones offer outstanding platforms to support Freesky, and the dev team will compare the two companies’ SDK and smartphone systems to select the one more suitable for a transplant. Soon you may have your whole empire in the Palm of your hand!

Killing Floor Grindhouse Custom Map Making Competition with $20,000-worth of prizes

Tripwire Interactive announces the "Killing Floor Grindhouse" Custom Map Making Competition with $20,000-worth of prizes. Tripwire are partnering with Nvidia and Logitech to bring you a truly spectacular mapping contest for the zombie-slaughtering co-op hit that is Killing Floor. We put the game out at a recession-friendly price, there have already been hundreds of custom maps created, so here is the Tripwire economic stimulus package to follow up: the headline prize will be an awesome $10,000 for the Grand Prize winner.

The contest will run in two Waves. Wave 1 completes July 31, 2009, with a First Prize of $5,000 for the winner, while the runners-up will get prizes including Nvidia graphics cards and Logitech goodies. Wave 2 is the Big One, completing September 18, 2009. The Grand Prize will be $10,000. Yes, a full Ten Thousand Dollars for the winning entry! There will be more Nvidia graphics cards and Logitech goodies for runners-up in Wave 2.

To find out more about the contest (including the rules), visit the web page: http://www.killingfloorthegame.com/map-making-competition/.

Killing Floor is currently available on Steam and will soon be available in stores across the world.

Call of Duty World at War map pack 2 passes 2 million downloads in first weekend

Stalwart defenders of freedom and Call of Duty fans everywhere have answered the call with more than one million downloads of the Call of Duty : World at War Map Pack 2 from Activision Publishing, Inc. (Nasdaq: ATVI) and developer Treyarch, during its first weekend of availability (June 11-14) on Xbox LIVE and the PlayStation Network.

The map pack contains four maps (Bonsai, Corrosion, Sub Pens and Shi No Numa) and is available on Xbox LIVE Marketplace for the Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system from Microsoft for 800 Microsoft Points and on the PlayStation Store for the PLAYSTATION 3 computer entertainment system for £7.99.

Call of Duty: World at War is rated 15 by the BBFC. For more information and exclusive updates about Call of Duty: World at War, visit www.callofduty.com.

2K Sports Announces Free Demo download of The BIGS 2 on Xbox LIVE

With the MLB All-Star Game right around the corner, 2K Sports today announced a free demo of The BIGS 2 is now available for download through Xbox LIVE Marketplace, and a demo on PlayStation Network will follow shortly. The demo will support two players, local only, and offer fans the exciting opportunity to experience the new Batter’s Wheelhouse, thrilling power ups, and incredible player models in a three inning game as either the American League All-Stars or National League All-Stars.

Fans will also have the chance to smash home runs into building windows and neon signs in the return of the hugely popular mode, Home Run Pinball, in an all-new Las Vegas venue.

The BIGS 2, available on all major video game consoles, has been elevated to new heights this season with amazing visual effects and a variety of newly added modes including the fan requested Season and Become a Legend. With improved player animations and pick-up-and-play controls, The BIGS 2 is guaranteed to deliver an action-packed MLB videogame experience.

Scheduled to be in retail stores on July 7, 2009, The BIGS 2 will be available for the Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, the PLAYSTATION 3 and PlayStation 2 computer entertainment systems, PSP (PlayStation Portable) system, and Nintendo Wii home video game system from Nintendo.

Blood Bowl HD video game trailer

This video gives you a preview of the eight races all with the same thing on their minds: crush their opponent and win the Blood Bowl! Definitely eager to fight, the teams are not afraid of their adversaries and won't miss an opportunity to taunt and provoke them!



There's electricity in the air, tension is high as kick off time approachesas our friend Bob would say: "it's gonna be a bloody night"!

An ultra-violent mix of Warhammer Fantasy and American football, Blood Bowl allows players to create the ultimate fantasy sports teams. Coaches can build bone-crushing teams of Orcs, Wood Elves, Humans, Dwarfs and many more fantastic creatures then throw them into the stadium for the ultimate blood sport! Blood Bowl is strategic, action-packed and violent, requiring coaches to use their best tactics, team design and a dose of pure ruthless bloodlust always helps too!

All of these charming creatures are waiting for you to play in highly contested games soon on PC and handheld consoles.