Dinosaur Train Campout!

Jim Henson’s Dinosaur Train: Campout! Is the latest DVD from the hit preschool series. Featuring ten exciting episodes children will learn about all different types of dinosaurs with Buddy and his family!

From the creator of the hit children’s brand Fraggle Rock, Jim Henson’s Dinosaur Train embraces and celebrates the fascination that pre-schoolers have with both dinosaurs and trains while sparking an interest in life science, natural history and palaeontology.

In Australia, Dinosaur Train has become a pre-schoolers favourite TV show, consistently one of the top rated shows on PBS. With huge brand support in apparel, toys, foot ware, books and more. Joining the other four Dinosaur Train DVD releases, Dinosaur Train: Campout! will be available in store from the 1st February 2012. DVD Specifications 10 episodes / 1 disc Approximately 150 minutes running time SRP: $19.95

Strawberry Shortcake Dream Dancers

Get ready as Strawberry Shortcake and her friends work together to win their annual dance competition. There are big prizes, guests coming to town and Strawberry and the girls are determined to make sure everyone has a sweet time. Join Strawberry Shortcake and her friends for 6 berry fun episodes in the last DVD release for season one. Find the latest release of this hugely successful girls brand Strawberry Shortcake: Dream Dancers in store from 7th March.
DVD Specifications 6 episodes / 1 disc Approximately 106 minutes running time SRP: $19.95

Confrontation, the new Tactical RPG from Cyanide (Game of Thrones, Blood Bowl) today unveiled its official website, along with never-before-seen screenshots! Confrontation is the video game adaptation of the famous board game universe by Rackham. Deftly combining role-playing game elements with strategy, Confrontation offers a rich and unique experience that focuses on intense and extremely tactical battles.

Discover now more about the game! The official website of Confrontation is the perfect place to stay informed about all the actuality around the game, to talk about it on the forum, and to gather all kind of information about Confrontation: its story, its game mechanics, but also ton of info on the 4 factions fighting over Aarklash (the Jackal, the Wolf, the Griffin and the Scorpion) presented in every detail along all their units! For the occasion, players may discover a series of exclusive screenshots, that they will also find in the large image gallery on the newly opened website!

Confrontation will be released on PC in March 2012.

– Visit the website

About Confrontation
The game is set in the fantastic and original universe of Confrontation, Aarklash. As the Age of Rag’narok is approaching, you will take the lead of a troup of elite Griffin warriors infiltrating enemy territory in order to bring an end to the Scorpion threat. During their journey, they will have to face numerous threats, such as the fearsome creatures of the Alchemists of Dirz, the brutal Orcs of Bran-O-Kor, or the ferocious Wolfen pack. The route will be full of danger before they reach their destination in the depths of the Scorpion’s lands.

You will have to astutely lead and develop your squad, in order to obtain victory. Develop the soldiers and creatures that will fight by your side, and establish sharp tactics to annihilate your enemies! Careful management of your units, their powers and skills, as well as clever use of your environment will get you through near-death situations and lead you to epic victory!

Confrontation also shines in multiplayer. Choose the faction you’ll side with: Griffin, Scorpion, Wolfen or Orc, and battle other players’ elite squads from all around the globe. Level up, unlock new units, and claim supremacy on the battlefields!

Confrontation will be released on PC in retail and online stores very soon.

About Focus Home Interactive
Founded in 1996, Focus Home Interactive is an independent French publisher based near Paris, France. Known for the quality, diversity and originality of its catalogue, Focus has published and distributed original titles that have become benchmark titles worldwide – such as Blood Bowl, Sherlock Holmes, TrackMania, Runaway and also Cities XL and Cycling Manager.
In 2012, Focus will publish ambitious games such as Wargame: European Escalation, the new real time strategy game from the creators of « R.U.S.E. »™; Game Of Thrones™, the role-playing game adapted from the bestseller saga written by George R.R. Martin; The Testament of Sherlock Holmes™ on PC and for the first time ever on consoles; Of Orcs and Men, a great roleplaying game featuring Orcs and Goblins; Confrontation®, the video game adaptation of the famous board game universe by Rackham and also the official video game of Le Tour de France.
www.focus-home.com

“Days after a virus turns most of a small town into crazed killers, one man struggles to find a cure before it spreads to the outside world”.

Thursday February 9, 2012: Vancouver Canada

End Night, this years weirdest survival horror game hits the app store for iPad.

End Night brings the hardcore survival experience to mobile with fast pick up and play controls, dynamic missions and an emergent gameplay experience.

