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Post-hardcore band Thursday, celebrating the release of their latest album Common Existence, will play Call of Duty: World at War with Xbox LIVEGold members March 21. If you’re an Xbox LIVE Gold member (if not, upgrade now!), and you want a chance to play with Thursday, send a friend request to the following Gamertag and be online half an hour before (2:30 P.M. ET) the Game with Fame session starts on Saturday, March 21, 3:00 P.M. ET. If you get a chance to play with Thursday, we want to hear about it! Send us an e-mail to xlmail@microsoft.com with the subject: “GWF – Thursday.” Be sure to include your Gamertag and home town.

Since SPIN Magazine called them “the next big thing” in 2004, the band has released their classic A City By The Light Divided, the CD/DVD package Kill The House Lights, a split EP with Japanese band Envy, and now, perhaps their most emotionally-felt album, Common Existence. “Writing this album was an enormous amount of work because we wanted to do something that was a progression and was also closer to the heart of what Thursday’s sound is about,” singer Geoff Rickly explains. “Despite all the hard work, it’s the most fun I’ve had making a record.” Their intense lyrics, incendiary vocals, and amazingly unique sound has won them fans all over the world. The band consists of Rickly, guitarists Tom Keeley and Steve Pedulla, bassist Tim Payne, drummer Tucker Rule, and keyboardist Andrew Everding.

Check out an exclusive Game With Fame video: with http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wln1vetIf6U&feature=channel_page

Watch the band’s videos on Xbox LIVE® Marketplace! We have five different songs from three of their albums:

“Resuscitation of a Dead Man” (featuring Rise Against’s Tim McIlrath) from Common Existence: http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-US/videos/media/1d615f1b-352c-4906-a3a0-5e4e1ad5b6a1

“Counting 5-4-3-2-1″ from A City By The Light Divided: http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-US/videos/media/36204927-e819-4b55-b4ef-db18d265e510

“For the Workforce, Drowning” from War All The Time: http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-US/videos/media/5ad85988-98be-4e22-936d-69f6c8942a51

“Signals Over the Air” from War All The Time: http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-US/videos/media/be3ec794-187c-4fbf-98a0-b2ca230020ad

“War All The Time” from War All The Time: http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-US/videos/media/9b088786-0949-4a42-93b4-83e57449ee0f

Game With Fame Featuring Thursday
Date: March 21st
Location: Houston
Time: 2PM – 4PM (CST)
Game: Call Of Duty: World At War
GAMERTAG: Thursday GWF (**space between Thursday and GWF)
URL: http://www.xbox.com/en-US/community/calendar/gamewithfame/2009/0321-thursday.htm

The Lonely Island, comic trio and actors and writers for the hit TV show Saturday Night Live celebrate the release of their album Incredibad, by playing Call of Duty: World at War with Xbox LIVE Gold members February 26. If you’re an Xbox LIVE Gold member (if not, upgrade now!), and you want a chance to play with The Lonely Island, send a friend request to the following Gamertags and be online half an hour before (11:30 A.M. ET) the Game with Fame session starts on Thursday, February 26, 12:00 P.M. Noon ET. If you get a chance to play with The Lonely Island, we want to hear about it! Send us an e-mail to xlmail@microsoft.com with the subject: “GWF – The Lonely Island.” Be sure to include your Gamertag and home town.

Andy Samberg, Akiva Schaffer, and Jorma Caccone form the comedic trio The Lonely Island. Known for their work on the classic hit show Saturday Night Live, the group has just released their debut album, Incredibad, now out on Universal Republic Records. The album contains the Internet and YouTube hit “D*** In A Box,” along with other satirical musical and audio pieces featuring such notable artists as Natalie Portman, T-Pain, Norah Jones, and Jack Black. The three have been friends for a long time. As Samberg says, “Since junior high and high school, and then we all eventually moved in together, starting out, basically, doing joke music. Our first projects were always about mixing music with comedy.” The results ended up with them winning an Emmy award for Outstanding Music and Lyrics for “D*** In A Box.” And the album promises more of the same. Samberg continues, “We never concern ourselves with what happens after. We’re grateful for all the success. We jumped at this opportunity because music has always been a big part of what we do. In a way, this album is our thank you for all that great musical inspiration … The mission statement of this album is to be funny – period! For us, the comedy always has to come first.”

