Gamertell

Canadian-based Ontario Media Development Corporation (OMDC) has invested the sum of $1 million dollars in Silicon Knights, the creators of the upcoming Too Human or the development of a videogame prototype.

So far the only words coming out of Silicon Knights is that they have described the unknown projects as a third-person action/psychological thriller. This brief description could point to a possibly sequel to Eternal Darkness, which was developed by Silicon Knights for the Nintendo GameCube in 2002. However, there is no conformation on this as of yet.  Silicon Knights is expected to begin work on its next title after the May 2008 release of Too Human and be completed in 2010 for all next-gen consoles.

The OMDC is an agency of the Ontario Ministry of Culture that facilitates economic development opportunities for Ontario’s cultural media industries including book publishing, film and television, interactive digital media, magazine publishing, and music industries is now looking towards the multi-billion dollar industry of video games. Silicon Knights, which is based out of Ontario, Canada, is one of two companies to be supported by the OMDC. The other company to receive the exploratory funding was Digital Extreme; the makers of the upcoming title Dark Sector.

The funding by the OMDC is meant to help developers showcase their new ideas and attract additional funding from publishers. It is hoped that by providing critical support at the prototyping stage of development, that OMDC can help Ontario based developers retain a larger share of their intellectual property and to demand higher royalty payments.

Read [IGN] Also Read [News Wire] Site [OMDC] Site [Silicon Knights]

Sometimes game have “Platinum Hit” written all over them. And then, they are contenders for the “What the Hell are They Thinking?” award. When it comes to creating a videogame based on the world’s most gluttonous acts, the so-called sport of professional eating, we’ll let you decide which award is most appropriate.

Mastiff Games, a San Francisco based publisher mostly known for Gameboy titles, has acquired the video game rights to the Major League Eating competitions.

According to Mastiff Games, Major League Eating: The Game will feature the world’s greatest eaters competing across…

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The Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences (AIAS), a non-profit organization that promotes entertainment software, held its 11th Annual Academy of Interactive Achievement Awards at the Red Rock Resort in Las Vegas, NV, during this year’s D.I.C.E summit.  Infinity Ward’s Call of Duty 4 took home the night’s top honors with four awards.

Other noteworthy winners were BioShock, which was acknowledged for its outstanding achievement in art direction, story development and sound design, and Motorstorm earning itself racing game of the year.

Click through for the complete list of winners…

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The Game Audio Network Guild (G.A.N.G), a non-profit organization dedicated to the advancement and recognition of audio in video games, has announced the nominees for its sixth annual G.A.N.G. Awards. The awards are given for outstanding creative, technical and artistic audio achievement in interactive entertainment.

The winners will be announced at a ceremony being held Thursday, February 21, 2008, in San Francisco, CA, during this year’s Game Developers Conference (GDC). The show will be held in the North Hall of the Moscone Center (Room 134).

Click through for a complete list of finalists…

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Gearbox Software, the Texas-based developer famed for the Brother’s in Arms series, the original Halo for the PC and the expansion packs that followed the first Half Life, has announced on its forum that it is working on something huge. Really huge.

In a brief interview with Kotaku, Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford said, “I’ve started a new project. It’s big. It’s, like, look-at-our-line-up-and-imagine-something-even-bigger kind of big. I’m directing it myself. I can’t mention it publicly yet. When you find out what this is, you’ll likely agree that…

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After reporting its first ever billion-dollar quarter, Silicon Valley-based chipmaker Nvidia has announced planes to purchase chipmaker, Ageia.

While Ageia’s might not be a household name, the company was responsible for the world’s first dedicated physics processor in 2006. The chip was designed to handle real-time physics calculations for more impressive and diverse visual effects in games. Ageia’s PhysX software is also currently being used in all three current generation consoles.

Terms of the deal…

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Midway and Surreal Software is looking to bring a new twist to the popular open-world genre with the release of This is Vegas. Filled with plenty of gambling, parties, fast cars and even faster women, gamers will try to reclaim Vegas from megalomaniacs with fat pockets who are trying to transform the adult fantasy playground into something more family friendly. The only way to stop Vegas from becoming Mayberry is to use Vegas as your own privet playground.

This is Vegas is meant to be a lighthearted, satirical and comedic game instead of the usual…

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Considrering Blizzard Entertainment is making tens of millions of dollars each year with World of Warcraft, the company should at least be spending some of that cash on a new game or, at the very least, something that isn’t centered on the Warcraft universe. Thankfully, it looks like Blizzard might just be doing just that with the rumored development of Starcraft Online.

Developed by Blizzard in 1998 and originally released for the PC and Mac, Starcraft has remained hugely popular in the United States and abroad (especially in Korea). It was only last year (2008) that Blizzard announced a Starcraft sequel was in the works for the PC. This came after…

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I am sure we have all dreamt about the prospect of sitting around doing nothing, while getting paid. Well, aside from writing for game web sites, the next best thing has to be voice acting.

In the past, terrible voice acting was one of the benchmarks for the video game industry, right up there with music. In recent years, with titles such as Grand Theft Auto, Stranglehold and Rise of Honor, big-name actors and directors have turned to videogames for a little extra cash and to tell new stories that don’t necessarily have to seen on the big scene. While many actors might do voice work for video game tie-in’s for summer movies, some do it just for…

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In the ongoing battle between the United Kingdom and Rockstar Games over the controversy of Manhunt 2, the legal battle over whether or not UK gamers get to play the less-than-stellar title has taking yet another turn. A UK high court has ruled that the Video Appeals Committee, which had granted Manhunt 2 an 18-certificate release in the UK, should reconsider their decision.

This new debacle comes from a interpretation of the word “harm” which the BBFC claims had been misinterpreted, resulting in an grave error of the law. This is just the latest round of back and forth debates and arguments between the…

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