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Nissan Brings Electric-Vehicle Charging Stations to SimCity

April 28, 2013 By Leave a Comment

Nissan LEAF Simcity EV Charging Stations

Electronic Arts’ SimCity has partnered with Nissan to bring LEAF Electric Vehicle Charging Stations to the virtual streets of it’s players’ towns.

Players are free to download and install up to five of the branded charging stations for the next six months. The Charging Stations provide ‘happiness’ to the Sims and nearby businesses.

“Nissan remains committed to finding innovative ways to promote the development of EV infrastructure and to bringing practical, affordable electric vehicles to markets throughout the United States,” said Jon Brancheau, VP of marketing, Nissan North America.

[via CarScoops]

USA

Filed Under: Automobiles, Gaming Tagged With: , , , , ,

Tough Guy Peter Stolmare is ‘The Replacer’ in Call of Duty Black Ops 2 Video

January 27, 2013 By Leave a Comment

Call of Duty - The Replacer

Actor Peter Stolmare, star of dozens of TV and movie roles, but maybe best known as Slippery Peter on Seinfled, or kidnapper Gaear Grimsrud in Fargo, stars in a promotional clip for Call of Duty Black Ops 2 as ‘The Replacer’. As the Replacer

Whether it’s filling for you at the office, delivery room, or visiting Nana, The Replacer (with maybe a wink to Harvey Keitel’s ‘The Fixer’ character in Pulp Fiction), will fill as your replacement while you spend your valuable time playing the game.

The clip was created by 72andSunny, and directed by Wayne McClammy for Hungry Man.

[via Creative Criminals]

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Old Spice Recruits Dikembe Mutombo’s to ‘Save the World’ from Mayan Prophesy

November 24, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Old Spice: Dikembe Mutombo's 4 1/2 Weeks to Save the World

If we needed someone to step up and save the world from the Mayan prediction of the end of the world on December 21, we couldn’t ask for a better candidate than the gravelly-voiced 8-time NBA All-Star, humanitarian and philanthropist Dikembe Mutombo. Old Spice has recruited Mutombo to undergo a series of 8-bit challenges to help carve more time into the Mayan calendar, and he’s got only 4 1/2 weeks to do it.

In week 1: “The Great 2012 Dance Crisis”, Dikembe’s trusted bear friend, Science the Bear (just go with me here) informs him that Americans may be too distracted to vote by a South Korean dance craze. You must help Dikembe successfully deliver election ballots to dancing American voters.

If that doesn’t sound batshit-crazy enough for you, the site is linked to a live video of a machine carving out a new ring onto a reproduction of the Mayan calendar.

The campaign was created by Wieden + Kennedy Portland.

USA

Filed Under: Consumer Packaged Goods, Gaming Tagged With: , , , ,

Supercars Take to the Streets of Toronto in xBox Canada’s Forza Horizon Promotion

October 22, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Forza Horizon Supercars

In Forza Horizon, a spin-off to the popular Forza Motorsport xBox video game series, the cars break free from the confines of the race track and take to the open road.

To promote the launch, xBox Canada took an Aston Martin Vantage and Mercedes SLS AMG out for a spin around the streets and highways of Toronto. The cars were outfitted with roof signs that read Player 1 and Player 2, giving drivers and pedestrians the illusion that they were watching the game.

The stunt was created by MacLaren McCann Toronto.

The track featured in the video is ‘DRVGS’ by DVBBS.

[via Ads of the World]

Canada

Filed Under: Automobiles, Experiential, Gaming Tagged With: , , , , , ,

‘Fifth Avenue Frogger’ Features Real Cars in Real Time

April 22, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Fifth Avenue FroggerWhenever I hear about Frogger, my mind goes back to the Seinfeld episode where Jerry & George return to their high school hangout for one last slice of pizza before it closes. There they discover that not only is the original Frogger arcade game still there, but George’s high score is still tops. George decides the buy the game and hilarity ensues.

It’s been nearly 14 years since that episode of Seinfeld was first broadcast, and over 30 years since Frogger was first released by Konami in 1981. In the game players must navigate a frog across a busy highway and safely back to it’s home.

Tyler DeAngelo, Renee Lee, and Ranjit Bhatnagar have created an updated version of the classic game that transmits real-time traffic from Fifth Avenue in NYC. The group is trying to get the project featured in the Art of Video Games exhibit at the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

To track the traffic on Fifth Avenue, DeAngelo mounted a web camera high up in a building with a clear view of the busy street and wrote code that translated the real-time position of the cars into live-streaming data. In the game the car graphics are mapped on to those positions in the game in real-time.

As a final stroke of genius, DeAngelo hauled out his hacked version of game to the sidewalk facing Fifth Avenue, and invited passing New Yorkers to play.

USA

Filed Under: Art & Design, Gaming, Technology Tagged With: , ,

Sony Ericsson Needs Someone to Build a Minecraft Dreamworld for Kristen Schaal

October 12, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Sony Ericsson XPeria PLAY - Build for KristenI first learned about Minecraft a year or so ago when a colleague mentioned that his 12 year old son was engrossed with it. The game focuses on creativity and building skills as players build items using blocks made of different materials, such as dirt, stone, various ores, water, and wood to create whatever they imagine. It can be played in two different ways, in the classic Creative mode or the more popular Survival mode. As of October, 2011, Minecraft has 14 million registered users.