Xbox Live Game With Fame with The Lonely Island
Date: February 26th
Location: New York City
Time: 12PM – 1:30PM (EST)
Game: Call of Duty: World at War
GAMERTAGS: LoneIsland GwF1, LoneIsland GwF2, LoneIsland GwF3 (**space between LoneIsland and GwF)
URL: http://www.xbox.com/en-US/community/calendar/gamewithfame/2009/0226-lonelyisland.htm

More Than 25,000 Players have Joined the Cross Fire Community At http://crossfire.subagames.com/ in the First Two Weeks of Open Beta

G4BOX Inc and Wicked Interactive Ltd., North American publishers and distributors of interactive entertainment media, together announced today the tremendous success and popularity of the open beta for their military first-person shooter, Cross Fire. The beta, which began on Friday, January 30, 2009, has since gathered more than 25 000 registered players and made a major splash in the online first-person shooter scene. Cross Fire will continue in Open Beta through February.

“We knew there was an audience out there that was really anticipating Cross Fire, so we expected a good result,” said Garvin Yeung, Chief Executive Officer of Wicked Interactive. “But even we are amazed by he overwhelming response that Cross Fire has garnered thus far,” added Howard He, Chief Executive Officer of G4BOX.”

The open beta launch marked the beginning of Cross Fire’s persistent military-ranking and stat-tracking features. Player-progress will be tracked from the open beta onward so that players may accurately gauge their skills against the rest of the Cross Fire community. The Open Beta also introduced a clan system into the game, allowing players to band together into persistent teams. This feature is supported by a unified Subagames clan page, which maintains rankings of all clans across the Subagames library of free MMOs. The Cross Fire open beta also introduced in-game friend lists, in addition to a variety of new maps, weapons, and items.
Cross Fire is an online military first-person shooter for the PC, developed by SmileGate and Neowiz, and co-published by G4BOX and Wicked Interactive. Players assume the role of either a Black List or Global Risk mercenary, and then join an online team that must work together to complete objective-based scenarios. Cross Fire’s flagship feature is its “Ghost Mode”, which puts one team in possession of top-secret cloaking technology, rendering them invisible to the opposing team. This team of “ghosts” is armed only with knives, and must stealthily track and hunt the enemy team. This mode is exclusive to Cross Fire and no other mode exists quite like it in any other first-person shooter. Cross Fire also features Team Death Match, Search & Destroy and Elimination modes, in addition to a military ranking system, in-game friends lists, a clan formation system, and deep character customization options. Cross Fire is free-to-download-and-play. Visit the Cross Fire homepage at: http://crossfire.subagames.com

Now part of the Subagames library of free MMOs.
http://www.subagames.com

The Record-Setting First-Person Shooter Opens Tomorrow for All to Play at: Http://crossfire.subagames.com/

G4BOX Inc and Wicked Interactive Ltd., North American publishers and distributors of interactive entertainment media, together announced today the open beta launch date of their free online military first-person shooter, Cross Fire.

The Open beta will go live tomorrow, Friday, January 30, 2009 at 12 PM EST. In the open beta, anyone and everyone is invited to play the game for free, without any download or subscription fees. At 12 PM EST on January 29, 2009, the Cross Fire servers will go down in preparation for the open beta launch.

“We are very proud to be taking Cross Fire to the next level by launching the open beta,” said Stanley Yu, Chief Executive Office of Wicked Interactive. “We have invested a tremendous amount of time and energy in bringing Cross Fire to this stage, in order to provide players with the best possible game experience,” added Howard He, Chief Executive Officer of G4BOX, “The Cross Fire Open Beta will deliver a wealth of new features we know players will enjoy.”

The open beta launch marks the beginning of Cross Fire’s persistent military-ranking and stat-tracking features. Player-progress will be tracked from the open beta onward so that players may accurately gauge their skills against the rest of the Cross Fire community. The Cross Fire open beta will also introduce in-game friends lists and clan formation features, in addition to numerous new maps, weapons, and items.

To celebrate Cross Fire’s open beta launch, Subagames is hosting a number of events and promotions. During the first week of open beta, players will enjoy a 50% increase in the amount of GP earned in-game. This will allow Cross Fire players to purchase more of the new open beta weapons and items. In addition, the first 30 clans to register during the open beta will do so for free, at absolutely no GP cost!

