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Nintendo DS Lite Unpacking Video
Posted by Josh Smith Categories: Internet, Nintendo, Nintendo DS, Portable/Mobile,
Gabe over at Penny Arcade received a DS Lite from Nintendo today and posted the unpacking video for all to see. This is by far the best unpacking video I have seen. I can only hope my DS Lite packaging does this on Sunday.
Read More 
| Penny Arcade
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99 Nights Coming This August
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Action, Corporate News, Xbox 360,
Microsoft today announced that Tetsuya Mizuguchi’s latest endeavor, 99 Nights, will be hitting the US this August. The game was released in Japan on April 20, and received a respectable 31/40 from hard to please Weekly Famitsu. The game is a departure for Mizuguchi, who previously created Meteos for the DS, and Lumines for the PSP. Whereas previous efforts have focused on puzzle-based and rhythm mechanics, 99 Nights could be best compared to Koei’s Dynasty Warriors series. Possibly the strongest features of the game are the large, expansive battlegrounds, and the massive numbers of enemies to face, clearly showing off the power of the Xbox 360. The action is mindless, and violent enough that the game has received an “M” rating from the ESRB.
Read More | GamerscoreBlog
As we mentioned on Monday, Microsoft released their Spring update for the Xbox 360 yesterday. Microsoft has apparently been “saving up” for this release, as it encompasses over 125 changes to the console. A fair number of the items are bug fixes, but there are plenty of functionality changes and upgrades as well.
There are plenty of things to like in the update, but my personal favorites are the re-tooled Download Manager, the “Boot to Dashboard” feature, the upconversion of standard definition DVDs to 720p (provided you use the VGA connection), and the ability to disable sounds when browsing the Dashboard. Not to be left out is something called Total USB Keyboard Support which hopefully provides the long awaited keyboard support in games.
Xbox 360 Spring Update Complete Features List
* Download Manager: Marketplace items now download in the background, you can queue up to six pieces of content.
* DVD bookmark support will remember the film’s timing and location when resuming viewing.
* Fast-forward and rewind now offered at 2x -16x for any videos saved to hard drive.
* Boot to Dashboard setting will bypass the loading of any disc in the drive and open directly to Dashboard during power-on.
* You can begin slideshows from any photo.
* The music player saves “shuffle” setting.
* The music player saves “repeat” setting.
* The music player now displays which file is currently playing in the playlist.
* The music volume level persists between game / reboots.
* Eight new locales added (Chile, Brazil, India, South Africa, Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic, and Slovakia).
* Separate settings are now offered for Game and User volume controls.
* Themes can now be set from the “System” blade on the Dashboard.
* User-selected music continues play when switching from Dashboard to game or game to Dashboard.
* “All Arcade Games” added as a selection in the Xbox Live Arcade area.
* Personal gamer pictures are now allowed, displayed only to those on your friends list.
* Added support to disable sound effects when navigating Dashboard.
* Instantaneous “Change Theme” option has been added upon downloading new Dashboard Themes.
* You can preserve the folder structure of source when viewing photos.
* A / B labels now provided to identify memory units in Dashboard.
* Online status is set to “Away” when screensaver becomes active.
System Improvements
DVD Player
* Improved the audio/video sync after extended pauses.
* Improved the visual quality.
* The DVD player outputs at native resolution over VGA connection.
* Improved the playback smoothness.
* Improved the fast-forward and rewind smoothness.
* DVD play continues to attempt to read a disc after “disc read” error.
* DVD play àPauseàPlay jitter / out of synch issues improved.
* DVD play àSlow Play àPlay jitter / out of synch issues improved.
* Repaired issues with missing menu selection icon from DVD disc menu for certain films.
* Improved Xbox 360 Guide efficiency during certain films.
* Repaired playback stutter during certain films.
Music Player
* Player now populates music data (Title, Artist, etc.) when no track information is available.
* User music now pauses, instead of stopping, when games override user-selected background music.
* Selecting an artist’s
albums for all artists.
* Improved the performance when retrieving playlists from a Windows Media connection.
* Music tracks listed in order when viewing albums by specific artist.
* Unified music controls available for music player in Dashboard and pop-up Guide.
