Tragnarion Studios has released a series of videos designed to showcase its forthcoming magical puzzler for Nintendo DS, Doodle Hex.
Due for release via Pinnacle in June, Doodle Hex is a spell-casting game designed exclusively for the DS and uses the touch screen capabilities as a medium to actually draw the runes that will be used.
The new video explain the basic concepts of the Doodle Hex interface, and will be updated on a weekly basis. They can be found on at www.doodlehex.com, which this week has been localized for Spanish fans following massive demand.
Doodle Hex is due for release in June 2008 and will be distributed for Nintendo DS only. Check it out at www.doodlehex.com.
Video games publisher and games developer Data Design Interactive are pleased to announce another 2 titles turned into gold master, making game approval an almost weekly achievement; ‘Myth Makers Super Kart GP" and "Action Girlz Racing" These two will be released in the 4th Quarter 2007 under the companies dedicated Nintendo Wii label Popcorn Arcade and will be distributed by Koch Media in the UK.
Stewart Green Data Design Interactive MD said….
After seven years in the making, our GODS development system is proving its worth as our eighth and ninth title gets approved on Wii. GODS was designed as a system to rapidly and reliably produce games and after developing and publishing nine titles on a new platform within 8 months proves it has proved its worth. We are well on track for our target of 14 titles by Christmas 2007 and 30 titles by Q2 2008. These two titles are internally designed and developed. This is a great achievement for independent publishers making original IPR titles.
The Action Girlz are here! Grab your lipstick, start your engines and get ready for a excitingly girlie, fun packed escapade.
• Race around fairy-tale castles, holiday resorts and even through school corridors (while the teachers aren’t looking)!
• Using the Wii Remote as a steering wheel, Action Girlz Racing puts you in the driving seat in a completely new and wonderful way!
• Fantastic, mad cartoon fun, all rolled together with lots of exciting challenges and engaging races.
• Up to 4 players can play simultaneously, with different modes of play from time trails to cup challenges.
• Collect Pick-ups to enhance and broaden the gameplay; use weapons to knock your opponents off the road, shields to protect yourself and speed boosts to overtake or clear big jumps to take the lead.
• 8 unique characters, with different fashion, attitudes, catch-phrases and lives.
• Race during the day or night unlocking characters, upgrades, courses and much more.
Fantastic family fun and mad cartoon action, all rolled into one mystical experience…Join the magical Myth Makers characters in their Super Kart GP.
• Take up the Myth Makers challenge and race against unique characters, or challenge your friends to leagues, cups, time trails or face a solo challenge and try to defeat the evil Mumbra.
• Collect pick-ups to enhance your kart; use weapons to knock your opponents off the road, shields to protect yourself and speed boosts to overtake or risk big jumps find the elusive shortcuts.
• Use the benefits of the Nintendo Wii control system by placing the Wii Remote in the driving position. Tilt your controller left and right to control your Super Kart like your hands were on the wheel itself.
• Players can race head to head with Mumbra and by beating him you will be taught unique special powers bestowed upon you by the Myth Academy.
• Up to 4 players can play simultaneously, with different modes of play from time trails to cup challenges.
• Earn rewards by competing in different Cup Challenges around the Myth Realm, unlock extra vehicles, levels and special powers.
For more information, screens and video please visit
Intel And Epic Games Launch "$1 Million Intel Make Something Unreal Contest"
Legendary mod-making contest with more than $1 million in cash and prizes to spark game development
Epic Games, Inc., the award-winning developer of multimillion-selling games and the world’s leading game engine, Unreal Engine 3, today announced plans to follow up the original “$1 Million Make Something Unreal Contest” with an all new competition to include esteemed sponsor, Intel Corporation. Winnings exceed $1 million in value, and consist of one coveted Unreal Engine 3 license as a grand prize and other cash awards and prizes, including IntelSoftware Development Products and Velocity Micro PCs based on the Intel Dual Socket Extreme Desktop Platform with two Intel Core 2 Extreme quad-core processors. The 2008 “$1 Million Intel Make Something Unreal Contest” will be judged in four preliminary phases and a grand final. Judging will begin in June 2008 and will conclude, with the grand final prizes being awarded, in fall 2009.
To participate, aspiring game developers create modifications (“mods”) for the PC version of Unreal Tournament 3 in a wide range of categories including environments, characters, weapons, gameplay, tools, vehicles and more.
