The eXtensible Visualization Platform TM (XVP) is a powerful, extensible and easy to use game development platform targeting a wide array of modern environments including Microsoft Windows, Macintosh, and Linux, as well as console gaming systems from Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft.
XVP allows designers, artists, engineers and producers to collaborate like never before. Throughout the entire product's development cycle, XVP's Workflow Communications enhance productivity while simplifying complex dependencies between members of the team.
You know it, you love it, Tell Us Dammit. No, rather TELL US DAMMIT. Yep! Time to learn about each other. How it works: We ask a question, you answer it. Simple and no strings attached! This isn't some marketing survey or whatever. It's an emotional investment in you. Yes, we're interesting in knowing you, Kotaku reader person. You probably know ****tons about us — more than you even want to, we're sure. But, hey, we'd like to know about you. That way you won't be some faceless blob — and we might feel a tinge of guilt when we ban your ass. Or not, because really we're incapable of human emotion. Sadness.
Question What is the longest you have gone without gaming?
Michael Abbott of the Brainy Gamer has a nice reminder of why we play RPGs (well, those of us who play RPGs), based on some of his undergraduates' writings on their experiences in Fallout 1 and 2. Michael notes that the exercise — writing autobiographies of their characters — is often used in theatre, but it never occurred to him that it would be useful for his students in his RPG seminar, until "we began discussing the characters they had created .... The sense of ownership they clearly felt, and their remarkably vivid descriptions of their experiences in the games, made the assignment a no-brainer." Which goes to one of the reasons why people make the investment in RPGs:
What we're really talking about is pretending. Make-believe. "Role-playing" may bless the activity with a marginally more acceptable moniker, but when we play RPGs we summon our most primitive urges - the ones we've had since we were children - and we tap into something about the human psyche that inclines toward empathy.
We love pretending because we possess an innate desire to understand (to know and to feel) what it would be like to be *this* man or *that* woman. To mold a character through our own choices and to walk in his shoes, with as many in-world consequences and as few real-world consequences as possible, 'tis a consummation devoutly to be wished.
We know all this, and we've known it for a long time...but sometimes it pays to stop and take a another look. Sometimes we're jolted into knowing something in a better way than we knew it before.
It's an interesting look at (a) an interesting pedagogical tool (I am so hoping I can teach seminars on RPGs one day) and (b) a reminder of why (some of us) love RPGs.
We treat them like a rare species, but really, women who game are not that uncommon. Recent polls have put the figure between 35 and 40 percent of women, a minority but not a scarcity. Negative Gamer's Chelsea — aka Nintendoll — spotted something elsewhere that set her teeth on edge, and she wants to set the record straight about the reasons women and girls game. Because in her view the experience risks getting cliquey and catty, like high school.
Female gamers separate into two groups, Chelsea says, that are pretty easy to understand. "Girl gamers" do it for the attention — "a feeling of security and control from her social circle" — while "female gamers" just want to have friends who share an interest in games. "Since these “gamer girls” get their self-esteem from the praise and adoration of men who play video games, they become dependent on video games as something far more than entertainment."
How does it get to that point?
Well, it’s a problem that many people suffer from that is completely unrelated to gaming: low self-esteem. These girls want to be part of what they see as an exclusive boy’s club. It is true that women are currently a minority in the gaming industry, which is why gaming men find girls who play video games more desirable. Girls who feel the need to be loved try to sneak their way into this “boy’s club” using video games as a pretense to say that they’re a “tomboy” or “just one of the guys.” But the reality is that it is not really for the “equality” that they constantly complain is absent, but for the feeling of superiority over other girls coupled with the adoration of the male gaming community.
And that's where it gets catty.
“Gamer girls” hate on each other because they feel threatened by each other. Another female in this “boy’s club” diffuses the overall attention that a girl will get. Therefore a “gamer girl” will rip into another female gamer to protect her status as the most important girl in this male-dominated social circle. This is not unique to the video game industry, I’ve seen it happen in other predominantly male territories such as tech schools and the local rock climbing gym I used to frequent.
How can dudes help? She doesn't say, and I don't want to get all womyn's-studies on you here. But I'd say that treating everyone who picks up a controller, male or female, like a gamer first is a good start.
Patronizing, condescending or leering behavior would definitely discourages an interest in gaming as a fun activity, and if they continue it'll be for the other reasons Chelsea described — attention seeking, social superiority, etc.
I know I foment a lot of the "OMG hot girls who game" stuff, but when you look at them — Jo Garcia and Grace Kim are demonstrably serious about what they do, and the cosplayers are definitely informed about the games they like. To me, that's even hotter, and you see it when you game with them seriously.
Someone walking through the parking lot of my apartment complex and seeing a shattered DualShock laying on the ground probably thought someone had a little temper tantrum mixed in with his Bioshock last night. Actually, that's only half right. I wasn't mad at a game, but I was mad at the controller (of course, I'm not to blame). I'd spilled Dr. Pepper all over myself and some got in the left thumbstick. Suddenly I could not move to the right anymore. That's kind of important in a game like MotorStorm: Pacific Rift. It's kind of important in any game, actually. I tested it against my other controller, restarted the machine, let it dry out, nothing. So, $60 got me barely a day's worth of use of this controller. I said why not, heaved it over a row of apartments here and into the adjacent parking lot.
The weekday guys forgot to do a TUD and I know everyone likes weighing in, so I'll ask you here: What's the worst thing you've ever done to a piece of hardware, and why? Bonus points for details like people harmed/frightened by the act. Tell us everything about your rage! Tell us, dammit!
Electronic Arts has explained that forum moderators will not be able to ban people from playing EA games.
"Players who have been banned from EA Forums are not automatically banned from online access to their other EA games. Posting in EA Forums is enabled by an EA Nucleus account - but access to the forums and access to the games are separate," reads a publisher statement on GameCyte.
"Players can be banned if they breach the Terms of Service or Code of Conduct in a forum, game, or service. Each forum, game, and service is managed independently by customer support representatives responsible for that specific forum, game or service."
The publisher was responding to an EA moderator - supposedly community manager Aaron Kaufman - who told Red Alert 3 fans that game and forum accounts were linked, and that a ban for one meant a ban for the other.
Furthermore, this Master EA Account was said to be linked to all of the publisher's games requiring an online sign-in, resulting in an EA-wide ban for misbehaving on a forum.
The fate of the misguided EA forum moderator is undisclosed. Perhaps he is among the 600 losing jobs as EA cuts costs to combat diminishing retail demand.
So it's true - there really is a link between violence and video games. In an otherwise run of the mill article on how the next US President will have to deal with the issue of detainees at Guantanamo Bay, the New York Times printed this little nugget:
One detainee is said to have been schooled in making detonators out of SEGA game cartridges.
Nobody at Kotaku (especially those who frequently travel overseas) has any idea if that is even possible, or why SEGA specifically, but the story seems to originate from the case of Hassan Bin Attash - a seventeen year old (at time of capture) detainee that several human rights organisations claim was tortured in Jordan before being held in Gitmo. Possibly, after a few months of waterboarding a weaponized copy of Toe Jam & Earl: Panic on Funkotron might seem more credible.
It's been a while since we've had a really good "video games make our children violent" study, and I was beginning to fear we've given up on the idea, but then the story "Violent video games linked to child aggression" showed up on CNN.com this morning and my fears were completely assuaged. The story is about a study conducted by Dr. Craig A. Anderson, Ph.D., of Iowa State University, who studied three groups of children in both the United States and Japan to gage their violence levels three to six months after playing violent video games, versus children who did not play violent video games. The results may not surprise you at all.
The study found that children who played violent video games were more aggressive than those that did not, even taking into account children who were aggressive in the first place. The odd thing is the results were determined not so much through observation, though comments from parents and teachers were taken into account, but rather by asking the children about their own aggression levels.
Easy! Take a t-shirt and apply the Bape sub-label Baby Milo. That's eighty bucks already. You're almost half way there. Next, make it exclusive to the members-only online store Nigo's Favorite Shop. Finally, add Japanese import mark up and you've easily reached $175. The designs, featuring artwork from the Bape branded Nintendo DSs released earlier this year, may not be spectacular enough to warrant nearly two-hundred bucks in t-shirt purchases, but it's not outrageous for retailers to ask this much money.
How do I know this? The shirts went online yesterday and are already sold out.
Are you the type of gamer who thrives on the rich worlds of EVE Online or World of Warcraft, worlds made more realistic by the semi-real interactions with other flesh and blood gamers? 'Cause, man, I am so not. And neither is Wired's Clive Thompson, who writes today about the joys of playing solo, even in games that simulate, in a fashion, big open worlds filled with personalities like Fable II.
To some degree, I can chalk up my own disinterest in the tedium of massively multiplayer online games. Grinding away on "kill X number of Monster Y and report back" style missions just aren't my thing. But it's really the potential for social interaction that does these games in for me.
Obligation gaming, the guilt of not being available for a gaming session, regardless of the genre — I even hate feeling trapped by first-person shooter social calls — is what makes me a gaming shut-in. A virtual Man's Best Friend, like the one in Fable II is about all I can handle.
Thompson looks at it a bit differently, writing "The fact that I know I'm the only person actually alive makes the game seem all the more dreamlike, as if everything — those mountain ranges, those creepy beetles — really is taking place inside my head."
True, bots suck, as does being verbally berated online by little boys who have just discovered the F-word.
Even in a perfect world, though, where everyone else might be a gentlemanly good sport, I think I'd prefer to do most of my gaming alone. Am I the only one?
Coldly efficient...dangerous...the new Bond is the ultimate weapon in today's ruthless world of international espionage.
Blending first person shooting and third person action, Quantum of Solace the Game puts you in control of Bond's greatest weapon - his mind.
You must think like Bond and intelligently use the map and situation to your advantage. Confront enemies in a variety of ways: take them head on, fire from behind cover or sneak up silently and eliminate them with a variety of special takedown moves.
Based on Quantum of Solace and Casino Royale, Quantum of Solace the Game puts you in the dangerous world of international espionage and intrigue.
Enter the glamourous and dangerous world of James Bond on your console:
Xbox360™
James Bond: Quantum of Solace ASIA US$ 59.90
James Bond: Quantum of Solace US US$ 64.90
PlayStation3™
James Bond: Quantum of Solace US US$ 59.90
Nintendo Wii™
James Bond: Quantum of Solace US US$ 54.90
PlayStation2™
James Bond: Quantum of Solace US US$ 44.90
Nintendo DS™
James Bond: Quantum of Solace US US$ 34.90
Sony PSP™
James Bond: Quantum of Solace (DVD-ROM) US US$ 54.90
The US versions are expected to arrive within this week, for a more concrete shipping schedule, please stay tuned to our daily news.
From the publisher: Join Alex the lion, Marty the Zebra, Melman the Giraffe, Gloria the Hippo and their entire madcap Madagascar crew on a whole new action-packed journey to save the African savannah in the Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa™ video game.
Your favorite characters from Madagascar return and you can play them all! In addition to Alex, Marty, Gloria, and Melman, you also get to play as the crafty penguins, the wacky King Julien and new hippo character Moto Moto!
