Get your living rooms ready for the hottest dance party of 2012! We are excited to announce that the latest instalment of the best-selling dance franchise on Kinect for Xbox 360, “Dance Central 3,” 1 will be available in stores on Oct. 18 in Australia.

With more than 40 tracks on the disc, “Dance Central 3” includes previously announced music by Usher, 50 Cent, Cobra Starship and more. Today, we’re unveiling 11 additional songs for the soundtrack, each with authentic dance routines created by professional choreographers, including:

• 2NE1 – “I Am The Best (Original Version)”
• Alice Deejay – “Better Off Alone”
• Backstreet Boys – “Everybody (Backstreet’s Back)”
• J.J. Fad – “Supersonic”
• Lil Jon & The East Side Boyz ft. Ying Yang Twins – “Get Low”
• LMFAO – “Sexy And I Know It”
• Los Del Rio – “Macarena (Bayside Boys Mix)”
• Maroon 5 ft. Christina Aguilera – “Moves Like Jagger”
• Vanilla Ice – “Ice Ice Baby”
• Vicki Sue Robinson – “Turn The Beat Around”
• Village People – “Y.M.C.A.”

We’re also releasing the second “Dance Central 3” developer diary, which gives fans a peek at what to expect from the game’s exciting new story mode. The video is available here.

The “Dance Central 3” story mode will have players travelling back through time to learn classic dance moves from past decades alongside their favourite crews and characters from the series. Today, Harmonix revealed that Flash4ward, a fan-favorite crew made up of Taye and Lil’ T, will make their return in “Dance Central 3,” repping the fly look of the 1990s in a killer house party venue. Stay tuned for reveals of both new and familiar faces in some surprising venues in the coming months.

“Dance Central 3” pushes the franchise into new territories with innovative new features and the hottest tracks from the ‘70s, ‘80s, ‘90s, ‘00s and today! The beat keeps rocking with an all new party mode for up to eight players, the ability to import your songs from previous “Dance Central” titles2 and more!

Sydney, Australia – July 24, 2012 – Western Digital® today announced the introduction of  powerful new collaboration and file management features, including Dropbox integration, in the next generation of its popular WD 2go mobile app. WD 2go is designed for use with WD personal cloud products including the My Book® Live™, My Book Live Duo and My Net™ N900 Central HD router with storage.

WD’s personal cloud products provide shared storage on the home network, letting customers centralize their important documents, photos, videos and music in one place as well as automatically backup all the computers in their home. With the WD 2go app customers can access and share that content from outside the home on their mobile devices.

The new version of WD 2go lets customers move, copy and share content between their mobile device, their Dropbox and their WD personal cloud – combining the benefits of personal and public cloud storage into one, easy-to-use app. For example, if a user has a small number of photos they want to share with their friends, they can copy them from their personal cloud into their Dropbox using the WD 2go app. But if they have a very large number of photos, or files that are too big for their Dropbox, they can use WD 2go to send a secure link to the files via email. WD 2go is available for iPad®, iPhone®, iPod touch® or Android™ compatible mobile devices.

“WD is committed to providing consumers with secure storage of digital content and access  to it on any screen, on-the-go or at home,” said Jim Welsh, executive vice president for WD’s branded products and consumer electronics groups. “By combining access to Dropbox and personal cloud storage into a single intuitive mobile app, WD is empowering consumers with the flexibility and control of anytime, any-device management of their growing libraries of digital content.”

WD 2go Features

•    Dropbox integration: Full access to your Dropbox and use of all WD 2go file management features with your Dropbox.
•    Upload: Upload files from your mobile device to your WD personal cloud storage.
•    Download: Download files to your smartphone or tablet for offline access.
•    Sharing: Share files from your personal cloud storage as email links or attachments.
•    File management: Copy, move, rename and delete files on your personal cloud storage and in your Dropbox.
•    Third-party apps: Send files to and receive files from third party apps installed on your mobile device using the “open with” function.
•    Auto-discover: Automatically discover and connect to WD personal cloud storage devices on the same Wi-Fi™ network as your smartphone or tablet.

