PopCap Games, developer of insanely addictive and fun casual games, unleashed Chuzzle game on a wide array of cell phones and other mobile devices in North America, the United Kingdom and parts of Europe. Back in 2005, this game received a number of awards including “Casual Game of the Year” at Billboard’s DEMX 2005 conference, Chuzzle has been the game most requested by mobile gamers. This is the first mobile game PopCap has developed. Chuzzle Mobile is available today from all major mobile carriers throughout North America and Europe.

In Chuzzle, players slide rows of cute furballs called “chuzzles” to create vertically or horizontally matching sets of three or more chuzzles of the same color, causing the chuzzles to explode with happiness while more chuzzles drop from above to take their places. Four different game modes offer a nearly infinite range of challenges across seemingly limitless levels, and giant chuzzles, rainbow chuzzles, super chuzzles and other bonuses help overcome various obstacles. With the new mobile version, players have the option to set the movement and/or the popping of chuzzle rows and sets to either manual or automatic, such that the game controls are streamlined specifically for mobile play.

 “Chuzzle is a great game for mobile devices, and we’ve spent a lot of time optimizing it for that platform,” said Jason Kapalka, co-founder and chief creative officer at PopCap Games. “We’ve simplified the already straightforward game mechanics to take advantage of the input controls across hundreds of models of cell phones and other mobile devices, and the game plays faster and more intuitively than ever. That said, we’ve also retained the endless ‘Zen’ mode in the mobile version, because we know that Chuzzle is a great on-the-go source of relaxation for many players.”

With the new mobile version, all aspects of grabbing, sliding and popping chuzzles can also be set to either manual or automatic, making the game faster and easier to play while on the go.

Key features of Chuzzle Mobile include:

• Four different modes providing infinite level configurations and virtually limitless game play: Classic Mode: the original Chuzzle in all its glory.  Zen Mode: Stress-free, endless play without levels, locks or other constraints; the player’s progress is indicated by colorful markers that appear as higher thresholds of popped chuzzles are reachedMind-Bender Mode: A different sort of Chuzzle puzzle in which players slide rows and columns of chuzzles to make specified patterns.  Expert Mode: standard Chuzzle action – only harder! 
• Custom Controls: in Chuzzle Mobile, players can set the matching and/or “action” (popping) controls to occur automatically, making the game faster and easier to play while on the go; all aspects of grabbing, sliding and popping chuzzles can be set to either manual or automatic
• Four “species” of chuzzles (Standard, Rainbow, Super and Giant), each with their own special abilities and powers
• Trophy Room: Your own personal “Hall of Fame,” with more than twenty different trophies to collect and admire!
• Scrambles: This special option instantly shuffles all chuzzles on the board anytime you run out of options/moves; in the mobile version of the game, players can earn and save up to five scrambles at any given time, earning an additional scramble every 150,000 points
• Dynamic Level Generation: Ensures each game is different no matter how many times you play
• Beautiful 2D graphics, transitions and special effects
• Great sound FX and themed music

From the company that brought you Bejeweled, Feeding Frenzy, and other great casual games you know that this game will the reason your phone battery is dead all the time!  For more information on this game and other games sure to help you waste hundreds if not thousands of hours check out www.popcap.com.

Via Press Release
 

Gaming is such an expensive hobby.  Pony up $600 for a console or a new video card so you can play all the new and prettiest games.  So every so often it is nice to find a discount game or even one that is free.  NCsoft has a free to play game, Dungeon Runners. Dungeon Runners is an online, multiplayer role playing game in a fast-paced sword-and-shield setting where defeating monsters and evil enemies’ results in piles of loot and treasure.

So after you have downloaded this game and enjoyed it, then pay a $4.99 a month fee and get access game content that is available to only membership level content.  I guess those guys at American Express were right that membership has its privileges such as extra content, high end weapons, armor, and the ability to store up to 220 loot items and more.

