Call of Duty World at War DLC Map Pack 1: Knee Deep - Station - Nightfire demos

Call of Duty World at War DLC Map Pack 1: Knee Deep. Treyarch's COD Community Manager Josh Olin takes us on first of a series of demos. Team Deathmatch on the map Knee Deep!

Videos after link below... (age gate)



Call of Duty World at War DLC Map Pack 1: Station. Treyarch's COD Community Manager Josh Olin takes us on another tour of Map Pack 1. Team Deathmatch on the map Station!



Call of Duty World at War DLC Map Pack 1: Nightfire. Treyarch's COD Community Manager Josh Olin takes us on yet another tour of Map Pack 1. Team Deathmatch on the map Nightfire!

Championship Manager 2009 delayed until at least July 1st

Eidos have announced that Championship Manager 2009 video game has been delayed at least until 1st July (Eidos next financial year).

"Eidos has a total commitment to producing the highest quality games and we believe by moving the release date of Championship Manager we will give the product the additional time needed to deliver a more polished and highly competitive game within the genre," CEO Phil Rogers said.

"We will not compromise on quality and we are confident that this decision is right for consumers and will benefit the continued popularity of this franchise."

The game was due for release on April 24th on PC including the new 3D match engine, scouting and new media option. Looks like Football manager, the game's main rival may get a head start.

Family sporting events video game Farmyard Party on Nintendo Wii

It’s all fun and games down at DDI development studio based in Stourbridge, England. The in-house development team working on DDI’s most bonkers game to date ‘Farmyard Party’ decided to have a day out in the park away from all the number-crunching and play-testing.

It was all going well until a nasty butcher turned up with pork on his mind.........

Data Design Interactive - a successful video games publisher and games developer - today released a video showcasing their forthcoming family sporting events game ‘Farmyard Party’ which will be released on their dedicated Nintendo Wii label Popcorn Arcade.

Farmyard Party brings farmyard fun to the Nintendo Wii. The game has eight sporting events which are divided into four categories: all-round, speed, power, and skill. Game modes include party modes themed around event styles, single event fun and some hilarious bonus games.

The game play revolves around using a combination of the Wii Remote and Nunchuk in various ways to complete each event. The events require a combination of speed, timing and more than a little sweat!

Alongside the challenges of beating the game records and those of your friends, there are a number of new characters, bonus games and a development gallery for players to enjoy.
Based on the cornerstones of sportsmanship and competitiveness of the fun and crazy games, Farmyard Party is an ideal choice for family friendly fun this Easter. Farmyard Party provides an entertaining multiplayer experience (4 player mode), with colourful graphics and physically demanding gameplay.

Release date: Q2 2009
Genre: Sports / Party
No. of players: Up to 4 players
Platform: Nintendo Wii
Developer: Data Design Interactive
Publisher: Data Design Interactive

Gardening Mama - Cooking Mama's First Brand Offshoot Will Launch in Time for Spring

Gardening Mama for Nintendo DS will ship on March 31st. Developed by Cooking Mama Limited, the team that created the award-winning Cooking Mama franchise that has sold 3.7 million units domestically, Gardening Mama stars the iconic culinary cutie in the first ever gardening game.

Gamers anxious to get growing can download a playable demo currently in approximately 10,000 Nintendo kiosks at major retailers nationwide.

Gardening Mama transforms the stylus into a universal gardening tool that players will use to plant, nurture and harvest 37 different varieties of flowers, fruits and vegetables. Gamers can manage their garden through the seeding, blooming and maturation phases, and then produce items from the plants they've grown. A robust multiplayer mode lets up to four friends compete to grow the biggest harvest and Treasure Box mode lets players share items they've grown with online friends. In addition, players can change Mama's outfit to their liking while customizing the screen design to their preference.

Gardening Mama will launch March 31st for a suggested retail price of $29.99.

Go Go Gadget - Inspector Gadget iPhone, iPod Touch Game

Equipped with an amazing array of gadgets, including a mallet-wielding robot arm and spring-loaded shoes, the world’s first bionic detective, Inspector Gadget has crash landed onto Apple iPhone and iPod touch devices and is available from the AppStore for $5.99.