Through the contest, players can unleash their creative skills, make new content and game experiences using cutting-edge game technology, and reap rewards on many different levels. The content created for this contest will be freely available to players of the PC version of Unreal Tournament 3 worldwide.
“To all you aspiring game developers out there – this is your chance to get in the big leagues. We have categories for all kinds of creatively talented people including programmers, artists, 3D modelers, designers and even aspiring film directors,” said Mark Rein, vice president of Epic Games. “You get to use the same world-class Unreal Engine 3 toolset we used to create Unreal Tournament 3 and Gears of War. Unreal Engine 3 is used by many of the industry’s leading game companies, so this is truly a chance to prove your worth and get your foot in the door of the game business while having your work potentially exposed to millions. To get mod-makers started, the collector’s edition of Unreal Tournament 3 includes over 20 hours of 3D Buzz’s professional-level video training materials for the Unreal Engine 3 toolset.”
“The ‘$1 Million Intel Make Something Unreal Contest’ demonstrates Intel’s ongoing commitment to helping game developers harness the capabilities of the PC gaming platform,” said Elliot Garbus, vice president, Software and Solutions Group, general manager, Visual Computing Software Division, Intel Corporation. “We are passionate about unleashing developers’ innovation through our popular software developer tools, our Intel Core 2 processor family, and high-performance platforms, like the eight core Intel Dual Socket Extreme Desktop Platform, formerly codenamed ‘Skulltrail’. Combining Intel products with the Unreal Engine modding tools provides a wonderful opportunity for aspiring developers, machinima artists, and modders to jump in and truly change the game.”
The last “$1 Million Make Something Unreal Contest” catapulted World War II shooter Red Orchestra to fame. Its development team, Tripwire Interactive, was awarded the grand prize, an Unreal Engine 3 license, for overall Best Mod and throughout the contest earned nearly $80,000 in cash and computer hardware prizes. Red Orchestra was later shipped to retail outlets worldwide.
“A few years ago, we were just a group of fans with an idea to make a mod that we would all like to play," said Tripwire Interactive President John Gibson. "The Unreal Engine and its mod tools were perfect for the game we wanted to make, and with the hard work and determination of our team we used those tools to create Red Orchestra and win the mod competition. Winning the ‘Make Something Unreal Contest’ helped the Tripwire Interactive team realize our dream of founding our own development studio and bringing our game to retail. It is a real life 'Rags to Retail' story.”
Universities and students can participate as well. “We were pleased to be a winner in the educational category of the first contest sponsored by Epic and look forward to being part of this year’s competition,” said Dr. Peter Raad, founder and executive director of The Guildhall at SMU. “Unreal Engine technology has been a cornerstone of our program and has been a big part of us sending more than 180 artists, level designers and programmers since 2004 to work at more than 70 video game studios around the world.”
For more information about the “$1 Million Intel Make Something Unreal Contest,” visit www.makesomethingunreal.com.
A Tom Clancy air combat title was first announced back in September 2007, and Ubisoft has now revealed the game will be titled Tom Clancy's HAWX.
According to IGN the game is in development at Ubisoft's Bucharest studio and will enable players to pilot more than 50 planes. Set in the year 2012, the world has become dependent on increasingly powerful private military companies, which has lead to an imminent global conflict.
Thanks to something called Enhanced Reality System (ERS) even an average pilot can take to the skies, using radars, incoming missile detection, an anti-crash system, damage control system, tactical map, weapons trajectory control and more. When the ERS is switched on you'll be taking it safe, but won't have the same freedom as available when ERS is switched off.
Other cool stuff included is cooperative play for up to four players in the campaign and 16-player online battles, which earn experience points and cash used to unlock new weapons and such.
With the Tom Clancy brand attached there's considerable pressure on Ubisoft Bucharest to ensure HAWX lives up to the name come its planned autumn release on Xbox 360, PS3 and PC.
The decision to add in-game advertising to City of Heroes may alarm players shelling out the game's monthly fee, but NCSoft's Brian Clayton says there's no need to be concerned. NCSoft's deal with Double Fusion would replace the fake billboards that dot the scenery of Paragon City and the Rogue Isles with genuine, revenue-generating advertisements. The ads should go live some time this summer, but Clayton stresses that it's up to the player whether or not the ads are visible.
"I want to make it very clear that we are not 'forcing' in-game ads upon our players. Thus, the word 'optional' is of key importance. None of our players have to change their game experience in any way if that's what they prefer. All that you need to do is opt-out via the Options menu in the game," he wrote in a post on the City of Heroes web site. If given the option, why would anyone choose to view the ads? Because 100 percent of the money generated by the ads will go straight back into City of Heroes development, says Clayton.
