Village Gamer

Toronto – Fresh TV Inc., an award-winning family entertainment company, is pleased to announce that they have been awarded three Pixie Awards for their animated tween TV series, Stoked. Fresh TV took home awards for Opening Title Effects, Animation and Atmospheric Effects and was given an impressive score of 9.5 out of 10 for the series. The Pixie Awards – sponsored by the American Pixel Academy – honour outstanding creativity in Motion Graphics, Effects and Animation.

“It is an honour to receive accolades from such an esteemed group of industry peers,” said Tom McGillis, President, Fresh TV Inc. “I would like to especially thank our amazing team at Fresh TV as these awards embody the team’s continued dedication to creating quality, engaging shows.”

Stoked is an animated situational comedy about teens who come together one summer to work at world renowned Surfer’s Paradise Resort, home of the best surfing in the country. For twelve weeks they will spend their first summer away from home, work hard, and most importantly, have the opportunity to surf on their days off.

The series (26 x 30’) broadcasts Monday-Friday on Cartoon Network in the US and on TELETOON in Canada.

Edmonton – Bioware has released several new screenshots for the upcoming Dragon Age: Origins expansion chapter Awakening. These new images focus on Vigil’s Keep in Amaranthine, which had previously served as the base of operations for the Howe family and their troops. .

Amaranthine was the first of the Fereldan arlings to fall to the Orlesian occupation. As the port city burned, its ruling family, the Howes, fled to the countryside to wage a guerrilla war against the invaders that lasted for generations. No matter how enormous of a bounty the Orlesians promised, they could not rid themselves of the wily Howes and their ever-growing number of sympathizers.

The Howes chose the ancient fortress of Vigil’s Keep as their primary base of operations, hiding the entire rebellion within the vast complex of storage rooms and caves beneath “The Vigil” — right underneath the noses of their oppressors. When the Orlesians were finally ousted, it was at Vigil’s Keep that the flag of Amaranthine was first raised again, amidst cheers of victory. Vigil’s Keep became the new home of the Howes. Following the downfall of the Howes in Origins, Vigil’s Keep and arling of Amaranthine came under the control of the Grey Wardens. If you want to learn more about the rise and fall of the Howes, you’ll have to pick up a copy of Dragon Age: Origins, because I’m not saying anything about how they betrayed their allies and friends.

Bioware has also released a short trailer to introduce of one of the new party NPCs you will meet when you play Dragon Age Awakening, Anders. According to the video’s description, many mages chafe under the Chantrys control, and Anders is no exception. Its a lucky thing that Anders despises blood mages as much as the Chantry does, else he might have been executed as a suspected maleficaru.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_BW2z6Y6Msg]

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. And yes – I have already placed my pre-order. Dragons, magic, spies, blood and gore – too much goodness to miss.

Ottawa – W!LDBRAIN, the award-winning entertainment company and one of the world’s foremost producers of animation, has entered into a partnership with Fuel Industries, the Ottawa-based digital agency and producer of popular interactive brands, including AllGirlArcade.com, to develop television, motion picture, direct-to-consumer platforms and consumer products utilizing the existing popularity of Fuel Industries’ entertainment properties.

“Fuel has a great body of characters and stories with limitless creative possibilities,” said Michael Polis, CEO, Wildbrain. “As a company, we will strategically integrate the proven Fuel Industries branded properties and characters into our studio’s content and distribution businesses. Under this agreement, we are looking at a number of properties that have the potential to become sustainable franchises and growth drivers on a number of media platforms,” he continued.

“Our development deal with W!LDBRAIN, combined with their successful portfolio of world-class animation and family entertainment, is a major step in our company’s efforts to realize the full potential of our Read the rest of this entry »

Vancouver – A brief reminder that the Women in Games Vancouver (WIGEH) Networking Event takes place tonight at the Wine Room, downstairs at the Steamworks Brew Pub. We invite you to join us at 7pm for an evening of socializing and information.  This event is open to both women and men, and we hope to see you there.

