Village Gamer

Wild Games Studio Inc. has released the first trailer for Dhaila’s Adventures, featuring Dhaila, a young girl and her extraordinary powers. She can absorb the DNA of other creatures, making the heroine able to acquire its shape at any time.This is the first of 2 trailers that follow and form a story.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-FTvgJ8MAbU]

Orphaned in the fantasy world of Martania, Dhaila possesses unknown extraordinary powers. She has special skills, including one which can absorb the energy of nature directly through its DNA. She can also absorb the DNA of other creatures, making the heroine able to acquire their shape at any time. Living in one of these valleys, the village seems protected by an unknown magical force, more powerful than in other villages. Dhaila will leave to research her origins, while trying to release Martania of the influence of Dysan, a tyrant who has subjugated the people, forcing them to labour under the threat of the dragons he also holds sway over.

Like most free-to-play games and massively multiplayer games in general, Mission Against Terror, published by Wicked Interactive, is serving up its own batch of Halloween goodies this year. New weapons, masks, costumes and items will be introduced for a limited time to spice up the battlefield and add a few tricks to everyone’s treats.

Halloween weapons include the “Hellfire Green” edition of the M134 minigun which is effective against hordes of evil mummies; the Mummy’s Talons which are replica mummy claws with real blades to slice and dice unsuspecting victims. Of course, what would a Halloween frag party be without Pumpkin Smoke Grenades. Permanent additions to gun shop include the M4A1 Silver and an urban-camouflaged AWP.

Players who enjoy getting their costume on will be able to don scary Halloween masks to strike fear into the hearts of their opponents. The Eclipse Mask, Goblin Mask, the Gothic Phantom Mask and the Keres Mask set the tone for a festive Halloween. Those that want to utilize the art of seduction from afar can dress up as the scary yet sultry Bloody Enchantress or the Obsidian Succubus, distracting their opponents before they go in for the kill. Festive taggers will be able to spray paint the “Demon Child” and “Witching Hour” images on the floors and walls.

Dreamcatcher Games has announced that it will be publishing two new PC game titles:

The Guild 2: Renaissance – Anno Domini 1400: The sway of the church and nobility are dwindling and the simple folks are acquiring more and more wealth and power. Immerse yourself into the world of the renaissance, choose your profession, enter politics and lead a dynasty to the height of civilization! This title is a stand-alone add-on for the popular Guild 2 game series.

Features:

·8 completely new professions: mercenary, grave digger, stonemason, juggler, innkeeper, banker, miller and the fruit grower
·New goods, buildings, ambient details and effects
·All new scenarios (“Transylvania”, “The Rhineland” and “The Alps”) & bigger world maps
·Improved AI, title and nobility system as well as new options (e.g. “God Measures”, levels of difficulty)

Jekyll & Hyde – London, 1894: A strange contagion has been sweeping through the population of the poor districts of the city but curiously, all the children seem to be unaffected. The young Dr. Jekyll is in search for a cure. Unfortunately, the serum he develops does not yield the desired result – as he tries the serum himself he uncovers the dark alter ego Mr. Hyde.

After he accidentally discovers an entrance to an extensive tunnel system, his investigations lead him deeper and deeper in a mysterious world underneath the city. Bit by bit he stumbles upon an ancient secret sect, who has a dreadful plan…

Features:

·Classical adventure with action and skill gaming elements
·Exciting storyline based on the well known “Jekyll & Hyde” novel
·Several sinister places to discover in and around London’s underground world
·Mysterious riddles and puzzles based on the Greek mythology
·2 playable characters with completely different skills
·Real 3D engine featuring a lot of different special effects
·Dynamic camera movements and suspense focused directing guarantees a high level of excitement
·Mini laboratory to mix special potions giving the characters new abilities

Waterloo’s Open Text Corporation today announced that it has acquired Burlington, Massachusetts company StreamServe Inc., a leading provider of business communication solutions. The acquisition will add complementary document output and customer communication management software to the Open Text ECM Suite, while enhancing Open Text’s SAP partnership and extending its reach in the Nordic market. The transaction is valued at approximately USD $71 million, subject to customary purchase price and holdback adjustments.

StreamServe offers enterprise business communication solutions that help organizations process and deliver highly personalized documents in any paper or electronic format. The company’s powerful solutions enhance the customer interaction capabilities of the Open Text ECM Suite by enabling the automation of business processes for B2B and B2C markets, including financial services, the public sector, telecommunications and utilities.

