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Sim City DS Trailer - Currently for Japan Only?
Posted by Michael Cardiff Categories: Electronic Arts, Nintendo, Nintendo DS, Simulation, Trailers,
It can’t be long until Nintendo and EA announce that Sim City DS will also be hitting the states… this footage just looks too good, and Nintendo fanboys will be whining A LOT if this doesn’t get ported state-side. Plus Will Wright’s native language is English, so we should get a game with him speaking English… right?!?
The trailer found in the link is the latest advertisement for the Japanese version of the game, and shows of the variety of ways in which the touch-screen is used. This is looking to be a fabulous fit for the DS. The touch screen is of course used to design buildings and layout roads, but you’ll see in the trailer that you can also use the stylus to do things like fight off alien invaders and giant apes that attack from time to time. Hopefully we’ll hear some news from EA soon about a US release…
Read More 
| GameBrink.com
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God of War II Trailer Released, Should Sony Just Go Back to the PS2?
Posted by Michael Cardiff Categories: Action, PlayStation 2, Release Dates, Survival Horror, Trailers,
Yes, it’s true… God of War II is going to be amazing, at least if this trailer is any indication. Given the graphics and animations seen in this trailer (which look good enough to pass for an early “next-gen” title), it begs the question - should Sony just give up on next-gen? The PS2 has been a cash cow for Sony for a long time, and if developers can pump out titles of this quality for the system, why not just stick with what’s working? From all the latest news on the PS3, it certainly sounds like developers wouldn’t mind going back to the PS2 and writing some more quality games for the console.
Read More | GameTrailers.com
Wii Modchips Materialize
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Hardware, Mods/Hacks, Nintendo, Wii,
A couple of modchips for the Nintendo Wii have surfaced on the web lately; the first would be the Wiinja chip, a bare chip mod. The second is a little more interesting, promising more in its featureset. Maxconsole reports that the CycloWiz mod solution for the Wii may be arriving as early as this week. The developers at Teamcyclops promise support for Wii backups, Gamecube Backups, and Gamecube homebrew games in an easy to install quicksolder package. The chip itself doesn’t seem to have a method to update it, and it doesn’t currently support Wii import gaming. Overall, though, the chip is an interesting start if hack does what it promises.
Read More | Maxconsole
Mario Kart Leads Virtual Console Monday
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Nintendo, Retro, SEGA, Wii,
This Monday’s Virtual Console releases are lead by Nintendo’s classic cart racer, Mario Kart 64 for 1,000 Wii Points, but three other titles have hit was well, including Contra III: The Alien Wars for the Super Nintendo and two Genesis titles, Bonanza Bros. and Comix Zone at 800 points each. Comix Zone has hit a ton of platform in various Sega Genesis collections; Bonanza Bros. has only been in a few. Mario Kart is probably the shining gem in this round of releases, though.
Nintendo’s full press release continues after the jump.
Click to continue reading Mario Kart Leads Virtual Console Monday
Penny Arcade Expo (PAX) is Back, and Much Much Bigger
Posted by Michael Cardiff Categories: Corporate News, Culture, E3, Release Dates,
With E3 cancelled (or at least significantly altered and shrunken), and an uncertain new “E for All” expo taking its first baby steps, THE gaming convention for the hardcore is shaping up to be next year’s Penny Arcade Expo, and the organizers seem to know this…
This year, PAX will move from its humble roots in Bellevue, WA to the larger and significantly more prominent Washington Trade and Convention Center. The event will be held from August 26th-28th and expects to see about 30,000 gamers converging on the Center as one sweaty, black-T-shirted mass.
It should be interesting to see how many developers and publishers decide to exhibit this year, given that this is now THE major venues for gaming companies to meet with their consumers.
Read More | PennyArcadeExpo.com
Telltale Hiring for Wii Game Programmers
Posted by Michael Cardiff Categories: Adventure, Nintendo, Rumors, Wii,
A while back, bloggers at some of the bigger Nintendo blogs (including GoNintendo and NintendoWiiFanboy) heard that Telltale Games was interested in creating or porting an adventure game for the Wii, and they made sure that Nintendo knew about this via a hearty internet buzz campaign.
