On Gear Live: 2024 Nissan Z Nismo Review

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What happens when you introduce a non-traditional system to an unfamiliar demographic?  Crazy stuff like this.  Wow, I’ve heard the controls are tricky for Wii Boxing, but if this is what I need to get a knockout, count me out.


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We are going to start bringing you the free content available on the Xbox Live Marketplace on the regular, thanks to long-time Playfeed reader munkyxtc. Let’s not waste any time, and jump right in.

Available in: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, United States?

  • Viva Pinata Maximum Candiosity Gamer Picture (2 days only, expires Dec 4th)
  • Burger King Games Picture Pack (US & Canada Only)
  • Test Drive Unlimited : New Vehicles: (All XBL Regions/Requires in game currency)
  • Lexus IS 350 Chevy Corvette C1 1957
  • NCAA 07: Alternate Uniforms: (Courtesy of Coca-Cola)
    • Big 10, Pac 10, Notre Dame
    • ACC
    • Big East, Conf. USA
    • SEC, Mtn. West
    • Big 12, WAC
  • Madden 07 – Throwback Uniforms: (Courtesy of Sprint)
    • AFC East Throwback Uniforms
    • AFC North Throwback Uniforms
    • AFC South Throwback Uniforms
    • AFC West Throwback Uniforms
    • NFC East Throwback Uniforms
    • NFC North Throwback Uniforms
    • NFC South Throwback Uniforms
    • NFC West Throwback Uniforms

It will take a bit of skill, but no doubt, this is one cool Easter Egg. In the training mode of Wii Sports Bowling, you are able to try your luck against an ever-growing number of pins, capping at a 91-pin setup. Rather than going for broke trying to legitimately knock down all 91 of those bad boys, you can apparently trigger an explosion of atomic levels if you just send the ball straight down the bumper. Check the video to see what we mean.


Tiger Woods 07 Next Generation is reporting that EA has expanded its plan to suck every last dime from gamers. Electronic Arts already made the unusual move to charge for game tutorials for Madden 2007 on the Xbox Live Marketplace, but the latest word is that the company will now charge for cheat codes for Tiger Woods 07. According to Next Generation, the cheat codes will range from $2.50 and $3.75; gamers should still be able to unlock everything in the game by playing through normally. However, if EA continues to monetize every extra in the game then gamers may find that unlocking items may become harder and harder in order to justify the cost of the cheat code.

Read More | Next Generation

Virtua Tennis 1080P

Sega recently displayed builds of Virtua Tennis for the Playstation 3 running in full 1080P resolution, according to a report by 1up. Assuming that 1080P resolution support makes it into the shipping product, this would allow Virtua Tennis to join Gran Turismo HD in the list of games that support the highest resolution display mode of the Playstation 3. People have debated the usefulness of supporting a resolution that so few end users will be able to access, but it is interesting to see what games will have the spare processing power to push that many pixels.

Read More | 1up

Tony Hawk Project 8

Last year’s next generation work for the Tony Hawk series was somewhat lackluster; the game really didn’t take advantage of the power of the Xbox 360 and was generally held up as an example of a quick port. This year, Neversoft hopes to turn that around with the release of Tony Hawk Project 8, which the company claims will be a ground up rebuild of the series for the Xbox 360 and the Playstation 3. The game should be a launch title for the Playstation 3, and according to a preview from IGN, the game is looking virtually identical to the Xbox 360 version. However, it appears that online play will not be available for the Playstation 3, mainly due to the fact that Neversoft only received its PS3 beta kits three weeks ago. Neversoft will try and include things in the PS3 version to make up for this, but online play seems like a big feature to be missed. It seems a little strange that a higher-profile developer like Neversoft wouldn’t have access to the software libraries any sooner; if the same is true for other PS3 developers, this could mean that fewer of the launch titles for the Playstation 3 will have online support than were planned.