Designed to address the “last mile” of communication between an organization and its customers, StreamServe’s solutions excel at improving and expanding business relationships. With StreamServe’s software, companies can automatically create documents through rules-based dynamic assembly and present them to customers, partners, and suppliers, in multiple formats and through whichever channel they prefer.

StreamServe offers solutions that scale across a company’s document-driven business processes. The company’s solutions are designed for easy integration with ERP and supply-chain systems and applications, including SAP. Open Text and SAP have a 20-year partner relationship, and SAP resells a wide range of Open Text ECM solutions. Like Open Text, StreamServe has an established reseller partnership with SAP making it a natural fit with Open Text’s SAP partner strategy.
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BAFTA award-winning composer Jesper Kyd has composed an original music soundtrack for Ubisoft®’s Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood, the next iteration of the critically acclaimed, multi-million selling video game franchise. Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood is inspired by historical events during the occupation of Rome by The Borgias in 1503. Kyd’s new music score for Brotherhood draws influence and authentic instrumentation from this Renaissance period, immersing players in Ezio’s adventures to liberate Rome from a corrupt and tyrant regime. The Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood Original Soundtrack will be available for digital download from iTunes on November 16, 2010, to coincide with the North American release of the game on Microsoft Xbox 360® and the Sony PlayStation®3.

“Researching the history of the Borgia Family it became clear early on that Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood would require a very dark score in order to match the Borgias’ aspirations to become the rulers of Italy. The music reflects the compelling story of Ezio as a Master Assassin going up against the Borgias,” said Kyd.

Kyd’s globally acclaimed score for Assassin’s Creed® 2 continues to receive top honors for Best Original Music including the Gold Spirit Awards, Hollywood Music In Media Awards, GameSpot Readers’ Choice, GameSpy Editors’ Choice, Game Audio Network Guild Awards as well as recognition from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences, International Film Music Critics Association, Golden Joystick Awards and Spike TV VGAs.

In Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood the critically acclaimed single player experience of Assassin’s Creed is back and better than ever as Ezio returns in an enduring struggle against the powerful Templar Order. Now a legendary Master Assassin, he must journey to Rome, center of power, greed and corruption to strike at the heart of the enemy. Defeating the corrupt tyrants entrenched there will require not only strength, but leadership, as Ezio commands an entire Brotherhood that will rally to his side. Only by working together can the Assassins defeat their mortal enemies. Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood is also the first time the franchise has featured a multiplayer gameplay experience, which has already received numerous industry awards.

Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood is a worldwide production effort led by the Ubisoft Montreal development studio in collaboration with Ubisoft studios in Singapore, Bucharest, Québec City and Annecy.

Frima Studio has revealed that it has been selected to participate in the pre-release of Adobe’s new 3D Flash technology, “Molehill”. Announced this week at Adobe’s annual Max 2010 conference, “Molehill” is a new set of low-level, GPU-accelerated 3D APIs that will enable advanced 3D experiences through the Adobe® Flash® platform runtimes while providing advanced 3D and 3D engine developers the flexibility to leverage GPU hardware acceleration for significant performance gains.

Frima Studio has produced numerous demo videos utilizing the new “Molehill” technology, the first of which was for their highly popular game Zombie Tycoon, which was presented by Adobe Flash Player Engineer Sebastian Marketsmueller at Max 2010.

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

“This opens up endless possibilities to creating the next generation in-browser entertainment, where the visual quality is equivalent to console and mobile platforms like iPhone and Wii,” said Steve Couture, CEO at Frima Studio. “Adobe has called upon the expertise of Frima and we are proud to work in partnership with them on this launch. This opportunity poises Frima to continue strengthening its position as a leading-edge Flash developer. ”

Frima is adapting and improving its existent technology platform to support all the new features and possibilities included in this new 3D Flash technology. Utilizing the revolutionary “Molehill” technology, Frima is now able to create in Flash a wide variety of atmospheres like static and dynamic lighting, shadows, fog, and mirror effects. Additionally, “Molehill” delivers the ability to create, add texture and animate hundreds of avatars simultaneously without losing performance as well as generate advanced special effects never before seen in a Flash game, like explosions, rain, and particle systems.