Learn all the moves and choose which character is best for the situation at hand. Experience the characters, settings and situations established in Dreamworks Animation’s new Madagascar movie.
Unique new environments include the Watering Hole, a free roaming area that’s been expanded for the game, the volcano and the plane wreck. Master new and expanded tournament mini-games including twice as much multiplayer action as the first Madagascar!
Xbox360™
Madagascar 2: Escape 2 Africa ASIA US$ 49.90
Madagascar 2: Escape 2 Africa US US$ 54.90
PlayStation3™
Madagascar 2: Escape 2 Africa US US$ 54.90
Nintendo Wii™
Madagascar 2: Escape 2 Africa US US$ 54.90
PlayStation2™
Madagascar 2: Escape 2 Africa US US$ 44.90
Nintendo DS™
Madagascar 2: Escape 2 Africa US US$ 34.90
PC Games
Madagascar 2: Escape 2 Africa US US$ 24.90
Ubisoft's Far Cry 2 has topped the charts in the US and Germany.
All three SKUs hog the top three positions in Germany, with the PC version leading sales, while the US PC charts show the game has debuted at number one, holding back multiple Electronic Arts games.
The sequel hasn't done so well in Spain, as it enters the charts at seven, where sports title take up the majority of the top ten.
German Top Ten:
1. Far Cry 2 (PC)
2. Far Cry 2 (Xbox 360)
3. Far Cry 2 (PS3)
4. FIFA 09 (PS2)
5. Mario Kart DS (DS)
6. Midnight Club: Los Angeles (PS3)
7. Wii Fit (Wii)
8. Pro Evolution Soccer 2009 (PS3)
9. Mario Kart Wii (Wii)
10. FIFA 09 (PS3)
Spanish Top Ten:
1. Pro Evolution Soccer 2009 (PS3)
2. Fable II (Xbox 360)
3. FIFA 09 (PS2)
4. FIFA 09 (PS3)
5. MOTO GP 08 (PS3)
6. Pro Evolution Soccer 2009 (Xbox 360)
7. Far Cry 2 (PS3)
8. Wii Fit (Wii)
9. Dead Space (PS3)
10. Wii Play (Wii)
US PC Top Ten:
1. Far Cry 2
2. Spore
3. Nancy Drew
4. World of Warcraft: Battle Chest
5. The Sims 2: Apartment Life Expansion Pack
6. Dead Space
7. The Sims 2: Double Deluxe
8. Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning
9. World Of Warcraft
10. Colonization
Data supplied by Media Control GfK International and NPD.
Bethesda's Fallout 3 has hit the top of the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC charts in the UK.
The game has outsold combined sales in the region of the original Fallout and its sequel, and spin-off titles Fallout Tactics and Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel.
First week sales were also 57 per cent stronger than the first week performance of Bethesda's The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion.
According to data from GfK Chart-Track, 55 per cent of all sales were on the Microsoft format, 28 per cent on Sony's home console and 17 per cent for the PC.
The game knocked last week's number one Fable II off the top of the All Formats charts, and held off climbers FIFA 09 and Wii Fit, despite the latter enjoying its third biggest sales week since release.
Other new titles in the top forty this week include Activision's Bond tie-in Quantum of Solace at seven, EA's Command and Conquer: Red Alert 3 at 15, MySims Kingdom at 25, More Touchmaster at 28 and High School Musical 3: Senior Year at 29.
The top ten All Formats sellers follow:
1. Fallout 3
2. FIFA 09
3. Wii Fit
4. Fable II
5. Pro Evolution Soccer 2009
6. Far Cry 2
7. Quantum of Solace
8. LEGO Batman
9. Mario Kart Wii
10. Saints Row 2
Capcom's pegged the UK release of the PS3, Xbox 360 and PC versions of Street Fighter IV for February 20, 2009.
The game's producer recently raised our hopes that SFIV would be released this side of Christmas, but that possibility has now been dashed - at least here in the UK. Still, it's nice to finally get a release date, we suppose.
The game's scheduled for launch one week before Dead Rising for Wii, which is due out on February 27, reports MCV.
February will also see the release of Bionic Commando and MotoGP Wii, on the 13th and 20th respectively, while March 13 should definitely be added to your diary as it's Resident Evil 5 release day!
So it should be a busy - and profitable - couple of months for the Japanese publisher.
What does an Obama presidency mean for video games? 1UP asks the question in a lengthy analysis of Obama's relationship to gaming culture. Obama first entered our scene in December 2007 with comments presented to Common Sense Media on the topic of game violence legislation on his way to being dubbed the most "gamer-friendly" Democratic candidate. But the President-elect is better known for targeting youth voters with a $44.5K in-game ad campaign during the election season. (And apparently, it worked.)
Obama did urge us to "stop playing Game Boy" and put down the Wiimote (see screencap above -- from his Election Day ad), but the sentiments were geared toward encouragement rather than scorn. 66 percent of voters ages 18-29 (you know, gamers) supported Obama yesterday, according to CNN. Perhaps the next US President can show some love back by bringing Wii to the White House.
A report by Verdict Research (via BBC) finds that UK game sales will surpass both music and video in 2008. Video game sales have been on a rampage in the region, with a report earlier this year by the Entertainment Retailers' Association (ERA) stating it had surpassed music sales. The Verdict report predicts a 42% growth in game sales this year to £4.64 billion, with sales of music and video combined at around £4.46 billion.
The ERA counters that the Verdict report is a bit misleading because it includes hardware sales. The organization is confident that game software sales of £1.7 billion will beat out music's (continually dropping sales of) £1.4 billion, but that video revenue will still be about £2.2 billion.
A body believed to be of missing teen gamer Brandon Crisp was discovered this morning in the Barrie area, police say.
"At this point we believe it to be Brandon, and we're still obviously in the early stages of our investigation," Sgt. Dave Goodbrand told CTV. "It's not confirmed because nothing's confirmed until we have pathology, but we believe it to be Brandon."
Crisp's parents say he ran away from Barrie home in Canada on Oct. 14 after they took away his Xbox 360. He had been playing Call of Duty 4 and his grades were slipping, his parents told ABC.
After being told he would lose his gaming privileges the 15-year-old told his father that he was running away. He was last seen biking on a trail about 5:45 p.m. The reward for information about the missing boy had reached $41,776.
According to the brief television report the body of the missing boy was found on Fifth Line in the Barrie area.A blue-checkered jacket, tent, crackers and full bag of chips were found on the trail on Oct. 24. No other details were given and police have yet to confirm the information.
Grand Theft Auto IV for the PlayStation 3 has shot to the top of the Japanese software sales chart for the week ended November 2, according to data provided by Media Creat.
Rockstar's controversial title saw 133,000 unit sales in its first week on the PS3, which comes after weeks of the platform's flagging hardware sales. Square Enix's Valkyrie Profile: Toga o Seoumono for the Nintendo DS followed behind at number two with 80,000 units.
PS3 exclusive LittleBigPlanet debuted in third place with 52,000 units, with Pokemon Platinum for the DS coming in fourth at 47,000 units, and Wagamama Fashion Girls Mode, also for the DS, securing a place at number five with 40,000 units.
Rhythm Tengoku Gold, for the DS, took sixth place with 39,000 units, while Grand Theft Auto IV for the Xbox 360 debuted at number seven with 34,000 units.
Closing off the Japanese software chart were a number of new portable titles, each with approximately 26,000 unit sales, including the DS titles Personal Trainer: Walking and Cid to Chocobo no Fushigi na Dungeon: Toki Wasure no Meikyuu + , as well as Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G for the PlayStation Portable in eighth, ninth and tenth places respectively.
Japanese software sales chart follows:
01. Grand Theft Auto IV (PS3)
02. Valkyrie Profile: Toga o Seoumono (DS)
03. LittleBigPlanet (PS3)
04. Pokémon Platinum (DS)
05. Wagamama Fashion Girls Mode (DS)
06. Rhythm Tengoku Gold (DS)
07. Grand Theft Auto IV (Xbox 360)
08. Personal Trainer: Walking (DS)
09. Cid to Chocobo no Fushigi na Dungeon: Toki Wasure no Meikyuu + (DS)
10. Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G (PSP)
As part of today's quarterly financial wrap-up, Activision Blizzard struck a high note with the announcement that the Guitar Hero franchise has topped the NPD Group's software sales chart for the first nine months of 2008. This includes, of course, every permutation of the rhythm game series combined across all console platforms and Nintendo DS, with the exception of the newly released Guitar Hero World Tour.
In its report to shareholders, Blizzivision pointed out that Guitar Hero: Aerosmith and Guitar Hero: On Tour, in particular, contributed most to its bottom line for Q2. With World Tour out in Q3 followed by the holiday release of GH: Decades for the DS, we could see a similar chart-topping performance for the franchise come the end of December.
A nine year old boy has been arrested in Japan for stealing his parents car to visit his grandmother. And how, pray, does a nine year old kid learn to drive?
"It's my first time driving" he said, "but I learned from watching dad and playing at the video arcade."
Police in Gifu prefecture received a call on Monday morning from an anxious pedestrian who had seen a car apparently with no driver - the little sod was sitting on th every edge of the seat, strainingto reach the pedals and peer over the steering wheel.
The real question of course is What game did he practice on? Knowing if there are junior GTA players on the loose could be a very different prospect to under-age Mario Kart re-enactors.
Welcome to this week's Games Update, our weekly summary featuring all new product arrivals from the last seven days.
Hot titles came in torrents, mirroring the American election hype that has reached its climax yesterday. Same as the political atmosphere, the stream of this weeks' releases tend to be nerve wreakingly exciting.
Participate in the third World War that may end all wars and humanity in Tom Clancy's EndWar. But before a full world war could launch, spy activities must take place. As part of the promotional campaign for the new 007 film, James Bond: Quantum of Solace is out on your home consoles.
But sometimes technology may go awry, especially when they get fused with biology. Become the hero Sgt. Nathan Hale in Resistance 2 and fight both the Chimera, a set of war machines and the virus that threatens to turn you into the enemy of mankind.
You may have realized that your 3rd generation consoles are just as powerful as the famous spy's gadgets in his movies, these consoles make all sorts of mythological monsters come to life on your screen. Fight these swarming beasts for the survival of humanity in Legendary [PlayStation3™, Xbox360™ US, Asian versions, PC-Game].
Challenge your environment through sports instead of firearms in Motorstorm: Pacific Rift. The racer takes its participants to a tropical paradise for this season's races. The game blurs the line between virtual and reality by its accurate portrayal of the environment's physics. Take your mind off your current troubles and burst through the jungle.
Besides challenging the environment, try to live in harmony with it. Madagascar 2, the jungle adventure came out this week. Have fun with your madcap team of friends and strive to save the African savannah in this family adventure.
The newest Nintendo handheld console, NDSi's [black version, white version] debut this week heightens gamers' excitement. Aside from spotting cameras and a larger screen, the new console allows players to access an online shop so they could buy games on the go.