Inspector Gadget makes its iPhone debut with a little help from Namco Bandai Networks Europe, who developed the game in conjunction with Cookie Jar Entertainment, the producer of the hit cartoon series. The game is being published internationally for Apple iPhone and iPod touch devices by Namco Networks America, a publisher and developer of mobile games and entertainment for mass-market casual gamers.

Using various gadgets and gizmos, players help guide the world’s most absent-minded detective battle against the evil Dr. Claw in a classic platform action game. Players guide the Inspector in his mission across six action packed levels and six mini-games. The game features both Story mode and Quick Play mode, which allows players to play previously unlocked levels.

iPhone users are able to play as Inspector Gadget, his niece Penny or his uber intelligent and ever-faithful dog Brain as they progress through the game. To navigate through the game, touch controls sit on either side of the screen making gameplay simple and easy. Some of the detective’s greatest gadgets are also featured in-game for users to pit against his evil nemesis Dr Claw, including his Gadget ’Copter, Gadget Coat and Gadget Umbrella.

Inspector Gadget recently celebrated its 25th anniversary and is broadcast in 24 languages across 55 countries around the globe, gaining fans with its memorable theme tune, “Go Go Gadget” catchphrase and gadget’s helicopter hat and roller skate shoe antics.

“Inspector Gadget is a personal favourite for me, and a character who has gained a loyal global following, making him one of the most lovable icons of the cartoon crime-solving world,” Barry O’Neill, President of Namco Bandai Networks Europe. “Inspector Gadget and the iPhone is a perfect partnership as one of the world’s most famous gadget users meets one of the world’s most famous gadgets.”

The new game gives players the chance to try out many of the Inspector’s awesome gadgets first hand, and is available immediately from the iTunes store.

Gobliiins 4 PC video game game cover released!

Kalypso Media today release the official cover of Gobliiins 4 today. In the weird, wacky and funny adventure about the Goblins Tchoup, Perlius and Stucco, the orycterope Riri, the favourite animal of King Balderon, has runaway and the three detectives are charged to find Riri. Thrilling, challenging and insane riddles and nasty monsters are awaiting you! Will you be able to solve them all, avoid the monsters and find Riri after all?

Gobliiins 4 will be released on 27th March 2009 for a recommended retail price of £19.99.

Mushroom Men – The Spore Wars and Mushroom Men – Rise of the Fungi on Nintendo Wii and DS

An ichorous green meteor plummets through Earth's atmosphere, fracturing and showering the earth with glowing green space dust that affects all forms of life nearby. Some plant life - like mushrooms and cacti -acquire sentience. At the same time, the green glow twists and mutates other life forms like spiders and roaches, transforming them into semi-intelligent, warlike communities.

Wii CORE GAMEPLAY MECHANICS

Camera!
The camera and player perspective played a big role in each of the boss fights. One of the interesting things that the legendary IGA (Koji Igarashi, of Castlevania fame) pointed out in his 2007 GDC lecture was how important perspective is, and how much it changes gameplay between 2D and 3D games. With the typical behind-the-back 3D camera used by many games, depth-perception is very difficult to judge, and even having a shadow grow larger as it approaches is not enough. For the boss fights that were specifically framed as an action/puzzle, we had more control over the user’s experience and could manipulate the camera to provide the best perspective for the battle. In some instances, this was pulling the camera way up, giving more of a three-quarter view. In others, it was locking the camera in place to do some 2D battle.

Dealing with Death
One of the core components of Mushroom Men was that players should be encouraged to explore and experiment in the environment (which could often lead to death), so the player would re-spawn in a nearby area. However, this proved troublesome in boss fights, as the player could simply die, re-spawn, run at the boss again, etc and this was one of the major complaints about Bioshock. So, in order to deal with that, we rewarded a player for not dying during a boss fight. To that end, skilled players will find themselves awarded an item for defeating bosses unscathed. Similarly, we reward players for dealing with bosses with cleverness and panache, and you’ll find a reward for doing so.

