Village Gamer

Aldergrove – In celebration of PROTOTYPE’S early success (and continued success as well), Village Gamer is giving away a copy of the game for the Xbox 360. It’s easy to enter, all you have to do qualify is be 17 years of age or older (as per the ESRB) and live in Canada. The contest closes at midnight on Wednesday July 29 2009.

How do you win? It’s relatively easy: send us the answer to our question (note there is only one correct answer) which can be found on the PROTOTYPE website or via Google.

And the question is: What is the number one reason to play PROTOTYPE?
remember – there is only one correct answer to this question.

To enter, please send the following information to Village Gamer (contest.at.villagegamer.net) using PROTOTYPE as the subject.

1. Answer to the above question

2. Your Name

3. Your Date of Birth and Age

4. Complete (and correct) Mailing Address

5. Tell us if you’re male or female

All correct entries will be placed into a draw box, and the winner will be randomly selected by Kelly Zmak, President of Radical Entertainment, in Vancouver BC on either July 29 or July 30 2009 (we’re working on the scheduling).

Please note that we reserve the right to publish your name, age and city in our “And The Winner Is” post, which will also appear on our Twitter and Facebook pages. The winner will also be contacted by email, and he or she will receive their copy of PROTOTYPE via Canada Post Priority Mail.

Montreal – Ubisoft has announced that Hollywood actress Sigourney Weaver will voice the role of Dr. Grace Augustine for Ubisoft’s video game, James Cameron’s Avatar: The Game. Weaver’s character will be featured in the versions of the game released on Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, the PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system, Wii™ system from Nintendo and PC. Other actors from the film that will appear in the game include Michelle Rodriguez, Giovanni Ribisi and Stephen Lang.

Yannis Mallat, Sigourney Weaver & Stephen Lang

James Cameron’s Avatar: The Game is the official video game based on the highly anticipated film James Cameron’s Avatar. The video game will take you deep into the heart of Pandora, an alien planet that is beyond imagination. Gamers will encounter the Na’vi, Pandora’s indigenous people and discover other life forms the likes of which have never been seen in the world of video games before. When conflict erupts between the RDA Corporation, a space-faring consortium in search of valuable resources, and the Na’vi, gamers will find themselves thrust into a fight for the heart of a planet and the fate of a civilization.
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Halifax – WCG Canada is looking for the best Warcraft 3: Frozen Throne player to represent our country at the next WCG Pan-American Championship in Mexico. This major gaming event will be held on September 11-13, in Guadalajara.  All expenses will be paid for by WCG (air travel, accommodation and meals on site).  This tournament will determine who will win a trip to Mexico!!

A qualifying tournament will be held on Saturday, July 25th, at 7pm Eastern Time. Matches will be played 1v1 on Battle.net. Registration fees are $20 per player.  Please make sure you provide your name and complete contact information otherwise your registration will be rejected. Note, you must also have a valid Canadian passport with an expiry date later than March 2010.

Click here for registration info.

Also confirmed is the date and venue for the WCG 2009 Canada Western Qualifier, which will be the only live event for gamers who wish to be part of Team Canada at the next WCG Grand Final in China. The top team/player from each qualifier will be invited to be part of the National Finals in Toronto, presented by Samsung Electronics Canada, from August 28-30.
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Vancouver – The BC Innovation Council (BCIC) is pleased to announce that submissions are now being accepted for the annual BCIC Awards, to be presented at Connect ’09, BCIC’s premier event for technology start-ups and innovators. Connect ’09 takes place on Monday, October 19, 2009 at the Sheraton Vancouver Wall Centre and will provide start-up companies and innovators invaluable access to top-tier BC business leaders.

Connect ’09 highlights:

– Featured Speaker: Leonard Brody – Be inspired by this internationally recognized Canadian technology entrepreneur, venture capitalist, best-selling author and business visionary.

– Unique Structured Networking – Learn directly from prominent BC technology leaders invited for the vital purpose of sharing their experience with technology start-ups and innovators.

– Expert Panels – Learn the techniques and strategies from industry experts and entrepreneurial case studies that directly impact a start-up’s success.

