Sadly, some of the real glamour events such as figure skating and ice hockey have been excluded, and you are left with, among other things, seven games involving racing down a mountain slope (ski and snowboard) and two sports, which involve racing down an ice chute at breakneck speeds (bobsled and luge). The other four events include sports such as ski jumping and aerials.

The games that have been included are aesthetically done and the controls are user-friendly and enjoyable. One of the most enjoyable features is the Challenges mode involves 30 challenges where you have to set your goals. Most of these involve participation in events as if you were completing in real life.

For example, you have to keep your speed above a minimum average in downhill skiing or go round corners perfectly in the luge. You can play the games by yourself in single player mode or with your friends in multiplayer mode.

Vancouver 2010: Official game of the Winter Olympics – Pros and Cons:

Pros:

• the simulation is highly realistic and provides an accurate impression of the actual speed and the difficulty of these events

• the overall presentation is slick and highly appealing

• the Challenges are lots of fun

Cons:

• not much variety with some of the most exciting glamour events being excluded

• some of the included events can be difficult to play

• not as immersive as one would have hoped

Overall, the Vancouver 2010: Official game of the Winter Olympics game is an enjoyable experience and should suffice until you can hit the slopes on your skiing holidays.

Blacklight: Tango Down screenshot

Ignition Entertainment and Zombie Studios are developing Blacklight: Tango Down, a near-future first person shooter that will offer AAA-quality military shooter action in a downloadable package.  Blacklight: Tango Down will be available Summer 2010 through Xbox LIVE® Arcade for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, PlayStation®Network for PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system, and for personal computer.

Blacklight: Tango Down is a fast-paced first person shooter based in a new fictional universe called Blacklight.  Utilizing the cutting-edge graphical power of Unreal Engine 3, Blacklight: Tango Down’s near-future setting is brought to life with disturbingly detailed and old-world architecture dripping with modern sci-fi lighting and brightly lit advertisements, an effect that causes each environment to appear both futuristically alien as well as hauntingly familiar.

The new development will deliver some of the most exciting multiplayer gameplay available in the shooter category and features numerous gameplay styles and functionality.  These modes include traditional formats like Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch & Control Point, with other modes being announced in the build up to launch.

Blacklight: Tango Down will set itself apart from other games by virtue of its incredibly deep customization features.  Players will be able to alter and upgrade not only their character through experience gained on the battlefield, but also their weapons.  Weapon customizations will unlock as the player gains skill and experience points and will include more basic add-ons like sniper scopes as well as more complex enhancements, such as improved accuracy.

Ajay Chadha of Ignition Entertainment says;

“We are excited to be working on a gripping new franchise that will deliver the intense action, thoughtful tactics and in-depth strategies of today’s best multiplayer shooters immersed in an all new universe that gamers will really sink their teeth into.”

Watch the trailer and keep up to date with the development on the Blacklight: Tango Down website.

On February 16 battlegrounds are scheduled to arrive in EverQuest® II as a complimentary addition for current EQII subscribers with characters level 80-90. Battlegrounds allow players to engage in the most exciting and intense PvP battle against their friends or foes, regardless of server, and provide thrilling group-based, competitive matches in three all-new zones.

Participants can quickly join the nonstop action in three different types of matches, with up to 48 players total. On the Battlegrounds there is a role for all, no matter the class, each player can support or lead the group to victory and reap the rewards of the all-new Chaos armor sets!

Additionally, EverQuest II players who login between Feb. 16, 2010 and Feb. 18, 2010 receive the Warrior of Chaos statue*!