* Improved the playback for Mono AAC-encoded files.
* Improved the connection timing between console and CD database over Internet.
* The player no longer allows hard-drive selection when no hard-drive is connected.
* Removed handling of MTP/USB devices when playing music from them more robust.
* Improved error codes / messaging associated with unplayable content.
More update items after the jump.
Click to continue reading Xbox 360 Spring Update Offers Over 125 Changes
Much like the case of the American comic book industry in the 1950s, video games, and their effects on children, are becoming the subject of debate legislatures across the country. Recent years have seen several bills being proposed by state legislatures, seeking to ban the sale of violent video games to minors. Minnesota has now joined those ranks, by passing the video game statute, SF0875, which would fine underage consumers $25 for buying M-rated games.
SF0875, which was just signed into law, was, according to ESA President, Doug Lowenstein, “The State is attempting to impose liability on children because they know that courts have consistently held that they cannot penalize retailers. We believe that the courts will agree that fining children violates the First Amendment as well. If this law is implemented, it will not only limit First Amendment rights for Minnesota’s residents, it will create a huge amount of confusion for retailers, parents, and children.
The ESA has announced that it will challenge the new law in federal court. No information on when that suit will be filled yet, but we at Playfeed will be the first to keep you up to date on the latest developments in this story.
New Raid Over The River Screenshots
Posted by Josh Smith Categories: Nintendo, Nintendo DS, Portable/Mobile, Screenshots, Wii,
Nibris has released new screenshots for their Nintendo DS title called Raid over the River. The game is a top down shooter which has 3 different time periods including medieval, World War II, and the near future. Depending on the time period you are playing in the choices of fighters change. The fighter choices range from dragons to futuristic planes. The game is due out for the DS in 2006. Nibris is a small game studio based in Europe who are also working on Sadness, a horror game, for Nintendo’s Wii.
Read More | Nibris
Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter Xbox Live Update Coming Soon
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Action, Xbox 360, Xbox Live Marketplace,
Ubisoft today announced that the first set of downloadable content updates for Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter on the Xbox 360 will be available via Xbox Live Marketplace at the end of the month. Included in the new content will be Chapter 2 of the co-op campaign, featuring four new missions, according to Ubisoft:
- Coffee Plantation (Day) – This takes place on a coffee plantation embedded deep in Nicaragua. The map is littered with good cover options that appear in the form of a centrally located plantation house, coffee processing equipment, growing coffee plants, and stacked bags of coffee beans ready for transport. The Ghosts’ overall goal of this mission is to eliminate the arms dealer and shut down his operations.
- Shipping Port (Evening) – The next mission takes place at a shipping port and the Ghosts’ objective is to stop the enemy from smuggling weapons into the country. The player will interact with rebel troops through warehouses, decks of ships, and on massive shipping cranes. This night mission provides an eerie backdrop for Ghosts to move in take out the weapon shipments and ensure that the illegal smuggling of arms will stop.
- River Depot (Dawn) – This map puts the Ghosts in a jungle area that the Rebel forces have infiltrated and are using for storing and shipping out illegal weapons. The goal of the Ghosts is to secure the warehouse facility that holds crucial information concerning the placement and shipment of weapons. As the player weaves through the jungle and eliminates the patrols of enemies, they must also destroy all the weapon shipments and keep the Rebels from extracting from the area. Massive trees, loads of weapon shipments, and enemy transports are unique characteristics of this mission.
- Jungle Mine (Day) – The last mission in this co-op campaign chapter takes place in a mine that is vital to the Rebel force’s regime and the Ghosts are tasked with securing the area, destroying the weapons, and eliminating the Rebel leader. The central location on this map is the mine itself and it provides a place for multi-tiered gameplay surrounded by good cover. This mission provides a new gameplay experience for Ghost Recon fans and it will surely be one of the more memorable missions in GR history.
In addition, eight of the existing multi-player levels will be “remixed” with new lighting options, and there will be two new multi-player game types included. Gamers will be able to customize their online presence further with two new camo options, and four new face types. Five new weapons will also be included in the game, further enhancing the multiplayer experience. No word was given on possible bug fixes included in the content pack. Pricing wasn’t set, but expect it to be greater than the 500 points for the Perfect Dark Map Pack.
