10th January 2010

Our Thoughts On Left 4 Dead 2

Left 4 Dead 2Developer: Valve
Publisher: Valve
Distributor: EA
Release Date: November 2009
ESRB: Mature
Platform: Windows PC and Xbox 360

In many areas, the CaveChild and I have very different views on this title. He is more of an online-multiplayer gamer than I am, and he did, for the most part, like the multi-player portions of this game, except when his 360 headset wasn’t functioning and he’d get kicked from a game because Left 4 Dead 2he couldn’t communicate with other players. With teamwork and communication being a huge part of the play, if you are a gamer who does not like to converse with others when playing, this portion of the game is probably not for you. In the online play, you can choose to be either a Survivor or one of the Zombie Bosses, but whichever team you are on, strategy and planning play a huge part in being the victor.

I am a gamer who likes to collect things – this mode of game play feeds my OCD-ishness, and for me at least, is an important part of the enjoyable gaming experience. Other than weaponry, there wasn’t anything to collect and horde. Characters are not given a large capacity to carry items, and for those of us who primarily play RPG-style games, this is a huge challenge. The developers have forced players to use their resources effectively, and the “pray and spray” method of killing massive numbers of enemies isn’t really an option. Thankfully there is a large selection of melee weaponry available – there is something oddly satisfying about whacking a zombie upside the head with a frying pan or cricket bat. Nothing, however, says “Die Zombie!” quite as nicely as the limited-use chainsaw.

While there are a number of drops to gain extra ammunition, molotov cocktails and other new items such as the bile bomb, in my own opinion it would’ve been a nice option to gain a hunter’s flap jacket at the gun store, thereby legitimately adding a little bit of extra storage capacity, instead of only being able to carry one “bomb item” and one medical kit.

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One of the areas which I found to be particularly frustrating was in not being sure which way I was supposed to go. While the five maps are not overly large, there are specific areas which gamers must work towards in order to get to the Safe Houses. Some areas were reasonably easy to work through with a well-marked path, while other areas seemed to lack the all-important player clues as to what needed to be done and where. The ability to wander around in a Left 4 Dead 2semi-open world is always nice, but so is having a clear idea of where you need to be, particularly when The Director is throwing huge numbers of infected zombie folks at you. There were also too many invisible walls for our preference – and a few areas which could’ve made some great sniper nests were not available. It is somewhat evilly satisfying to literally snipe a zombie’s legs out from under him or her.

The atmosphere and setting for the game was appropriately eerie, and I will give the level designers and audio crew extra points for this. However, there were also many instances of clipping failures and targeting problems – there were times when it would take 8 or 9 shots to fall a zombie who was squarely in my sights. It was lots of fun to use the Safe Houses as “duck huts” and snipe zombies or pile up the bodies of those who rushed the door. Having an endless supply of ammo while in the Safe House was also a bonus and added more than just a few minutes to overall game time. Left 4 Dead 2

I would have liked to have had a longer campaign, simply because that is where my game style preference focuses. I don’t that I would consider Left 4 Dead 2 to be a hugely impressive sequel to Left 4 Dead, but it’s not a complete disappointment, either. With the different play modes which are available and with The Director looking after the AI experience and interaction for horde management and difficulty scaling, there are a decent number of hours of play available to the gamer. On the Village Gamer scale of game approval, we’ve settled on a range of 7.5 to 8.0 for Left 4 Dead 2’s overall product presentation, additions and improvements.