With the launch the following three Battlegrounds are scheduled to be available for players to enjoy:

Battlefield of Ganak
•    Game Type: Capture the Flag
•    Players: 6 Person Group
•    Environment: Outdoor arena with two large oppositional bases with intersecting interiors
•    Objective: Capture the enemy’s flag located within their base and return it to your base with your flag still in place
•    Win Condition: First team to successfully capture and return three flags wins

Smuggler’s Den
•    Game Type: Hold Territory
•    Players: 24 Person Group
•    Environment: Five spires on top of two pinnacles jutting out of a raging ocean
•    Objective: Gain control and hold towers longer than the opposition to earn Tower Tickets
•    Win Condition: First team to reach the displayed Tower Ticket goal wins

Gears of Klak’Anon
•    Game Type: Hold the Relic
•    Players: 6 Person Group
•    Environment: Industrious clockwork foundry containing scientific equipment in motion
•    Objective: Acquire and hold the relic to accrue points faster than the opposition
•    Win Condition: First team to reach the set score wins

Sony EverQuest® II Battlegrounds are scheduled to go live on February 16, 2010.

For more details visit Battlegrounds.

EverQuest II Sentinel’s Fate  is now available for pre-order.

Stop Stress: A Day of Fury

Abylight an independent premier video game developer, is pleased to announce the upcoming release date for Stop Stress: A Day of Fury, the complete anti-stress therapy for those days when everything that can go wrong, does, or so they say!

Stop Stress: A Day of Fury will be released on January 8th on WiiWare™ in Europe for 800 Wii Points™.

“[It is] the perfect antidote for the modern, urban, stressed out gamer”, said Nacho Garcia, producer at Abylight, “With encounters that range from demonic toasters to an antagonising baby gorilla, players will need to destroy everything in their patch to commence to the next stage”.

Have you ever had one of those days where you wish you’d never got out of bed? In Stop Stress: A Day of Fury you play Jack, a man with dangerously high blood pressure and possibly the most stressed man on earth, whose manic urban life is driving him nuts. As our stressed out hero, you have only one objective – to fulfill the ultimate dream of escaping from the city into a stress free Zen like existence.

Unfortunately for our hero Jack, the path to a trauma free life is littered with madcap enemies including a killer toaster, baby gorilla and a crazy cop hell bent on making you lose your cool. To deal with these wacky menaces players use a selection of crazy weapons including a slipper, axe and giant baseball bat as they proceed to wreak total carnage on anything and everything in their path.

To progress to the next level, players need to destroy everything they can get their hands on commence to the next stage. Featuring three different levels of difficulty within four different unabated and chaotic scenarios, the stress won’t halt, until you stop it or the stress stops your heart.

Stop Stress: A Day of Fury is rated PEGI +12 and will be available on the Wii Shop Channel.

For more information please visit the official game website.

Superbike World Championship Racing Game

The new edition of the Superbike World Championship racing game is due for release in May 2010 for Xbox360, PlayStation 3 and PC.

SBK®09 offers the ultimate experience of the championship with every feature of the game improved-on from the previous year.

There has been a complete track overhaul, new teams, a new 3D environment, new gameplay structure and new game modes, even the pits have been revamped to look as real as possible.

Each player can now fine-tune his chosen race bike by changing the settings just like a real race engineer, using data collected from the real teams.

In addition, for the first time in a motorcycle racing game, damage caused to the riders leather or bike will also show up in the game, giving that extra feel of reality to the player.

The game features five single player game modes; Quick Race, Training, Race Weekend, Championship and Challenges and three online multiplayer game modes; Quick Race, Championship and Team Championship.

“Rubik’s Puzzle Galaxy: RUSH is a fantastic addition to the WiiWare library for puzzle fans both young and old”, said Martijn Reuvers, Managing Director of Two Tribes. “With Rubik’s Puzzle Galaxy: RUSH players get a mind-boggling puzzle game that will really push their imagination and challenge their puzzle solving skills to the next level.”

Rubik’s Puzzle Galaxy: RUSH is an original 3D puzzle game that provides hours of puzzling fun and excitement across more than 70 brain-busting levels. Utilizing the intuitive Wii controls, players ‘herd’ coloured cubes to their exit points across stylish environments using a crazy mix of tools including conveyor belts, warps and stop signs. Developed exclusively on WiiWare by puzzle masters Two Tribes Rubik’s Puzzle Galaxy: RUSH is the first in a series of Rubik inspired games to come from the studio.