Price and Availability

WD 2go (free download) is currently available for download from the iTunes™ App Store, Google Play and Amazon Appstore for Android. My Book Live personal cloud storage drives and the My Net N900 Central router with storage are available at select retailers in Australia and online at www.wdstore.com.au.

‘Alienware Game Victorious 2012 Battlegrounds’

Winning DOTA 2 Team to Compete at the Asian Cyber Games Grand Finals in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia 

SYDNEY, Australia 12 July, 2012 – Alienware, Dell’s high performance PC gaming brand, has today announced the launch of an Asia-Pacific online gaming tournament hosted on AlienwareArena.com.  The tournament, launching 11 July, will bring together some of the region’s leading gamers from Australia, New Zealand, South East Asia, India, Japan and China.

The battlegrounds tournament is tiered to cater for both elite gamers and game enthusiasts and will include DOTA 2, League of Legends and Team Fortress 2 in Australia and New Zealand.  All games have an online Open League category, with DOTA 2 divided into a special invitational online Elite League as well as an Open League[i].

The top teams from each game will qualify for the National Finals in October where overall champion teams from across Australia and New Zealand will be crowned. USD$13,000 worth of prize money will also be awarded to top performing teams throughout the duration of the tournament.

“The United Kingdom is not the only nation hosting a major games event this year,” said Frank Azor, General Manager, Alienware. “The Alienware Game Victorious 2012 Battlegrounds regional tournament is the perfect platform for international e-sports and is offering gamers across Asia-Pacific the opportunity to showcase their skills on the world stage while they attempt to game victorious.”

The DOTA 2 National Championship winning team will also earn the right to represent Australia and New Zealand country at the Asian Cyber Games DOTA 2 Grand Finals in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on 8-9 December 2012, which boasts a total cash prize pool of USD$30,000. Alienware will also provide a USD$10,000 travel bounty to the winning team.

More than 1 million viewers are expected to tune into the tournament which will be broadcast through AlienwareArena, TwitchTV and YouTube.  Furthermore, through social media, gamers will be able to fully interact on AlienwareArena leaving comments and participating in polls which will influence the selection of matches broadcast.

All Alienware Arena members will be eligible for special giveaways, game invite keys and exclusive game content[ii].

To register a team at the Open Leagues Tournament visit the game pages below. Registrations are open from 11 July through 29 July, 2012. To follow the latest news and updates for the tournament, visit www.alienwarearena.com/anz-2012.

Links

DOTA 2: http://www.alienwarearena.com/anz-dota2

League of Legends: http://www.alienwarearena.com/anz-lol

Team Fortress 2: http://www.alienwarearena.com/anz-tf2

New Consumer Storage First to Offer Saving and Sharing of Facebook and Flickr Photo/Video Albums

SYDNEY, Australia— July 24, 2012—Seagate Technology plc (NASDAQ: STX) today introduced Backup Plus storage devices – its reinvented consumer storage product family that delivers the easiest setup, one-click backup and the ability to save and share your content on Facebook and Flickr.
Seagate^® Backup Plus hard drives are newly designed external storage that work interchangeably with both Windows^® and Apple^® computers and deliver new features to protect, share and save nearly every aspect of one’s digital life. These products come loaded with the new hassle-free Seagate Dashboard software for one-click local backup making it easier than ever to eliminate excuses or apprehensions about backing up one’s most valuable digital content. Seagate Backup Plus products are the world’s first external hard drives to provide backup for content on social networks, such as Facebook and Flickr. Storing a local duplicate copy of photos from social networks is now as easy as backing up files on your computer. Seagate Backup Plus will provide the peace of mind that every aspect of one’s digital life is safe from loss.

