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Vintage covers and Centerfolds from the archives of the world’s best-selling men’s monthly magazine to be found throughout the world of Empire Bay

2K Games announced that it has signed a license agreement with Playboy magazine for a unique in-game integration to use more than 50 of their vintage covers and Centerfolds in Mafia II, this year’s highly anticipated epic mobster game for the Xbox, PS3, and Windows PC. Set in the fully realized and immersive 1940s and 1950s American urban cityscape of Empire Bay, Mafia II will enable players to collect virtual copies of the iconic magazine, which has served as the definitive guide to lifestyle and culture for men since December 1953.

“While most mob-inspired games’ emphasis is solely on action, Mafia II features a deep and compelling narrative that is embellished with a sophisticated, era-evoking atmosphere,” said Christoph Hartmann, president of 2K. “In partnering with Playboy, we are able to add a unique element of authenticity to the game by using vintage images from the magazine that illustrate the power of Playboy’s influence on the attitudes and culture of that generation.”

Mafia II is a beautifully crafted look into the dark and unforgiving world of the Mafia where clothing, cars, music and advertising are meticulously created to replicate an American city in the ‘40s and ‘50s. Players will easily become engaged in the game’s cinematic, Hollywood-style experience with strong, believable characters in a living, breathing city that transports them to a time when rock-n-roll first strummed its guitar and chrome-plated hot rods roared down boulevards.

“For more than 55 years, Playboy has been a part of America’s pop culture landscape, engaging its readers with insightful features, interviews and fashion spreads, as well as pictorials of some of the world’s most beautiful women,” said Playboy magazine’s Editorial Director Jimmy Jellinek. “Mafia II is set when Playboy first came into vogue and features characters whose style and attitudes mirror content from our early issues. We’re excited to bring an element of authenticity to the game that is unmatched in the men’s publishing category.”

Mafia II is currently in development by 2K Czech, the same creative team behind the award-winning, genre-defining Mafia, which captivated millions of gamers around the world. By fusing high-octane gunplay with white-knuckle driving and an engaging narrative, Mafia II looks to be the industry’s most compelling Mafia title to date.

For more information, please visit www.mafia2game.com.

Following their recent announcement (well, over a year ago), Beatnik Games, a far-too-cool independent game development studio, are happy to let everyone know that their caffeine-fueled, dream-inspired debut game Plain Sight hasn’t been canned and is in fact set to be unleashed onto an unsuspecting world on March 22nd via Steam and other digital download platforms at the ridiculously low price of $9.99.

For anyone whose memory doesn’t stretch back to the beginning of 2009 (it was last decade after all), Plain Sight is a multiplayer arcade game set across 13 space-themed mapsand features a unique twist on the standard Deathmatch mechanic. Playing as your average ninja robot about town, you begin each game with a sword and a quantum of energy. Leaping across each level leaving a bright trail in your wake, you must destroy other ninja robots to steal their energy. As you get more energy you change color and get bigger, stronger and brighter. This is where the catch comes in! You only get to convert your hard earned energy into game-winning points if you blow yourself up. The more opponents you take out in the explosion, the higher the multiplier, the higher the score!

Respawn and repeat!!

Features: 13 multiplayer mapsBattle up to 20 players5 self-destructive gameplay modes, ‘Deathmatch’, ‘Ninja! Ninja! Ninja! Robozilla’, ‘Lighten Up’, ‘Team Deathmatch/Weakest Clink’ and ‘Capture The Flag’In-game power-ups30 different robot upgrades to spend your experience points onPerfect your skills against AI ninja robots in the offline practice modeDedicated server software included

For more on Plain Sight please visit the official website at www.plainsightgame.com and the official Steam Store page at http://store.steampowered.com/app/901296

IGG’s new mystical fantasy title, Altis Gates (http://ag.igg.com), recently completed its Closed Beta and is now gearing up for the Open Beta. In preparation for the OB, the Altis Gates team has organized a naming event that will let players create and then vote for their favorite names for the Altis Gates OB Realm and Server.

After gathering and then putting all the entries through a rigorous process of elimination, the AG team has finally managed to narrow it down 8 Realm and Server names that stood out from the rest.