Following the hype aroused by the new portable systems, two new RPGs came out. Valkyrie Profile: Toga Seoumono deepens the title's universe by featuring the darkness and hatred born along with honour while Avalon Code features the birth of a new world.
Besides games, a number of interesting OSTs are also released. Söldner-X: Himmelsstürmer Original Soundtrack will prepare you for the new hit horizontal shooter on the PlayStation3™.
As usually, here's a summary of all new releases from this week, followed by a quick preview of what is expected to be hot next week.
Xbox360™
Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation (Platinum Collection) JPN US$ 34.90
Assassin's Creed (Platinum Collection) JPN US$ 34.90
Baja 1000 US US$ 44.90
Beautiful Katamari Damacy (Platinum Collection) JPN US$ 34.90
James Bond: Quantum of Solace ASIA US$ 59.90
James Bond: Quantum of Solace US US$ 64.90
Lost Odyssey (Platinum Collection) JPN US$ 34.90
Madagascar 2: Escape 2 Africa US US$ 54.90
Madagascar 2: Escape 2 Africa ASIA US$ 49.90
MotoGP 08 US US$ 64.90
Project Gotham Racing 4 (Platinum Collection) JPN US$ 34.90
Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon ASIA US$ 44.90
Tom Clancy's EndWar ASIA US$ 49.90
Xbox 360 Accessory Bundle - Wireless Controller + Play & Charge Kit (Red) ASIA US$ 59.90
Xbox 360 Hard Drive (60 GB) Live Pack ASIA US$ 99.90
Xbox 360 Value Pack JPN US$ 389.90
PlayStation3™
Baja 1000 US US$ 44.90
James Bond: Quantum of Solace US US$ 59.90
Legendary US US$ 64.90
Madagascar 2: Escape 2 Africa US US$ 54.90
MotoGP 08 US US$ 64.90
MotorStorm: Pacific Rift US US$ 64.90
Resistance 2 US US$ 64.90
Resistance 2 [Collector's Edition] US US$ 89.90
SingStar Vol. 2 US US$ 44.90
SingStar Vol. 2 Bundle (w/ 2 Microphones) US US$ 69.90
Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon ASIA US$ 44.90
Tom Clancy's EndWar ASIA US$ 59.90
Nintendo Wii™
All Star Cheer Squad US US$ 44.90
Baja 1000 US US$ 44.90
Ben 10: Alien Force US US$ 44.90
Build-A-Bear Workshop: The Fur Seasons Islands US US$ 44.90
Dora the Explorer: Dora Saves the Snow Princess US US$ 44.90
FIFA Soccer 09 All-Play US US$ 54.90
Go Diego Go! Great Dinosaur Rescue US US$ 44.90
Hunt for Blackbeards Booty US US$ 44.90
James Bond: Quantum of Solace US US$ 54.90
Madagascar 2: Escape 2 Africa US US$ 54.90
Monster Jam: Urban Assault US US$ 44.90
My Sims Kingdom US US$ 54.90
Nerf N-Strike (w/ Blaster) US US$ 69.90
Shrek's Carnival Craze US US$ 44.90
Twin Strike: Operation Thunder US US$ 34.90
PlayStation2™
Baja 1000 US US$ 34.90
Ben 10: Alien Force US US$ 34.90
James Bond: Quantum of Solace US US$ 44.90
MotoGP 08 US US$ 34.90
SingStar Country US US$ 34.90
SingStar Country (w/ 2 Microphones) US US$ 59.90
SingStar Legends US US$ 34.90
The King of Fighters Collection: The Orochi Saga US US$ 24.90
Wrestle Angels: Survivor 2 JPN US$ 64.90
Wrestle Angels: Survivor 2 [Limited Edition] JPN US$ 89.90
Zero no Tsukai: Maigo no Period to Ikusen no Symphony JPN US$ 68.90
Zero no Tsukai: Maigo no Period to Ikusen no Symphony [Limited Edition] JPN US$ 89.90
Nintendo DS™
Akagawa Jirou Mystery: Tsuki no Hikari JPN US$ 39.90
Aruite Wakaru: Seikatsu Rhythm DS JPN US$ 58.90
Avalon Code JPN US$ 48.90
Bella Sara US US$ 34.90
Ben 10: Alien Force US US$ 34.90
Cesar Millan's Dog Whisperer US US$ 34.90
Exit DS US US$ 24.90
Glory Days: Attack Hero JPN US$ 48.90
Hoshi no Kirby: Ultra Super Deluxe JPN US$ 48.90
James Bond: Quantum of Solace US US$ 34.90
Koisuru Purin! Koi wa Daibouken! Dr. Kanmi no Yabou!? JPN US$ 48.90
Liquid Crystal Protection Filter DSi JPN US$ 6.99
Madagascar 2: Escape 2 Africa US US$ 34.90
Monster Jam: Urban Assault US US$ 24.90
My Sims Kingdom US US$ 34.90
Nintendo DSi (Black) JPN US$ 299.00
Nintendo DSi (White) JPN US$ 299.00
Nostalgia no Kaze JPN US$ 58.90
Pingu no Waku Waku Carnival! JPN US$ 48.90
Screen Guard DSi JPN US$ 6.99
Seikatsu Rhythm Meter JPN US$ 19.90
Shrek's Carnival Craze US US$ 34.90
Shugo Chara! Amunonijiro Chara Change JPN US$ 52.90
Six Flags Fun Park US US$ 34.90
The Wonder Pets!: Save the Animals US US$ 24.90
Theresia US US$ 34.90
Tom Clancy's EndWar ASIA US$ 29.90
Valkyrie Profile: Toga o Seoumono JPN US$ 48.90
Sony PSP™
Bleach: Soul Carnival (Chinese language Version) ASIA US$ 42.90
Data Communication & Charge USB Cable JPN US$ 5.99
Data Communication & Charge USB Winding Cable JPN US$ 7.99
Hard Pouch Portable 3 (Silver) JPN US$ 9.99
Hard Pouch Portable 3 (White) JPN US$ 9.99
Monster Jam: Urban Assault US US$ 34.90
Neverland Card Battles US US$ 34.90
The King of Fighters Collection: The Orochi Saga US US$ 34.90
The King of Fighters Collection: The Orochi Saga ASIA US$ 39.90
Sony PSP™ UMD Movies
28 Days Later JPN US$ 9.90
AVP2 Aliens Vs. Predator JPN US$ 9.90
Alien JPN US$ 9.90
Alien 2 JPN US$ 9.90
Alien vs. Predator JPN US$ 9.90
Behind Enemy Lines JPN US$ 9.90
Daredevil JPN US$ 9.90
Die Hard JPN US$ 9.90
Die Hard 2 JPN US$ 9.90
Die Hard 3 JPN US$ 9.90
Die Hard 4.0 JPN US$ 9.90
Dodgeball JPN US$ 9.90
Elektra JPN US$ 9.90
Fantastic 4 JPN US$ 9.90
Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer JPN US$ 9.90
Garfield The Movie JPN US$ 9.90
I, Robot JPN US$ 9.90
Ice Age JPN US$ 9.90
Independence Day JPN US$ 9.90
Kingdom of Heaven JPN US$ 9.90
Predator JPN US$ 9.90
Robots JPN US$ 9.90
Speed JPN US$ 9.90
The Day After Tomorrow JPN US$ 9.90
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen JPN US$ 9.90
X-MEN JPN US$ 9.90
X-MEN 2 JPN US$ 9.90
PC Games
Agatha Christie: Death on the Nile ASIA US$ 34.90
Bella Sara (DVD-ROM) US US$ 24.90
Deer Hunter Tournament US US$ 24.90
Exodus from the Earth ASIA US$ 34.90
FIFA Manager 09 ASIA US$ 39.90
MotoGP 08 US US$ 44.90
WWII Battle Tanks: T-34 vs. Tiger ASIA US$ 34.90
Game Guides, Magazines and Calendars
Arushaado FF Replay Tokei Shikake no Hakaishin JPN US$ 29.90
BioShock Signature Series Guide (PS3 Version) US US$ 19.90
Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia / Akumajou Dracula: Ubawareta Kokuin Official Complete Guide JPN US$ 19.90
Comic Calendar 2009: BLEACH JPN US$ 29.90
Comic Calendar 2009: D.Gray-Man JPN US$ 21.90
Comic Calendar 2009: Gintama JPN US$ 31.90
Comic Calendar 2009: Kateikyoushi Hitman Reborn! JPN US$ 26.90
Comic Calendar 2009: Masuda Kousuke Gekijou Gag Manga Biyori JPN US$ 34.90
Comic Calendar 2009: Naruto JPN US$ 29.90
Comic Calendar 2009: One Piece JPN US$ 32.90
Comic Calendar 2009: To Love JPN US$ 32.90
Gin no Express Official Visual Fan Book JPN US$ 38.90
Hakushaku to Yousei Calendar Book 2009 JPN US$ 29.90
James Bond: Quantum of Solace Official Strategy Guide US US$ 17.90
Tom Clancy's End War: Prima Official Game Guide US US$ 19.90
Weekly Famitsu No. 1039 (2008 11/14) JPN US$ 7.90
Video Game Related Soundtrack
Bleach Original Soundtrack Vol. 3 JPN US$ 29.90
Kimi no Yusha Original Soundtrack JPN US$ 31.90
Naru Otori (Oretachi Ni Tsubasa Ha Nai Drama Series Vol.4) JPN US$ 20.90
Project Soul The Primary Sound Box - Soul Edge - Soul Calibur I & II [Limited Edition] JPN US$ 47.90
Söldner-X: Himmelsstürmer Original Soundtrack Complete Edition ASIA US$ 14.90
Shining Force Exa Drama CD JPN US$ 29.90
Nijiiro Change (Shugo Chara Amu No Nijiiro Chara Change Intro Theme) JPN US$ 11.90
Valkyrie Profile: Toga Wo Seou Mono Arrange Album JPN US$ 29.90
Valkyrie Profile: Toga o Seoumono Original Soundtrack JPN US$ 26.90
Here is a preview of what are expected to be hot next week
Xbox360™
Call of Duty: World at War ASIA US$ 59.90
Call of Duty: World at War US US$ 64.90
Command and Conquer: Red Alert 3 ASIA US$ 49.90
Gears of War 2 ASIA US$ 49.90
Gears of War 2 US US$ 64.90
Gears of War 2 [Limited Edition] ASIA US$ 69.90
Gears of War 2 [Limited Edition] US US$ 79.90
Legendary ASIA US$ 49.90
Mirror's Edge ASIA US$ 49.90
Mirror's Edge US US$ 64.90
PES Pro Evolution Soccer 2009 US US$ 54.90
SOCOM: Confrontation ASIA US$ 39.90
SOCOM: Confrontation (w/ Headset) ASIA US$ 64.90
WWE Smackdown vs Raw 2009 ASIA US$ 49.90
PlayStation3™
Call of Duty: World at War ASIA US$ 59.90
Call of Duty: World at War US US$ 64.90
Derby Time Online JPN US$ 59.90
Mirror's Edge ASIA US$ 49.90
Mirror's Edge US US$ 64.90
Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm US US$ 64.90
Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm [Limited Edition] US US$ 79.90
PES Pro Evolution Soccer 2009 US US$ 54.90
Resistance 2 JPN US$ 64.90
Resistance 2 ASIA US$ 59.90
Samurai Dou 3 ASIA US$ 64.90
Samurai Dou 3 JPN US$ 69.90
Valkyria Chronicles US US$ 64.90
WWE Smackdown vs Raw 2009 US US$ 64.90
Nintendo Wii™
Family Ski: World Ski & Snowboard JPN US$ 54.90
Illvelo Wii JPN US$ 49.90
Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World US US$ 44.90
PlayStation2™
Eternal Poison US US$ 44.90
Nintendo DS™
KORG DS-10 Synthesizer US US$ 44.90
Ryuusei no RockMan 3: Black Ace JPN US$ 48.90
Ryuusei no RockMan 3: Red Joker JPN US$ 48.90
PC Games
Call of Duty: World at War (DVD-ROM) US US$ 54.90
Call of Duty: World at War (DVD-ROM) ASIA US$ 44.90
World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King Expansion Pack US US$ 44.90
PDC World Championship Darts 2008 was released on 26/09/2008 in the UK for the PSP.
