Adobe has today announced the winners of the 2008 MAX Awards. In its sixth year, the global awards program recognises innovative applications of Adobe software for creating engaging experiences. Adobe received more than 700 entries from 30 countries in six categories.
To see full details of all the winners please see the full press release here: http://www.adobe.com/aboutadobe/pressroom/pressreleases/200811/111908MAX2008AwardWinners.html
Sydney, Australia – November 17, 2008 – After making their entry in a Guitar Hero® set list with “When You Were Young” on Guitar Hero® III: Legends of Rock, multi-platinum alternative rockers The Killers are playing a downloadable encore in Activision Publishing, Inc.’s (Nasdaq: ATVI) Guitar Hero® World Tour, the company announced today. To celebrate the release of the band’s third album, Day & Age, The Killers downloadable content will be available simultaneously with the album’s release on November 25th and will feature two singles off Day & Age: “Human” and “Losing Touch.” Rounding out the Track Pack and adding to the killer experience is the GRAMMY® nominated smash hit “Mr. Brightside” from the band’s debut album Hot Fuss.
The Killers Track Pack will be available on Xbox LIVE® Marketplace for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft for 440 Microsoft Points and on the PLAYSTATION®Store for the PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system for $9.95. In addition, ”Human,” “Losing Touch” and “Mr. Brightside” will be released as single downloadable songs for Xbox 360 for 160 Microsoft Points, PLAYSTATION 3 system for $3.45 and Nintendo® Wi-Fi Connection for Wii™ for 200 Wii Points.
Guitar Hero World Tour transforms music gaming by expanding Guitar Hero’s signature guitar gameplay into a cooperative band experience that combines the most advanced wireless controllers with new revolutionary online* and offline gameplay modes including Band Career and 8-player “Battle of the Bands,” which allows two full bands to compete head-to-head online. The game features a slick newly redesigned guitar controller, drum kit controller and a wired microphone, as well as an innovative Music Studio music creator that lets players compose, record, edit and share their own rock ‘n’ roll anthems. Music creators are also able to share their recordings with their friends online through GHTunesSM where other gamers can download and play an endless supply of unique creations.
Guitar Hero World Tour is now available for the Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, PLAYSTATION 3 computer entertainment system, the Wii home video game system from Nintendo and the PlayStation®2 computer entertainment system. The game is rated “PG” (Mild themes and Violence, Sexual references and mild coarse language) by the Classification Board. For more information on Guitar Hero World Tour, please visit worldtour.guitarhero.com.
MELBOURNE – Monday 17 October, 2008 – Sony Computer Entertainment’s Senior Engineer, Dr Sebastien Schertenleib will talk for the first time about PlayStation3 SPU utilisation on the hit title Little Big Planet, at this year’s Game Connect: Asia Pacific conference in Brisbane, Australia.
Dr Schertenleib’s presentation will outline the latest best practice techniques for writing code for the PS3. In addition to revealing some of the secrets behind Little Big Planet, the talk will also examine another of the year’s major releases: Wipeout HD.
Today heralds a new era for football management as Everton Football Club becomes the first club to officially recruit the services of a computer game and its developers as part of their back room team.
In a football and gaming first Everton FC has signed an exclusive deal with Sports Interactive, developers of the football management videogame Football Managerä, to give manager David Moyes and his coaches unrivalled access to its database of over 370,000 players and staff. Everton will be able to instantly scan 20,000 active teams in more than 50 countries worldwide with immediate access to the largest scouting network in football with over 1,000 scouts from around the globe.
Sydney, NSW, November 14, 2008 – Universal Pictures has today confirmed that Mamma Mia! is the
biggest selling week one DVD title of the last two years. The title has smashed records registering
estimated sales of over 130,000 DVDs (131,837* units sold), as provided by GfK.
Mamma Mia! has not only set industry records, but has also become the biggest Australian DVD release in history for Universal Pictures.
Cindy McCulloch, Marketing Director at Universal Pictures, was excited about the results;
“We are ecstatic. Within the current economic climate, Mamma Mia! represents the winning formula – a combination of feel-good escapism and an affordable entertainment experience.
