Mario and Sonic two best-known characters in the gaming world, just imagine the fun when they will come along in a game. This opportunity is under the development of Sega the great Japanese game software and hardware company. Sega is developing a game named Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games. The game will be published jointly by Sega and Nintendo. Genre for the game is Sports and it is completely dedicated to International Olympic Committee because of an exclusive license of International Sports Multimedia. Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games will released in late 2009 on the Nintendo Wii and Nintendo DS. It will serve as the first official video game of the 2010 Winter Olympic Games. Basically the game is a collection of events based on the Olympic Winter Games. Two teams in the game will be Sega and Nintendo and you have to compete while posing as one of the team. Designer for the game is Shigeru Miyamoto father of the modern gaming.

Spanish Nintendo magazine Nintendo Acción was the first to mention about the game in January 2009. They reported that the game will be named as Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games. IGN and Eurogamer confirmed the game a few weeks later. IGN also announced that the game will be officially announced in the following month. Dennis Kim licensing and merchandising director for the event, stated that Vancouver 2010 and the IOC will share royalties. These statements were made in the moth February and in the same month Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games was announced. A joint press release by Nintendo and Sega on February 12, 2009 saw the release of the game. The game is under development immediately after the winter Olympics games were announced. Releasing month of October was announced at E3 2009.

Gameplay of Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games will be same as that of the previous Olympic games. Players will control an on screen character through Olympic events with specific tailored controls for the Wii and DS. Some of the game events in the Wii version can use Balance Board accessory. However it is not compulsory. The game will have all the previous characters and some of the new characters. Two new known characters for the game are Metal Sonic and Donkey Kong. It was announced through Nintendo Channel that the game will have WiiConnect24 capability. Further players can use their Miis in-game. Festival mode is the new feature in the Wii version. It will allow players make their way through entire Olympic games and ceremonies of opening and closing. Multiplayer mode will offer “co-op and competitive gameplay” and for the DS version it will use its wireless capabilities. The DS version however will have “Adventure Tours” allowing players to challenge bosses and accept quests. Wait for October and enjoy the Olympics in your own style.

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Free Realms is the undisputed winner of games this summer. It is a game from the genre of browser-based Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game Adventure Game. The game is developed by San Diego studio of Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) and published by SOE. Platforms set for the game are PlayStation 3 and Microsoft Windows. Initially it was said that the game will release on PS 3 and then on Microsoft Windows. However, later the Windows version was released on April 28, 2009 whereas the PS 3 version is still waiting for the confirmation of release dates. Developers commented on Free Realms as a whimsical, family friendly and Fantasy themed game. In an official report John Smedley president of Sony Online Entertainment revealed that 2 million users signed up for the game. Total sales for the game reached 3 million users on June 12, 2009. Not even a month after on July 1, 2009 Free Realms reached the magical figure of 4 million users. The number are still growing on an exponential format and in near future we may see some great records to be shattered down by this web browser based game.

Once you start playing the game you will be asked to choose job classes like ninja, medic, adventurer, miner, blacksmith, archer, warrior, wizard, kart driver, card duelist, chef brawler, explorer or you can just fly without creating a new character. Barriers are removed from the game and it encourages social gameplay. Free Realms in spite of levels or classes allows players to interact, join forces and play together. The game is large and there are many worlds and large number of quests to complete for stardust and coins as rewards. Leveling up of the player will be decided by various ways like minigames and traditional combats to quests. It will depend on the player what they choose to advance. Free Realms is completely different from other MMOs as combat is just optional. Major focus of the game is on various gameplay elements like – building, exploration, housing, mini-games, and pet raising. In order to ensure the games appeal to a variety of spectators social networking is included in the game.

Free Realms is available as a free to download and play game, you can download the game free of charge. For the PC users you can access the game via the official website of the game or through arcade sites Miniclip or Candy Stand. A 3D clients download in the background during character creation. For the PlayStation 3 user they will have to use PlayStation Network to login into the game. There is an optional subscription for the single player mode. It allow 3 characters to be created per account with some additional benefits. Free Realms was received positively by every game critic website and magazine round the world. Free Realms scored 8.8/10on IGN and on Eurogamer, it scored 7/10. USA Today stated that “Sony Online Entertainment’s Free Realms is an extraordinary online adventure that is sure to please tweens and teens looking for a fun and free fantasy world. So next time when you are online, login into the game and find out what’s so special about this game.

