As Level Up! Live 2009 draws near, the local gamers are once again abuzz with the announcement of a new First Person Shooter that is set to be unveiled during the event. Level Up! has been trying to keep everything under close wraps and company representatives have been mum even about the name of the developer.
All that is known is that the game will be Powered by Valve’s Source engine, a system used in popular and well-received FPS games such as Half-Life 2 and Counter-Strike, and promises to give even the most seasoned virtual combatants an explosive experience.
Level Up! CEO Jane Walker, says the games’ dynamic light and shadow effects and realistic textures will create the most believable characters. “We are very excited to launch this new game, and we are confident that this will be the FPS game that Filipino gamers will be talking about and getting their action gaming fix from,” she adds.
The game will finally be revealed at no less than the biggest online gaming event in the country, Level Up! Live 2009 that opens November 7 at the World Trade Center, Pasay City. FPS fans are expected to troop to the annual event to take a crack at what promises to be the hottest online FPS game ever introduced locally.
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There has always been a thin line between addiction and devotion, but that can easily be distinguished just by looking at its effect. Mess up your life and everyone will call you an addict, get into the record books and you’ll be hailed as a highly devoted individual.
Playing video games for long hours is often termed as an addiction, but a guy from India has changed that by playing a game non-stop for more than 40 hours and making it to the Guinness Book of World Records.
Twenty-six year old Chirantan Patnaik has successfully broken the current world record made by a US citizen last year for the longest continuous play session on “Grand Theft Auto IV” of 28 hours and 1 minute.
“The longest continuous play session on Grand Theft Auto IV is 40 hours 20 minutes, by Chirantan Patnaik [India], at the offices of the gaming blog NeuralChaos.com from 4-6 September 2009,” Karolina Thelin, PR executive of Guinness World Records verified.
According to the stringent guidelines of the Guinness World Records, Patnaik was allowed a 10-minute break every hour. “But I took a total of four breaks during my entire game,” he said, adding that he doesn’t mind spending a chunk of his salary on buying costly gaming equipments.
“I buy the latest games in the market if it interests me. I don’t mind spending money on games at all,” he said.
Patnaik, however, isn’t just a gamer with a lot of time on his hands. The guy works at a private equity firm and is also a certified scuba diver and said it was his passion for gaming that motivated him to set the new world record.
Interestingly, Patnaik had never played GTA earlier despite being an avid gamer. “There are so many other games which I have played for long hours. But I had never tried playing this particular game seriously.
However, I knew that I can do it after I saw my brother playing it.”
Describing his experience of playing at a stretch for more than one-and-a-half day as fun, he said, “I enjoyed the game very much. It’s fun playing long hours. It wasn’t that exhaustive for me, as one might feel.”
Achieving the feat was no simple task either. Patnaik said he went through some endurance training by running, exercising and practicing yoga. He likewise said that staying away from coffee and eating dates during the game helped him to stay alert and fit. He added that his earlier experience of playing games for long hours also helped him.
As for his immediate plans, he said he wants to better his present record by playing for more than 48 hours.
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Slim is definitely in. After launching the redesigned PS3 and price cuts, Sony’s Playstation 3 (491,000) outsold both the Nintendo Wii (462,000) and the Xbox 360 (352,000) to capture the home console top slot according to US NPD Market Research firm. It’s the first time the system has beaten the Wii since its 2006 release.
“Compared to last September, the PS3 was the big winner, more than doubling last year’s sales,” said NPD’s Anita Frazier.
Despite Sony’s lead, Nintendo and Microsoft still had something to smile about as the Nintendo DS led all platforms (524,000) for the sixth straight month — trouncing Sony’s PSP handheld by a 4 to 1 margin — while the Xbox 360 generated the most sales.
“Across all categories, the Xbox 360 platform contributed the most to industry unit and dollar sales as sales of 360 hardware, software and accessories comprised 32 percent of the month’s revenues,” said Frazier.
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DATABLITZ GAMES OF THE WEEK MINI NINJAS
Prepare yourself for a Ninja adventure like you have never seen before! Join Hiro, the smallest hero on the biggest adventure, as he embarks on an epic and electrifying quest to restore harmony to a world on the brink of chaos. Use your skills and mighty Ninja training to battle a magical army of evil Samurai. Harness the power of your Kuji magic and utilise the special skills of your Mini Ninja friends as you travel through a perilous world to reach the final confrontation with the Evil Samurai Warlord in his Fortress of Doom.
Need For Speed SHIFT
Shift into high gear! Designed to deliver a true driver’s experience that reflects contemporary motorsports, Need for Speed SHIFT is built by racers for racers. Need for Speed SHIFT delivers an authentic and immersive driving experience developed by Slightly Mad Studios in collaboration with executive producer Michael Mann at Black Box and senior vice president Patrick Soderlund at EA Games Europe. Slightly Mad Studios includes developers and designers that worked on the critically acclaimed games GT Legends and GTR 2. Need for Speed SHIFT replicates the true feeling of racing high-end performance cars like never before. Players are thrust into the heart of the action with immersive and exciting features including a stunningly realistic first-person cockpit view camera and an all-new crash mechanic, providing an unrivaled sensation of the speed and feeling of racing a car on the extreme edge of control.
STAR WARS THE CLONE WARS: REPUBLIC HEROES
Star Wars The Clone Wars: Republic Heroes lets Star Wars fans young and old live out the sweeping galactic adventures of the Clone Wars. For the first time ever, players can fight as their favorite Jedi and clone troopers from the preeminent animated television series–from familiar faces like Anakin Skywalker to new heroes like Clone Captain Rex. A brand-new storyline, which bridges the gap between season one and two, takes the player on a multi-faceted adventure to stop a mysterious techno assassin’s destructive plot. Built around two-player cooperative action, the accessible controls and family-friendly gameplay bring Star Wars fans across generations together like never before