If you are a big fan of the show House, now is your chance to win some House goodies. Legacy is holding a contest and the prizes are all House related, such as autographed DVDs, t-shirts, hats, a cast photo and even an autographed script.

Legacy is releasing the game House and the only thing players need to do to win the goodies is be one of the first people to buy House the game. Gamers can sign up to have an alert sent to them as soon as the game is able to be bought. The alert will increase the chances that they are the first ones to buy the game House and be able to win the prizes.

House will launch on May 10th for the PC and in September for the Nintendo DS.

PopCap Games has announced a contest for people to show how much they love the Bejeweled franchise. Players need to create a 2 minute video describing or showing how much they love Bejeweled.

The contest is entitled “Show Your Bejeweled Love” and is part of the celebration of the 10 year anniversary of Bejeweled. The contest runs until May 26th 2010 and is open to residents of the US, Canada (except Quebec) and the UK. Anyone that wants to participate in the contest can submit a video to YouTube that describes or shows their affinity for Bejeweled. The video can only be 2 minutes or less. PopCap will be awarding US$5,000 in prizes to the top 10 entries, including a limited edition notebook PC and two iPads, each with custom-designed, “Bejeweled 10th Anniversary” engravings.

“More than half a billion people worldwide have played Bejeweled over the past decade, which still blows our minds,” said Jason Kapalka, co-founder and Chief Creative Officer at PopCap and co-creator of Bejeweled.  “Their enthusiasm for the game is unquestioned and we thought it would be fun to reward that incredible devotion in some way.”

If you love Bejeweled, start making a video and you could be rewarded with some great prizes.

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Lt. Fly Rise of the Arachnids is a neat game for the iPhone/iPod Touch. The game combines two types of games, matching and shooting. Players have to match four of a kind and clear squares off of the board while shooting spiders that are trying to take their life away. If the spiders fall down to the ground without being shot the players loses some of their life. If enough spiders hit the ground, the player loses the level.

The game is a neat combination of games and keeps players on their feet. The matching side of the game requires players to swap squares of different colors to try to make a four of a kind match. The squares that are matched will disappear and more squares will drop down from the top of the screen. Each time a certain color is matched, it fills a meter. As the squares are being matched, there are spiders that periodically drop from the top of the screen on the non-matching side. The spiders have to be shot with the gun and killed before they reach the ground. Players start with some ammo for their gun, but can get more by getting the bullets on the matching side down to the bottom of the screen.

The game is fast paced and players need to pay attention. If players take too long to make matches, they will run out of ammo. Players have to balance the matching side of the game and the shooting side of the game. Each level, of course, gets more and more difficult to beat.

The graphics in the game are appealing and the touch mechanisms work well. Every time the screen was touched, the touch was recognized and caused something to happen in the game. The shooting works well too. Players touch the screen to aim the gun and then release the touch to cause the gun to shoot.

Over all, Lt. Fly Rise of the Arachnids is a really fun and entertaining game. Players have to balance the matching and shooting side and that keeps things fun and interesting. The game is different from other games and the balance between two similar games keeps Lt. Fly Rise of the Arachnids interesting. If you are looking for a fun and different game to play on the iPhone/iPod Touch, you can’t go wrong with Lt. Fly Rise of the Arachnids.

DotEmu is a publisher that specializes in bringing old games back from the past. They have created a new online store to give easy access to the older games. Players will have access to games from the 80s and 90s and the players will get a deal until the official launch on May 6th. Players that visit the site during the beta phase, from now until May 6th, will be able to download the games for free.

DotEmu’s catalog is available on the PC, iPhone and now directly online. The catalog will appeal to all types of gamers. They have fighting games like Street Fighter II prime and Boulder Dash as well as Role Playing Games (RPG) and adventure games. Not to mention all of the games will bring back nostalgia from when you were a kid and had all the time in the world to play these games.

If you are into old games, check out DotEmu’s web site.

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There is a new casual game company in Britain and they are getting ready to make their big debut. The company is called Paper Giant Studios and they just launched their web site. The company will be making games for the PC, Mac and iPhone.

The company is ready to take the casual games industry in a new direction. Their first game will be Seed Pod Shuffle, which requires players to use their puzzle solving skills to grow a forest environment. If the game sounds interesting, you can head over to the newly launched web site and get some behind the scenes diaries and a way to meet the characters of the Seed Pod Shuffle game.

Codey Dyer, studio co-founder, said “People in Britain are surprised when we tell them the downloadable casual game audience is dominated by women over the age of thirty-five. We’re developing rich new game experiences with this group in mind, but we believe a well designed game will be accessible and fun for everyone.

If you are looking for something different in the casual game industry, check out Paper Giant Studio and the games they have in the works.

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