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IBM Announces Shipment Of Wii Processors

Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Hardware, Wii,

Wii IBM today announced that they have made the first shipment of “Broadway” processors for Nintendo’s Wii processor, according to a report on Gamasutra. The shipments come out of IBM’s East Fishkill fabrication plant. The CPU utilizes IBM’s Silicon on Insulator technology that provides a reduction in power consumption of over 20 percent over the “Gekko” processor in the Gamecube. The news from IBM suggests that Nintendo is well on the way towards making their production goals for the Wii.

Reactions To PS3 Announcement

Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Culture, PlayStation 3, Wii, Xbox 360,

PS3 Dean Takahashi at Mercury News has put together a preview of the story to be published about what the PS3 delay and hardware shortage may mean for Sony and the rest of the industry. The most significant impact seen, of course, will be in the European territory. Missing the holiday launch there means that Microsoft and Nintendo will have a great opportunity to grow marketshare over the next six months. Takahashi was also able to talk with Sony’s new director of communications, David Karraker, particularly about why Sony sat so long on the news. Karraker laid the blame on Kutaragi’s management style, saying that Kutaragi, “pushes his internal teams to hit the numbers. When it became clear we couldn’t hit the numbers, Ken revised it.” Karraker also reiterated that the shortage is solely tied to blue-diode lasers and not any other component, and stated that production of the console will start at the end of September.

Overall, this holiday is not going to be a rosy one for Sony. While every single console manufactured will definitely be sold, they can expect a huge consumer backlash because of availability issues in all three territories. The US Playstation 2 launch suffered huge shortages, and back then, Sony launched with roughly 500,000 units. Now, Sony is releasing even fewer into the US market, and it is unclear whether the company will really be able to sustain production levels if they can’t resolve their diode issues.

The other immediate impact would seem to be next week’s Tokyo Game Show. While Sony has been boasting about the number of playable titles at the show, game selection largely becomes meaningless if nobody can get a console to play on. What could have been Sony’s final public demonstration of the potential of the Playstation 3 before launch will now be tainted with Sony’s inability to provide hardware to the gaming public.

45 Minutes Across - Is Zelda: Twilight Princess another Wind Waker?

Posted by Michael Cardiff Categories: Adventure, Nintendo, Nintendo Gamecube, Rumors, Wii,

Zelda Wind Waker Screenshot According to a rumor listed on IGN.com, the world of Zelda: Twilight Princess is going to be big - VERY big. Listed in their Fall 2006 games preview, they state “Twilight Princess will not only be bigger - a horse ride from one side of Hyrule to the next is rumored to take 45 real minutes - but much more ambitious than ever before.” While at first blush this sounds like great news - Nintendo fans have been looking forward to a good long adventure game for a while - it brings up some uncomfortable questions. Could the world of Twilight Princess be as bleak and desolate as Wind Waker was? Will the player be forced to endure hours of trekking to arrive at plot points in the game?

I for one am looking forward to a good long adventure from Nintendo in Twilight Princess, but I’m just hoping that adventure doesn’t mainly consist of wandering aimlessly in an overly huge world.

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Possible Images of PS3, Wii Demo Kiosks Surface

Posted by Michael Cardiff Categories: PlayStation 3, Rumors, Screenshots, Wii,

Rumored Wii and PS3 kiosks Ah internet, how is it that you’re always one step ahead in the rumor-mongering!? Just when people were getting bored speculating about the Wii price and release date, you find yet another rumor to start!

The image to the right is what some are claiming may be the PS3 and Wii demo kiosks, though who knows where they came from or how anyone got ahold of them. I wouldn’t hold your breath though… there are roughly a bajillion companies out there that make a living off of creating tradeshow-floor displays and demo kiosks, and chances are Nintendo and Sony have asked several of them out there to bid on a proposal and try to create the demo units that the consoles will be housed in. However, I think there’s still some interesting information to be gleaned here - chances are both Sony and Nintendo gave specifications about what the demo kiosks should hold and how they’re set up… and with that in mind it’s interesting to note that the Nintendo kiosk doesn’t include the nunchuk attachment for the Wiimote, and that the Sony booth appears to have corded controllers attached to it. Could those even be PS2 controllers that don’t have the built-in tilt sensor?

While we’re doubtful that these will resemble the final forms of these kiosks, it’ll be interesting to see just how much of each console’s functionality will be present in their demo kiosks. Will Wii players be able to try out games that use the nunchuk? And will PS3 players be able to test out the tilt sensing capabilities of the new controller? Right now it’s looking like the answer to both those questions is “No.”

9 Minute Madden Wii Controls Video Hits YouTube

Posted by Michael Cardiff Categories: Electronic Arts, Screenshots, Sports, Wii,

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.

Red Steel To Have Motion-Matching Controls, Zero Load Time

Posted by Michael Cardiff Categories: Action, First Person Shooters, Rumors, Ubisoft, Wii,

Good news for all those worried about the fate of the Wii’s premiere first-person shooter. Reports are coming in that Red Steel by Ubisoft will feature motion-matching controls using the Wiimote (i.e., the sword-play on-screen will match your Wiimote movements) which is exactly what most gamers were hoping. The main question remaining, of course, is how Ubisoft translates sword collisions from the screen to the gamer.

The reports come from a roundabout source… the user Mordrag on an IGN message board submitted some questions for German gaming site Nintendo LAN to ask. Nintendo LAN then supposedly asked the questions to Ubisoft, and their responses were translated back into English by Mordrag for readers of the IGN boards. Phew.

In his translation, Mordrag notes that Ubisoft also stated that there would be NO load times in Red Steel thanks to “smart streaming technology”. See after the jump for the full conversation!