Ottawa – The Ottawa Centre for Research and Innovation (OCRI) has released its annual Knowledge-based Industry Survey. The study indicates that as of December 31, 2009, the number of companies in Ottawa’s knowledge-based sectors has increased by nearly half of one per cent while the number of employees has decreased by 1.3 per cent. The most current data, garnered from 13 industry sectors, indicates a slight increase of 0.4 per cent in the total number of companies to 1,857 up from 1,850 last year. The survey garnered responses from 88 companies whose primary business focus is in cleantech, contact centre/customer centre, convergent medical devices, defence and security, eBusiness, health and drug discovery, knowledge-based support services, photonics, semiconductor, software, telecommunications, wireless and digital media.

“We certainly expected 2009 to be challenging so we are not surprised by the decrease in employment but we also know that the best time to start a new business venture is during tough economic times. With 222 companies added to the database and a notable increase in employment for small and medium sized businesses we see that the support programs and tools available to new companies and entrepreneurs here in Ottawa are having a positive impact,” says Claude Haw, President and CEO, OCRI. “The entire city has rallied to provide support to help our companies become successful and there are examples of great collaboration all around us. Of course, we must continue to create an environment that is attractive to investors and actively leverages the various funding programs available for small and medium sized companies in order to fuel innovation and propel our economy forward.”

Ottawa’s cleantech sector demonstrated the greatest growth for the third year in a row, with several companies adding more than 50 employees to their staff base. This translates to a 25.2% increase in job positions for this industry sector. Also of note is Ottawa’s recent designation as one of the world’s top seven intelligent communities by the Intelligent Community Forum.

The OCRI report also points out the strength of the region’s digital media industry, stating that “the digital media sector has been gaining traction in our region. In October, Ottawa hosted the International Animation Festival, proving to many who weren’t already aware that Ottawa is a hotbed for digital media creativity. The cluster features 63 companies that have identified digital media as their primary industry and more than 120 others see digital media as their secondary industry. As a result, a formal digital media cluster, GENERATOR, was launched in December.”

Vancouver – Hive is a board game originally designed by John Yianni and released by “Gen Four Two Games” in 2001. Independent developer Lotusland Studios has developed Hive as a mobile game, and it is now available in the iTunes App Store for the iPhone™ and iPod touch®. Hive is categorized as an abstract strategy game and is highly unique as the pieces are simply placed on a flat surface without the limitations and constraints of a traditional game-board.

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Montreal – Ubisoft has announced that Assassin’s Creed II: Discovery App is now available for purchase ($9.99USD) in the iTunes App store. Assassin’s Creed II: Discovery is the first in a series of gaming franchises, from hard core to casual games, that Ubisoft plans to develop and publish for the App Store.  iPhone and iPod touch users are invited to discover an exciting chapter of the Assassin’s Creed II storyline. Players follow Ezio as he travels to 15th-century Spain to rescue fellow assassins being held under the guise of the Inquisition, only to uncover a Templar plot to sail west and discover the New World.

Vancouver – IUGO has just announced that Cliffed: Norm’s World is now available on the iTunes App Store, and it’s free. Cliffed: Norm’s World is the Lite version of the highly addictive title Cliffed ($1.99USD), and allows players to experience  unlimited game play as the Cliffed character Norm. This lite version also allows for full-featured multiplayer experiences.

Edmonton – Another special on iTunes involves Bioware’s Mass Effect 2. Dark Horse Comics will be releasing Mass Effect Redemption #1 for free for one day only, on February 3. After the initial 24 hour period, Redemption #1 will then sell for $0.99USD. Redemption #2 is also scheduled for release in comic book stores on February 3. In Redemption #2, Liara T’Soni searches Omega — the most dangerous space station in the galaxy — for clues that could save humanity’s greatest hero, Commander Shepard. Redemption #1 is also included in the Collector’s Edition of Mass Effect 2.

Vancouver – Relic has released some early looks at the Chaos multiplayer units for the upcoming Dawn of War II: Chaos Rising. Head over to the Relic Blog to get a closer look at the Space Marines, Havocs and Heretics who have fallen to the Dark gods of Chaos. Relic also recently released the full soundtrack for Company of Heroes, which is available for free on the game’s Steam page, where you can also purchase all three Company of Heroes titles for a special packaged price of $49.99USD.