Panel Topics:

– Get Fundable – Access to capital in the current economic climate
– Friends in High Places – Leveraging partnerships to accelerate growth
– The Accelerator Factor – Case studies on the benefits and value of accelerators
– The Design Imperative – Optimizing commercialization through product design

– Technology Expo – Discover emerging innovations from academic institutions in BC.

– Awards – Awards will be presented for exceptional achievement in, or potential for, commercialization of technology.
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August 21st will be the day when everyone will get to have a first look at James Cameron’s Avatar. Twentieth Century Fox and Cameron debut the film’s trailer everywhere – while select cinemas and IMAX® theaters will screen extended footage prepared by the renowned filmmaker for this global “Avatar Day” event. The movie’s official site went live this morning, allowing viewers to sign up for Avatar updates.

Avatar The Game Screenshot

In addition on the 21st, Ubisoft® will unveil the trailer for their videogame James Cameron’s Avatar: The Game. Ubisoft is at this weekend’s Comic Con in San Diego – make sure you stop by and say “hi” to Avatar Community Manager Gabe if you’re there. A Flickr account was opened yesterday, and fans are encouraged to upload their photos from Comic Con and the upcoming Penny Arcade Expo.  Avatar the Game will be available for the 360, PS3, PSP, DS, and Wii with a release date of November 24 2009. Pre-orders are being taken at most game stores.

The worldwide trailer launch will be presented in all formats, including IMAX® 3-D, IMAX® 2-D, digital 3-D, digital 2-D, and 35mm 2-D. The trailer will also be available online. In addition to these events, Mattel will reveal the action figures for the film’s Avatar and alien Na’vi characters.
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Montreal – Today marks the first day of Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed 2 Twitter Assassination Experience (Beta). I’ve seen several tweets about the game, and it appears that the Frag Dolls are in on the experience as well. This real time game allows participants to assassinate other players via Twitter, SMS or other Twitter client. Twitter assassins are assigned random targets throughout the day via Tweets from the Assasin’s Network. Players need to carry out their assassinations within a set amount of time. For those who wish to the rogue, players can enter “aggressive mode” and directly attack other players. Targets are able to launch counter attacks, but again, only within a certain amount of time.

As players move through their list of targets, they gain skills and weapons as well as increased rank on the leader board. Watching the game through the Visualizer can be mesmerizing. At last glance, there had been 7441 matches,  4369 assassinations and 56 escapes made by 349 players. Ademdevincent was in the lead with 2270 points when I checked the leader board.

Skills & Weapons Visible On Profile Page

The Twitter mode is played exclusively in Twitter, using “reply tweets” to respond match assignments from the Assassin’s Network. The Aggro Mode, for you rogue assassins, is played exclusively on the Assassination Experience web page. Here you can attack up to five opponents as once – or, conversely, you can be attacked by up to five opponents. When you attack someone in Aggro Mode, their Twitter icon will be added to the victims’ column, along with the time remaining for them to respond to an attack. Players also have the option of turning the assignment mode “off”, meaning that they will not receive Tweeted assignments until they switch their mode back to “on”.

Players are given 100 points for a successful assassination, 150 points for a successful counter attack, and 50 points can be earned by escaping. Level one weapons include a dagger, axe and sword, but more weapons become available as skills are improved. In keeping with the ESRB rating for Assassin’s Creed, players must be 18 years of age and over; logging in with your Twitter account is required in order to participate in the Assassination Experience game.

Canada – Underwriters Laboratories (UL) is notifying consumers that the “Airspan” Ethernet Adapter, identified below, bears an unauthorized UL Mark for the United States and Canada. This product has not been evaluated by UL to the appropriate standard for safety and is not authorized to bear the UL Mark. It is unknown if this product complies with U.S. and Canadian safety requirements.

Name of Product: “Airspan” Indoor Ethernet Adapter, Model SDA-1 Type 2

Number of Units: Unknown

Manufacturer: Unknown

Date of Manufacture: Unknown

Identification On the product: The product has a label with a UL Mark for Canada and the United States, along with the following information.