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8th January 2010

News From IUGO, D-Box, Meridian4 and more

Vancouver – Following IUGO’s massively successful Zombie Attack! Zombie Attack Bridge Defensegames, ZA! and ZA! Second Wave, the indie studio has launched a free version of ZA! Second Wave titled Zombie Attack! Bridge Defense. As the titles suggests, the lite version contains the bridge map for users to sample kill a variety of zombies with cool new weapons. Second Wave features more maps and hordes of challenges in the full version. IUGO also recently unveiled their web site’s nice new design – head on over to check out its shiny awesomeness and all of IUGO’s titles today – and don’t forget to vote for IUGO and other great Canadian games, publishers and studios in our Reader’s Choice Canadian Video Game Awards – only one week left to vote!

palmAt CES: Palm released details about their developer kit for webOS during their 3D gaming announcement at the Expo, where they introduced several graphics-intensive game titles for webOS, from leading game developers EA Mobile™, Gameloft, Glu Mobile and Laminar Research. Demonstrated at Palm’s CES event, the games will be available today in the Palm App Catalog for Palm Pre customers.

“We are very excited about the potential of webOS as a platform for mobile 3D gaming,” said Katie Mitic, senior vice president, Product Marketing, Palm, Inc. “This is a key application category, and we’ve worked closely with some of the leading game developers to deliver a great game experience for our customers.”

“Recent improvements to Palm webOS represent major advancements in enabling world-class mobile gaming,” said Travis Boatman, vice president of Worldwide Studios for EA Mobile. “These innovations have allowed us to quickly bring our best IP to the platform.”

The developers introducing titles today have had early access to the Palm webOS Plug-in Development Kit (PDK), which extends the Palm webOS Software Development Kit (SDK) with a set of tools, documentation and APIs that let developers write plug-ins for their webOS applications. The PDK lets developers easily integrate C and C++ code into their webOS applications, enabling new functionality, including immersive 3D games. A public beta version of the webOS PDK is scheduled to be available to all developers in March.

“The performance of the platform allowed us to create these great games in a limited timeframe,” said Baudouin Corman, vice president of publishing, Americas, Gameloft. “webOS allows us to deliver an outstanding gaming experience, and we look forward to bringing our best games to Palm customers worldwide.”“We expect the plug-in model to play an important role in the evolution of the webOS platform, just as plug-ins have with web browsers,” said Mitic. “And with this plug-in, we are making it super-simple for developers to bring the hottest games to webOS.” Read the rest of this entry »

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7th January 2010

The Latest in Mobile Computing

Newspaper DirectVancouver – Only days after announcing PressDisplay.com support for the Sony and Kindle devices, NewspaperDirect Inc., the world leader in multi-channel newspaper and magazine distribution, announced that PressDisplay.com is available for mobile phones running the Google Android mobile operating system, including Google’s latest handset, the Nexus One.

Starting today, PressDisplay.com subscribers can point the Web browser on their Android phone to www.PressDisplay.com and enjoy any of the more than 1,400 local, national and international titles currently available on the world’s largest online newspaper and magazine kiosk. Unlike other news aggregation sites, which provide a limited sample of free news stories from an assortment of news sources, PressDisplay.com offers full-content newspapers and magazines in an intuitive digital format that replicates the printed edition.

PressDisplay.com has also been optimized for Android, making it extremely easy to browse and read entire publications, including all images, cartoons, puzzles, and even advertisements. Navigational controls and gestures such as tables of contents with sections, zoom and pan, and page scrolling are supported. Other advanced features include full graphics and text views, auto-jumps that link articles spanning different pages, cross-title search, article sharing, commenting, text-to-speech, and access to back issues.

PressDisplay.com is popular with consumers who want access to multiple news sources, and corporate customers who need to monitor printed media for business-critical news. With more than 1,400 full-content digital replicas of newspapers and magazines from 93 countries in 44 languages, the website is also the standard in more than 2,500 libraries worldwide. Some of the prestigious titles from around the world available on PressDisplay include The Washington Post, USA Today, Toronto Star, National Post, The Guardian, International Herald Tribune, Daily Mail, Irish Independent, L’Equipe, Il Giornale, Iltalehti, Bangkok Post, Kommersant, and De Volkskrant.

“We believe in giving readers what they want: their favorite publications, in their entirety, presented in a familiar, intuitive format, wherever readers are, and on whichever device they prefer,” said Alex Kroogman, CEO of NewspaperDirect. “And, in addition to providing the broadest range of distribution choices for our customers, we offer a proven paid content business model to our publishers — at no operational cost to them.”