Backing up data is an absolute necessity that many people put off until after it’s too late. According to a 2011 study by Parks Associates less than one-quarter of the households in the survey have a weekly backup plan for their systems and only 4% are diligent enough to manually perform a backup on a daily basis.[1]

“The idea of providing a backup of photos and videos from Facebook is an interesting one, which I believe may help people come to realize the importance of maintaining multiple copies of any digital asset regardless of where it is stored,” said Brett Sappington, director of research for Parks Associates. “Social media has become a massive repository for personal digital content, and most consumers have not likely considered the possibility of losing access to those shared memories.”

Seagate Backup Plus hard drives featuring the new Seagate Dashboard backup software remove the barriers to performing backup and content preservation by making it as easy as possible. With just a click of an icon, computer files are replicated onto a Backup Plus drive. The Seagate Dashboard included on Backup Plus also provides a single click path to Save (download) and Share (upload) personal photos and videos on Facebook and Flickr.

According to a recent survey commissioned by Seagate and conducted online by Harris Interactive from May 22-24, 2012, more than half (54%) of U.S. adults personally have and/or know someone who has lost files. Over one-quarter (27%) of U.S. adults personally have lost files and found that it was upsetting for them. While almost all (97%) of those surveyed were identified as computer owners; only 11% have a continuous backup plan and only 10% have a daily backup plan.[2]

“Backing up needs to be an essential part of everyone’s digital life. Nearly everything that is dear to us is now in a digital format; from tax documents, to emails, to family photos and video, many of these files can not be recreated in the event of an accidental loss or system failure,” said BanSeng Teh, senior vice president and managing director, Asia Pacific and Japan. “Seagate is in the business of keeping digital content and files protected in every aspect, whether it is in the cloud, stored on PC or with our external consumer products. Backup Plus is a product that eliminates the barriers to protecting these digital assets. The new Dashboard delivers a simple and complete backup experience with the added benefit of saving photos and video stored on Facebook and other social networks.”

A Versatile Storage Device
In 2010, Seagate adopted the Universal Storage Module (USM^®) standard, which enables consumers to easily add the newest Mac^® and PC connection capabilities to their Seagate storage product even if these technologies are introduced later. To add yet another level of versatility, Seagate has introduced a way to have the company’s external storage productswork cross-platform with both Mac^® and Windows^® operating systems without reformatting.

Seagate Backup Plus Storage
Available immediately through select retailers and resellers in Australia and New Zealand, Seagate Backup Plus drives will initially be available in capacities of 500GBand 1TB capacities for portable drives and 1TB to 4TB for Backup Plus Desk drives.

This new family of external storage will be available in red, blue, silver and black for the portable 2.5-inch form factor with a manufacturer’s suggested retail prices at launch ofAU$139, NZ$179(500GB) and AU$189, NZ$239 (1TB). The Backup Plus Desk 3.5-inch drive: AU$179, NZ$229 (1TB); AU$199, NZ$249 (2TB); AU$299, NZ$379 (3TB)and AU$449, NZ$569 (4TB) MSRP.

Seagate^® Slim storage in a svelte 9.5-mm package will now be available in a 500GB capacity at AU$159, NZ$199MSRP and will also include the new Seagate Dashboard software for simple backup of on-board and social media albums.

Superior colour reproduction for home and office has never been so affordable

Sydney, Australia – July 2012:  BenQ, a brand renowned the world over for high-quality visual representation across a range of digital technology products, will this month launch their latest series of computer monitors – the GW Series – in 22, 24 and 27” offering VA (Vertical Alignment) for first-class visual enjoyment.

Designed to meet everyone’s budget, the GW series is aimed squarely at the home and office environment, but while affordably priced, the VA panel fitted into BenQ GW Series monitors is of superior quality offering colour reproduction second to none.