Mamma Mia! has truly won the hearts of so many Australian consumers, and we expect the DVD to find a home under many Christmas trees this year.”
With an all-star cast, the songs of ABBA, the DVD encourages you to join in the extravaganza of dancing and laughter with on-screen lyrics for every musical number, making it the perfect gifting proposition.
* Source – GfK, DVD Reported Sales, 14 November 2008. GfK Coverage rate 84%
sydney – 17th November 2008 – Square Enix Ltd., the publisher of Square Enix® interactive entertainment products in Europe and other PAL territories, today announces further details on its highly-anticipated original adventure, THE LAST REMNANT™, released in Australia, exclusively on the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft ®.
From the makers of the FINAL FANTASY® series comes a brand new epic adventure on a scale never seen before, and with a planned launch – aimed at rewarding all fans everywhere – players across the globe will be able to buy THE LAST REMNANT simultaneously across Japan, PAL territories and North America only on Xbox 360.
Nobuyuki Ueda, Producer on THE LAST REMNANT, says “Our goal with THE LAST REMNANT was always to make a game that would be welcomed by a global audience. Our fans across Europe have been very supportive towards us, and we wanted to give them the opportunity to play the game at the same time as fans in Japan. We hope they’ll enjoy playing THE LAST REMNANT as much as we have enjoyed making it.”
Fans of Square Enix and Xbox 360 players can look forward to redeeming exclusive in-game items via pre-order deals with select retailers. Players should also watch out for the pre-launch teaser videos that will whet the appetite of any keen action adventurer.
THE LAST REMNANT is a completely original adventure title, benefiting from the finest creative talent to build a lush, real-time fantasy world. The game’s battle system has been carefully crafted to deliver a brand-new experience for players, as they control forces in massive cinematic battles.
For more information about THE LAST REMNANT and for links to pre-order retail partners, please visit the official website at www.lastremnant-game.com
Answered by Jean-Christophe Guyot, Creative Director of Prince of Persia
1- Ahriman, the god of darkness, has summoned various different types of Corruption and Corrupted enemies; can you give us a brief background of each of them?
Indeed there are different types of enemies in Prince of Persia. I can split the enemies in 4 major categories:
· The Corruption: The Corruption is the most basic form of Ahriman’s presence but as well, the most common form that plagues the land. It is a dark, oily and dangerous substance that covers the land and expands as Ahriman’s power grows. It will block many accessible paths and therefore challenge the Prince trying to engulf him and corrupt him. The Prince and Elika will need to be very careful and use all their skills trying to avoid the Corruption.
· The corrupted traps: As the player progresses, Ahriman and his minions will unleash many dangerous corrupted traps. The traps in Prince of Persia will be organic and really integrated into this corrupted environment. They will chase and be more reactive trying to block the Prince’s path.
· The generic enemies: There are other more evolved forms of the Corruption that have far superior intelligence and serve as Ahriman’s main soldiers. There are many types of soldiers and each of them possessing their own abilities and shape. They are made of pure Corruption, thus their dark and gooey look…
· The Corrupted (The Lords): Ahriman also has an elite class of soldiers which stands as his Lords and are named “The Corrupted”.
2- What is the origin of “The Corrupted”, the lords of Ahriman?
The Corrupted are Lords of Ahriman that were once human. They sold their soul to Ahriman in moments of weakness to acquire something that their hearth desired the most… They are now enslaved to Ahriman’s will and their mind has been corrupted and twisted as well. Their personality will both reflect their once human as well as their now corrupted side. Each of them is leading Ahriman’s assault but have as well, their own goal…
3- What is the backstory of “The Corrupted”?
The Hunter:
The Hunter was a prince who grew up surrounded by riches and indulgence, everything he wanted was his and more. His favorite pastime was the hunt and he learned his skills from the best advisers in the realm.
Over time the Prince could not find an animal he felt worthy to challenge him. Hearing the Prince’s discontent, Ahriman offered him a chance to fight a foe better than all others, to best himself against the best.
