Arsenal of Democracy - A 'Hearts of Iron' Video Game

Paradox Interactive are excited to unveil a brand new Hearts of Iron game entitled Arsenal of Democracy, set to release on PC in December.

Developed by BL-Logic, a development studio made up by fans of the Hearts of Iron series and active member of the modding community, Arsenal of Democracy is the ultimate World War II simulation and is described by Project Leader Lennart Berg as “Hearts of Iron II on steroids!”

Describing the idea and process behind the creation of Arsenal of Democracy, Berg goes on to say, “During the years of the Hearts of iron II lifecycle, I made a list of improvements in the forums and these became the guidelines to the new game. So we went ahead and implemented these along with many more ideas until we had pretty much replaced and enhanced everything from the original. The end result, in our very humble opinion, is the ultimate World War II simulation.”

KEY FEATURES
• Increased resolution and windowed mode freely selectable
• Totally reworked combat mechanics, new missions and realistic combat behavior and losses
• Several new technologies
• New espionage interface and reworked espionage system
• One of the most detailed economy and production system found in any Hearts of Iron game
• Realistic logistics system
• Everything is moddable
• AI reworked and now poses a genuine threat, even to experienced players
• 4 new battle scenarios

Beatles Rock band worldwide debut - First-of-its-kind Music Video Game Capturing The Beatles' Extraordinary Music, Career and Legacy + track list

Apple Corps, MTV Games and Harmonix, the world’s leading developer of music-based games and a part of Viacom’s MTV Networks, announce The Beatles : Rock Band will be available tomorrow in North America, Europe, Australia, New Zealand and other territories. Released simultaneously with the digitally re-mastered Beatles CD catalogue, the music-based video game will offer players an unprecedented, experiential progression through the music and artistry of The Beatles and be available for Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, PLAYSTATION 3 computer entertainment system and Wii™ console from Nintendo.

From the early touring days in 1963 Liverpool to the immortal, final performance on the Apple Corps rooftop, fans can follow in The Fab Four’s footsteps as they traverse the globe during the height of Beatlemania, unlocking real photos and videos of The Beatles – some never before seen by the public. Beatles fans will also be thrilled to hear previously unreleased authentic voice recordings from John, Paul, George and Ringo chatting between takes during studio sessions recorded at Abbey Road more than four decades ago.

The Beatles: Rock Band allows fans to pick up the guitar, bass, mic or drums and experience The Beatles’ extraordinary catalogue of music through gameplay that takes players on a journey through the legacy and evolution of the band’s legendary career. Additionally, for the first time in a music videogame, The Beatles: Rock Band introduces three-part vocal harmonies to gameplay, allowing gamers to revel in the unparalleled vocal stylings of The Beatles.

The Beatles: Rock Band features 45 songs on-disc representing a cross-section of hits and favorites that span The Beatles’ storied career. Additional music from The Beatles’ epic catalogue will be made available for purchase and download through The Beatles: Rock Band Music Store. Abbey Road will be released on October 20, 2009, followed by the release of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band in November and Rubber Soul in December.

The 45 songs included in The Beatles: Rock Band and the venues in which they are featured in are:

Cavern Club (1963):
• Twist And Shout
• Boys
• Do You Want To Know A Secret
• I Saw Her Standing There Ed Sullivan Theater (1964):
• I Want To Hold Your Hand
• Can’t Buy Me Love
• A Hard Day’s Night
• I Wanna Be Your Man
Shea Stadium (1965):
• Ticket to Tide
• I’m Looking Through You
• Eight Days A Week
• If I Needed Someone
• I Feel Fine Budokan (1966):
• Day Tripper
• And Your Bird Can Sing
• Drive My Car
• Taxman
• Paperback Writer
Abbey Road (1966-1967):
• Yellow Submarine
• Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band / With A Little Help From My Friends
• Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds
• Getting Better
• Within You Without You / Tomorrow Never Knows
• Good Morning Good Morning Abbey Road (1967-1968):
• I Am The Walrus
• Hello Goodbye
• Hey Bulldog
• Back In The U.S.S.R.
• Dear Prudence
• While My Guitar Gently Weeps
Abbey Road (1968-1969):
• Helter Skelter
• Revolution
• Birthday
• Octopus’s Garden
• Something
• Come Together
• Here Comes The Sun Rooftop Concert (1969):
• Dig a Pony
• I’ve Got A Feeling
• Don’t Let Me Down
• I Me Mine
• I Want You (She’s So Heavy)
• Get Back
Encore:
The End

