Check out the article here at NetworkWorld: http://cli.gs/JXRND0
Being an AT&T user for over 10 years, I sure hope they follow suit. I would love to lower my bill, and it’s almost time for me to get an iPhone….
Fallen Earth Announces Enhancements to Gameplay Graphics, Improves Environmental and Landscape Elements.
Fallen Earth, LLC today announced the inclusion of several wilderness graphics enhancements, specifically to the elements of scrub—including grass and shrubs—terrain and fog. Sharpening and blending textures, colors and lighting, the new and improved details enhance the look and feel of the Fallen Earth post-apocalyptic environment and heighten player immersion.
“The environment in Fallen Earth adds so much to the players’ experience,” said Chris Deavellar, art director for Fallen Earth. “We want to capture the mood of the post-apocalyptic world and the improvements certainly enhance the appearance and atmosphere of the game.”
The new, full scrub enhances several environmental aspects, sharpening textures and adding more detail with improvements to the resolution and quality of the previous scrub. With the new enhancements, players who view the landscape in first-person character mode will notice more volume within the brush and grass than before.
Additionally, players will see improvements on terrain as detail textures have been blended to enhance the appearance of the landscape and color maps have also been re-worked in order to provide a smoother blend between shades and augment color variation.
Leaving no environmental element untouched, developers have also incorporated distinctive cloud movement and have further taken a look at fog effects. Improvements on the existing fog equation now enable fog to build up more gradually, distance-wise, to players, creating a more realistic and layered appearance.
“Our team did a wonderful job on the enhancements and we’re sure players will notice the improvements,” said Deavellar.
Here’s a sample of what’s going to be showing at Capcom’s booth:
Dark Void – Gameplay footage and a handful of jet pack-a-licious screens showcasing some sweet tech for the PC version of the game. The PC version will also be shown at CES showcasing some of NVIDIA’s incredible new technology for the ultimate Dark Void experience. New features will include NVIDIA®’s GeForce® 3D Vision technology (wireless 3D Vision glasses sold separately) and amazing physics effects that are accelerated on GeForce GPUs using NVIDIA’s PhysX technology. GPU-accelerated PhysX particle systems and turbulence effects are used extensively for weapons and debris effects. Additionally, the game’s PhysX turbulence feature – an industry first – enhances the player’s jetpack and disintegrator gun effects to create a far more immersive experience.
Tatsunoko VS. Capcom – Gameplay video, screens and art featuring the newly revealed secret character Yatterman-2! As Yatterman’s female counterpart, Yatterman-2 is bringing all sorts of pain to the party, including a giant robotic pelican.
Super Street Fighter IV – Check out the brand-new trailer detailing selectable Ultra combos, new costumes and rival battles along with new gameplay video and screens.
Lost Planet 2 – Vital Suits, City Pirates and Akrid X! New screens from Episode 2 of Lost Planet 2 will debut for the first time at the show.
MotoGP 09/10 – Push your limits with new screens from Laguna Seca Raceway, one of the two North American tracks featured in MotoGP 09/10
Final Fight: Double Impact – Check out the new art piece from famed Udon artist Alvin Lee.
SouthPeak Interactive Corporation and Deep Silver, Inc., a Koch Media Company, today announced that they will team up to bring next generation videogames from Deep Silver to North America. Deep Silver is the games label of the Koch Media Group, which is one of the largest publishers and distributor of videogames and DVD movies for European markets.
“We are pleased to partner with such a well-respected and established company as Koch Media/Deep Silver and excited to join with their experienced leadership team,” said Melanie Mroz, CEO of SouthPeak. “This strategic alliance gives us access to a great product line-up on all current generation platforms.”
“SouthPeak instantly brings a great deal of market expertise in North America to our organization,” said Geoff Mulligan, COO of Deep Silver. “Their team has a strong understanding of the product lifecycle including game development, marketing and retail placement. Most importantly, this alliance allows us to leverage their well established US publishing and distribution platform.”
Under the agreement, SouthPeak will become the exclusive partner for Deep Silver in the Americas. As partial compensation for entering into this strategic alliance, Koch Media/Deep Silver will receive a minority stake in SouthPeak Corp.