Vancouver – Absolute® Software Corporation has launched Absolute Manage, the rebranded version of the Company’s recently-acquired cross-platform IT asset management solution. The new solution from Absolute complements its Computrace® family of data security, tracking and theft recovery solutions with full-featured computer life-cycle management capabilities.

Absolute Manage, formerly LANrev, provides organizations with an easy and automated way to manage PC and Mac® computers, as well as iPhone® devices, from a single interface. IT administrators using Absolute Manage can efficiently manage all their assets by automating time-consuming IT processes such as software distribution, patch management, asset inventory and imaging. Additionally, it helps organizations save money by allowing them to track installed applications and licenses, redeploy under-used licenses and hardware to maximize inventory, and avoid non-compliance fines. The MSRP for a standalone one-year license is $24.95 USD.

Some of the capabilities of Absolute Manage include the following:

– Application & License Management – Deploy software and manage licenses across the network.

– Security, Change & Configuration Management – Remotely monitor and adjust configurations, and execute files.

– Automated Patch Management – Centrally manage and install patches, and report on patch status for all managed systems.

– Computer Imaging – Install a complete OS plus all standard applications onto Mac computers while in use or just out of the box.

– Power Management – Comply with green initiatives and lower total cost of ownership by remotely enforcing power saving policy profiles.

– Asset Inventory – Collect hardware and software data points from devices over the network and analyze the information for timely and fact-based asset management decisions.

Calgary – ICEsoft™ Technologies, Inc. has announced the release of ICEpdf 4.0, an open source PDF rendering technology for Java.

ICEpdf is a lightweight Java rendering library that can be easily integrated within any Java-based client application or deployed on a server in headless mode as a PDF Servlet (JSP or JSF). ICEpdf is ideal for providing PDF viewing and navigation as well as PDF content conversion and extraction without the hassles of Java-to-native integration issues.

This latest version of ICEpdf contains numerous product improvements, bug fixes, and is now capable of:

* PDF document editing and saving for Link Annotation edits.
* Text selection and clipboard actions.
* The search API has been completely revamped allowing for search result highlighting, and more.

“Since ICEpdf was open sourced 8 months ago, the product has experienced unprecedented adoption”, says Robert Lepack”, VP of Marketing and Business Development at ICEsoft. “This latest release of ICEpdf adds important new features and capabilities that our customers, as well as community members, have been asking for.”

Gormley – Digital Leisure’s 5 in 1 Solitaire game for the Nintendo DSi is available today for 200 Nintendo DSi Points. 5 in 1 Solitaire features the always-popular Klondike, Spider and FreeCell games as well as the unique Golf and Gaps versions of solitaire. Each of these versions has a unique style of play that’s easy enough for novice players to enjoy but will also challenge experts. You can also view tutorials for each game, track your scores and view gaming stats to see your progress.

Vancouver – Slick Entertainment has announced that their latest title, Scrap Metal, has passed certification at Microsoft, and will be released on Xbox Live Arcade this Spring. Scrap Metal had a great showing at this year’s CES, where attendees had the opportunity to check out this new fast-paced, top-down racer. Players can drift around corners with guns blazing fight their way through explosive, action-packed missions and defeat cunning bosses to win their vehicles. 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.

Ontario – Contact North has released an important new study and challenge paper titled Strategic Directions For e-Learning In Canada. In the paper’s introduction, Contact North President and CEO Maxim Jean-Louis states:

“One of the three components of Contact North | Contact Nord’s mandate is to support innovation in education and learning through testing and applied research of new modes of “delivery” using technology, and to share information in Northern Ontario, as well as nationally and internationally.

In keeping with our mandate, Contact North | Contact Nord developed this challenge paper, Strategic Directions for e-Learning in Canada, to encourage a thoughtful and intellectual discussion on the future role of technology in learning.

Our goal with this paper is to inform, to think about what the future will look like, and to see how we can best use technology to ensure Ontarians and Canadians have quality access to the education and training opportunities that are critical to our future prosperity.

We call it a ‘challenge paper’ because some of the ideas outlined here are challenging, both in terms of accomplishments in this field, as well as the challenges ahead. Again, our intention is to stimulate a conversation by exploring both the opportunities and acknowledging the challenges.”

