SSX Returns Tomorrow

After six year hiatus, SSX, Vancouver’s storied snowboarding franchise returns to consoles on March 1st 2011. The new game features ghost racing, a survival mode, night racing, online multiplayer and of course, a full next gen facelift. The game is available on PS3 and Xbox 360

Source: VanCity Buzz

Percy Jackson 2, Arrow Pilot begin filming in Vancouver


ReelWest has updated it’s film lists with some interesting additions. The following films and TV shows have begun production in Vancouver:

Percy Jackson and the Sea of Monsters: The sequel to the 2010 film will (hopefully) feature Percy and his friends journeying to the Bermuda Triangle to capture the Golden Fleece that will protect Camp Half-blood from the forces of (hopefully) Kronos. My wife will never forget the sight of 200 Grade 7’s nerd raging after she took her class on a field trip to see the first movie. There was so much that Disney either changed or left out of the first book, like the fight with Ares, and the identity of the series’ true villain. We can only hope that the producers have learned their lesson and not taken the first films “moderate success” to mean “Change more stuff”.

Arrow: This spiritual follow-up to Smallville features a former One Percenter named Oliver Queen as he returns to his home city and decides to take up a bow and arrow for the poor and downtrodden. If all goes well, Lou Dobbs will be outraged.

Primeval: This is a spin-off of the British Series Primeval, which features a group of scientists dealing with ferocious beasts from the distant past and future dropping into our time through various time swirly things and causing havoc. The wikipedia entry says that this series will actually be set in Vancouver (A show about carnivores set in a city that actually has some. Not bad ^_^). The original Primeval is now into its 6th season, and since international co-productions like Murdoch Mysteries have a habit of sticking around, perhaps this one will too.

Source: ReelWest

Fight Con Funk with Cosplay Medics

We all know the smell. Corn chips mixed with grease, sweat and sadness. It is…Con Funk. Only one company has stepped up to combat this scourge…Cosplay Medics! And you can help them in their quest to make Con Funk a thing of the past by donating to their IndieGogo campaign! You can also head to their Etsy shop where you can find spray for costumes, crossplay lipstick, and other handy accessories. Hurry though! There are only 16 days left!

Source: Cosplay Medics

The Mary Sue Interviews Vancouver Artist Camilla d’Errico


Camilla d’Errico is releasing a new artbook from her Helmetgirls series of illustrations and The Mary Sue has posted an interview all about it! Camilla talks about her early days of breaking into the Comics scene at San Diego, her views on comic production, and the role of women in comics today. See more of her artwork at Helmetgirls.com.

Source:The Mary Sue.

Vancouver’s Crazy8s film competition starts March 16th

Vancouver will be holding it’s 13th annual Crazy8s short film competition on March 16th, 2012. 6 competitors have been chosen from a pool of 118 to create a short film within 8 days. The 6 finished films will be shown at a gala screening on March 30th at the center for the performing arts.

 

Source: The Province.

343 Industries heads to the Firing Range for Halo 4

As any good sound designer knows, for the right sound you need to go to the source. Halo Developer 343 Industries has posted a video of one of their more involved recording sessions out on a desert firing range. They fire off machine guns, assault rifles, and mortars to get the samples they’ll sweeten into everything from small pistols to Forerunner death rays. I’m hope that they giv Master Chief’s assault rifle an update. Halo 3’s battle rifle makes it sound like a dollar store toy.

Source: Halo Waypoint

So You Want to Break into Hollywood North

At Raingeek, we go on and on about the great things happening in the Vancouver Film Industry, but what if you want to be part of this here dream factory? The Tyee has posted an article on the adventures of FX tech Chris Clark as he fulfills his zombie-building ambitions from playing around with fake wounds at St. John’s Ambulance to his apprenticeship while working on the X-files.

Source:The Tyee.

Vancouver’s Big Sandwich Games acquired by Seattle’s Z2Live | Vancouver, Canada | Straight.com


Big Sandwich Games, the studio responsible for last years Hoard on XBLA, PSN, and PC has been acquired by the Seattle-based Social Game developer Z2Live. Big Sandwich has seen a lot of growth over the past year due to their success with Hoard. The company has gone from just 11 employees to over 85 in that span of time. The merger will be just the thing Big Sandwich games needs to support that kind of growth. Tyler Sigman, the company’s design director, expects the company to produce two iOS games over the next year as well as hire another 12 to 25 employees. Hoard was not part of Z2Live’s acquisition, and as yet there are no plans for a sequel.

Source: Straight.com.

Kotatsu 2012 Cosplay Gallery

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The National Nikkei Museum & Heritage Centre opened its doors Saturday and Sunday to Kotatsu, a decidedly anime cure for the mid-winter blues hosted by the fine folks at Irlevents. There were vendors, panels, DDR, karaoke and most importantly, cosplayers! Hit the jump link for our full gallery!
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VFS Game Design Scholarships Deadline is February 29th


The application deadline for Vancouver Film School’s 2012 Game design program is occurring on February 29th. G4Tech TV, Annex Pro, Radical, Slant Six Games, and Microsoft/BigPark are offering scholarships ranging from $1,000 to $7,000 to help students achieve their Game industry dreams. The program covers everything from programming and 3D animation to interactive storytelling and professional networking. The Application kit for these and the Women in Games scholarships can be found here at http://gamedesignexpo.com/scholarships/.

Source: VFS Blog.