NCsoft®, the world’s premier publisher and developer of massively multiplayer online games (MMOs) have announced the launch of the highly anticipated Mission Architect system in its comic-book inspired MMO, City of Heroes®. Now, with issue 14, this game takes another giant step, allowing players to design their own missions and story arcs to share with the entire City of Heroes community across all of our live servers.  

Using an intuitive interface, players can browse through other player created missions and create their own missions from the ground up. Players will determine details ranging from environments, mission objectives and enemies, to written fiction and character dialogue; giving their stories nearly infinite depth and personalisation.

Among other rewards, architects who create extraordinary content will earn acclaim and reputation. The highest rated missions will be prominently displayed earning those players in-game rewards for creating excellent content. Additionally, the best of these submitted story arcs will be hand-chosen by the City of Heroes development team and deemed as “Dev Choice” missions. Community feedback will be paramount and some missions will elevate in status, unlocking new rewards and benefits for their creators.

“We are very excited for City of Heroes to be the first-ever MMO to offer this revolutionary new system to our players,” said Brian Clayton, General Manager and Executive Producer of the franchise. “Within two weeks of opening the beta version of Mission Architect to our community, players published an astounding 5,000 custom stories, representing up to 25,000 user-created missions. Such a steady in-flux of fresh content offers the capacity for endless adventures to City of Heroes subscribers.”

For additional information on City of Heroes Architect Edition, go to www.qvsoftware.com.au/minis/cohae, the official Australian website for City of Heroes. If you require a demo copy, please contact QV Software today.

About QVS

QVS is a privately owned independent software distributor that has operated in Australia for over ten years providing quality, innovative interactive software titles. Our company’s main objective is to provide our clients and customers with software products that deliver a highly satisfying entertainment experience. QVS distributes products from a wide range of publishers for a variety of demographics including lifestyle, office, productivity, education and games. from the following well-known brands: GSP, Avanquest, Ignition, Vidis, Empire, Focus, Zushi Games, Magix, Cosmi, NC Soft, Midway, plus many more. For further information, go to www.qvsoftware.com.au.

On an evolutionary journey through six stunning underwater environments and 18 interactive levels, players must guide their creation from the primordial ooze to the safety of the shoreline, turning it from a defenceless, single-celled organism into a feared, complex predator. To help the creations move up the food chain – and to produce a creature that perfectly matches each player’s style – there are over one billion customisable combinations to choose from.  

As well as enjoying a dramatic soundtrack, ambient audio effects and vivid visuals, creators can enter the N-Gage Arena to see how they compare with the rest of the N-Gage universe.

Will your spore have what it takes to survive? Join the evolution by downloading Spore™ Origins on N-Gage now.

SPORE™ Origins is now available at http://www.n-gage.com.au

Be Him Or Beat Him; Anthony Mundine Makes His Debut In Fight Night Round 4 

Sydney, Australia. – Wednesday, May 20, 2009 – Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: ERTS) announced today that “The Man”, Anthony Mundine, and “The Greatest of All Time”, Muhammad Ali will share the Xbox 360 cover of one of the most anticipated games of 2009, Fight Night Round 4. Fight Night Round 4 is being developed under the EA SPORTS™ brand by EA Canada in Vancouver, B.C and will be available in Australian retail stores on July 2nd, 2009.

Anthony Mundine, arguably one of Australia’s best boxers, is renowned for both his confidence in and outside the ring as he takes on all challengers with his signature combination of speed and power. Muhammad Ali, the most celebrated boxer of all time, was famous for his quick tongue and his even quicker hands that wore down his opponents fight after fight. Ali was the first fighter in history to win the undisputed heavyweight championship three times, and is highly revered for his contribution to the sport of boxing. Now see these two boxing juggernauts stand side by side in Fight Night Round 4. 

“I’m proud to be on the cover of Fight Night Round 4 with Ali. He’s always been an inspiration that I looked up to both inside and outside the ring” said Mundine. “Now in Fight Night Round 4, everyone can see how good I really am against fighters like Ali, Tyson, Sugar Ray and all the other champions of boxing.”

The addition of Anthony Mundine to Fight Night Round 4 is sure to excite fight fans as they finally get their chance to step into the ring and take on “The Man”, or fight as him and challenge any of the other all time greats in the game. Promising to revolutionize the fighting genre, Fight Night Round 4 features an all new physics based gameplay engine that brings the most authentic interpretation of the sweet science to the videogame world. The action inside the ring will be faster than ever, delivering a true representation of the sport’s incredible speed, accuracy, timing, and power. Fight Night Round 4 allows you to create dozens of legendary match ups, including Tyson vs. Ali, with unprecedented realism.