Cross Fire is an online military first-person shooter for the PC, developed by SmileGate and Neowiz, and co-published by G4BOX and Wicked Interactive. Players assume the role of either a Black List or Global Risk mercenary, and then join an online team that must work together to complete objective-based scenarios. Cross Fire supports four modes of play including, Team Death Match, Search & Destroy, Elimination, and the exclusive Ghost Mode, in which you become an invisible stealth assassin! Cross Fire also includes a military ranking system, in-game friends lists, a clan formation system, and deep character customization options. Cross Fire is free-to-download-and-play. http://crossfire.subagames.com

Now part of the Subagames library of free MMOs. http://www.subagames.com

New Partnership Provides Unified Login Access and a Unified Monetary System for Players of Wicked Interactive and G4BOX Games

Toronto, CANADA-December 19, 2008-Wicked Interactive
(www.wickedinteractiveltd.com),and G4BOX (www.g4box.com), both North American MMO Publishers, announced today that Wicked Interactive’s SUBA Games platform (www.subagames.com), will now host G4BOX MMORPG, Metin2, and its upcoming online FPS, Cross Fire.

The new partnership will result in numerous benefits for both SUBA Games and G4BOX players. A new unified login system will allow Cross Fire and Metin2 players to access all SUBA Games properties, including ACE Online, Priston Tale, and the upcoming Priston Tale 2: The Second Enigma, with their current G4BOX logins. Likewise, SUBA Games players will gain access to Metin2, and the exclusive closed beta of Cross Fire. Additionally, G4BOX games and SUBA Games properties now share a unified currency and community space. While the games have merged onto one platform, G4BOX and Wicked Interactive remain separate corporate entities.

“We are excited to welcome these two G4BOX properties into the SUBA Games library of titles,” said Stanley Yu, Chief Executive Officer of Wicked Interactive. “The SUBA Games platform maintains an impressive lineup of MMORPGs to which we feel Metin2 and Cross Fire are worthy additions,” added Howard He, Chief Executive Officer of G4BOX.

To coincide with its entry into the SUBA Games platform, the Metin2 website (now located at http://metin2.subagames.com) will be re-designed and re-launched to better serve the ever-growing Metin2 community. Current Metin2 users should be able to continue playing during the platform switch and site re-launch, though they may experience some minimal downtime. Both the Metin2 and Cross Fire websites and forums will be down on Friday December 19, 2008 from 9:00 AM – 2:00 PM EST while the games are moved to the SUBA Games portal. The SUBA Games portal itself will experience similar downtime.

G4BOX’s Cross Fire (now located at http://crossfire.subagames.com) will continue its closed beta test throughout the holiday season with an open beta launch expected on SUBA Games in early 2009. SUBA Games players will gain access to the closed beta test following its move to the SUBA Games platform.

SUBA Games properties, ACE Online (http://ace.subagames.com) and Priston Tale (http://pt1.subagames.com), will continue their respective holiday events and festivities into the New Year and should not experience downtime during the migration of G4BOX games to the SUBA Games platform.

For more information about the above products or SUBA Games visit www.subagames.com.

California – December 16, 2008 - Isotx, Inc. – Isotx is happy to announce a free expansion pack for its new RTS/FPS hybrid, Iron Grip: Warlord, available to all current and future players called the Winter Offensive! Starting December 22nd, Offensive will be available for digital download through their webstore (http://webstore.isotx.com). In order to access this free new content, players must own the original game first and then undergo a simple and quick patching process to upgrade.

Iron Grip: Warlord Winter Offensive will include three new units, one new level, a new soundtrack, and a myriad of technical changes and bug fixes. Isotx hopes to reliably update and add new, free content to the game every few months – stating that “while this expansion is the first, it is certainly not the last. We have hopes to continue to add value to our title and thank our growing community for playing our first commercial release.”

Iron Grip: Warlord is now available for $24.95 through Isotx’s digital download athttp://webstore.isotx.com with the Winter Offensive expansion to be available by 12/22/08 for free. To try out the game for free, download the demo today from www.igwarlord.com/splash.

ABOUT WARLORD 
Iron Grip: Warlord is a budget indie title that just hit the marketplace. It features a unique hybrid RTS/FPS gameplay with both single-player and multiplayer co-op levels. Players fill the shoes of Atelian warriors and defend their cities from on onslaught offense by the Confederate army. Outnumbered significantly, players must rely on their wits and skills to survive by building defensive structures (RTS) and using a wide-spread arsenal of weapons (FPS). With several difficulty options and complex levels, the firefights are uniquely intense, no battle is the same, and nothing is ever easy.

Iron Grip: Warlord is now available for $24.95 through Isotx’s digital download atwebstore.isotx.com. The Winter Offensive, the first of many expansions, will be available for free download by the 22nd of December – just in time for the holidays!

