Exclusive: Major League Eating: The Game to Debut as Wii Ware on Nintendo Wii

Major League Eating: The Game to Debut as a WiiWare Exclusive

Video game publisher Mastiff announced today that their upcoming title, Major League Eating: The Game, will makes its debut as an exclusive on WiiWare, Nintendo's new downloadable game service for the Wii console, which launches May 12 in North America. The game will make extensive use of the Wii RemoteTM to simulate the fast and furious action of a professional eating competition.

"Watching Major League Eating is like watching poetry in motion" says Bill Swartz, Head Woof at Mastiff. "Professional gurgitators have the grace of ballerinas yet the brute strength, mental focus, and intestinal fortitude to push their bodies and minds as hard as athletes in any other extreme endurance sport. Victory is sweet and defeat can be well, really, really messy. It's an experience we're proud to help bring into the home."

The game features the world's greatest gurgitory athletes competing across a variety of foods and venues. Built much like a classic fighting game and deeper than a Chicago style deep-dish pizza, MLE: The Game requires players to master a smorgasbord of offensive and defensive weapons including bites, burps, belches, mustard gas and jalapeño flames while cramming and chewing food at a world-class pace. It's not for the faint of heart, the slow of reflex, or those with an overly strong aversion to a Technicolor reversal of fortune.

Major League Eating: The Game uses the Wii Remote to simulate a variety of eating techniques including the cram, toss, and 'typewriter.' Burp-offs and Hot Potato challenges during the contests keep the competition intense and eaters on their toes.

Major League Eating: The Game is for one or two players, offers online play and a leader board.

Major League Eating, the professional league which oversees all top eating events in the nation, including the Nathan's Famous Fourth of July International Hot Dog Eating Contest, counts among its members Takeru Kobayashi, the Japanese eating phenomenon, and American Joey Chestnut, current champion of the world.

Nexon America Delivering Open Beta for Fantasy Role Playing Game, Mabinogi

Nexon America Delivering Open Beta for Wildly-Successful Fantasy Role-Playing Game, Mabinogi

Exclusive Open Beta to Launch March 5 at FilePlanet.com

Nexon America Inc., the U.S. division of Asia’s leading online entertainment company Nexon Group, delivers the open beta for Mabinogi, its free-to-play, massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG), on March 5. Slated for release later this spring, users can create their own personal “Fantasy Life,” by signing up for the open beta during an exclusive 24-hour play period at FilePlanet.com or afterward at http://mabinogi.nexon.net.

Open beta users will tap into a world that has already birthed a civilization of more than seven million fans in Asia, and will retain these characters through the commercialization of the game. With over 30,000 users signing up for the recent closed beta, the open beta should prove a similar success providing players an opportunity to discover a beautiful 3-D, cell-shaded art style, featuring anime-type characters and gruesome monsters.

The open beta delivers users numerous new areas to visit, including more dungeons to explore. It also offers North American players a first chance to burrow into new game skills such as cooking, enchanting, meditation and composing music.

These are just the first phases of Mabinogi’s deep, online universe, where players experience all facets of fantasy life. Dazzling 3-D graphics boast an art style based in Celtic and Welsh mythology, which also gives Mabinogi its name and foundation. Mabinogi provides a new experience with its gameplay variety, unique combat system and orderly time element and age component, to provide additional depth to Nexon’s latest free-to-play offering. In addition to traditional MMO features – challenging adventures, exciting group quests and a plethora of fearsome monsters – Mabinogi offers a much fuller “life” for its players. Players can increase experience by taking jobs, such as cooking, shearing sheep or other farming duties. The game’s unique music program allows users to write and share music in MIDI formatted files.

Mabinogi’s traditional mouse and keyboard functions unite with its distinctive combat, and anthology of game-play styles, that should excite the most hardcore gamers. Players will also quickly discover Mabinogi requires more finesse and strategy during combat than just pushing a few buttons and haphazardly attacking everything in sight. The unique fighting system, which emulates paper, rock, scissors, adds another degree of complexity. Characters develop skills in three categories— Combat, Life, and Magic—so users can not only gain experience by fighting a giant spider but also by cooking dinner and learning a new spell. Players acquire Ability Points as they gain experience in the game to help show progression. This gives players more freedom to play Mabinogi however they choose.

Additionally, Mabinogi’s time is standardized, allowing for users who play longer to earn different “daily” bonuses as incentives. Plus, avatars age on a weekly basis and get taller as they get older (up to 17). Avatars gain ability points up to the age of 25 as well. Plus, players will see their avatars’ diet affect appearance. Mabinogi also features a long-term storyline that is revealed over a series of generations and weaves its way throughout the game. Using these unique features, as well as the heavy socialization aspect present in all of Nexon’s games, gives Mabinogi a unique placement in the world of MMOs. And like Nexon’s previous offerings, the game is free to play.