Effective immediately, publishers of the hundreds of private-label SmartEdition newspapers powered by PressDisplay technology can offer their subscribers their e-editions on Android devices. Whenever PressDisplay.com supports a new device, it is also made available to NewspaperDirect’s publishing partners for their own SmartEditions.

IMSWaterlooIntelligent Mechatronic Systems Inc. (IMS), a world leader in telematics and mobile media solutions announced today the upcoming availability date of XTop Mobile. XTop is a Smartphone and PC downloadable application that seamlessly leverages the internet connectivity from your Smartphone, enabling you to surf the web and open attachments on your laptop/PC immediately after they arrive on your Smartphone. With XTop, you never have to search for a WiFi hotspot again. XTop will be available through several leading content portals and wireless carriers by March 31st, 2010.

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7th January 2010

Funcom Canada Leader Named and Scrap Metal Goes To CES

funcomMontrealFuncom is delighted to announce a key nomination for its newly established Montreal based company, Funcom Games Canada. The award-winning Miguel Caron – who brings with him over 15 years of organizational leadership experience – has been appointed to serve as the CEO for Funcom Games Canada Inc.

“We are thrilled to have Miguel join us at Funcom,” says Funcom CEO Trond Arne Aas. “Our Montreal based Company is central to a string of new business initiatives in Funcom, both in the high-end MMO space and in the casual MMO space. Mr. Caron will be

Miguel Caron

Miguel Caron

instrumental in developing and expanding those initiatives. We have already found Quebec and Montreal to be an excellent location for business and we look forward to further expand our operations here under the leadership for Miguel.”

Miguel Caron has a proven track record of driving strong, sustainable revenue and productivity gains within highly competitive national and global markets. Mr. Caron will take on leadership of several strategic initiatives for Funcom, in several different areas of the exciting MMO games segment. One of his first mandates will be to lead the growth in employees at the Montreal company.

“Funcom is renowned for quality productions such as ‘Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures’ and the ‘Longest Journey’ series. I have found its management team to be extremely competent, which is of course a key aspect of being successful in such a competitive market. I look forward to bringing my business experience to help that management team generate even more value to all Funcom stakeholders,” stated Miguel Caron, the newly appointed CEO of Funcom Games Canada.

Mr. Caron has led successful public and private businesses such Lyrtech Inc. He was instrumental to the growth of many high-tech companies and won many awards like the Arista price for best young entrepreneur of the year for mid and large size company as well as the Deloitte Canadian Fast 50.

Funcom is a world leading independent developer and publisher of online games, and was founded in 1993. There are currently over 300 talented individuals from over 35 different nationalities working at Funcom, spread out across offices in Norway, China, Switzerland, Canada and the US. This makes Funcom one of the most multi-cultural game development studios in the world. The company is responsible for multiple award-winning titles such as the ‘Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures’ and ‘Anarchy Online’ MMOs, as well as the ‘The Longest Journey’ and ‘Dreamfall’ adventure games.

Slick EntertainmentVancouver – Independent development studio Slick Entertainment, best known for its work on the award-winning N+ for Xbox LIVE® Arcade, announced today that it would put the pedal to the metal at this year’s International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) with its newest gaming creation, Scrap Metal™. A certified Scrap Metal™ demoist at Microsoft’s CES 2010 location (Booth #7144, Central Hall) will offer tech journalists and gaming enthusiasts alike the opportunity to check out the new racing title Scrap Metal Gameexpected to launch on Xbox LIVE. Arcade this spring. Registered press and other attendees are invited to stop by the booth at any time, although guaranteed media appointments can be scheduled by contacting Carolyn Carnes of Flash Fire Communications.