About Deep Silver
Deep Silver develops and distributes interactive games for all platforms. The Deep Silver label means to captivate all gamers who have a passion for thrilling gameplay in exciting game worlds. Deep Silver works with its partners to achieve a maximum of success while maintaining the highest possible quality, always focusing on what the customer desires. Deep Silver products are designed to equally appeal to pros and beginners, children and adults. Deep Silver has published more than 80 games since 2003. Deep Silver’s own production company in Vienna opened in 2007. For more information please visit www.deepsilver.com
About Koch Media
Koch Media is a leading producer and distributor of digital entertainment products (software, games and movies on DVD). The company’s own publishing activities, marketing and distribution extend throughout Europe and the USA. It has also formed strategic alliances and distribution relationships with numerous software and games manufacturers: Avid Technology, Blade Interactive, Braingame, Capcom, Cyberlink, Dofus, DTP Entertainment, Focus Home Interactive, G-Data, Kaspersky Labs, Magix, Mindscape, Nero, Paradox Entertainment, Playlogic, RTL Interactive, Square Enix, System 3 etc. Headquartered in Planegg near Munich/Germany, Koch Media owns branches in Germany, England, France, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, the Nordics, Benelux and the USA. www.kochmedia.com
About SouthPeak Interactive Corporation
SouthPeak Interactive Corporation develops and publishes interactive entertainment software for all current hardware platforms including: PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system, PSP® (PlayStation®Portable) system, PlayStation®2 computer entertainment system, PSP®go system, Xbox 360® videogame and entertainment system, Wii™, Nintendo DS™, Nintendo DSi™ and PC. SouthPeak’s games cover all major genres including action/adventure, role playing, racing, puzzle strategy, fighting and combat. SouthPeak’s products are sold in retail outlets in North America, Europe, Australia and Asia. SouthPeak is headquartered in Midlothian, Virginia, and has offices in Grapevine, Texas and Leicester, England.
Skillset has appointed three important new members to its Computer Games Skills Council to help to define the work the Sector Skills Council does in improving skills development for the games industry.
Giselle Stewart is the general manager of Newcastle-based Ubisoft Reflections, the North East arm of the industry giant which made over €1bn last year worldwide. Giselle has been pivotal in developing the current team at Newcastle and has forged strong links with universities offering games courses across the UK.
The second newcomer is Neil Thompson. An industry veteran since 1987, he eventually became studio art director for Sony Liverpool, Evolution and bigBIG studios, overseeing such titles as Motorstorm: Pacific Rift and Wipeout HD. Neil moved to Bizarre Creations (a member of the Activision group of companies and developers of the “Project Gotham” series) in 2009 to take on the role of studio art director.
The final recruit is Jamie MacDonald, the founding director of Sony Computer Entertainment’s London studio in 2001 and Vice President of Sony’s Worldwide Studios, Europe in 2004. Jamie was responsible for introducing major new global franchises EyeToy, SingStar and The Getaway. More recently Jamie has been responsible for the groundbreaking PS3 online service PlayStation Home. He consults and advises widely across the digital media space including start-ups, global media companies and government agencies and provides an invaluable perspective on Skillset’s work in the new media space.
Skillset’s computer games sector manager Saint John Walker said: “Skillset is delighted to have such pro-active additions to our council. There is a new energy towards helping Higher Education to produce better talent and our council has already made inroads here.
“Our council is also keen to start grappling with other skills issues such as management and leadership training, and our three new members will be providing invaluable experience regarding this vital issue.”
The new members of the council join Mark Gerhard, CEO of JAGEX who was appointed in April, 2009, and representatives from Eidos, Frontier, Activision, Blitz, Microsoft, TIGA and ELSPA.
After being near buried in votes we have finally finished calculating which game came top in each of our age-groups for this year’s Family Gamer Awards. It was a close run thing but Wii-Sports Resort joined Mirror’s Edge as the second overall winner of our Family Gamer Awards.
