Round-Up: Hoshimi Finalists, America's Army Anniversary, G4 Vixens

Author: by Nich Maragos, Simon Carless

Today's round-up includes news on the finalists of a Microsoft-sponsored student gaming competition, an anniversary for the America's Army game, and the winners of a classy G4-originating character competition, as well as the latest product news, Letter to the Editor, and job postings. - The team finalists for Microsoft's student Imagine Cup 2005 for Visual Gaming, otherwise known as "Project Hoshimi," and previously announced as involving robot AI programming, have been announced. At the university level, the teams are Feu, from Brazil; Macrophage, from Canada; Diyinside, from China; Baltic NanoTech Group, from Estonia; Lords of the Bots, from Poland, and ai@put, from Poland. In the high school category, the teams are EraGeeKoR, from Frances; Z², from France; Snob, from Japan; Fal, from Japan; SystemPro2, from Serbia and Montenegro, and Syspro_andrej_cvoro, from Serbia and Montenegro. All finalists will receive a trip to Yokohama, Japan, to participate in the final round of the competition. - July 4, in addition to being Independence Day, marks the third anniversary of America's Army's release. The developers are celebrating by releasing extra material onto the game's website, such as a timeline detailing the evolution of the game, making-of interviews, and footage of the developers training with Army personnel. Later in the year, Ubisoft will release the first console version of the game, America's Army: Rise of a Soldier for PC and Xbox. - Cable TV channel G4's "Videogame Vixens" awards program has drawn to a close after three rounds of competition, crowning Tina from Dead or Alive Ultimate as the overall winner. In the very creative individual categories, Kasumi from DOA Ultimate took "Dressed to Kill;" Tomb Raider's Lara Croft won "Best Booty;" Summer from Outlaw Golf 2 got "Sexiest Finish;" Tina won "Dirtiest Dancer," and "Most Dangerous Curves" went to BloodRayne 2's Rayne. The reader's-poll version of the overall winner was Rikku, from 2003's Final Fantasy X-2. - Also updated today: product news including the free release of IonForge's imageDiff tool, a Letter To The Editor continuing the debate over the Hero's Journey, and the latest job postings from companies including Gameloft, Monolith Productions, Point Of View, Sony Computer Entertainment America, and Spark Unlimited.