Drift around corners with guns blazing and take out legendary competitors in the fast-paced, top-down racer, Scrap Metal™! Fight your way through explosive, action-packed missions and defeat cunning bosses to add their vehicles to your garage. Customize newly-acquired cars and return to the track to blast through more enemies. Then, jump online with Xbox LIVE® to race against friends and crush their cars with the wheels of a massive monster truck in pulse-pounding online multiplayer matches.

Goals On TrackLangleyGoalsOnTrack.com has just announced a 2010 New Year release version which can help you better set, track, and reach personal and professional goals. Using GoalsOnTrack.com’s simple, attractive web 2.0 style interface, people can set goals just about anything they want, from staying fit, to landing a job, to buying a home, or traveling around the globe. GoalsOnTrack.com can help you easily create a S.M.A.R.T. based goal, and then keeps you focused and on track with user-defined supporting tasks or action steps. By consistently adding and completing these tasks, the web site keeps track of your real progress on the goal, and you will be motivated to see the result of your effort toward accomplishing your goals. Beyond that, GoalsOnTrack has just released a rich set of features, such as vision board, habits tracker, etc.

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7th January 2010

Messages From The Moon And Other Strangeness

Smoking GunVancouver – Taking Alternate Reality Gaming (ARG) one giant leap further, Smoking Gun Interactive has sent players and radio and space enthusiasts a message from the Moon, which you can listen to right here.Smoking Gun Interactive Image 7

The gaming community at Smoking Gun Interactive’s “X” online experience at exoriare pulled off a world first over the holidays, as their efforts to probe deeper into forbidden mysteries actually led them off-planet for the first time in gaming history. A generation ago, communication with the moon was the sole province of NASA. Now, with “X”, the amateur enthusiast community has planted their own flag, using extra-planetary transmissions as part of an interactive gaming experience.

For a two-week period ending with the New Year, amateur radio dishes around the planet tuned Foragerin, attempting to pick up a series of scheduled signals being broadcast live from the moon that would hit most locations on the planet over the course of the broadcasts. The lunar transmissions came as a climax to a unique online game experience called an alternate reality game that started with a graphic novel but soon had readers becoming players, as part of a resistance effort against a global conspiracy dating back thousands of years. Guided by mythology and ancient temples, players hacked into X_Page02government surveillance systems and satellites in a desperate attempt to find a missing NASA scientist and uncover the truth behind humanity’s existence on earth.

The Message from the Moon brought a climax to the first chapter of Smoking Gun’s “X” universe, but the message itself suggests that there is much more to come in these “final days of the Age of Man”. Referencing Egyptian obelisks, pyramids, and other symbols of Freemasonry, the message warns that humanity is ruled by a group of “Watchers” who “sit in our high places”. The truth about these groups has been lost, buried and forgotten, and humanity’s only hope is that the coming war will reveal “the Truth”. This is the first time in history an entertainment company has actually used and incorporated a message from space into the plot of a story, as a means of adding depth to the game experience.

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6th January 2010

ShadowPlay Coming To WiiWare On January 11

Deep Fried EntertainmentVancouverDeep Fried Entertainment Inc., an independent video game developer, is proud to announce its first WiiWare™ title, ShadowPlay, an entertaining puzzle game that will have you thinking about common household objects in a different light! The game is available exclusively on WiiWare service for Nintendo’s Wii™ system, and will be released January 11th, 2010.ShadowPlay

ShadowPlay challenges players by transforming shadows into 100 exciting, unique puzzles. By using the Wii Remote™, players manipulate their given objects one by one to create a cumulative shadow that matches the goal. As more challenging puzzles are unlocked, players will have to find more creative ways to solve problems. You will never look at a slice of pizza the same way again! Winning a round will allow players to advance to the next level as well as score another item to use in the FreePlay Mode where you can unleash your imagination and create your own shadow art. Try creating a bike out of a pineapple or a dolphin out of the shadow of a pear. Family and friends can also jump in to help tackle a puzzle at any time using Local Co-op Mode! ShadowPlay will provide tons of brain-racking fun for players of all ages!