PDC World Championship Darts 2008, PSP features in full;
* 4 Game Modes - Exhibition. Tournament, Career and Party Games
* Three levels of difficulty/throwing mechanisms - Amateur, Professional and Master
* Wireless multi player and game sharing! Allows for 2 individual PSP Systems to communicate with each other and play an Exhibition Match
* Featuring 16 PDC Champions : Phil Taylor, Raymond van Barneveld, Peter Manley, Wayne Mardle, Dennis Priestley, Adrian Lewis, Alan Warriner-Little, John Part, Colin Lloyd, Mark Dudbridge, Roland Scholten, Ronnie Baxter, Terry Jenkins, Kevin Painter, Andy Hamilton, Andy Jenkins
* Commentary from the TV’s voice of darts Sid Waddell and top level match referee Bruce Spendley
* Computer opponents play off the real life averages and playing styles of the Pros
* Games stats displayed in-game, at the end of a match and stored as high scores and trivia
* In depth career mode based around the 7 major tournaments in the PDC calendar
* Custom Pictures – Import your own pictures via your Memory Stick Duo and assign them to a profile
* Custom Playlists – Create your own custom playlist by selecting MP3 tracks from your Memory Stick Duo
To celebrate the release of the game, we will be giving away a PSP and a copy of PDC World Championship Darts 2008 to a lucky DCEmu member, curiosity of Oxygen Games. Also we will be giving away a copy of the game to 2 Runners up. That at total of £220 worth of prizes!!
This contest is available to (residents of the UK and Ireland only).
To enter this contest all you have to do is to post a reply to this news post and answer the following question:
What's the Best Score you have ever had in Darts? (3 darts)
You may only post your answer once, and duplicate entries will be disqualified from the contest. This contest is only open to residents of the UK and Ireland (sorry to all our members outside of that region).
This contest will close on the Wednesday the 26th of November 2008.
If you want to post a reply to this post but do not qualify for the contest e.g. live outside the UK and Ireland, please post "I'm not entering the contest" thanks
Winners will be chosen randomly from qualified posts and contacted via PM on the DCEmu forums and E-mail. If a winner does not respond within a week a new winner will be picked at random from the other entrants. No purchase necessary. One online entry per person (one e-mail address per person/address). Entry constitutes agreement by winners to be publicized and permission to use each winner's name for the purposes of promotion of the Contest without further compensation. Contest void where prohibited. Odds of winning dependent on number of entrants.
Thanks to Nintendo's financial results briefing, we have some solid European sales figures. And the results? Pretty much what everyone thought, Wii is kicking ass, PS3 selling a little better than the Xbox 360 for most of the year, until the recent Xbox 360 price cuts.
Another round of weekly data reading for console sales in Japan and there are changes and a new entry in the ranks:
Nintendo DSi: 171,925
Playstation Portable: 50,358
Playstation 3: 39,587
Nintendo Wii: 23,123
Nintendo DS Lite: 16,369
Playstation 2: 6,714
Xbox 360: 6,119
Nintendo's new DSi debuts at first place. The PSP comes next in 2nd, down roughly 10,000 units from last week. Playstation shoots into 3rd place, up by 35,000. The Wii comes next, down by 1,100. The old DS Lite slides further down by 5,400. PS2 is 6th place, down about 160. Finally, last in line again is the Xbox 360, down 1,700 units.
Capcom's let loose a Street Fighter IV gameplay video featuring new boss Seth.
Famitsu recently confirmed that the freakish looking blue coloured charatcer, who has a strange device embedded in his stomach, will be a playable character in the home version of SFIV (he wasn't in the arcade version).
You should definitely check out this video of him making mince meat of the likes of Crimson Viper, M. Bison and Guile.
Ghostbusters has not been canned. Ghostbusters is coming out next year. Don't thank us, thank Atari.
"Ghostbusters: The Video Game is a fantastic addition to Atari's global line-up in 2009," said Phil Harrison, President of Atari's parent company, Infogrames. "The title has built considerable anticipation and excitement among game fans for its high quality action and all-out mayhem. There's no more thrilling Ghostbusting experience to be had, short of building your own proton pack."
Just in case you need a top-up, here's some official blurb:
Ghostbusters: The Video Game was penned by original Ghostbusters writers Harold Ramis and Dan Aykroyd and reunites members of the original cast for the first time in 20 years.
Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis, and Ernie Hudson lend their voices and in-game likenesses to the original story set two years after Ghostbusters II, with Manhattan once again overrun by ghosts and supernatural forces.
The game also features performances from fan favourites such as William Atherton (Walter Peck), Annie Potts (Janine Melnitz) and Brian Doyle-Murray (portraying Mayor Jock Mulligan).
Ghostbusters is coming to PS3, PS2, 360, PC, Wii and DS. Basically you will be playing it when it comes out. Or at least be near someone who is.
You know who likes the smell of victory in the morning? The British Army, that's who - and now the Ministry Of Defence is pumping research pounds into creating a Virtual Battlefield complete with Virtual Smells so soldiers can sample that smell - alongside the bouquet of bullets, the whiff of weaponry and the perfume of the paramilitary - without having to step into harm's way.
The MOD already uses modified videogames to train ground troops but researcher have just invested £20,000 to investigate whether adding the sense of smell to a game experience can significantly enhance its realism and hence its value as a training aid.
"Smell is so closely linked to emotion and memory," says Professor Bob Jones of Birmingham University, "it's something that we need to take seriously."
If the research proves effective, it may not be long before games consoles adopt the technology.
"There is no doubt in my mind that the games companies are looking for an inexpensive version for the domestic market," said Jones.
"I think it could be translated into the computer games market in two-and-a-half years."
Just imagine - by 2011 you could be playing Gears of War 4 with two little Microsoft-branded plugs up your nostrils. I bet that armor really starts to stink after a couple of hours out in the field.
Much like the typing speed question I asked over the summer, this question is designed to pit you head-to-head against one another to see who has the biggest e-wang (so to speak). All you need to do is follow this link to test your internet connection speed.
The big AAA holiday games are starting to hit store. Let's talk about that! Because today, today is time for TELL US DAMMIT. Here's how it works: We ask a question, you answer it. Simple and no strings attached! This isn't some marketing survey or whatever. It's an emotional investment in you. Yes, we're interested in knowing you, You probably know ****tons about us — more than you even want to, we're sure. But, hey, we'd like to know about you. That way you won't be some faceless blob — and we might feel a tinge of guilt when we ban your ass. Or not, because really we're incapable of human emotion. Waka waka.
Question: Are you a patient game buyer? Meaning, do you always buy new games (or hardware, for that matter) on the first day or are you able to wait the hype out?
Having just completed Resistance 2, for work purposes, I'll be taking a little break from gaming, recharging the batteries for... an upcoming Banjo Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts review. I'll tell you what we played last night though, me and the boys at the monthly LA Geek Night: Mirror's Edge, Wii Music and a bit of Fable II. We also played a little bit of John Carpenter's The Thing — the movie, that is — as those in my circle without access to the New Xbox Experience wanted to see what the fuss was all about.
I may try to sneak in some Left 4 Dead demo time — and probably some processor and video card overclocking attempts — but otherwise, it's going to be Jiggie collecting for me. What are you playing this weekend?
Why does Square Enix keep revisiting old franchises and selling polished classics? People buy them. This sales chart is a slide from Square Enix’s second quarter financial briefing of fiscal year 2009, a quarter when Square Enix released more new properties than any other quarter since the merger. Four brand new and entirely unattached games to any existing Square Enix series were introduced in Japan: Song Summoner, Nanashi no Game, Sigma Harmonics and Infinite Undiscovery. Sales of Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride for the DS dwarfed all of them tallied together. Sales data for Song Summoner, an iPod game, was not released.
Actually, Infinite Undiscovery sold fairly well worldwide. Tri-Ace’s Xbox 360 game was on par with Final Fantasy Tactics A2 in North America and it just came out in September. However, even critically acclaimed games like the World Ends With You, which came out in North America this April, have a hard time standing up to legacy games like Final Fantasy IV. Since remakes cost less to develop and sell like hotcakes slides like these are a convincing argument for an executive board to stay on the remake train instead of developing new properties. Of course, Square Enix is still trying to make new properties. The Last Remnant comes out in just a few weeks.
Welcome to this week's Movie/Music news roundup, containing new Japanese and Hong Kong Video and Music releases from this week listed at Play-Asia.com. Around 370 new items are covered in this week, including new J-Pop, Anime as well as Japanese, Hong Kong and Western movie releases and much more.
The storm is far from over, but this time, the winds and rains are far less destructive. For Arashi (Japanese: Storm) released their newest gust of power, in the form of their newest single Beautiful Days [Limited and Standard Editions].
The song marks the 10 year anniversary of the group's debut and embodies all the experiences the group has gone through. Let the relaxing pop tune unwind your gears after a hectic day.
A storm is brewing in the mythical world of Norse gods. Valkyrie Profile: Toga Seoumono [Original Soundtrack, Arrange Albums] features the forces of collision between the human world and the gods' realm. Although poverty, hunger and hatred is the game's theme, the plot and its music offer a hint of light to shine through the darkest days.
Beautiful Days is relaxing, Valkyrie Profile music is grand, while Bleach OST 3 features some passionate Latin and Spanish styled tracks that heightens the tension of the fast pace actions in the anime and energizes you for the challenges that will come. Mood is a very important thing, make yourself feel good.
Eastasiasoft's popular horizontal scrolling shooter Söldner-X: Himmelsstürmer is debutting on PlayStation3 soon and to prepare you for the new elements and as part of the promotion campaign, the developers have released a complete album which includes all music exclusive to the new version.
To get a taste of the soundtrack and the game, please click here.