Read More | Ghostrecon.com
Iwata Talks Release Date, Virtual Console, Pokemon Wii
Posted by Michael Cardiff Categories: Fighting, Nintendo, Nintendo DS, Retro, Role Playing Games, Wii,
In probably the biggest Nintendo update since E3, Nintendo’s President Satoru Iwata announced some major new details about the Wii and the games available for it. Quickly summarized, the main points of interest are:
- The Wii launch date will be revealed in September
- Unsurprisingly, Nintendo won’t lose much on Wii hardware sales. They hope to have 6 million units ready by April ‘07
- Game pricing for the Virtual Console is suggested to be around $5 and $10 a game (implying this won’t be subscription-based)
- The Wii will be able to recognize touch-screen input, meaning the DS can be used as a controller in some instances
- DS sales are expected to be around 2 million / month for the coming year, with production to meet this level of demand
- Pokemon for the Wii will be released and available in Winter ‘06
It’s good to see more concrete details filtering in. Also, announcing Pokemon during this conference instead of during E3 may have been a great strategic decision, as Nintendo appears to be trying to shed its “kiddy” image with titles like Project H.A.M.M.E.R. and Disaster: Day of Crisis that were announced at E3.
Read More | Famitsu (Japanese) via Spong.com (English summary)
PS3: Challenging, But Not “Broken”
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Hardware, PlayStation 3, Rumors,
Top game developers working on the PS3 have dismissed the recent claims from web news site, The Inquirer, as “entirely meaningless” and “misleading and uninformed” according to a report on GamesIndustry.biz. The claims of poor triangle performance by the Inquirer, while they may be technically true, are difficult to compare without knowing the types of tests that were run and the environment that they were run against. In the PC world, raw triangle count can only give the barest idea of performance, and according to the developers that GamesIndustry.biz talked to, “the PlayStation 2 had better tri performance than the Xbox, on paper” but “everyone knows that the Xbox was more powerful at running real games.”
Tackling the issue of the 16Mb/sec “local memory” figure, again, the developers claimed that the specification was true, but without the true context of what was being talked about. According to the report, every “developer concurred that the slide in question was referring to local memory on the RSX,” meaning that the memory access path from the Cell processor to the local RSX memory is slow. One developer stated, “it’s a total non-issue. You never, ever need to access that memory from the Cell…” Mostly, developers have found that the PS3 “was a challenge to work on… but every new platform takes a while to get used to…early PS2 games…were a real nightmare.”
Unfortunately, the developers quoted did not want to be named, for fear of NDA violations, but the quotes certainly seem to make more sense than the claims that The Inquirer was making. Certainly, there haven’t been developers lining up to bash the Playstation 3, most have been public about the performance of the hardware have been on the positive side of things; probably the most damning statement from any developer has been that the PS3 and the Xbox 360 were roughly the same in performance.
Read More | GamesIndustry.biz
John Rosemond, a family psychologist and features writer, re-issues a warning as to the destructive nature and divisive properties of video games. Rosemond made his original warning back when video games first surged in popularity and was promptly criticized, even by The Charlotte Observer, his home paper. Since then, he says that his “opinion has been confirmed by research, and hundreds of parents have shared with (him) their negative experiences with these nefarious devices.” The mother of several young children wrote to him recently with another sad sack tale of how video games had taken over her family’s lives. All of these parent stories, illustrating what he stated long ago, go in what he calls his “I Told You So” file.
Read More | Hartford Courant
Alan Kotok has died. Kotok, an early pioneer of computer video games, entered MIT as a 16-year-old prodigy. There he became one of the original “hackers” – a member of the group of MIT students who developed “Spacewar,” contributing to the game’s design and serving as an inspiration to the group. “Spacewar,” arguably the world’s first computer game, ran on a Digital Equipment PDP-1 computer and was developed in 1962 as a hobby project. In an interview in 1990, Mr. Kotok said, “The only money I made from Spacewar was as a consultant for lawsuits in the video game industry in the 1970’s. I have all this fame, but it’s in a very narrow circle.” Kotok was 64. The cause of death was listed as a heart attack.
Read More | New York Times
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