Click to continue reading Red Steel To Have Motion-Matching Controls, Zero Load Time

Nintendo Unveils Two New Games At Leipzig

Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Nintendo, Nintendo DS, Wii,

Gamers looking for a big announcement from Nintendo about the pricing and availability of their Wii console will probably be disappointed from the news coming from Leipzig. In lieu of hard information about when gamers would be able to get their hands on the new console, Nintendo instead announced two new first party games along with promised availability of the pink Nintendo DS Lite in Europe. The two new games are nothing to sneeze at, really; according to a press release on Nintendo Europe’s site, games can expect to see Battalion Wars II and Mario Strikers Charged (working title) on the Wii. Had Nintendo not hyped up their conference at Leipzig so much, gamers would probably have been happy to see the new titles. But with maybe two or three months (depending on Nintendo’s final launch date) until the Wii hits shelves and with pricing rumors flying around, it would have been really nice to get this information now. Still, Mario Strikers looks particularly good, and promises to translate well to the Wii controller. Overall, its hard not to be disappointed in Nintendo’s decision to continue to hold launch information close to their chest.

Madden ‘07 Out Now for Every Platform Imaginable

Posted by Michael Cardiff Categories: Electronic Arts, Nintendo DS, Nintendo Gamecube, PC, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PSP, Sports, Wii, Wireless, Xbox, Xbox 360,

It’s that time of year again! Time to go out, be a good little drone, and pick up a copy or three of this year’s Madden iteration. This year you’ll be able to pick up the ubiquitous franchise on PC (Windows), Playstation 2, Xbox, Xbox 360, Gamecube, DS, PSP, GBA, and yes, even your mobile phone (hey, where’s my BeOS version??!?). And of course, when the Wii and PS3 launch in a few months, you can get your Madden on with them too.

The good news is the console versions at least seem to be garnering fairly respectable reviews across the board - IGN.com, Gamespot, and 1up.com all give the franchise fairly high marks (7.7 - 8.5) for its notably improved graphics, online play and added features like Create-A-Player. The bad news, of course, is that you probably won’t be able to play the game online for more than about a year and will have to fork out another $60-$70 next year to keep playing.

Still, the popularity of Madden is absolutely staggering - analysts predict that the title could become a million-seller within as little as 5 days, and could earn EA about $210 million in revenue for the year (about 7% of its total annual revenue of $3 billion). Click below for the Reuters news brief.

Peter Molyneux Talks Evolution Of Combat, Wii At Leipzig

Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Culture, Fighting, Wii,

Speaking at the Leipzig Games Convention Developer Conference, Peter Molyneux spoke on the need to evolve next generation combat. Both 1up and GamesIndustry.biz have covered separately different aspects of the talk, with 1up focusing on Molyneux’s ideas for advancing combat in the next generation. GamesIndustry.biz focused on the challenges that the Wii controller will present.

Molyneux’s general commentary on combat in video games is that, by and large, the fighting is not realistic. He proposed that developers do away with hit points, life bars, and unrealistic fighting in games. Molyneux held up Tarantino’s Kill Bill as an example of an approach to combat that video games might emulate. This might have been an unfortunate choice, given that this movie isn’t the most realistic portrayal of combat in the film world, but the points he expressed were still somewhat salient. His proposal includes going towards “one button” combat, combining charge attacks with timing and context awareness to alter how the fight progresses. The approach sounds similar to the timer attacks utilized in Yu Suzuki’s Shenmue series. Molyneux didn’t necessarily advocate this as the end-all of combat implementations, but seemed to use this to urge developers to think more creatively when developing new games. This somewhat tied into his remarks about the Wii controller.

When talking about the Wii controller, Molyneux confessed that he is “…an incredibly lazy person when I play games… when I have to get up, it’s painful.” He urged developers to consider the physicality of the control schemes that they were implementing, using the example of a movement-sensing glove that they tested. According to Molyneux, using the glove was “like some sort of Japanese torture that we’d put him through…” It seems Molyneux finds the freedom that the new controller offers exciting, but that excitement has to be tempered and worked with creatively to get the best that the controller brings to the table. Overall, the tone of the talk seemed to advocate developers to seek innovation rather than fall back into older, easier development patterns.

Zelda: Twilight Princess Sees Wii Control Revamping

Posted by Michael Cardiff Categories: Action, Nintendo, Rumors, Wii,

Zelda Twilight Princess Box Art After initially worrying about how physical players would have to get while enjoying The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Nintendo has finally decided that sword-swinging motions will be incorporated into the gameplay. At E3, the B trigger button on the Wiimote was originally used for the sword, with the bow&arrow and other weapons being mapped to the D-pad. But as IGN reports:

At E3, players used the B button to swing Link’s sword, with Nintendo explaining at the time that players would likely get tired having to actually swing the controller. “Upon actually playing it, it’s more interesting this way,” said Miyamoto to Nintendo Dream about the new control scheme.

The newly-freed-up B button will now serve as the bow&arrow controls. IGN points out that this makes the use of the bow&arrow much less cumbersome, as gamers don’t have to change their grip to reach the Wiimote’s D-pad. My guess is there’s another reason for this redesign, which Nintendo hasn’t explicitly stated yet. In the E3 version of the control scheme, players were able to perform Link’s spin-attack by simply wiggling the nunchuk attachment, a setup that many players noted would make the game far too easy as one could simply repeat the spin attack quickly over and over again. If Nintendo starts moving all of the sword control to the Wiimote, though, the actions of performing complicated motions like those needed for the spin attack could help to raise the difficulty.

It should be interesting to see how much of an upper-body workout Twilight Princess eventually requires. Maybe we won’t even need that Nintendo diet software after a bout with Zelda.

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