As one of the chosen pre-release participants, Frima is directly collaborating with Adobe on the structure, performance, optimization and design of the upcoming API. Adobe plans to extend “Molehill” to the rest of the development community in the first half of 2011.

Apply now for this great opportunity through the Canadian Media Production Association:

The Digital Media Production Program offers participants the opportunity to gain work experience in the film, television and interactive media production industry. Funded by the Government of Canada’s Career Focus Program, the Digital Media Production Program emphasizes administration, management and technical skills in today’s rapidly changing knowledge economy in the digital world.

Deadline: November 29, 2010
Spots Available: 40
Duration of Placement: 24 weeks
Intern Stipend: $14,000 (minimum);
$10,000 from the Program and minimum $4,000 from mentor
Age: 15 – 30. Must be post-secondary graduate.

Intern Eligibility

*Open to Canadian citizens or permanent residents legally entitled to work in Canada
*Must be between the ages of 15 and 30 (inclusive) at time of application
*Must be unemployed or under-employed at the time of application
*Must be a post-secondary graduate
*Must be out of school
*Must not be receiving Employment Insurance (EI) benefits
*Must NOT have previously participated in a program sponsored by the federal government’s Youth Employment Strategy
*Cannot be an employee, family member, or current CFTPA participant of the mentor company with whom he/she is submitting a joint application
*Applicants should note that the intern MUST become an employee of the mentor company for the duration of the placement.

Mentor Eligibility

*An eligible member of the Canadian Media Production Association (CMPA) at the time of application. Eligible companies must be CMPA members and fall under one of the following CMPA categories: general member, service producer, interactive media, broadcaster affiliate or publicly traded
*The mentor company will be responsible for providing career assistance, feedback, guidance during, and debriefing following the completion of the placement
*The mentor company must contribute a minimum of $4,000 toward the participant stipend
*A mentor applicant cannot be an employer, family member, or current CFTPA mentor of the participant whom he/she is submitting a joint application
*Applicants should note that the intern MUST become an employee of the mentor company for the duration of the placement.

Join over a million fans and play EA SPORTS FIFA 11 Ultimate Team, a free game mode download for FIFA 11 on the PlayStation®3 and Xbox 360™ (FIFA 11 & internet connection required for online play. Restrictions and conditions apply) this November 3rd. Take on the challenge of building a squad of the world’s best football stars by earning, buying, selling and trading players with other Ultimate Team gamers around the world. Create and manage multiple squads putting together the best players with the highest chemistry and then take them into competition in online and solo single-player tournaments, all dynamically updated each week.

FIFA 11 Ultimate Team delivers a number of major changes as requested by gamers. Pit your ultimate team directly against your friends’ best squads in Play-A-Friend online matches—the No. 1 requested new feature. Build your dream team and match them against your friends’ best teams whenever you want by sending them an invite directly, making it easy to prove who has the best ultimate team.

FIFA 11 Ultimate Team now lives beyond the console. Access your Ultimate Team campaign from the web through an enhanced Ultimate Team web app which links your experience on your console. Access full trading and auctions, manage squads and the chemistry of your line-ups, show-off your best squad and rare in-form players to friends, and search for coveted players in the auctions ready for when you get back to your console.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvFbqY6BhdE]

Build your ultimate football club the way real-world coaches and managers build the truly great football teams. Choose how to manage your team—focus on creating one formidable squad, or manage multiple squads to match dynamic requirements for tournaments and competitions. Be strategic and tactical in preparing your squads for the various in-game competitions. A deep, strategic chemistry system built around player relationships on the pitch, means that managing teams and squads to their full potential is critical to success.