Read More | IGN

Wii Sports Baseball ScreenshotIn the bevy of press materials Nintendo sent out today were some tasty tidbits about upcoming games for the Wii. The first one of note is that Wii Sports, which will come as a pack-in game for the $249.99 console, will now feature Wii Boxing(!!) alongside Tennis, Baseball, Golf, and Bowling.

Straight from the press materials (you read it here first!):

Boxing (1-2 players): Using the Nunchuk controller as one glove and the Wii Remote as the other, players dodge, weave and punch their opponents. Players hold their hands high to guard their faces or low to block their torsos. They punch high to hit their opponents’ faces or low to get under their guard for a body blow. Swing both arms left or right to sidestep oncoming blows and move into position for a devastating knockout.

Sounds very cool! Maybe EA will pick up on what an intuitive play mechanic this is and bring Fight Night to the Wii? Wii can only hope!


Heavenly Sword

Ahead of the upcoming Tokyo Game Show, Sony has released a ton of high resolution screen shots from some of the games they will be showing at the Tokyo Game Show, and Game Watch has them all online. Many of the screens look like 720P screen grabs. Among the new screen shots shown are a couple of shots of a game tentatively titled Afrika. Lair, the dragon-based action adventure was also updated, and apparently the game is now supporting the Playstation 3 tilt controller. Gamers can also check out screen shots of the upcoming Unknown Realms title from Game Republic and Formula One Championship. Finally, Sony also released a bunch of screens for both Heavenly Sword and MotorStorm. MotorStorm and Formula One both look remarkable well-detailed at this point, and the action shots of Heavenly Sword also show promise. Of course, one can not determine framerate from a still, but the games do look like they are in better shape than Sony’s hardware production.

Read More | Afrika

Read More | Lair

Read More | Unknown Realms

Read More | Formula One Championship

Read More | Heavenly Sword

Read More | MotorStorm via Game Watch Japan


Unlike most of the other titles for the Wii, opinions on whether Nintendo’s innovative controller improved on the Madden franchise were somewhat divided. Some bloggers on joystiq.com absolutely hated the new control scheme and criticized the graphics of the game, while others like IGN thought that the control was “where the game shines”. While the above video may not give a final verdict on whether or not the Madden 2007 Wii control scheme is an improvement, it certainly gives a lot of tasty tidbits.

Until we start seeing Wii demo kiosks with Madden built in, this may be the closest we’ll get to playing the game. The 9 minute 10 second video recently posted on YouTube appears to be an EA representative showing off most of the features of the control scheme, and from the looks of it the title at least appears to recognize the gestures very well. Another interesting thing in this video is just how quickly the rep is able to blaze through the menu screens - thanks to using the Wiimote like a mouse, it looks like selecting and planning out plays will be a breeze.

Read More | YouTube.com

Konami LogoIn a statement today on Konami’s Japanese website, Konami apparently denied the exclusivity of their Pro Evolution Soccer 6 release, declaring:

It has been falsely reported on some websites that KONAMI will release its “Pro Evolution Soccer 6” exclusively for Microsoft’s Xbox 360. These reports are not true. KONAMI is currently proceeding with the production of a multi-platform release of “Pro Evolution Soccer 6” so that as many people as possible can enjoy the game.

Gamespot has dug into the statement a little further, but this has only muddied the waters. The actual text of the statement would seem to be refuting any websites that claim that the game will be exclusive to the Xbox 360, and not “next generation” exclusivity as claimed by Microsoft. However, Gamespot’s source at Konami indicated that the release was aimed at Microsoft’s release specifically. This whole thing very well could come down to a semantic issue, where the marketing-speak that Microsoft chose for their press release conflicted with Konami’s understanding, and should be clarified soon.

Update: 1up was able to talk to the series creator, Shingo Takatsuka, and he stated that the exclusivity window would be through the end of the year only, and that a PS3 version of the game was already in development.

Read More | Konami Japan via Gamespot


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