As previously announced, “All You Need Is Love” will be released tomorrow, September 9, 2009, exclusively through Xbox LIVE for a limited time as a downloadable track for The Beatles: Rock Band. All Apple Corps Ltd, MTV Games, Harmonix and Microsoft proceeds will benefit Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF).

The Beatles: Rock Band will offer a new set of hardware replicas representing the instruments made famous by John, Paul, George and Ringo. Featured in the set are the Rickenbacker 325 and Gretsch Duo Jet guitars—hailed as two of the celebrated, signature instruments played by John Lennon and George Harrison throughout their careers. Also available is a Höfner bass controller—a large-scale replica of the bass famously used by Sir Paul McCartney. Rounding out the set is a Ringo Starr inspired Ludwig-branded Rock Band 2 drum set with a classic pearl finish and vintage replica Beatles kick drum head.

Pricing for The Beatles: Rock Band is as follows:

• Limited Edition Premium Bundle for Xbox 360/PS3/Wii: US MSRP $249.99, continental Europe MSRP €199.00, UK MSRP £179.00
• Includes: The Beatles: Rock Band software, Höfner Bass controller: Large scale replica of the Bass famously used by Sir Paul McCartney, Beatles-inspired and Ludwig-branded Rock Band 2 drums with classic pearl finish and vintage replica Beatles kick drum head, Microphone, Microphone Stand, additional special content
• Rickenbacker 325 Standalone Guitar for Xbox 360/PS3/Wii: US MSRP $99.99, continental Europe MSRP €99.99, UK MSRP £89.99
• Gretsch Duo Jet Standalone Guitar for Xbox 360/PS3/Wii: US MSRP $99.99, continental Europe MSRP €99.99, UK MSRP £89.99
• The Beatles: Rock Band Software for Xbox 360/PS3: US MSRP $59.99, continental Europe MSRP €69.99, UK MSRP £49.99
• The Beatles: Rock Band Software for Wii: US MSRP $59.99, continental Europe MSRP €49.99, UK MSRP £39.99

The game will also be compatible with all Rock Band™ instrument controllers, as well as most Guitar Hero® and other authorized third party music video game peripherals and microphones.

The Beatles: Rock Band marks the first time that Apple Corps, along with EMI Music, Sony/ATV Music Publishing, Harrisongs Ltd and Startling Music Ltd has presented The Beatles music in an interactive video game format. The Beatles: Rock Band is published by MTV Games and developed by Harmonix, the world’s premier music video game company and creators of the best-selling Rock Band. Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: ERTS) is serving as distribution partner for the game. In addition, Giles Martin, co-producer of The Beatles innovative LOVE album project, provided his expertise and served as Music Producer for this groundbreaking Beatles project.

The Beatles: Rock Band is rated “T” for Teen with the descriptors “Mild Lyrics” and “Tobacco Reference” by the ESRB.

128 teams to compete in Counter-Strike: Source and Call of Duty 4

From Tuesday 15th September to Sunday 27th September two tournaments will take place, each offering the winning team a superb prize of five ATI Radeon 4850 512MB graphics cards, providing the kind of graphical power any gamers wants in their computer - when you combine the ATI Radeon 4850 series GPUs with SAPPHIRE’s know-how you get a graphics card than can propel you deep into your gameplay with seamless frame rates and high resolutions.

