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Fancy a trip to Blizzard?

Claire Phillips
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The World of Warcraft lot have announced the beginning of their annual Blizzard Global Writing Contest. Gamers around the world have the chance to win a free trip to Blizzard HQ in California to meet (and eat) with the writing team. Yes, that’s the writing team. This one is definitely all about the lore, with runner up prizes including sets of game novels signed by the author and the publishing team.

Entries must be in the form of a short story between 2,500-7,500 words, and to save the writers scratching their heads over translation, only  in english. The setting of course, is the Warcraft, Starfcraft or Diablo universe.

“You sit at your typewriter, hands frozen in fear by the sound of
crumpling paper from the darkness behind you. Shadows of broken quills
encroach on your sight’s periphery but slither out of view when you turn
toward them. Summoning your courage, you lash out at the apparitions
before they fade, only to awaken in a cold sweat with pencils and pens
gripped tight in your clenched fists. You know what this dream
foretells: the 2011 Global Writing Contest is upon us!

The Prophecy of the Unblinking Eye portends of a time when writing
contest judges, mad with ocular fortitude from judging the 2009 and 2010
Global Writing Contests, would brazenly unleash the powers of the
Ocunomicon. Seeking rituals to infuse themselves with the twisted souls
of fel ocularians, they look to wield powers not meant for this or any
other contest. But the sacrifices of semicolon keys and left-handed
quills have only just begun, their Inkwells of Despair not yet
depleted—there is time yet to save this contest!”

If you want to put those fanfics to use or just think you have the writing chops and game knowledge to impress the lore masters over at Blizzard, you have until September 28th to get that mini masterpiece rolling. One lucky fan will win the trip to Blizzard HQ, novel sets from each of the three universes, and his (or her, you never know) very own Doomhammer, to um, hammer doom.

For all the official info and to submit your entry, click here.

 

 

 

Final Release Dates Announced for Tropico 4…

Dustin Spencer
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If you have been waiting to return to the role of El Presidente, you should now now that Kalyspo have finally came forward with an official release date for the long awaited Tropico 4. Interestingly enough, it was announced today that the dictator sim’s sequel will arrive first on the PC on August 26th, and then hit the Xbox 360 in “mid-September”.

There isn’t a whole lot of difference in either version, except the PC release will feature Facebook and Twitter integration that will let player’s boast about their achievements and feats while controlling their island in-game. This date has changed quite a few times for both versions, but it looks like Kalypso are not looking to change it again and future dictators of the world can finally rest easy knowing they are just weeks away from the official release for Tropico 4.

Spoiling Gears of War 3’s campaign may get you banned

Travis Bruno
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Much to the dismay of Epic Games and Microsoft, Gears of War 3 has ended up being leaked online. But Epic Games isn’t going to just sit down and let nobody get in trouble for this. Epic Games has recently said in a statement to Eurogamer that anyone they find who has posted up spoilers or gameplay footage of Gears of War 3 that isn’t from an event or an official source before the game’s release then they will be able to ban you from playing Gears of War 3 legitimately.

Rod Fergusson, executive producer says that Epic is “extremely diligent about getting that stuff taken down and issued a call to fans to not perpetuate it… and just keeping track of those who do. They have gone so far to say that they will have created a banning system that can identify certain people and that they will “be disappointed on 20th September when they can’t get in and can’t play. They may be banned.”

This is a strong stance that Epic is taking but it is the best stance that the company probably could take in this situation. In closing Fergusson had some even tougher words for these people, saying that “If you don’t value this community, you don’t value this experience, then we don’t value you.”

ICE Anime licensed by Sentai Filmworks

Luke Halliday
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Showing that you can never license enough anime, Sentai Filmworks have licensed yet another anime, this time being the OVA ICE.

The ICE OVA tells the story of post apocalyptic world in which all male’s have died off leaving only 20,000 females living in the centre of Tokyo. The women have accepted the end of the human race, however a mysterious substance known as ICE has appeared giving humanity hope of salvation.

This news follows a large slew of anime films, OVA’s and series licensed by Sentai Filmworks. The ICE OVA is set to be released in November on DVD and Blu-Ray Disc with both Japanese and English Audio included.

Dota 2’s trailer from Gamescom questions what a hero needs

Travis Bruno
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Dota 2’s trailer from Gamescom questions what a hero needs

Valve is still planning to make Dota2 the centerpiece of Gamescom but they have a little reveal for you at the moment. Well not much of a reveal so don’t get too excited, it is simply a trailer focusing on a shopkeeper. This shopkeeper has a bit of a question for you however, What exactly does a hero truly need? Could it be strength? Speed? Wisdom?

