Gamertell

Nearly everyone would love to be in a movie. The only problem is breaking into the business. Fall 2008 you’ll be able to take those aspirations and project them into You’re in the Movies on Xbox 360. You’re in the Movies is the Xbox 360’s attempt to appeal to a family-friendly market and what better way to do that than to laugh at your family as they convey horrible acting skills in front of everyone? All you need to play is the Xbox Live Vision camera (which is included with the game) and a sense of humor.

The game works by putting players into a series of mini games that record their actions. In the end, everything that’s done is placed into a short film and…

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Game publisher Codemasters along with developer Liquid Entertainment are hoping to offer a new generation a classic Greek story with the upcoming release of Rise of the Argonauts, due sometime 2008 for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC.

Codemasters won’t be following the original Greek story in its entirety but will borrow many of its heroes, villains, creatures and themes for its up coming role-playing game. From the looks of the first teaser trailer, Rise of the Argonauts is going to be heavy on the action and gore…

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It was such a great time to be a villain back in 2007, when Overlord was released for the Xbox 360 or PC. Now that fun can return with the Codemaster’s release of Overlord: Raising Hell for the PS3. This new version of the title, which should be out during Q2 2008, will feature the original Overlord game as well as the expansions and add-ons.

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According to a recent post in GameDaily, Codemasters (the developers behind The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar) have announced Connect 2008, a convention-style event. Clearly inspired by the success of Blizzcon (Blizzard’s mecca for Diablo, WOW and StarCraft fanatics), Connect 2008 is set to be “an amazing community orientated MMO gaming event” and will take place March 14 - 15 at the Omega Sektor in Birmingham, U.K. Attendees will have the chance to play Codemasters titles including The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar, ArchLord, RF Online, Dungeons & Dragons Online: Stormreach on networked PC’s.

Get your LOTR: Online garb ready now. Whether Codemasters can capture all the magic of Blizzcon remains to be seen, but as long as they keep their recent Dirty Dancing title off of the show floor, they just might pull it off.

Site [Codemasters] Via [GameDaily]

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A new mini-game/driving game, Emergency Mayhem, is going to be appearing on the Wii in Q2 2008, thanks to Codemasters. The game requires players to act as policemen, firemen and EMTs in over 30 timed missions to help save the citizens of Crisis City. Codemasters promises that the missions won’t be as serious, even though they will require emergency personnel. Most will be humorous and light-hearted, rather than life or death.

Emergency Mayhem seems like it could quickly become repetitive, based on the information in the press release. You hear about an emergency. Then you drive to the emergency. Upon arriving, you play a quick mini-game to save the day. Rinse. Repeat. To make matters worse, the initial screens are far from dazzling.

What really could be disturbing is the nature of the game. Codemasters has all of these catastrophes happening, but at the same time the it is trying to make them funny. I’m not sure if there even is a tactful way to make some emergency situations funny.  The part about shooting psycho-monkeys with tranquilizer darts does sound promising though.

Read [Go Nintendo]

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Obviously the later half of 2007 confirms that is the year of the spin-off movie game. The Princess Bride the Video Game demo comes with the 20th anniversary DVD, Ghostbusters the Video Game has just been confirmed, and now Codemasters has just released Dirty Dancing the Video Game for the PC. The video game, which has been released in time for the 20th anniversary of Dirty Dancing, is a casual, action and puzzle game that places gamers in the shoes of Baby.

The game isn’t only about dancing, which is probably why it works. As Baby, who can actually be renamed and styled to look like the player, you must learn to dance, work at the resort and compete. All of the tasks are executed as puzzle mini-games and aren’t horribly mundane. Basically that’s all there is to it. Players get to leisurely take their time experiencing Baby’s life.

The game can be downloaded directly from the Codemasters’ site for $19.99. It requires Windows XP or Vista, DirectX 9.0c, and 150 MB hard drive space. For players who aren’t sure about taking the plunge, a free demo can be downloaded from the site. Its a relatively small download (only 209kb) and has the same requirements as the actual game.

It pains me to say it, but, this game isn’t that bad. In fact, the demo is actually entertaining. I found myself enjoying it. I hated the original movie, and yet I found this casual game based on it endearing. Rather than just tossing out a Dance Dance Revolution clone (like the Dancing with the Stars game), Codemasters has created an entertaining game. Kudos to you Codemasters.

Read [Wired] Also Read [Pop Watch] Site [Dirty Dancing the Video Game]

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