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Worms 2: Armageddon is the new game for the famous Worm series. Worm series is one of the first from the genre of turn-based strategy. It is the sequel for the famous Worms. Team17 who developed few of the previous games of the series, come up with this new title called Worms 2: Armageddon. The game was released on July 1, 2009 for the platform of Xbox 360. Releasing dates for Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows version are still to be announced. You can download the game for 800 Microsoft Points on Xbox Live Arcade. Worms 2: Armageddon has numerous new features and modes compared to the prequel of the game. Other than new features, old weapons from the past games of the series will also return to the game. A new single player campaign mode with 35 missions is one of the new feature of the game.

Along with these 35 new missions, there will be a training mode. Training mode will include tutorials on following the map with Worm around levels and aiming weapons. There will be firing ranges where all the weapons will be available to the players so that can check weapons and can freely roam in the enemy levels and check their weapons over there. In the multiplayer version, there will be 5 game styles for Xbox LIVE, as pro, beginner, standard, crazy crates and rope racing. Ranked matches can only be played between 2 players. On the other hand, private or player matches can be played with 4 players. Local offline mode will support 4 players. A detail for the multiplayer version on other platforms is yet to be released by the developers.

Many popular weapons from the previous games of the series are seen in the game. Most of the weapons included in the game are Grenade, Ninja Rope, Bazooka, Blowtorch, Jet Pack, Holy Hand Grenade, Petrol Bomb, Dragon Ball, Banana Bomb and many like that. There will be an in-game store included specially for the game. Players can buy game items like gravestones, hats, weapons and missions in the exchange of gold earned from completing the campaign missions for the single player mode. Because of the awesome gameplay and unique features Worms 2: Armageddon received good critical response. On the Metacritic it recived the score of 81% just one week after the release. Score for the game on IGN was 8.5/10. Game experts commented on the game as one of the most fun multiplayer games around with a satisfying single player experience.

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Up is a video game based on the 2009 Pixar film of the same name. Up was released on 26 May,2009 three days before the release of the movie. Up is developed by Heavy Iron Studios, they are famous for adapting animated movies into successful games. List of the movies include some most successful animated movies like The Incredibles, Ratatouille, WALL-E. Heavy Iron Studios are supported by Asobo Studio in development of the Up. Previously they helped them in adapting WALL-E. Publisher for the game is one of the industry giants THQ. Up was released on nearly every gaming platform starting to Wii, Xbox 360, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable (PSP), Nintendo DS, Microsoft Windows, and Mac OS X. Up was released in the genre of Action adventure game. Three playable modes in the game are single-player, multiplayer and 2 player co-op mode. The game completely resembles the characters of the original movie.

Storyline of the movie is followed in the game too. It features Carl, Dug, Russell, and Kevin. The game follows their journey through South American jungles. All the four characters are playable in the game. Game is played in an aerial combat in addition to the main game. Multiplayer mode is also included in the game. Trophy system was later featured on the game. PlayStation 3 version of the game was the first one to launch the system. Also Up is the first Pixar game to support the trophy system. For Wii, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3 are rated E10+ rating because of the Animated Blood and Mild Cartoon Violence. Other versions of the game i.e. PC, PlayStation Portable and Nintendo DS was given E rating. Just like the movie the game was received positively both commercially and critically. Up scored 7/10 marks on the charts of IGN and GameDaily. Both of these are the biggest names gaming media. Go for the game it wont disappoint you.

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Good Games are hardly ever developed for PlayStation Portable. To solve the problem and to support most innovative hand held console of time Sony is coming forward and developing games for PSP. One of such game is LocoRoco 2. Genres for LocoRoco 2 are Platform and Puzzle. LocoRoco 2 is developed by Sony Computer Entertainment Japan and published by Sony Computer Entertainment. It is a sequel to the LocoRoco, which was released in 2006 exclusively for PlayStation Portable. However, this time LocoRoco 2 is released for PC users also. The game was released on November 21, in Europe and for Japan on December 4, in the year 2008. LocoRoco 2 was released on February 10, 2009 for North America. The game has very budget cost of 20 USD.

