Today is Thursday, but tomorrow is Friday and Friday is our big giveaway day with Free Stuff Friday. This week’s group of prizes are all related to a single theme – Aliens Infestation! The WayForward / Gearbox developed, SEGA published, Aliens amazing-ness that’s been getting a ton of high marks from around the web! It’s going to be a good one …

On the Block

This week we have six identical packs, each with one of the following prizes included. Good luck!

1. Aliens Infestation - the Nintendo DS Game! The game is completely region free and can be enjoyed across any Nintendo DS, or 3DS system.

2. Aliens Infestation Buttons – four buttons displaying different Colonial Marines meeting their end from various Alien life forms. Facehugger, chestburster, and full on Alien with mini-through-head-death. These were originally given away at our PAX 2011 booth and were quite the hit!

3. Aliens Infestation Animated Lenticular – This framed art piece features a fully animated Alien stalking and attacking a Colonial Marine. The animation is pulled directly from the in-game sprites and is, in essence, a moving picture in a static format. In the image above you can catch the last frame when the Marine is pushing the Alien back with a burst of gunfire from the Pulse Rifle. We’re really happy with how these turned out and cannot wait to get them out to 6 lucky winners! **Only 200 of these were created, they are extremely limited!**

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, a word or phrase, 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!)

Example:

We tweet “GIVEAWAY: Sonic T-shirt, size L. Be the 15th person to DM “Sonic Adventure” to win!”

You see this, and want to win it, so you send us a direct message that says “Sonic Adventure”. If you are the 15th person to do so, you are the winner!

Quotation marks do not matter, capitalization does not matter, but spelling does matter!

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.

How to Send Direct Messages on Twitter

Due to a change in our account status with Twitter, you should be able to send us direct messages without us following you.

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.

WayForward is back with another developer diary for Aliens Infestation, this time the focus is all about weapons, gadgets, and mobility. The full developer diary is over at the Gearboxity community site, a destination for all things Gearbox! Check the sample below, or jump straight away to the Gearbox site!

The next step toward creating an immersive experience was in crafting a well-developed character that was capable of physically behaving like a USCM soldier. If we were asking players to get scared, play strategically, and go out of their way to protect their tiny Marine’s life, then that Marine couldn’t move around like 8-bit Mario (no offense – Mario games are incredible). The characters needed more depth, in their abilities and mobility, to get players deeply invested in them, and also to make them feel more ‘real’ as they were butchered by frenzied aliens.

Click here to read the rest!

Attention, MLB Managers!

It’s October, which means Playoff Baseball, the looming World Series, and — live now for MLB Manager Online — our major Fall Update!

Since the game launched last April, we’ve taken a look at the way the paid structure for the game works, and have decided to undertake some changes. The game is still totally free to play, and you can build and manage a fantasy roster of MLB players — changes are designed to make it easier for more people to participate and make competitive decisions, and for managers who do spend money on the game to make more strategic decisions with what they spend.

For additional update notes, check out the Fall Update news from the main game!

Here are the big changes being made, and what they’ll mean for you:

Changes To Points and SEGA Coins System

This is the major change to come with this update: Now, many of the items previously purchased with SC will now be available with points. This includes arcades and player training reset/retry options.

Other options — notably the bonus point option available for games — have had their SC cost reduced.

Initially the amount of points required seems kind of large – however, there are a number of changes which will make these accessible for spending a small amount of SC. For those who continue to play for free, you will be able to play the same as before, only you will now have the option to spend extra points on certain premium items.

Here’s the main new premium items being added:

• Training Card Set: Pack of 10 level 5 training cards + Bonus Points
• Support Card Set: Ten new high-level Support cards + Bonus Points
• Lucky Training Card: Super-high level training card + Bonus Points

The idea of these three new items is to provide the following:

a) extremely valuable support/training cards
b) high quantities of bonus points.

What you get in these packs: These cards are not available elsewhere and will provide significant bonuses to your team. They are available only with SEGA Coins.

Why they’re important: These are basically the driving force for the new way of purchasing in-game items. You get not only the very powerful bonus cards, but large numbers of points – 100,000 or 350,000 for the two card packs, and a varying (random) amount for the single card (between 4,000 and 300,000 — it is a random amount which will mostly be below 10,000 points, but which will represent a significant addition of points for a small number of SC).

What else you need to know: If you want to make use of a large number of extra points (more than the 100,000 limit), you will need to raise your points limit. This is available for a very small (equivalent to less than 50 cents) SC purchase, and can be purchased multiple times. If you have previously used SC to increase your points limit, that will be converted to a new, much higher total for you, automatically.

The idea, then, is you can use these points as you would SC before; the major change is that you are now essentially getting more bang for your buck (points to spend on premium items + powerful support/training cards).

Arcade Machine Revamp

Arcade machines are now played with points. Here’s the key changes:

• Arcade A and Arcade C cost 20,000 points each; Arcade B costs 15,000.
• Items have been changed around a bit to make the machines more focused. For example, Arcade A is now Scouting Cards only.
• Training cards now are awarded at x3 cards instead of x1.
• Support Cards from Arcade B now awarded x2 instead of x1.

Roster Update!

This update also introduces the first major Roster update for MLBMO, updating stats for this past season!

Stats should change over after a cycle, so you won’t have to worry about your team suffering because suddenly a player’s cost/ability changed. Improvements made to a player will remain, as well.

Additionally, there will be a host of new Career High (CH) players added to the game, in addition to those already there. This gives you even more options for working players from their peak years into your lineup, to make sure you have a cohesive team.

Overall we think this update gives greater flexibility to those who are choosing to pay for this game, and a greater chance to participate for all of those playing!

For the past few weeks, we’ve been featuring concept art and different characters in Guardian Heroes. We’re thrilled that you guys are so excited for this game, so we wanted to share some more art with you!

Guardian Heroes is an amazing action RPG brawler where you create your own adventure. The Heroes are coming to XBLA on October 12th, and they’re better than ever! Get ready for more swords and sorcery than you can shake your magical staff at.

An ancient evil threatens the world after years of peace. Step into the shoes of one of five mighty heroes; each with their own unique attacks and customizable stats. As you fight through forests, graveyards, castles and volcanoes, your every decision will decide the ultimate fate of the world. Do you have what it takes to be a Guardian Hero?

Guardian Heroes features co-op and online play for you and your friends, multiple game modes, optimized graphics, and brand new achievements for Xbox Live.

We also released some XBLA avatar items and some wallpapers for your computer yesterday. Be sure to check them out!

The Football Manager 2012 Demo is available to download today. You will need a STEAM account to download, but signing up is free.

The demo gives you the chance to play through the first half of the 2011/2012 season and will include new features announced in the Football Manager Blogs.

The demo includes QuickStarts for some of the world’s biggest leagues, giving players a chance to try out their skills with teams from multiple countries. Details of languages and leagues are below.

• In-game languages: English, American English, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Danish, Dutch, Swedish, Norwegian, Czech and Polish

• QuickStart leagues: England, Scotland, France, Spain, Holland, Belgium, Italy, Norway, Denmark, Sweden and Australia.

Details on how to download the demo can be found HERE