Explains Chee F. Chung, general manager for BenQAustralia, “VA panel technology offers outstanding visual performance with the sharpest details, the richest colours and the deepest blacks.  Together these core elements contribute to the monitor’s visual clarity and comfort, even in the most complex of scenes.  In everyday use, VA monitors are also very energy-efficient and eco-friendly, greatly reducing power consumption.”

Today, computer monitors are being used for more than word processing and email.  The GW series will display photos and general IT sites with amazing colour clarity and detail; are ideal for personal entertainment pursuits like watching movies and video streaming and are highly valuable in the corporate sector for presenting business plans and graphical information.

“The consumer is becoming far more discerning when considering upgrading their monitor,” said Chung, “with comfort and quality reproduction key factors in the purchasing decision.  Not all screens are the same.  Terminology like ‘contrast ratio’ is generally understood by consumers looking for a computer monitor with greater colour depth and definition,” she continued.

Key features of the new GW Series include:

• 5000:1 Ultra High Native Contrast – a      contrast ratio which is five times that of general panels, the VA panel      incorporated into GW provides astonishing visual performance, bringing      every detail to life.
• True 8-bit Colour Performance – rendering      a total of 16.7 million colour shades for smoother and more stable colour      transition.
• True Blacks and Minimized Light Leakage      – with naturally deeper blacks and minimized light leakage, VA panels      display flawlessly layered and precisely contrasted details in even the      darkest scenes.
• Wide Angle Viewing – VA panels come      with an ultra-wide viewing angle of 178?/178? for greater viewing from      right, left, above and below the screen.
• LED Backlight – allows lower power      consumption than conventional CCFL monitors.  The GW Series are even      more economical when used in Eco Mode.

“VA panels are predicted to have a 42% share in 2012, surpassing traditional TN, TN Wide-View and IPS/FFS panels, and future predictions show a further 42% growth by 2015,” said Chung.  “This tells us there is an increasing demand for VA display around the world, and BenQ intends to fulfill it.  Expanding our VA selection with the launch of the 2012 GW Series, we’re offering our valued customers a wide array of choices for business and personal entertainment use with display sizes ranging from 21.5- 27”.

Availability and RRP:

GW2250                                 21.5”               available now              $179.00

GW2450HM                           24”                  available now              $249.00

GW2750HM                           27”                  available now              $349.00

GW2250M                              21.5”               available now              $189.00

Connectivity:  all models come with D-Sub, DVI-D, line-in and headphone jack, and are equipped with built-in speakers.  All models are Microsoft Windows 7 certified for full compatibility with Windows 7 colour systems.  HM models also offer HDMI port.

Mechwarrior Online on our gaming radar Piranha Games seeks to bring something new to something old and make millions of ground pounders happy.  For those not familiar with Mechwarrior or Battletech, it all started as a table top game and role playing game. With rules and paper, pencil and dice you had but to add the imagination to the fantastic universe that Mechwarrior set out before you. Way back when I was younger, I used to love playing and even running a Mechwarrior campaign game in our weekly role playing sessions.  Imagine my and many a fans excitement when the first Mechwarrior and Battletech computer games came out. I was right there in those virtual worlds getting the thrill and the experience of playing the game universe I so loved in a virtual world. After a while someone had the wonderful idea of taking it to another level and creating Mech pods, a Mechwarrior simulator…. With these self-contained full sized cockpits a player would get into and close themselves in, it had screens and controls and every control worked some kind of weapon or system. Spectacular, I was in ground pounder heaven.

The pods would hook up to all the other pods and you would have four on four combat…with all the virtual friendly and enemies playing out on the screens in front of you… truly riveting and gaming at another level.  There had been plenty of times that real world Tank crews would team up and tactically hand everyone else their own asses in battle. Thrilling and breath taking as it was … there was something missing. It was all just fight each other and blast away. Now yes, that can be fun….but some of the feelings of goal based combat and mission just had not been there. Later incarnations of the game universe came into play, most notably Mercenaries, which put the player as head of a mercenary group out for survival and the all-powerful Cbill.  This game brought together missions and mixed goals, guard this location, or convoy, recon, attack a point, capture this…something that made it feel more like the imaginative world of possibilities I played in and continue to play in as a role player in the old paper, pencil , dice games. Now here we are in the here and now, so imagine my happiness to get press information about Piranha Games bringing us Mechwarrior online! Upgraded and with so many tactical mechwarrior options and action you may just need a fleet of drop ships to fit it all.

