EA list games on show at gamescom 2009

Electronic Arts announce its product line up for gamescom, Europe’s biggest consumer and trade fair for interactive entertainment.

Games include:
Battlefield: Bad Company 2,
Brütal Legend,
Dante's Inferno,
Dead Space: Extraction,
Dragon Age: Origins,
FIGHT NIGHT Round 4,
FIFA 10, click link below for more...

FIFA Manager 10,
GI JOE The Rise of the Cobra,
HASBRO FAMILY GAME NIGHT 2,
LITTLEST PET SHOP Beach Friends,
LITTLEST PET SHOP City Friends,
LITTLEST PET SHOP Country Friends,
Mass Effect 2,
MySims Agents,
NBA Live 10,
Need For Speed Nitro,
Need For Speed Shift,
NHL 10,
SimAnimals Africa,
The Sims 3,
Spore Hero,
Spore Hero Arena,
Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 10.

Visitors will have a chance to play some of EA’s best loved blockbusters, as well as a selection of hot new properties coming this year. EA’s portfolio offers fun interactive game play for audiences of all ages and with diverse tastes.

“Visitors at gamescom will be blown away by the incredible breadth and quality of EA’s titles,” said Jens Uwe Intat, Senior Vice President and General Manager for EA European Publishing. “From core gaming experiences for seasoned players, to sports games, to casual, online or mobile, there will be something new for everyone to discover and enjoy.”

EA at gamescom

August 19th-23rd

EA Mobile

Feature phone: Bubble Bobble Evolution, Command & Conquer™ Red Alert™, FIFA 10, GI JOE, Need for Speed Shift

iPhone: GAME OF LIFE, MONOPOLY Classic, Tetris, TRIVIAL PURSUIT, The Sims 3

Media only sessions include:
All Points Bulletin, Army of Two: The 40th Day, Battlefield: Bad Company 2, Brütal Legend, Command & Conquer 4 (working title), Dante's Inferno, Dead Space Extraction, Dragon Age: Origins, EA SPORTS Active: Personal Trainer, FIFA 10, FIFA Manager 10, HASBRO FAMILY GAME NIGHT 2, Mass Effect 2, Need for Speed Nitro, Need for Speed Shift, NHL 10, Rage, RockBand: The Beatles, The Sims 3 World Adventures, MySims Agents, The Saboteur, Tiger Woods PGA TOUR Online.

The first ever live public demo of BioWare and LucasArts’ Star Wars: The Old Republic will be viewable in the theatre at Hall 6.1 / B-066, A-061.

Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning is featured at the GOA Booth Hall 9.1 / Aisle A n° 041 and Aisle B n° 040.

Anti-grav racing title Future Racer, available for iPhone and iPod Touch

Future Racer is a slick and accessible racing title, with a focus on speed rather than combat, pitting you in a tense battle for the finish line using your reaction and cornering skills. With six unique tracks throwing a barrage of fiendish twists and turns your way, you will need to have lightning fast reflexes to master this game and top the time trial leader boards.

AGS can also reveal the officially licensed soundtrack for Future Racer, courtesy of record labels Triptik and Loft Music, featuring six pounding tracks to accompany the high-velocity rush.

Featured artists:

Triptik & Loft Music

“Republic” (Grid System Remix) by Coalesced

“Taking Control” (Royal Sapien Dub) by KiRA & James Warren ft. Rachel Lamb

“Rotary” (Trafik Remix) by Mikobene & Fusion F

“Shadow Boxer” by Silas

StockMusic.net

“ElectroFlux999” by Ronan Davey

Rugby League 3 video game for Nintendo Wii announced

Rugby League 3 for Nintendo Wii game continues the highly successful “Rugby League” franchise, which is amongst the highest selling franchises of all time in Australasia.

“We are extremely pleased to be publishing a new Rugby League title with such fresh features, content, and innovations across the board,” said David Robles, Business Development Manager for HES. “Rugby League 3 is a significant and worthy addition to the franchise.”