Now, it wouldn’t be much fun if the players weren’t able to get their two cents in, so they will be holding a vote to see what players think. The vote will start on February 12th at 12:00am EST (GMT-5) and will last until 9:00pm on February 21st to determine which name is the best. During the vote, players can cast their votes for the name of their choice. At the end of the event, creator of the Realm and Server names combination will win a cool mount. This mount will be awarded to the winners during the Open Beta itself.

The Altis Gates team always believes in working with players to take game to the next level. This is yet another opportunity where players can be directly involved in decision making process.

You can find out more about this event on the event page http://ag.igg.com/event/name/.

Say “I Do” to Special Mount & Blade: Warband Wedding Interview

Love and Marriage, Go Together like a Horse and Combat

In anticipation of Valentine’s Day, Paradox Interactive presents a special developer interview for all you “lovers” out there of Mount & Blade: Warband.

The multiplayer sequel to 2008’s Mount & Blade will, in addition to intense 64 player combat on horseback, incorporate new gameplay based on marriage into the action RPG that is set to release in March of 2010.

Join Armagan Yavuz, Lead Developer at Taleworlds Entertainment, as he takes players through the new marriage features in Mount & Blade: Warband during the Paradox Interactive Convention.

“It’s a very important aspect of real life and we wanted to translate that into the game,” says Armagan, as he speaks on romance in the title. “It’s a different kind of challenge.”

View the complete interview here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZacSv_JNCao

Mount & Blade: Warband will be available in the US and via digital distribution on March 30th 2010 and April 2nd in the UK.

Mount & Blade: Warband Game Features:

* Multiplayer battles with up to 64 players. Multiplayer modes include Deathmatch, Team

* Deathmatch, Capture the Flag, Conquest, Battle, and Siege.

* Seek adventure alone, or recruit and train an army fit for a king. You and your companions will gain experience and skills while your soldiers evolve into a deadly fighting force.

* State-of-the-art rendering technologies combine with a more informative interface, allowing new and advanced players alike to enjoy an unprecedented level of immersion.

* The ability to marry a lady of the realm for romance or cold political gain. Try to win a lady’s heart through poetry or bravery.

For more information visit www.paradoxplaza.com/games/mount-blade-warband

The original Mount & Blade game is currently enjoying a 85%-off sale on Steam until the 15th of February.

4Story, www.global.4story.com, a popular free-to-play MMORPG developed and published by Zemi Interactive, announced X1.5 Upgrade Chance Event will be commenced today. With active participation of previous 1.5X upgrade event, 4Story GM team has prepared something extra for all MMORPG fans. Every month, there will be 10 hours of surprising 1.5X upgrade event initiated. This surprising 1.5X upgrade event will be 1 hour at a time and only 10 times a month at random hour.

“It will not be easy to make projection from users. We advise you not to stress yourselves out by checking every daily event hours, but instead believe in your luck!” said, the Chief marketing manager of Zemi Interactive, Daniel Choi.

4Story also has a free game cash event on going and introduced one step registration in its new welcoming page. You can get more information on the new contents and the events at the 4Story global website (www.global.4story.com).

A New Revolution to All CroNisians

At last, the long wait is over. The Neo Union War system will be updated on February 9, 2010. The Union War will never be the same as before after this grand update. This grand update is followed by two special events to celebrate the opening of the Neo Union War system.

Many had anticipated the January 21, 2010 Neo Union War update. There were many outcries amongst the fan of CroNous when Lizard Interactive had reluctantly announced the postponing of the new update on January 21, 2010 due to lack of testing. Some have even doubted if there ever will be a new update. However, to everyone’s amazement, the update came sooner than expected. Lizard Interactive is positive that Neo Union War update will go live on February 9, 2010.

It’s one on one on one: the Defending Union against the two Besieging Union, and one Besieging Union against the other. There are no allies in this new Union war system. Each Union, consisting of 5 guilds, will fight for supremacy using Siege Weapons like Catapult and Ballista.

 March for the West or East Gate and destroy the Internal Gate to summon the West and East Guard Tower. Destroy either the West or East Guard Tower to derive at the next destination: the Statue of Bernai King. Destroy the statue to win the Will of the King item. Then, carry the Will of the King item to the Altar of Fire and perform the 30 second Will of the King ceremony. But beware! The Will of the King item can be very hazardous as it will slow you down drastically upon acquisition.

