Toronto Thumbs

Awesome
Do Or Die – Follow-Up

Our intrepid travelers have returned home from their spontaneous trips. They all survived (which is awesome) and are settling back into their routines.

For those who don’t know (and are too lazy to click on the link), Microsoft Canada started a contest called “Do Or Die” which involved a group of potential survivalists lobbying for the support of the internet community. Each of the top three candidates received some swag (in the form of laptops and phones) and two plane tickets to a city somewhere in the world; their destinations were a mystery to them until the last minute.

Toronto Thumbs was lucky enough to catch up with these crazy Do Or Die peeps to ask a few questions! Don’t forget to visit the page to check out the official event page!

• Introduction
• Alex Hugh
• Trevor Jones
• Josette Jorge

Posted in Awesome, Events, Interviews | No Comments »

March Break Madness
Off the Wall? Off the Couch!

A lot has been made lately of the interactivity of games; and rightly so. The image of the stereotypical gamer up until recently has been synonymous with ‘couch potato’ (even with Nintendo’s more active innovation years ago). Now, with Sony’s Playstation Move and Microsoft’s Kinect, it is getting harder to refer to us gamers as ‘sacks of potatoes’; especially so, since the introduction of so many new offerings in fitness software.

I had the chance to chat briefly with Sharon Vinderine (founder and CEO of PTPA Inc.*) about motion gaming and its role in family fitness. Sharon spoke about the role of Kinect and urges families to give it a spin, especially in light of the upcoming March Break**.

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Posted in Interviews, Kinect, Move, Wii | 1 Comment »

Here There Be Dinosaurs!
Chatting About Orion: Prelude

“Hey Luuuucy!”

Recently, a game being developed by Spiral Game Studios hit our radar; the game is a melding of space marines, dinosaurs, mechs, and jet-packs. This awesome idea is called Orion: Prelude. David Prassel, CEO and Founder of Spiral Game Studios, was nice enough to field some questions that we sent his way. We don’t know about you folks, but this concept sounds like our childhood dreams come true*.

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Interview
The Current State and Future of “Exergaming”

I recently had the opportunity to pose some questions about “exergaming” to Ubisoft Montreal game designer, Nicola Godin. After some phone interview glitches prevented us from connecting over the PSTN, he was nice enough to answer the questions I posed via E-mail. Here is what we talked about…

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Posted in Interviews, Kinect, Xbox 360 | 5 Comments »

Chillin’
With the Industrial Brothers

The other day I had the chance to hang out with the Industrial Brothers; this intrepid group of 10 guys is busy working away on their latest release: Beast Farmer 2. The Beast Farmer series is about capturing and raising creatures on Beast Planet, a mysterious world frozen in time. Part of the game involves interacting with your beasts; feeding them and teaching them tricks with swipes of your finger; as you do so, progress bars will fill and your creature will gain levels. The other part is made up of minigames, where you earn food for your creature, race them, and enter them into battles.

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Posted in Interviews, iPhone, iPod Touch | No Comments »

Interview
Ryan MacLean from DrinkBox Studios

Recently we had the chance to chat with our friend Ryan MacLean; Ryan is the CEO and a cofounder of Drinkbox Studios, creators of the game Tales From Space: About a Blob. It sounds like things are coming along nicely, but we figured we’d discuss the game in a small amount of detail; don’t want to give too much away, after all…

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Posted in Interviews, PSN | No Comments »

Interview
Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 2

Recently, Toronto Thumbs conducted a Q&A with Namco Bandai’s own Andrew Davis about Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 2; this title is one that I am very much anticipating (like this is a real surprise to anyone who reads this site regularly). Andrew was full of useful information and awesome humour; we would like to share some of what he said with our readers.

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Posted in Interviews, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 | 5 Comments »

E3 2010 Coverage
Interview With Nintendo Canada

Today, Matt Ryan from Nintendo Canada and I got a chance to catch up on the phone regarding events from E3 2010. Nintendo has been enjoying a strong market position, so it was interesting to chat about what sorts of games and hardware they are releasing to stay competitive. Lets see what he had to say…

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E3 2010 Coverage
Interview With Sony Canada

Today I had the chance to catch up with Matt Levitan from Sony Computer Entertainment Canada regarding Sony’s E3 2010 content. Sony had a strong showing, with a cadre of great games, technology, and the wildly popular Kevin Butler. Sadly, Matt’s phone dropped and we didn’t get a chance to finish the interview. However, before fate pulled the plug on his phone…

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Posted in E3, Interviews, Move, News Bytes, PlayStation 3, Sony | No Comments »

E3 2010 Coverage
Interview With Microsoft Canada

Today I had the pleasure of chatting with Craig Flannagan from Microsoft Canada about some of the E3 Microsoft goodness for this year. It certainly looks to be an exciting year for the jolly green giant; a new way of playing and some fabulous exclusives topped the list of things that my piqued interest. Let’s let the interview speak for itself…

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Posted in E3, Events, Interviews, Kinect, News Bytes, Xbox 360 | No Comments »