Talking with MCV, Kaz Hirai of Sony declared, “If we’re talking about the casual gamer, the PS2 is probably the right choice for them. We don’t need the PS3 to feel like the console that will appeal to everyone at this point. We don’t need to have one console try to be everything to everybody just yet.” As much as it pains many Nintendo fans, they will be the first to admit that the Wii and DS have the most casual gaming experiences. The PS2 does possess many titles suited for all types of players, but both Nintendo systems have a slew of games for everyone.
Those who are awaiting even more details on Tactical Guild can expect character sprites to be based around the items you are using/outfits you are wearing. Also, there are multiple endings.
Admittedly, Tiger Woods 09 All-Play is turning out to be a very great experience for golf fanatics. The game has nearly all of the qualities of a perfect golf game, albeit 100% precise controls. Precision is something EA is aiming to fix in next year’s iteration, with Wii MotionPlus. In an interview with VideoGamer, EA’s Greg Rinaldi divulged plans that partially explains the new peripheral’s role in future Tiger games. “Twisting the controller in 3D space, we can read some of that, but it’s a lot of software trickery for us to do that. We spent a lot of time on that because it’s not in the hardware. The current hardware is focused mainly on velocity and speed. So what the MotionPlus does is actually allow you to get that 3D positional data. Adding that to something like Tiger next year, which is something we’re 100% on board with, we’re hoping that people get the add-on, because it allows us to get as close to a realistic golf swing as possible on commercial hardware like this.”
Activision Blizzard – keep
Crash Bandicoot
Ice Age
Spyro
Prototype
secret title
Activision Blizzard – losses
Bourne
50 Cent: Blood on the Sand
World in Conflict
Activision Blizzard – unknown
Ghostbusters: The Video Game
WET
Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena
According to a Sierra statement, we shouldn’t have to worry about Ghostbusters. The game is still scheduled to launch this year.
“We always consider the territory and hardware for titles, and I just want to make sure that we’re neutral about dealing with companies. …We’re now in the age of the multi-platform, but depending on age and territory, users have different tastes. Therefore it’s very difficult to just deal with one company or one hardware platform – in order to offer our product to the vast majority of gamers we need to deal with multiple companies and platforms.” – Yoichi Wada, Square Enix president
It was only a few years ago that Square Enix was not even supporting Nintendo systems. Now things are quite the opposite. The Wii, and especially the DS, continue to receive some of the best third-party games from Square.
For all the collectors out there, the fine art team at Red Fly Studio put together some kick-ass trading cards, a poster, and hero statue that will be floating around out there. The poster will be available with Rise of the Fungi (DS) pre-orders and the life-size statue with The Spore Wars (Wii) pre-orders. The first 3 trading cards are in the current issue of Nintendo Power (August issue, along with a contest where 2 families can win a trip to NYC for the 20th Anniversary party at the Nintendo World Store in Sept). You’ll also be able to get them at PAX, the 20th Anniversary Party mentioned above, LesClaypool.com, and more. The easiest way to make a complete set of 24 cards will be by pre-ordering the games at GameStop (get a pack of 11 for Rise of the Fungi and different 11 for The Spore Wars and then 1 card will be included with each version of the game).
Mushroom Men Sail the Seas of Cheese…
Les Claypool will be headlining and Mushroom Men will be in full effect aboard Jam Cruise 7 (http://jamcruise.com/). Leaving out of Ft Lauderdale January 4, 2009, they’ll be tons of artists playing day and night as the ship ports in Belize City and Costa Maya.
For anyone interested in winning their way aboard, GameStop is running a special sweepstakes. Visit http://www.gamestop.com/mushroommen for more on that. And for those actually going, they’ll be more great contests to win Mushroom Men stuff while out on the open waters.
Tall Tales of Mushroom Men
There is also a custom Mushroom Men VW Bus in the works (details coming to www.MushroomMen.com soon). And the Space Squid writing contest has 1 week left for submissions (details: http://spacesquid.com/free_writing_contests.htm).
“The more people that ask about it, the more likely we are to move in that direction. The very existence of Street Fighter IV was based on people asking about it for so long. If we get a lot of requests it will be something we will think about. It might be difficult to reproduce the graphics exactly as they are, but the gameplay should be completely intact. It’s something we can think about.” – Yoshinori Ono, Street Fighter IV producer
Capcom has been a very big third-party developer on the Wii. Having another high-quality title on the system would be great for the fans. The question is, do the fans want the game on Wii?
A trailer for Wallace and Gromit’s Grand Adventures has been posted on the official website with a few details, but no confirmed platforms. According to GameDaily, however, the game is well on its way to a Wii release. The Wallace and Gromit website has no indication of the game heading to the Wii, but I’m sure this will be confirmed/denied shortly. In the meantime, you can check out the trailer here.
The lack of a Wii HDD seems to be affecting a lot of people these days – Hardcore gamers, developers, and even casual gamers have begun to realize that 512 megabytes of flash memory simply is not enough storage for a convienent download experience. This applies to Vlad Ceraldi, the CEO of Hothead Games as well. Speaking with Kotaku, Mr. Ceraldi expressed that, although he would be very inclided to bring Penny Arcade Adventures to WiiWare, the idea won’t be considered until Nintendo delivers a storage situation on Wii. “I’d love to be on the platform. It’s purely an issue of size limit. Our game is just too big. If they increase that limit or add a harddrive, anything like that we would revisit [WiiWare].”
Videos
Pong Toss – Frat Party Games Info Video
Sid Meier’s Civilization Revolution Info Video
How Do You Play? Brain Age 2
Shaun White Snowboarding Info Video
All Star Cheer Squad Info Video
BLEACH: Dark Souls Info Video
Viva Piñata Info Video
Game Party 2 Info Video
NCAA Football 09 All Play Info Video
We Love Golf! Info Video
Demos
Crosswords DS-Wordsearch Demo (expires 8/03/08)
Crosswords DS-Crosswords Demo
Brain Age 2 Demo
Brain Age Demo
Flash Focus Demo
Trauma Center: Under the Knife 2 (expires 8/03/08)
Contra 4 (expires 8/03/08)
PICTOIMAGE (expires 8/03/08)
Carnival Games (expires 8/03/08)