In Dungeon Runners, there are a variety of character archetypes to choose from including fighter, mage and ranger in a classless RPG system where players are not locked into skills that are usually associated with their specific archetype.  Dungeon Runners focuses mainly on action and battles with limited death penalties and endless gold, weapons, armor and magic items available to claim after defeating hordes of monsters. The game also features a lighter side, with subtle and not-so-subtle humor sprinkled throughout the game including names of many items in the game. For example, one particularly dangerous sword is called “Shifty’s Crystal Sword of the Hypersonic Monkey” and a very helpful magic item called the “Pulsating Dragon Eye Amulet of the Thorny Donkey.”

“Dungeon Runners is a lot of fun and doesn’t take itself too seriously. But the game will take players into an action packed-adventure, where they blaze through a maze of dungeons, face fierce monsters and formidable opponents to become a hero.  Regardless if a player pays to be a member or plays for free, Dungeon Runners will deliver more than 200 hours of game play and a continually growing number of missions and quests. The game is also designed to appeal to gamers who have limited time to give to a game, but it will have the content to keep players adventuring for hours at a time.” said Stephen Nichols, NCsoft’s producer

 “Dungeon Runners is a bold leap into a new business model for NCsoft and it is taking us into a new direction in terms of the kind of games we can provide our customers,” said Robert Garriott, CEO of NCsoft North America. “There are plenty of other ‘free’ games available for online RPG fans, but none that packs as many features as Dungeon Runners has or comes with the NCsoft stamp of quality. We expect that players will receive this game warmly because it is fast, fun and free. It is hard to beat that deal.”

Dungeon Runners is available to download and play for free at www.dungeonrunners.com/join.html.

Moreover, an exclusive Dungeon Runners promotion with bonus contents can be found on FilePlanet.com can be found at http://www.fileplanet.com/promotions/mmoclub/dungeon_runners.aspx from now until July 4th 2007.

To find out more please visit the Dungeon Runners web site at: www.dungeonrunners.com

So when was the last time you saw a game released on every gaming console, every hand held, even the PC and MAC that was not some cheap crappy movie based game?  Well best selling author Darren Reid is about to release a point and click fantasy adventure with MMO and RPG community elements to every next generation console, handhelds, PCs and Macs.  Darren with NextGenBooks.com today announced that they are brining an all new point and click fantasy adventure to PCs and consoles. Darren Reid’s The Half Broken Crown: The Broken Kingdoms is an all new game based upon the best selling author’s upcoming novel The Half Broken Crown. The game is a point and click style adventure which incorporates MMO elements which allow all online players to communicate and solve puzzles through collaboration and cooperation.

 “Of all my upcoming projects this is perhaps the one I am most excited about,” admitted Reid, “It is a unique opportunity for me to expand upon the [upcoming] book and to tell new stories.”

Look for The Broken Kingdoms this June and will be free to play with optional micro-transactions available to enhance the player’s experience. The main game will feature over 100 unique screens.  Additional in-game purchases will open up episodic content that add hours of game play will become available over the course of the year.  Each episode prices ranging from $2.50-$5.00, depending upon the depth of the content being purchased.

The game will be launched exclusively on www.NextGenBooks.com and be playable through internet web browsers with specific and individual versions designed for Wii, DS, PS3, PSP, PC and Mac. All console and computer versions of the game will be fully featured however the DS and PSP users will have to wait for multiplayer support.

If you want to learn more about the game pick one of the following ways check Darren’s MySpace Page, or Next Gen Books Website.
www.myspace.com/darrenreidcell
www.NextGenBooks.com

For more information about Darren Reid’s books The Half Broken Crown: The Broken Kingdoms visit www.DarrenReid.co.uk.

Fallout has always had a special place in my heart, I was very sad to see Van Buren get the axe many years ago. Since then Bethesda have picked up the licence to the new Fallout game (but not he MMORPG), many gave up hope of a true sequel when they heard that Black Isle were not going to be development, but I still have high hopes.