Key Features

* Play-A-Friend: compete head-to-head in online play with your friends, the #1 requested feature from FIFA 10 Ultimate Team gamers. Build your dream team and challenge others to do better.
* Ultimate Team Web App: Now Ultimate Team lives beyond your console with online web connectivity. Access your Ultimate Team, manage squads and your chemistry of your line-ups, show-off your best squad and rare in-form players to friends. Search for, buy and sell players and other items in the auctions ready for when you get back to your console—all from the web.
* Ultimate Team Generations: Now you can also access your players from FIFA 10 Ultimate Team and mix them with your existing FIFA 11 Ultimate Team on the web. Put together teams featuring all your players to show off your legacy to other gamers.
* Build Your Ultimate Team: Build your FIFA 11 Ultimate Team squad from a database of more than 8,000 players and all 30 leagues – including the addition of the MLS and Russian Premier League and the superstars from those leagues for the first time. Buy, trade and acquire star players item packs. FIFA 11 Ultimate Team makes acquiring players easier than ever with an intuitive store and item trading and auction system. Auctions also include the ability to track bids, and a comprehensive item search feature.
* Authentic Team Management: FIFA 11 Ultimate Team advanced team management feature delivers an authentic football gameplay experience. Choose the right squads for the right competitions as you seek the perfect balance of players on the pitch. With a chemistry system that takes into account nuances of real player preferences, teammates interact with each other as they would in real life, making your manager role all the more crucial.
* Competitive Tournaments: Enter one of 23 dynamic solo and multiplayer tournaments plus participate in new updated tournaments weekly to test your club-building skills. Every time you go back to your console, there’s a brand-new challenge.

A note to BC developers from Justin Kozuch and the Pixel to Product research project: As we (and I don’t mean me! Come on Canada – this is YOUR digital legacy too!) continue to drive towards our goal of releasing our first survey designed to measure the size and scope of the Canadian digital media ecosystem, we’ve been exposed to many different communities within the digital media space. Our most recent trip to Alberta was a great success; we met with community leaders and passionate digital media professionals who expressed a great interest in our research study and echoed our sentiments where it concerns the publication of freely available market data for the CANADIAN digital media industry. The data and insights we’ll be sharing at the conclusion of this study will allow us to truly understand the size and scope of the Canadian digital media ecosystem.

With this in mind, we are looking westward to arrange meetings to speak to digital media professionals from marketing to mobile application development and everything in between. We’ll be heading to Vancouver from November 1st to November 5th, and we’re looking to connect with you!

We’re looking to speak at a number of events, and have confirmed our attendance at the upcoming DemoCamp Vancouver 12 on Wednesday, November 3rd, from 5:30 PM – 9:00 PM at The Lounge at Caprice (965 Granville Street).

To support our outreach initiatives, Mesh Prize winner and project visionary Justin Kozuch is interested in connecting with digital media and marketing professionals in the Vancouver digital media sector. Justin will be looking to build up an on-the-ground support team of influential and engaged industry professionals interested in helping us promote and support our research study and subsequent findings in Vancouver and elsewhere in British Columbia. These events and connections will help us gain an understanding of who the local industry players are, build an ongoing relationship with them and leverage their skills in assisting with the research and study promotion activities.

Please tweet, email, Facebook, string-and-can anyone you know in the Vancouver area who fit this bill, and please ask them if they are interested in joining us at DemoCamp on November 3rd or connecting with Justin for coffee.

Electronic Arts Inc. and Vancouver independent development studios Klei Entertainment and Hothead Games have announced that the acclaimed 2D action games, Shank and DeathSpank, are now available for download for $14.99 each via Steam.

With its blend of classic side-scrolling action gameplay and stylized animation set, Shank was one of last summer’s most anticipated downloadable games, garnering a “10/10” from Electronic Gaming Monthly, a grade of “A” on 1UP, and a “4.5/5” on Joystiq. PC gamers will now be able to slash into Shank’s bloody story of revenge.

Rated M for Mature, Shank tells a classic story of gangland betrayal through a violent, pulp-fiction lens. Gamers play as Shank, getting their hands bloody as they uncover the secrets of Shank’s past and the reasons he is hell-bent on revenge. With a deep and intuitive combat system, players unleash a tremendous number of creative combinations as they take down waves of enemies standing in their path. Shank also features a special co-operative campaign, designed to be played with a friend locally, which tells the backstory of the revenge plot. This prequel mission allows players to play as Shank or his partner-in-crime, Falcone, with deadly double-team moves and gameplay that encourages teamwork.

Meanwhile, the T for Teen, critically acclaimed and fiendishly funny action RPG DeathSpank, will continue his search for Justice on computers around the world. Developed under the direction of industry veteran Ron Gilbert, DeathSpank combines unique humor and wit with fast, addictive, action-RPG gameplay. Recently awarded IGN’s Editor’s Choice for the PlayStation®3 and Xbox 360®, DeathSpank will take PC players on an epic adventure through crazy quests in a vast world filled with vibrant, eccentric and hilarious characters.