After all the submissions, Nintendo took the hint, leading to a very excited post from the Telltale bloggers: “News flash, Friday afternoon: They took notice! We got a phone call from Nintendo this afternoon. We’ll take it from here - please don’t email them anymore!”
Well, it appears that Telltale and Nintendo must have worked something out, because Telltale is now posting a full-time job opening for a Wii game programmer to bring their 3D engine over to the Wii’s architecture. I can’t ever imagine what that could mean… I’m sure it has NOTHING to do with porting Sam and Max to the Wii.
See the full job posting, after the jump…
Click to continue reading Telltale Hiring for Wii Game Programmers
Read More | TelltaleGames.com
eBay Removes All Virtual Item Listings
Posted by Michael Cardiff Categories: Corporate News, Hot Deals, Internet, MMORPG,
Bad news for Gold Farmers and MMO junkies looking to make their fortunes virtually - eBay, the world’s largest auction house, has begun quietly closing all listings for virtual property including “currency, items, and accounts/characters”. This is all according to poster on Slashdot who talked with a representative from eBay and got the following explanation:
The policy on digitally delivered goods states: “The seller must be the owner of the underlying intellectual property, or authorized to distribute it by the intellectual property owner.” Given the nebulous nature of ownership in online games, eBay has decided the prudent decision is to remove the possibility for players to sell what might be the IP of other parties via their service.
Of course, we doubt that this will put an end to payment for virtual online property - I’m expecting to see WoWbay.com to get bought out any day now…
Read More | Slashdot.org
Early this morning, Nintendo updated North American Wii systems with the Wii News Channel. The News Channel, as previously announced, features content from the Associated Press and will download news while the Wii is in standby, or the user is browsing the News Channel. Users can get the News Channel through a System Update. The update also adds the News Channel to the Parental Controls of the system. The update was fairly quick, but the initial loading of articles was somewhat slow. Future updates were speedier, though.
Users can browse the News Channel by category. Current categories include National, International, Business, Sports, Technology, Arts/Entertainment, and Science/Health. The News Channel offers a standard column format of articles to browse, as well as a slide show that moves users across a virtual globe as news in varying regions is displayed. Users can also use globe navigation to browse news by region, similarly to the Weather Channel.
The UI for the channel is mostly well done. All of the articles can be set at varying levels of zoom for enhanced readability, including the article listings, the actual news articles, and the slideshow and globe views. However, it still feels like there is room for improvement. It would be nice to be able to subscribe to specific keywords to get those news articles downloaded for browsing. It would also be nice if the region settings carried over from the Weather Channel to offer a customized regional news channel, and the globe UI isn’t as easy to access as it should be. Overall, though, this seems like a good start, and seems much more informative than the counterpart weather channel.
It looks like someone has found yet another use for Nintendo’s Wiimote: controlling an industrial robot. A couple of engineers at USMechatronics put together a software control program that let them control a Kuka KR16 industrial robot. Unfortunately, time limitations didn’t let them implement a real-time control scheme, but what they came up with is still pretty cool. Using existing PC driver software for the Wiimote and some custom VB.Net code, USM built a simple pattern recognition engine that would let the robot play back pre-recorded movements based on their similarity to the motions that the user would attempt with the Wiimote. The video shows off some of the results, some with a tennis racket mounted, and others with a sword. Handing a weapon to an industrial robot might just be how the robot revolution begins, but given the fact that other projects at the company include robotic sentry guns, it would appear that the company has ample methods to defend itself.
Read More | USMechatronics
Xbox 360 Q2: Sales Up, Losses Widen
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Corporate News, Hardware, Xbox 360,
Microsoft shipped 4.4 million Xbox 360 consoles in the second quarter, according to their recently released financial results. Xbox revenue increased 76% year over year, but the Entertainment and Devices division still posted a quarterly loss of $289 million. According to Gamasutra, Microsoft partially blamed the losses on the launch of the Zune and changes to the Xbox 360 warrantee program from 90 days to one full year. Speaking with investors via conference call, Microsoft also adjusted their full year estimates for Xbox 360 shipments down to 12 million, from its previous estimates of 13 – 15 million. Overall, Microsoft should be pleased with the sales of the Xbox 360 this holiday season, but the upcoming year may be challenging as the company competes head on with Nintendo and Sony for marketshare.
Read More | Gamasutra
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