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Crush 40 Announced for Summer of Sonic 2010

Dustin Spencer
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For those who don’t know what Summer of Sonic is, it is a yearly convention where Sonic’s fans all over the world come out and get together, attend meet and greets and join in on tournaments. A post in the Sega Europe Official Blog has just confirmed the musical act booked, Crush 40, singers of much of the series songs.

“It is our utmost pleasure to announce that the Summer of Sonic will play host to the legendary rock group CRUSH 40 at this years’ convention!

Both Johnny Gioeli and Jun Senoue will be joining our already incredible roster for the day, and you, the fans will have the rare opportunity to come along and meet the band members!

Johnny Gioeli is no stranger to the world of rock, and has blown away audiences for nearly twenty years with his incredible vocals, fronting acts such as Hardline and Axel Rudi Pell. Teaming up with Jun Senoue to form Sons of Angels, they later became Crush 40. Gioeli’s powering voice has become synonymous, with a huge number of Sonic the Hedgehog title tracks including Open Your Heart (Sonic Adventure), Live & Learn (Sonic Adventure 2) and I Am…All Of Me (Shadow the Hedgehog).

Jun Senoue is one of the most influential composers in the Sonic the Hedgehog universe, having worked on Sonic titles as early as 1993. Sound directing some of the most prolific soundtracks to date including the Sonic Adventure series, Sonic Heroes and Sonic & the Black Knight to mention but a few, Senoue has become infamous for his musical direction as well as his musical prowess, with his trademark guitar work becoming the staple of countless Sonic the Hedgehog titles. Not only this, Senoue is the composer for the soon-to-be-released title Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 1. The double threat of Gioeli and Senoue as Crush 40 has literally redefined the music to Sonic the Hedgehog games as we know it.

Jun and Johnny will also be answering any questions you might have in a Crush 40 Q&A event on stage. They will also be available for a quick chat in the afternoon in a meet and greet session, where you can bring along your Crush 40 memorabilia to have signed!

Not only this, but we are delighted that Crush 40 will be treating Summer of Sonic fans to a very special Summer of Sonic Crush 40 performance on stage at the end of the show, playing a selection of fan-favourites that will rock you to your core!

You’re not going to want to miss this year’s convention…it truly will be way past cool!”

Sega and Sonic fan’s have quite a line-up of new titles this year, so this event will be one to not miss. Summer of Sonic is scheduled to take place at The Pavilion in London’s Shepherd’s Bush. For dates and registration information, check out the Official Summer of Sonic website.

Valve announces Alien Swarm… for FREE on Steam

Fernando T. Gonçalves
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Valve never cease to impress us!

Today Valve announced that Alien Swarm, initially a mod released for Unreal Tournament 2004, whose modders were hired by Valve to work on the Left 4 Dead series and now Portal 2, is being completely remade for the Source Engine, with full Steam integration and a lot of new features, and it’s going to be released for FREE!

Available free of charge, the game thrusts players into an epic bug hunt featuring a unique blend of co-op play and squad-level tactics. With your friends, form a squad of four distinct IAF Marine classes. Plan your attack using an unlockable arsenal of weapons with countless loadout configurations against a wide variety of aliens. Blaze your way through an overrun, off-world colony, eradicating the alien infestation in environments ranging from the icy planet’s surface, to a subterranean lava-flooded mining facility.

Along with the game get the complete code base for Alien Swarm that features updates to the Source engine as well as the SDK. Alien Swarm adds 3rd person camera, depth of field, improved dynamic shadows and a wide variety of gameplay additions to the Source engine.

  • Tactical, 4 player co-op action game with a top-down perspective
  • Complete game code and mod tools
  • Unlock persistent items by gaining levels
  • Over 40 weapons and equipment with countless loadout configurations
  • 4 unique classes and 8 unique characters
  • Matchmaking, Steam Cloud, Steam Stats
  • 64 achievements
  • Tile-based map generation tool
  • Powered by Source and Steam

Alien Swarm on Steam

In addition to the game, Valve will also release the complete code base for Alien Swarm. This includes updates to the Source engine SDK and full Steamworks integration. If you’ve ever thought about developing a mod on the Source engine with Steamworks, this release provides more insight and examples for using Steamworks in game production.

Alien Swarm will be available in 19 July 2010. So it’s really close! For now you can see the launch trailer right below.

Valkyria Chronicles 2 European Pre-Order bonuses

Travis Bruno
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Sega has released a bit of extra information for people who pre-order Valkyria Chronicles II in Europe, and it isn’t any simple material bonus either. if you happen to pre-order Valkyria Chronicles II you will recieve two free downloadable missions you can recieve via the PSN on September 3rd of this year.