Aside from soundtracks a number of blockbuster films are released for your portable multimedia juke box this week, please view here for the full list of them.
Here's a summary of all new releases that were published between Saturday, November 1st and Friday, November 7th. If some specific item that you are looking for is missing, please don't hesitate to contact our customer service with your request.
J-Pop Music releases (134)
ENKA Music releases (23)
Anime Soundtracks & Drama CDs (25)
Video Game Soundtracks (8)
Hong Kong Version Music releases (4)
Blu-ray Disc Movies (21)
Anime & Animation (22)
Hong Kong Version Movie releases (25)
Japanese Movies (10)
Non-Japanese Movies / Japanese Version (54)
J-Pop DVD releases (11)
ENKA DVD releases (1)
Idol DVD (5)
UMD™ Video & Music (27)
The transnational character of gaming is one that opens up a wide range of opportunities for the industry, but comes with a number of pitfalls as well — and, as Mathew McCurley argues at the Escapist, has far-reaching negative consequences, especially in term of content. Trying to navigate the tricky waters of censorship and varied expectations of what is OK (and what's not) in a variety of countries can mean developers play it safe in an attempt to ensure that their game will reach a wider audience:
The videogame industry will never stop pushing boundaries. It can't - gamers have an insatiable demand for more visceral experiences and will continue to flock to games that provide them. The problem, however, is the potentially heavy cost of taking risks on a global scale. The companies that have been most fearless about creating controversial games are the ones with the money to fight those battles, backed by publishers like EA who assume some of the risk. Smaller teams may find ways of breaking the boundaries in other content-neutral ways, like Jonathan Blow's Braid, which approaches storytelling through creative game mechanics. But the uncertainty that shrouds the ratings processes all over the world is a giant red flag for all but the most courageous game companies.
Of course, this ignores many of the good points of a more international scene, and I can't imagine there's a good way to get around this (short of trying to create an isolationist industry, which is unreasonable from several fronts). But it's certainly an interesting problem to ponder.
features
Material: Polystone
Scale: 1/4
Size: 483mm x 203mm x 267mm
Weight: approx. 12.5 kg
Licenced by Eidos, designed by Sideshow Collectibles
Hand painted, Hand numbered
Strictly Limited
description
The Premium Format Lara Croft figure captures every curve of the sexiest archaeologist to ever grace your screen. Lara is outfitted as she appears in Legend, the entire costume captured in expertly tailored fabrics. The figure is cast in heavy-weight polystone and hand-painted to exacting standards, and is complete with a rubble and ruin environmental display base. Each figure is individually hand-numbered, and packed in a durable foam interior and beautiful color box.
Publishing juggernaut Activision recently partnered up with the United Service Organization, a non-profit group whose sole purpose is to boost the morale of those currently serving in the armed forces, to give the gift of gaming to a bunch of people who have really earned it. At a launch event for Call of Duty: World at War at a Washington D.C. GameStop, customers will be able to play the title online with active servicemen and servicewomen -- in addition, for every copy of World at War purchased at the event, Activision will donate $10 to the USO. On top of all that, Activision will also donate $100,000 worth of Guitar Hero III to military bases across the globe.
This rather altruistic showing might just be exactly what Activision needed to win back the heart of the gaming community in the wake of a few upsetting comments recently made by CEO Bobby Kotick. We're a forgiving lot, aren't we, guys?
Microsoft's Gears of War 2 for the Xbox 360 has beaten Sony's PS3 hope LittleBigPlanet to the top of the All Formats charts in the UK.
Both titles are exclusive to their respective formats, and LittleBigPlanet even benefited from a sales head-start – being released on November 5, two days before Gears' November 7 release.
But data from GfK Chart-Track shows Epic's highly-anticipated shooter entered the charts at number one, enjoying the third-best week-one sales for a 360 title, behind GTA IV and Halo 3.
LittleBigPlanet was originally due for release October 24, but was delayed globally while Sony removed part of the games soundtrack.
The Media Molecule-developed title debuted at number four in the chart, beating THQ's newly-released WWE Smackdown Vs RAW 2009 at five.
Nintendo's Professor Layton and the Curious Village entered the charts at number six, while Guitar Hero: World Tour broke the top twenty at 17.
Sony's other PlayStation 3 exclusive MotorStorm: Pacific Rift didn't perform strongly in its first week, only entering the charts at number 29, just ahead of Ubisoft's new Tom Clancy franchise, EndWar, at 30.
The full top ten for the UK follows:
1. Gears of War 2
2. FIFA 09
3. Fallout 3
4. LittleBigPlanet
5. WWE Smackdown Vs RAW 2009
6. Professor Layton and the Curious Village
7. Mario Kart Wii
8. Quantum of Solace
9. Pro Evolution Soccer 2009
10. Wii Fit
The #1 fighting game franchise in the world upholds its commitment to providing gamers with the definitive simulation of live WWE programming.
Featuring added depth and realism, along with a first-ever co-op storyline, WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2009 enables players to come together and experience the virtual world of the WWE. On your own, you’re great, but together, you’re unstoppable.
Game Features:
TAG TEAM EXPLOSION: WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2009 unleashes a brand new tag team match. Build momentum and attributes as a team, destroy opponents with high-impact double teams, pull off new bone-crunching tag team finishers and get the "hot tag" for the win.
ROAD TO WRESTLEMANIA: Pave the way to WWE's biggest event of the year through WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2009's new story mode, which features the franchise's first-ever co-op storyline.
CREATE-A-FINISHER: Construct the most devastating moves ever unleashed in a WWE ring with this brand new interface. WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2009 lets players customize all aspects of created Superstars—even their very own finishing moves.
NEW ONLINE FUNCTIONALITY: Extend the WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2009 gameplay experience with downloadable content and much more.
WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2009 is available on a number of platforms:
Xbox360™
WWE Smackdown vs Raw 2009 US US$ 64.90
WWE Smackdown vs Raw 2009 ASIA US$ 49.90
PlayStation3™
WWE Smackdown vs Raw 2009 US US$ 64.90
Nintendo Wii™
WWE Smackdown vs Raw 2009 US US$ 59.90
Nintendo DS™
WWE Smackdown vs Raw 2009 US US$ 34.90
Disney Sing It is a new video-based karaoke game featuring a mix of popular fan-faves and the hottest new Disney talents.
The first game in this rockin' new franchise features songs and videos from Hollywood Records artists, Disney Channel Original Series, and Disney Channel Original Movies.
Players can belt it out to some of today's chart topping tunes and have a blast along with their friends and Disney stars!
Disney movies are known for their feel-good elements, the cheerful plots, endearing characters and music. Disney Sing it is perfect for a party or karaoke night, sing with your friends in solos, duets and even teams, the game provides voice lessons that you can attend whenever you like.
The party game is compatible with these systems:
Xbox360™
Disney Sing It (Bundle with Microphone) ASIA US$ 59.90
Disney Sing It (Bundle with Microphone) US US$ 69.90
PlayStation3™
Disney Sing It (Bundle with Microphone) US US$ 69.90
Nintendo Wii™
Disney Sing It US US$ 44.90
Disney Sing It (Bundle with Microphone) US US$ 69.90
PlayStation2™
Disney Sing It US US$ 34.90
Disney Sing It (Bundle with Microphone) US US$ 59.90
The UK enjoyed software sales growth of 15 per cent for the three months ended September 30, beating marginal growth in the US of 8 per cent and a decline in Japan of 21 per cent.
Total global sales for the period evened out at 1 per cent, according to data from Top Global Markets, the alliance of NPD, GfK Chart-Track and Enterbrain, formed in August this year.
"Taking into consideration the marked differences between the three territories, the UK market in particular is gearing up for a best-ever Q4 performance overall, even under the well-documented financial climate," commented Dorian Bloch, business group director of GfK Chart-Track Limited.
"We fully expect UK consumers to drive sales for the full year to unprecedented heights, especially considering the line-up of exciting single and multi-format new franchises currently hitting the market, not to mention the evergreen portfolio of Nintendo-published Wii and DS titles which have done such a great job of expanding the market to a far more mainstream consumer."
Console software sales in the UK was up 26 per cent, but portable sales declined 1 per cent. Growth in the US was more even, with console software up 6 per cent, and portable growth up 10 per cent. Only the US market grew compared to the same period last year, by 3 per cent.
Japanese sales were down 33 per cent for console software, and 13 per cent in the handheld market.
"Japan did experience sales declines in both software categories, but it is important to keep in mind that not only is Japan a more mature market than the US and UK, but 2007 was a banner year for the Japanese software market, with the titles released in the third quarter of 2008 not being as highly anticipated as those released during the same time period in 2007," added Ricky K Tanimoto, global marketing analyst at Enterbrain.
Tanimoto observed that the market in Japan is not likely to be affected by the current global economic downturn, with the PSP 3000 and the DSi expected to drive sales in Q4.
Anita Frazier, analyst for NPD added that the US market "is on solid ground" for the next quarter, ending in December.
Downloadable content as a weapon against second-hand resales is, nothing new, but Epic's Mike Capps has heard other ideas for how it can be used with devastating effect. If you hated the idea of DLC weapons in Bad Company, well, you're really going to hate this.
“I’ve talked to some developers who are saying ‘If you want to fight the final boss you go online and pay USD 20, but if you bought the retail version you got it for free’. We don’t make any money when someone rents it, and we don’t make any money when someone buys it used - way more than twice as many people played Gears than bought it.”
That would reduce everything but a retail sale to a demo, in my view. This doesn't sound like Capps specifically advocating such a bastard-ass move. But these two sides — developers and retailer/resellers — need to arrive at some sort of truce or else the only ones who'll get screwed are the gamers.
I can't imagine the Amazon and Metacritic reviews for such a game. It would make the Spore DRM backlash look like a polite disagreement. Seriously, games industry, you want to start spewing douchewater like the RIAA, go for it. They can tell you what it's done for their sales.
Ubisoft just announced that Far Cry 2 has achieved a million sales worldwide in under three weeks across Xbox 360, PS3 and PC. Even with the holiday wallet onslaught (and recession) in full effect, it's encouraging to see a quality title that could have slipped through the cracks compete at retail.
The Africa-set Far Cry 2, developed by Ubisoft Montreal, has met with solid reviews from the gaming press and our very own Afrikaner, who greeted the news of the game's achievement with, "YES! Good job, world."
One of the most feel-good stories of the year has got to be the unholy alliance between NPD/GfK/Enterbrain, that lets us see - every three months, at least - what the biggest-selling games are not in the US, Europe or Japan, but in the world. Last time we checked, the best-seller was GTA IV. This time around, for the quarter running from July-September? It's Madden. Madden, followed by daylight.
1. Madden 09 - 2.994 million
2. Wii Fit - 2.089 million
3. Force Unleashed - 1.738 million
4. Pokemon Platinum - 1.482 million
5. Mario Kart Wii - 1.468 million
What's even more interesting than the raw numbers is the percentage of those final tallies US sales comprise. For Madden, of the 2.994 million, 2.958 were in the US. Proving, in case Americans were unaware, how few people outside North America give a rat's arse about American Football. Yet for Wii Fit and Mario Kart, US numbers accounted for barely half of total sales: 1.283 million of 2.089 million for Wii Fit, and 856,000 of 1.468 million for Mario Kart Wii.
