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GET YOUR CREW ON THE LINE – THE HEIST IS ON IN PAYDAY 2!

Sydney, Australia – August 13, 2013 – 505 Games, a global publisher of video games, and Overkill – a Starbreeze company,  today announced the launch of eagerly awaited heist-based co-op shooter PAYDAY 2 for Steam PC and home consoles.

Winner of four “best of show” awards at E3 2013, PAYDAY 2  casts gamers as a member of the infamous Payday crew as they work their way through the biggest, most elaborate heists of their careers using the all new Crime Net system, overseen by the mysterious Bain.

Designed from the ground up to be the ultimate four-player, co-operative experience, PAYDAY 2 also features four brand new skill trees – the charismatic Mastermind, heavy Enforcer, gadget-crazy Technician and the super stealthy Ghost – which, alongside a versatile weapon modification system and all new mask creator, gives players the chance to live out their own fantasy of being a career criminal.

Watch the launch trailer on YouTube: http://youtu.be/DvSQquoV1L0 or download it directly: https://www.hightail.com/download/bWJxNWNuQVMzMW41SE1UQw

Payday 2 launches on Steam on Tuesday August 13th priced at US$29.99 (AU$32.74), on August 14th on PlayStation®Network at $49.95, and as well as in retail stores across Australia and New Zealand on August 15th for both the PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system and the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft priced at $49.95. A Games on Demand version will also become available shortly on the Xbox Live® online entertainment network from Microsoft for Xbox 360 priced at $49.95.

 

With so many options to purchase it’s never been easier to pull on your mask and rob banks with friends!

 

To stay up to date with all things Payday 2 check out twitter.com/PAYDAYGAME, www.CRIMENET.info and www.facebook/paydaytheheist

 
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Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues – First Stills

Unofficial Synopsis:

With the 70’s behind him, San Diego’s top rated newsman, Ron Burgundy (Will Ferrell), returns to the news desk in ANCHORMAN 2: THE LEGEND CONTINUES.

Also back for more are Ron’s co-anchor and wife, Veronica Corningstone (Christina Applegate), weather man Brick Tamland (Steve Carell), man on the street Brian Fantana (Paul Rudd) and sports guy Champ Kind (David Koechner) – All of whom won’t make it easy to stay classy… while taking New York’s first 24-hour news channel by storm.

Source: Way To Blue http://www.waytoblue.com/

 
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“WORLD WAR Z” HAS NOW GROSSED $500 MILLION AT THE GLOBAL BOX OFFICE – Media Release

“WORLD WAR Z” BECOMES BRAD PITT’S HIGHEST GROSSING WORLDWIDE RELEASE AND HIS BIGGEST EVER DOMESTIC GROSSING FILM OF ALL TIME

THE HIT MOVIE HAS NOW GROSSED $500 MILLION AT THE GLOBAL BOX OFFICE

HOLLYWOOD, CA – (August 11, 2013) – Brad Pitt’s “WORLD WAR Z” has now earned over $500 million at worldwide box office, making it the actor’s highest grossing worldwide release, surpassing the star’s “TROY” which grossed $497.3 million globally.

After setting a personal best with a $66 million opening on June 21, “WORLD WAR Z” has gone on to total $197.4 million in the U.S. The film delivered Pitt’s highest grossing domestic release of all time (besting “MR. & MRS. SMITH’s” total domestic gross of $186.3 million), and the biggest opening weekend of his career (beating “SMITH’s” $50.3 million opener). The film has earned $305.2 million at the international box office, to date.

“WORLD WAR Z” revolves around an ex-United Nations investigator Gerry Lane (Brad Pitt), who traverses the world in a race against time to stop a pandemic that is toppling armies and governments and threatening to decimate humanity itself. The film stars Pitt, Mireille Enos and James Badge Dale.

Paramount Pictures and Skydance Production present, in association with Hemisphere Media Capital and GK Films, a Plan B Entertainment/2DUX2 Production “WORLD WAR Z,” directed by Marc Forster from a screenplay by Matthew Michael Carnahan and Drew Goddard & Damon Lindelof, and screen story by Matthew Michael Carnahan and J. Michael Straczynski. Based on the novel by Max Brooks. Produced by Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner and Ian Bryce.

Source: Paramount Pictures Media Release

 
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Why isn’t the new Doctor a woman?

Why isn’t the new Doctor a woman?

