The Punisher - No Mercy Full version and demo download first-person shooter

ZEN Studios, creators of the recent PSN smash hit ZEN Pinball, confirmed today that it will release a free-to-play demo of The Punisher - No Mercy on July 2, 2009, exclusively for PlayStation Network. Releasing the same day as the full version of No Mercy, the demo will allow players to sample the fast-paced action of the Marvel Comics-inspired first-person shooter with two of the eight levels from the original version of the game.

Today the studio also released the list of No Mercy trophy achievements, which can be viewed at www.marvel.com or www.psu.com.

Powered by Unreal Engine 3, The Punisher: No Mercy lets players jump into Punisher action, fighting alongside or taking on an eclectic mix of Punisher allies and villains in a series of online arena-style multiplayer matches that feature solo and team-based missions for up to eight players. Battle arenas span from shipyards rife with contraband to the “birthplace” of Jigsaw, the Punisher’s archenemy.

In addition to the exceptional online gameplay, No Mercy also boasts a single player story mode where players can unleash their vengeance on hordes of villains while unfolding an original storyline and unlocking new additional content. The story mode also features exclusive artwork from acclaimed Marvel artist Mike Deodato.

Battlestations - Pacific Prepares For Summer Offensive Two new download packs to hit Marketplace in July

Two new download packs shipping in July for Battlestations: Pacific, giving gamers new units and maps for tailor-made battles.

Featuring six new units and 18 new pieces of nose art, the Mustang Pack allows players to customise their battles in both single and multiplayer modes.

Amongst the units, players can take to the skies in the legendary US P-51 Mustang bomber escort, a late entry to the Pacific campaign but one which made its mark in Europe as a deadly force; or control the seas with the US Navy’s Alaska Class, giving the upper hand with a large and heavily armed ‘cruiser killer’; or the Super Yamato Class, a huge behemoth of a ship which, had it left the drawing board, would have outclassed the Yamato in every way with the potential to be the most powerful battleship in history.

The Carrier Battles Map Pack gives gamers four new maps, playable across all five multiplayer modes. Take part in a clash of carriers at Midway, do battle at dawn in the mist of the Philippine Islands, experience the fury of Kamikaze attacks in the rocky islands of the Leyte Gulf and take control of your forces amongst the mountain peaks and glacial waters of the icy Aleutian Islands.

The Mustang Pack, priced at 160 points, and the Carrier Battles Map Pack, priced at 800 points, will be available to download on Marketplace from July 2nd and July 23rd respectively for the Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system from Microsoft and Games for Windows LIVE. Battlestations: Pacific™ is rated ESRB “T” for Teen in North America and PEGI 12+ in Europe.

2K Sports Invites Fans to Play The BIGSTM 2 with the New York Mets at the Nintendo World Store on July 6

2K Sports invites gamers and fans of The BIGS™ video game series to the Nintendo World Store in New York City on Monday, July 6 for The BIGS 2 Home Run Pinball tournament. Attendees will have the exciting opportunity to meet and get autographs from the New York Mets’ Mike Pelfrey and Alex Cora, who will help kick-off the tournament.

Eligible participants in the The BIGS 2 Home Run Pinball tournament will have the chance to win prizes such as a Wii system from Nintendo, an authentic Major League Baseball jersey autographed by Prince Fielder of the Milwaukee Brewers, the cover athlete and spokesman for The BIGS 2, and a variety of other prizes. Attendees will also have the exclusive opportunity to purchase The BIGS 2 for Wii a full day before the game is released in retail stores. Registration for the tournament begins at 12:00 PM Eastern Time and registration slots will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis. Tournament play begins at 4:15 PM Eastern Time. All prospective tournament participants must be 10 or older, and participants 17 or younger must be accompanied by and have permission from a parent or guardian.

Date: Monday, July 6

Location: Nintendo World Store

10 Rockefeller Plaza
New York, NY 10020

(646) 459-0800


Schedule: 12:00–3:30 PM – Home Run Pinball Tournament registration

4:00 PM – Event introduction

4:10 PM – Mike Pelfrey and Alex Cora of the New York Mets to faceoff in The BIGS 2

4:15 PM – Tournament begins

6:00 PM – Tournament concludes

Coming to retail stores on July 7, 2009, the Big Leagues will get BIGGER with The BIGS 2. Rated E 10+ by the ESRB, The BIGS 2 will be available on all major video game platforms. The BIGS 2 has been elevated to new heights this season with amazing visual effects and a variety of new gameplay modes, including the fan-requested Season Mode and Become a Legend. With improved player animations and pick-up-and-play controls, The BIGS 2 will deliver an action-packed MLB video game experience.

