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Tuesday, September 04, 2007

FREE GEARS OF WAR TOURNAMENT

Sponsored by The Daily Star

31st Aug 2007 (London, United Kingdom) – Earlier this month XLEAGUE.TV, the UK’s first dedicated eSports service, announced a free Mario Strikers: Charged Football and Pro Evolution Soccer 6 tournament. XLEAGUE.TV can now announce that the next free tournament will be Gears of War, where players can compete for a top prize of £250.

“We’ve had a terrific response to our previous free tournaments sponsored by The Daily Star,” says Lee Catania, XLEAGUE.TV Marketing Manager. “We’re sure Gears of War, one of the most popular games on the Xbox 360, will prove just as successful.”

Registration for the tournament opens on the 31st of August, and is absolutely free. The remaining two free tournaments will be unveiled over the following weeks.

For more information on the new free tournaments and prizes, please visit www.XLEAGUE.TV or contact Marketing Manager Lee Catania on lee.catania@nasnet.co.uk. XLEAGUE.TV can also be found on Sky Channel 279.

About XLEAGUE.TV:
XLEAGUE.TV is the UK’s first dedicated eSports channel and fully integrated website launched in May 2007. The revolutionary channel, which broadcasts on Sky channel 279, offers a comprehensive range of services to its members including leagues and tournaments, customisable user profiles, match scheduling and club and team creation. By competing on www.xleague.tv, gamers can win the opportunity to be invited to the studio for the chance to play on television.

The channel was launched at a cost of £5 million and is part of the Portland Media Group. XLEAGUE.TV has a wealth of In-house facilities include production, post-production and play-out, as well as an advertising agency, a media buying and planning department and a modelling agency.

Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning


Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning caused a stir at Games Convention 07 in Leipzig last month, as the final two armies were unveiled to press and public. These were the High Elves and Dark Elves, who despite sharing a common ancestry have been fighting a perpetual war against each other for thousands of years, using their unique and varied warriors.

For the High Elves, the Swordmaster, a Tank class, leads the front line. Wielding a huge and powerful blade, he is a cross between a Jedi and a US Marine, proud of his ancestry and an expert with his weapon. Supporting him with devastating magic and much needed healing, is the versatile Archmage. A master of the Winds of Magic, she drains the energy from her foes and distributes it to her allies. With her powerful skills, she is capable of turning the tide of battle in a heartbeat.

Tanking for the Dark Elves are the Black Guard, the bodyguards to King of the Dark Elves, Malekith. Completely psychopathic and without regard for the lives of their allies, let alone their foes, they wield their enormous Halberds with an unprecedented thirst for blood. Lurking in the shadows of war is the Witch Blade. With an elegant but deadly grace, she waits until the best possible moment to strike and then unleashes a flurry of fearsome Frenzy attacks. You don’t want to get on the wrong side of her…

Games Added To Wii Shop Channel

Everyone believes education is important, even apes. To celebrate the back-to-school season, Donkey Kong Jr.™ Math is now available on the Wii Shop Channel. It'll help you get those math skills back in shape after their summer slumber. After that, there's still plenty of adventure, treasure seeking and a never-ending supply of bad guys to fight. Good thing it's a holiday today, huh? Enjoy.

Four new classic games go live at 9 a.m. Pacific time. Nintendo adds new games to the Wii Shop Channel every Monday. Wii™ owners with a high-speed Internet connection can redeem Wii Points™ to download the games. Wii Points can be purchased in the Wii Shop Channel or at retail outlets. This week's new games are:

Adventure Island (NES®, 1 player, rated E for Everyone - Comic Mischief, 500 Wii Points): A mysterious tropical paradise known as Adventure Island is the setting for this side-scrolling action game. The evil Witch Doctor has kidnapped Tina, the true love of Master Higgins. To save her, you must safely guide Master Higgins through eight perilous stages - including dense forests and creepy caves - while defeating all of the enemies in your path. Each area is made up of four rounds filled with enemies determined to stop you in your tracks. In addition, as time passes, Master Higgins's vitality is automatically drained. To keep going, he must eat constantly by grabbing fruit, milk and whatever other goodies he can as he races toward his goal. Sometimes eggs containing miraculous items like axes to throw at enemies or honey that grants temporary invincibility will appear. Use items skillfully to help you clear the areas. At the end of each area you'll face the Witch Doctor, who you must defeat to advance. Go, Master Higgins, go!