By Chris Tyler

So the new doctor has been announced and although the choice of actor has been approved of fans so far there is still a group of people out there going “But I wanted it to be a woman”

In story there are good strong reasons why the doctor (as far as we know) has never been a woman for the same reason why the doctor has never been an ethnic minority (unless you count Scottish) or an Alien (although, if the doctor can regenerate into anything but a humanoid biped then it has never been described or seen on screen with any Time Lord, perhaps they simply can’t or it’s not “the done thing?”)

But whilst other time lords (Romana for one) have demonstrated a particular talent for picking and choosing regenerations as well as the transition from one regeneration to the other being smooth the Doctor has never been particularly good at this, every regeneration has been pot luck, every regeneration has been fraught with difficulties and the doctor has had about as much control over it all as he has had over the Tardis. So in story the regenerations cycle isn’t really under the Doctors control, maybe he wants to be a woman but it’s just never happened in much the same way that he wants to be Ginger.

Or perhaps it is a choice, perhaps the doctor has no control over who he ends up being but can control gender and is perfectly happy not to be a woman since he spends a lot of time on earth and doesn’t want to have to deal with all the ridiculous sexism that happens there.

Out of story much as Peter Capali is bound to grow on me (I think he’s a better choice than Matt Smith was)  but it’s a safe decision.  Good, dependable, slightly interesting but not brave in any way shape or form. Of course no matter what your politics the person who takes on the shoes HAS to be a great actor first and foremost, fortunately there are lots of great actors. You could argue that Matt Smith was a brave decision and I’m all for older Doctors but I must admit that my favourite choice was Chiwetelu Umeadi Ejiofor who is also not a woman but at least is of a different ethnicity and also a fantastic actor the only downfall would be having to learn how to pronounce that name, then Tilda Swinton an extraordinary actor who I thought would be able to bring some authority and androgyny to the role and therefore satisfy everyone. And then James May but only because I’d like for the new companion to go “It’s bigger on the inside?!?” excitedly and for the Doctor to go “Yes, it is! And I’ll tell you something interesting about that…”and then spend the rest of the episode explaining dimensional mechanics to an increasingly bored companion. The other advantage of that is that you can then cast Jeremy Clarkson as the Master. (What’s he after? POWWERR!!)

The real reason that we probably didn’t get a female doctor this time round is that the writers don’t know how do to it. Of course the best way to do it is it just cast a woman and then simply never draw attention to it, the doctor is now a woman, so what? The most intelligent and mature reaction we can have is no reaction because on a galactic scale gender simply isn’t important. Unfortunately on Earth in a writers room it still is and so I think they just went “We don’t know how to do this”. On forums I saw exchanges like, but if the doctors a woman then she can just get it on with the Master then right? And someone else replying “oh I’d like that” which is why fans shouldn’t be allowed to write the show. I’m fairly sure that the doctor’s objection to snogging the master isn’t his current sex but the fact that he’s an evil megalomaniac who’s tried to kill the doctor repeatedly. Just because it’s science fiction doesn’t mean that just anything  can happen. Does it Mark Gatzis?

On the other hand some people need to take a good hard look at why they want the next doctor to be a woman, I’m not sure that “it’s about time”or “Because we have established that time lords can regerate into women” are really good enough reasons. In the end the only question a writer should ever ask is “Does this serve the story” and that’s a question only they can answer although I’m not sure how it wouldn’t provided they got the right actor and that’s a caveat that applies to anyone who might potentially be the doctor.

There is this test for sexism that gets trotted out every so often because people continually get it wrong, overwhelmingly.

“A boy and his dad they get into a severe car accident. They were rushed to the hospital where they were put in separate rooms. The Doctor goes into the boy’s room and says I cannot operate on this child, he is my son. How can this be?”

The answer is of course that the Doctor is the boy’s mother but surprisingly few people get that at the first pass. That’s because in society there is still an ingrained notion that women are nurse and doctors are men and it looks like that’s the way it’s going to be for a while.

 
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ACTIVISION AND TREYARCH REVEALS APOCALYPSE, THE HIGHLY-ANTICIPATED FINAL DLC PACK FOR CALL OF DUTY®: BLACK OPS II COMING FIRST, EXCLUSIVELY TO XBOX LIVE ON AUGUST 27

Treyarch Caps Its Epic Call of Duty®: Black Ops II Season Pass Offering with Two All-New Multiplayer Maps, Two Re-Imagined Fan-Favourite Maps, and the Ground-breaking “Origins” Zombies Experience 

World Famous Rock Band Avenged Sevenfold and Renowned Comics Painter/Illustrator Alex Ross Lend Their Talent in support of  Call of Duty®: Black Ops II: Apocalypse 

Sydney, Australia – August 12, 2013 – The epic climax of Activision and Treyarch’s Call of Duty®: Black Ops II Downloadable Content (DLC) Season Pass culminates with Apocalypse.  Available first on the Xbox Live® online entertainment network from Microsoft on August 27, the game’s fourth and final DLC Pack delivers four thrilling and diverse multiplayer maps, and the all-new wildly creative Zombies experience – “Origins”.

