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THQ has announced that Journey to the Center of the Earth for the DS has shipped.The game is based on the Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D film from New Line Cinema and Walden Media.

An exciting adventure based on the classic Jules Verne novel “Journey to the Center of the Earth,” Journey To The Center Of The Earth 3-D stars Brendan Fraser (The Mummy Trilogy) as a science professor whose untraditional hypotheses have made him the laughing stock of the academic community. While on an expedition in Iceland, he and his nephew stumble upon a major discovery that launches them on a thrilling journey deep beneath the Earth’s surface, where they travel through never-before-seen worlds and encounter a variety of unusual creatures.

In the DS game, players will trade between Trevor, Sean and Hannah using each character’s unique abilities and the DS stylus to search for an exit to the surface. The story takes you through all seven exotic locations featured in the movie. Players will also be challenged to various mini-games including rock climbing, rafting across an ancient sea and digging for dinosaur bones. The dead ones are no trouble. It’s the live ones that’ll get you.

Interested gamers can discover Journey to the Center of the Earth for the DS in stores worldwide.

via Business Wire

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3D Realms chief Scott Miller stated in a recent interview with Next Generation that E3 has become “irrelevant.”

“It’s just that we view E3 as irrelevant nowadays. In fact, I wasn’t even aware it was coming up,” he said.

It’s true that E3 isn’t the be all end all it once was and some companies have chosen to fore go attending this year. However, I hardly believe it’s no longer relevant to the games industry. As for Miller not being aware that E3 is coming up; maybe he’s been locked up working on Duke Nukem Forever too long. Development is said to have begun in 1997. My question is, by the time it finally comes out, will a Cold War 80s hero still be relevant?

via Next Generation

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SEGA has committed to participating in the locally organized Summer of Sonic event in London. The company is using the event as an opportunity to promote two upcoming games featuring its Sonic the Hedgehog character.

“The Summer of Sonic is essentially a community get-together/convention arranged by a number of Sonic fansites, such as The Sonic Stadium and Sonic Wrecks,” a SEGA spokesperson told Eurogamer.

“Although independently organised, SEGA’s online community team will be providing some support for the event as part of the promotion for Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood and Sonic Unleashed.”

The Summer of Sonic event is scheduled for August 9th at the Dragon Hall in London’s Covent Garden. For more information on the event, visit the Summer of Sonic website.

via Eurogamer

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Channel Flip is hosting a video mini series on Mac gaming. Your video host Katharine is kicking off Mac Gaming 101 with native gaming options for the Mac.

Now, much as we all love our various Mac computers here at ChannelFlip, we’re ready to admit that the issue of gaming has long been a thorn in the side of Apple fans.

But the perception that you have to have a high powered Windows PC for gaming on a computer, combined with a lack of publicity for the growing Mac gaming industry, means that a surprising number of people aren’t aware of what you can achieve gaming wise on a Mac.

Some of the games that can be played on the Mac include Unreal Tournament 3, Neverwinter Nights 2, Guitar Hero 3, The Sims 2: Castaway Stories, Fable: The Lost Chapters and World of Warcraft.

via ChannelFlip

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ChannelFlip has five copies of Unreal Tournament 3 for the Xbox 360 to give away. Each of the games include an exclusive preview of Gears of War 2. Gamers have a chance to answer an Unreal Tournament trivia question to be entered for their chance to win one of the games.

The Rules

• This competition is open to all ChannelFlip viewers
• Emails must be received by 11:59 AM BST Friday 4th July 2008 to qualify.
• Multiple entries will be disqualified - please include your forum username in your submission.
• The five winners will be chosen randomly from correct entries
• The Editor’s decision is final.
• Prizes cannot be swapped for a cash alternative.
• Any questions, post them in the comments section below!

As you can see there is nothing in the rules that disqualifies ChannelFlip viewers outside the UK from participating. You just have to be a registered user. To register with ChannelFlip if you’re not already on the list and enter the contest, pop over to ChannelFlip Unreal Tournament 3 competition page.

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In the midst of all this exciting Rock Band 2 news, word slipped out in an AP story (via Xbox 360 Fanboy) that Harmonix will be releasing 12 tracks from The Who’s collection, including “My Generation” and “Who Are You.” The goal originally was to release The Who’s “Who’s Next” album, but they had to settle for this assortment after they had difficulty finding the masters of certain songs.

“Their music really comes alive when you’re playing it,” said Harmonix CEO Alex Rigopulos. “We were trying to release ‘Who’s Next’ in its entirety, but we were unable to locate all the masters. So in the face of that, Pete (Townshend) and Roger (Daltrey) helped curate this best-of soundtrack of everything we were able to find.”

These songs will be released on July 15 for $2 a piece of $20 for the whole package. Will you be buying it?