To promote Minecraft:Pocket Edition for Sony Ericsson’s Xperia PLAY gaming platform, comedian Kristen Schaal is looking for (in her words) “a super-genius Minecraft wizard to slave away and build her something so extraordinary that she goes into a coma for half a year”. To enter Minecraft builders are asked to post a video of their creation for Kristen on the Sony Ericsson Facebook page. Surely a few of those 14 million users will step up and make Kristen’s dreams come true.

An early entry (the contest is open until November 7) from Josh W. comes complete with a heart-shaped jacuzzi powered by lava from a volcano, as well as a Mount Rushmore featuring both his and Kristen’s face.

The contest is open to entries from all 50 Unites States as well as Canada (excluding Quebec). The winner receives a trip for two to New York to New York to meet Jessica Schall in person.

Filed Under: Advertising & Marketing, Art & Design, Gaming, Mobile Tagged With: , , , ,

Monopolize Your City One Check-in at a Time with the Metropoli App

October 9, 2011 By Leave a Comment


MetropoliThe creative minds behind the Foursquaropoly mobile game concept have re-branded as Metropoli (for obvious trademark issues), but the concept is exactly the same.

Once the concept is released players will be able to download the iPhone or Android version of the app, connect it to their Foursquare account. If a player is the first person to check into a ‘location’ they can buy it with the available money in their Metropoli account. All other players who check-in to that location must pay the owner rent, and the player’s earnings increase as long as they keep paying the bills on their property.

The group has turned to Kickstarter to fund Metropoli and they are looking for $12,000 by October 26. With the help of 46 backers they’ve raised nearly $1800 so far (Oct 9).

The game is obviously built for urban areas like New York, London, Amsterdam and Toronto that have the required concentration of hip mobile users with both the time and attention to dedicate to social game play within their daily tasks of commuting, work and nights out on the town. As I found out in August when I tried to check in to a restaurant in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia – mobile check-ins are not top-of-mind for most people outside of the major cities.

Filed Under: Digital Culture, Gaming, Mobile Tagged With: , , , ,

AMC’s Breaking Bad Introduces Jesse Pinkman Interactive Graphic Novel

August 15, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Breaking Bad - The Cost of Doing Business Graphic Novel GameWe’re already several episodes into Season Four of AMC’s Breaking Bad and the intensity level is ramping up. AMC has always had great extra features supporting the show on their website. This year we have a weekly podcast, blogs by Hank and Marie and an interactive Gale crime scene evidence file.

But the coolest addition this year is the The Cost of Doing Business – an interactive graphic novel game featuring Jesse Pinkman. In the game you play Jesse’s role trying to deal with prostitutes, sleazy lawyers (yes, Saul makes an appearance), a hitman and dangerous thugs to get as much of your stolen money back as you can. Your success depends on how your react to the other characters, threatening them, paying them off or providing them with meth. Or, in one scene you must beat the high score on a video game called Alien Slaughter to get crucial information from a pair of thugs in a bar.

This isn’t the first time that Breaking Bad has created a graphic novel based on a character. In Season Three viewers were asked to help DEA Agent Hank Schrader try to outsmart a criminal in The Interrogation.

Filed Under: Art & Design, Gaming, Television Tagged With: , ,

UK Car Fans Play Hide and Seek to Win a New Citroën DS4

July 28, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Citroen DS4 SeekersCitroën UK has launched DS4 Seekers, a new mobile and online multi-player game designed to promote the sporty new Citroen DS4.

Each day for 10 days starting July 19, registered players were given a virtual DS4 to hide somewhere on the streets and roadways around the UK. The players use the DS4 Seekers app and web interface to both hide and find the hidden DS4s on Google Maps or a Street View of their area. Points are earned for both hiding and finding cars, with each point giving the player an entry into the draw for a real-life Citroën DS4.

I’m curious to see what the online and mobile game interface actually looks like. It’s not clear from the promotional video above exactly how the game play actually works.

The campaign was created and produced by OMD and Candyspace Media. For more information check out the Citroën UK Facebook page.

Filed Under: Advertising & Marketing, Gaming, Mobile Tagged With: , ,

Race Your MINI on Streets All Over the World

June 22, 2011 By Leave a Comment

When creating any branded game, it’s important to provide an experience that immediately engages the user. The MINImaps Facebook Application does a great job by allowing users to drive their personalized MINI on a Google Map anywhere in the world.

MINImapsSo where did I take my MINI first? Paris, Tokyo, London? No, no and no. I dropped my mini in the middle of Mississauga and drove it home to my building. Boring choice maybe, but the game had me imagine driving a MINI around on the streets I see everyday.

The application allows you to create a race track anywhere in the world and race your MINI on it. The tracks can then be saved and shared with your friends or made available for anyone to race on. Each track even has its own leaderboard.

While the keyboard controls are clunky and the car very hard to control, I was having a ball driving the MINI around familiar roads in Ontario and Nova Scotia.

The game was developed by DDB Paris and built by Unit9.

This is not the first time that Google Maps have been used as the source for a driving games, including the A-Team Drive the Van and Vodofone’s Hometown GP.

Filed Under: Advertising & Marketing, Gaming Tagged With: , ,