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Mario Kart Wheel To Be Sold Separately
Posted by Luke Plunkett at 11:00 PM on February 28, 2008
No no no, Nintendo, you've got this around the wrong way. I don't want to buy Wii Wheels separately. I want to be able to buy the game separately, so I can use the GameCube controls and forget the wheel ever existed. Ah well. For anyone who simply must have two or more Wii Wheels, however (I don't know...maybe your dog needs a new chew-toy), know that Nintendo will be selling them in Japan for ¥1200 ($US 11), and will probably be selling them everywhere else as well.
Mario Kart Wii Wheels also sold separately [Siliconera]
You could almost hear it the instant news of the 
Germany, it's OK. Despite the USK banning games like they were going out of style throughout 2007, they've managed to see fit to 
These are edible, chocolate...party hats. You wear them when, well...you and your little buddy want to party. As you can see, they're already available in two versions: the viking, and the cowboy. But soon, there'll be a third version: UNSC Spartan John-117. Not the most official piece of Halo merchandise, then, but it's probably the naughtiest.
Just a little tidying-up work for those interested in the 
Think EA were the only big publishers interested in snapping up Take-Two? Nunh-unh. Activision thought about it too. They mulled it over, clicked their tongues, asked a few friends what they thought, then decided against it. Why? Because they eventually decided Take-Two just weren't worth buying. Activision boss Bobby Kotick: 
They're small, but you can still make out enough of them to go pop an excitement vessel or seven. Anyway, this is the Japanese Special Edition of Metal Gear Solid 4. In the centre is the box art for the game itself, which of course 
Sharp and Hitachi make the small LCD screens used by Nintendo on the DS. They're also in a bit of trouble! Both companies have been raided by Japan's antitrust regulator, after suspicions were raised that the pair have been involved in price-fixing over the handheld's screens. All very unsurprising, considering the popularity of the handheld and Nintendo's reliance on outside companies for the DS's components. None of the parties involved - Sharp, Hitachi, Nintendo or the regulators - have issued a statement regarding the allegations. If they're found guilty, it'll probably result in a lowering of screen prices and a reduction in costs for Nintendo, but if you think that'll also result in a cheaper DS for you, you're kidding yourself.
Mario Kart Wii doesn't have voice chat. 
Lots of people angry with Capcom's move to 
In April 2007, we 
Programming whiz Thomas Miller of Sony Computer Entertainment America wowed us with his 
NIS America has made the domestic release of the PlayStation 3 entry in the awesome turn based strategy RPG series official, making summer rich with Prinny explosions. Disgaea 3 will confuse graphics whores with its last-gen visuals when it hits North American PS3s this August. There's not much in the way of information from NIS about what English speakers can expect, nor is there any information on a European release, but we know of one Disgaea expert who may have answers for all your questions about the Japanese version inhabiting the comment section.
Konami recently revealed the official Japanese box art for Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots to overseas publications, but we've only seen it in standard scanned-in, postage stamp-sized form. That's really annoying as Westerners, because we should have the option of super-sizing everything.
Sure, Uncharted: Drake's Fortune and Resistance: Fall of Man may have wicked cool feature sets for PlayStation 3's Home, but it's actually Warhawk's planned game portal that has us most excited. According to our sources, the Home lobby for the Incognito dogfighter will serve as a "war room" where up to eight players can meet to discuss their strategy for an upcoming match.
While Resistance: Fall of Man's integration with Home should have bonus content fans excited, old school run-and-gun shooter fans should be pretty pumped about what they may be getting with Uncharted: Drake's Fortune's contribution. We hear that the Home portal for Naughty Dog's PlayStation 3 adventure will follow in Resistance's footsteps, allowing Home avatars to explore the game's levels without the threat of being shot at, a nice feature.
While Home for the PlayStation 3 may have generated plenty of buzz for Sony at last year's Game Developers Conference, its late arrival and the setting in of reality may have made it put a damper on the hype surrounding the service. We've had our doubts that Home may ultimately be nothing more than a prettier Second Life, a glorified 3D chat room, one that only makes getting to the games we actually want to play a bit of a chore. But we've recently learned some very interesting things about how three first-party published games will take advantage of Home's features that have us very excited.
Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitiello has been dropping some none-too-subtle hints that the company is interested in another Road Rash. He name-checked the bloody motorcycle racing classic at DICE during his talk and recently in a GameDaily interview in an attempt to, we assume, get gamers misty-eyed with nostalgia for the franchise. Well, it appears someone may have let the cat out of the bag a bit early. That person? Skid Row's Sebastian Bach. Oh, I'm quite serious.
Sometimes the best judges are those sitting outside of the situation, looking on with an objective eye. Or, at least such would explain my wife's succinct review of Lost Odyssey (which she offered for no charge as I played last night). 
Bulent Yusuf from the blog WiiWii just got back from Nintendo's base in Frankfurt, Germany. There he had a chance to play Mario Kart. His review? He loved the game, lauding the experience (especially the newly tweaked drifting system). But what about the Wii Wheel that comes with? He's not feeling it. At all. 
We understand that our friends in the UK got access to Microsoft's LIVE video store a little later than us, but it's still a surprise when we read things like this from Xbox LIVE marketing manager (UK) Robin Burrowes:
The PSP2, at first glance, has absurd analog stick placement, features a screen that juts out from the casing for now reason and looks tactilely synonymous with playing a stale loaf of bread. But as a mod that could play your PS One and PS2 discs on a flawless OLED screen and export hi def video out (along with Dolby), it's completely geektastic. Sure, the designer could have made a sleek device with touch controls, but this unit is sadly size realistic if you imagine what modders will be able to accomplish in a few years when slimmer Blu-ray drives come out (their spec sheet didn't mention Blu-ray, but as long as we're making stuff up, why not?). 
With the 
This is DARPA's Crusher. This 7-ton unmanned vehicle can drive through almost any terrain you can throw at it. But the most interesting point is its operation. While a hacked iPhone related system diagnostics in real time, a standard Xbox 360 controller is used for raising the antenna, camera control and, yes, even weapon fire.
At last week's GDC I had the opportunity to go out to Lucas Arts studios to check out a few of their upcoming games including 
According to the Pan-European Game Information (PEGI) website—think of it as Europe's ESRB—Sony has quite a few PS One classics in PSN's hopper. Because not only does PEGI rate titles; they also place said titles on their website for all to see. A simple search of the PSN platform reveals at least 25 titles that haven't been announced for PAL territories at this time. And even our North American contingent will appreciate the list, as it reveals a few games that even we haven't heard are coming to downloadable form yet. 
If PC gaming is to survive, the old ways must die. So says Gas Powered Games boss Chris Taylor, who believes that rampant piracy will kill the industry unless a move is made towards secure games - games hosted on a server that require player authentication in order to play. In fact, Taylor says that such a move could not only save PC gaming, but potentially lower prices all around. 
Yes, it's yet another violent video game study, this time performed by researchers in Helsinki Finland, which at this point has a population made up of at least 75% science researchers. The study, "The Psychophysiology of James Bond: Phasic Emotional Responses to Violent Video Game Events", recorded data from a group of 36 young adults while playing James Bond 007: NightFire. In direct opposition of several other of what I've at this point labeled "Choose Your Own Conclusion" studies, the students were found to display negative brain response to the death or wounding of their enemies, while oddly enough they displayed positive response to their own character being killed. In the course of studying a non-violent game for comparisons, the researchers found similar responses when players fell off the ledge in Super Monkey Ball. So does this mean all gamers are masochists? 
People all over Europe now have a new way to stay in touch as Sony Computer Entertainment Europe and BT announce the launch of Go!Messenger. Announced back at the 
In all of the 
Contest time! Oh goodie goodie goodie. We're having another scavenger hunt. You remember our scavenger hunts? You search for clues, there's counting involved, you get pissed off at me and cry. This time we are giving away Patapon-themed Be@rbrick figures. These are being sold in Japan, but not America. So, what we're going to do: Give away four of them. Well, we're not going to give them away. You've gotta win them! Our scavenger hunt will consist of seven questions. When you find one question, that will lead to another one. How do you know if you are correct? You'll find a pointing fish to, well, point you in the right direction. Here's the first question:
The announcement of the new Puzzle Quest game, 
Cash money 