The SAPPHIRE Call of Duty 4 tournament will kick off on the 15th with over 1,200 hours of gaming in just 6 days, with this feat repeated the next week for a different 64 teams, competing in the SAPPHIRE Counter-Strike: Source tournament, which commences on Tuesday 22nd September.

“It’s great to be working with SAPPHIRE again after their great involvement with our event at Gadget Show Live 2009,” said Adam Godfrey, Business Development for Heaven Media. “SAPPHIRE has long been the favoured graphics card brand for gamers due to the high and reliable quality of their products.”

“We believe that helping esports continue to grow is a very important goal” said SAPPHIRE’s Adrian Thompson. “We’re pleased to be supporting Esports Heaven’s September Madness, and are looking forward to some great games taking place!”

These SAPPHIRE tournaments will be covered by Cadred.org and Tek-9.org, two of Europe’s most influential esports coverage sites.

Outspark Appoints Owen Mahoney to Chief Executive Officer

Outspark, the premier North American publisher for free-to-play massively multiplayer online (MMO) games, today announced the appointment of Owen Mahoney as Chief Executive Officer. Mr. Mahoney’s career path spans traditional and online media including senior executive roles at Electronic Arts Inc., the leading global independent developer and publisher of video games. Outspark’s Founder and current CEO, Susan Choe, will continue to serve as Chairman of the Board and work with game developers on partnering with Outspark.

Mr. Mahoney will accelerate Outspark’s continued expansion of its global user base from North America where it is has the largest free-to-play MMO audience. The company has also established a rapidly growing community in Europe and in the Pacific Rim where free-to-play games have attracted large audiences for many years. Currently, Outspark has a registered user base of more than 4.7 million globally, and since the company launched in 2007, traffic to Outspark has grown to 5.4 million unique visitors a month.

“Since founding Outspark early 2007, the Freemium MMOG market has evolved dramatically. Outspark’s team has built a leading game publishing company, executing solid growth while bringing together a unique MMOG publishing platform with social community elements,” said Susan Choe. “With Owen’s leadership and business experience in the global gaming industry, Outspark will evolve as a leading global game industry player.”

Mr. Mahoney brings more than 15 years experience working in the digital media sector. Most recently, he was Senior Vice President of corporate and business development at Electronic Arts, and during his 9-year tenure from 2000-2009, he led the company’s worldwide corporate development activities including acquisitions, equity investments and strategic partnerships. Previously, Mr. Mahoney has held numerous executive positions at online and software companies in both the U.S. and Asia, including PointCast, Claris Japan and Radius. Mr. Mahoney holds a B.A. in Asian Studies from the University of California at Berkeley and attended the University of Tokyo’s graduate law program.

"Having the opportunity build on Susan’s success is a great privilege and I'm honored by the board's endorsement," said Owen Mahoney. "Outspark appeals to a vast global user base and to everyone who wants to establish a connection with gamers around the world in real time. Outspark’s game publishing platform and portal also offer fantastic opportunities to both content developers and game publishers, and I look forward to providing value for Outspark, our loyal user base, investors and our great staff."

Outspark has enjoyed rapid success with a unique business model that has created a flourishing online community around the concept of engaging social events, in-game and around-game networking, user-generated content and a personalized user experience. Outspark currently offers five mid-casual MMO games with more titles being launched this year.

World's first exclusive - Xploder Is The First And Only Cheat System Available For Your DSi, FACT!

Legendary cheat experts Xploder have worked their magic once again by being the first to market with their cheat system for the Nintendo DSi.

For those of us DSi gamers who love to pamper our Nintendog pooches, we will for the first time be given the ability to unlock all toys, endless amounts of dog food and all of the new breeds, whilst those with a slightly darker side will be happy at the prospect of unlimited cash to expand our arsenal of weapons in GTA Chinatown Wars!

The on-line community database is where the genius lies in the Xploder cheat system, giving us instant access to constantly updated cheat saves which we simply download and transfer to our DSi games with the supplied cable.
Being part of the exclusive Xploder community also enables us to interact with like minded DS gamers and even upload our own saved games for others to use, filling us with an enormous sense of self satisfaction!