 Every time a player participates in the Neo Union War, Honor Points and Winning Points will accumulate. With enough Honor Points, players will be allowed to purchase special items, such as ArkKnights with its great appearance, from special shops using Honor Points.\

For the winner of the Neo Union War, the Union will be granted a castle to rule with the power of taxation. The Union Master will be granted an imperial crown until the next Union War. The Union to achieve a 4 week consecutive win will also be awarded 40,000 NeoFun points, an equivalent value of 4,000 dollars.

 The grand update will be followed by two events: Love Love Valentine and Age of the Sage event. In the Love Love Valentine event, players will hunt and gather 3 ingredients of biscuit sticks, chocolate and gift box; visit Kayla, the mix master and combine with 50% success rate; and send it as a gift as the item will not be self-openable. In the Age of the Sage event, players will be rewarded 5,000 NeoFun points, which is of equivalent value of 50 dollars, for creating a fan site. Also, after the update, Master Enchant Stones(3% Enchant Stone(M), 5% Enchant Stone(M), 3% Holy Stone(M), 5% Holy Stone(M)) will be available from Ytudana.

The update is expected to last for several hours as there will be mega loads of files to update. There has never been and there will never be a grander update than this Neo Union War update in the history of CroNous.

Playcomet today announced that their most popular browser-based Strategy game- TransForce rolled out its long anticipated integration of Facebook Connect ( http://apps.facebook.com/transforce/ ) at the name of “World of BotCraft, which is also the virgin social game published by the Playcomet team. The move allows Facebook users to sign in the facebook account to play TransForce directly while enabling current TransForce players to connect their account with the social network

TransForce is a free online browser strategy game where players choose the Decepticons and the Autobots and fight in the vast universe space. TransForce is closely bounded up with the Marvel comic book series and also the Film Transformers.

Once Facebook Connect has been activated, players will be able to publish their comments, and share game strategy. Players can also quickly invite their Facebook friends to play TransForce and earn the ingame items or Matrix, a virtual currency in TransForce.

“World of BotCraft is the newest version of TransForce, embodying our team’s strengths and knowledge.” Said Newing,the project manager,” the game is no longer the Traditional Application, but with much fun applied and being applied. For example, the newly added “The Wanted System”, “Bounty Hunt System” and the Legendary Heroes. We will continue developing the new features in 2010”

Apart from the traditional gaming features like PVP, PVE, Tribal War, the folks at the TransForce team bring World of Warcraft’s features possible in the World of BotCraft. In WOB,you can also challenge the Instances, Explore the wildlands around and beyond. What is matchless in the web browser gaming world is that WOB delivers hero levelup,equipment Upgrade and Enforcement,as well as assumes a new aspect by raising the Tactics into the role-playing level.

This is an important move for both companies. For Playcomet, it means a lot more exposure on Facebook, as their tens of thousands of existing users link their accounts and publish information to promote the game. For Facebook, it represents a big new partner for Facebook Connect, bring the Facebook users more choices to play the game.

For more about TransForce: World of BotCraft, please visit the official website http://tf.playcomet.com

THQ and THQ*ICE to Grant Lucky Dragonica Online Player a $10,000 Wish

The recent catastrophic quake that has caused devastating amounts of damage on the island nation of Haiti has touched lives in all corners of the globe, some nearly as deeply as those within the disaster area itself. Throughout this tragedy, people worldwide have displayed an enormous outpouring of generosity through their contributions to the relief effort.
 
As communities all over the world band together to assist in aiding the victims of this catastrophe, our community, whose past contributions have fed the homeless, provided education, and helped the environment, will also be doing our part.
 
For the next month we will be making available a “Help Haiti” bundle that will be available for 4 of our games; Fiesta, Secret of the Solstice, Wind Slayer, and Project Powder. All bundles will be available between January 15th until January 31st, each with a donation amount of $5. 100% of the proceeds from the sale of these bundles will be donated to Yele Haiti, a relief organization founded by Haitian-born musician Wyclef Jean, whose mission is to provide humanitarian aid and assistance to Haiti.
 
