|
Gaming News
I'm a bit behind, I should have posted this last week, so here it is.
I might be missing a few bits if anything showed up during the weekend but that will be covered at the end of the week should there be anything major to report. There's alot here so bear with me!
**If you guys want to jump to a certain part in particular just do Control F and type in "Sony" or "Wii" and it will take you to the first part on it.**
So here we go!
**********
PUBLISHERS, DEVELOPERS AND SOFTWARE NEWS
Harmonix the makers of Guitar Hero and Guitar Hero 2 will now be made by Neversoft, the makers of the ever so popular Tony Hawk series and many other games. This is some pretty shocking news as many ppl don't believe Neversoft can pull it off. But they know how popular of a franchise they're getting so hopefully they won't make it suck THAT bad. My advice pick it up for the 360 when it comes out if you don't have it already, or pick a copy of just the game and a wireless guitar controller since the wired one won't work with a PS3...
Apparently there was a Ghost Busters game to be out and it had already been developed but the studio never got a license from the movie to ACTUALLY get it made. And apparently this happens alot with Ghostbusters since it is a hard franchise to get a license for. They pretty much scrapped it but most ppl say why not just release it under a different name?
HALFLIFE 2 ORANGE & BLACK
Coming soon are the HL2 bundle game paks due if I read correctly from my notes late summer.
The black box is for PC and will retail for $40. It will include Half Life 2 Episodes 1 and 2, Team Fortress 2, and Portal. All great games and worth owning on their own for $40!
The Orange box though will be for the 360 and it will retail for $60 or so, and will include HL2 the main game with the other games listed.
This is awesome news but no word on how Steam will work into this again. Tough decision for me as I love HL2 one of my alltime favourite shooters if not the best one for me. Now it's having to choose which version to get.
Sacrificing graphics over playability like LIVE is big. I can play multi on my PC but not so easily with friends or voice chatting either. But the PC has the mouse and keyboard already. I'm gonna go with 360 it seems, as I have the sweet set up with my tele and soundsystem.
Valve's founder and head has also stated that the PS3 was a disaster and that Sony should just start over. That didn't stop him from saying that this gamepak bundle would be arriving a couple of months after the initial launch. I guess we can guess which version will be better of the consoles.
CRYTEK CRYSIS
Rumour's smashed, it will not make it's way to the 360, least not anytime soon, there is no word of a port of it as of yet. They're soley focusing on PC right now. It's a lot like FarCry only with aliens pretty much. But it looks incredible!
EDUCATIONAL GAME
Michigan State is creating a MMORPG in joint with the Chinese. It's basically going to help kids learn Chinese (because we all will have to know the language after China rules the world of course). You start out in some Airport and work your way around becoming fluent and in the end become a tour guide or something. Thrilling. The guys were saying it would have been much kewler if you join the Triads then becoming a tour guide.
EA DEVELOPING LIVE ARCADE GAMES
A game called Boom Boom Rocket will be released by EA. It's a rhythym game of setting off fireworks to music. It's A LOT like Fantavision but actually looks kewl and fun for an original LIVE Arcade game.
Sega Rally VIVO (LIVE in spanish) will be coming to the Arcade as well as a new EA Skate game.
*******
SONY NEWS
PS3 FIRMWARE UPDATE
PS3 has a new update out since last week, ver. 1.50. It fixes compatibility issues with playing games from PS, and PS2, specifically allowing them to run in progressive scan finally. No one so far knows what other fixes they might have thrown in there.
Sony is apparently advertising Final Fantasy XIII in Japan, of which won't even be out by 2008. Nice to know they're shooting for a more realistic goal then their launch...
Bluy Ray has a surprising slow data transfer rate. This is what makes games take longer to load. Bethesda, the creators of Oblivion and all those, have begun to burn their games TWICE onto the same disc so as to cut down the search time. While this is pretty smart thinking it's kinda lame that you would have to do such a thing from a new format.
FF7 BANNED
I don't recall if this was in Germany or not but, a couple of kids killed a couple in a park. And when the fuzz raided their cribs and checked their PCs, they found FF7 on there. So now it's banned because of this "horrible game related" tragedy. Smart.
*********
WII NEWS
VIRTUAL CONSOLE NEWS
Konami will start releasing some VC games soon, more like Super Castlevania and stuff like Kid Icarus and more.
Also there's talks about original games for the VC as well, much like Xbox LIVE Arcade's. At some point even IGN was working on one (like Penny Arcade), but they moved on to make a full Wii game and are going through with that.
DEVELOPERS AND PUBLISHERS FOR THE WII NEWS
EA has come out with SSX Blur for the Wii. From the videos shown it's definitely pushing the hardward which is good news. Also it controls nicely with the Wiimote and nunchuk, and pulling off moves is just as tedious as it was when you had a standard controller. Can't wait to play it.
The Godfather which was a mediocre game at best, has been ported to the Wii. And it's surprisingly good. The use of the nunchuk and Wiimote really add to the game and it senses almost exactly how you wave it around translating the same on screen. I'd like to check that out.
EA will also be announcing a new game for the Wii by end of Feb.
Konami will also be announcing a new game for it this week hopefully.
Kenji Inafune of Capcom is also working on new title for the Wii as well.
Now if only we could get more support from Sega that would be great. (PLEASE PLEASE bring Panzar and N!GHTS!!!)
WII MOD NEWS
Ninja, company behind many mod chips have come out with Wiinja, a mod chip for the Wii. Soldered in only 6 places, it will allow you to play burned ISOs of Wii games. It's still not a true mod where you can play region free and add homebrew but more of a pirating tool. Not worth the effort really.
So far as of right now, the possibilities of the Wiimote are endless. Here are some that have been done already.
-Has controlled a Roomba vaccuum robot.
-Controlled house electronics.
-Controlled a robotic arm to wield a sword, exactly as the person moves it.
-Can be used in music as the waving and the buttons can bring about sounds, bringing a new level of mixing and rave fun.
-Has even been working on the PS3.
-Used as a mouse for a PC.
And that's it for now folks, I know it's a long read but well worth it! I just picked up Sonic Rush for the DS and having a blast! Best Sonic game ever!
|
think i`ll be getting that HL2 pack for the 360, it`ll be intresting seeing what they get out of the xbox graphics wise 