Old School Influences
I will gladly admit my love for old SEGA arcade and home titles, and I borrowed a lot from them. The final boss fight, which spans multiple stages, has some “helpers” that were very much inspired by Death Adder’s minions in the original Golden Axe. Where we took a different tack, is that these ones can be killed in fewer than 255 hits. I spent so much time at the arcade trying to kill those darned skeletons. And when I finally did, it wasn’t worth it!

One of my favorite games of all time has to be…well, just about everything in the Wonder Boy series. In particular, I always enjoyed the boss fights in Wonder Boy in Monster Land and those in Wonder Boy III: The Dragon’s Trap (aka Dragon’s Curse on the PC-Engine/Turbografx-16). So one of the boss fights in Mushroom Men is very like that: a 2D boss on a finite-state machine, but with some unpredictability thrown in, and some genuine challenge.

Other games that shaped the look and feel of the boss encounters include the Shinobi series, Cabal, and the obscure-but-wonderful Golvellius. While we never lifted anything directly, I recorded the experiences I had playing through those games and made notes that would affect the final boss designs. The epic multi-stage final boss fight of Mushroom Men draws a lot from these wonderful old games. Simple by today’s standards, but still packing a good iconic punch that can still be harnessed today.

Mushroom Men – The Spore Wars and Mushroom Men – Rise of the Fungi will be available across Europe in March, 2009. For more information about Mushroom Men please visit www.southpeakgames.com. For more information about Red Fly Studio please visit www.redflystudio.com.

TITLE: Mushroom Men – The Spore Wars
PLATFORM: Nintendo Wii
TITLE: Mushroom Men – Rise of the Fungi
PLATFORM: Nintendo DS
DEVELOPER: Red Fly Studio
GENRE: Action Adventure
RELEASE DATE: March 2009
Earlier Developers Diary on gamezplay.org

MMO Three Kingdoms - The Battle Begins official launch 8pm Pacific Standard Time today

The New MMO Launches Today at 8PM PST at http://threekingdoms.uforia.com/intro.aspx

Uforia, a new online game publisher specializing in massively multiplayer online games, today announced that its new MMO Three Kingdoms - The Battle Begins will officially launch with the opening of its cash shop at 8 PM Pacific Standard Time today at http://threekingdoms.uforia.com/intro.aspx.
Three Kingdoms: The Battle Begins is a new free-to-play MMO based on one of the most well-known Asian novels of all-time.

"Three Kingdoms: The Battle Begins has received a great response in just the few short weeks since we announced it and held some beta tests," said Mike Min, Game Operations Producer of Uforia. "Now we are inviting the community and fans and MMO players out there to come and enjoy the full Three Kingdoms: The Battle Begins experience."

Players who created a character during last week's Open Beta will be able to keep and play with that character. Many changes were also made to the PK balance system to make for more even game play.

Starting on Tuesday and available to Three Kingdoms: The Battle Begins players, there will be monsters dropping special items. These items can then be traded to special NPCs available only for the commercial launch for great in-game prizes.

Three Kingdoms: The Battle Begins, developed by G-rex Soft, chronicles the tragic last reign of the Han dynasty (206 B.C.-A.D. 220), when the Chinese empire was divided into three kingdoms at battle. This important period in Chinese history became a subject of extreme and continuing interest to historians, poets, and dramatists. Three
Kingdoms: The Battle Begins narrates this account and provides players the opportunity to choose from 4 gripping and distinctive character classes to help battle through 200 extraordinary levels packed with boss monsters and their relentless followers. As players undergo the world of Three Kingdoms: The Battle Begins, they can reshape the story by carefully planning and executing political assassinations.

Three Kingdoms: The Battle Begins offers a one-of-a-kind quest system that delivers missions to players while they are still in the battlefield, maximizing the player's enjoyment of and involvement in the battle. This unique feature enables the player to continue their travels while having the benefit of receiving items from completing quests. Player vs. Player (PVP) battlegrounds are available on the hour every hour 24/7, allowing the winners of the battle to become Lords who are granted access to exclusive skills and items. Honor points are awarded during these battles and can be used to purchase unique items and equipment from special merchants.