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What is even more awesome is that ShadowPlay is the first independent WiiWare game to take full advantage of the Wii MotionPlus™, which means you can experience full maneuverability of objects and have even more fun! Of course, the game still works with the Nunchuk™ controller and will provide loads of entertainment.

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5th January 2010

Minh Le’s New Project Announced

FIX KoreaMany fans of the classic FPS and LAN tournament favourite have often wondered where Minh “Gooseman” Le has gone. Well, it turns out that since leaving Valve Software a few years ago, the former Vancouverite and SFU student joined Korean software developer FIX Korea in 2008, and they have just announced Minh Le’s current project – Tactical Intervention, will have a beta release in the first part of 2010.

Mihn Lee worked on various games including Counter-Strike for HL2, CS:Condition Zero, Tactical InterventionCS:Source, and Day of Defeat at Valve. Lee left Value because he wanted to create his own FPS. Lee started working on Tactical Intervention since 2006 and then joined FIX Korea two years ago as vice president.

Tactical Intervention takes aim at maximizing strategic team play. The game is being developed with the Source Engine and is set in the modern battle between terrorists and counter terrorism teams. Tactical Intervention is guaranteed to deliver real-like weapon and character design as well as K9 units and hostage NPCs with impeccable AI.

“The Counter-Strike-type of game is proven to be a success throughout regions such as Asia, Europe, and North America. It is quite challenging to balance between bringing out familiarity and new system at the same time. But I can guarantee you will have fun playing it,” said Mihn Lee.

Tactical Intervention is already licensed in North America and Europe and the developers are currently looking for publishing partners in other countries including Korea, Japan, China and in Southeast Asia.

Fuel IndustriesOttawaFuel Industries has released a new web application which is designed to make the following of topics on Twitter much easier. TweetYouThere is Tweet You Therecurrently in beta, and is showing the current tweets relating to this month’s CES in Las Vegas. TweetYouThere makes it simple to follow each company’s Twitter feed updates, and you can choose to view results either alphabetically or by popularity. Each company’s feed shows up in a sidebar window when you click on their respective names. I couldn’t find much in the way of information about this web app on the Fuel Industries’ site, but I would certainly be interested in learning more about TweetYouThere and finding what is in store for it in the future.

Independent Games FestivalCongratulations are due to Klei Entertainment, whose upcoming title Shank has been nominated to the IGF Awards, which take place at GDC San Francisco. Shank has been nominated in the Excellence in Visual Art category. Another Vancouver-made title in the running at IGF is Enviro-Bear, an iPhone-iTouch game designed and developed by Justin Smith. Enviro-Bear has been nominated for a Nuovo Award. Shank and Enviro-Bear are the only two Canadian titles which have been nominated for this year’s IGF. Good luck to both studios!

Sony EricssonToronto – Canadians will be among the first in the world to experience open and integrated social media, communication and entertainment with the launch of the Sony Ericsson Xperia ™ X10 phone, which will make its North American debut first in Canada , exclusively from Rogers . The Xperia ™ X10 is expected to be available in the second quarter 2010.

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5th January 2010

Bioware Announces Expansion For Dragon Age Origins

Bioware Corp

Edmonton – Hot on the heels of missing the release date for Dragon Age’s DLC Return to Ostagar (and the mysterious removal of its announcement from the front page of the game’s site), Bioware has announced that Dragon Age™: Origins – Awakening, the first official expansion pack to Dragon Age: Origins, the recent recipient of Spike TV’s Best RPG and PC Game of 2009, IGN’s Best RPG of 2009, CNN.com’s Best RPG of 2009. Dragon Age: Origins – Awakening will be available for the Xbox 360® videogame and entertainment system, the PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system and PC on March 16, 2010.