The features and content of “Rugby League 3” include:
- Visceral Wii Remote motion controls bring the physicality of Rugby League into your living room
- 80+ licensed teams from competitions such as the NRL, Super League, Toyota Cup, UK Championship, UK Championship 1, State of Origin, City v Country and internationals
- 38 stadia from Australia, New Zealand, UK and France
- Team level gameplay features including defensive line controls, attacking strategy selection, team confidence, and AI support play
- Build a champion team in the Multi-year Franchise Mode including advanced player management, Dally M Player of the Year and Man of Steel, club records and optional manual rep selection
- Create and customise players, teams, and competitions
- Broadcast style presentation with enhanced replay angles, match highlights, and in-game commentary from Channel Nine’s Andrew Voss

“The production team has been able to leverage significant past experience and extensive feedback from consumers in the development of this title” said Mario Wynands, Managing Director of Sidhe. “As a result, Rugby League 3 takes the series to new heights, delivering a richer, deeper and more immersive experience than ever before.”

Rugby League 3 is expected to be released for Nintendo Wii in Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and France in Q4 2009.

Scrabble gadget on iGoogle also on Mobile Devices, Social Networking Sites, Handheld Gaming Platforms, Xbox Live Arcade and Online

Electronic Arts announce SCRABBLE is launching on iGoogle in conjunction with the support of Opensocial, which offers users a more powerful and interactive way to play games on their iGoogle homepage, personal websites or desktop for quick pick-up-and-play fun. The new social features on iGoogle allow users to share content, play games and collaborate with friends on their personal homepage. SCRABBLE as a gadget is the 6th official version of the Hasbro owned SCRABBLE franchise launched by EA to give fans of the game a vast array of ways to play.

The SCRABBLE gadget customized for iGoogle provides the authentic game experience as well as an intuitive interface that allows head-to-head challenges against friends and family (based on subset of Google contacts). Gameplay is asynchronous and allows for up to five simultaneous games. With easy tracking of scores and statistics, one always will know where they rank against their friends as well as the iGoogle community at large. Players also can get help from extensive word lists and choose one of the several flexible speed levels to customize their level of difficulty.

“SCRABBLE is one of the most beloved and popular games around, so we’re excited it’s among the first games to launch as one of the new gadgets on iGoogle,” said Robert Nashak, Vice President of the Social Games Group. “Our goal at EA is to provide as many ways as possible to play digital versions of SCRABBLE so players can identify what best suits their gaming habits. To date, EA has launched SCRABBLE on mobile devices, social networking sites, online and Xbox Live Arcade. Now with SCRABBLE as a gadget, players can easily add the game to their iGoogle page, which allows for a quick, fun SCRABBLE break during the day.”

"Our goal is to make iGoogle as useful and personalized as possible and adding social elements to gadgets enables our users to have a much richer experience on their personalized homepage," said Marissa Mayer, Vice President of Search Products and User Experience. "We're excited to have EA's SCRABBLE gadget on iGoogle. It's an iconic game that will be fun for our tens of millions of users."

Play SCRABBLE as a gadget here: http://www.google.com/ig/directory?type=gadgets&url=webmayhem.eamobile.com/mayhem/scrabble/igoogle/gadget.xml

SCRABBLE is currently available on several platforms in the US. For mobile phones, SCRABBLE can be purchased via handset or at www.eamobile.com . Specific pricing available at www.eamobile.com. For the iPhone or iPod touch, SCRABBLE can be purchased on the Apple App Store www.itunes.com/appstore. Players can also purchase the game for their Nintendo DS and Sony PlayStation Portable system (PSP) for a MSRP of $19.99. Owners of the Xbox 360 videogame and entertainment system can purchase the game via Xbox LIVE Arcade for 800 Microsoft Points. Online gamers can play the game for free at Pogo.com.

Metal Gear Solid Touch now available for only $2.99 on iPhone and iPod Touch

Players Can Now Purchase Apple iPhone and iPod Touch Title for Only $2.99 Through August 15. Konami announce that Metal Gear Solid Touch is now available for purchase for $2.99 on the App store. Offered to consumers for a limited time only, old fans and new can experience the full version of the top-selling franchise for $5.00 less than the original price on the App store.