In addition to the 70-plus levels included, Rubik’s Puzzle Galaxy: RUSH also features the original Rubik’s Cube gameplay as a bonus. Players can try to solve one of the four sizes available, play the unique pattern matching score mode, learn how to solve the original Rubik’s Cube and even compete in the two player mode. Rounding out the package are the online leader boards, with the potential to host tournaments, with prizes awarded to those players who achieve the best scores.

Watch the trailer;

MotoGP 09/10 Game

Capcom recently presented their new MotoGP 09/10 game in Valencia and challenged the two MotoGP riders Mika Kallio and Aleix Espargaro to partake.

Gamers can select from all the official riders, teams and circuits from the 2009 season with players given access to free downloads as the 2010 season develops.

MotoGP 09/10 will be available on the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 and featuring the complete MotoGP series with the 125cc, 250cc and the MotoGP classes.

The new game has been developed by Monumental Games and is to be published by Capcom, available for purchase in March 2010.

dead santa-spooky spirits

The latest touch friendly puzzle game app, Spooky Spirits: Puzzle Drop!! is now available via the iTunes app store, following the recent launch by developers Innogiant in conjunction with Legendo Entertainment.

Developed by the handheld specialists at newly founded Innogiant, Spooky Spirits: Puzzle Drop!!, will have players traveling the world, capturing  runaway spirits in various fun and exciting game modes designed for puzzle fanatics and casual players alike.

Having fallen asleep on their watch and lost the Spookies, Becky and Tim are banished and risk losing their spirit warden jobs unless they manage to recapture these pesky ghosts.

The unfortunate duo must search haunted locations on Earth to track down the Spookies including the Sphinx of Egypt, a Haunted House in England and an abandoned crypt in Finland featuring none other than Dead Santa himself.

Spooky Spirits: Puzzle Drop!! offers a unique twist on the classic falling block and “match-2” gameplay format. In the game, players build and expand stacks of Spookies in any direction and in any amount.

Three Game Modes:

• In the Panic Mode, players must clear each level by catching an appropriate amount of Spookies before the screen overfills.
• Puzzle Mode is a relaxed mode with no stress – players must outsmart the Spookies’ clever puzzles and beat them in their own game using only a limited number of blocks.
• Eternity Mode is a Tetris-inspired exhaust mode that just keeps going for as long as players can keep it at or reach the max-score of 9,999,999 points (that’s A LOT of Spookies to catch!).

Touch Controls:

• Swipe the screen to control the game, left and right selects blocks, up swaps them and down drops them!

Spooky Spirits: Puzzle Drop!! – Trailer

Spooky Spirits: Puzzle Drop!! can be downloaded from the Apple App Store via iTunes or directly from compatible handsets and costs $1.99 USA, £1.19 UK or €1.59 Europe.

monkey island

Telltale Games and LucasArts today are reporting the purported demise of Guybrush Threepwood, one of gaming’s greatest heroes and the Caribbean’s mightiest pirates.

Details are sketchy and authorities have not named any suspects, but unconfirmed reports suggest that the recently reformed pirate LeChuck may somehow be involved. Investigators have not been able to locate the former demon pirate, or Threepwood’s wife Elaine Marley-Threepwood, for questioning.

As the chronicler of Threepwood’s recent exploits in Tales of Monkey Island, Telltale Games assures the masses that answers to many vexing questions will be revealed in the grand finale episode, Rise of the Pirate God, which releases on Tuesday, December 8 at telltalegames/monkeyisland.

In honor of Threepwood’s heroic and adventurous life, Telltale is now offering the first four episodes of Tales of Monkey Island for individual
purchase at telltalegames/monkeyisland. Each episode is priced at $8.95 USD each.

Xbox 360

From today all Xbox 360 owners will find new entries on their game consoles as they will have Facebook, Twitter and Last.FM added to them automatically.

There is also to a brand new Zune-branded download portal and what’s more not one of them will need to be downloaded.

It is now expected that the same will also be appearing on the PS3 in the very near future, offering much of what is available via a regular web browser.

As well as being able to update your status, photo sharing and emails, there is also an option to save screen shots from the Xbox 360 games to show on Facebook, with the Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10, being the first of the games to support this application.