Interesting feature up on Next-Gen exploring which GameCube games could/would have worked better on Wii. After all, most Cube games didn't sell too well, and titles like Res 4 are showing that a rebirth on the Wii can do wonders to a game's sales tally. So what's their list look like? Predictable. But also...reassuring. Animal Crossing, Wind Waker, Pikmin, Super Monkey Ball...all solid choices, but what about Mario Kart? Actually throwing the bananas might have given the gunner something to do. Or Geist? Could have put some decent Wii controls in there, people might actually have remembered it. Same goes for Harvest Moon. I could go on all night, but they did put Wind Waker in, and that's enough to keep me happy.
FEATURE: The Wii that Wasn't [Next-Gen]

Just a heads up: Joel Johnson, Brian Crecente and Brian Crecente's hair will be putting on their officially blessed Child's Play fundraiser in two fabulous cities. On Wednesday, December 12th in Brooklyn and Denver, kind hearted and generous gamers will gather to play Guitar Hero and Rock Band, drink some beer and help raise money to benefit hospitalized children for the holidays.

The Brooklyn competition will take place at Barcade (home of the World Famous Kotaku Party 2007) and in Denver, rockers will attend at the glamorous and exciting Walnut Room. In both locations, a donation of ten dollars (either at the door or through raffle tickets depending on the location) could net you a host of currently unannounced fabulous door prizes. All proceeds from bothe events will go to benefit Penny Arcade's Child's Play Charity. Last year's Brooklyn event raised over $US 4,200. This year, let's totally kick the shit outta that total and raise moar.

Joel, who heads up Boing Boing Gadgets, will be handling the Brooklyn bash, while Crecente will be heading up the Denver one. Likewise, Crecente's hair will help with the Denver event. (That, and drink too much beer.) Read more about all this in the link below and help a good cause rock out.
Funde Razor '07 [Official Site]

Wolfenstein is Roger Avary's "dream film". One he's going to have to dream about for a little longer, sadly, as the Hollywood writer's strike has hit the film's production. Even though the script's mostly finished, Avary says:

[I'm] almost done with the script and am proud of it, but everything as far as the production date and that kind of thing won't be decided on until after all this [is] over. And I fully support the strike.

In case you missed the memo, we'll bring you up to speed: Just because women don't have penises, doesn't mean they aren't gamers. What's more, women in college play video games. USC student paper Daily Trojan profiles some female co-eds who are totally into games, blah, blah. Swell! That's ground we've covered before, so we'll skip that. Instead, we bring you this nugget:

Celeste McWhorter could probably identify [fellow female player] Soriano in the middle of Trousdale. She said she has gamedar, like gaydar for gamers, she informed me with authority.

"Hey, it takes one to know one," she said.

Fifty former Rockstar employees got left out of manhunt 2's credits. Oops. Not very professional! Not very cool, either. So uncool, in fact, the International Game Developers Association (IGDA) have just released a "public beta" of its Credit Standards Guide, which they hope will formalise the way in which everyone involved in a game's development gets their due thanks. Those curious, or finding it difficult to get to sleep, can check it out below.
IGDA Credits and Awards Committee [via Gamasutra]

Don't forget! We are totally giving away a BlackSite: Area 51 gaming PC from Alienware. The winner will also get an Area 51 t-shirt, an "eyeblack" patch and a copy of Midway's Stranglehold PC. The computer is a $US 3,000 dollar machine, making this one of the most expensive things we've given away, so any bitching about the TOTALLY FREE AND AMAZING PRIZE will be met with the blunt end of the Ban Hammer.

Wanna win that computer? Read this. Do it. Contest closes to entries November 12th at midnight EST. Specs after the jump:

Last we saw Shawn, he and "Aunty" Gina were on their way to Mexico, where Gina was going to dump Shawn at the border so he could go get his DS back from his friend's evil Mexican father. Now...now we just don't what the fuck is going on. Pretty sure bulls don't speak Spanish, though.