Developed by Kojima Productions and designed specifically for the iPhone and iPod touch, Metal Gear Solid Touch unfolds in five chapters over a span of 20 stages with familiar enemies attempting to keep Old Snake from accomplishing his mission. Players join forces with Old Snake as he battles the money-driven mercenaries of Private Military Companies (PMCs), Haven Troopers, Gekko and the beautiful yet terrifying bosses of the B&B Corps. This commercial warfare adventure follows Old Snake across the Middle East, South America, Eastern Europe and Shadow Moses as he depletes his enemies’ stamina with various short-range and long-range weapons. Metal Gear Solid Touch also features 20 levels of gameplay and well-known antagonists from the past. Metal Gear Solid Touch is set in the immersive world of Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots and created with the concept of allowing players to “touch” upon the world of Metal Gear Solid.

Metal Gear Solid Touch is available for purchase for $2.99 from August 13-15 only on the App Store for Apple iPhone and iPod touch.

Download the co-op demo for Lost Planet 2 on Xbox LIVE

Starting on August 19 th (the first day of GamesCom in Cologne, Germany), Xbox 360 action fans will be able to download the co-op demo for Lost Planet 2 that Capcom has been showing at events such as E3, Comic-Con and GamesCom. Live Gold members will have first crack at the demo on August 19 th, while Silver level members will be able to take part on August 26 th.

Xbox LIVE Gold subscribers around the world will be able to experience the desperate battle against the enormous G-Type Salamander Akrid boss in online, co-operative shoot outs. Utilizing a host of weapons scattered through out the arena, squads of up to four players will face off against the huge monster in an attempt to bring it down. Players can assault the Salamander in a number of ways, from shearing off its legs to actually being swallowed and fighting their way out from the inside! Superior firepower comes in many flavours, including numerous beam and projectile weapons and several Vital Suit robotic combat units that up to three players can ride at once. There are new support weapons which allow teammates to boost attack and defense abilities, while players can share life-giving thermal energy amongst injured members of their squad. Additionally, the new Dash feature allows players to sprint for short distances, bringing greater speed to combat.

The demo is a brief glimpse into the world and possibilities of Lost Planet 2, highlighting the range of weaponry available to players while showing off the high definition graphical capabilities of MT Framework 2.0, the latest version of Capcom’s proprietary 3D game engine. The first generation of MT Framework powered Capcom games like Dead Rising, the original Lost Planet and Devil May Cry 4, while an updated 1.5 version made possible the award-winning visuals of Resident Evil 5.

The next installment in the popular action series returns in Lost Planet 2, sequel to the 2.3 million selling Lost Planet: Extreme Condition. Lost Planet 2 will offer deeper insight into the world of E.D.N III and the uncertain fate of future mankind. A decade has passed since the first game, and the face of E.D.N. III has changed dramatically. Terraforming efforts have been successful and the ice has begun to melt, giving way to lush tropical jungles and harsh unforgiving deserts. Players will enter this new environment and follow the exploits of their own customized snow pirate on their quest to seize control of the changing planet.

Players will control their heroes across 6 interconnected episodes, creating a truly unique interactive experience that changes depending upon the actions of the players involved. With this concept, players will have the opportunity to engage in the story in a much more dynamic way as plot threads evolve from different players' perspectives.

Beyond the deep single player mode, Lost Planet 2 is loaded with extensive multiplayer modes. The intense and action packed campaign mode comes with the ability to form teams of up to 4 players online to clear mission objectives with friends. The grappling hooks that made the gameplay in Lost Planet a true 3-D experience are back, allowing gamers to gain tactical advantage by quickly scaling buildings and other obstacles that have become exposed by the wide range of environmental changes to the world of E.D.N. III.

Operation Barbarossa - The Struggle for Russia! video game announced

The Fate of the Eastern Front is in your hands!

Matrix Games and Binary Evolution Studios announce that Operation Barbarossa – The Struggle for Russia, an elegant and challenging World War II strategy game perfect for both new and veteran wargamers!

David Heath, Director of Operations at Matrix Games, said “Operation Barbarossa is a splendid combination of intuitive gamezplay and challenging strategy with plenty of historical detail.

Similar to the old “General” series of wargames, gamers will find that they can hit the ground running without a steep learning curve, but the gameplay will entertain and challenge even veteran wargamers!”

On June 22, 1941 an avalanche of 153 German divisions crash into the Soviet Union and the largest military operation in history is begun: Operation Barbarossa. In this elegant turn-based strategy game, compelling gameplay combines with gripping history to create an addictive mix.