“We wanted to make something that created the heart pounding experience of survival horror games but allowed people to experience it in smaller chunks on a mobile device.” said the game’s creator Ben Falcone.

Working out of your safe home lab you’re concocting a vaccine for the virus. Outside the night air is filled with groans of infected townsfolk, all drooling for a piece of you…If you set a toe outside it’ll only be a matter of seconds before they pounce, hacking away at you.

End Night’s Gameplay Features:

• Decide how you survive the night by deciding which resources you need and where you need to go to find them.
• Dynamic missions that change depending on your choices.
• Loot weapons, ammo, healthpacks and more to stay alive and survive.
• Collect infected samples to discover a cure for the disease.
• Find bathtubs to wash infected blood off you.

End Night is more about resource management than fast twitch controls. Your decisions are where to go next and what you’ll need to loot to ensure survival. One bad choice, like deciding to go to a heavily infested area without looting the gun store for ammo and armor first, will probably see you end up in an early grave.

End Night also humanizes the survival horror genre putting you in the place of the last man in an infected town:

• Feel remorse after killing – find booze and bibles to wash away the pain.
• Keep your lab assistant happy so he can keep working on finding a cure
• Wash blood and gore off your body to avoid getting infected
• Doubt your actions as the infected leave you messages scrawled on walls pleading with you to stop killing them.

Falcone, talking about the game design said, “End Night” offers a dynamic experience that plays out in a cool emergent way – A good example is killing an enemy up close. If you use a shotgun you’re going to get smeared in infected blood. If you also have a wound that hasn’t been wrapped in a bandage you have a good chance of getting infected. So now your new sub mission becomes to get to a bathtub and clean your wounds and since the world is full of infected townsfolk, finding one is a dangerous task on it’s own but not cleaning the wound will damage your health progressively.”

End Night is a creepy suburban nightmare brought to life by visual effect artists who worked on movies like Tron: Legacy, 300 and Sweeney Todd.

• Optimised for iPad 2 running at a smooth 60 FPS and utilising advanced MSAA for smooth graphics.
• Advanced lighting effects create an eerie mood

For more information please visit the game’s website at www.endnightgame.com

Details:

Game Title: End Night

Developer: SKS Games

Platform: iPad and iPad 2

Release Date: February 9, 2012

Price: US $2.99

iTunes Link: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/end–night–hd/id498102948?ls=1&mt=8

Website: www.endnightgame.com

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/EndNightGame

Sydney, Australia – February 6, 2012 – Since 2008, Brother has had a partnership with Earthwatch as part of its ongoing commitment to environmental conservation and sustainable resource management.  In addition to direct support for scientific research, over the past three years over 75 brother employees and customers have participated in the ‘Scientist for a Day’ program. As ‘Citizen Scientists’, they volunteer their time to be actively involved in conservation projects by providing hands-on assistance to researchers in the field.

Recently, the focus of the program turned to capturing and assessing the freshwater turtle population in the Melbourne area. Throughout the world, populations of freshwater turtles are decreasing through habitat loss, fragmentation, isolation and over-exploitation by humans. However, very little is actually known about the freshwater turtles in Melbourne and the impact that urban expansion is having on their communities and the ecosystem they rely on to survive.
The aim of this ‘Scientist for a Day’ expedition was to examine the demography of the freshwater turtle populations in the Melbourne region and attempt to gain an understanding of the impact of urbanisation on the turtle habitat.

During November, a team of eight volunteers waded through Melbourne’s surrounding freshwater lakes and creeks, seeking out as many turtles as possible.  Each turtle was given a thorough health examination, weighed and measured.  They also checked for evidence of previous capture and catalogued the sex of each turtle they found. A small notch was made in each turtles shell and coded for future capture reference then released back into the same habitat, at the same point of capture.

The team consisted of four Brother staff, one customer, two University of Melbourne scientists and an Earthwatch research officer split into two groups of four. They started their adventure bright and early at 7am with a briefing where they were assigned their search areas for the day.  Equipped with nets and plenty of waterproof clothing, they arrived at their various destinations in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs and set up to capture turtles residing in the lake.  Samples were taken of the water chemistry and vegetation structure to analyse Ph levels, salinity and temperature. Once the various nets were in place, they moved to their second location and repeated the process. When they returned later in the day to check their nets, they discovered a total of ten eels, which were immediately released, and six long neck turtles. At the end of the day, happy with their finds, they removed their nets and headed home.