Interested players can learn more at http://mabinogi.nexon.net.

New Stranger Screenshots

The Battle is Engaged! New Stranger Screenshots

cdv Software Entertainment USA and Fireglow Games have released a new set of screenshots from Stranger, the upcoming RTS/RPG fantasy game for PC.

The new screens, feature fierce battles with a variety of the deadly beasts and horrifying monstrosities that populate the game’s rich fantasy world. Stranger, a hybrid RTS/RPG title, puts players in the role of a mysterious hero lost in a strange fantasy world.



Stranger features a deep magic and enchantment system, and a rich world populated by more than a hundred unique monster types.

Players can take control of three characters and enjoy a single-player campaign lasting more than 30 hours, while also being able to take their game online in eight-person Internet multiplayer matches. For more information about Stranger, visit the official Web site at http://stranger-game.com.

Elf Online Happy Carnival - When happiness and gifts go together

When happiness and gifts go together, what's the next?

New week is coming, Elf Online (http://elf.happymmo.com) have prepared something new for you this week. On Tuesday night from EST 7:00 pm to EST 10:00 pm Elf Online (http://elf.happymmo.com ) Happy Carnival for this week is waiting for you.

Happy Carnival: Happy Carnival is consisted of a series of such events as the carnival, treasure box fall and hatch the golden egg. Players could take part in the game in a relaxed way with lots of rewards and experience for prize.

1. Carnival

When the carnival begins, players could go to the guide in each city- Carefree Village, Wulong Village and Dragon City to apply for joining the carnival. You will get some quests from the guide when you apply for participation. Every 10 quests is a round, for each quest you finished, Exp and coins will be granted. When you finish up to 6 quests in a round, you will be granted quest credits, with the credits, you may exchange for golden eggs.

Requirement: Solo or team, each participant should above level 20.

Rewards: For each round, players will be rewarded 1 happy fruit, after using it you will get 1000 SP. Furthermore, there is some possibility to gain extra rewards such as common eggs for teleport and treasure boxes.

2. Treasure box fall

System will recode the number of player who participate the carnival in each city. The quantity of quests player finished and the number of players participated will affect the heat of the carnival of that city. When the heat reach 2000, or the multiple of 2000, some treasure boxes will fall from the sky. After the quest is finished, 80 treasure boxes will drop from the sky in the city with the highest heat.

Requirement: The treasure box fallen in one city could only be collected by player who participates the carnival in that city.

Reward: Happy fruit, Treasure, Exp.

3. Hatch Golden Egg

You may go to the guide in each city to exchange golden egg with every 15 credits could exchange for 1 golden egg. When you get 30 credits and 4 eggs, you could hatch the golden egg. When the egg is hatched, you have some possibility to get rare pets, Exp or gold powder.

Microsoft publish amateurs game on XBox 360

James Silva is one of the amateurs changing how the $40 billion video game industry defines fun.

The 26-year-old from Utica, N.Y., paid his way through college by scrubbing dishes at a diner. That job might help him become the Quentin Tarantino of video games: He used it as inspiration for The Dishwasher, in which the title character becomes a ninja and slashes his way out of a kitchen overrun by villains.

Microsoft Corp. agreed to publish his stylized action game on the Xbox 360 console and highlighted it at the Game Developers Conference here recently. More than 16,000 people, many of them novices with similar ambitions, attended the show.

"This has been my dream since forever," Silva said in an interview. "It sounds cliche, but I actually have to pinch myself just to make sure I'm really awake."

He's not alone. Much as YouTube is giving unknown video auteurs a chance to find audiences, the video game industry is opening its doors to upstart developers. Major companies including Microsoft and Sony Corp. are starting to snap up and promote games by amateurs and independent developers as an antidote to the soaring budgets of mainstream games.

Highlighting the shift, the conference's Game of the Year award went to Portal, which was developed by a team of students from the DigiPen Institute of Technology in Redmond, Wash. The puzzler beat out big-budget industry franchises such as Super Mario Galaxy, Rock Band, Bioshock and Call of Duty 4.

"The lines between the professional developer and the community are beginning to shimmer," said Jamil Moledina, the conference's executive director.

A few years ago, aspiring programmers such as Silva wouldn't have stood a chance. The games business has adopted the movie industry approach of spending big in search of huge hits. Creating a single new game can require tens of millions of dollars and more than 100 developers working several years.

But a recent proliferation of easy-to-use and cheap or free software has made it possible for a programmer with a good idea to make games at his home.