Aimed at all levels, from those who have never played a wargame before to those who know the history of World War II in detail, this is an entertaining and mentally challenging game of combined arms strategy. Your armor, infantry, artillery and air units will follow you through the most crucial battles of the Eastern Front. You will be able to choose from 47 different upgrades and improvements for your units as well as add new forces based on your success in the campaign.

Take command in two German and one Soviet campaign as well as individual scenarios and determine the fate of the Eastern Front. When you’ve played through all the campaigns and scenarios, try your hand at the editor to create new scenarios for yourself or to share with others!

* Over 140 different units featuring all important historical weapon systems with up to 23 different characteristics
* Experience based promotion system that offers the player 47 different upgrades to create individual units
* Three historical campaigns from the start of Operation Barbarossa until the Battle of Berlin and a tutorial campaign that provides easy access for beginners
* Interactive, animated 3D environment and detailed 3D units
* Visible weather system with five weather types that influence ground and air units
* Expanded strategic options like destruction and repair of infrastructure and fortifications
* Special unit capabilities like engineers and paratroops

Worms updated for iPhone and iPod Touch! update to v1.01 - details

The hugely successful WORMS for iPhone and iPod Touch has received its first post-launch update with a suite of improvements largely geared around customer feedback and suggestion.

Players were quick to discuss the title on Team17’s facebook page and the iPhone team interacted directly to find out players suggestions on the games controls, performance and other aspects.

The title, which was a no.1 top-paid app for a lengthy period in various countries, was released July 12th and enjoyed its opening spell as the iPhone’s most popular game and still currently sits in the top 10 in the UK, joining the three other digital download Worms titles prolific debuts with Worms 2 Armageddon for Xbox LIVE hit number 1 during July following Worms PSN’s successful launch in April.

Further upgrades for the iPhone/iPod Touch edition are in the works, with an update for 3.0 features to include Bluetooth multiplayer, improved 3GS visual effects and support for interaction with both Facebook and Twitter. The second major update will support full infrastructure Internet play, with voice support, leaderboards and other delights, which will make iPhone Worms™ one of the most fully featured handheld editions of the game bar none.

Full details on these exciting upgrades for the title will be forthcoming closer to their release as Team17 look to embrace the opportunities on Apple’s exciting platform and news will be relayed to our Facebook page (www.facebook.com/team17software) as we progress.

Worms™ for iPhone & iPod Touch is available now, priced at £2.99, 3.99 Euro and $4.99.

WORMS for iPhone/Touch update v1.01

Major improvements:

• The option to change graphical settings for increased performance in game on 1G and 3G devices.

• More responsive camera controls, including the ability to make the camera zoom further in for a closer look at the action.

• The ability to flip the game screen based on the orientation of your device.

• Improved Ninja Rope controls allowing even more death-defying rope stunts.

• The ability to unleash devastating weapons on your enemies from the safety of a parachute.

• Shorter thinking times of AI players.

• Highly improved back-flip and jump controls, including a new finger swipe method for back-flip to make sure you never accidentally jump worms into the water again.

• The facility to customise the game even further by creating your own enemy teams.

• General performance increases across the board.

• Quick shortcut to zoom out/in quickly with a press of the top left corner.

Other fixes:

• 1st gen devices crashed if left on the pause menu for a couple of minutes.
• Removed game saving/loading dialog message box.
• Upon opening the weapons panel and then closing it with the resume game option, the worm would occasionally jump.
• The pause game button could cause the worm to walk left if held down.
• Non-scrolling text in the AI created team menu.
• Added initial boot screen asking user to hard reset their device. This is to help users get the best experience/performance (due to fragmented iPhone memory problems).
• Various speech-bank issues where a foreign language was being incorrectly used.
• During the hot-seat time of a turn, commentary text such as 'It's a brand new turn!' will appear underneath the darkened screen. The commentary text should appear when the turn has begun.
• Instance where a worm causes damage, but at the end of a turn no damage is taken.
• When viewing the How to Play options in game, the fire button and weapon panel buttons need to be hidden.
• Music incorrectly switching off when 20% power message has appeared.
• When the player quits a game, the in-game music carries on into the front-end. This is incorrect - it should be the generic front-end music playing instead.
• When the Holy HG comes to rest the particle effect obscures the weapon. The particle trial should only really be seen when the weapon is in motion.
• Various localisation errors fixed.
• Says heaths instead of health in how to play text.
• When the player selects a weapon, it would be useful for the commentary panel to display the weapon name for a couple of seconds.
• At present, if the player moves the camera and then aims with the reticule, the camera will re-centre on the worm. Fixed.
• Decompress music upon first launch in order to increase performance on older devices.