SDA-1 Type 2
c (UL) us AC Input: 100~240Vac
LISTED 50/60Hz
I.T.E. DC Output: 48VDC / 500mA
POWER SUPPLY P/N:09200080
E151748 YCL
3T57

This product may also be marked “AIRSPAN” on the face cover.

Montreal – Ubisoft will lead a detailed panel featuring Assassin’s Creed II today from 1:45–2:45 p.m. in Room 6A at Comic-Con in San Diego. The panel entitled “Assassin’s Creed II: Video Games and Hollywood Converge” will touch on the evolution of entertainment creation and distribution while highlighting the bridge between video games and film. Panel hosts will be Yannis Mallat, chief executive officer at Ubisoft Montreal and Pierre Raymond, founder and chief executive officer of Hybride Technologies, the visual effects studio behind 300 and Sin City, along with special guest Corey May, Assassin’s Creed II video game scriptwriter.

Recently, during the E3 Expo in Los Angeles, Ubisoft announced production at Hybride Technologies on a series of short films based on the upcoming Assassin’s Creed II video game. The Comic-Con panel will include a discussion of the production of these short films, a viewing of a teaser video showing new shots from the filming and development of the short film series, as well as the first public demonstration of the Assassin’s Creed II video game.

“Ubisoft has detailed our vision for convergence over the past two years. Now, at Comic-con, we are exclusively revealing one of the first building blocks to this strategy: Assassin’s Creed II: Lineage,” said Yannis Mallat. “We’ll be discussing the links between the game and the short film series with some of the key players of the project. We are thrilled to be able to share the results of our efforts with the Comic-com audience.”
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Montreal – EA Montreal has announced that renowned comic artists, Chris Bachalo and Jock have lent their artistic talents to Army of Two™: The 40th Day. The sequel to the 2008 multi-platinum co-op shooter, Army of Two: The 40th Day sees the return of the ultimate two-man private military team, Salem and Rios. As the action heroes fight for survival in a city under siege, the soldiers must make moral choices cooperatively that affect the pair as a team. Each moral decision sets players on a course that affects the gameplay and direction of the storyline. Bachalo and Jock have been enlisted to illustrate the long term impacts of these ‘morality moments’.

On July 24 and 25 from 2pm – 4pm PST during San Diego Comic-con, Chris Bachalo will be signing original Army of Two: The 40th Day artwork at EA’s booth (# 5213).

“Chris and Jock are amazingly talented artists. We’re excited that they have been able to contribute these evocative illustrations to depict the long-term consequences of the players’ key moral decisions,” says Reid Schneider, Executive Producer, EA Montreal.

“These new morality choices are an innovative new feature that we believe will give a new layer to the cooperative experience in the game. Chris and Jock’s work give players’ decisions real weight and resonance,” added Alex Hutchinson, Creative Director EA Montreal.
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Vancouver – On July 26, Nintendo Canada invites everyone to kick back and transform their living rooms into a tropical island adventure with the Wii Sports Resort™ video game, the next chapter in the Wii Sports phenomenon. Wii Sports Resort introduces a new era of motion controls with 12 resort-themed sports enhanced by the included Wii MotionPlus™ accessory. This accessory attaches to the base of the Wii Remote™ controller to bring exacting precision to games that are specially designed for it. Wii MotionPlus recognizes the slightest twist or turn of the Wii Remote controller to bring players deeper into their games. Wii Sports Resort leverages this technology as players escape to a virtual resort and experience all the fun activities of the island setting.

The 12 sports (archery, basketball, bowling, golf, table tennis, Swordplay, Air Sports, canoeing, cycling, Frisbee®, Power Cruising and wakeboarding) allow players to use the Wii Remote and Nunchuk™ controllers in different ways, and while some sports require both controllers, others can be played using only the Wii Remote. In archery, players hold the Wii Remote vertically like a bow while drawing back the Nunchuk. In Frisbee, players motion with the Wii Remote as though they were tossing a real Frisbee. And while playing wakeboarding, players hold the Wii Remote sideways as though they were hanging onto the end of a tether behind a speedboat.
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