In addition to the helping contribute to environmental research, the volunteers also find their time as ‘Citizen Scientists’ to be highly rewarding and enjoyable. Ryan Hughes from Phil Hughes’ Office Solutions joined the expedition as a Brother customer and has a background and passion for zoology. “It was a Fantastic day.” he said, “A great way to get an insight into the life of turtles in the urban environment, a way to observe the pressures and obstacles that human development has placed in their way. I actually left with a smile on my face remembering the reason I studied zoology in the first place. I really do miss it and have resolved to participate in further Earthwatch initiatives in my own time.”

Peter Norris, Account Manager, Brother International Australia commented that his time spent with the team highlighted how a lot of day to day things, that many take for granted, impact and effect urban wildlife. He said it was “A great team building opportunity that I am sure that we will remember with great fondness in the future”.

Alex Rodriguez, Marketing Manager – CSR and Communications Support, Brother International Australia has lived in urban areas with marsh wet lands and ponds most of his life but said that his participation in the program made him realize just how many living creatures called those ponds home. “I learnt so many interesting things about the world we share with so many other living creatures”, he commented, “Having personally seen and interacted with some of the wildlife, I have a greater respect and understanding of wild life habitats”

As part of their continuing partnership with Earthwatch, Brother also invites the general public to get involved via its free click donation site www.BrotherEarth.com . By clicking on a button on the website, Brother will donate funds to help specific environmental programs around the world.  It doesn’t cost the public anything but the time it takes to click and for every click made to ‘Australia/Earthwatch’ button further work can be achieved in studying the Australian Marine Ecosystem.

Wargame: European Escalation, the explosive real-time strategy game developed for PC by Eugen Systems (R.U.S.E.™, Act of War), lets players control over 360 different units and vehicles faithfully modeled after actual units from 1975 to 1985. Jump behind the wheel and engage in armed conflict between NATO and the Warsaw Pact!

After unveiling NATO units and vehicles last week, players can discover today all of the 180 Warsaw Pact units with seven exclusive screenshots! Players may recognize some famous vehicles like the T-80 battle tanks, the fearsome Mi-28 Havoc gunship helicopter or the gigantic Mil Mi-26, the world’s biggest helicopter (120 feet long!), which will be very useful for resupplying Soviet forces.

Players will be able to select and recruit them to form their army, both in campaign and in multiplayer, thanks to an original and innovative ‘Deck’ system. In Wargame: European Escalation, 4 nations from the Warsaw Pact face NATO forces. Today’s screenshots unveil all 180 Soviet, Czechoslovakian, East-German and Polish units!

Wargame’s powerful engine, the IRISZOOM™, animates all these units on incredibly huge maps as big as 60 square miles, which display over 100 million scenery objects. Battles are as spectacular as they are realistic and deeply strategic, while hundreds of vehicles, infantry, and helicopters battle fiercely over the warzone!

We also want to remind players, that they may consult the official website’s Database section, which lists and displays all the game’s units!

This is a great opportunity to start planning your army in time for the game’s release in February 2012!

– Watch the video

– Visit the official website

About Wargame: European Escalation
Wargame: European Escalation, the new real time strategy game from Eugen Systems, a specialist of the genre and developer of the criticallylauded Act of War: Direct Action, and more recently R.U.S.E.™.

Wargame: European Escalation is built around depth and reflection, the key elements of classic wargames. Above solid foundations, Eugen Systems builds an impressive list of features and enhancements in order to provide a unique and innovative gaming experience to all real-time strategy fans.

Wargame: European Escalation features intense real-time battles, stunning graphics, and the amazing IRISZOOM™ system, which allows a continuous zoom from a global view of the map to the heart of the action. With real strategic gameplay, rich content, integration of EugenNet© and its numerous online services, Wargame: European Escalation will unite all the world’s biggest strategy fans.

Set in the rarely explored period of 1975-1985, Wargame: European Escalation pits NATO (USA and Western Europe) against the Warsaw Pact (Soviet and Eastern European countries) in battles that explore “what could have been.” The specter of nuclear warfare loomed large over the real Cold War, but this catastrophic outcome was the ultimate last resort as everyone knew that the first one to start nuclear hostilities would end up wiped out just the same. Large, armored offensives through Europe would certainly have been the core of this hypothetical war; and this is what the game’s explosive campaign takes you through!

PlayStation®3 (PS3™) leads Australian console sales in 2011
• PS3 achieves over 24% console unit growth in 2011
• PS3 platform delivers highest unit and value share in the industry

SYDNEY, 6 February, 2012 – Sony Computer Entertainment Australia (SCE Aust.) today announced solid results for calendar year 2011, with official NPD Group Australia data confirming that PlayStation®3 (PS3™) console sales outperformed the competition, driven by a 24.85% year-on-year uplift in unit sales. The total PlayStation 3 platform – which aggregates platform hardware, software and peripheral device sales[1] – also delivered the greatest unit and value share to the Australian games industry, at 25% and 31% respectively. In Australia, the number one software title of 2011, Activision’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, also sold the greatest number of units on the PS3 format.