Let’s examine Mechwarrior online and in the end, even though I may as a long time Mechwarrior fan…may advise, give this game a go… my position is to let you know…yes, I am a fan. But here is the information on the game. In the end you as a gamer will have to decide if it is for you. I will make this statement first. If you are into combat simulators of any kind…military sims, Tank combat or anything like it. Then Mechwarrior is for you. Imagine having several tons of armored extremely mobile weapon platforms, with the ability much like a tank to move in one direction while brining weapons to bear on another direction. Imagine some of those weapons platforms having long range missile capabilities. Now imagine the trill in a conflict where you do not have line of sight, but a scout mech is on a recon for your side. They have site of enemy targets, and is using its sensors to feed you information to fire your missiles on target. Excited about the possibilities yet? What I will do here is keep it down to the simplest of terms while talking about Mechwarrior Online.

Though even as a new comer to this gaming universe, the acronyms and world speak is not at all hard to pick up on, after all you turned on your computer…so you would have no trouble at all picking up the ins and outs of the gaming world. Mechwarrior over the years has had incredibly loyal fans translating into a strong online community… and that is part of the strength that should be evident in this latest incarnation of the gaming world…. Now in the latest game players will be able to represent some of the Houses from the Mechwarrior universe. Never fear about not knowing any of the Mechwarrior House back grounds. Half the fun will be going to the web site yourself and choosing who you will represent. Think of it sort of like feudal lords controlling a family.  In the Battletech universe the inner sphere of planets is full of battles and small skirmishes, with the great houses struggling for power and control. Players will be taking part of this action rich universe.

Thankfully Piranha Games seems to have Mechwarrior players and fans in the fold of designers, because some of what they are bringing to Mechwarrior online is some great concepts, if successful is going to add the layers of tactical game play and gaming intrigue that will keep players coming back and staying.  Fans like me should be ecstatic at the possibilities here; new comers will find more depth of play and reason to stay. There will be some levels of customization of a player’s battlemech, both in weapons and upgrades and customizable paint schemes. This way if they are in a mercenary unit, they can all customize to show that units colors. At this time as the game is not released yet, most of what we report about is from the in game videos we have seen and reports from the Developers. At this time since the game is only on PC, Piranha plan is to support several different control schemes. While the control schemes and mech set ups all mean that it’s going to come down to skill rather than just a mechs fire power to get the job done, new players should not shy away here.  There will be an option for new players to have easy access configurations making a new comer baptism into this robust gaming world a lot easier.

The player will have a lot of choices all the way from the mech and of course how they train their pilot and what skills they beef up. Customizing and working on the skills to their style of play will be all part of the fun. We get the different nuances of warfare here, ranging from players that take on the scout role and relay sensor information back to the team, and of course the command and control vehicle that looks at the big picture and advises the team on the battle field tactics. I know at this point you may be saying oh it sounds cool but not sure what I want to pay for another game. I have others that may tip the scale for my money. That is the incredible news here. The game is online for free.  Mechwarrior Online has that gaming model of a free section with a huge amount of content, and then for those that would like to get a bit more in the gaming, can pay for premium content, get more experience points and other perks… fear not…from what I have gleaned so far this is not a case of pay to win…as the saying goes no guts no galaxy. Though you may find it will be the person not the machine in this team based battle for the inner sphere.  I say person, because I have met many female players that will pick apart their opponents mechs like a surgeon with those lasers. Just like my wife Donna, who we nick named War Bear.