"Our development costs are ramping up in a major way as we look to literally double the team this year to accommodate big plans for the short, medium and long term. Optional in-game advertising is another revenue stream that helps us to accomplish all of this at no additional expense to our players," he said.
Clayton also pointed out that only "contextually relevant" ads will be permitted by the development team, and nothing that would violate City of Heroes' T rating, such as ads for alcohol or tobacco, will be allowed. "We will be very careful not to break the immersion and feel of Paragon City or the Rogue Isles," said Clayton. He also suggested that the ability to swap signs in and out dynamically opened up the possibility of putting player-created content or fan art on display.
This should be an interesting experiment. If it all works the way NCSoft says its going to, it could be a relatively painless way for players to give a little bit extra back to the developers, thereby improving their own gaming experience. That said, I expect at least some City of Heroes players are going to be tweaked that they're paying a monthly fee to play a game with advertisements, even if those ads are optional.
Guinness will be giving a solid gold domino to anyone clever enough to solve the puzzles in The Legend of the Golden Domino, a particularly devious online game.
The object of the game is to find the twelve numerical codes represented by the dominoes at the bottom of the screen. Each code unlocks a domino and reveals another clip from Guinness' new ad. Put the ad together and the golden domino is yours. Clues to the codes are hidden within the clips themselves, which are only a few seconds long.
So far I've only managed to find two codes, and the first one is flat-out given to you. Not terribly impressive, I know, but this is tough! The puzzles require a keen eye for detail, superior 'net-searching skills, and patience. Lots and lots of patience. Let me know if you make any progress.
Chaos Coming to Crisis City as Emergency Mayhem for Nintendo Wii Goes Gold.
New video reveals most accident-prone city of all time in meltdown!
Putting the urgency into emergency, Codemasters today announced that Emergency Mayhem has gone gold and is set to ship to U.S. retail stores on April 15th with the European/PAL launch on April 18th. Coming exclusively to Wii™, catch the chaos in the new gameplay video now available to view or download from www.codemasters.com/emergency
In Emergency Mayhem, Crisis City is living up to its name and its citizens are panicking. Fires rage, bombs are ticking, monkeys have taken over the supermarket and everyone's calling 999…
As the city teeters on the edge of collapse, players take charge of the emergency services and attempt to bring order to the mad metropolis. As instructions from HQ crackle in through the Wii Remote speaker, players take to the wheel of a fire truck, ambulance or police patrol car and race, against the clock, through the bustling city streets, dodging traffic and driving down shortcuts to reach the incident scene.
On reaching an emergency, play switches to one of over 30 mini-game challenges and the Wii Remote is used in a huge range of wild ways to save the day; ranging from putting out fires, restraining prisoners, practicing CPR, to hurling bananas at out of control monkeys or herding escaped penguins to safety!
No area of Crisis City is spared the mayhem. From the fairground at the beach to the sky-scrapers of downtown, players will be delivering city dwellers to safety in four precincts across eight diverse environments.
In addition to a massive single-player game, Emergency Mayhem also packs a fantastic multiplayer mode with mini-game challenges for up to four players. Prepare to save the citizens of the city from all manner of crazy catastrophes when Emergency Mayhem arrives later this month April, exclusively on Wii™. For the latest movie and monkey-adorned wallpapers, visit www.codemasters.com/emergency
VH1, a division of Viacom’s MTV Networks, is launching a new mobile game that extends the popular on-air series “Flavor of Love.” Launching at the end of April, “The Flavor of Love” mobile game will join VH1 Mobile’s growing list of successful mobile games including the pop culture trivia game “Know it All” and “Best Week Ever,” a downloadable trivia game based on the popular VH1 series.
“The Flavor of Love” mobile game will give users a variety of quirky challenges – some from the show, some all new – in an effort to impress the world's most eligible bachelor – Flavor Flav. Players must work their way through pie fights, sky writing and water gun battles to prove that they are worthy of Flav's attention.
VH1 Mobile’s “The Flavor or Love” game has been developed and will be published by IG Fun LLC, the international publishing division of Indiagames. The game will be available across all mobile carriers at the end of April, 2008.
TGV Train Sim Pack, the hugely popular add-on for the original Microsoft Train Simulator, has previously only been available as a boxed version. In response to popular demand (as they say) we’re now releasing a 39Mb Download of TGV that's identical to the boxed version and which you can buy and install in minutes.