"Digital Marketing" experts Clickz have a theory - casual games are becoming the dominant form of gameplay and are killing the console market deader than a particularly dead doornail.
"We are entering a future that many in the game industry are still denying and fighting against," says Clickz's Kevin Carney, "We are watching the icon of gaming, the console, quickly and ungraciously bow to the internet."
You see, it is not just any old casual gaming - it is web-based casual gaming with an advertising-based revenue model. "Here's the beauty of this transition: advertisers are the prime movers. Online games are typically funded through advertising revenue," continues Carney.
Tectoy's announced the Zeebo, a 3G network-based gaming console that will supposedly launch in Brazil in July of 2009, then spread to other markets in the following months. The console will apparently be constantly connected to a 3G network for no cost to the gamer, with all games and content paid for and downloaded via said network (which sounds suspiciously like the never-realized Phantom). In theory, this would mean lower costs for the consumer while cutting down on piracy. Titles that are to be preloaded in the Brazil launch of the system include the mobile game Action Hero 3D, Evil Prey, and Quake... not exactly state-of-the-art, but according to its manufacturers, the Zeebo is not meant to directly compete with platforms like the Wii, Xbox 360 or Playstation 3. Instead, the system will be aimed at "emerging" gaming markets, including those which could not normally afford expensive hardware and games. Confusingly, the price mentioned for the console is a steep $599, with games set to cost between $10 and $30 -- not exactly the most affordable item we've ever heard of, but we'll keep our ears to the wall for further updates should the Zeebo ever come closer to existence. And, comparison to the Phantom aside, we hope it does.
Update: We're aware of the craziness of the $599 US price tag, but the source does specify US dollars, though we're unsure of whether it's a typo or the actual price.
We speculated in our review of the new iPod touch that Apple had designs on more than just consumption of music and video, and now an interview with company VP of iPod and iPhone product marketing Greg Joswiak all but confirms that sights are set on the gaming market. In a conversation with T3, Joswiak boasts that the devices are breaking through as a viable alternative to established handhelds (such as the PSP or DS) due mostly in part to competitive software pricing and the company's content delivery system. While much of the interview focuses on iPod sales figures, it does delve into more detailed comparisons of platforms, with Joswiak stating, "The 3D graphic power here [iPod touch] is significantly greater than what you have here [picks up Nintendo DS]. So this allows people to do significantly higher quality games." While it's not unusual to hear Apple's honchos hyping their products like they just skipped across some water to heal a few lepers, it is a new trend to see the company aggressively going after gaming platform mainstays so directly. With Sony and Nintendo just getting up to speed on non-traditional content delivery, Apple may find an edge come holiday season with casual gamers -- the real question is whether the hardcore will bite.
Just as China declares internet addiction a "mental disorder," 22 year-old Hu Ange from Sichuan Province is now trying to claim insanity after being sentenced to death for poisoning his parents and spending their money on online games. Back in March 2007, Hu's parents gave him 50,000 yuan (US$7,353) to support his seafood business — he spent all the money on online game Legend. Flash forward to July 14, 2007 when he purchased 20 packs of tetramine and poisoned his father the following morning. His father was saved thanks to emergency treatment. Days later on July 20, he bought 45 more packs of tetramine and served them with mixed beef on July 24, poisoning both his parents at lunch. Hu did not respond to his dying mother's pleas for help, because he was in his room playing Legend. If poisoning one's parents on multiple occasions wasn't nutty enough, this wacko's gotta drag gaming into it.
A new Kirby title from Nintendo has knocked Grand Theft Auto IV off the top of the charts in Japan.
According to data from Media Create, Hoshi no Kirby: Ultra Super Deluxe sold 266,000 units in its first week of sale.
Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto IV, published by Capcom in the region, was the fifth highest seller in the market, shifting a further 36,000 copies.
Sony's LittleBigPlanet, released last week and entering the charts at number four, dropped down to tenth place with 17,000 copies sold.
The full top ten for Japan, week ended November 9, follows:
01. Hoshi no Kirby: Ultra Super Deluxe (DS)
02. Rhythm Tengoku Gold (DS)
03. Wagamama Fashion Girls Mode (DS)
04. Pokémon Platinum (DS)
05. Grand Theft Auto IV (PS3)
06. Valkyrie Profile: Toga o Seoumono (DS)
07. Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G (PSP)
08. Personal Trainer: Walking (DS)
09. Gran Turismo 5 Prologue Spec III (PS3)
10. LittleBigPlanet (PS3)
From the publisher: Enter a snowboarding world of total freedom. You can create your own experience in this game, and choose when, where, how and with whom you want to ride.
Developed in close collaboration with Olympic Gold Medalist Shaun White – the most successful snowboarder in the history of the sport – Shaun White Snowboarding is the next-gen game that redefines the action sports genre.
Game Features:
Choose how you ride in open-world mountains across the globe. Conquer the extreme peak conditions, create your own paths in the back country, or compete with fellow riders in the terrain park.
Play in a world where your friends are always around. Do you own runs on mountains populated by real gamers, or join your friends for a quick session from anywhere in the mountains
Have fun with your friends on and off the board: Throw snowballs, hike to access secret spots, film your friends doing crazy tricks. You can also upload your videos online to share with the world
Express yourself through tricks, riding styles, and highly customizable avatars both in single-player and in the online world. Use the intuitive dual analog control to pull off a huge variety of tricks that express your style
Snow board in your living room on one of these consoles:
Xbox360™
Shaun White Snowboarding US US$ 64.90
Shaun White Snowboarding ASIA US$ 49.90
PlayStation3™
Shaun White Snowboarding US US$ 64.90
Shaun White Snowboarding ASIA US$ 59.90
Nintendo Wii™
Shaun White Snowboarding US US$ 54.90
PlayStation2™
Shaun White Snowboarding US US$ 44.90
Nintendo DS™
Shaun White Snowboarding US US$ 34.90
Sony PSP™
Shaun White Snowboarding US US$ 44.90
PC Game
Shaun White Snowboarding US US$ 34.90
All products on preorder are expected to arrive during the next few days, so please check back often for a more concrete shipping schedule.
features
Even after you reach the top of the WWE, you must be prepared defend your title against the Superstars of Raw, SmackDown, and ECW, as well as your friends and fierce online competition! You may hold the gold now, but if you want to keep it then you need this guide!
Learn their strengths and weaknesses, from the match types in which they dominate to the best way to set up their signature and finishing moves.
Guide the biggest names in WWE along the Road to WresleMania or lead the company as the General Manager where you make the roster, set up matches, and even create the company's Highlight Reel!
Not everyone is available immediately! To learn how to unlock your favorite Superstars and their special Abilities, just look inside!
Platform: PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable, Xbox 360, Wii, Nintendo DS
Welcome to this week's Games Update, our weekly summary featuring all new product arrivals from the last seven days.
As the holiday season draws nearer and nearer, game developers push their products out, resulting in a flood of games in our warehouses.
Not only are there a lot of games, but most of them are block busters. Call of Duty: World At War allows players to participate in WWII, one of the largest scale wars that inspired gamers and developers alike.
Go from WWII to WWIII in Command and Conquer 3: Red Alert. Technology goes astray in this episode and everything goes beyond you wildest fancies. In an attempt to bring glory to your motherland, you travelled to a different time dimension, from this point onwards, you need to show whoever crosses your path that you are the boss!.
Aside from battling earthly forces, you can battle Locusts in Gears of War 2 that is threatening to overtake humanity. Please see this special report on the shipping status of the game and its related products.
Mankind is frequently under attack, the theme of technology against humans is a popular theme. Ryuusei no Rockman 3 [Black Ace and Red Joker] is a game based on such themes. Transform your armor and weapons in this hot DS release and eradicate the errors made by humans.
Sometimes freedom, or a sense of freedom need not be won over bloodshed. Shaun White Snowboarding and MotorStorm: Pacific Rift are games where speed is the liberating agent. Tear all chains that ties you to reality by accelerating down snowy slopes or storming through muddy paths.
Mirror's Edge combines liberating speeds with intense combat. Instead of pitting technology or aliens at you, you fall prey to hostile organizations that seeks to get their hands on, or destroy whatever secrets you are bearing. These people will stop at nothing, so run while you can.
WWE Smackdown vs Raw 2009 takes away the speed factor and increased the combat elements by multi-fold. With its co-op story mode, you can take down any opponents with a friend. On your own, you are great, together, you are unstoppable.
The struggles are nothing less spectacular in the Japanese games. Localized for English speaking audiences, the engaging story and innovative strategic battle system in Valkyrie Chronicles are made available for the rest of the world.
Globalization opened up the Ninja industry for all highly qualified people to join in. Admire how seamlessly you can launch your ninja moves on your PlayStation3 in Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm [Limited and Standard Editions].
Besides Ninja, you can be a Samurai in Samurai Dou 3 [Asian & JPN versions]. Freedom of play is one of the main attractions of the game, you can stay loyal to a cause or betray your employers. Everything is up to you in this game, just bear in mind what effects your actions will have on the land, as the state's future rests within your hands.
Another hot game that launches today is World of WarCraft : Wrath of the Lich King Expansion Pack. Please see this special news on details with regards to the game and its related products.
As usually, here's a summary of all new releases from this week, followed by a quick preview of what is expected to be hot next week.