Release date for Mini Ninjas video game annouced

Eidos Interactive are proud to announce that IO Interactive’s new adventure Mini Ninjas will be released from 8th September across North America, 11th September in the United Kingdom and PAL territories and 9th October in France and Germany and will be available on Nintendo Wii, Nintendo DS, Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, Games for Windows and PlayStation 3 computer entertainment system.

Mini Ninjas takes you on a journey to feudal Japan where you join Hiro, Futo, and the rest of the ninja clan on their biggest ninja adventure ever as they embark on an epic and electrifying quest to restore harmony to a world on the brink of chaos.

“We’re incredibly excited to be launching the unique and beautifully quirky MINI NINJAS,” said Niels Jørgensen General Manager of IO Interactive. “The art direction and humor are endearing and it has won a special place in the hearts of the IO studio. Giving life to these fierce little ninjas has been an adventure in itself and we really hope that people will enjoy the game as much as we do."

The game will be published in Europe and PAL territories by Eidos Interactive and co-published in North America by Eidos, Inc. and Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment.

We Sing - Nintendo Wii video game - Q&A with developer Nordic Games

How important is this release to Nordic Games?

We Sing will be Nordic Games’ biggest release to date, a fruition of our ambitions as a publisher of peripheral-based games. Our first games helped us set-up processes and channels. That stage has been successfully completed and now we are ready to bring AAA-quality titles to the consumer marketplace. Nordic Games does have a long-term strategy for We Sing, but I don’t really want to get caught up in details of our future plans until We Sing has launched. Nordic Games is adopting the Apple approach of telling people when the product is ready… when the product actually is ready.

What are your expectations for We Sing?

Nordic Games wants to keep its feet on the ground about We Sing, but deep down we are extremely excited. We have briefed our distribution partners and they are all looking forward to the release of the product this winter. I wholeheartedly believe We Sing will be a hit. The quality and mix of the music together with the game’s ease of use will be key factors to the success.

How important are the partnerships/deals you have made?

Relationships with all the leading music companies are hugely important. This is the only way that you can get a mixture of good modern artists and quality back catalogue songs. We are at the beginning of a long relationship with major music publishers like EMI, Warner, Universal and many of the hip independent record labels, too. We do not have any particular exclusive partnerships, preferring to just do good business with each of party in the way of solid commercial deals. By having the door open to these leading players you get flexibilty, variety and access to the best artists... Ultimately that delivers songs that are simply great to sing.

Nordic Games has approached the song list featured on We Sing from an aspect of delivering a music set that was varied and had "something for everyone". No stone was unturned in terms of researching music and customer likes. Hopefully this is reflected in the fantastic music selection. It was a tough choice which songs to include, there are so many great ones out there.

But Nordic Games is realistic too... SingStar is the benchmark in Europe for this genre and the level of thought that they have applied to their games is astounding. It would be a compliment to be compared to them, but in reality this is the beginning of the We Sing journey, and the product will continue to develop over time.

What will make We Sing stand out from other titles in the genre?

We Sing has one major USP over any other Karaoke games in the market. Namely, it has the ability to plug in four microphones and four friends sing together. This is the most important aspect of We Sing. The name says it all – it’s about friends having fun and singing together. The game has been designed specifically for the Nintendo Wii and will be developed exclusively for the platform for the long term. Nordic Games has no interest to venture onto SingStar’s territory, or Microsoft’s for that matter. We Sing features original music videos, and quality artists, but the thought, effort and research behind the music choices are another strong point. Having leading artists like Lady GaGa, Coldplay, Lily Allen, Tom Jones and Kylie Minogue also makes the product stand out from the rest of the crowd.

Pelle Lundborg, Publishing Director, Nordic Games