TGV Train Sim Pack is a great depiction of a high-speed rail route between Ashford, Kent and Lille in France, capturing the atmosphere and excitement of driving such a route, including passing through an authentic-looking tunnel under the English Channel. The route itself from start to stop is 106 miles, but also included are numerous side routes totalling nearly 500 miles of available driving as well as ten activities to help you explore the route to the full.
Three custom-developed, high-quality locomotives and 'Corail' coaches are included in the package. These feature custom driving cabs and passenger views as well as custom sounds and appropriate carriage consists.
The program installer will ensure an easy 'one-stop' installation of the software with no setting up inside Train Sim required.
Locomotives included
European TGV Thalys
French Railways SNCF TGV Reseau
French Railways SNCF BB7200 with Corail carriages
This latest version of the software is enhanced with new objects, European-style overhead masts and revised speed limits.
The terminals at both ends of the tunnel have been created with realistic length platforms.
The stations featured along the route are Ashford, Tourenhen sur la Hen, Amerteries, and Hazebrouck.
Both the boxed version of TGV Train Sim Pack and the Download are on sale now and priced at £9.99/€14.95/$19.99.
8 Stunning New Cars Including The McLaren F1 GTR And New Online Events To Feature In First Downloadable Content Pack For Autumn Release
Codemasters announce the forthcoming release of the first downloadable content pack for Race Driver: GRID, the summer’s hit game that made racing exciting again, with the reveal of the ‘8 Ball’ pack coming this autumn for the Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system from Microsoft and the PlayStation 3 computer entertainment system.
Enhancing the award-winning Race Driver - GRID, the premium 8 Ball pack is set to feature eight thrilling new cars to race and two new online events to compete in. Each vehicle is beautifully realised and was carefully selected as a thoroughbred racing car with a unique personality to deliver a stunning race experience.
‘8 Ball’ DLC Pack Cars:
· McLaren F1 GTR – The McLaren F1 GTR wrote itself into the history books as the only GT car to ever win Le Mans and is considered one of the finest examples of automotive engineering in history.
· TVR Cerbera Speed 12 – The TVR 12 smashes past 60 MPH in just under 3 seconds. Production models were planned, but they were considered too powerful to sell to the general public.
· Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X – For over a decade the Evo has been billed as a supercar slayer – now the Evo-X in GRID lets you unleash its sledgehammer aggression in the Pro-Tuned class.
· Honda S2000 – This roadster is heavily modified for drifting and has become a cult-favourite thanks to its award winning engine.
· Nissan GT-R (S-G2008) – The production model was Top Gear’s Supercar of the Year 2007. Now one of the world’s hottest cars makes its debut in Race Driver: GRID in its fully tuned racing spec.
· VW Nardo – This powerful concept car made real from VW uses its 600BHP engine to rocket to 60MPH in 3.1 seconds.
· Pontiac Firebird Trans AM – The 1971 racing edition of this true American legend is a worthy addition to GRID’s exclusive group of muscle cars.
· Volvo C30 – Adding to Race Driver: GRID’s touring car roster comes the C30, Volvo’s agile, cutting edge hot-hatch straight from the STCC grid.
All eight cars will be available to drive in the game’s ‘Race Day’ mode and online races. In addition to the cars, the pack will make two new multiplayer events available, set on existing circuits from across Race Driver: GRID's three continents and to test drivers to their very limit online. On Xbox 360, the pack will also feature four new Achievements worth a total of 100 points to earn from four new competitive challenges:
· Jack Of All Trades – Win an online race in each of the 8 Ball pack cars – 25pts. · Drift Master - Achieve a 99x combo in the Honda S2000 – 25pts. · Gas Guzzler - Clock up over 250 miles in your favourite 8 Ball pack car– 25pts. · Clean Passing - Win a clean race in an 8 Ball Pack car from last position – 25pts.
With pricing for the pack to be confirmed at launch, the ‘8 Ball’ content will be available from PlayStation Network for the PlayStation 3 computer entertainment system and Xbox LIVEMarketplace for the Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system from Microsoft. Details for downloadable content for the Games for Windows edition of Race Driver: GRID will be announced shortly.
Further content is expected to be released for the game, including a V8 Supercars featuring Ford and Holden cars and the Bathurst circuit, later this year. Each downloadable pack will require players to have a full copy of Race Driver: GRID on the appropriate format in order to experience the additional content. For all the latest information and videos, be sure to visit www.racedrivergrid.com
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