Valve’s trailer contains absolutely zero gameplay footage, but obviously has extremely well done animation, especially when they show the combat sections. You can catch the trailer below and also if you happen to be attending Gamescom you can enter “The International” tournament that is being held by Valve where competitors will play Dota 2 and the winner will receive 1 million dollars in cash.

Hackers revisit Bethesda forums

Darren Resnekov
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Looks as though some of the hackers have returned from the hills after fleeing from potential lawsuits and federal agents; revisiting and re-hacking the Bethesda studio forums. The company themselves have acknowledged the attack, and have sent out an email to potentially affected parties notifying them of “a potential breach of our forum user database.” As is always done in these cases, all users must have their passwords reset and changed before logging on. Bethesda is also urging users to update and change details of any other account that uses the same password.
With LulzSec having ceased high profile attacks and also previously noting they “quite like” Bethesda, no one is sure who is responsible for the hack. What is known is that the studio is currently in a copyright lawsuit with Mojang, the publisher of Scrolls and Minecraft. While this could just be a coincidence, if the past is anything to go by, it looks like someone, somewhere has taken offense.

inSANE will be a sandbox game says Guillermo Del Toro

Travis Bruno
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Despite there being absolutely zero information or media released for Guillermo Del Toro’s inSANE, the project is still under way. THQ has been working closely with Del Toro to bring the project to life. It seems that there will be a bit more life in inSANE than we originally thought, because it will actually be a sandbox game Del Toro revealed in an interview with MTV.

This revelation actually makes a lot of sense because the company developing inSANE, Volition, has quite a pedigree with sandbox titles, especially with Saints Row. Besides the sandboxiness of the game, Del Toro revealed that inSANe will be “Lovecraftian in a very sick way” so we know roughly what to expect in the horror department. Guy Davis will be designing the game’s creatures, and he has a history working on Hellboy spin-off comics known as B.P.R.D. Despite this bit of new news, the first game won’t be released until sometime in 2013 which is a long way off.

Google buys up Motorola in 12.5 billion dollar deal

Darren Resnekov
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In a move that will assist them strengthen their position in the mobile market, Google has announced a 12.5 billion dollar deal to take over control of the Motorola Company. The deal was solidified by Motorolas exclusive use of the Android operating system, a platform Google CEO Larry Page sees “explosive growth,” in the future.
Commenting via Googles official company blog, Page remarks “The combination of Google and Motorola will not only supercharge Android, but will also enhance competition and offer consumers accelerating innovation, greater choice, and wonderful user experiences.” Andy Rubin, Googles Vice President of mobile has ensured that Motorola will be run as a separate company, allowing Android to remain an open platform and source community.
In relation to competitors and the industry Page says “Our acquisition of Motorola will increase competition by strengthening Google’s patent portfolio, which will enable us to better protect Android from anti-competitive threats from Microsoft, Apple and other companies.” Although the deal has been approved by both companies boards for an end of year completion it is subject to Motorolas shareholders.

League of Legends offers $5 million as prize in Season Two

J. Bradshaw
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The second season of League of Legends is starting soon, and when it ends, one person will walk away with $5 million cool bucks. As one of the biggest eSports ever, League of Legends is going all out to make their second competitive season one to remember.

“Season One of League of Legends was a resounding success, with over 1.7 million viewers tuning in to our first-ever championships,” said Marc Merrill, president of Riot Games and executive producer on League of Legends. “The competitive scene in League of Legends has grown like wildfire, and the five million dollars in prize money on the line is a testament to how massive the scene has become and is just the first glimpse of what our players have in store for the upcoming season!”

“Competitive gaming is hard-coded in Riot’s DNA. It’s been thrilling to watch the level of competitive play that evolved in Season One!” said Brandon Beck, CEO of Riot Games. “Players will certainly step up their game in Season Two – so it’s only fair that we step up ours.”

For more on the free to play game, check out their website: http://leagueoflegends.com/

Harmonix is developing an iOS app- Who isn’t?

J. Bradshaw
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VidRhythm is a project from the Rock Band developer Harmonix and it will be hitting iOS soon. According to an interview on Gamasutra,
Harmonix co-founder and CEO Alex Rigopulos said, “We think there are a lot of creative opportunities [with smartphones] that we haven’t really been able to focus on yet. So we’re looking forward to doing more in that space.” According to Harmonix, the app will not really be a game, but it will function as something else. Alex continued, “It will actually be our first iOS release as a studio, coming out relatively soon. I can’t say anything yet about what it is, but in parallel with all these huge console game productions we have underway, we’re commencing our first iOS development project.” Hopefully, we’ll be able to get some less vague details on their project soon.

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