Tournament of Legends is right around the corner! To whet your appetite, we’ve released some new screens and a new trailer. This time, we’re focusing on Jupiter and Kara.

Jupiter “The King of the Gods”

A simple earth elemental that has been bound to a statue of Jupiter.  This delusional spirit believes he truly is the King of Gods. He seeks to regain his throne, and Pantheon, no matter who stands in his way.

Kara “She who is born of battle”

After years of ferrying the souls of fallen warriors to Valhalla, Kara has developed a taste for battle. Now she seeks to prove herself against the most powerful opponents she can find.

Tournament of Legends is scheduled for release on July 6 for $29.95.

Today we are happy to announce that the second downloadable content pack for Aliens vs Predator is heading to Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Steam for PC. This newly designed Map Pack, entitled Bughunt, includes four brand new maps split between Survivor and Multiplayer offerings. For the first time, these new maps will include environmental hazards and new weather effects. Bughunt will be available for purchase on July 7th.

Crashsite – Multiplayer

Crashsite is an outdoors map placing up to 18 players in a Jungle swamp – dominated by a crashed drop ship. Radiating away from the swamp is a waterfall overlooking an expansive vista, which is part of a large “ring” of playable area that surrounds the central swamp, with connecting spokes to aid player movement through the map.

Predators are forced to consider how they move throughout the map, as the “swamp” environment leaves a lot of water pooled on the ground – perfect for removing the cloak and requiring predators to always consider their routes carefully.

Marines have wide open fields of fire, and plenty of areas to back in to a corner – however with multiple entrances/exits to any area and expansive use of trees around the map, their opponents could be coming from anywhere, at any time.

Aliens are confronted with a wealth of areas and places in which to initiate the perfect ambush. From cave system choke points, to tree top perches, there is never a shortage of places to pounce upon unsuspecting prey.

Furious – Multiplayer

Furious is an arena style map placing up to 12 players in a central cylinder shaped area dominated by a huge active furnace in the middle.

Predator players have ample space in which to traverse the map, and hunt other players from the myriad of vantage points offered by a network of interlaced pathways and beams across the roof of the dome.

Marine players must navigate the available paths to the top of the furnace, where they find ample weapon supplies but are restricted in the available space in which they can fight – and must also contend with the random eruptions that eject from the furnace, which will fry any hapless human who happens to be in its path. Fighting at the bottom of the furnace, removes the peril of a long fall and allows superior freedom of movement, but at the cost of reduced firepower.

Alien players have the freedom of a Cylinder shaped map, which allows them to crawl up any wall to reach the top, and pounce upon any camping Predator, or unwary Marine.

Monument – Survivor Map

Monument is an outdoor map set on BG-386 in a previously unseen Monument area to the deceased Predator Lord. With geometry purpose built to suit Alien navigation, Monument provides a challenge to players who are already familiar with Survivor. Aliens can appear from any direction, and if the player stands still for too long they become vulnerable to the Jungle Alien “spitters” who are present in this level.

Tempest – Survivor Map

Tempest is an outdoor map which places players in the BG-386 Colony area on a dark and stormy night. In addition to the never ending Alien swarm, players must also contend with their environment. A constant rainstorm batters the colony, with intermittent flashes of lightning illuminating the environment to show the Marines attackers bearing down on him. After each wave is completed, the fog rolls in for the start of the next one as ghostly shapes begin to stalk the player.

Players can prove their skills on the killing grounds of BG-386 on 7th July 2010.

E3 is home to a ton of awesome games each year – and this mass flurry often means that some of the best go overlooked. Thankfully, it looks like Valkyria Chronicles II won’t be among the overlooked this year, as Gamespot’s Editor’s Choice Awards have given VCII the picks for both Best RPG of the show and also best PSP game!

You can check out the video with all the winners by clicking here, (or on the image above!) and jump to 5 minutes in to see the awards.

As many of you have probably already heard, the game’s ship date has also been confirmed – it will be arriving here in the states on August 31st!

Let’s hear it for Valkyria Chronicles II!

SAN FRANCISCO (23rd June, 2010) – SEGA® of America, Inc. today announced that Napoleon: Total War – The Peninsular Campaign is now available for PC exclusively via Steam™. This expansion pack includes a brand new campaign map featuring 32 controllable regions divided amongst four different factions of which three are playable.  In addition to France and Britain, Spain is also added as a playable faction exclusively on this campaign map.

Napoleon: Total War – The Peninsular Campaign is available for US $9.99. For a full list of features on The Peninsular Campaign, please visit www.totalwar.com.