Unable to resist the Prince offered up his soul for this chance and found himself transformed into an incredible beast. Hearing of this beast hunters from across the world came to hunt him. So the Prince became the very beast he had sought and spent his days hunting and being hunted in the service of his dark master – Ahriman.
The Warrior:
King of a peaceful people who were besieged by violence on all sides, the Warrior made himself and a small number of his people instruments of war so that the rest of his people would not have to suffer the touch of conflict. However, the number of his enemies was great and his force small. As the Warrior faced destruction, he heard Ahriman’s voice offering his people salvation in return for his soul.
The Warrior accepted Ahriman’s offer and became an invincible killing machine. Having defeated the attacking forces, the Warrior realised that he could not return to his people. He had become everything they rejected, corrupted, feeling the need to revel in destruction; he left his people, fearing for their safety.
Owned by Ahriman, he entered the god’s service fighting as his arm of steel.
The Alchemist:
Obsessed by his quest for knowledge, the Alchemist is a soulless scientist, never letting emotion, compassion or ethics stand in the way of his experiments. His health began to fail and, desperate to continue his studies, he turned his attention to decoding life itself. Ahriman began to whisper a solution – a formula for eternal youth. When The Alchemist demanded the formula Ahriman was happy to grant it in exchange for his soul.
This seemed a simple trade to the Alchemist. But Ahriman provided him the most complicated alchemical formula ever seen. The Alchemist’s tireless efforts at cracking the formula sapped his already diminished strength and on the eve of what he believed to be a breakthrough – he finally collapsed. As he died, Ahriman collected his soul…
Once dead the Alchemist saw that in a twisted way he had been given what he wanted. As long as Ahriman lives, the Alchemist has gained not only a chance to live forever, but also the power to continue his experiments.
17th November 2008– Facilitating an accelerated expansion of its development talent base, Codemasters® today announced it has reached an agreement with Activision Vivendi to take over Swordfish Studios, the Birmingham-based games development house. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
The deal brings immediate additional resource to Codemasters’ development operations. Under the terms of the agreement Swordfish Studio’s development team will be integrated and managed as part of Codemasters’ network of studios. Trevor Williams, founder and managing director of Swordfish Studios, will continue to lead the studio reporting to Gavin Cheshire, VP, Codemasters Studios.
Carrying the Codemasters Studios imprint, the studio will create original content using the company’s proprietary EGO Engine, the technology behind racing hits Colin McRae: DiRT and Race Driver: GRID and is currently powering the highly-anticipated Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising.
“We are committed to growing our studio operations across multiple facilities and increasing the internal capability of Codemasters’ creative resource,” said Gavin Cheshire, VP, Codemasters Studios. “There is a strong heritage and a compatible skill set, which has enabled us to fast track growth plans and allows for ease of management. Codemasters has ramped up as a UK games development powerhouse with a scalable support infrastructure that allows for rapid deployment of the highly versatile EGO Engine.”
With a 15-year heritage, Swordfish is a past recipient of Best UK Studio in the Develop Industry Excellence Awards and Best Company in the TIGA Awards. Swordfish and Codemasters have partnered previously for the development of hit sports titles Brian Lara International Cricket 2005 and Jonah Lomu Rugby. Most recently Swordfish led the creation of 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand for Vivendi.
Atari Australia is the exclusive distributor of Codemasters games in Australia and New Zealand.
For more information on Atari’s entire product line-up please visit www.atari.com.au and log onto the Atari Trade Site for all box shots, demos, trailers and online screenshots.
– 17 November 2008 – Haven’t you ever wondered what it would be like to breed a herd of zebras or a flock of emus? Now you can find out with Atari’s animal care and farm management game My Farm Around The World. It will be available at retailers across Australia exclusively for Nintendo DS™ from November 27th, and would be a perfect Christmas gift for anyone who loves animals.
