On Gear Live: Samsung S95C: The OLED TV You Can’t Afford (to Ignore!)

  • STICKY POST

Find Our Latest Video Reviews on YouTube!

If you want to stay on top of all of our video reviews of the latest tech, be sure to check out and subscribe to the Gear Live YouTube channel, hosted by Andru Edwards! It’s free!

Warhawk PS3It looks like the rumors that Warhawk for the PS3 was in trouble might have been correct. Sam Kennedy at 1up is visiting Incognito to preview the latest developments on the follow-up to the Playstation title, and he indicates that Warhawk has been downsized from its original ambitions as a retail PS3 title. Supposedly the title is now slated to be a downloadable title with multi-player support only, a pretty drastic change from the original offering. If the title can bring a strong multi-player experience while maintaining the graphic quality at a reasonable download price, Sony might have a good reason to get on the Playstation Network, but it will still be pretty far from their original promises for the game.

Update: Sony has officially denied the rumors to Kotaku with a non-denial denial stating that they “have not made any decision with regards to distribution for Warhawk

Read More | 1up

Advertisement

Super Paper Mario EGM’s Shane Bettenhausen has played through a full preview build of Super Paper Mario and he took some time out after completing the game to answer questions about the game at 1up. There’s some interesting ground covered in the Q & A, particularly since not a whole lot is known about the game other than some short previews and some movies of boss fights that have hit YouTube. It was known that the game would neither be a straight platformer, nor an updated version of the other RPGs in the Paper Mario franchise, but the preview gives some insight into how the combination is going to work. The game also looks to feature a lot of content, roughly 27 hours for the main game, plus more for some of the side quests and extras. From previously released screenshots, gamers know the game will support 16:9 presentation modes, but Bettenhausen also clarifies that the title will support progressive scan as well. The preview also briefly touches on the story, characters, and Wii-mote support. The preview screen shots released look great, and this update gives gamers something to look forward to on April 9th when the game releases in the US.

Read More | 1up

Super Paper Mario

Famitsu is showing off a few new screenshots from Super Paper Mario for the Nintendo Wii, now in widescreen mode. Given that Wario Ware shipped with only a 4:3 display mode, hope for true widescreen gaming goodness abounds. The game definitely looks sharp in its transition to the Wii from the Gamecube, with the screens showing off the 3D mode and Mario and Bowser in battles. The game is scheduled to hit the United States on April 9th, with the Japanese release following on April 19th.

Read More | Famitsu

Latest Gear Live Videos

DescriptionEven with a strong launch and a significant amount of buzz, it’s still too early to say that Nintendo will necessarily become a favorite of third-party publishers. If today’s news is any indication, though, they’ve definitely made some headway. Yesterday, Rockstar Games (yes, THAT Rockstar Games of GTA fame) announced that they will be producing Manhunt 2 for the PSP, PS2, and Wii. While Manhunt definitely isn’t the best game Rockstar’s ever produced, this might mark the company’s first baby-steps towards producing more games for Nintendo’s consoles. Similarly, Activition recently announced strong support for the Wii, including a version of Guitar Hero that will likely be tailored to take advantage of Nintendo’s motion-sensitive Wiimote. From the company conference call:

The key difference in our strategy versus the prior cycle, is that in addition to full support on Sony and Microsoft platforms, we will aggressively target the Nintendo platforms consistent with our multi-platform strategy and Nintendo’s expected growth. In fiscal 2008, we will double our offerings on the DS and the Wii, including Spider-Man, Shrek, Transformers, and Guitar Hero.

With production costs for “truly” next-gen titles on the Xbox 360 and PS3 skyrocketing, it’ll be interesting to see if studios decide that they can make more money producing content for Nintendo’s fledgling console.

Read More | Take2 Games

Update: Fixed the headline, Killzone is definitely NOT heading Wii-ward. What was I smoking…

Read More | Activision Investor Relations via The Tanooki


WipEout Perhaps to no one’s surprise, Sony confirmed that there is a next-generation WipEout in the works for the Playstation 3. Sony needs more exclusive titles, and leveraging past successes may help them deliver. In an interview with Developer Magazine, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe management confirmed the existence of the title when discussing downloadable content. WipEout Pure used this to great effect on the PSP; hopefully the additional content for the Playstation 3 will be plentiful and free.