With Apocalypse, Activision Publishing, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Activision Blizzard (Nasdaq: ATVI), and its award-winning studio Treyarch have partnered with award-winning Warner Bros. Records rock band, Avenged Sevenfold, who contribute the song, “Shepherd of Fire” from their upcoming album, “Hail to the King,” to the Zombies experience, which will be featured in the intro cinematic video for “Origins.” Along with Avenged Sevenfold, famed comics illustrator and painter, Alex Ross, has also lent his talent to “Origins,” providing original art that features the original Zombies heroes.  One of the most esteemed comic book artists of all time, Ross is most famous for his work with DC and Marvel Comics, and has won many notable awards for his artistic design.

“Apocalypse is Treyarch’s grand finale to Call of Duty: Black Ops II,” said Treyarch Studio Head, Mark Lamia. “It is the perfect culmination of our efforts, and fan feedback, with two all-new multiplayer maps for players to experience for the first time, and two fully reimagined fan-favourite multiplayer maps from past games – and Origins, our most epic Zombies experience to date.  Apocalypse is a DLC pack that our fans will never forget.”

Call of Duty: Black Ops II Apocalypse delivers four diverse multiplayer maps:

  • Pod: A failed utopian community from the 70’s has left stacks of dilapidated residential pods nestled into an abandoned cliff side in Taiwan. Its residents long gone, the modernist compound now hosts frenetic combat as players must run atop the pods, as well as navigate their multi-tiered interiors for a strategic edge.
  • Frost: Fresh snow meets explosive gunpowder in this snow-capped European city, where the bridge over a frozen canal separates it into two sides, requiring players to employ multi-level traversal strategies to outsmart and ultimately outshoot their enemies.
  • Takeoff:  Fans of “Stadium” from the original Call of Duty®: Black Ops First Strike DLC will find themselves at home on “Takeoff.” Marooned in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, this remote launch site is all about close-quarters combat, combining tight corners with open spaces for intense encounters.
  • Dig: An adaptation of the fan-favourite “Courtyard” from Call of Duty®: World at War, where two archeological dig sites in Afghanistan become the perfect playground for combatants eager for hectic, unceasing confrontations. Treyarch, has retained the spirit of “Courtyard” with two major chokepoints, a wide open layout and raised platforms, but has provided fans with a fresh take on the multitude of paths.

In addition to the four maps, Apocalypse also reveals Origins, the most horrifying and imaginative Zombies experience to date. Players will be deployed to Dieselpunk-stylized World War I-era France where they will encounter the return of the four original heroes from the very first Zombies map, Tank, Nikolai, Takeo, and Rictofen, as well as hordes of zombies that have overrun trenches and fields, as well as the ruins of a mysterious and ancient location.

Unleashed after the Germans unearthed the mysterious “Element 115,” this next chapter in the Zombies legacy will explore the saga’s origins as players reunite with an unlikely band of soldiers that come together to defeat the greatest evil the world has ever seen, using a period-specific arsenal that includes Wonder Weapons that harness supernatural powers, a diesel-drone and Mark IV tank, as well a new perk machine and power-ups – and that’s just the start. Players will need all the help they can get to succeed in defeating the undead, as well as evading an unprecedented 1,000-foot tall robot abomination. In this stylized undead adventure, they’ll need every advantage if they have any hope of surviving one of Treyarch’s deepest Zombies experiences to date. 

Call of Duty: Black Ops II Apocalypse will be available first, exclusively on Xbox Live for the Xbox 360® games and entertainment system from Microsoft for 1200 Microsoft Points on August 27, with other platforms to follow.  Players who have already purchased the Season Pass can download Apocalypse as soon as it becomes available. Call of Duty: Black Ops II is rated“MA15+” (Strong Violence and Coarse Language) by the Australian Classification Board.  More information on Call of Duty: Black Ops II can be found at http://www.callofduty.com/blackops2 or on www.facebook.com/codblackops.  Fans can also follow @Treyarch on Twitter.

