Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Nintendo’s Success Rapidly Aging Iwata?

11:00PM Brian Ashcraft | That’s Nintendo president Satoru Iwata. He has a stressful job, but he’s been very successful. He’s turned Nintendo in a corporate juggernaut. But doing that has come at a price! Back in 2003, he was chubby with dark hair. Same right up until 2006, before the Wii launched. Now look at the man! He’s got a bird’s nest of thinning silver hair. Either he’s gotten a grandfatherly corporate make-over like Kaz or being president of NCL is causing the man to deteriorate! We can all take comfort in the fact that his glasses haven’t changed. Iwata Over the Years [Hatimaki] More »

Australian 360 Sales Figures (Nintendo In Mirror Is Closer Than They Appear)

10:30PM Luke Plunkett | 2007 is gone. In the books. So companies are taking the time to reflect on the year that was. One of those is Microsoft Australia, who decided to send some 2007 (and lifetime) figures and info our way. While there was plenty of meaningless, wordy bullshit (ie no hard numbers, thanks GfK!), there’s still a few cold, hard sales figures in there. Halo 3, for example, was the year’s biggest-selling title, with 120,000 copies sold. In terms of lifetime data, two million 360 games have been sold in Australia since the console’s launch, along with 520,000 accessories and 306,000 consoles (Microsoft declined to state how many of those were Elites and Cores). That last number will be interesting for numbers and Nintendo fans, since last week Nintendo announced they’d sold 294,000 Wiis, despite launching in Australia nine months later than the 360. More »

10:15PM Luke Plunkett | That Club demo that was released a few weeks back in Europe and Australia? It’s now up on Xbox Live for North America. It’s well worth a try, if only because you’ve probably never played any other shooters that feel like a Tony Hawks’ combo. More »

100 Marios, All Hand Controlled

10:00PM Brian Ashcraft | While it does start off with a single Mario, this clip does eventually feature one hundred Marios controlled by hand recognition technology that was made six years ago. For those keeping score, that’s before Sony’s EyeToy. Seems hard to control the Marios, and it’s a bit like watching lemmings. In red overalls. The sound track is provided by Vocaloid software. More »

Level 5 Heart Europe, Announce Layton Release Date

9:30PM Luke Plunkett | Rub your eyes, Europe. Rub them in disbelief. We already know that Professor Layton, who’s making his long-awaited Western debut next month, will be released in the US on February 10. In an official fact sheet sent out today, the European version of the game will also be out on February 10. Same day. Earlier, even, what with time differences and all. Thank you, Level 5: it’s nice to know that while Nintendo still insist on fucking Europe over every chance they get, you guys are a little more thoughtful. More »

Hey, A New Katamari Cake

8:30PM Luke Plunkett | Ah, game cakes. So 2007. 2006, even. I thought they were behind us. But sometimes, like an ex-girlfriend with a great pair or a party drug at an affordable price, you have to go back. How could we resist a Katamari cake with such exquisite detail? We couldn’t. I mean, it’s rolled up a keyboard and an octopus. katamari cake day [sherrying @ Flickr, via Boing-Boing] More »

Top Erotic Games of 2007 (Zzzzzzzz…)

8:00PM Brian Ashcraft | You’ve read about the Game Critics poll. Now, it’s time for something different. Something After Dark. Japanese bulletin board 2channel has voted on the best erotic games of 2007. Things like story, characters, setting, music/voice acting, game system and eroticism were taken into account. Drum roll please… They are as follows: (Links are NSFW) 1. Sekai de ichiban NG na koi 2. Kira Kira 3. Katahane 4. Sekien no Inganock -What a beautiful people- 5. R.U.R.U.R. Wow, so exciting! Hit the jump for the rest. The suspense is killing me. More »

Assassin’s Creed PC to Have Insane Minimum Specs

8:00PM Logan Booker | Not that we were expecting anything less. Tipster Brendan eyed the listing on Ubisoft’s support knowledge base. If you’re too tired to click through, we’ve replicated it here for the woozy: Supported OS: Windows XP / Vista (only) Processor: Dual core processor 2.6 GHz Intel Pentium D or AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ (Intel Core 2 Duo 2.2 GHz or AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+ or better recommended) RAM: 2 GB (3 GB recommended) Video Card: 256 MB DirectX 10.0–compliant video card or DirectX 9.0–compliant card with Shader Model 3.0 or higher (512 MB video card recommended) (see supported list)* Sound Card: DirectX 9.0 or 10.0 compliant sound card (5.1 sound card recommended) DirectX Version: DirectX 10.0 libraries (included on disc) DVD-ROM: DVD-ROM dual-layer drive Hard Drive Space: 12 GB These specifications are neck-and-neck with Crysis‘ minimums, even a bit beefier in some respects. If the performance of Crytek’s FPS on sub-standard hardware is anything to go by, Assassin’s Creed on PC will chug on a system with the aforementioned capabilities. Actually, I wouldn’t be surprised if it started running in reverse, or simply imploded from the strain. As always, buyer beware. If you have the option, it might be cheaper to buy an Xbox 360 and the game than to upgrade your PC to play it at speeds above 30fps. What are the minimum system requirements for Assassin’s Creed? [Ubisoft Customer Support, thanks Brendan] More »