It is 1811 and the war in the Spanish Peninsula has been raging for over two years with mixed fortunes and heavy casualties for both sides. Napoleon’s Armée d’Espagne, led by Marshal Masséna, has invaded Portugal once again, but thus far, the network of entrenchments has proved impossible for the French to successfully assail. Although forced back to the edges of their Peninsula by France and the traitors who helped them, Spain is not yet out of the fight. The Supreme Central Junta and its successor, the Supreme Regency, authorized the forming of local bands to fight guerrilla – the “little war” – against the invaders.

Head to Steam and pick up the Peninsular Campaign today!

Do you love Napoleon: Total War? Can you command the battlefield like no other or write a story that rivals the historical battles Napoleon is known for? If you have what it takes, you can enter to win some Napoleon Total War prizes and compete alongside the Napoleon community for swag and notoriety! With the help of the Total War community, we have a wide range of competitions available including in game tournaments, screenshot competitions, lotteries, or an After Action Report competition.

The Prizes

For prizing, we have some very special swag in the form of T-Shirts, Sweatshirts, and the very limited edition Napoleon Figurine from the Australian Special Edition. I’m a big fan of the sweatshirt, which sports a handy pocket at the middle for an MP3 Player and the classic Napoleon Total War logo across the top. I wear it every day, it’s a nice quality bit of swag and something we’re really looking forward to passing out to the fans of Napoleon.

TWCenter.net – Register for the Online Tournament

TWCenter.net is lining up a few different competitions and the first out of the gate is an online tournament! It’s easy to compete, just head on over to the board and register. There are a few key rules, including:

1. All players must register in the proper thread, one for the American tournament and one for the European tournament. You must include your Steam user name when you register.
2. All battles will be fought on Large funding.
3. All battles will be fought on Large unit settings.
4. All battles will be fought in dry weather.
5. All battles will have a 60 minute time limit.
6. No DLC units allowed
7. Battle maps will be selected by TWC Staff. Each round of the tournament will have its own map.

More information is available at TWCenter.net – be on the lookout for more opportunities to win these prizes with different competitions!

Napoleon: Total War Steam Fan Group

The largest Steam Napoleon Fan Group is running a bunch of different competitions over on the Official Total War forums, including a Video Contest, After Action Report contest, and a Video Contest. You’ll have to enter quick to get in on the action, as you have 7 days to produce and submit your materials. Head on over and read about the contest specifics and see what best suits your style!

Big thanks to both the TWCenter.net and Napoleon Steam Fan Group for making these giveaways possible. We’re really excited about the competitions and hope you enjoy them as well!

Happy Birthday, Sonic!

Get ready for one of the biggest SEGA Community events of the year. Everyone’s favorite blue hedgehog with attitude is turning 19, and we’d like you to help us celebrate! Take part and you could win the ultimate birthday gift – a free trip for you and a friend to Tokyo, Japan, to visit SEGA, meet the Sonic Team, and get some exclusive playtime with Sonic The Hedgehog 4 Episode I!

To enter, create a video showing off your love for Sonic! You could run down the street dressed as the blue hedgehog himself, paint a massive Sonic mural in your hometown, build Green Hill zone entirely out of cake, or almost anything you can come up with. Be creative, original, and entertaining! (And, of course, keep it legal!)

Once judging is complete, the top 10 entries will go live on the website and the fans themselves will vote on our winners! The prizes are amazing, the contest is huge and the excitement is high – do it to it and let’s show the world just how passionate our fans can be. Up, over, and gone!

You can get all the contest details, including the official rules, on the Sonic’s Birthday Contest page. To hear more about what we’re looking for, just watch this video.

We’re looking forward to seeing your entries!

We’ve got a ton of great prizes this week. Off to the video for the lowdown!

So to reiterate, we’re doing it slightly differently this week because we have a lot of shirts! We’ll pick multiple winners per giveaway and each will get one shirt. Some shirts we have multiple sizes in, and some shirts we only have in one size. We tried to pick stuff that runs the gamut of sizes, so hopefully one will be just right for you!

On the Block

1. E3 Shirts

SEGA staff shirts from E3 ’08, ’09, and ’10. We’re giving away 4 shirts – one is XS, one is S, one is M, and one is winner’s choice (L or XL).

2. Phantasy Star Zero “Rappy” Shirt

Show your Rappy love with this PSZ shirt. We’re giving away 3 shirts – winner’s choice of sizes (M-XL)

3. SEGA GAMER shirt

If you’re a SEGA Gamer, you need this shirt! We’re giving away 3 shirts (size L only)

4. Napoleon: Total War shirt

We’ve got 4 of these Napoleon shirts to give away, sizes S-XL (winner’s choice).