There are several new features in the game then the previous game. Like squeeze through crevasses, ability to swim underwater and gaining new abilities. A new character featured in the game is Bonmucho’s mother Majoline. The character she is portraying is evil and scary. Controls of LocoRoco 2 are similar to the previous one. Once again the character you are taking control of is Planet. L is for left and R if foe right and when you press them concurrently causes the planet to bounce up and thus making the LocoRoco jump. The circle button when quickly pressed causes a thunder which separates the LocoRoco. If you wish to join the LocoRoco to one hold the circle button down. Holding the circle button causes an earthquake which combines LocoRoco back.

Most of the locations, known as ‘backgrounds’ are same as seen in previous LocoRoco. The few which are new are MuiMui Home and BuiBui Fort. Other locations in the game are The ice mountain (Shamplin), The tropical island (Tropuca), The Dark, spooky land (Dolangomeri), The sunny/rhythmic land, (CaloCaro), The large tree (Yamboona Tree), Fungus Forest (Kelapton), The Flower Garden (Franzea), and The big mountain. Other than the previous six previous from original game, there is a purple LocoRoco added. All the LocoRoco have names and descriptions: Viole – Confident Tomboy (purple), Kulche – Energetic Youngster (yellow), Pekerone – Exberant Geek (red), Priffy – Style Princess (pink).

LocoRoco 2 received very good score on most of the game critic sites and magazines. IGN gave LocoRoco 2 highest of them all with 9.1/10. To run LocoRoco 2 on the PC the requirements needed are Firmware 5.02 and for the users in Europe PSP firmware 4.05.

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PixelJunk Monsters is a game in the rare genre of Tower defense. PixelJunk is developed by Q-Games. Q-Games developed the game for PlayStation3 and released it on January 24^th 2008 worldwide on PlayStation Store. PixelJunk was published by Q-Games in Japan and for Europe and America it was published by Sony Computers Entertainment. The game is going under development for PlayStation Portable and will be released as PixelJunk Monsters Deluxe. An expansion pack for the game was released on April 24, 2008 in Japan, May 8 and May 15 in North America and Europe respectively. The expansion pack was named as PixelJunk Monsters Encore. PixelJunk was released in single and Two player co-op local mode.

Gameplay of PixelJunk Monsters is a combination of various tower defense games. Main objective of the game is to build defense in enemies’ path to keep them away from some hut or base. Many kind of small creatures dwell at base and each time enemy survives the defense towers and reaches the hut, one creature is killed. The level is failed if all the creatures are killed. Each tower will have different defense characteristics like rapid fire, air-focused, and long range e.t.c. The enemies who are killed during the defense raid usually give coins and rarely drop gems. These gems and coins can be used to upgrade and research new towers. PixelJunk Monsters includes total 21 different levels 36 with expansion pack, with 3 stages difficulty. To unlock unique abilities for the player there 3 special stages. Later on many “Trophy Challenges” were also added to the game after a patch.

The Encore pack of PixelJunk Monsters pack includes 15 levels. This includes layouts inspired by classic arcade games such as Space Invaders and Pac-Man. There are also many squeezes in the gameplay; like Tesla tower is less expensive to buy and the Ice tower is unlocked in the starting. Otograph developed the music for the game. On May 22, 2008 a soundtrack album for PixelJunk Monsters. Title given to the album was Dive and it was released via PlayStation Store. Amazingly it was the first album to be released through PSN. There were 24 songs in the album. Most of the game critic websites and magazines gave positive reviews to PixelJunk Monsters. IGN gave PixelJunk Monsters 8.5/10.

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Kirby is one of the most famous platforming video game. It is developed by HAL Laboratory and published by Nintendo for Nintendo’s Wii video game console. Originally, it was planned to launch the game for Nintendo GameCube. Details about the game are sketchy and the game is still to be announced officially. Currently Kirby is scheduled to be released in North America and Japan. Kirby also used the Super Smash Mario Bros Melee engine.

According to the screenshots, released levels in Kirby were rendered in 3D, but the gameplay is side scrolled. Gameplay of Kirby is like Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards. A new attack system, in this attack mode Kirby can ride on the back of up to three order characters. This technique was not used since Kirby’s Dream Land 3. Just like the Kirby Super Star Kirby can receive abilities from friends or foes. Another feature, which is back from Kirby: Squeak Squad and Kirby & the Amazing Mirror is multiple moves for certain ability. Kirby will support upto four players in multiplayer mode.

