Village Gamer

Montreal– August 16, 2008 – Meridian4 is pleased to announce that they have signed a publishing agreement with Hermitworks Entertainment Corporation of Grande Prairie, Alberta for their unique, habit-forming Action-Trading game; Space Trader.

“We’re really excited to be working with Meridian4. They share our vision in offering players a unique game play experience. We’ve changed the rules of traditional action games to challenge both new and veteran players and Meridian4 supports us in this.” said Cameron Tofer, President and Co-Founder of Hermitworks Entertainment.

“When we were first presented Space Trader, we were thrilled to see a small, independent developer, close to home producing such a unique title.” said Andy Sher, CEO of Meridian4, “With its clever mix of FPS and Trading, we were, as I’m sure gamers will be, hooked immediately.”

About Space Trader
In the far future, humanity is ruled by The Ministry of Accounts, an oppressive bureaucracy that tracks, records and taxes every transaction of daily life. From the depths of Red Tape, a new breed of marketeer arises to challenge the authority and make a profit: the Space Trader is born!

Read the rest of this entry »

Edmonton – Leading video game developer BioWare™, a division of Electronic Arts Inc., will be presenting their upcoming dark heroic fantasy Dragon Age™: Origins publicly for the first time ever to fans at Gen Con in Indianapolis, Indiana, the GC Developers Conference in Leipzig, Germany and the Penny Arcade Expo in Seattle, Washington.

Coming from behind closed doors and onto the show floor, BioWare is thrilled to reveal the heart-pounding demo that wowed international media at E3 2008 to the eager fans at Gen Con Indy, August 14-17, 2008, at the Indianapolis Convention Center in Indianapolis, Indiana. This marks the very first public appearance of Dragon Age: Origins ever, with fans able to get a first-hand look at some of the exciting combat, devastating magic and credible digital actors that make up this epic adventure.

Dragon Age: Origins will then cross the ocean to Leipzig, Germany, to reveal itself to eagerly awaiting European fans at the GC Developers Conference, held August 20-22, 2008, at the Leipzig Exhibition Center. Dragon Age: Origins project director and executive producer Dan Tudge will be conducting behind closed doors demos to the press, revealing new details about combat, exploration, dialogue, the game’s origin stories and a few other juicy surprises not to be missed! BioWare’s community team will also be there to demo Dragon Age: Origins in a special lounge for invited members, fans and leaders of international EA community sites, August 22-24.
Read the rest of this entry »

Edmonton, Canada- SplitFish AG (SplitFish), the world’s premiere designer of PlayStation®3 first-person-shooter (FPS) console controllers, announced that it will be showing off its award-winning FragFX controller at Games Convention August 20-24, 2008 at the Leipziger Messe exhibition halls in Leipzig, Germany. Some of Europe’s best first person shooter gamers will be on hand at the booth offering tips and demonstrations of top PlayStation 3 games. Splitfish’s booth will be located in Hall 1, Booth #78H. Splitfish is inviting press and other attendees to schedule appointments with them during the show. Additionally, wholesalers are welcome at the Splitfish booth to pre-order the latest version of the FragFX.

Splitfish recently announced a partnership with LIVING PICTURE AG that would allow Splitfish access to Living Picture’s established worldwide distribution network and immediately provide financial and additional sales resources required to increase the SPLITFISH production capacity. SplitFish`s popular Playstation 3 controller, the FRAGFX, has a current backlog of orders in Europe and North America.

Read the rest of this entry »

UK Rock Sensation Mendella was given a taste of home yesterday, while playing a free concert for anyone choosing to seek shelter under the big blue tarp at the Aldergrove Band Shell, next to the Heritage Telephone Museum. Even the pouring rain and threats of lightning could not keep these rockers off the stage and away from the people listening in, and only those who dared to venture out beyond the reaches of the makeshift shelter felt the fury of the weather falling upon them.