Seek n Spell GPS - Based iPhone Game

Temporarily Available for Only 99 Cents, the GPS-Based iPhone Game Is An Exciting New Way to Have Fun at Holiday Events

The Retronyms have announced a special holiday weekend price drop for Seek ‘n Spell, the GPS-based word game for the iPhone 3G and 3GS, to celebrate their recent “Best Use of Technology” award from the 2009 Come Out & Play Festival. Held in New York City, the Come Out & Play Festival is an annual event that celebrates outdoor and street games played in public spaces.

Chosen by a panel of fourteen judges, the award was presented to The Retronyms team at a ceremony on June 14. Regularly priced at $2.99, Seek ‘n Spell will be available for a special price of only 99 cents from July 2 to July 6 to celebrate the award.

“We are honored that the Come Out & Play Festival recognized Seek ‘n Spell for its innovative use of the iPhone and GPS technology,” said Dan Walton, co-founder of The Retronyms. “We felt that Independence Day weekend would be a perfect time to celebrate with our fans by offering a holiday discount. Seek ‘n Spell is a great game to play with family and friends during picnics, barbecues, or any other outdoor festivity.”

Seek 'n Spell is the iPhone 3G and 3GS application that transforms gaming from a sedentary experience to an active and social outdoor contest that exercises the mind and the body. Combining real outdoor spaces with virtual letters, Seek Ê»n Spell is the word game where players race against the clock to gather letter tiles and create words to score the most points. When the game begins, Seek 'n Spell displays a satellite map of the player's location with letters scattered about the field. Players run to a letter to pick it up, and they can collect up to ten at a time to spell as many words as possible. More points are scored for longer words, and coveted gold letters appear randomly on the field to double a score when used in a word. Visit the Seek ‘n Spell forums to find other players in your area (http://seeknspell.com/forums/) or join the Seek ‘n Spell Meetup.com groups in San Francisco and Cleveland to play in those cities.

Seek ‘n Spell is available for a special Independence Day weekend price of $0.99 from the iTunes App Store at http://linktoapp.com/seeknspell.

Cake Mania 3 video game coming to Nintendo DS

Third Edition of Best-Selling Franchise Features All New Mini-Games, Bakeries and Customization

Majesco and Sandlot Games creator of the Cake Mania franchise announce Cake Mania 3 for Nintendo DS.

Based on Sandlot Games' award-winning online PC franchise that has been downloaded more than 100 million times, Cake Mania 3 features all-new bakeries, bakery upgrades, kitchen customization, customers and mini-games.

"We are excited to continue building on the success of the Cake Mania franchise on Nintendo DS™," said Daniel Bernstein, Founder and CEO of Sandlot Games. "Millions of Cake Mania fans will be thrilled to play the latest and most ambitious installment in Jill's cake-baking adventures."

"Sandlot Games' Cake Mania franchise is beloved by casual gamers of all ages and Cake Mania 3 delivers the frantic gameplay fans expect, but topped off with many new features," said Gui Karyo, Executive Vice President of Operations for Majesco. "With worldwide sales of more than 650,000 units, the Cake Mania franchise remains a strong property for us that we will continue to leverage with this third release."

Cake Mania 3 boasts new features that will attract everyone from loyal fans to first time players. More than 80 new levels, 30 new customers and 6 beautiful time-spanning environments test Jill's speed and efficiency. Gamers will meet the challenge of spell-casting Egyptian Pharaohs, Dinosaurs with dangerous appetites, and impatient Medieval English princes with a myriad of exciting new kitchen upgrades. In addition, players can unlock three new mini games, and for the first time in the series, change Jill's outfits throughout the game. So no matter the era, she'll never be out of style!

Developed by Digital Embryo in partnership with Sandlot Games, Cake Mania 3 on Nintendo DS™ is expected to release early fall.

Numerous Free features are added to MapleStory, including its undefeated monster, Pink Bean

Summer is officially here and MapleStory rolled out its latest update with a sunny new set of features to provide its players more fun and adventures. The update offers an exciting new title system, time travel to battle the game’s biggest challenge, Pink Bean, work as a secret agent and the opportunity to be a hero as part of a party quest to save the polluted Ellin Forest.

Here are more details on these exciting updates:

Time Temple – Players travel through time via the ‘Time Temple,’ to stop Kirston from reviving the Black Wizard. There are numerous new monsters to battle, including the toughest boss ever, Pink Bean. This undefeated monster champ of the world might look cuddly but is so deadly, it has yet to experience defeat.

Title System - Players complete special challenge quests and earn medals that display below their characters names in game.