“We are thrilled to finally bring the crazy world of DeathSpank to the PC,” said Vlad Ceraldi, Director of Game Development at Hothead Games. “PC is the perfect home for DeathSpank. It’s charming, witty and whimsical and at its core, DeathSpank offers an extremely fun and compelling experience.”

Players who download the game will be placed in the boots of the mighty DeathSpank, “Dispenser of Justice,” “Vanquisher of Evil” and “Hero to the Downtrodden” and will embark on his lifelong journey to search for and find a mysterious artifact known only as “The Artifact.” Along his journey, DeathSpank will rescue orphans, defeat a local tyrant, help an aging adventurer and dive headfirst into an even deeper mystery. The game’s accessibility makes for a fun, addictive experience where players will find themselves fulfilling crazy quests, collecting massive amounts of loot and engaging in tons of hilarious dialogue. DeathSpank also features local co-operative gameplay, allowing friends to jump in and out of this adventure on the same computer as DeathSpank’s trusty, magical sidekick, Sparkles the Wizard.

Serebra Learning Corporation, a leading e-learning solutions provider based in Vancouver, has announced an important update to the Serebra Campus learning management system that will offer enhanced functionality and usability to training coordinators and students alike.

“At Serebra we value the input of our clients and constantly seek to serve them better. Taking into consideration their feedback, we’ve made improvements to the overall platform functionality of our LMS and created new features to strengthen our clients’ ability to deliver compliance-related training,” said Serebra’s acting President, Taleeb Noormohamed.

In addition to numerous usability innovations, Serebra has added new features to Serebra Campus, including a new compliance feature, which simplifies the task of training departments when it comes to compliance-related or recurring training requirements.

Administrators create course compliance rules and apply them to groups or individual students, making it easy to track and manage the organization’s compliance requirements. Students are notified via e-mail of the need to take courses, and the My Training Dashboard makes it quick and easy for users to register and complete their training.

“Serebra will continue to add functionality to the Serebra Campus platform offering clients additional talent management and human resources solutions,” added Noormohamed. “At Serebra, we’re committed to constant innovation that meets the needs of our clients and keeps them at the leading edge of organizational and individual training.”

Serebra Campus has long included Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) and Active Directory support for single sign-on. This release enables basic OpenID support for student authentication, which allows Serebra to support clients who use Google Apps and similar platforms for their company infrastructure.

Bioware has released its latest trailer for Dragon Age II. In Rise To Power you can see all new gameplay along with new characters Varric and Isabella, Kirkwall and the qunari onslaught. Dragon Age II is scheduled for release on March 8, 2011.

Dragon Age II is the sequel to the 2009’s “RPG of the Year,” featuring faster-paced action, striking new art direction and a gripping storytelling approach that allows gamers to experience the rise to power with the game’s key character, Hawke. A refugee who survives the destruction of his homeland, Hawke becomes the Champion of Kirkwall but the lore surrounding his rise to power is shrouded in myth and rumor. These mysteries are the driving force behind the all-new Dragon Age II story, which spans nearly 10 years in the Dragon Age universe. Players will experience how the legend unfolds by gathering the deadliest of allies, making tough moral choices, amassing fame and fortune and sealing their place in history.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWbIFihAzW4]

Earlier this month, Bioware announced the Dragon Age™ II BioWare Signature Edition. This limited edition of the highly anticipated action RPG will be available at no extra cost for gamers who pre-order Dragon Age II before January 11, 2011. Featuring over $20 of additional content, the Dragon Age II BioWare Signature Edition includes the full version of Dragon Age II, along with a download code for an additional playable character and new missions, the Dragon Age II digital soundtrack, an exclusive in-game digital armory featuring a variety of weapons and other digital items. The Dragon Age II BioWare Signature Edition will only be available for pre-order and online purchase on or before January 11, 2011 – after the deadline, it will disappear from the market.

That said, as of late last week, Dragon Age II was still not available for pre-order at our local EB Games outlet – the title was not listed at all in their computer systems. Hopefully when we visit the store to pick up a certain not-made-in-Canada title, Dragon Age II will be on the list so that our pre-order can be placed.

Dragon Age II will be available on the PlayStation®3, Xbox 360® and PC, and will most likely be rated M for Mature by the ESRB.