For the first time the game was announced at E3 2005. The game platform considered that time by the developers was Nintendo GameCube. After its announcement, however very little information was revealed about the game and soon it was revealed that the game will be released for the Wii. On May 26, 2006, IGN released an article stating the release of a generically labeled Kirby Legend of the stars. The article was based on the information found in a recent Japanese release list found on Nintendo’s corporate site. Few months later on September 14, 2006, a game titled Kirby of the Stars appeared on the list of upcoming games for Wii. Later in December that year, it was removed from the list of GameCube releases. It did not appear on the list of the Wii games.

Kirby is gone more powerful this time. Over Twenty-one powers have been confirmed for the game. These powers include Bomb, Beam, Bubble, Cutter, Clean, Fighter, Hammer, Fire, Ice, Plasma, Parasol Stone, Sword, Tornado, Wheel, and Wing and Water Kirby (an ability only seen in the Kirby anime and as a glitch in Kirby’s Adventure possibly). Most of these abilities will have new hats. The helper system from Kirby Super Star was to be reinstated with the ability to have up to three helpers.

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InFamous is an upcoming sandbox-style video game. It is under development of Sucker Punch Productions, famous for their games like Sly Cooper and Rocket Robot on Wheels video game franchise. InFamous will be the companies first Intellectual Property since Sly Cooper. First announcements of the game were made at Sony’s E3 2007 Press Conference on July 11, 2007. InFamous is expected to be released in June 2009. The game would be interested to play as it is combination of third person sandbox world with elements of superhero MMO City of Heroes, with a roaming open-world. The game allows players to choose to play as hero or antihero and that affects the game.

The game starts in a fictional city called Empire City, Cole McGrath is the main character of the game is bike messenger. A package delivered by Cole rips six blocks of the city leaving a crater and Cole as the lone survivor. The explosion has granted Cole some electricity-based powers. Cole wakes up two week later to find that Empire City has fallen into chaos. Without police gangs have taken over the area of city and a plague has infected many of the residents causing the city to be quarantined by the government. A DJ who calls himself as “The Voice of Survival” broadcast that Cole is responsible for the chaos and thus setting the population of Empire City against him. Now Cole has to control his powers and help those in need or simply survive on his own facing off against larger threats that have manifested in the city due to the explosion and its aftermath.

According to the development team they wanted Cole to be a “kind of everyman.” They want it look like a real human being who has been granted these exceptional abilities. Cole is the main playable character of the game he is joined by two if his friends Zeke a follow bike messenger, conspiracy theorist and survivalist who becomes jealous of Cole’s powers. Second is Trish, Cole’s ex-girlfriend and medical student who resent him due to her sister being killed in the blast but still helps in treating the injured. Stated by Sucker Punch a “Lois Lane with syringes.”

InFamous is a sandbox video game. The player has to control Cole and his newly acquired electric powers as he makes his way around the Empire City. Ultimately player has to defeat three main powers of three major parts of the city. Primary mean of interaction of Cole is through electricity-based powers. These include shooting electricity from his hands to nearby targets, create a delayed explosion of a ball of energy much like sticky grenades creating an electricity-based shield to repel foes. The electricity powers can be used against living objects as well as non living. For example he can directly take out the guards or use his powers on generators to cause them to explode. These powers are the greatest advantage to Cole, however they also have limitations like he can’t use guns because electricity can cause an explosion. One more limitation is that Cole can only use electricity he can’t generate it, that means he can’t do anything in areas of blackout.

In an interview with IGN developers stated every buildings detail and that have been modeled to allow player to climb. For giving the scenes any or every light setting, in the moving, changing or flickering colors. It was also said that the inspiration of the game is taken from DMZ comic series, No Man’s Land and Batman Begins. The game has quickly become famous on the internet with the name of “The Beauty of Powers.” inFamous is described as a place where actions create reactions in the citizens and landscape around them. The game allows players to solve an evolving mystery, experience fame or infamy and battle powerful, iconic villains. inFamous gives you the feeling of a modern day superhero.

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Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell every single gamer on earth knows what this name means, it gave a new dimension not just to FPS (First Person Shooter) but to most of the genres of modern gaming. Splinter Cell gave players a new kind of gameplay where instead of gun- fights and combats focus was on sneaking around, using darkness and shadows to hide. Now they are back with a new game Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Conviction. It will be developed by Ubisoft Montreal and published by Ubisoft. Originally, Conviction should have been released long ago on November 16, 2008, but were delayed due to unknown reasons. Most recent delay pushed its date of release to 2009-2010 fiscal year.