Xbox360™
Call of Duty: World at War ASIA US$ 59.90
Call of Duty: World at War US US$ 64.90
Call of Duty: World at War [Collector's Edition] US US$ 89.90
Command and Conquer: Red Alert 3 ASIA US$ 49.90
Disney Sing It (Bundle with Microphone) ASIA US$ 59.90
FIFA Soccer 09 JPN US$ 74.90
Gears of War 2 ASIA US$ 49.90
Gears of War 2 US US$ 64.90
Gears of War 2 [Limited Edition] ASIA N/A
Gears of War 2 [Limited Edition] US N/A
Guitar Hero World Tour ASIA US$ 59.90
History Channel Civil War: Secret Missions US US$ 54.90
Legendary US US$ 64.90
Mirror's Edge ASIA US$ 49.90
Namco Museum Virtual Arcade US US$ 34.90
Scene It? Box Office Smash US US$ 44.90
Scene It? Box Office Smash (Controller Bundle) US US$ 79.90
Secret Service: Ultimate Sacrifice US US$ 44.90
Shaun White Snowboarding ASIA US$ 49.90
Tom Clancy's EndWar US US$ 64.90
WWE Smackdown vs Raw 2009 ASIA US$ 49.90
Xbox 360 Hard Drive (60 GB) Live Pack JPN US$ 129.90
PlayStation3™
Bladestorm: The Hundred Years' War (PlayStation3 the Best) JPN US$ 39.90
Call of Duty: World at War ASIA US$ 59.90
Call of Duty: World at War US US$ 64.90
Derby Time Online JPN US$ 59.90
FIFA Soccer 09 JPN US$ 74.90
Guitar Hero World Tour ASIA US$ 59.90
History Channel Civil War: Secret Missions US US$ 54.90
Mahjong Taikai IV (Koei the Best) JPN US$ 34.90
Major League Baseball 2K8 JPN US$ 59.90
Mirror's Edge ASIA US$ 49.90
MotorStorm 2 ASIA US$ 59.90
Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm US US$ 64.90
Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm [Limited Edition] US US$ 79.90
Resistance 2 ASIA US$ 59.90
Resistance 2 JPN US$ 64.90
SOCOM: Confrontation ASIA US$ 39.90
SOCOM: Confrontation (w/ Headset) ASIA US$ 64.90
Samurai Dou 3 JPN US$ 69.90
Samurai Dou 3 ASIA US$ 64.90
Tom Clancy's EndWar US US$ 64.90
Tom Clancy's EndWar (Headset Bundle) ASIA US$ 79.90
Tom Clancy's EndWar (Headset Bundle) US N/A
Valkyria Chronicles US US$ 64.90
WWE Smackdown vs Raw 2009 US US$ 64.90
WWE Smackdown vs Raw 2009 [Collector's Edition] US N/A
Nintendo Wii™
Blob: Colorful na Kibou JPN US$ 59.90
Call of Duty: World at War US US$ 54.90
FIFA Soccer 09 All-Play JPN US$ 59.90
Family Ski: World Ski & Snowboard JPN US$ 54.90
Goosebumps HorrorLand US US$ 44.90
Illvelo Wii JPN US$ 49.90
Jinsei Game Wii EX JPN US$ 59.90
Kung Fu Panda: Legendary Warriors US US$ 54.90
Movie Games US US$ 34.90
New Unou Kids Wii JPN US$ 49.90
Petz Sports US US$ 44.90
Remote Control Pocket (Black) JPN US$ 7.99
Remote Control Pocket (Blue) JPN US$ 7.99
Remote Control Pocket (White) JPN US$ 7.99
Sangokushi XI with Power-Up Kit (Koei the Best) JPN US$ 39.90
Star Wars Clone Wars: Lightsaber Duels US US$ 54.90
WWE Smackdown vs Raw 2009 US US$ 59.90
PlayStation2™
Dragon Ball Z: Infinite World US US$ 34.90
Goosebumps HorrorLand US US$ 34.90
Major League Baseball 2K8 JPN US$ 49.90
Mana Khemia: Alchemists of Al-Revis US US$ 24.90
NHL 09 US US$ 34.90
Nobunaga no Yabou: Kakushin (PlayStation2 the Best) JPN US$ 39.90
Sangokushi XI with Power-Up Kit (Koei the Best) JPN US$ 39.90
Sengoku Musou 2 Empires (PlayStation2 the Best) JPN US$ 28.90
WinBack 2: Project Poseidon (Koei Selection Series) JPN US$ 19.90
Nintendo DS™
Call of Duty: World at War US US$ 34.90
DS Nishimura Kyotaro Suspense 2 Shin Tantei Series: Kanezawa kankan gokkan no kyoukoku fukushuu no kage JPN US$ 39.90
Disney Fairies: Tinker Bell US US$ 34.90
Dragon Ball Origins US US$ 34.90
Elminage DS Remix: Yami no Fuo to Kamigami no Yubiwa JPN US$ 48.90
Fushigi no Dungeon: Fuurai no Shiren DS 2 - Sabaku no Majou JPN US$ 48.90
Goosebumps HorrorLand US US$ 34.90
Ikatan: Ikamono Tantei JPN US$ 48.90
Imagine Interior Designer US US$ 34.90
Imagine Wedding Designer US US$ 34.90
Juggler DS JPN US$ 48.90
KORG DS-10 Synthesizer US US$ 44.90
Kung Fu Panda: Legendary Warriors US US$ 34.90
My Baby Boy US US$ 34.90
My Baby Girl US US$ 34.90
New Unou Kids DS JPN US$ 39.90
Nobunaga no Yabou DS (Koei the Best) JPN US$ 29.90
Petz Dogz Pack US US$ 34.90
Princess on Ice US US$ 34.90
Rhythm de Cooking JPN US$ 48.90
Ryuusei no RockMan 3: Black Ace JPN US$ 48.90
Ryuusei no RockMan 3: Red Joker JPN US$ 48.90
Shaun White Snowboarding ASIA US$ 29.90
Star Wars Clone Wars: Jedi Alliance US US$ 39.90
Taisen!! Ka to Chan no Kororonpe! JPN US$ 39.90
Tom Clancy's EndWar US US$ 34.90
Tongari Boushi no Mahou no 365 Nichi JPN US$ 48.90
WWE Smackdown vs Raw 2009 US US$ 34.90
Zero Kara Hajimeru: Otona no 5-Kokugo Nyuumon JPN US$ 39.90
Nintendo DS™ Accessories
DS Card Case x 4 (Chic) JPN US$ 3.99
DS Card Case x 4 (Fine) JPN US$ 3.99
Dr. Slump Carrying Case (Arale) JPN US$ 9.90
Dr. Slump Carrying Case (Suppaman) JPN US$ 9.90
Dr. Slump Custom Hard Cover (Arale) JPN US$ 12.90
Dr. Slump Custom Hard Cover (Suppaman) JPN US$ 12.90
Dr. Slump Soft Card Case (Arale) JPN US$ 7.90
Dr. Slump Soft Card Case (Suppaman) JPN US$ 7.90
Ryuusei no RockMan 3 Noise Kaizou Gear Progress Stage (5pcs Pack) JPN US$ 2.99
Sony PSP™
Chuumon Shiyouze! Oretachi no Sekai JPN US$ 48.90
FIFA Soccer 09 JPN US$ 48.90
Guilty Gear: Judgment (Arc System Works Best Selection) JPN US$ 29.90
Guilty Gear: Judgment (Arc System Works Best Selection) ASIA US$ 24.90
Sangokushi VIII (Koei the Best) JPN US$ 29.90
Sengoku Efuda Yuugi: Hototogisu Ran JPN US$ 48.90
Tom Clancy's EndWar US US$ 44.90
WWE Smackdown vs Raw 2009 US US$ 44.90
Zero Pilot: Daisanji Sekai Taisen 1946 JPN US$ 48.90
Dreamcast™
Wind and Water: Puzzle Battles US$ 39.99
PC Game
Call of Duty: World at War (DVD-ROM) US US$ 54.90
Call of Duty: World at War (DVD-ROM) ASIA US$ 44.90
Call of Duty: World at War (DVD-ROM) [Collector's Edition] US US$ 79.90
Football Manager 2009 ASIA US$ 44.90
World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King Expansion Pack US US$ 44.90
Game Guides and Magazines
Gears of War 2 Signature Series Guide US US$ 19.90
Gears of War 2: Last Stand Edition Strategy Guide US US$ 34.90
Hyper Hobby [December 2008] JPN US$ 16.90
MJ4 Capture Guide JPN US$ 22.90
Macross Ace Frontier Complete Guide JPN US$ 27.90
Mobile Suit Gundam 00: Gundam Meisters Complete Guide JPN US$ 27.90
Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm: Prima Official Game Guide US US$ 19.90
Pokemon Ranger: Shadows of Almia: Prima Official Game Guide US US$ 19.90
Resistance 2 Signature Series Guide US US$ 19.90
Ryuusei no RockMan 3 Perfect Guide JPN US$ 13.90
Sengoku Efuda Yuugi: Hototogisu Ran Official Handbook JPN US$ 22.90
Star Wars Clone Wars: Lightsaber Duel and Jedi Alliance: Prima Official Game Guide US US$ 19.90
Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World Official Strategy Guide US US$ 17.90
Tales of Vesperia Perfect Guide JPN US$ 31.90
Valkyria Chronicles Official Strategy Guide US US$ 17.90
WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2009 Signature Series Guide US US$ 17.90
Weekly Famitsu No. 1040 (2008 11/21) JPN US$ 7.90
Video Game related Soundtracks
Blob - Colorful Na Kibou CM Song (~Akihito Tanaka) JPN US$ 9.90
Original Voice Drama True Fortune Vol.1 JPN US$ 28.90
Quiz Magic Academy 5 Original Soundtrack JPN US$ 23.90
Tongari Bouchi To Mahou No 365 Original Soundtrack JPN US$ 30.90
Here is a preview of what are expected to be hot next week, as you can see, there are quite a lot of them:
Xbox360™
Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts ASIA US$ 39.90
Left 4 Dead ASIA US$ 49.90
Left 4 Dead US US$ 64.90
Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe ASIA US$ 49.90
Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe [Collector's Edition] US US$ 79.90
Naruto: The Broken Bond ASIA US$ 49.90
Naruto: The Broken Bond US US$ 64.90
Need for Speed Undercover ASIA US$ 44.90
Otomedius Gorgeous JPN US$ 64.90
Otomedius Gorgeous + Hyper Stick Pro Otomedius Gorgeous Ver. [Konamistyle Limited Edition] JPN N/A
PES Pro Evolution Soccer 2009 US US$ 54.90
The Last Remnant US US$ 64.90
The Last Remnant (English language Version) ASIA US$ 49.90
The Last Remnant (Japanese language Version) ASIA US$ 49.90
Tomb Raider Underworld US US$ 64.90
Tomb Raider Underworld ASIA US$ 49.90
PlayStation3™
Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe US US$ 64.90
Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe [Collector's Edition] US US$ 79.90
Need for Speed Undercover US US$ 64.90
Need for Speed Undercover ASIA US$ 49.90
PES Pro Evolution Soccer 2009 US US$ 54.90
Tomb Raider Underworld ASIA US$ 59.90
Tomb Raider Underworld US US$ 64.90
Nintendo Wii™
Animal Crossing: City Folk JPN US$ 59.90
Animal Crossing: City Folk US US$ 54.90
Animal Crossing: City Folk (w/ Wii Speak) JPN US$ 79.90
Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World US US$ 44.90
PlayStation2™
Eternal Poison US US$ 44.90
Nintendo DS™
Chrono Trigger JPN US$ 48.90
Luminous Arc 2 US US$ 44.90
Metal Slug 7 US US$ 34.90
Rune Factory 2: A Fantasy Harvest Moon US US$ 34.90
Sony PSP™
Mobile Suit Gundam: Gundam vs. Gundam ASIA US$ 42.90
Mobile Suit Gundam: Gundam vs. Gundam JPN US$ 48.90
Prinny: Ore ga Shujinkou de Iinsuka? JPN US$ 48.90
PC Games
EverQuest II: The Shadow Odyssey (DVD-ROM) US US$ 44.90
Left 4 Dead (DVD-ROM) ASIA US$ 39.90
In the study boys (12-15) were asked to play two different video games at home in the evening. The boys’ heart rate was registered, among other parameters. It turned out that the heart rate variability was affected to a higher degree when the boys were playing games focusing on violence compared with games without violent features. Differences in heart rate variability were registered both while the boys were playing the games and when they were sleeping that night. The boys themselves did not feel that they had slept poorly after having played violent games.