Donkey Kong Jr. Math (NES, 1-2 players, rated E for Everyone, 500 Wii Points): Learning can be fun, especially when you play along with Donkey Kong Jr. Practice addition, subtraction, multiplication and division by directing Junior, a cute little monkey who must climb up and down vines to collect numbers and math symbols to solve the math problems his father gives him. Compete with a friend in a race to solve problems in Game A or add more challenge with Game B. Of course, you can also practice on your own. This game is perfect for younger players who are looking for a fun and easy way to develop their math skills.

Landstalker: The Treasures of King Nole™ (Sega Genesis, 1 player, rated E for Everyone - Mild Fantasy Violence, 800 Wii Points): After hearing of the legendary treasure of King Nole, the elvish treasure hunter Nigel undertakes a quest to gather various pieces of the famed loot. His journey takes him through Mercator Island's villages, caves and dungeons that hold King Nole's riches. Along the way, he'll have to help the inhabitants of the island while fighting against the treachery of Duke Mercator, who is searching for the treasure as well. A variety of obstacles and foes will try to deter Nigel, who must use all his wits and skills to defeat Duke Mercator and uncover the secret of King Nole's treasure.

Bonk 3: Bonk's Big Adventure (TurboGrafx16, 1-2 players, rated E for Everyone - Comic Mischief, 600 Wii Points): The hard-headed hero is back for more side-scrolling action in the third installment of the popular Bonk series. It's up to Bonk once again to thwart the plans of the relentless evil King Drool. There are seven rounds scattered throughout the Dinosaur Kingdom, each one filled with fun contraptions and comical enemies. Grab a Flower Copter or exchange 16 Smileys at the end of each round to play up to eight different bonus stages. Or you can change the size of Bonk by grabbing the new red or blue candy items. Depending on the situation, you can change your size to bonk your way through a dead end or to get a hard-to-reach item. And if that's not enough, you can grab a friend and put your heads together to defeat King Drool in the new two-player mode.

Charttrack weekly games chart

All formats
(Full price) Week ending 1 September 2007
POS. TITLE PUBLISHER
1 BIOSHOCK TAKE 2
2 TIGER WOODS PGA TOUR 08 ELECTRONIC ARTS
3 TRANSFORMERS: THE GAME ACTIVISION
4 TOM CLANCY'S GHOST RECON: WARFIGHTER 2 UBISOFT
5 HARRY POTTER & THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX ELECTRONIC ARTS
6 STUNTMAN: IGNITION THQ
7 POKEMON DIAMOND NINTENDO
8 MARIO PARTY 8 NINTENDO
9 BLUE DRAGON MICROSOFT
10 NEW SUPER MARIO BROS. NINTENDO
11 MEDIEVAL II: TOTAL WAR - KINGDOMS SEGA
12 GUILD WARS: EYE OF THE NORTH NCSOFT EUROPE
13 POKEMON PEARL NINTENDO
14 PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: AT WORLD'S END DISNEY INTERACTIVE STUDIOS
15 RESISTANCE: FALL OF MAN SONY COMPUTER ENT.
16 MADDEN NFL 08 ELECTRONIC ARTS
17 BOOGIE ELECTRONIC ARTS
18 MOTORSTORM SONY COMPUTER ENT.
19 RESIDENT EVIL 4 CAPCOM
20COMMAND & CONQUER 3: TIBERIUM WARS ELECTRONIC ARTS

Monday, September 03, 2007

Disney say - Videogames can be a force for good

Videogames can be a force for good, uniting families in a single activity, according to Disney vice president Thierry Braille.

Speaking in an exclusive interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Braille talked about the vision of the Disney brand, and that although more mature games such as Turok are published under the Touchstone label, there's still something for everybody.

"We have titles that are for a younger audience, but there are more titles, such as High School Musical that could gather the family, after the Sunday lunch maybe, and we can imagine them singing together."

"This is Disney – this inclusive way to bring the family together and have fun."

Braille went on to detail the company's development budgets, with 70 per cent spent on existing character franchises, 20 per cent on developing new characters, and 10 per cent that can go on new game areas – with the exception of sports and extreme-rated content.

"In the sports market we have our ESPN brand and an existing deal with Electronic Arts there, and for the extreme-rated area, we as a company don't want to touch these kinds of products."

He also stated his belief that Nintendo's platforms have made a "very beneficial contribution" to the games industry, and that rising development costs can in fact be a good thing for consumers, because it focuses publishers on producing games "of the highest quality."