Read More | Develop via IGN


Dewy's Adventure Screenshot, from IGN.com

Konami’s been busting out the announcements today - first it was the PSP-bound Castlevania game, and now a brand new IP for the Nintendo Wii. The latest announcement regards Dewy’s Adventure, an action-platformer that features the story of a ridiculously lovable little water droplet on a quest to save the world or something.

Dewy’s super-powers are, of course, all water-based (you can cool him down to make ice presumably, or heat him up into steam, and Konami seems to be running with the Wii’s tilt-sensitive control mechanics. From the IGN interview:

While we can’t talk about all of his abilities, we can say that the game is controlled entirely using the Wii controller. You hold it [like Excite Truck] and tilt it to tilt the environment and move Dewy. The D-pad can be used to heat or cool Dewy. When Dewy is heated up, he becomes a cloud of steam. He can then strike enemies with bolts of lightning. You can also move the Wii controller in a fanning motion to create gusts of wind or in a side-to-side motion to create an earthquake. These can be used to solve hidden environmental puzzles and combat enemies. There are lots of more abilities that Dewy has, but we want to keep them secret for now.

This game comes from the same producer as Elebits which, even though it had its problems, was a solid launch title for the Wii. Dewy also looks like it will have pretty high replay value, thanks to a built-in level editor, WiiConnect24 support, and multiplayer levels. The game is expected to release in late 2007.

Now all we have to do is sit and wait for the “little drop of Wii” jokes to start pouring in…

Read More | IGN Wii

Castlevania Symphony of the NightMicrosoft today announced a slew of classic titles that will shortly be making their way to the Xbox Live Arcade. The titles announced include:

  • 3D Ultra Minigolf Adventures
  • Alien Hominid HD
  • Band of Bugs
  • Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
  • Catan (Settlers of Catan)
  • Eets: Chowdown
  • LUXOR 2
  • Paperboy
  • Root Beer Tapper
  • Worms

Specific release dates or prices aren’t available yet for these games, but assuming the prices are fairly reasonable, I expect we’ll see a lot of sales on XBLA next month. Castlevania is the obvious contender for most popular retro title, but Worms, Settlers of Catan and Alien Hominid are also titles that you should definitely check out for your retro library.

Read More | Gamespot.com

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

DescriptionThose major, corporate-sponsored gaming news sites out there have posted their reviews of the highly-anticipated WarioWare: Smooth Moves for the Wii. The overall impression? Heckuva fun… with some reservations. IGN.com notes the similarity (in release date at least) to the WarioWare: Touched game for the DS. Both games are meant to introduce gamers to a new way of controlling a system, and in that respect, IGN gives Smooth Moves the upper hand - overall they found the design of the game to be much tighter, with a better-thought-out game progression and a much wider variety of tasks. 1up.com posted similar impressions, noting that controller issues may pop up for the novice gamer especially in those challenges where the Wiimote has to be pointed at the screen and be able to “see” the IR bar. Finally, Gamespot.com gives Smooth Moves the superb score of 9.1, giving the game lots of nostalgia points for its incorporation of minigames that resemble Nintendo classics, from the NES through Gamecube. Regardless of the scores though (8.2, 8.0, and 9.0, respectively), all the sites agree that WarioWare has a severely high fun quotient, and is likely to become one of the best games for introducing folks to the control possibilities of the Wii.

We’ll be getting our hands on this game shortly, picking up our pre-order first thing tomorrow when it ships. We’ll have our own impressions posted soon after - personally, I can’t wait to watch my non-gaming friends try out this one.

Read More | IGN
Read More | 1Up
Read More | Gamespot


PS3 Saints Row?

EBGames/Gamestop’s website is quickly becoming the source of choice for new game rumors that end up being true. So when their website listed Saints Row for the PS3 and then quickly took it down, it set off quite a buzz. Now keep in mind, Gamestop probably has their fair share of bad web programmers and crappy database administrators working for them, so this could all just be a simple mix-up of placing the game under the wrong console. But if we didn’t fan the flames of interesting rumors, we wouldn’t be good bloggers, now would we??!

Read More | destructoid.com

Advertisement