The missions are:

• Exercise vs. Class E – An exterminatory war exercise against rival class E using all the areas of Leanbluff Forest. Destroy all enemies in each area to win this challenge.

• Exercise vs. Class F – A defense exercise against rival class F. Break through their stonewalling defense and take over their encampment to win this mission.

For those of you who don’t know, Valkyria Chronicles II is a PSP seqeul to the hit PS3 game of the same name. It will follow the story two years after the first game and a new war has started thanks to a revolutionary army taking over the nation. Expect to see every element of a great RPG packed into your PSPs when this game rolls around.

Sonic and Tails have a new voice

Travis Bruno
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Sonic is receiving a new voice courtesy of Roger Craig Smith. He has done the various voices of Chris Redfield in RE5 and Ezio from AC2, or even Sigfried from the Soul Caliber series so he has quite the pedigree. Though overall he has also done a variety of voice overs through a bunch of different SEGA games so expect him to fill in the red shoes of Sonic quite well.

In other news Tails is also receiving a new voice from Kate Higgins, who has played the voice of Naruto’s pink haired ninja Sakura character in the English voice dub. She has also done the voices of characters from MADWORLD and Valkyria Chronicles, but it will definitely be interesting to see the voice of Sakura coming from Tails.

Eggman on the other hand will not be having any voice change, keeping Mike Pollock as our antagonist.

Breach will be delayed until January 2011

Travis Bruno
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What happens if you miss your date for release in the retail world? It’s usually not a big deal and a small push back in days will not be noticed or looked down upon. But in the Xbox Live marketplace it seems, you have to wait nearly half a year to slip your game back into the schedule.

Atomic Game’s destruction filled shooter Breach has been delayed until January 2011, and the reason for the delay they say, is that because they missed their release date in June, they no longer have a viable slot to insert their game release.

However even though the delay is going to be a depressing wait, Peter Tamte the president of Atomic, has announced that they will be adding a few new features to take advantage of the time they now have to develop further.

They will be working on what is called a Hardcore mode that will test Atomic’s full destructive capability and produce a more realistic version of their technology that military simulations have used in the past. Which I must say is a hell of a good feature to be waiting for.

Kane & Lynch 2 Demo on PSN+ July 19th

Travis Bruno
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Today Sony has revealed that Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days will be available for demo release on the Playstation Plus service next Monday, July 19th. Though for people who do not have the Plus service, you will only have to wait a day or two as normal members will receive the demo on July 20th in the US and the 21st in Europe.

The demo originally came out on the Xbox 360 on July 1st through a special token process taken care of by Square Enix. So one can assume that the demo will also be available for everyone else around that date as well.

Catch Kane & Lynch 2’s release date on August 17th for the US, and the 20th in the UK. I played the first demo and really got a kick out of the upgraded gameplay, anyone else manage to get a token to access the demo first or will this be a first for you?

Kinect United States Tour

Travis Bruno
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If you can’t wait for November to play the Kinect, and don’t feel like trying to make it to one of only two Microsoft Stores in the country, you can look at the list below of all the different dates and places that the Kinect will be available to play during special Microsoft sponsored events.

East Coast

  • July 17–18 Manhattan, NY Macy’s
  • July 20–22 East Falmouth, MA Barnstable County Fair
  • July 24–25 Manhattan, NY Seaport-Lower Manhattan Entertainment Area
  • July 28–Aug. 1 Washington, DC Six Flags America
  • Aug. 4–6 Canton, OH Football Hall of Fame – Rib Burnoff
  • Aug. 7–8 Canton, OH Football Hall of Fame Festival Weekend
  • Aug. 11–15 Chicago, IL Air Show/Navy Pier
  • Aug. 19–21 Detroit, MI Woodward Dream Cruise – Auto Festival
  • Aug. 26–30 St. Paul, MN Minnesota State Fair
  • Aug. 30–Oct. 24 Tampa, FL Westfield Citrus Park Shopping Mall
  • Sept. 3–6 Indianapolis, IN Rib America Festival
  • Sept. 10–13 Nashville, TN Tennessee State Fair
  • Sept. 15–16 Atlanta, GA Atlantic Station – Entertainment Plaza
  • Sept. 18–19 Atlanta, GA Atlanta Arts Festival
  • Sept. 23–26 Charlotte, NC Festival in the Park
  • Oct. 1–2 Orlando, FL Disney Wine and Dine Marathon
  • Oct. 8–10 Valdosta, GA Wild Adventures Theme Park
  • Oct. 14–17 Dallas, TX Texas State Fair
  • Oct. 21–24 Shreveport, LA Louisiana State Fair