There's a market for those games now. Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo Co. have built online stores where millions of players can buy and download games via Internet-connected consoles, bypassing traditional retailers that refuse to stock anything but blockbuster titles.

Take Kyle Gabler. In 2005, he created the prototype for a game called World of Goo in four days.

Gabler, 26, and Ron Carmel, 35, started their own shop, 2D Boy. They refined World of Goo on five-year-old laptops. The result, a wacky cartoon world where players make structures out of goop to solve puzzles, won awards for technical excellence and design innovation at last week's conference. Nintendo has signed the game to sell through its Wii Ware online store.

Source: Baltimore Sun

CHARTTRACK UK WEEKLY VIDE GAMES CHART

All formats

(Full price) Week ending 23 February 2008


1 MARIO & SONIC AT THE OLYMPIC GAMES SEGA
2 CALL OF DUTY 4: MODERN WARFARE ACTIVISION
3 DEVIL MAY CRY 4 CAPCOM 2
4 TUROK DISNEY INTERACTIVE STUDIOS
5 FIFA 08 ELECTRONIC ARTS
6 UNREAL TOURNAMENT III MIDWAY
7 THE SIMPSONS GAME ELECTRONIC ARTS
8 FIFA STREET 3 ELECTRONIC ARTS
9 COOKING MAMA 2 505 GAMES
10 ASSASSIN'S CREED UBISOFT
11 BURNOUT PARADISE ELECTRONIC ARTS
12 NEED FOR SPEED: PROSTREET ELECTRONIC ARTS
13 GUITAR HERO III: LEGENDS OF ROCK ACTIVISION
14 CONFLICT: DENIED OPS EIDOS
15 NEW SUPER MARIO BROS. NINTENDO
16 WWE SMACKDOWN VS RAW 2008 THQ
17 PRO EVOLUTION SOCCER 2008 KONAMI
18 LEGO STAR WARS: THE COMPLETE SAGA LUCASARTS
19 PDC WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP DARTS 08 OXYGEN INTERACTIVE 1
20 SONIC AND THE SECRET RINGS SEGA

Limited edition Pink Sony PSP - PlayStationPortable £79.99 delivered (UK)

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• White headphones with remote control
  
• Memory Stick Duo 32Mb
  
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Nintendo DS UK bargain Legend of Zelda - Phantom Hourglass £14.99 delivered

Bought this from Choices UK ...

RRP £29.99 save £15.00
Our price £14.99

Including UK delivery

The epic story of The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker continues as Link finds himself lost and alone in unknown seas in a new adventure. Featuring intuitive touch-screen controls and innovative puzzles, The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass offers new challenges for fans of the series and an easy-to-grasp introduction for gamers new to The Legend of Zelda. But time grows short, and only the Phantom Hourglass can buy Link the minutes he'll need to survive.

The stylus makes controlling Link easier than ever. Tap on the screen to make Link move, or sweep the stylus around him to swing the sword. Players can even draw a path for his boomerang and send it flying into hard-to-reach targets. Players can stash the map on the top screen for quick reference or drop it to the touch screen to make notes, study enemies, or chart a path for their boat to follow while they man the cannons.

Compete with a friend over a local wireless connection: Guide Link through special dungeons to capture the Triforce, or command the forces that oppose him.

Available from Choices UK

Steven Spielberg to make video games with EA - First game Boom Blox puzzler for Nintendo Wii

When Steven Spielberg announced he was entering the video game business many people assumed his first project would be a cinematic, visual-effects laden epic.

But his first game made under a multi-project arrangement with Electronic Arts, called Boom Blox, is a family-friendly puzzler for the Nintendo Wii.

"The first assumption is big, epic game... yadda yadda. [It's] not the game," says Louis Castle, who has worked closely with Spielberg to develop the title.

"But it's so not that product that the moment you see it, you know what you are in for.

"Steven has a multi-project deal with us and without giving too much away, there are projects much more in line with people's expectations, but those take a long time to make."

More from the BBC...

Battlestations: Pacific Preview PC video game

Unlike most World War II titles, Eidos Studios Hungary's upcoming action-tactics hybrid Battlestations: Pacific focuses on sea and air combat over traditional ground-based assault, and breaks one of the long-standing taboos in WW2 games by including an Axis campaign.

"The main goal of Pacific is to create a bigger and better game than Midway, which was just the game from the US side of the Midway campaign," lead designer Botond Szalacsi told me. "I want it to be the whole Pacific experience for the players."

Unlike its Xbox 360 and PC predecessor Battlestations: Midway, Pacific features both US and Japanese campaigns, allowing players to see the war from both perspectives and, if victorious as the Japanese, change the course of history. But creating a speculative scenario for a Japanese victory in the Pacific campaign was no simple task.

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