It's After Dark. Which means...it's OK to post this. This is a Kotobukiya statue of Dead or Alive Xtreme 2's Lei Fang. Well, it's half of it. Other (slightly NSFW) half is after the jump, because when posing for the sculpt, the meaning of "cheese" was a little lost on the poor lass.

With all this Atari gloom and doom, it's easy to forget the company used to rule the roost. Good thing Gamasutra hasn't forgotten! The site has posted a whooper of a feature (twenty pages!) that traces Atari year by year from 1971-1977. The feature is peppered with quotes from Atari founder Nolan Bushnell. Quotes like:

I had to come up with a game people already knew how to play; something so simple that any drunk in a bar could play.

Remember how Atari didn't want to file their quarterly financial reports? Course you don't. It's why we can put links into sentences like that. Anyways, they held off filing them even though they weren't allowed to, presumably because the news was bad, and were nearly de-listed from the stock exchange as a result. Well, they were given until today to file their reports, so file them Atari did, and the news is...well, yes, bad. They lost $US 11.9 million for the quarter, up over 50% from the same time last year. Things are so awful that in it's quarterly report, it's noted that the company had "substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a going concern". So do we!
Atari reports 11.9 million Q1 loss [Gamesindustry.biz]

See that? That is the PlayStation Home logo. You've seen it before, and you'd probably recognise it when you were out and about. That's exactly what happened to tipster Umbrae, who snapped this photo:

This was taken at Umbrae's local Sharper Image retailer. We don't know which logo came first, but damn, that PS Home logo looks so similar to this. Or perhaps, it's the other way around. Coincidence or not? YOU DECIDE.

The Xbox? Nice machine, but like so many other bright young stars, it was cut down before its time. Not so for the 360! Microsoft have looked at how long the PS2 has stuck around, looked at how much money that's made Sony and decided "yes, that's a good idea, let's do that". Microsoft games division CFO Mindy Mount:

Look at the PS2; they've gone long-time and seem to have pretty good legs on what they are doing...If we were able to do that, as CFO I think that's great, because every year you draw it out you increase profitability.

Thought Metal Gear's Snake was a enough for Super Smash Bros. Brawl? Wrong! MG's Frank Jaeger, the Gray Fox, is joining the fray as an Assist Trophy. (Assist Trophies help or hurt the summoner, but aren't playable.) Kinda unexpected for SSBB to get yet another Metal Gear Character. Hope the next one is Johnny Sasaki! There's not enough diarrhea in gaming these days.
New Trophy [Smash Bros. DOJO!! Thanks Joe!]

Earlier today, this week's dashing Guest Editor Geoff Keighley liveblogged the investor presentation by Nintendo of America honcho Reggie Fils-Aime. Reggie had some UNKIND words for rivals Sony and Microsoft. When responding to an audience member question, he said:

The challenge that our competitors have is significant. They've gone down the path with building expensive machines that they lose money on. They've gone down the path with games that are hard to develop... They've put themselves in a box. I don't know how they're going to get out of it.

Hollywood's writers have officially gone on strike. Poor babies. Thing is, it's more than just movie writers that will be cutting out on work for the next few weeks/months. TV shows are also affected, because people who belong to the Writers Guild of America write TV shows, too. Some even write games! But don't worry. The high standards you associate with games writing won't be touched by the strike, with the WGA telling IGN that games writers who are members fall outside "of the jurisdiction of the current strike". Phew.
Writer's Strike: Will it Affect Videogames? [IGN]

Canada? Nice place. Nintendo of Canada? Fine. Nintendo of Canada's new Wii campaign? Meh. Called "Get Up and Play!", it "challenges" Canadian families to, you guessed it, get up and play. So clever. There's a weekend challenge that does things like pits boys vs. girls or kids vs. adults and puts at stake things like "Taking out the garbage and recycling" and "Making lunch for the following week." There are even certificates you can print out and online badges. Things Nintendo of Canada recommends to have on hand:

* Headbands
* Wristbands
* A ceremonial trophy
* Water Bottles filled with ice-cold water
* Easy to eat healthy snacks like dried fruit and granola bars
* Digital camera to capture all the winning moments

You probably didn't notice/don't care, but Gears of War was released on PC today. And like all good PC games, it's launched with a problem. Namely, when you pop it in, Games for Windows Live updates itself, only to hit a snag and be unable to complete the update. There's two ways to get around this. One is :

The easiest is to simply shut down the game after the update is downloaded (you'll know it's safe because you'll be back at the main menu, and not on the "Don't shut down your PC while the update is being downloaded" screen). As soon as you close the game, the update will install automatically and you're good to go.

Gears of War and the Games for Windows -- LIVE Update [Gamerscore]

Zack & Wiki is a great game. And no one is buying it. Well, not no one, but not many people are! The game is posting shockingly low sales numbers. Could that be because the game makes people think? Or is it just that people are interested in the title? The game is challenging, but in a satisfying way. Capcom producer Hironobu Takeshita explains:

There are puzzles where, if you don't look properly at the hints in the start, you're going to be in trouble. All the answers that you need to solve the puzzles are there on the screen. There are some people who say they don't understand the puzzles, but really, they're not paying enough attention.

Interview [Game|Life, Thanks Rox!]

Tipsters MercSal and Bleek let us know this week that certain retailers, including GAME and EB Games, are providing a bonus disc for customers who preorder Bioware's Mass Effect.

Bleek had this to say:

... The Pre-orderer receives a bonus CD with some nifty stuff such as an Exclusive Gamerpic set and Theme, 4 original tracks and some other stuff.

Our pre order deal for Mass Effect is on our website … [Those who preorder] will receive a free bonus disc, the details of the disc contents are on the site.

However, as you can see from the picture above, it's not that informative. In fact, it recommends you chat with staff in-store! Either I'm blind, or EB Games isn't up-to-date with its own website content.

Is anyone able to confirm whether I need to visit my optometrist?

UPDATE: Still no info on the EB Games site, but Microsoft's local presence has confirmed that "participating retailers" in Australia will be getting the preorder disc. List incoming.

Yes, not even Nintendo can resist a sip from the fountain of downloadable content. The WiiWare port of Bandai Namco's Mojipittan will, according to Famitsu, give players the option of plonking down cash for more levels and themes when it launches next March in Japan. Come on, Nintendo fans. Quit your crying. You knew this day would come the second you could point out your credit card details on a Wii Remote.

Paid Downloads for Wii Ware Games [IGN]

NPD's decision to re-yank the public availability of their hardware numbers has upset people. Like me! All morning I've tasted naught but salt as tears flowed, unchecked, down my sullen cheeks. It's upset a lot of other people too. Where will trolling fanboys, for example, get their monthly dosage of troll juice? Other more sensible types will wonder just why simple figures like sales data, which are readily and freely available for almost every major product/medium, are being restricted. All of which is news to NPD! PR representative David Riley:

I had no idea this would be so ill-received. Honestly, I know this sounds ignorant but I really was taken aback when I started hearing/reading about this. It was unexpected.

You've seen the pictures, now brace yourself for the bragging rights. Mario and famed spaceman Buzz Aldrin took a zero gravity flight to promote Super Mario Galaxy. How was it? Fabulous. Let Aldrin commence with the pillow talk:

Mario did excellent, just outstanding. Yeah, we were holding hands all the way and upside down and sideways. Super! Super duper Mario. Right?

Mario Space [Multiplayer]

We're of the unanimous opinion that Guitar Hero II's downloadable content is amongst the worst in human existence. Force-bundling three songs together, often from different genres? That kind of behaviour's been basting overnight in a rich sauce of weakness and crooked penny-pinching. If you're picking up Guitar Hero III and expected/hoped things would be any different, well, you're more than a little wrong. Activision and Red Octane will still be selling bundled packs. In November both 360 and PS3 versions will see three download bundles made available, each containing three songs. How very disappointing.