This game has been rated M by the OFLC. For more information, log onto http://fightnight.easports.com. Media can find images of the cover, screenshots and video at http://info.ea.com.

Sydney – May 20, 2009 — Seagate (NASDAQ: STX), the world’s leading provider of storage solutions, today unveiled the new Seagate® FreeAgent® Theatre™ HD media player, a complete home Theatre solution designed to enhance the experience of enjoying digital media by providing an easy way to play your favourite videos, movies and photos on your TV. The Seagate FreeAgent Theatre media player is a new accessory designed to work with the company’s award-winning FreeAgent® Go™ portable hard drive, enabling people to easily enjoy stored digital media on their TV screens rather than their computer monitors. Just tuck the media player next to your TV, pop in your FreeAgent Go hard drive, point, click, and enjoy as your personal memories and favourite movies come to life before your eyes in HD quality video with surround sound.

The FreeAgent Theatre HD Media Player also comes with the front-mounted USB port for use with any USB storage device, such as digital cameras, flash drives or external hard drives. The FreeAgent Theatre HD Media Player is available in Australia and New Zealand as a standalone version only so you can have the option of using it with a FreeAgent Go portable hard drive as a complete solution or only with USB devices you already own.

“Consumers are awakening to the fact that the PC isn’t the best place to store or view their photos and videos, says Chris Chute, research manager for IDC. “Over time the living room and robust storage solutions will go hand-in-hand to facilitate the next-generation of sharing memories.”

According to IDC’s digital imaging research[1], consumers the world over capture and archive over 15 billion gigabytes of digital photos and video every year, most of which is primarily viewed and stored on the home computer. However, according to a recent survey by Parks Associates[2], more than a quarter of consumers are interested in accessing personal content – such as photos and music – directly on the TV, while nearly a third of respondents expressed interest in being able to view movies and other PC-hosted video through the TV. Historically the only way to transfer digital files from the computer to the home entertainment centre was through complicated home networking solutions or the time-consuming task of burning multiple DVDs or CDs. Now the Seagate FreeAgent Theatre Media Player provides a way for people to easily store and move their media library between their PC and home entertainment system so they can share their favourite photos, movies and videos with family and friends in a familiar and comfortable setting. 

Key Features and Benefits

The Seagate FreeAgent Theatre media player introduces a new way of thinking about how an external hard drive is used. Back up, storage and protection have always been the primary function of an external storage device. With FreeAgent Theatre, Seagate now introduces enjoyment:

Experience high-definition movie viewing with DVD-like playback control and surround sound.
Pair slideshows of high-resolution photo libraries with music collections and customize with specialized transition effects.
Easily sync and organize digital media from multiple computers using the FreeAgent Go drive.
Instantly access entire libraries of digital media by simply popping a FreeAgent Go drive into the media player or connecting another external storage device using the external USB port.
On-screen navigation is a snap with the handy remote with an intuitive interface and familiar button layout.
 

Seagate FreeAgent Theatre couples cool functional design with technical simplicity. The docking solution eliminates the need for fumbling with excessive amounts of cables or complicated network setups, while its familiar DVD-style remote control interface makes it a breeze for any member of the family to use. Its sleek, piano-black encasing makes this new component look right at home beside the DVR, DVD-player and television.

The included FreeAgent Theatre software is a rich media-specific synchronization application for the automatic transfer and organization of all the photos, music, videos and movies stored on your computer. And since the FreeAgent Go drives are now available in a rainbow of colours, it will be easy to catalogue and organize digital libraries according to the colour of the drive—storing favourite movies on one drive, family photos on a second and music on yet another.

“Consumers today are the number one creators and aggregators of digital content—most of which holds a sentimental or emotional value and is unfortunately trapped on their home computers,” said BanSeng Teh, vice president and managing director of Seagate Asia Pacific. “For years, Seagate has provided solutions for storing, organizing and protecting this personal content – now, with Seagate FreeAgent Theatre, we provide the ability for families and friends to share and enjoy these memories together in the comfort of their living rooms.”

Technical Specifications

One of the key features that make the Seagate FreeAgent Theatre so easy to use is the number of supported Audio/Video formats. The FreeAgent Theatre media player supports MPEG-1, MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 formats, and DIVX files with video resolutions for NTSC, PAL and HD up to 1080i and even provides support for subtitles. The audio formats supported include 5.1 channel surround sound, where available, and also plays the popular digital audio formats including:  MP3, WMA, WAV and OGG. To download and transfer content to the Seagate FreeAgent Go, a Windows XP or Vista operated PC is required, with 256MB RAM and an available USB port. FreeAgent Theatre connects to any TV with either composite, S-video or component video and audio inputs and an AC outlet.