What started off as a wet morning turned rather suddenly into an outright downpour. But, thanks to some quick thinking and creativity of the sound and tech crew (Curtis and Ryan from Sonic Voodoo Productions), promoter and owner of VillageGamer Tami, and “space occupier and video camera person” Scott, a very large tarp was strung out over the field, giving the feeling of watching a concert inside a circus tent. Thus it was born, “Under The Tarp Productions: Always A Unique Show”. While the wind battered at our defenses of black poly from the sides and rear of the stage, the rain tried to bring down our shelter. Still the band played on, and in moments of true creativity, even added it into the act. Lead singer Tom “Butters” occasionally changing around lyrics of their songs to reference “the rain keeps coming down” (and down and down), while “set design and emergency water management” Scott (that’s me, people) scrambled to pop various small holes in the tarp to drain the growing lake forming overhead in the low points of the shelter. Drummer Toby Parker was even supplied some “backup beats” from the thunder in the distance, which simply added to the effect of “Rain or shine, we come to rock your (soaking wet) socks off!”.
Read the rest of this entry »

Indie Game Developer XGen Studios Challenges Players to Defend Your Castle

Edmonton, Canada – Repel attacks from swarms of invaders, earn powerful spells, and gain upgraded arsenals with the release of XGen Studios‘ hit WiiWare™ title, Defend your Castle™. Developed by a small team with big ideas, the game invites up to 4 players to become commanders of their kingdom and fight off relentless hordes of invading enemies through a mixture of cooperative and competitive play. Immense masses of invaders employ many types of soldiers in their quest to seize the domain. Will players and their courts rise to the challenge, or stand aside as they raze the castle to the ground?

XGen Studios Inc., acclaimed casual game developer, is pleased to announce the release of Defend your Castle on Nintendo’s downloadable game service WiiWare in Europe & Australia today.

Read the rest of this entry »

A Battle of the Hard Rock Bands will be taking place this weekend, Saturday August 9th at the bandshell in the Heritage Museum Park which is located at the corner of 272 Street and 32 Avenue in Aldergrove. There is room for 4 bands to compete, with the competition slated to begin at 3pm. Bands will be judged on performance quality (vocals and instrumentation), stage presence and audience participation (this means bring your fans to cheer you on). Participating bands will need to be in attendance at the competition from 2pm until approximately 8:30pm, with competitive play beginning at 3pm. Each band is to perform for 30 to 45 minutes, then after the last band there will be a chance for the audience to show their appreciation for the four bands. Audience appreciation counts for points, so rock their socks off.

Following the competition segment of the event, the UK rock group Mendella will be giving a free performance while the judges make their final decisions and the winner will be announced following Mendella’s set. Prizes and judges will be announced, but thus far Mendella’s management, Orpheus Sounds, is offering $100.00 cash and Village Gamer (a division of KillaNet Technology Ltd.) is offering a free outdoor promo photography shoot to the winning band, along with a DVD and photos of the entire show. Endoplasmic Entertainment Recording Studio in Langley has also offered studio rehearsal time – more details on that are forthcoming. Any company wishing to contribute to the prize offerings is more than welcome, and will be given full recognition at the competition and in follow-up press coverage.

To qualify for this competition, bands must not yet have recorded a commercial album or have a record deal, but be working towards them. Band members must be under the age of 25, and an mp3 song sample must be provided by 5pm on Friday, August 8th. This can be in the form of a demo on MySpace, FaceBook, YouTube or personal site, and bands must sign up at http://www.villagegamer.net/battle-of-the-bands/. Winners of the four performance slots will be notified on Friday evening between 8 and 9pm.

The competition’s host band Mendella is currently on a two week tour of the Lower Mainland promoting their music prior to hitting the studio to record their first commercial album, which is due in stores Spring 2009. The hard-hitting sound of Mendella is certain to rocket them to the top of rock charts around the world, and they put on a show to remember. Mendella first visited Vancouver for the New Music West Festival in May, and after seeing the plight of the homeless in the downtown eastside, were moved to write the song Saw Me Bleeding. Now, fresh from performances at the Digital Storm Videogame Tournament and the Tom Lee Music Hall in Vancouver, Mendella is ready to rock the country side of the valley before performing at The Roxy on August 13th in Vancouver. Mendella will be taking the stage at 7pm on Saturday night, but you can get a preview by visiting myspace.com/mendellaband.

Finalist bands will need to provide:

Drum Breakables – Sticks, Cymbals, Snare
Guitars, cords, pedals
Fans to cheer them on

We will provide:

Drum kit (minus breakables), amps, mics, PA, sound board, sound mixer (you can use your own sound tech if you have one)

If you have any questions, please use the Contact form and we’ll get back to you asap.

