Round-Up: Kuma vs. Iran, Go! Sudoku, New Dissecta Events

Today's round-up includes news of a digitized invasion of Iran, as well as the inexorable rise of the Sudoku plague, this time infiltrating the PSP, and new Australian developer events from Dissecta, as well as today's product news and Gamasutra job postings. - Kuma Reality Games has announced the latest episode in its long-running Kuma\War, a military action title which takes its content from current events. Mission #58 will explore a hypothetical attack on Iran following the discovery that the country's nuclear program is more advanced than it has reported. Though the mission uses the headlines as little more than a divergence point from reality -- the actual storyline has a lone team charged with destroying Iran's production facilities and end its nuclear capabilities -- the episode is in keeping with the game's practice of simulating real-world events through the game. "Kuma's mission is to reinvent broadcast television using video game technology," said Reality Games CEO Keith Halper. "With 'U.S. Attacks Iran' we follow the lead of networks like The History Channel and Discovery in bringing news headlines to life with speculative re-creations." - Sony Computer Entertainment Europe will release Go! Sudoku, for PlayStation Portable during the holiday season. The game is poised to exploit the odd UK craze for Japanese-originating sudoku number puzzles, which rely more on logic than mathematics. Go! Sudoku will feature a wireless multiplayer mode for competitions, 1,000 new puzzles with the option to download more, and music that plays in the background. The game is scheduled for release in Europe around Christmas. - Game development event organizer Dissecta has announced two Australian developer meetings to take place in the remainder of 2005. On October 25th, the company will put on a Sound and Music in Games panel, an hour and a half of discussion of game audio at the Australian Games Innovation Centre in Melbourne. On November 22nd, the Australian Centre for the Moving Image, also in Melbourne, will host a discussion by the developers of Heroes of the Pacific, a combat flight simulation game to be released by Codemasters. More information on both events can be found at the Dissecta website. - Also updated today: product news, including endorphin's use in next-gen title Possession, plus today's new Gamasutra job postings, featuring positions from Vicarious Visions, Firaxis Games, Paradigm Entertainment, Spark Unlimited, The Collective, The Employment Office, Walt Disney Internet Group, Blue Fang Games, EA Tiburon, and Pandemic Studios.