The winners is each age-category are as follows;
Games for Toddlers (2 to 4 yrs)
WINNER: EyePet http://www.gamepeople.co.uk/family_ps3_eyepet.htm PS3
Games for Juniors (5 to 10 yrs)
WINNER: High School Musical 3: Dance! http://www.gamepeople.co.uk/familyguide_wii_highschoolmusical3dance.htm Wii/PS3/360
Games for Students (11 to 17 yrs)
WINNER: Wii-Sports Resort http://www.gamepeople.co.uk/familyguide_wii_wiisports2.htm Wii
Games for Workers (18 and over)
WINNER: Uncharted 2: Among Thieves http://www.gamepeople.co.uk/soulful_ps3_uncharted2amongthieves.htm PS3
Games for Parents
WINNER: Assassin’s Creed 2 http://www.gamepeople.co.uk/buying_360_assassinscreed2.htm PS3/360
Games for Grandparents
WINNER: Flower http://www.gamepeople.co.uk/family_ps3_flower.htm PS3
“This is a stunning investment opportunity, and I have complete faith I will recover what I spent relatively quickly,” said Erik Novak, the winner of the Crystal Palace auction. “To say Planet Calypso has changed my life would be an understatement. I have even found the love of my life in the game, and now we live together in real life. I feel very confident about purchasing the Crystal Palace Space Station as I have already invested years of time, dedication, work, hope and love. All of those things have already paid off more than I could have ever imagined. With the new game engine, new features and almost ten years of experience Planet Calypso is one of the few safe investments in this economy.”
First Planet Company is the developer and publisher of Planet Calypso, the largest real cash economy MMORPG in the world. Players have the ability to participate in a unique virtual economy where they only pay for the game when they play. Its unique real cash economy uses a virtual currency which has a fixed exchange rate with the US dollar. This allows players to deposit and withdraw real money during their adventures on Calypso. It is also the first MMORPG to use CryTek’s stunning CryENGINE 2 for amazing graphics and physics.
Planet Calypso is a free download available at the game’s website, www.planetcalypso.com.
About First Planet Company
First Planet Company AB is a subsidiary of the MindArk Group. First Planet Company AB develops and markets Planet Calypso, a Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (MMORPG) based on the Entropia Platform, and is part of the Entropia Universe. Set in a distant future, the planet Calypso is home to an expanding human colony struggling with the natural and economic elements involved in establishing their new civilization.
For more information on First Planet Company (FPC) and Planet Calypso please contact us at the numbers above or go to our website at http://www.planetcalypso.com
The Independent Games Festival (IGF) has announced the Main Competition finalists for the twelfth annual presentation of its prestigious awards, celebrating the most innovative creations to come out of the independent game development community this year. Nearly $50,000 in prizes in various categories, including the $20,000 Seumas McNally Grand Prize, will be awarded on stage at the Independent Games Festival Awards on March 11, 2010 during the 2010 Game Developers Conference in San Francisco.
The record-setting 301 Main Competition entries represent a nearly 35% increase over last year’s record 226 entries, many of them striking new titles from leading indie developers. This year’s finalists are led by multiple nominations for several notable games, including three nominations for innovative light-centric puzzle platformer Closure and Krystian Majewski’s gestural photographic adventure game Trauma, and two nominations each – including a Grand Prize nomination – for Pocketwatch Games’ stylish co-op heist game Monaco, Hello Games’ polished stunt motorbike title Joe Danger, Ratloop Asia’s cinematic avian action title Rocketbirds: Revolution!, and Team Meat’s cartoon-gory 2D action title Super Meat Boy!
To ensure the highest-quality judging for the IGF, more than 150 leading indie and mainstream game industry figures – from 2D Boy’s Ron Carmel through Spore’s Soren Johnson through ThatGameCompany’s Kellee Santiago and beyond – were recruited to choose finalists via a carefully constructed empirical process. The Festival is particularly keen to give constructive, written feedback to Main Competition entrants – even if they did not place as a finalist. As a result, over 1500 written, anonymized judge comments will be passed along to entrants in the next few days, an important part of deriving value and takeaway from entering the IGF.
In addition, for the first year, the IGF’s Nuovo Award, intended to “honor abstract, shortform, and unconventional game development which advances the medium and the way we think about games”, was judged by a separate, smaller juried panel of notable game and art world figures. These spanned previous IGF Nuovo winner Jason Rohrer (Passage), Area/Code’s Frank Lantz, N+ co-creator Mare Sheppard, EA division head and art-game creator Rod Humble, and more. The jury for the $2,500 Nuovo Award, which allows more esoteric ‘art games’ to compete on their own terms alongside longer-form indie titles, has released a statement about the chosen Nuovo finalists, including several ‘honorable mentions’, on the official IGF website.