Pricing and Availability

The Seagate FreeAgent Theatre Media Player Solution will be available in June at major retailers as a stand-alone player with the remote control at a manufacturer’s suggested retail price (MSRP) of $199.00 AUD and $249 NZD.

For Additional Multimedia and Product Information:

http://www.seagate.com

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http://seagate.mediaseed.tv/

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About Seagate

Seagate is the worldwide leader in hard disk drives and storage solutions. Learn more at http://www.seagate.com/

Seagate, Seagate Technology, and the Wave logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Seagate Technology LLC or its affiliates in the United States and/or other countries. FreeAgent, FreeAgent Theatre, and FreeAgent Go are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Seagate Technology LLC or one of its affiliated companies in the United States and/or other countries. All other trademarks or registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners. When referring to hard drive capacity, one gigabyte, or GB, equals one billion bytes and one terabyte, or TB, equals one trillion bytes. Your computer’s operating player may use a different standard of measurement and report a lower capacity. In addition, some of the listed capacity is used for formatting and other functions, and thus will not be available for data storage. Seagate reserves the right to change, without notice, product offerings or specifications.

A new trailer has been released for Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 which features the Marvel comic character Deadpool. Watch the trailer here! 

For more information visit http://marvelultimatealliance.marvel.com

– Active Turn Battle System, Hybrid Visual Style and Seamless World Navigation Combine in a Unique New Take on Traditional RPG Genre –

– CERGY-PONTOISE, FRANCE – NAMCO BANDAI Games Europe S.A.S have announced MagnacartaTM2 coming to Australia this Spring exclusively for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft. Developed by SoftMax, the team behind the original Magna Carta: Tears of Blood, and powered by the Unreal Engine3, Magnacarta 2 combines a deep storyline, beautifully detailed graphics and a unique active turn battle system to create a fresh new RPG experience.

Magnacarta 2 introduces an original storyline driven by intense themes of love, hate, politics, betrayal and the ultimate question of choosing one’s own fate. Players are immersed in the world of the Lanzheim Continent, a conflict-ridden land deeply divided by a fierce civil war. Powered by the Unreal Engine3 and featuring character designs by famed Korean artist Hyung-Tae Kim, the game bears a striking visual style unlike any other RPG through its blend of photo-realism and Japanese manga influences. The deeply emotional story is driven by beautifully rendered CGI cut-scenes featuring fully voiced dialogue to draw players into the immersive experience.

Delivering more than 40 hours of gameplay, Magnacarta 2 features a unique battle system which combines strategic turn-based battles and real-time gameplay, creating a fresh twist on the traditional RPG formula. The game seamlessly blends world navigation and battles as everything happens in the same environment with no load screens or abrupt changes in the action when a fight begins or ends. Players can utilize objects found in the environment to their advantage and likewise, creatures and field objects dynamically react to the player’s actions. A free-roaming camera further adds to the unrestricted interaction with the world. Players are also given flexible control over their party with the ability to pre-assign attributes for each AI character and the freedom to easily switch control between all the characters at any time.

Magnacarta 2 features a variety of adaptable options to keep the action fresh throughout the game. By defeating monsters, players obtain Kamonds which can be used to enhance a variety of weapons as well as create new items. When players change their weapon, they take on a different fighting style that adapts all the related moves and skills to that weapon’s attributes. While normal skills can be performed by any player at any time, special moves require skilfully timed actions to exploit the rhythm of the battle to their advantage. The pinnacle of special moves is the over-drive mode where players can use the most powerful combination of skills at one time to perform devastating attacks to defeat enemies. KAN (magic), representing the four elements of nature (Wind, Water, Lightning and Fire), adds another dimension to gameplay whereby players generate KAN for use in battle and to affect environmental objects in various ways.

Developed by SoftMax, Magnacarta 2 will launch in Australia this Spring 2009 exclusively for Xbox 360. For more information, please visit www.namcobandaigames.eu.

About NAMCO BANDAI Games Europe:
NAMCO BANDAI Games Europe S.A.S., is a leading interactive entertainment software publisher based in Cergy-Pontoise, France. The company is a part of the NAMCO BANDAI group of companies known for creating and publishing many of the industry’s top video game franchises including the RidgeRacer™, Tekken™, SOULCALIBUR™, Tamagotchi™, Digimon™, Dragonball® and Naruto™ brands.

Xbox, Xbox 360, and Xbox LIVE are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries.

“Magnacarta” is a trademark of NAMCO BANDAI Games Inc. & SOFTMAX CO.,LTD.

©SOFTMAX CO.,LTD. ©2004-2009 NAMCO BANDAI Games Inc.