5.  High Voltage Software shirt

3 shirts to give away – the black shirt is XL, the white shirt is 2XL, and the brown shirt is 3XL.

6. Infinite Space shirt

3 shirts to give away, sizes S-L.

7. Alpha Protocol shirt

4 shirts to give away, sizes M and XL only.

8. Resonance of Fate shirt

4 shirts to give away. One white shirt (L) and 3 brown shirts (S-XL).

9. Sonic  shirts

Japanese shirt (L) and checkerboard shirt (M).

How it Works

1. You must be following us on Twitter to be eligible. (If you don’t have a Twitter account, you can create one by going to http://www.twitter.com and click the green “get started — join!” button in the center of the page.)
2. At random times on Friday, we will announce the prize we are giving away, and what number of response you need to be to win. Send us a direct message (DM) via Twitter and be that number to win the prize. (@ replies do not count as entries!)
3. All followers are eligible to win all prizes, unless a restriction is noted. Restrictions are usually due to the prize being region-locked. For example, US games that won’t work on UK gaming systems. There may also be age restrictions due to the rating of the game.
4. We will announce the winner on our Twitter feed once eligibility is confirmed.

Make Sure We’re Following You on Twitter

If you are currently following us on Twitter, please be sure that we are following you as well. You can do this by making sure that SEGA is in your “followers” list, or by going to DoesFollow and typing SEGA in the first blank, your Twitter username in the second, and pressing the “check” button. You can reverse this to be sure that you are following us. If you are following us, but we’re not following you, please send a message to @SEGA and we will follow you. This is important, because only people we follow can send us direct messages (DMs), and DMs are the only way to enter the giveaways.

Important Note: Twitter limits us to following 1,000 new people per day. This is a limit imposed by Twitter and is not something we can control, change, or get around. We do our best to follow everyone back in time for the giveaway, but this is becoming increasingly difficult as our Free Stuff Fridays become more popular. Because we must be following you in order for you to send us a direct message, if we cannot follow you due to this limit, you will be unable to enter the giveaway. We do our contests by direct message to avoid having everyone spam their followers with giveaway entries. Please be patient, and we will follow you as soon as we’re able.

How to Send Direct Messages on Twitter

There are a few ways to send us a Direct Message on Twitter. The easiest way is to go to our Twitter page and select “message” under the “Actions” heading in the side bar. If you do not see “message”, this means that we are not following you. Please send a message to @sega to let us know, and we will follow you. When you click “message” you will be taken to a window where you can type a message and press send.

You may also select the “direct messages” tab from your Twitter homepage, and select SEGA from the drop-down menu at the top of the page. Again, if you don’t see our name there, it’s probably because we’re not following you. Let us know, and we’ll follow you.

There are also many Twitter clients that you can use instead of using the website. These include TweetDeck, Twitteriffic, Tweetie, and Twhirl. Each of these programs works differently, so you’ll want to figure out how to send a direct message on the program you use. If you want to send us a test message, we’ll let you know if we received it or not.

Attention, SEGA Fans!

It’s summertime, it’s Sonic’s Birthday, and we’re celebrating all week long with sales on select SEGA games on three different platforms: PlayStation Network, Xbox Live, and the iPhone!

The sales below all have special dates, so be sure to check these for reference:

PlayStation Network: Tuesday June 22^nd to Tuesday July 6^th
iTunes AppStore: Wed June 23^rd to Wed June 30^th
Xbox LIVE Marketplace: Thursday June 24^th, one day only!

A ton of Sonic titles are going on sale, as well as some SEGA classics for the iPhone.

Check out the schedule for the sale below — these price drops are applicable in North America, Europe, and Japan!

Tuesday, June 22nd – PlayStation Network and PlayStation Portable over PSN

Its Sony Tuesday, with tons of Sonic and Sonic DLC available over PlayStation Network.

Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing: Metal Sonic Death Egg       $7.99 $5.49
Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing: Ryo with Forklift Character       $4.99 $3.49
Sonic Unleashed Apatos & Shamar Adventure Pack       $2.99 $1.99
Sonic Unleashed Chun-nan Adventure Pack       $2.99 $1.99
Sonic Unleashed Empire City & Adabat Adventure Pack       $2.99 $1.99
Sonic Unleashed Holoska Adventure Pack       $2.99 $1.99
Sonic Unleashed Mazuri Adventure Pack       $2.99 $1.99
Sonic Unleashed Spagonia Adventure Pack       $2.99 $1.99
Sonic the Hedgehog 2006: Very Hard Shadow Missions       $2.49 $1.49
Sonic the Hedgehog 2006: Very Hard Silver Missions       $2.49 $1.49
Sonic the Hedgehog 2006: Very Hard Sonic Missions       $2.49 $1.49
Sonic Unleashed Add On Bundle       $17.94 $8.99
Sonic Racing Add On Bundle       $12.98 $6.49
Sonic Rivals 2 (PlayStation Portable over PSN)       $19.99 $13.99
Sonic Rivals (PlayStation Portable over PSN)       $15.99 $10.99
Sonic Rivals 1 & 2 Bundle (PlayStation Portable over PSN)       $35.98 $17.99

Wednesday, June 23rd – iPhone
Celebrate Sonic’s birthday on the go with these iPhone games on sale this Wednesday:

Super Monkey Ball       $4.99 $2.99
Sonic the Hedgehog       $5.99 $3.99
Super Monkey Ball 2        $5.99 $3.99
Sonic the Hedgehog 2       $5.99 $3.99
Streets of Rage       $2.99 $0.99
Golden Axe       $2.99 $0.99
Super Monkey Ball 2: Sakura Ed.    $7.99 $4.99

Thursday, June 24th – Xbox Live Arcade

And then on Thursday we have great Sonic titles going on sale, over Xbox Live Arcade — all featuring the Lock-On Technology of the Genesis originals!

Sonic the Hedgehog 2       $5.00 $3.00
Sonic the Hedgehog 3       $5.00 $3.00
Sonic the Hedgehog       $5.00 $3.00
Sonic & Knuckles       $5.00 $3.00

As the E3 2010 show comes to a close, I’m happy to report the nominations and awards that SEGA games have received this year. It’s been a great gear for SEGA and SEGA games. If these awards and nominations are any indication, it’s going to be a great year for SEGA fans.

If you have seen any E3 nominations or awards that are not on this list, or if your site has given us an award or nomination that is not on this list, please let us know in the comments. We’ll keep updating this list as the show wraps.

Shogun 2: Total War

Best Strategy Game (nominee) – Gaming Excellence

Best PC Game (nominee) – Gaming Excellence

Best Strategy Game (nominee) – 1up

Best Strategy Game (nominee) – machinima.com

Best PC Game (nominee) – IGN

Best Strategy Game (nominee) – IGN

Sonic the Hedgehog 4 Episode I

Best iPhone Game (nominee) – IGN

Best Platforming Game (nominee) – IGN

Reason to Live Award – Gamesradar

Best Downloadable Game (nominee) – Gaming Excellence

Sonic Colors

Best DS game (nominee) – 1up

Best of E3 Award (DS version) – Pure Nintendo

Best DS game (nominee) – IGN

Best Wii game (nominee) – IGN

Best Platformer (nominee) – Gaming Excellence

Conduit 2

Best of E3 Award – Pure Nintendo

Yakuza 4

Reason to Live award – Gamesradar

Best Action Game (nominee) – IGN

Vanquish

Best of E3 award – The Bit Bag

Game of the Show (nominee) – Gaming Excellence

Best Shooter (nominee) – Gaming Excellence

Best Multiplatform Console Game (nominee) – Gaming Excellence

Best Graphics (technical) (nominee) – Gaming Excellence

Reason to Live award – Gamesradar

Valkyria Chronicles 2

Best Strategy Game (nominee) – Gaming Excellence

Best PSP Game (nominee) – Gaming Excellence

Best Handheld Game (nominee) – machinima.com

The nice folks from Guinness World Records just stopped by to give SEGA 2 world records! Pictured with the awards above are (L-R) Darren Williams, Mike Hayes, and Haruki Satomi.

The first award (pardon the glare) is for Valkyria Chronicles. The award is for best strategy RPG for the PS3! Valkyria Chronicles won Game of the Year, Strategy Game of the Year, and achieved average review scores of 86% and 86.38% in 2008.

The second award is for Virtua Fighter. We received it for being the first fully 3D fighting game to employ polygon graphics as opposed to animated sprites in 1993.

Here are Darren, Mike and Haruki with the people from Guinness World Records.

Speaking of awards, I’ve just been told that a few more E3 nominations and awards have come in. We’ll have a full update on all the nominations and awards in a future blog post. It’s been a great E3 for SEGA games!