Interested parties can view the full PDF report on Contact North’s web site.

Vancouver – It was a very busy week and weekend here on the west coast. Last Thursday evening was the Help Haiti Pub Night which saw $6000.00 raised for to assist UNICEF’s Clean Water Initiative. Many thanks to all of the great sponsors and donors who helped make the silent auction and Pub Night a great success.

Congratulations to our Vancouver SIGGRAPH chapter for a very successful Spark FX event. With the highest attendance ever, there was much for the hardworking crew to be happy about. The Avatar post-mortem sessions were so popular with attendees that a closed circuit broadcast was presented in the common area for those who could not get seats in the theatre. In attendance at this episode of Spark FX was a committee from the SIGGRAPH conference, and they were very happy with the event as well, according to Sly Provencher. As many of you are already aware, SIGGRAPH 2011 will be held in Vancouver – the first time this conference has ever been awarded to a city outside of the United States, and I am definitely looking forward to being able to attend this great conference on “home turf.” SIGGRAPH 2010 will be held at the Los Angeles Conference Centre this coming July 25-29.

This weekend was also Global Game Jam, and we checked in with the teams over at UBC on Sunday afternoon. There were some great ideas happening, and co-organizer Vidya Kotamraju said that “The jam went extremely well and we have been very pleased with the turnout and the games. We have not ranked any games as the main aim is to foster creative collaboration. We asked each of the teams to present their games and judges from a few local game companies critiqued them.”

The majority of the participants were new to Global Game Jam, but there were a few veterans in attendance, including Brennan Massicotte and Miko Wilson. Several of the local digital media schools and programmes were represented, including BCIT, Emily Carr, SFU, UBC and Masters of Digital Media, as well as a few local studios including United Front Games and Propaganda Entertainment.

The organizers would like to thank this year’s sponsors for contributing to a very successful event, as well as mentors Andy Moore, Pat McGee, Victor Cameron and Brian Vidovic, and of course the local developers who came out to view and critique all of the games.

For this year’s Jam, the weekend developers were given the theme of Deception, which had to be worked into their game, along with key words punk, skunk and monk. There were some very creative ways which these were being worked into the games, including completely misleading the player and going against many of the “game mainstays” of how a gamer is lead through a level. Other challenges included making it possible to play the entire game in 5 minutes or less, using a maximum of 16 different colours including light and shading, using only sound effects which could be produced by the human body and several others. One other interesting fact to note is the increase in female participants this year, which more than doubled over last year’s event.

Vancouver had two Game Jam locations this year, but we unfortunately did not have time to visit the participants over at Vancouver Hacker Space, but you can check out all of the games here: UBC teams – 8 games and Vancouver Hacker Space – 1 game

We closed out our weekend at the 3D Animation Workshop which was held Sunday afternoon at the 221A Studios. I was invited to talk to the Workshop participants about Village Gamer, and while I’m not overly skilled at public speaking, the experience was enjoyable and another opportunity to meet people who work, teach and support our local interactive media industry. The 3D Animation Workshops are an informal platform for artists and other creatives to share experience and knowledge, and is hosted by the CG Movement community.

Events for this week include the Women In Games Vancouver Networking Night on February 3rd, which is taking place in the Wine Room at Steamworks Brew Pub, starting at 7pm. Then on Thursday evening it’s the League of Kickass Business People panel “Get in the Game: Gaming Isn’t Just For Gamers Anymore” featuring panelists Steve Bocska, McElroy Flavelle, Victor Lucas, Mark Magnusson and Ian Clark, with moderator Eric Brooke. The aim of this panel is to investigate and discuss the many ways which gaming is revolutionizing your business and your world. Learn how gaming trends are shaping everything from customer experiences to community building, leadership training to team collaboration, simplified interfaces to communicating complexities – and how gaming’s impact will accelerate in the next decade.