Another innovative and useful feature of the new Xploder is the ability to back up our own saved games to any PC, safeguarding the priceless hours we have all spent trying to get the better of our games.

DS Lite owners do not despair! The new Xploder cheats system is fully compatible with this slightly older generation of the Nintendo handheld and is supported 100% within the Xploder community.

So, whether we want to turn the tables on Professor Layton, beat the beat in Rhythm Paradise or get miles ahead in the latest DS Mario Kart, Xploder’s ever expanding online database contains literally 100’s of cheat saves to give us a helping hand with all the latest, hottest titles.

The Xploder cheats for DSi and DS Lite consoles is available now from www.xploder.net and all leading video game stores for just £14.99.

Please click the link below to go directly to the product page:
http://www.xploder.net/nintendo-ds/products/189/Nintendo-DS-DS-Lite-and-DSi-Xploder-Cheats.htm

Features:

• Fully compatible with DSi and DS lite consoles
• 100’s of cheat saves for the hottest titles
• Future proof with ever expanding database of cheat saves
• Exclusive entry to the Xploder online Community
• DSi / DS Lite Transfer cable included

Kuchibi puzzle game on Xbox 360 LIVE - free trial download here

Kuchibi is a new puzzler with a unique game idea. No match-3 or falling-blocks clone, but instead a game with a new exciting mechanism that is equally captivating as those classics so that you will just want to keep on playing and playing. Oh, and did I mention the explosions? Lots of them!

The goal is to score as high as possible, and explode as many stones as possible, by building the largest possible chains, which are then ignited.

For each exploded stone you get score points. The farther away an exploded stone is from the ignition stone, the higher its score.

So the goal is to create the longest possible chain, carefully avoiding to flip a corner stone so that it becomes "locked" into an unwanted position and also avoiding a premature ignition by accidentally flipping the wrong straight fuse.

And to make things even more interesting, there are of course various types of extras to earn and use, for example bombs of different types, jokers and multipliers. The game also has four different game modes, each in three difficulties, local highscore lists, online top-score lists and you can earn medals in the ranks Bronze, Silver and Gold. You can even view replays of the turn where you earned each medal. Perfect for bragging in front of your friends with your latest Kuchibi accomplishments!

The rules are simple. Each stone has a fuse connector and there are only two types of fuses. Straight fuses and corner fuses. You build fuse chains by flipping the existing fuses. Of a corner fuse, only the free ends can be flipped: If both ends are free, both are flipped at once (to the opposite side of the stone). If only one end is free, only this free end will be flipped. If no end is free, the fuse can not be flipped at all. A straight fuse can always be flipped (between vertical and horizontal) no matter if it is connected or not. But if a straigt fuse is flipped so that it connects with another straight fuse, then the flipped fuse is ignited and this ignition spreads along the fuse chain in both directions, exploding the underlying stones.

Still can't imagine how this plays out? Want to know what others say about the game? Read on and check out the trailers and screenshots below!

* Four Game Modes: Marathon, Timer, Survival and Scramble
* Three Difficulties
* Medals and Replays of the turns where you earned the medals
* Online Top-Score Lists (this feature requires Xbox Live Gold)
* Local Highscore Lists

Download free trial here...

New Colin McRae's DiRT 2 flash game DiRTy Tats - practice your tattoo artistry on a lovely lady's breasts

In the lead-up to their highly anticipated racer, DiRT 2, releasing on September 8th, Codemasters is inviting fans to express themselves artistically in the new flash game “DiRTy Tats”.

Gaming Systems From Computer Planet

Whilst many people use their home PCs for e-mail, web browsing and for home office functions there are a significant number for whom their PC is also their gaming system. PC games have grown in number and popularity in recent years and some of the most iconic and loved games are PC-based. Now, Computer Planet, leading suppliers of custom built PC systems and high performance PCs have a range of superb gaming systems available.