Designed and written by the same team that brought you Dragon Age: Origins, the Awakening expansion pack offers a brand new area of the world to explore known as Amaranthine, featuring an epic story that will allow players to unravel the secrets of the darkspawn – and their true Dragon Age Origins: Awakeningmotivations! Players will face a range of horrific and terrifying creatures including an evolved, intelligent breed of darkspawn and other menacing creatures such as the Inferno Golem and Spectral Dragon. Dragon Age: Origins – Awakening provides exciting new ways for players to customize their heroes and party, including the ability to re-spec their character attributes, allowing even greater customization and replayability. Featuring an increased level cap, new spells, abilities, specializations and items, plus five all-new party members, players can continue their adventures from Dragon Age: Origins, or begin with a brand new character.

“Dragon Age: Origins – Awakening shows BioWare’s commitment to our fans by delivering new story-driven experiences which enrich the dark heroic fantasy universe our fans have come to know and love,” said Dr. Ray Muzyka, Group General Manager of the RPG/MMO Group, EA, and Dragon Age Origins: AwakeningCo-Founder, BioWare. “The vibrant worldwide community of Dragon Age fans will relish uncovering the secret motivations of the darkspawn, revealing how the darkspawn continue to infest the world despite the defeat of the Archdemon.”

Dragon Age: Origins – Awakening, BioWare’s next thread in the Dragon Age: Origins tapestry, occurs following the events of Dragon Age: Origins and puts players into the role of a Grey Warden Commander entrusted with rebuilding the order of Grey Wardens. In addition to rebuilding the ranks of the Grey Wardens, you will be tasked with uncovering the mystery of how the darkspawn survive after the slaying of the Archdemon. How players choose to rebuild their order, resolve the conflict with the mysterious “Architect,” and determine the fate of the darkspawn are just some of the many intriguing moral choices that will shape each player’s heroic journey. Players will be able to import their character from Dragon Age: Origins or start out as a new Grey Warden from the neighboring land of Orlais.

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4th January 2010

Back To Work Monday With New Releases

GormleyDigital Leisure has announced that their newest title, Fast Draw Showdown, designed exclusively for Nintendo’s WiiWare™ game service is now available for download.

When it comes to fast draw there are only two types of people: the quick…and the dead! Now you have the chance to find out where you stand, or lie, as the case may be. You’ll go up against the best quick draws in the business, including one of the world’s fastest, Wes Flowers.

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Unholster your Wii Remote™ and show’em who the fastest draw really is, in this live action shooter – a first for the WiiWare service! Once you’ve mastered your shootin’ skills, take on all your friends to see which of you really has the quickest draw.

You’ll need some serious speed and awesome accuracy to take on these gunslingers…so get ready for some real fast draw action! Fast Draw Showdown is available today in North America and later this month in Europe, exclusively on WiiWare for 500 Wii Points™. Fast Draw Showdown is rated T by the ESRB.

MontrealLudia’s new title Hell’s Kitchen Vs., which is based on the U.S. TV phenomenon where world-renowned chef Gordon Ramsay puts aspiring chefs through rigorous culinary tests is also now available on WiiWare. The game recreates the show’s pressure-cooker atmosphere as two players battle head-to-head in an arcade-style kitchen challenge. Try to conquer your opponent in each time-management test, while taking the heat of Gordon Ramsay judging and rating your performance at every stage of the game. Designed for 1 or 2 players, Hell’s Kitchen Vs is rated E by the ESRB and costs 800 Wii Points to download from the WiiWare store.

London ONBig Blue Bubble also has a release out on WiiWare today. Pub Darts is a simple darts simulation which uses the Wii Remote™ controller’s unique controls to mimic dart-throwing motion. The game is set in a local pub where the players will settle in to play some of their favorite dart games, including 501, Cricket, Around the Clock, Killers and Baseball. Controls function just like throwing a real dart. Players are able to create their own personal profiles, including selecting their avatar image from a collection of creative characters and the design they would like displayed on the dart flights. Pub Darts is rated E by the ESRB and is downloadable for 500 Wii Points.