Scheduled for some time in August, check out   http://mwomercs.com/

Have fun, play games Edwin Millheim

Melbourne VIC. – July 20, 2012 – THQ Inc. today announced the exclusive CM Punk pre-order offer available in Australia at JB Hi-Fi.

Following his legendary moment at the end of Monday Night Raw® last year, WWE Superstar CM Punk changed everything the world knew about WWE.  His new brand of attitude that ignited a revolution among the WWE Universe, will be celebrated through the JB Hi-Fi pre-order offer by including following:

• Official      WWE CM Punk wrist straps
• Alternative      in-game CM Punk ice cream bar t-shirt (DLC only available on X360 and PS3)
• Access      to WWE Hall of Famer and WWE ’13 global pre-order offer “Iron” Mike      Tyson playable character
• Copy      of WWE ’13 videogame

WWE ’13 is currently in development for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 system and Wii™ system from Nintendo, with a scheduled release date of November 1, 2012 in Australia and November 2, 2012 in New Zealand.  For more information, please visit wwe.thq.com, facebook.com/WWEgames and twitter.com/WWEgames.

Registration Opens today for the Premiere World of Tanks Competition and the Chance to win $77,000

19 July, 2012 — Wargaming – the award-winning game developer and publisher – announces the opening of registration for the upcoming International Ural Steel Championship 2012 for its flagship MMO action game World of Tanks. Registration begins today and will continue through July 31, 2012.

“World of Tanks has become a global eSport discipline,” says Victor Kislyi, Wargaming CEO. “The game is turning into a massive communication platform that merges together gaming communities of different countries and regions.”

Sixteen teams of the world’s best World of Tanks gamers from America, Europe, Russia, China, and Southeast Asia will compete on six battle maps for their shot at the bragging rights of Ural Steel Championship 2012 winner and a prize purse of $77,000 USD. The Grand Finals will take place on September 15th – 16th at CSKA Sport Arena in Moscow, Russia.

The tournament is organized by Wargaming in partnership with UralVagonZavod, one of the largest scientific and industrial complexes in Russia and the largest tank manufacturer in the world and in association with the Russian Cyber-sport Federation.

“We’ll continue to encourage and support eSport events like Ural Steel in the future, providing attractive prizes and contributing our skills and knowledge to make these events even more exciting,” states Kislyi. The first Ural Steel Championship was held last year and became a virtual battleground for more than 40,000 players from nearly 30 countries.

Sign up for Ural Steel 2012 here:

• http://worldoftanks.eu/uc/tournaments/58-Ural_Steel_World_Tour_%28Qualifiers%29/      (Europe)
• http://worldoftanks.com/uc/tournaments/101-Ural_Steel_2012/      (North America)

IRVINE, CALIFORNIA — JULY 19, 2012 — ATLUS ONLINE, a division of ATLUS dedicated to massively multiplayer games, today announced plans to expand its partnership with Level Up! Inc., making the publisher’s popular library of free MMORPGs and RTSs available to an international community.

Previously, Level Up! offered registrations and downloads for ATLUS ONLINE’s fantasy RPG hit, Pandora Saga. With the newly updated partnership, Level Up! will now also offer the massively online strategy titles BattleSpace and Knights of the Sky, as well e-pins for ATLUS ONLINE’s purchasable in-game content.
“We’re excited to partner again with ATLUS ONLINE in bringing these new browser-based games to the Philippines,” stated Mon Macutay, Marketing Director for Playweb Games. “Knights of the Sky and BattleSpace offer fresh and interesting takes on the usual online browser-based games. The titles’ immersive visuals and vibrant new worlds provide an experience that we’re sure Filipino gamers will keep coming back to.”

To register for ATLUS ONLINE games through Level Up!, visit:
http://global.levelupgames.ph/pandorasaga  for Pandora Saga
http://global.levelupgames.ph/knightsofthesky for Knights of the Sky
http://global.levelupgames.ph/battlespace for BattleSpace