Title medals include:
• Diligent Explorer: Log in for three hours every day for a set number of days.
• Veteran Hunter: Kill 100,000 monsters your level or above.
• Party Quest Mania: Achieve the S rank on eight party quests.
• Quest Specialist: Complete 800 quests.
• Celebrity: Acquire 20,000 fame points.
• Ultimate Warrior, Magician, Thief, Bowman, or Pirate: Reach level 200

Some titles can only be held by one Mapler at a time and will be replaced if another player tops their record. These titles are:
• Donation King: Donate the most mesos to any one town.
• Maple Idol Star: Be the most famed person in MapleStory.
• Legendary Hunter: Kill the most monsters of any type your level or above

Finding Master M - Look out for secret agents, who have invaded the Maple World. Players can join them on exciting missions to uncover the true identity of Master M. Event quests give players the chance to gather clues which assist in unveiling Master M’s identity. Players who complete this mission will be rewarded with an Agent Equipment set. This event runs through August 25.

Agent Training Program - Players will test their combat skills in this new program, which pits an individual player or team of players against boss monsters for the ultimate monster battle. Players must defeat each monster to advance to the next stage and do not see their EXP suffer if defeated.

Ellin Forest Party Quest – Three to five players rally together in this party quest to save the polluted Ellin Forest. Players travel back in time and battle their way through the poisoned forest to uncover the cause of the pollution.

All these new features are now available for free in MapleStory.

Mastertronic releases World of Goo on new Great Indie Games label

Mastertronic have announced the release of the critically acclaimed “World of Goo” on PC, previously available as download and as WiiWare, but now a debut for boxed product. It will also be the first title to be released on their new label, Great Indie Games, a label set up to offer a route to market for independent games developers.

World of Goo is a simple puzzle/building game with a quirky sense of humour. The main objective of the game is to get a requisite number of goo balls to a pipe representing the exit. In order to do so, the player must use the goo balls to construct bridges, towers, and other structures to overcome gravity and various terrain difficulties such as chasms, hills, spikes, or cliffs.

The 48 levels are varied with wide-ranging objectives and a variety of goo. New goo is introduced early on in each chapter, and subsequent missions progressively ramp up the challenge and force you to put it to good use. Different types of goo have special abilities – black goo is rigid and cannot be moved after being placed, green goo can be moved around after initial placement, white goo hangs down like long water drips, red goo can be deployed to act as helium balloons to help keep long bridges in the air over treacherous pits, yellow goo can stick to vertical surfaces while Skull goo is resistant to being popped by spikes.

World of Goo on the PC is a unique visual experience. Brilliant design is achieved through vibrant and contrasting colours and beautiful graphics, giving a surreal cartoon feel to the game. Realistic sound effects add to the games wit and personality and the game is accompanied by a fantastic, atmospheric soundtrack whereby carefully chosen music tracks set the atmosphere for each level.

World of Goo boasts raving reviews and extremely high scores. PC Gamer awarded World of Goo 93% along with PC Format, and PC Zone came in just short of that at 90%. Eurogamer scored World of Goo 9/10 commenting “The world of Goo is a raging pleasure to spend time in, and interact with” whilst Gamespy gave it five stars commenting “(World of Goo is) an amazing, breathtaking and immeasurably charming piece of game design”. The comments continue - “The most charming, creative and generally weird indie title to come out this year” Escapist magazine and “One of the most original and addictive gaming experiences to come along in years” Gamespot

World of Goo has been developed by 2D Boy, an independent developer consisting of Kyle Gabler and Ron Carmel, both former Electronic Arts employees, who with World Of Goo won awards at the Independent Games Festival at the Game Developers Conference in 2007.

Kirsty Payne, Marketing and PR Manager at Mastertronic commented “We are so proud to be releasing World of Goo on PC. It has all the makings of a classic and has received phenomonal reviews from the specialist games press. We will be rolling out a full mainstream consumer marketing and PR campaign targeting specialist PC press, lads mags, national press and womens press as this game can be played and enjoyed by absolutely everyone”.

World of Goo is released on 3rd July 2009

Limited edition game locker, Kobe Bryant figurine and poster, NBA 2K retrospective video and VIP online lobby with NBA 2K10 anniversary edition

To celebrate 10 years of the popular NBA 2K franchise, and the milestone of having sold two million units of NBA 2K9 worldwide, 2K Sports today announced that the NBA 2K10: Anniversary Edition is planned for release in North America this fall for the Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system from Microsoft and PLAYSTATION 3 computer entertainment system.

NBA 2K10: Anniversary Edition will come packaged in a specially designed 2K Sports locker configured for game storage, and include exclusive items featuring 2009 NBA Finals MVP, Kobe Bryant of the Los Angeles Lakers, along with a special commemorative video looking back on 10 years of the NBA 2K franchise and its past cover athletes.