If you’re looking forward to new new game or not, it doesn’t change the fact that fallout.bethsoft.com have been running a countdown for some time, now there’s just 7 days until the teaser trailer. Until then visit the site and check out the images and atmospheric sound

Today only Amazon.com are selling Star Trek - Legacy for the PC for $19.99, reduced from $39.99 with free shipping if you add another $5.01 to your cart

I am a good fan of the Star Trek series, I’m no die hard Treckie but I did enjoy watching the new shows when they came on, sadly the series hasn’t ever been as successful as the Star Wars series when it comes to video games. I’d say this is largely based on the source material, since the infrequent combat in Star Trek is often done at a very slow pace. That said I did still enjoy Legacy, it won’t win any game of the year awards from me, but it does have a great novelty value hearing all the generations come together in one game. If you consider yourself a Trek fan you should spend a little time with this

It was reported yesterday on variety.com that a new video game to Movie conversion is in the works, this time it’s the most unlikely of brands, The Sims. 20th Century Fox has aquired the rights to the brand, and also has a script from Brian Lynch, although no information on the progress of the movie, I imagine it’s still quite a ways off.

The only information so far is from SIMS Studio head, Rod Humble

"’The SIMS has done an interactive version of an old story, which is what it’s like to have infinite power and how do you deal with it. Given that that’s an old story, you can imagine how easily that would translate to traditional story telling."

From: Variety.com

Gamers hoping to pick up Halo 2 for the PC by the end of the month are going to be assed out. It looks like some nudity could be behind the release delay causing many fans to be bummed out
The image only exists in the map editor, but this was enough to cause the ESRB to re-label the game and Microsoft to issue a patch, so far I’ve not heard anything from Jack Thompson on this, but since he was already on Microsoft about Halo 3 I’m sure he’ll be all over this in the next few days.

From the ESRB VIA Kotaku

“After the M (Mature 17+) rating assignment was issued for Halo 2 for Vista and just prior to the shipment of the game to retail, Microsoft notified ESRB about pertinent content found in a map editor tool that is being bundled with the game. The content in question, although likely to be inaccessible to the vast majority of users, displays a photograph of an individual showing his bare backside to the user when a particular error occurs, and thus warrants a ‘Partial Nudity’ content descriptor in order to alert consumers to its presence in the product. Microsoft has therefore applied stickers with correct ESRB rating information to the packaging of virtually all copies that will ship to retail in the U.S. and Canada. We have been advised by Microsoft that future runs of the game will be produced without the content in question, thus negating the need for the descriptor to be displayed on those versions.

“ESRB’s job is to ensure that games are appropriately labeled, and that is precisely what we did in this case. We greatly appreciate Microsoft’s cooperation in this matter.” - Entertainment Software Rating Board

TransGaming has launched X3: Reunions for the MAC. X3: Reunion is the sequel to the award winning game, X2: The Threat, where the ongoing battle between the Argon Fleet and the Khaak continues to escalate.

Paul Lesurf, Director of Virtual Programming, commented on the game saying, “The Mac version of X3 parallels the original PC version with full support for the fantastic new graphics and technology, thanks to TransGaming’s Cider portability engine. Mac gamers who enjoyed X2 will be thrilled with the exceptional Mac version of X3”, stated

X3 features a new 3D engine that provides dramatic visual effects and stunningly realistic starships, in addition to an enhanced Artificial Life System and an improved physics model. “X3 makes use of a broad set of new technologies and pushes the graphics envelope. With Cider, the game is at parity with the original PC version and demonstrates the breadth and strength of our Mac portability engine. I have no doubt that we will exceed Mac gamers’ expectations”, commented Vikas Gupta, CEO of TransGaming.

X3 is available for immediate digital download at with box versions available at retail in the next few weeks.

Via Press Release

Today only Amazon.com are sellingJade Empire Special Edition for the PC for $19.99, reduced from $39.99 with free shipping if you add another $5.01 to your cart

Amazon.com Link

Released nearly two full years after its Xbox counterpart, Jade Empire for the PC is a fine and rather typical Bioware Action, Role-Playing game. The game has a wonderful story but the engine feels like a slightly dumbed down arcade version of Knights of the old republic. Regardless, this is still a fantastic game that anyone interested in the main plot will get a lot of fun out of this

Fans of Asteroids of Geometry wars should check out the new game from Binaryzoo called Echoes, It’s a simple but addictive game with the flash of the new Geometry wars but with a feel of Asteroids, the game is exactly what you’d expect and is a great diversion and totally free, so what do you have to loose?

Oh, and my first score on the game was 286400, just to give you something to ’shoot’ for. ho ho!