Friday, October 26, 2007
No Pumpkin. I Repeat NO PUMPKIN!!!!
11:40PM Brian Ashcraft | To: Crecente From: Ashcraft Today is a very, very dark day. Earlier, we dropped by Costco to pick up a real, orange pumpkin (not the green Japanese pumpkins), and Costco was COMPLETELY SOLD OUT. That means, no pumpkin for me. And that means no pumpkin pie, no jack-o’-lantern and no pumpkin seeds. Nothing! Instead, my Halloween will consist of a pumpkin the size of an apple covered with cheesy stickers. Talk about horrible. What you missed last night Ah, Mike with the seamen puns TV show visit Contest voting! Tomb Raider and Uncharted are different More »
New Wii Gift Channel, But No Price Cut
11:14PM Brian Crecente | Good news and bad news. OK, really just good news for Nintendo. Nintendo President Satoru Iwata today ruled out any price cut for the Wii today during a press conference, saying that they would be struggling to meet demand for the console. He added that the will begin selling the Wii in China next year and unveiled a new gift-giving feature for the Wii. The new function will allow users to send each other games via the Wii’s shopping channel. The user will purchase the game and then choose a recipient, who will receive an alert. When the other gamer accepts the gift the Wii will jump to the channel and start downloading. “We think this will be a breakthrough in encouraging customers to spread news of fun games word of mouth,” Iwata said. “We also hope to spur more users to connect their Wiis to the Internet,” he said. Just in time for the holidays. I wonder how well this will go over? Nintendo Rules Out Wii Price Cut [AP] More »
PS2 Turns Seven
11:00PM Brian Ashcraft | Still kicking arse and taking names. Today marks the North American birthday of the PlayStation 2. Back on October 26, 2000, the PS2 first went on sale and would break the record for the fatest console to hit 100 million units shipped. So far, there have been 120 million PS2s sold worldwide. That’s a lot. In fact, it’s the most as the PS2 is the best-selling game console ever. Says SCEA’s Peter Dille: Never before has an in-home game system experienced this type of worldwide success on such a long-lasting scale… PlayStation 2 is a perfect example of our ten year product lifecycle promise and is a testament to the design and technology that continues to be at the core of the product. While today’s anniversary celebrates PlayStation 2’s past, we’re very excited for its future. Throughout the holidays and up to March next year, 160 new games will be released, adding to the PS2’s library of 1,400 titles. Today, might be a good day to dust off your PS2 (forget PS3 BC for once!) and play your favourite PlayStation 2 game. Me, I think I’ll go with some Okami. You? PS2 Birthday [Games Industry] Pic via gamecakes.com More »
No Maracas For Wii Samba (*Sobs*)
10:20PM Luke Plunkett | Samba Di Amigo on the Wii is good news, no matter how many times it has to be announced. Things are rarely all good, however. It’s just how life is. And so it is with Samba. See, a big part of the fun on the Dreamcast original was that you had actual maracas. And maracas are only the best shaking-based instrument ever. Sadly, Sega have no plans to sell plans to sell maraca controllers for the Wii version, saying: The Wii’s controllers enable players to enjoy Samba De Amigo’s unique gameplay without having to purchase an expensive peripheral. What, so the one superfluous peripheral for the Wii we’re not going to get is the only one we actually want? Figures. No Maraca Peripheral for Samba de Amigo [IGN] More »
Digs Wii, Xbox 360 “Collecting Dust,” No PS3
10:00PM Brian Ashcraft | It’s a given that Will Wright is a PC guy. But where does he stand on the consoles? According to The Sims creator: We’ve got an Xbox 360 collecting dust in the background, a Wii hooked up that we use quite a bit. I don’t have a PS3… At the moment I can get better graphics on my PC than I can on the PS3… The only next gen system I’ve seen is the Wii — the PS3 and the Xbox 360 feel like better versions of the last, but pretty much the same game with incremental improvement. Bu the Wii feels like a major jump — not that the graphics are more powerful, but that it hits a completely different demographic. In some sense I see the Wii as the most significant thing that’s happened, at least on the console side, in quite a while. And at the moment, Will Wright spends most of his gaming time playing Advance Wars on his DS. Yup, Will Wright, Nintendo fanboy. Will Wright Q&A [Guardian, Thanks DT!] More »
Got Vista? Got Silverlight? Got a 360, and …
9:30PM Luke Plunkett | Got Vista? Got Silverlight? Got a 360, and friends on your 360 friends list (we know, with each successive question we’ve ruled more and more of you out)? You might want this: it’s a Vista widget that’ll track your 360 friends list from the safety and comfort of your Windows desktop. More »
Sick of Jubblies? There Is This…
9:00PM Brian Ashcraft | Yesterday, some commenters in this thread mentioned that our constant jubblie coverage “wasn’t” fair. Not all our readers like boobs! Some of them love them! Then there are folks who like boomhounds. We thought about feedback long and hard: Those commenters were right. To make amends (hopefully), I’d like to formally introduce the “boomhound” tag and a shameful screen for upcoming PS2 game Koi Hime Musou. That’s the tentative title! Originally on the PC, the game is a love adventure title set during China’s Three Kingdoms era and features new CG just for the PS2 version. While the game doesn’t look big on historical accuracy, it does look big on other things. That, if you dare, after the jump. Koi Hime Musou [Famitsu] More »
Virtua Figher Ready to Kick Pachislot Arse
8:00PM Brian Ashcraft | The granddaddy of 3D fighting games, Virtua Fighter, is getting its own pachislot (think pachinko meets slots) machine. Not surprising as SEGA Sammy Holdings is in the pachinko business. The machine isn’t set to hit Japanese pachinko parlors until this December. Until keep in mind that pachislots, just like Virtua Fighter, is all about timing — not to mention winning, too. Virtua Fighter Machine [Fields] More »
The Visitor
7:30PM Luke Plunkett | This is “The Visitor” You are…A Visitor. A tiny alien slug thing, who crashes in a lake. Your job: get with the clicking and guide him from his water-logged comet inside the family home. And line the walls, and your guts, with their tasty human blood. WARNING: may include sequences involving a cat’s arsehole. The Visitor [via Rock, Paper, Shotgun] More »