As part of a limited edition offering of only 30,000 copies, each NBA 2K10: Anniversary Edition will be individually numbered for authenticity. Fans can now preorder their copy online and at local retail outlets across the country. Ten lucky fans will have the rare opportunity to find an autographed Kobe Bryant fine-art print, designed by Shepard Fairey’s Studio Number One, which will be hidden and randomly packaged among the different lockers. Gamers with Xbox LIVE online entertainment network and PlayStation Network membership will also be able to enjoy special privileges for NBA 2K10: Anniversary Edition, including exclusive access to an online lobby - the Gold Room - where celebrities and other VIP members will go to play, and only players with the Anniversary Edition will be allowed to enter.

NBA 2K10: Anniversary Edition will include:

• NBA 2K10 video game
• 2K Sports’ NBA 2K10 game locker
• 3” Figurine of Kobe Bryant by McFarlane Toys
• 16” x 36” Kobe Bryant poster
• Commemorative NBA 2K 10th anniversary DVD
• Access to the Gold Room, the NBA 2K10 VIP online lobby (accessible only with Xbox LIVE and PlayStation Network membership)

“NBA 2K is the premier basketball video game franchise for serious players, deeply rooted in rich and pure authenticity that real hoop heads get, which is why we’ve been the favorite NBA simulation for so long,” said Greg Thomas, senior vice president of sports development for 2K. “We’ve always been very proud of how we engage our fans on a community level, and NBA 2K10: Anniversary Edition is our way of giving back to all those that have supported us along the way.”

Coming this fall, NBA 2K10 is expected to deliver the most realistic, stylistic, and feature-rich simulation experience ever available in the NBA 2K franchise – from gameplay to graphics, presentation and online features. Developed by Visual Concepts, NBA 2K10 is not yet rated by the ESRB and will be available for Xbox 360, PLAYSTATION 3, PlayStation 2 computer entertainment system, PSP (PlayStation Portable) system, Nintendo Wii system from Nintendo, and Windows PC. NBA 2K10: Anniversary Edition will be available for Xbox 360 and PLAYSTATION 3.

Dream Stick 360 Wireless Arcade Stick Now Available from Dream Arcades

The Dream Stick 360 by Dream Arcades features the first commercially available wireless arcade control panel compatible with Xbox 360 and Windows PC.

Dream Arcades
(http://www.DreamArcades.com) is proud to announce the immediate availability of the new Dream Stick 360. The Dream Stick 360 brings a new contender to the fighting game ring and introduces the first competition quality wireless arcade stick for Xbox 360.

The Dream Stick 360, which is available now, features authentic arcade buttons, joystick and commercial quality cabinet. Windows PC support is also available via an optional adapter. The Dream Stick 360 is priced at just $139 plus shipping.

"The Dream Stick 360 is the perfect opportunity for us to bring the arcade experience into the home, at a lower price point and a smaller footprint than our full-size arcades," says Michael Ware, owner of Dream Arcades. "Also, because we are the only home arcade manufacturer to offer a complete line of home arcade products from control panels to 120-inch projection arcades, we can help grow your home arcade collection over time."

Dream Arcades is the only home arcade manufacturer with a complete line of products from personal arcade joysticks, arcade kits (just add your own monitor and game console or PC), and complete arcades (ready to plug in and play). Since 2002, the company has had one goal - to deliver the ultimate home arcade.

Grease the movie turned into a video game for Nintendo Wii and DS

New video game based on the original high school musical, Grease is being made. Working in collaboration with Paramount Digital Entertainment, 505 Games will oversee and publish a Grease video game for the Nintendo Wii and Nintendo DS.

The Grease video game will allow players to sing and dance alongside Danny, Sandy, The Pink Ladies and the T-Birds. The game will take full advantage of the Nintendo Wii’s motion-sensing controls and microphone, and the DS’s touch screen to create exciting gameplay for casual and family gamers eager to experience Grease in a new medium.

“We are really excited about working with Paramount Digital Entertainment to turn this world famous film into a video game for the very first time. Working with such a well known and much loved brand is a great opportunity and we believe the collaboration further strengthens 505 Games’ entertainment portfolio,” commented Ian Howe, Managing Director 505 Games.

“Paramount Digital Entertainment is pleased to be working with 505 Games to develop Grease,” said John Kavanagh, Senior Vice President of Video Games for Paramount Digital Entertainment. “Grease is the ideal opportunity to reach a broad gaming audience who love to sing, dance and have fun with a party-style game.”