There are various key components of a good quality gaming PC system. Firstly, and crucially for a system that will run the most complex games, the system should have a top quality processor. Computer Planet recommends the new Intel Core i7 processors which provide faster, intelligent, multi-core technology and are, quite simply, the best desktop processors on the planet.

Secondly, it is important to have a state of the art graphics card. Computer Planet offers a wide choice of graphics cards from Nvidia and ATI to fit any budget including the top of the range options.

Paul Redford, managing director of Computer Planet, who specialise in custom built PCs and high performance PCs, said, “At Computer Planet, we offer gamers the chance to design and build their own perfect gaming computer system. AS well as a selection of pre-designed gaming PCs to fit all styles and budgets, our customers can select the individual components they want to make the perfect gaming PC. From the case and graphics card right through to the processor and sound card the systems can be tailor made to an individual’s specifications.”

With many gamers wanting to run their PCs through cutting edge television and home stereo systems, buyers can design a bespoke system incorporating the specific gaming components they need rather than buying an ‘off the shelf’ system which might include monitor, office software or other features not required by a true gamer.

Mr Redford from the company who specialise in high performance PCs added, “In addition to our bespoke PC service we also offer a range of six pre-designed gaming PCs to suit all tastes and budgets. These state of the art gaming systems are designed to include the highest quality components from the world’s leading component manufacturers and will give any PC gamer the ultimate gaming experience.”

Computer Planet offer a range of custom built PCs and high performance PCs. The Manchester based company can also custom build PCs for businesses. For more information, please visit http://www.computerplanet.co.uk.

Tiff Needell lends voice talent to video game "Supercar Challenge"

'Fifth Gear' presenter, ex-Le Mans driver and all-round racing expert Tiff Needell once again lends his vocal talents and racing knowledge to System 3, providing tutorials for 16 of SuperCar Challenge’s globally renowned race circuits.

Initially the Tutorial mode of the game is designed to teach gamers the best way around 16 of the game’s track as well as giving them the opportunity to tackle the various challenges provided by the different cars in the game. Each aspect of their performance is then rated, with an overall percentage score awarded at the end of each session. Achieving over 70% in overall performance will unlock cars and trophies.

You can watch an interview with Tiff Needell and listen to his vocal contributions at:
www.system3.com

Playlogic To Distribute Video Games In Benelux!

Playlogic Entertainment announce that Brizamila will handle Sales and Logistics for the Benelux region, with Marketing and PR to be handled directly by Playlogic.

As part of the Agreement, Brizamila Entertainment will manage Sales and Logistics of Playlogic’s 2009 / 2010 Line Up, including Infernal: Aliens in the Attic (Nintendo Wii, Nintendo DS, PlayStation 2 & PC), Obscure: The Aftermath (PSP) and the hugely anticipated Hack ‘n Slash Platform Adventure, Fairytale Fights (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC). Further unannounced titles will also form part of the deal.”

Rogier Smit, VP of Playlogic said: “We are extremely confident in our decision to self distribute our multi format titles throughout the Benelux region. Furthermore, our agreement with Brizamila represents the continued growth and expansion that Playlogic are experiencing throughout Europe and North America. Brizamila are a young, dynamic company with fantastic knowledge of the Benelux market and have well established relationships with retail.”

Robin Wolff, Director of Brizamila Entertainment B.V. said: “We are very happy to work closely together with the biggest Dutch publisher and developer Playlogic. We see the growth and opportunity that Playlogic represent with a very strong line up for Q4 with titles such as Fairytale Fights. 2010 looks to be even more promising.”

Bas Gruintjes, Director of Brizamilla Entertainment B.V adds: “We are able to work like a publisher which will allows more flexibility for our customers. We are very proud to work closely with such a high profile Dutch publisher.”

For more information about Playlogic and to sign up to get all the latest breaking news regarding Fairytale Fights please register at www.fairytalefights.com or visit www.playlogicint.com.