My Farm Around The World is a whole new kind of DS game which lets anybody become a virtual farmer, watching over their own personalized animals as they live and grow and building a successful livestock farming business. Choose from four different farms each with their own collections of animals: a traditional farm with pigs and ducks, an African ranch boasting lions and hippos, an Asian farm bursting with monkeys and elephants and a good old Australian acreage where crocodiles and kangaroos call the shots.
Choose your farm then start from humble beginnings: a single bird, an empty field and a few pennies. Buy food, clean, and care for your bird and watch him grow. When the eggs start coming, sell them to buy more animals which you can personalize and name as you like. Make sure you can feed them all though – if they can’t get food at home they’ll go elsewhere!
Once your livestock portfolio really starts to swell you’ll have more money to fix up the farm just how you always wanted it, with new fences, outbuildings and more. There are bonuses along the way for good farming and clean healthy animals including other animals or special buildings such as windmills. Days pass, nights fall and the animals sleep, but you can bet they’ll wake up hungry the next day. Keep them well, and in time they’ll produce their own offspring, and hasn’t everyone always wanted their very own family of baby crocodiles or rhinos to care for?
My Farm Around The World lets players care for different animals from the four corners of the globe, breeding them, learning the simple economics of buying and selling, and growing their very own completely unique farm. And if you’ve ever wondered how an elephant would cope in a traditional European farmyard, trade animals with your friends via Wi-Fi and find out!
My Farm Around The World will be available from 27th November. For more information about Atari’s entire product line up, visit www.atari.com.au and log onto the Atari Trade Site for all box shots, demos, trailers, and online screenshots.
SYDNEY, Australia, Nov. 17, 2008 – More supercomputers than ever are using Intel Corporation processors, according to the latest TOP500 list. The high performance computing (HPC) community is especially enthusiastic about quad-core Intel® Xeon® processors which are driving the research and analytical capabilities of more than half the systems on the list.
The 32nd edition of the TOP500 list shows that 379 of the world’s top 500 systems, including the third-fastest system in the world, now have Intel inside. According to the list, Intel is powering 49 systems in the top 100. Systems using Intel® Xeon® quad-core processors dominate the list, holding 288 spots. Using reinvented high-k metal gate transistors, Intel’s year-old quad-core 45nm Intel® Xeon® processor 5400 series is used in 222 systems, including 32 powered by low voltage variants.
Intel-based super computing platforms are playing a pivotal role in a number of research areas, from improving the safety of space exploration to forecasting global climate conditions. More “mainstream” industries, such as financial services and health care, are also using Intel-based systems to achieve faster, more accurate results, to speed the pace of innovation and improve competitive advantage.
In addition to hardware, Intel is delivering to the HPC community a wide range of software tools, including compilers and MPI libraries, which help customers maximise multicore processing and improve the efficiency of clustered solutions. Approximately 75 per cent of systems in the Top500 are using Intel software tools.
“We’re proud that Intel processors and software tools are playing a significant role in driving the world’s most important scientific research and advancements,” said Kirk Skaugen, vice president and general manager of Intel’s Server Platforms Group. “With our multi-core innovation powering so many systems on the TOP500, it’s clear that Intel is committed to pushing the boundaries of supercomputing.”
Over the past year, Intel has gained significant momentum in high-performance computing, signalled by major collaborations with Cray Supercomputer and NASA. Intel and Cray plan to develop a range of HPC systems and technologies driven by multi-core processing and advanced interconnects. Meanwhile, Intel, SGI and NASA are collaborating on Pleiades, a super computing project which is the No. 3 system on the list, and will enable groundbreaking scientific discovery with a goal of reaching 1 PetaFLOPS in 2009, and 10 PetaFLOPS (or 10,000 trillion operations per second) by 2012.
The semi-annual TOP500 list of supercomputers is the work of Hans Meuer of the University of Mannheim, Erich Strohmaier and Horst Simon of the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Energy Research Scientific Computing Centre, and Jack Dongarra of te University of Tennessee. The complete report is available at www.top500.org.
Intel [NASDAQ: INTC], the world leader in silicon innovation, develops technologies, products and initiatives to continually advance how people work and live. Additional information about Intel is available at www.intel.com/pressroom and blogs.intel.com.