 
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Bitdefender Mobile Security Achieves Perfect Score in AV-TEST trials

Bitdefender for Android scores maximum points for protection and usability 

Sydney, AUSTRALIA, August 12, 2013 – Bitdefender Mobile Security, the cutting-edge Android security app by the leading internet security provider, achieved perfect scores across the board for a second time straight in testing by independent security analysis firm AV-TEST.

Bitdefender, the creator of innovative global antivirus solutions, scored 6 out of 6 in Protection, 6 out of 6 for Usability and AV-TEST approval for extra security features such as anti-theft and remote wipe in July/August testing, repeating its perfect performance of the May/June trials.

The elite Android security solution caught 100 percent of the malware samples thrown at it throughout the month of testing and gave of zero false warnings, according to AV-TEST results. Testing also showed the app doesn’t impact battery life, does not slow the device during normal use and doesn’t generate excessive traffic.

“Bitdefender is proving as reliable in the mobile arena as it is in its other endeavors,” AV-TEST CEO Andreas Marx said, noting Bitdefender’s top scores in testing on Windows 8 and Windows 7 this year. “A perfect score on protection, maximum ease of use and the array of other features is exactly what mobile security software creators aspire too. Bitdefender has achieved it.”

The results for Bitdefender Mobile Security beat 28 of the 29 other companies tested. Only Kaspersky Mobile Security, which lost to Bitdefender’s perfect score in May/June testing, managed a tie in July tests.

 

“Mobile security is becoming increasingly important with the proliferation of both mobile devices and the malware that targets them for data theft, SMS scams and other costly fraud,” said Bitdefender Chief Security Strategist Catalin Cosoi. “While the need for mobile security is relatively new, Bitdefender is not. The latest AV-TEST results prove that we can take a decade of experience and the industry-leading quality of our traditional software lines and translate that to the mobile arena.”

 

 
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THE MOST EAGERLY ANTICIPATED HOME ENTERTAINMENT RELEASE OF THE YEAR IS HERE!

AVAILABLE ON DVD & BLU RAY WITH FREE SHIPPING ACROSS AUSTRALIA FROM SCREENPOP.COM.AU

DVD: http://www.screenpop.com.au/dvd/wentworth-season-1/4309.html

BLU RAY: http://www.screenpop.com.au/blu-ray/wentworth-season-1/4310.html

 
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REEL ANIME 2013 in cinemas Sep – Oct

Madman Entertainment are proud to announce final dates and cinema details for the REEL ANIME 2013 theatrical festival.

Opening September 26 in Adelaide, then followed closely on October 3 in all other states, REEL ANIME 2013 will showcase a stellar line-up of the finest animated features, direct from Japan, including EVANGELION: 3.0 YOU CAN (NOT) REDO, 009 RE: CYBORG, A LETTER TO MOMO and a double-bill of THE GARDEN OF WORDS and GHOST IN THE SHELL: ARISE.

Australian cinema locations will include: Palace Eastend (Adelaide), Cinema Nova (Melbourne), Dendy Newtown (Sydney), Luna Leederville (Perth), Dendy Portside (Brisbane), State Cinema (Hobart), Dendy Canberra and Avoca Beach Picture Theatre.

The New Zealand REEL ANIME 2013 program opens September 19 in Christchurch and Dunedin, following by Auckland and Wellington on September 26.

New Zealand cinema locations will include Hoyts Riccarton (Christchurch), Rialto Dunedin, Academy Cinema (Auckland) and Paramount Cinemas (Wellington).

For more details, visit www.reelanime.com.

 
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The Aftermath – new The Bureau: XCOM Declassified traile

 
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PAYDAY 2 Web Series Episode Four is out now!

505 Games, OVERKILL – a Starbreeze studio and director Demian Lichtenstein unveiled the fourth episode in the live action PAYDAY Web Series. 

Watch episode four on YouTube now.

Episode 4 of PAYDAY – the web-series sees the introduction of shady politician THE ELEPHANT played by Bokeem Woodbine (Total Recall, Riddick). He gets the job done, especially whenever a nice campaign donation comes his way…but who is really pulling the strings in his run for the senate?   

Co-op heist shooter PAYDAY 2 – the videogame –  launches this week on steam, Xbox 360, PS3 and PSN  – pre-order your copy now!

PAYDAY 2 was nominated for 7 awards at E3 2013 and winner of Polygon – Editor’s Choice Award E3 2013 and Co-Optimus – E3 2013 Game of the Show.

Follow PAYDAY 2 on www.facebook.com/paydaytheheist and twitter.com/paydaygame or log on to http://www.overkillsoftware.com/ and www.crimenet.info

 
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