Michael Ephraim, Managing Director, Sony Computer Entertainment Australia said: “Despite a very eventful year, these results signal the PlayStation platform’s leadership position in the interactive games category in Australia. The uplift on PS3 sales was no small feat, in fact, our percentage year-on-year unit growth was triple that of our nearest competitor. In 2012, we plan to further drive this position through our commitment to what PlayStation does best – delivering our customers quality, immersive entertainment experiences that set the benchmark for others to follow. This vision is both in the home, and very soon, on the go with PlayStation Vita which launches on February 23.”

PlayStation 3 now has a device footprint in Australia of almost 1.5 million consoles[2] with many people enjoying the convenience of a high definition entertainment solution that offers the choice of Blu-ray disc capability, side-by-side with access to digital services and content. While NPD data tracks physical retail sales, Sony Computer Entertainment Australia also achieved year-on-year growth in online revenues across the PlayStation®Network, which provides a comprehensive digital entertainment ecosystem of games, TV, movie and music content.

Ephraim continued: “We are leaders in interactive home entertainment. Now, there is a portable step-change coming. This year, PS Vita will provide the gold standard for customers who are seeking connected, uncompromised, immersive portable games experiences. When you look at the kind of gameplay possible with titles such as Uncharted, mobile devices just can’t deliver the breadth and depth of games experience that PS Vita can. Plus there’s Wi-Fi and 3G connectivity and integration of popular social apps such as Facebook, Twitter and Skype, which customers expect from a portable device.”

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[1] PS3 platform sales as tracked by NPD include first party and third party sales.
[1] PS3 numbers reflect life to date to Week 52, 2011 and combine NPD sales data of 1.27 million units and B2B sales of 210K.

Call of Duty®: Modern Warfare® 3’s Content Season for Call of Duty® Elite Premium Members on the PlayStation®Network kicks off this February 28

We’re excited to announce that the Call of Duty®: Modern Warfare® 3’s Content Season for Call of Duty® Elite kicks off for Premium Members on the PlayStation®Network February 28 with release of the first two content drops of the nine month season, Liberation and Piazza.

Call of Duty Elite Drop 1: Liberation, a militarized Central Park in the heart of NYC, featuring a vast landscape ripe for long-range sniper and LMG kills. Mounted turrets on opposing ends of the map offer overwhelming firepower to anyone brave enough to man them. Elite Drop 2: Piazza, set in an idyllic seaside village, Italian getaway gone rogue, where blind corners and a complex network of branching pathways pose danger at every turn. Visceral close-quarters combat dominates in Piazza, and attacks from above and below are an ever-constant threat.

The Modern Warfare 3 Content Season is co-developed by Infinity Ward, Sledgehammer Games and Raven Software. All content is available first to Premium Members on Xbox 360, but will be available to Premium Members on PS3 before non-premium members on their console.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 is rated “rated “MA15+” (Strong Violence) by the Australian Classification Board. For more information on the Call of Duty: MW3 content drops, season of content, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 and Call of Duty Elite visit www.callofduty.com/mw3 and www.callofduty.com/elite.

Capcom today released an all new set of assets for Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 for the PlayStation Vita. New artwork provides a sampling of the exclusive Gold Herald colour options available for all characters which can be obtained through costume sharing via the PS Vita’s NEAR function. In addition, new screens and gameplay video from the PS Vita version showcase what players can expect as they unleash their ultimate anytime, anywhere!

Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 takes the epic battle to all new heights with 12 new characters from the Marvel and Capcom universes, a refined fighting system, eight new stages and new modes. The PS Vita edition of Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 builds upon the console experience, complete with all modes from the console version including Heroes & Heralds mode, plus new features designed specifically for the PlayStation Vita.

The PS Vita version features online and local multiplayer, touch screen functionality, NEAR support and everything you would find in the PS3 version. In addition, the PS Vita version includes a Spectator Mode and Replay function that allows players to watch or share exciting matches over wi-fi. PS Vita exclusive Gold Herald color options are also available for the characters. As an integrated option, gamers can use the PS Vita as the “Ultimate Controller” to play the PS3 version of the game.

Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 for the PS Vita is scheduled for release as a launch title for the system when it goes on sale from February 23.