Vancouver – IUGO’s latest adventure on the iPhone, Daisy Mae’s Alien Buffet, offers over-the-top alien slaying. Daisy Mae’s peaceful, simple life in her little desert trailer park will never be the same. A full scale alien attack on earth has begun and Daisy becomes the unlikely heroine outta nowhere. Take hold of the steering wheel and help Daisy Mae shoot and blast her way to victory in this fun and quirky dual stick shooter.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NvJFT6uiLe0]

Aliens: you have been served! Daisy Mae’s Alien Buffet is slated for release in February of this year for the iPhone.

Features:

* More aliens than you can shake a stick at!
* The baddest selection of weapons known to folks ‘round these here parts
* Purty graphics and fancy sounds effects
* Sassy costumes to unlock for Daisy Mae’s alien hoedown
* Daisy Mae “taunt” moves to stun the aliens silly
* Control options to suit every varmint’s needs
* VIP points to be earned towards an additional costume
* Global leaderboards
* Auto save

Edmonton – Forty perfect scores. Two million units. One pop culture phenomenon. BioWare™ announced today that Mass Effect™ 2, according to internal EA data, has sold over two million units worldwide in its first week of release. Lauded for its intense shooter gameplay and deep, hand-crafted story, Mass Effect 2 for the Xbox 360 has earned an average review score of 96 according to Metacritic.com — making it the second highest rated game of all time on Metacritic for the Xbox 360 platform. Mass Effect 2 has earned 40 perfect scores, amassed over 30 editor’s choice awards and is donning the front cover of 20 magazines worldwide. On launch day, the term “Mass Effect” was in the top 10 trending topics on Twitter and most searched on Google News. MSNBC.com said, “Mass Effect will go down as one of the most influential video game series of all-time.”

Dr. Ray Muzyka, co-founder, BioWare and Group General Manager of the RPG/MMO Group of EA said, “Mass Effect 2 is poised to be one of the biggest games of 2010. We could not be more proud of the game’s universal acclaim and early commercial success.”

Mass Effect 2 launched this week hot on the heels of BioWare’s Dragon Age: Origins, the studio’s dark fantasy RPG which shipped in fall 2009. Dragon Age: Origins has earned an average review score of 91 on Metacritc, making it the highest rated original intellectual property from EA in the last year. Mass Effect 2 follows in BioWare’s tradition of delivering excellence on every front: gameplay, story, character development and visuals. Mass Effect 2 is an epic shooter/RPG set in a vast universe filled with dangerous alien life and mysterious, uncharted planets. In Mass Effect 2, players step into the role of the heroic Commander Shepard, leading a crew of some of the most dangerous operatives from across the galaxy on a mission so challenging that it’s potentially suicidal. Featuring intense action, a rich storyline, space exploration and engaging character interaction, Mass Effect 2 delivers an unparalleled gaming experience.

In other Bioware news, Return to Ostagar, the highly anticipated and oft-delayed DLC for Dragon Age: Origins, is available on the Xbox 360 Marketplace as of today. Here is the full lot of information from Bioware’s Community Announcement:

If you were able to download Return to Ostagar during its previous release, you will not need to download it a second time. However, you will need to download the new version of the title update.

The PC and PlayStation 3 versions are still in testing. We expect the PC to complete testing in time for release early next week. We will update you with PlayStation 3 status when we have more information.

Title Update Release Notes:

Some players were unable to unlock the four achievements from Warden’s Keep and the Stone Prisoner during the first four days of launch. These achievements will unlock properly once you sign in to your Xbox Live and EA accounts.

The previous Xbox 360 update introduced an issue that relocked class specializations. This title update will resolve that issue.

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Toronto – Interactive Ontario today announced four new directors have been elected to the Board. These directors were voted in on January 26th at the Interactive Ontario Annual General Meeting of Members.

Newly elected board members include:

Sara Diamond, President, OCAD
Collin Douma, VP, Social Media, Proximity Canada
Gary Schwartz, President & CEO, Impact Mobile
Jeffrey Elliott, Founder and Co-CEO, GlassBOX Television Inc.

“Interactive Ontario is thrilled to welcome these new directors to the Board. Each one is a leader in their field, and contribute greatly to the interactive digital media industry,” said Ian Kelso, president and CEO of Interactive Ontario. “ We look forward to working with them over the course of the next year to continue to build the interactive digital media industry in Ontario and Canada.”

