Village Gamer

Sword-and-Gun Action Fighting Title to Return at Holiday 2009

Montreal – Today Ubisoft® announced Red Steel®2, exclusively on Wii™ system from Nintendo. Red Steel remains one of the most successful Wii titles and the only brand created specifically for the launch of the platform.

Red Steel 2 returns with an artistic style and flair created just for Wii. Set in a desert-bound, high-tech metropolis, Red Steel 2 is a revolution in the action-fighting genre, taking full advantage of the capabilities of the Wii MotionPlus™ accessory. Your movements are faithfully replicated on-screen, putting the emphasis on swinging, shooting and fun! With the ability of the Wii MotionPlus to sense the strength of a swing, you will literally be able to make an impact on your adversaries through power and precision.

“Red Steel was a unique opportunity for Ubisoft to work in tandem with Nintendo to create a title exclusively for the launch of the Wii console,” said Olivier Ernst, general manager at Ubisoft Canada. “Red Steel 2 is another milestone for the company as it is the first Ubisoft title with full Wii MotionPlus integration.”

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Tickets Go On Sale Today At Noon

Vancouver ACM SIGGRAPH makes a big-screen splash to celebrate its sixth anniversary, presenting one of DreamWorks Animation’s bright lights, Director/Writer Eric Darnell, fresh from the success of Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa. Start the evening in style mingling at the licensed industry mixer with free snacks and drinks. The first 50 through the door receive a free movie poster. Eric Darnell will be on hand at the mixer signing copies of the book for sale: The Art of Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa. At 7:30 pm get set for the main presentation and a screening of this visionary experimental director’s latest animated film.

6:30 pm – Book signing & industry mixer*
7:30 pm – Directing Madagascar w. Eric Darnell
8:30 pm – Q&A & door prizes
8:45 pm – Intermission
9:15 pm – Screening: Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa (free)

* All ticket holders are automatically registered to industry mixer and screening.
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Developer: IonFX
Publisher: Meridian 4
Genre: Puzzle
Platform: Windows PC

Background: Based on IonFX’s award-winning mobile game of the same name, Obulis takes things to the next level by fusing highly compelling gameplay with outstanding graphics, music and state of the art physics effects.

I have had Obulis for a few weeks now, and while I generally try for a quick turn-around on game reviews, this one took me a bit longer than normal. The reason being was that I wasn’t sure if I liked the game and didn’t play very far into the game at first. I then set it aside for a few days, and as it turns out, there are some areas of the game-play which I truly liked, admittedly much to my surprise.  There were only two or three areas which I felt were negative, but they relate directly to my personal preferences – and as I advanced through the game, one of those negative issues became not so important anymore.
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Vancouver – On May 7th, AnnexPro invites you to come and learn how Autodesk Digital Entertainment Creation (DEC) tools accelerate the workflow of creative professionals in games development as well as animation and post.

Autodesk Technical Specialists Marcel deJong, Mark Schoennagel and Mark Noland will show you how real-world production challenges are solved using Autodesk tools that make you more proficient, productive and give you a competitive advantage, while providing excellent return on investment.

Common processes such as modeling characters and set extensions will be explored. In addition, character rigging and animation exchange will also be featured. Last but not least, rendering tools that culminate in the finishing of shots via Autodesk compositing solutions will be demonstrated.  Featured products include: Autodesk Mudbox 2009, Autodesk Motionbuilder 2009, Autodesk Toxik 2009, Autodesk Softimage 7.5, Autodesk Maya 2009 and Autodesk 3ds Max 2010.

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Company hires Industry veteran Dominic Monkhouse to Lead Effort

Vancouver – PEER 1 Network Enterprises, Inc., a global online IT hosting provider, has expanded its reach into Europe, with the opening of a European headquarters in Southampton, United Kingdom, and named Dominic Monkhouse, managing director.

“We have seen consistent demand from our customers for a hosting facility in Europe,” said Fabio Banducci, president and CEO of PEER 1. “Strong demand, favorable exchange rates, falling real estate prices and a UK market growth rate of 25 percent make this an opportune time for PEER 1 to expand its presence in Europe. The office will support more than 500 UK and European-based customers, who currently utilize PEER 1’s North American hosting services, and expand quickly to help additional businesses manage their online presence.”
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Calgary – CoolIT Systems has announced the acquisition of Delphi Thermal Liquid Cooling assets including intellectual property, machinery and equipment. The Delphi acquisition will provide CoolIT the additional mass market production resources to better accommodate the rapidly growing global industry demand for liquid cooled computers. As part of the Purchase Agreement, CoolIT Systems will be immediately servicing industry giants including Dell and Apple. With the acquisition, CoolIT reaffirms its position as the global leader in advanced liquid cooling for computers.
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Montreal – Bethesda Softworks®, a ZeniMax® Media company, announced today that it will publish WET™, an innovative action game from Artificial Mind and Movement (A2M). WET, in development for the Xbox 360®video game and entertainment system from Microsoft and PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system, is slated for a Fall 2009 release.

WET is a highly stylized third-person shooter that seamlessly blends acrobatics, gun play, and sword kills. With dual pistols and a samurai sword, you can engage in combat while sliding on floors, running on walls, jumping, flipping, and performing amazing acrobatic moves – leaving a massive body count in your wake.

“We’re very excited about the opportunity to bring WET to all gamers,” said Vlatko Andonov, president of Bethesda Softworks. “Our proven success as a publisher which focuses on select, innovative titles matches up perfectly with WET’s new class of gameplay.”
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Vancouver – This past Saturday night we attended the best digital art event in town. Anomaly 2009 was held at the District 319 Theatre, and with attendance of well over 200, was an awesome night of networking and learning.

Daryl Mandryk

Attendees could watch live CG demonstrations given by such talented digital artists as Daryl Mandryk (Propaganda), David Tran (Smoking Gun), Jesse Turner (Threewave), Jeff Simpson (Big Sandwich Games), Peter Zoppi (Treyarch, Rythm & Hues, Luna Pictures) and Marco Menco (Image Engine), as well as interact with the artists, who were more than willing to talk about their techniques and share their knowledge. There were also two showcase exhibits set up featuring the beautiful work of Offload Studios and Avatar Sculpture Works.

The evening began with speed sketching, featuring Jesse Turner and live model Jenny Magenta. Accompanied by live music, everyone was encouraged to draw along with either traditional or digital tools.
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Vancouver – Keynotes from Canadian videogame development luminaries Don Mattrick, Ray Muzyka, and Greg Zeschuk will kick off two days of best practices for building better games with better teams. With sessions designed to improve collaboration among designers, programmers, visual artists and writers, GDC Canada is a must attend event for the entire team.

The conference schedule has now been finalized, and with a wide variety of topics, there is something for everyone, from games as a brand to outsourcing and from audio to writing. The full schedule with more information can be viewed on the GDC Canada website.

Featured Sessions:

8 Things Game Developers Can Learn from BMW
Speaker: Otto Ottosson (Threewave Software Inc.)
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Montreal – Telefilm Canada is pleased to announce the appointment of Denise Arab to the position of Director, Communications, effective May 25.

Ms. Arab has worked for fifteen years at the Business Development Bank of Canada, where she presently holds the position of Director, Public Relations and Employee Communications at the Montréal office. She has also worked at Canada Post.

“On behalf of all of us at Telefilm I am very pleased to welcome Ms. Arab to her new position as Director of Communications and look forward to her participation on the Executive Management Committee” said Wayne Clarkson, the Corporation’s Executive Director. “Her expertise in management and communications and her extensive national and regional experience will be definite assets in carrying out our corporate plan.”
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