West Coast

  • July 15–Aug. 22 Minneapolis, MN Mall of America
  • July 25–26 San Diego, CA Youth Surf Cup – Soccer
  • July 28–Aug. 1 Sacramento, CA California State Fair
  • Aug. 6–8 Portland, OR Bite of Oregon Food Festival
  • Aug.10–11 Seattle, WA Woodland Park Zoo
  • Aug. 13–15 Seattle, WA Taste of Edmonds – Food Festival
  • Aug. 19–22 Vancouver, BC Summerfest
  • Aug. 27–Sept. 1 Pueblo, CO Colorado State Fair
  • Sept. 3–6 Denver, CO Elitch Gardens
  • Sept. 9–12 Albuquerque, NM New Mexico State Fair
  • Sept. 16–19 Salt Lake City, UT Utah State Fair
  • Sept. 24–26 Los Angeles, CA Universal City Walk
  • Oct. 1–3 San Diego, CA Miramar Air Fest
  • Oct. 7–11 San Francisco, CA Fleet Week – Military Ship and Air Festival
  • Oct. 15–17 Phoenix, AZ Arizona State Fair
  • Oct. 20–24 Las Vegas, NV PBR World Finals

I know I’m going to definitely try to make it down to Navy Pier between August 11-15th so I can get a bit of action with the Kinect to see if it will actually be worth it. Anyone else going to try to make it to these events? Or is this just a taunting visual for people who have to wait until November to even get their hands on the Kinect.

Green Jump-iPhone/iPod Touch Review

Steven Good
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Green Jump
Company: Baboonix LTD
Release Date: June 21, 2010
Price: $0.99 Buy NOW

Purpose: Baboonix LTD. and Greenpeace collaborated to create Green Jump, aDoodle Jump-esque game where you play as Greenie, who tries to escape the rising air pollution by jumping on clouds.  Both companies are dedicated to helping the environment, and include nifty facts and tips at the end of each session of jumping.

Graphics and Sound: Green Jump is a very clean looking game. Its crisp animation style includes vibrant, bright colors that seem to pop off of the screen.  Baboonix LTD. also does well in its usage of color, making the ever-rising smog look ominous, while portraying the bright clouds and sky as very happy things.  The soundtrack, although being around a thirty-second loop, remains fresh and uplifting, like something you would hear from an early Kirby game.

Gameplay:  The basic purpose of Green Jump is to jump as high as you can away from the rising smog without falling off the clouds.  You control Greenie like you would any other “Jump” game, by using the accelerometer to move left and right.  There is a slew of the regular powerups to use like a platform that boosts you high up into the air, and a bird and a cape Greenie can hang onto to fly higher into the sky. You can also earn achievements, post your scores on Facebook, and access global leaderboards to compete against other people.  There are also, however, a few twists that separate Green Jump from the average jumping game.  One is the smog.  The smog is ever-rising, meaning, if you jump on the same platform too long, it will eventually engulf you and you will lose.  There are also tar clouds where, if you jump on them, Greenie will stick to them for a second or two.  There are also scattered letters of GREENPEACE to collect that will give you an extra life when you collect all of them.

There were, however, two major flaws I found while playing the game. The first flaw is the consistency of the clouds while jumping.  Often I thought I had jumped high enough to reach the next cloud, when I suddenly fell through it and lost.  The second flaw was with the achievements.  When I first booted up the app, i was prompted to accept the use of their system to record achievements. I accidentally pressed no.  I soon after realized my mistake, but after searching vigorously for a way to change it back, I found none.

Overall: I found this game to be a good educational substitute for Doodle Jump, but, with a few changes and updates, this could end up being a great game. I give this game an AVERAGE rating of 6 capsules out of 10.

6-0-capsules-out-of-10

Capcom Announces Mega Man Universe

Philip Federico
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Capcom have just announced  today that Mega Man Universe is coming to Xbox LIVE online entertainment network and PlayStation Store. Mega Man Universe, the latest entry in Capcom’s long-running Mega Man series, will be a revolutionary take on the seminal classic, setting course for a new chapter in classic gaming.Mega Man games are beloved by fans all over the world. Since their debut in 1987, Mega Man has remained a videogame icon, having starred in more than 140 titles over the last 22 years. The connection he’s made with pop culture at large has extended beyond games and into cartoons, toys, clothing, comics, kid’s meals, and more. Part of that popularity is driven by the series’ ability to evolve over time yet consistently retain the addictive gameplay experience that sets Mega Man games apart.We’ll keep you posted once we get more information from Capcom .. but for now just get excited 😉

Call Of Duty: Black Ops box cover revealed

Mark Rocha
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With the cover of Call of Duty: Black Ops revealed, players can see that it seems more plain than the usual explosion filled, helicopter raided box covers of the Call of Duty series. Many players will be relieved, not being absolutely dominated by an AC-130 or a Chopper Gunner with this new cover not showing any signs of that being in the game.

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