Re-elected board members include:

Mark Bishop, Partner, marblemedia
Danny Dowhal, COO, The Learning Edge Corp.
Trevor Fencott. Managing Partner & CEO, Bedlam Games
Laura Jo Gunter, Dean – Information Arts & Technology, Seneca College
Mike Mays, VP Finance, Silicon Knights

Returning Board members include:

Pary Bell, Vice President, Product, Digital Media, Rogers
Vikas Gupta, CEO & President, TransGaming Technologies
Lydia Sani, Partner, Redwood e-Learning Systems and Invisions Productions Inc.
Michael Schmalz, CFO, Digital Extremes
Scott Simpson, CEO, bitHeads / Headgames / playbrains

The executive was re-appointed by the board and includes:

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Montreal – Ubisoft has officially announced the release date for the first DLC expansion for Assassin’s Creed 2. The Battle of Forli expands the Assassin’s Creed II Sequence 12 experience by delivering a missing piece of the storyline. Join Machiavelli and Caterina Sforza to defend Forli from the Orsi Brothers. Accomplish a daring rescue and prevent the Piece of Eden from falling into the hands of the Templars. Uncover new depths to the historical conspiracy by gaining access to six challenging new memories including the opportunity to pilot Leonardo’s flying machine across Romagna.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08kzCZ1w6Ac]

Battle of Forli is rated M (in keeping with Assassin’s Creed’s rating) and will be available on Thursday, January 28 2010 on Xbox Live for 320 MS Points as well as a on the PlayStation Network for $3.99.

Burnaby – Electronic Arts will celebrate the single largest sporting event on the planet with the only official and exclusively licensed videogame for the EA Canada-developed 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa™. Now everyone can play in the 2010 FIFA World Cup™ on the PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system, Xbox 360® videogame and entertainment system, Wii™, PSP® (PlayStation® Portable) and mobile in April 2010 in anticipation of the real-world tournament which begins in June.

EA SPORTS™ 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa will feature all the emotion and passion of the fiercest national rivalries battling on the world’s biggest stage, with all 199 national teams that took part in qualification, all 10 official stadiums to be used in South Africa and stadiums from each qualifying region. Gamers will be able to play as their home nation from qualification right through to a virtual reproduction of the FIFA World Cup Final™ and feel what it is like to score the goal that lifts a nation. Everything fans love about the World Cup will come to life in spectacular detail, including confetti rain, streamers, & fireworks—just like the official tournament.

For the first time ever in a videogame compete in a full and authentic online World Cup tournament. Carry the hopes and dreams of a nation into battle against fans from rival countries, from the group stage through the knockout rounds to the chance to be crowned 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa TM champion. For fans of nations that failed to qualify for South Africa this is the chance to replay and re-write history. Plus, gameplay innovations capture the journey from qualification to the final tournament with home and away strategies for every nation, situational tactics in-game, and altitude effects that fatigue players faster and even impact the flight of the ball.

Presented in an art style that celebrates the cultural vibrancy of the first FIFA World Cup TM to be held in Africa, EA SPORTS 2010 FIFA World Cup on the Wii is an action-packed soccer game that brings friends together in their living rooms to compete for the 2010 FIFA World Cup TM. Travel around the world virtually to take on all 32 nations competing in South Africa in head-to-head challenges in Zakumi’s Dream Team mode. Start the journey with random players and then build your team by stealing an opposition player after each victory. Win a challenge and pick a player until you have conquered the world. Plus, take your team to a friend’s house on your Wii Remote.

Vancouver – At the Paradox Interactive Convention in New York last week, Kerberos revealed that their next project is the much awaited sequel to the critically hailed Sword of the Stars 4X franchise. Today, Paradox Interactive summarizes some of the details revealed.

In Sword of the Stars 2, gamers will be reacquainted with the original six races from Swords of the Stars I and its expansions as well as reveal the dark secret of the original series, the Suul’ka – an ancient race that is responsible for tampering with the Liir, Zuul, and other races in the SotS universe! Sword of the Stars 2 is in early production and is scheduled for release in 2011.

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