All 2010 Independent Games Festival finalists will be awarded passes to GDC 2010 in San Francisco this March, where they will attend the Independent Games Summit – featuring two days of lectures and presentations from leading indie game developers. They will also be presenting playable versions of their games to all Game Developers Conference attendees at the IGF Pavilion on the GDC Expo Floor from Thursday, March 11th through Saturday, March 13th. The IGF 2010 winners will be announced on stage at the major Independent Games Festival Awards on Thursday, March 11, 2010, at the Moscone Center. The IGF Awards, which kick off in North Hall D at 6:30pm PST on the 11th, are held immediately preceding the acclaimed 2010 Game Developers Choice Awards, honoring the best games of the year from mainstream developers.
The finalists for the 2010 Independent Games Festival are:
Seumas McNally Grand Prize
Joe Danger (Hello Games)
Monaco (Pocketwatch Games)
Rocketbirds: Revolution! (Ratloop Asia)
Trauma (Krystian Majewski)
Super Meat Boy! (Team Meat)
Excellence In Visual Art
Shank (Klei Entertainment)
Owlboy (D-Pad Studios)
Trauma (Krystian Majewski)
Limbo (Playdead)
Rocketbirds: Revolution! (Ratloop Asia)
Excellence In Design
Miegakure (Marc Ten Bosch)
Star Guard (Sparky)
AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!! – A Reckless Disregard For Gravity (Dejobaan Games)
Monaco (Pocketwatch Games)
Cogs (Lazy 8 Studios)
Excellence In Audio
Super Meat Boy! (Team Meat)
Shatter (Sidhe)
Closure (Closure Team)
Rocketbirds: Revolution! (Ratloop Asia)
Trauma (Krystian Majewski)
Technical Excellence
Closure (Closure Team)
Limbo (Playdead)
Heroes Of Newerth (S2 Games)
Joe Danger (Hello Games)
Vessel (Strange Loop Games)
Nuovo Award
Today I Die (Daniel Benmergui)
A Slow Year (Ian Bogost)
Tuning (Cactus)
Closure (Closure Team)
Enviro-Bear 2000 (Justin Smith)
“We’re happy to report that the IGF has seen another record-breaking year in volume and diversity of entries, another symptom of the continuing explosion of high-quality titles from smaller development teams and emerging creators,” said Simon Carless, IGF Chairman. “Congratulations to this year’s outstanding finalists – we’re looking forward to playing their games and honoring the overall IGF winners at Game Developers Conference this March.”
The IGF was established in 1998 by Think Services to encourage innovation in game development and to recognize the best independent game developers, in the same way that the Sundance Film Festival honors the independent film community. In addition to the IGF 2010 finalists announced today, the D2D Vision Award finalists from download sponsor Direct2Drive – honoring what the digital distribution service believes are the most innovative and forward-looking IGF titles – will be revealed in the near future. Following on from that, the ten Student Showcase award winners will be announced during the week of Jan. 11th, with the finalists for the handheld indie gaming-specific IGF Mobile competition following in late January.
For more information on the Independent Games Festival, please visit www.igf.com – and for those interested in registering for GDC 2010, which includes the Independent Games Summit, the IGF Pavilion and the IGF Awards Ceremony, please visit www.gdconf.com.
We have decided to add Facebook to our online tools, utilizing the social media to introduce others to our unique news and reviews. The link is here: http://www.facebook.com/pages/GamersNewsBitscom/265621405357#/pages/GamersNewsBitscom/265621405357
Become a fan and keep up with us on Facebook!
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It’s still over 3 hours away here on the West Coast, but 2010 is all over the GNB house, and we’re getting ready to do some more celebrating, just a quick post to say Happy New Year to all you out there! Here’s to a great gaming 2010! Looking forward to the new games, and new experiences coming from both Microsoft and Sony, and who knows, Nintendo might have something up their sleeves too eh?
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