Square Enix to open another studio in Canada

Square Enix, the publisher of well known games such as Final Fantasy & Kingdom Hearts, is looking to open another studio in Canada.

Already established in Canada with the acquisition of Eidos Montreal, Square Enix is eyeing either Toronto, Montreal or Vancouver as their next city base.

According to GamingBlend:

It's estimated that this new studio will house at least 100 employees and focus on games for next-generation consoles. 

.... "Each city has its advantages. Vancouver has plenty of manpower available with all the closures of studios there. People in Toronto are excessively business. Montreal has an established reputation and a great creative potential. "  

A decision on the new studio's location could be made by the end of May. Square Enix hopes to have the developer up and running by 2012.

More on GamingBlend

Hero:108 free mini-game app

Here: 108 mobile game app









What's better than playing games on your mobile? Playing free game apps that's what.

148apps writes:

Gamania Digital Entertainment this week released Hero: 108 for iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad. The app is based on the popular Cartoon Network animated series by the same name.
Hero: 108 brings six mini-games to iOS, allowing fans to take on the High Roller and Zebra Brothers. 

Read more: http://www.148apps.com/news/hero-108-minigames-app-free-march-25/#ixzz1GorsTV2J

Hero 108 is now available for free on the iTunes App Store for download until March 25.

Dead Island Cinematic Trailer

Dead Island













The cinematic trailer for Dead Island from Techland. No video game trailer has ever been more tragic and terrifying at the same time.

High-tech Monopoly

 High Tech Monopoly

Even though Hasbro have introduced digital versions of their popular Monopoly game on the iPad and iPhone, that doesn't mean they've forgotten of the physical version that started it all.

Releasing soon later this year, Monopoly Live doesn't come with a dice instead a tower that sits in the middle of the board announces your turn and read your moves using infra-red technology.

You can also forget about the paper money and electronic cards to spend on. Everything is control by the tower. Yup. So no more miscalculations and mistakes apparently. The tower counts every moves and turns. It's like a big-brother in the making.

Product Page: Monopoly Live.

Article: NY Times.

The Death of Guitar Hero

Sayonara Guitar Hero.

Activision, the parent company of studios who developed the Guitar Hero series, has officially shut down it's music business division meaning it is game over for Guitar Hero.

An excerpt from an article on GamePro:

Citing the lower revenues brought in by the genre, Activision Blizzard announced that it will cease production of new Guitar Hero games and dissolve its development team.

While revealing its quarterly earnings today, Activision Blizzard revealed two major cancellations, with a third title taken off of this year's schedule. The biggest move is the elimination of the Guitar Hero and DJ Hero franchises. Due to the declining revenue of the music game genre, the company has disbanded the Guitar Hero business unit and will no longer be creating any more titles in the franchise. The company will still release downloadable tracks for both titles.

Read the rest of the article over at GamePro.

Battlefield 3 Teaser Trailer

The teaser that tease.

Awesome teaser trailer for Battlefield 3. Are you excited yet?

The Making of Crash Bandicoot

Stories from the creator of Crash Bandicoot.

Crash Bandicoot original production art.

IGN posted an interesting article about the making of the Crash Bandicoot from Andy Gavin, co-founder of Naughty Dog, the original developer of Crash Bandicoot.





It's a fascinating read and you can check out the rest of the series over and Andy Gavin's site.


Artcles:
IGN, Andy Gavin.

Ridge Racer Unbounded Teaser Trailer

Drive. Destroy. Dominate.




Developed by Bugbear Entertainment and published by Bandai, Ridge Racer Unbounded is the latest installment in the Ridge Racer series with a planned release date in 2012.

DC Universe Online: Fractured Future Trailer

Latest cinematic trailer for DC Universe Online's MMPORPG.

Batman: Arkham City Trailer 2011

The highly anticipated sequel to the hit Batman: Arkham Asylum!





With the production of Dark Knight Rises slowly gaining momentum, fans of the Batman franchise will need something to fill in the gap while waiting for the third film in Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy. This trailer for Batman Arkham City, the sequel to the acclaimed Batman: Arkham Asylum, will surely whet everyone's appetite. With it's amazing graphics and intriguing plot line, it is sure to satisfy fans of both the film and video game.

Batman Arkham City is expected to come out later this year.

Horrible Movie Games of 2009

This is according to the guys at X-Play.

Wii Games - E3 2010 - James Cameron's Avatar: The Game

Does any of them fall into your 2009 favorite somehow?

PixelJunk Shooter

Recommended downloadable game of the week on the Playstation 3.

PS3 Games - E3 2010 - PixelJunk Shooter

Mix it up!

Dj Hero explained.

PlayExclusive: Monkey Business A “Wet” Review

Console: 360, PS3
Genre: 3rd person Shoot/Slash 'em up
Players: 1









Story
Rubi is a fixer. She gets jobs from interesting clients, travels to interesting places, kills interesting people, and always gets the job done. A year after a mission she does for a client, Trevor Ackers, she is asked to travel to Hong Kong to by the clients father, William to save Trevor Ackers.


From there, Rubi is thrown into an out-there story rife with deception, betrayal, and lots of angry gun and sword wielding guys.

Gameplay
I love shooting. I love slashing. And I absolutely love 3rd person platformers. Throwing the three together in a brilliant whirlwind of over the top combo's is something that'll bring smiles to any hardcore gamer out there. From wall-runs, dives, and slides, players get launched into Matrix-esque bullet time, making dodging attacks and shooting enemies a real breeze.


It's not necessary to dive over a burning car, slide under a truck while shooting a bunch of guys, and then doing a rising slash on a bat-wielding thug as you get up, but it never gets old. In addition, comboing kills also lets Rubi regenerate health; more kills, the more damage she can take.

As you progress, you get style points, earned by performing stylish kills, and after completing certain areas, you can upgrade Rubi's weapon specs and acrobatics, for firepower and flashier stunts, respectively.


Graphics & Sound
Traversing the stereotypical environs of Hong Kong and London, everything looks to have come out of a brilliantly cheesy action flick. Add in the film grain and infrequent film intermissions, and the look is complete. While there aren't too many major graphics glitches, enemies that fall off ledges seem to have their bodies stretch in all sorts of odd ways.

Music done by various artists like “The Arkhams” and “Gypsy Pistoleros” totally set the mood, and conveniently enough some of the soundtrack is also available for a free download at www.wetthegame.com.


Overall
The mixture of fighting styles blend together perfectly, making for endless combo's off of cars, tables, walls, and even jumping off enemies. The platforming elements do slow down the action during clumsy chase scenes and climbing/jumping portions but they're easily forgivable.

For fans of Grindhouse/Quentin Tarantino flicks, or any hardcore gamers looking for a dose of over the top gunslinging action, I highly recommend players go out, and get Wet.



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Copyright 2009 Johar Aston, TheLAG