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You knew it was coming. We knew it was coming. And now it had arrived. Yes, the sequel to Rock Band (Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii) has finally been announced and it looks like we’re going to to be finding out more about it at E3.

In an interview with IGN, Harmonix lead designer Dan Teasdale gave out a few of details about the game including some of the changes the developers plan on implementing to make Rock Band 2 better.

According to Teasdale, one of the problems they found in the previous game involved the random set lists. He hit the nail on the head when he said that “nobody wants to play Green Grass and High Tides in their first random set list.” From what he said it seems that they are going to be doing something about this. Too bad he didn’t give out more details on this.

Teasdale also gave out some hints regarding what bands will be making it to Rock Band 2. While he couldn’t explicitly give out a band list, he did say that gamers can expect to see some of these bands (this is by way of a wish list that IGN had, to which Teasdale replied with: “Not only have you named some of my favorite bands, but you’ve also named some of the bands that are on the Rock Band 2 disc.”):

• Agent Orange
• The Beatles
• Built to Spill
• The Buzzcocks
• Journey
• Led Zeppelin
• Modest Mouse
• Pavement
• The Replacements
• Tool

If you want to go over the four page interview yourself, then don’t hesitate to follow our source link below. That said, keep checking back for the latest updates on Rock Band 2.

This is a big rumor, not only because it concerns Wrath of the Lich King, but also because we’ll know the truth of this rumor in a couple of days. The rumor we’re concerned about has everything to do with Wrath’s closed beta, which is supposedly going to start sometime in July.

The story begins with German website Allvatar (linked below), which originally reported that the Wrath closed beta would begin on July 3rd. Apparently, Gnorog, a German community manager, said that community managers were recently given permission to announce a closed beta for Wrath beginning on the said date.

As always, WoW fans got wind of this on the American forums and began asking the same question. Bornakk responded by saying,  “We will provide further information on our forums when details on a beta testing phase are ready. For now we have no date to provide regarding this,” ending the discussion by locking the thread (external link).

Following this, it seems Allvatar got to talk to Vaneras over the phone. According to their second update, the closed beta will begin sometime in July. They also have an additional update explaining how they came across their information.

Overall, we’re not sure what to make of this. We certainly are excited at the prospect of a closed beta happening in July, so we’re keeping our fingers crossed. That being said, until Blizzard makes a beta official we’re remaining cautiously optimistic.

Buy: [WoW: Wrath of the Lich King]

FunCom and Eidos have announced that Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures has accumulated over 700,000 subscribers. AoC has also moved into the #2 spot of Western subscription MMOs; second only to World of Warcraft.

“That Age of Conan remains #1 in retail stores several weeks after release is of incredible importance to us, and proves that the game has a large potential beyond the early adopters,” said Morten Larssen, VP of Sales & Marketing in Funcom. “With more than 700,000 accounts created so far we have a fantastic platform to build from, and we will continue our marketing spend to further drive numbers in the months to come. It also means that Funcom can dedicate significant development resources on evolving the game even further, naturally giving us a great hope for the future of Age of Conan.”

“We are incredibly pleased to see Age of Conan turning into an MMO phenomenon,” said Gaute Godager, Game Director on Age of Conan. “As an MMO company we know that a good start is just the beginning for a virtual world. All we care about now is to make Age of Conan into an even better game, and we have extensive plans to ensure that Age of Conan remains a top MMO alternative for many years to come.”

Age of Conan has proved that mature MMOs are not only viable, they can be wildly popular. So much for the majority of gamers being under 17. FunCom’s success also brings up the point that even months of delays before release can be a wise move. No one remembers that AoC was slated to be released in January 2008. I don’t believe that the game would be enjoying the same success if FunCom had stuck to its original release date.

via Business Wire

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The second part of the Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning article, Behind the Career System is up on MMORPG. In the first installment, EA Mythic’s Adam Gershowitz reviewed the evolution of the career system for WAR. In this article, Gershowitz covers career design and game balance.

…while the structure of the classes in Warhammer may seem strange, they are actually designed from “a matrix of choices” created by looking at three specific elements:

1. Race - How does it look? What do they feel like?
2. Archetype - What is their role?
3. Play Style - What mechanics will be needed for the class to work as intended?

“As a result,” he said, “you will always see similarities between two careers that share one or more of the 3 variables above. Careers of the same Race will always have similar visuals. While Careers that share Archetype and Mechanic may play very similar to one another.”

“In reality,” he said, “about 60 - 75% of the game balance can be broken up into 12 Careers shared across 2 realms (24 total). While the remaining 25 – 30% of the unique items to a specific Career become easier to balance because they add the additional flavor to the career not the core balance.”

Ultimately, character classes will fit into familiar roles for MMO players; Tanks, Melee DPS, Ranged DPS, Melee Healers and Ranged Healers. For a full list of which careers fall into these roles, read the full article WAR: Behind the Career System - Part Two on MMORPG.

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