JoWooD Productions and DreamCatcher Games, leading publishers of interactive entertainment software around the world, today announced Bring the Pain ’08 – 2008’s Painkiller Tournament and Sweepstakes will begin late August 2008.

The tournament and sweepstakes has over $10,000 in prizes to give away, including complete Alienware® Gaming Systems, Creative Xi-Fi Sound Cards, Fatal1ty Titanium Pro Headsets, Speakers and Zen MP3 Player.

The tournament and sweepstakes coincides with the release of Painkiller Triple Dose, now available at Gamestop stores across North America. Get the full versions of the original Painkiller, Painkiller Battle out of Hell and Painkiller Overdose along with the Making of Painkiller DVD and the Official Soundtrack in this compilation pack for the seriously low SRP of $19.99USD.

Read the rest of this entry »

Digital Storm is very pleased to welcome Nexon and Combat Arms to this weekend’s event. Nexon will be sponsoring the Combat Arms Last Man Standing Tournament, which will be taking place at 1:00pm on Saturday, August 2, with preliminaries taking place on the evening of Friday, August 1. The final battle will be open to 16 finalists, all of whom will receive a Special Press Edition DVD of Combat Arms, with the tournament winners receiving Nexon Cash, which can be used for game upgrades in any Nexon game product.

Also in attendance at Digital Storm will be representatives from Nexon’s Vancouver studio, Humanature. They will be observing the tournament finals as well as discussing working in the Vancouver game development industry with event attendees.

Digital Storm LAN takes place this weekend, August 1st and 2nd at the Croatian Cultural Centre, located at 3250 Commercial Drive in Vancouver. Doors open at 4:00pm Friday, when several game tournaments and ladder scrims will begin. All World Cyber Games qualifying tournaments will take place on Saturday, August 2, and the UK rock group Mendella will be giving a 45 minute live performance at 8:00pm. Tickets for Digital Storm and Mendella’s performance will be available at the door. Tickets for Friday and Saturday are $35.00, Saturday-only tickets are $25.00, concert-only tickets are $7.50.

Press Release – TORONTO – July 30, 2008 – If you’ve ever returned from a getaway feeling that it didn’t live up to your expectations, you’ll appreciate the value of PlanetEye, a travel-planning Web site with a difference. The site offers geotagged photographs, insight from other travelers and local experts, and extensive travel metadata, all of which can be accessed from an interactive map — a geographic browser, in technical parlance. Because users can explore travel options and easily and quickly research, reserve, organize and share their trips, the result is smarter travel planning.

Part of what makes this Toronto-based startup unique is its use of a technology fresh from Microsoft’s research labs, which PlanetEye licensed through Microsoft’s intellectual property (IP) licensing program. Called World Wide Media eXchange (WWMX), the technology enables the indexing of a large volume of geotagged photographs and provides the tools to access them via the geographic browser. WWMX was invented in 2002 by Kentaro Toyama, then with the Interactive Visual Media group at Microsoft Research in Redmond, Wash., and currently assistant managing director of Microsoft Research India in Bangalore.

PressPass recently spoke with Butch Langlois, CEO of PlanetEye, and Bob Tenczar, director of marketing for Microsoft’s Intellectual Property Licensing division, to learn more about how an idea goes from the lab to commercialization.

Read the rest of this entry »

“BRING DOWN THE SKY” EXPANDS THE MASS EFFECT ADVENTURE

Leading video game developer BioWare™, a division of Electronic Arts Inc. ( NASDAQ: ERTS ), has announced that “Bring Down the Sky,” the first piece of downloadable content for the award-winning space epic Mass Effect™, is now available for owners of the PC game version to download free of charge.

Fully optimized for the PC, “Bring Down the Sky” is the first in a series of planned downloadable content that will further expand the Mass Effect story and universe. It includes a new uncharted world that introduces the deadly Batarian alien race, approximately 90 minutes of new gameplay and an original soundtrack. Instructions on how to download and install the new content are available on the Mass Effect downloadable content page. “Bring Down the Sky” is currently available for international languages including English, Spanish, Italian and German, with additional language versions coming soon.
Read the rest of this entry »