“Magna Carta: Tears of Blood” is a trademark of © SOFTMAX CO.,LTD. & © BANPRESTO 2005

Published and distributed by Atlus USA under license from SOFTMAX CO.,LTD and BANPRESTO CO.,LTD

Unreal is a registered trademark of Epic Games, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Unreal ® Engine, Copyright 1998 – 2009, Epic Games, Inc.  All rights reserved.

“Strategic Options” ushers in the next wave of battle for “Halo Wars” fans with three new game modes which dramatically change the multiplayer experience and challenge players to rethink their battle tactics. The three new modes include:

•        Keepaway Mode is the “Halo Wars” adaptation of “capture the flag”.  Teams will battle it out to capture a free-roaming Forerunner Sentinel to score points before the other team. Capture three sentinels to claim victory.

•        Tug of War Mode is all about having a stronger army than the opponent.  Defeating enemies is essential, but success is determined by a combination of the army, buildings and resources left standing in the end.

•        In Reinforcement Mode, all active battle units are provided in successive waves.  Players must adapt their tactics and use the ever-changing set of units to outwit and outlast the enemy.

 “Strategic Options” also adds four new Achievements worth a total of 100 points:

•        “One and Done” (30 points):  Score the winning point in a game of “Keepaway” against Legendary A.I.’s

•        “Pull Hard, Pull Deep” (20 points):  Win and never trail in a “Tug of War” game

•        “Freak on a Streak” (20 points):  Gain at least 15 population from a single wave in a “Reinforcement” game

•        “Living Loving Bug” (30 points):  Obtain a Scarab during a “Reinforcement” game

More information on “Strategic Options” including release date and pricing will be available soon. “Halo Wars” is rated PG and is available worldwide. A demo is also available on Xbox LIVE in all LIVE enabled regions worldwide. 

For more information including screenshots from the “Strategic Options” Add-on, visit www.xbox.com/en-AU/games/h/halowars/ or www.HaloWars.com .

SINGAPORE – 20 May 2009 – Creative Technology Ltd. today introduced the
attractive and eye-catching Creative ZEN® Mozaic EZ300 portable media
player for music, photos and video. Modeled after the popular Creative ZEN
Mozaic with the bold unique design, the Creative ZEN Mozaic EZ300 features
the convenience of plug-and-play and great value for money.

With the easy plug-and-play feature, the Creative ZEN Mozaic EZ300 lets
users connect it to a PC or laptop and drag and drop songs directly into
the player. The bundled Creative Centrale software allows users to manage
their music, photos and video easily between their PC and the player.

Available in black and in a 4GB or 8GB capacity, the Creative ZEN Mozaic
EZ300 sports a sharp 1.8″ TFT full colour display, impressive built-in
speaker, integrated FM Radio, voice recorder and alarm clock. Great as a
lifestyle tool, the Creative ZEN Mozaic EZ300 does much more than play
music or display photos. View calendar, contacts and time on the player or
maximise it as an external storage device to store important files and
documents.

Pricing and Availability
The Creative ZEN Mozaic EZ300 will be available at The CREATIVE Stores at
International Business Park and Marina Square, the online store at
sg.store.creative.com and authorized dealers in Singapore from mid June
2009 onwards at the suggested retail prices of S$109.00 for the 4GB model
and S$139.00 for the 8GB model.

For more information about the Creative ZEN Mozaic EZ300, please visit
www.creative.com/zenmozaic-ez.

The Harry Potter and the Half-Blood videogame is THE place for fans to live the thrills, action and excitement of Harry Potter from 2nd July.

May 21 2009, Australia – Electronic Arts Inc (NASDAQ:ERTS) and Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment has confirmed that the Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince™ video game will be in stores across Australia from 2nd July 2009, just ahead of the Warner Bros. Pictures’ film based on J.K. Rowling’s sixth book in the Harry Potter series.

In the game of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, players will return to Hogwarts to help Harry survive a fraught sixth year. They will also have a chance to engage in exciting wizard duels, mix and brew magical ingredients in Potions class and take to the air to lead the Gryffindor Quidditch team to victory. Players may even get sidetracked by Ron’s romantic entanglements as they journey towards a dramatic climax and discover the identity of the Half-Blood Prince.

Developed by EA Bright Light in Guildford, England – the team behind the worldwide success of the Harry Potter library of games including the most recent game released in the summer of 2007, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix – Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is scheduled for release in Australia on 2nd July for the Wii™, PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system, Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system, PlayStation®2 computer entertainment system, PSP® (PlayStation®Portable) system, Nintendo DS™, Windows PC, and mobile devices.

Now available from www.fuel-game.com