The story of the Conviction will take two years after Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Double Agent. It was confirmed by the developers in an article by IGN. Main protagonist of the Splinter Cell series Sam Fisher comes out of hiding because of an unspecified danger to his friend and co-worker Anna Grimsdottr. He returns to Third Echelon and find that organization has fallen into disarray caused by bureaucratic limitations and internal power struggles. Enraged by the inability of Third Echelon to decide what’s right, Sam Strike out its own.

On July 16, 2007, it was announced by that composers Kaveh Cohen and Michael Nielsen will compose music for Conviction. They will be associated by music house Groove Addicts. SoundTrackNet posted a news item from the scoring session for the game, featuring photographs of the orchestral recording of the music. This will be the first score of video game by the fellow composers and the music company.

On 21, September 2006 promotional images, artwork and the logo of Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Conviction were leaked. They were leaked in a RAR file along with many other unreleased games. First screenshots were revealed on a message board with many photographs of screenshots in a magazine featuring shots of Sam Fisher. Identity of Sam Fisher looked changed as he is now with full grown beard, throwing chairs and people around and blending with crowd and engaging in a firefight from behind cover. Video of the Conviction showed lighting and shadow effects are vastly improved from previous game of the series Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Double Agent.

Ubisoft released the first trailer of the game on may 23, 2007. Sam was shown more like a civilian and dealing with the enemies with help of chairs and tables. Events take place in Washington D.C. Several other monuments of Washington was also featured in the game including the Korean War Memorial, the United States Capitol and the Washington Monument. The trailer was 1:52 minute long and is available on official website of the game as well as on Xbox Live Marketplace.

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The Conduit is an upcoming game by High Voltage Software. It will be a futuristic first person shooter game. First reveled at IGN on April 17, 2008, it is set to be released on June, 9, 2009. On October 29, 2008, it was announced by the game developers that Sega will be the first game’s first official publishers. Development of the game started in October 2007. Quantum3 is the game engine used by The Conduit, the game engine is developed by High Voltage Software specifically for the Wii. The game engine has several unique features like bump mapping, reflection and refraction, and gloss and detail mapping to be implemented in the game. The engine was created by High Voltage Software to give The Conduit a comparable experience visually to games on the platforms like PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, despite hardware limitations of Wii.

Storyline of The Conduit mainly focus on an alien invasion of Washington D.C. in near future. The aliens invading Washington use a eponymous Conduits, which are portal-like devices, to deploy their forces on the City. To discover the reasons of attacks, an organization called the Trust sends Mr. Ford to investigate. The online multiplayer feature of the game includes several game modes such as Deathmatch and will have voice capability through the Wii Speak peripheral.

Most of the controls of the The Conduit are inspired by Medal of Honor: Heroes 2, first person shooters which had well received Wii control schemes. There are many customizable features of the game, like the speed of the camera moved by the player, ability to alter the size of the bounding box, and cursor sensitivity. An option of changing the control layout is also provided, so that the function of any button or motion on the Wii Remote can be mapped to another button or motion. Other options, which can be customized, are maximum running speed and the layout of the game’s HUD. HUD elements can be shifted to different locations around the screen or can be removed.

There are nine missions in single player campaign mode. Mostly the story will be told through cutscenes between missions, but television and radio broadcasts will also be scattered across mission area for the player to seek out. As the player explores the game more subtle clues in the environment, such as precisely placed object in a certain location can be discovered. Intention of this feature was for the players who want to explore the story more deeper in the story. An insectoid alien race called the Drudge is the main enemies of the game. The army of the Drudges is divided in four main types: Mites, Drones, Skimmers, and Scrabs. All the types differ in physical appearance and the damage they can cause to the player. Other than the aliens other enemies involved in the game are United States military personals, they are with the Drudges for an unknown purpose.

Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, and Capture the Flag are three modes included in The Conduit. Voice chat to the players is provided by Wii speak peripherals. The conduit will be the first third-party game to be use the speak accessory of the Wii. Upto 16 player can be supported by the game simultaneously. To start an online match players can choose playlists with randomly selected players or with the players who have exchanged friend codes. Maps are taken from the single player campaign but are redesigned in such a way that can handle multiplayer modes.

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