Activision Reveals Plans for Guitar Hero DLC [1UP]

To: Ash
From: Geoff Keighley
Subject: My Head Is Still Spinning

Tonight I'm headed out to a Hollywood club called Opera for the official Assassin's Creed launch party. Hosted by Kristen Bell (who appears in the game), these Hollywood parties are always interesting social experiments. Who shows up just to be seen, who shows up to drink, and who shows up to actually play the game? A number of celebrities are on the "tip sheet" as its called, including what looks like the full cast of Heroes. Keep in mind, however, that the appearance to listed names ratio on tip sheets is often pretty low. I do know producer Jade Raymond will be there! And that's good enough for me.

Otherwise, this was quite the day for video game news. Crecente must be bummed to have missed it! It started with news that NPD was cutting back on releasing hardware numbers; then EA closed EA Chicago; and finally we found out that God of War II director Cory Barlog is leaving Sony. And as I cryptically alluded to last night, Harmonix launched its new game Phase for iPods. I'll have more in the morning on Phase and what it means for the future of music games.

What you missed today
EA Closing EA Chicago Studio
NCSoft Buys City of Heroes, creates new studio
Cory Barlog Leaving SCEA
Reggie Talks to Analysts in New York
The Disappearing NPD Numbers

January 2008. Two months. At least, that's what Sierra's HQ in Oz is saying.

The Wii version will set you back $69.95, while the DS will weigh in at a measly $49.95. Both will include a multiplayer mode, as well as the ability to link via Wi-Fi for unlockable goodness.

The release included two of the tiniest packshots I've ever seen. Don't freak - I managed to rustle up some slightly larger ones. You can see them, along with the release itself, after the jump.

No, it's not Y tu mamá también: The Game. Or an exercise in stereotyping Hispanics. This is actually the intro to Activision's Spanish for Everyone, for the DS. Between "Aunty" Gina, his fugitive DS-stealing friend and the ominous FINAL TEST in Tijuana, something tells us Shawn's going to be learning a lot more than just Spanish.

[thanks Bruno!]

According to game site 1Up, Sony Computer Entertainment of America Santa Monica game director Cory Barlog is leaving the studio. Barlog achieved fame as director of God of War II, which was a critical and commercial smash. Word is that Barlog is departing to follow other opportunities. According to a SCEA mouthpiece:

We can confirm that Cory Barlog, Game Director for God of War II, is leaving the SCEA SM Studio and we are grateful for his work and creative vision for the critically acclaimed God of War franchise... Moving forward, we are confident in the God of War team, as they are an extremely talented group of people that are passionate about the franchise and dedicated to creating even more epic content with God of War: Chains of Olympus for the PSP and God of War III for PS3.

You could play Metroid Prime 3: Corruption and Big Brain Academy at Melbourne's eGames next week. And you'd probably have fun. Or you could take the opportunity to play a few Wii games Nintendo has waiting up its sleeves for the next 6-12 months.

Before you ask, Battalion Wars 2 isn't one of them.

However, Super Mario Galaxy, Link's Crossbow Training and Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles will be doing the rounds at eGames. Oh, and Pokemon Battle Revolution for those of you who must "catch them all".

Apparently Crossbow Training will be there complete with Wii Zapper, so peripheral lovers have no excuse not to go.

Jupiter-sized press release after the jump-a-whatsit.

Apparently cheating is serious business. Plenty of readers sounded out when I asked for opinions yesterday on the acceptability of cheating in modern society. Most believed it as something entirely fine to do in the privacy of their home, and even a necessary part of any game.

Thoughts were unanimous when it came to taking such affairs online, and a few even divulged their experiences of doing so. Surprisingly, one reader actually took the question as a personal insult.

Hit the jump for the pick of the comments, of just wander over to the original thread for all the glory.