An exciting Player Kill (PK) system is also part of this epic adventure which includes a unique "Death Note" feature. This element exists so if a player is killed by the same opponent multiple times, the opponent is added to the player's death note. The opponent's location will be specified on the player's map as a blinking signal, enabling the player to execute revenge more easily.

For more information about Three Kingdoms; The Battle Begins and to sign up for the Open Beta visit http://threekingdoms.uforia.com/intro.aspx

MLB Dugout Heroes Open Beta Starts this Thursday March 19

Open Beta Starts This Thursday March 19 at 3 PM PST at www.MLBdugoutheroes.com

Gamescampus is holding multiple events from March 19th when the open beta for MLB Dugout Heroes opens, through April 24th. A total of 7 Events will take place throughout the next month. The full details for each event, including prizing can be found on the MLB Dugout Heroes Forums

Just Play and Win Tickets to a Baseball Game!
This contest is for baseball lovers everywhere! Just sign up, create a team on MLB Dugout Heroes, and play your team up to level 3 or higher and you're automatically entered into contest to win 2 tickets to watch your favorite MLB team!

Play MLB Dugout Heroes Everyday
This one is the easiest event of them all! Play MLB Dugout Heroes everyday from March 19th till April 24th, and have an opportunity to win an Authentic Performance 59FIFTY On-Field Cap by New Era! The more you log in, the better your chances are of winning! The top ten players who log in the most will receive the "Batter Slot +1" item which gives you an additional batter slot on your roster!

Level Contest
It's simple and straight forward. The ten highest level players at the end of the open beta will be rewarded with Authentic Jersey by Majestic Athletic as well as Gemini Shoes that will boost your perfomance(in-game item)!

Complete Missions
Complete the most in-game missions and win prizes! 1st place wins an Authentic Therma Base Premier Jacket by Majestic Athletic and 2nd through 5th place will win an Authentic Font Personalized T-shirt by Majestic Athletic.

Video Contest
Capture your best game on video and share it! Add your band's music as a soundtrack or even your own color commentary! Upload your video your favorite site such as YouTube, Facebook, Myspace, etc and send your submission to MLBDugoutHeroes(visit the MLB Dugout Heroes website for details of where to send the submission). Our favorite video will receive a Replica Jersey by Majestic Athletic from MLB.com.
GamesCampus will also offer Gemini Glasses (in-game item) to all three winners as a way of congratulating your great visionary talents.

Screenshot Contest
Take a screenshot of the most memorable moment in the game! Upload your video to your favorite blog, YouTube, Facebook, Myspace or website and send your submission to MLBDugoutHeroes(visit the MLB Dugout Heroes website for details of where to send the submission). Five lucky winners will receive an Authentic Font Personalized T-shirt by Majestic Athletic as well as Gemini Batting Gloves (in-game item).

Reach Level 6 and Earn 400,000 NUTS!
Think you're one of the best out there? Then prove it! Level up your team to Level 6 or higher and we will give you an extra 400,000 NUTS!
(What the heck are NUTS? - NUTS are the in game currency used in MLB Dugout Heroes. It can be earned by playing games and completing missions. You can then purchase better items, players, stat enhancers, or abilities with NUTS!)

Resident Evil 5 Ships Four Million Units

Capcom announces largest launch ever of a Resident Evil title.

Capcom have released details that Resident Evil 5 has shipped four million units worldwide since launch, additionally, the demo available from Xbox Live and the PlayStation Network has itself been downloaded over four million times. All of which equates to the largest launch of a Resident Evil title to date.

We should state that 'units shipped' are those shipped to retailers and not necessarily in the hands of gamers, but given the popularity of the Resident Evil series it shouldn't be too long before they are snapped up.

Capcom must be pretty pleased with themselves regardless of the exact number sold, first Street Fighter IV ships two million units in its first week knocking the mighty Wii Fit from the top of the charts, but now Resident Evil 5 ships twice that much and also jumps to the top of the charts.

Source: Britbox