Along with providing our community with an exclusive item release, know that you’ll also be helping the lives of real people who need your aid.
 
  You can locate each bundle in their respective stores through the links below:
 
Fiesta Help Haiti Bundle
Secret of the Solstice Help Haiti Bundle
Wind Slayer Help Haiti Bundle

http://solstice.outspark.com/news/view/?id=zbn.9887

Starting Tomorrow, February 2, Players Will Have Access to Tons of Special Events– With Bonus Items And Premium Items Available For Purchase at a Huge Discount!

G4BOX Inc. announced today an exciting line-up of events in honor of Valentine’s Day and the Chinese New Year for its popular action-MMORPG, Metin2. Players can participate in all the “sweet” fun by downloading the game for free at: http://metin2.z8games.com.

Event Line-up

Event 1: Lunar New Year (Feb. 2-15)

New Year Cakes are extremely potent and can fully restore HP, MP, or Stamina! Players will visit the “Old Lady” where she will give her secret recipe, so they can gather up ingredients and whip up their own love cake for that special someone. All of the needed materials can be acquired through monsters.

Event 2: Lunar Greeting (Feb. 6-8)

To mark the year of the Golden Tiger, Metin2 is giving all of its players Lucky Red Pockets to celebrate the Lunar New Year. Red Pockets are traditionally given out during celebrations such as the Chinese New Year. The color red is chosen for its lucky properties and the pocket usually contains money or gifts. Players can get their Red Pocket by talking to the Old Lady. All players need to do is right-click the Red Pocket given by the Old Lady and enjoy the Lunar New Year!

Event 3: 20% off on all Couple Items (Feb. 12-19)

There is nothing sweeter than dressing up and showing your love on Valentine’s Day. All items in the Couple’s Shop will be 20% off! Players shouldn’t miss this chance to acquire their favorite couple items at a discount price.

Event 4: Show Your Love! (Feb. 12-18)

What’s better than presenting chocolate or red roses to the person you love? Players can just simply kill monsters and they will drop Valentine’s Day chocolates or red roses full of love!

Event 5: Share Your Love with GMs (Feb. 22-24)

Once Valentine’s Day is over — and players are left with roses and chocolates in their inventory — for a little added fun they can give GM’s the extra roses and chocolates as gifts! Time and gifts will be announced. Each country can get only 50 gifts per day.

10 Roses/Chocolates= gift #1

20 Roses/Chocolates= gift #2

Event 6: Purifier of souls Sage Basil (Feb.26-Mar.12)

Only those purified souls are able to come back to Metin2. Sage Basil will only bless souls that passed between August 1st and December 31st, 2009. With his powers slowly returning to him, he will begin his purification soon. Players won’t want to miss this opportunity to find out if their lost soul will be among the ones to receive his blessing!

“Our extensive series of New Year and Valentine’s events brings Metin2 to another level of fun,” said Howard He, Chief Executive Officer of G4BOX. “2010 has started off as a great new year for the Metin community and now we are kicking off a full month of events, specials and fun for an action-packed February.”

Visit http://metin2.z8games.com for full details and rules.

Metin2 is a Free To Play massively multi -player role-playing game for the PC. Metin2 features amazing 3D graphics, a unique dynamic fighting system a strong story line and a King mode where players can be elected king (giving their nation bonuses on the battle field) and much, much more.

‘Metin’ are unknown meteors that started falling from the sky many years ago, changing the lives, land, wildlife and the people on the planet. Players of Metin2 assume the role of a brave hero and band together with other players to find out the secret of ‘Metin’ and use it to rule or defend their Kingdom. But players be warned! Players are not the only heroes seeking the power of ‘Metin’; enemy Kingdom’s seek out this power as well. There are four classes of characters for players to choose from, with each class containing two specializations that are unlocked as players’ level up.

To follow all the latest Metin2 news, please visit

http://www.facebook.com/metin2.us, http://www.youtube.com/metin2,

http://twitter.com/metin2_us and http://www.myspace.com/metin2_us.

Now part of the Z8Games library of free MMOs. http://www.z8games.com

For more information about G4Box visit www.G4BOX.com. For more information about the Z8Games lineup of games please visit www.z8games.com.