For more information about Iron Grip: Warlord and the Iron Grip universe, visit the official site atwww.igwarlord.com. For more information about Isotx, Inc. visit www.isotx.com.

5 December 2008 – Germany – Acony Games are pleased to unveil video footage for their game PARABELLUM a brand new Free-to-Play Game. Parabellum is a massive multiplayer online First Person Shooter (MMO-FPS), it combines the best elements of FPS (First Person Shooter) and MMO (Massive Multiplayer Online) games to create an extremely unique and fully customizable gaming experience. PARABELLUM introduces the first interactive non-linear multiplayer campaigns in addition to an advanced character & weapon development system. The game is due be released as a free download in the first quarter of 2009.

Setting
By the year 2018, the privatization of global military forces created highly profitable opportunities for ex-soldiers, mercenaries and adventurers. Set in a world in a not too distant future, you must choose your alignments carefully to survive. You must join forces with one of the two foremost covert reconnaissance organizations in the world. The CTF; an organization avowed to keeping anarchy at bay, or the Syndicate; a legion of bloodthirsty rebels bent on destruction and chaos. Each of them are solicited by the C.I.N. a Global Mercenary Network that provides contract missions to each of these factions who vie against one another with the fate of the World as the ultimate prize.

Each mission will force you to make decisions that will have a consequence on the outcome of each operation. Instead of playing repetitious unconnected levels, you fight throughout entire cities wreaking havoc and mayhem during the entire mission. Important decisions where every battle can change the outcome of the global mission must be made continually by you, adding to the real time suspense. You may choose from different routes to conquer the city as well as lure antagonists into deadly traps. All of which can be modified to affect the fate of the campaign by completing the hazardous special-missions.

You will begin as a novice mercenary accepting missions in some of the World’s most exotic and intriguing locations. From the famous skyline of New York City to the dense jungles of South America, each mission you will gain experience and increase your abilities to become one of the most legendary mercenaries in the C.I.N. Network! As your experience grows your character evolves as well. You have the ability to unlock new weapons, weapon modifications and attachments, body armor, accessories and appearance with over 10,000 possible combinations to truly individualize your character in ways never seen before in any MMO-FPS!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvbu1VBLYIM]

Afterword
We understand that our players do not want a game where the thickness of your wallet determines the winner. This is why we designed the game so that victory or defeat is defined by your own skill and wits during the game. No weapons or equipment in the game require you to pay with actual money.

As was utililizing cutting-edge technology for PARABELLUM, we at ACONY felt it was also very important from the start that as a free-to-play game, PARABELLUM would run on most machines; not only state of the art hardware. ACONY did not want to compromise the quality for which FPS games are known. Considering all of these factors made the decision to implement the “Unreal Engine 3″ technology an easy one.

CLERMONT-FERRAND, France – Dec. 2, 2008 - Allegorithmic, a leading provider of advanced procedural texturing tools for real-time 3D content, today announced that game development studio Acony has integrated ProFX into its upcoming Free-to-Play (F2P) game entitled Parabellum. Powered by Epic’s Unreal Engine 3, Parabellum combines the best elements of a Massively Multiplayer Online (MMO) and First Person Shooter (FPS) game to create an extremely unique and fully customizable gaming experience. Acony selected ProFX for its ability to rapidly author high-quality textures of excellent visual quality that fit in a few kilobytes. Parabellum is scheduled for release in Q1 2009.

“One of the biggest challenges of this game was keeping the game size as small as possible,” said Frank Trigub, founding partner of Acony. “By using ProFX we could increase the amount of high-quality content and optimize the download size by factor 10. This technology is paving the way for F2P developers and gamers.”
ProFX is the only middleware that allows game developers to professionally render high-quality procedural textures. ProFX 2.6 procedural texture files are very small in size – typically 500 to 2,000 times smaller – making them ideal for use in an MMO-FPS such as Parabellum.

“There is a direct relationship between the size of a F2P game and its success, so developers of such games traditionally tend to make cuts in quality, especially reducing texture resolution, removing normal maps, specular maps, etc.,” said Dr. Sebastien Deguy, founder and CEO of Allegorithmic. “Acony is willing to provide gamers with a truly next-generation, online, F2P experience, and I’m glad to see them utilizing ProFX in order to produce the highest quality visuals, yet fitting in kilobytes instead of hundreds of megabytes. I can’t wait to play their game!”