Also out today is Big Blue Bubble’s first Fighting Fantasy game book, The Warlock of Firetop Mountain, now available on iPhone and iPod Touch for $2.99usd. For the first time ever, you have the opportunity to explore the world of Titan on a portable screen bringing the adventure with you wherever you go.

Experience the book that started the massively popular series which has sold over 15 million copies worldwide and set a new standard in roleplaying excellence. This exciting game plunges you into a thrilling adventure to the top of Firetop Mountain and its vast treasure, ruthlessly guarded by a powerful Warlock. Will you have the courage, tact and skill to survive where none have returned to tell the tale?

Following the successful Nintendo DS launch of the game of the same name, Fighting Fantasy: The Warlock of Firetop Mountain for iPhone and iPod Touch takes a different approach bringing Ian Livingstone and Steve Jackson’s legendary game book to your favorite handheld device. Scroll through the pages effortlessly by tapping the screen to flip pages, roll dice by shaking your iPhone and experience the breathtaking tale that has sold millions of copies.

Fighting Fantasy readers will be excited to know that Big Blue Bubble will be releasing four more titles in the series. In January, look out for Deathtrap Dungeon as it makes its iPhone debut providing the user with the same level of adventure, excitement and ease of use that The Warlock of Firetop brought.

Fighting Fantasy fans will love the classic story and original illustrations with a technological twist. No more dice, pencils, or bookmarks. All the special features are built in!

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3rd January 2010

And The Nominees Are

As requested by some of our readers, here is a complete list of the games, studios, characters and publishers who have been nominated for our very first Readers’ Choice Canadian Video Game Awards. Good luck to all of the nominees – and you don’t need to be Canadian in order to vote for your favourites – if you like ’em, let ’em know by giving them a vote.

Go here to vote

Best PC Title

Assassin’s Creed 2 – Ubisoft Montreal
Avatar – Ubisoft Montreal
Braid – Hothead Games
Dragon Age: Origins – Bioware
Fort Zombie – Kerberos
KrabbitWorld Origins – Krabbitsoft
Madballs In Babo: Invasion – PlayBrains
Monsters vs Aliens – Beenox
Prototype – Radical Entertainment
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen – Beenox

Best XBox 360 Title

Assassin’s Creed 2 – Ubisoft Montreal
Avatar – Ubisoft Montreal
Dragon Age: Origins – Bioware
Madballs In Babo: Invasion – PlayBrains
Monsters vs Aliens – Beenox
Prototype – Radical Entertainment
Wet – Artificial Mind & Movement

Best PlayStation 3 Title

Assassin’s Creed 2 – Ubisoft Montreal
Avatar – Ubisoft Montreal
Monsters vs Aliens – Beenox
NBA Live 10 – EA Canada
Prototype – Radical Entertainment
The Bigs 2 – Blue Castle Games
Wet – Artificial Mind & Movement

Best Wii Title

Academy of Champions – Ubisoft Vancouver
Avatar – Ubisoft Montreal
Copter Crisis – Digital Leisure
Monsters vs Aliens – Beenox
Shaun White Snowboarding World Stage – Ubisoft Montreal
The Bigs 2 – Blue Castle Games

Handheld PSP or Nintendo DS Title

Avatar – Ubisoft Montreal
Dragon’s Lair – Digital Leisure
Fighting Fantasy: Warlock of Firetop Mountain – Big Blue Bubble
Ice Age 3 – Artificial Mind & Movement
Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes – Capybara Games
NBA Live 10 – EA Canada
Sudoku Challenge – Digital Leisure
The Bigs 2 – Blue Castle Games
Warriors Orochi 2 – Koei Canada
Zombie Tycoon – Frima Studio

Best Handheld Phone or PDA Title

Dead Strike – Psychoz Interactive
Diamond Fever – Howling Moon Games
Gravity Well – Genius Factor Games
Implode – IUGO Mobile Entertainment
Jamble – No Robots Interactive
Sky Babes vs Fly Boys – A.C.R.O.N.Y.M. Games
ToyBot Diaries 3 – IUGO Mobile Entertainment

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