The results show that the autonomous nerve system, and thereby central physiological systems in the body, can be affected when you play violent games without your being aware of it. It is too early to draw conclusions about what the long-term significance of this sort of influence might be. What is important about this study is that the researchers have found a way, on the one hand, to study what happens physiologically when you play video or computer games and, on the other hand, to discern the effects of various types of games.
It is hoped that it will be possible to use the method to enhance our knowledge of what mechanisms could lie behind the association that has previously been suggested between violent games and aggressive behavior.
The researchers, from Stockholm University, Uppsala University and Karolinska Institutet in Sweden, also hope the method can be used to study how individuals are affected by playing often and for long periods, which can take the form of so-called game addiction.
An article on this research was recently published electronically in the scientific journal Acta Paediatrica.
This research on the effects of video games is funded by the Swedish Council for Working Life and Social Research (FAS) and the Oscar and Maria Ekman Philanthropic Fund.
Nintendo has trampled its competition with respect to hardware sales in the US for October, according to the latest data from NPD.
The Wii was the most popular platform by some distance, selling 803,000 units while the DS was a comfortable second on 491,000 - giving Nintendo a combined sales total of almost 1.3 million hardware units sold.
The Xbox 360 was third on 371,000, followed by the PlayStation Portable in fourth and PlayStation 3 in fifth on 193,000 and 190,000 units respectively. The PlayStation 2 was last, selling 136,000 consoles.
But despite brisk sales of the Nintendo platforms, hardware revenues in the US grew by just 5 per cent to USD 494.74 million, while the sales of accessories fell by 8 per cent to USD 120.19 million.
But NPD analyst Anita Frazier pointed out that the way the weeks fell in the calendar wasn't kind to October: "Keeping in mind that September was a five-week month while October had four, the sales pace increased 33 per cent," she said.
"The greater supply of Wii hardware at retail is evident in the sales figures for the month with the Wii enjoying its best sales month outside of last November and December.
"The price reduction on the Xbox 360 is paying dividends at retail as the platform realised a 7 per cent unit sales increase over September."
The hardware sales breakdown is as follows:
1. Nintendo Wii: 803,000
2. Nintendo DS: 491,000
3. Xbox 360: 370,000
4. PlayStation Portable: 193,000
5. PlayStation 3: 190,000
6. PlayStation 2: 136,000
Following the release of October's US sales data by NPD, Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony have all responded by releasing statements on their respective performance.
As usual Nintendo had the most to shout about on the hardware side of things, dominating with the Wii and DS, although Microsoft underlined the performance of the Xbox 360 compared with the PlayStation 3 following its price cut.
Microsoft also had reason to cheer on the software front with the best-selling title being a platform exclusive, while Sony focused on the steady year-on-year growth of the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Network.
The key points from each company is as follows:
Nintendo
Wii and DS sales bring lifetime US numbers for the platforms to 13.35 million and 23.02 million respectively.
Hardware sales were up almost 26 per cent over October, and accounted for over 59 per cent of total hardware sales in the month.
Lifetime sales of Wii Fit - second in the software chart - has now hit 2.83 million.
"Nintendo provides consumers with the best value not only among video games, but also among most entertainment options," said Cammie Dunaway, Nintendo of America's executive VP of sales and marketing. "Nintendo also provides an incomparable range of experiences that everyone can enjoy, whether you've been playing for years or are just getting into videogames."
Microsoft
The Xbox 360 outsold the PS3 by nearly 2-to-1 in October, as the price cut boosts sales by around 33 per cent per week over September.
Fable II sold more than 1.5 million units worldwide since launch, while Gears of War 2 sold over 2 million in its first weekend. 1.5 million people played Gears 2 on the first weekend, logging 15 million hours of gameplay.
The Xbox 360's attach rate is now 8.1, with USD 244 million spent on Xbox 360 titles in October.
Third party sales share is now 57 per cent on the Xbox 360, with USD 171 million in October and a generation to-date figure of USD 4.5 billion.
Sony
The PlayStation brand generate USD 369 million in October in total.
PS3 hardware was up 90 per cent year-on-year, while PS3 software jumped almost 200 per cent in the same time frame.
PlayStation Network registration has grown by 166 per cent since January, with over 14 million accounts now registered worldwide and 270 million pieces of data downloaded.
Total PlayStation hardware revenue was USD 131 million - up 19 per cent - while software revenue was USD 209 million, up 23 per cent since last year.
It's the weekly reading for the latest figures for console sales in Japan again as follows:
Nintendo DSi: 104,897
Playstation Portable: 43,726
Nintendo Wii: 24,726
Playstation 3: 18,354
Xbox 360: 12,759
Nintendo DS Lite: 8,381
Playstation 2: 5,743
DSi maintains top rank, down roughly 66,000. PSP comes next, down 7,000. Wii is 3rd, up 1,600. PS3 goes down by 23,000. Xbox 360 goes up by 6,000. DS Lite slides further down the ranks and takes sales cut by half (8,000). Last in line is the old PS2, down 400. Figures from M-Create.
There are plenty of reasons to return to the classics: maybe they're better than the currents, maybe it's an ironic move (like listening to Kajagoogoo and wearing giant eyeglasses), or maybe you're just aged and yearning for old-timey days. Regardless, Legacy Entertainment's classic controller looks exactly like an Atari joystick, but it's Windows / OS X / Linux compatible, and connects via USB. The company assures us that it runs with "nearly any emulator," so you and your friends should be 80's-style partying in no time, if that's what you're into. $14.99 and it's yours -- if you have any moola left after you buy that tubular car-phone-looking Bluetooth handsfree.
If this post reads a bit breathless, it's because I was just playing Left 4 Dead on the Xbox 360. Yikes! So many zombies! Playing through Valve's latest is going to take up the majority of my weekend, the moments not spent poolside or playing Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe, which the FedEx man also dropped off earlier today. Expect a double shot of review text from me Monday and Tuesday on both. Luke may be chiming in with some feedback on the PC version of Left 4 Dead as soon as Steam gets around to making it available.
I may also squeeze in a bit more Dead Space, but want to keep the scaring the bejeezus out of myself to a respectable minimum. What gaming plans do you have for the weekend? Let us know in the comments.
It was 25 years ago today, Scott Safran taught the world to play... Asteroids. On this day in 1983, 15-year-old Scott Safran began playing Asteroids at an arcade in Cherry Hill, New Jersey.
Three days later, his last ship was crushed by a vector rock and he staggered back from the cabinet with a record-breaking score of 41,336,440 points. A record that has remained unbroken ever since.
So how about it, readers? Did they just make 'em a lot harder back in the olden days or is Asteroids just out of fashion? Has coping with inertia and splitting space rocks just become one of those lost skills - like long division, scrimshaw or making fire with a bow?
Welcome to this week's Movie/Music news roundup, containing new Japanese and Hong Kong Video and Music releases from this week listed at Play-Asia.com. Around 370 new items are covered in this week, including new J-Pop, Anime as well as Japanese, Hong Kong and Western movie releases and much more.
YUI's voice is compared to an an angel's harp for its soothing quality. Differing from a lot of singers, the young singer/song writer includes minimum gimmicks in her songs to give her listeners a pure unadulterated pleasure of listening to the messages of her songs.
Each song is a slice of life or a standalone tale of its own, My Short Stories [Limited and Standard Editions] includes 15 songs from her hit singles and the Limited Edition carries PV's of some of the songs and an extra, unpublished clip of the singer performing in a Live concert.
Besides music, two anime films are released this week, The Girl who Leapt Through Time [US & Japanese Editions] is an award winning movie that portrays the snippets of a girl growing up in a heartwarming way.
If you have the ability of going back time, what would you change? But beware, one change may lead to chains of events that is bound to get out of your hands.
The projects that Katsuhiro Otomo involves in usually contain a deep plot and hyper cool graphics. Freedom is the only thing that the residents of an utopian world lacks. But how utopian can a world be if there is no freedom? And how far would the people go to attain it?
Admire the cutting edge graphics and special effects of Freedom [Standard and Limited Editions] on Blu-Ray discs on your HD T.V.
Here's a summary of all new releases that were published between Saturday, November 8th and Friday, November 14th. If some specific item that you are looking for is missing, please don't hesitate to contact our customer service with your request.
J-Pop Music releases (86)
ENKA Music releases (11)
Anime Soundtracks & Drama CDs (14)
Video Game Soundtracks (5)
Hong Kong Version Music releases (2)
Blu-ray Disc Movies (30)
Anime & Animation (22)
Hong Kong Version Movie releases (21)
Japanese Movies (28)
Non-Japanese Movies / Japanese Version (114)
J-Pop DVD releases (23)
ENKA DVD releases (1)
Misc Japanese Movie releases (1)
Idol DVD (4)
Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories have just announced the release of the Meggy Jr RGB, a fully programmable handheld console with an 8×8 RGB LED matrix display. Like its big sisters Peggy and Peggy 2.0, the Meggy Jr is driven by an ATmega168 microcontroller and is made up of a bank of fully addressable LEDs. Unlike its siblings, the device boasts six buttons and the ability to be mounted inside of a custom case (or “handle set”) constructed from plastic or wood, drastically altering the look of the console. Using the popular open-souce Arduino environment, users are able to write custom software for the device. While it works great as a game console, of the many possible configurations and suggested uses, we think “disco floor for your Lego minifigurines” is the most amusing.
Capcom won't be releasing a Street Fighter IV arcade version in the United States, despite the franchise's strong history as an arcade attraction and extensive ties to tournament gaming. Chris Kramer, Capcom's senior director of communications and community, gave the word to Edge: "At this point, it does not look like Street Fighter IV arcade machines will officially hit the U.S. arcade market."
So let's talk. Let's TELL US DAMMIT. Here's how it works: We ask a question, you answer it. Simple and no strings attached! This isn't some marketing survey or whatever. It's an emotional investment in you. Yes, we're interested in knowing you, reader person. You probably know ****tons about us — more than you even want to, we're sure. But, hey, we'd like to know about you. That way you won't be some faceless blob — and we might feel a tinge of guilt when we ban your ass. Or not, because really we're incapable of human emotion. Oh ho ho.
Question: What's the most reliable gaming hardware you've ever owned? (Note: Don't tell us your *least* reliable one — we'll do that in a future TUD.)
It's all fun and games using 'Piracy' to describe copyright infringement when you want to reframe the debate and equate the sharing of intellectual property with aquatic larceny, but what happens when your actual ship-based armed robbers yo-ho-ho into view? What then, Mr cognitive linguistics smartypants?
The holiday games market is under threat this year from actual, proper Somali pirates who are preying upon cargo ships off the Horn of Africa and beyond. Sadly, this lot seem to be eschewing Cornish accents and peg legs in favor of AK-47s and huge ex-Soviet trawler ships.
Shipping firms are now faced with the choice of braving pirate-infested waters or taking costly detours that can delay goods by several weeks.
"Despite all the publicity over piracy it will really hit home when consumers in the West find they haven't got their Nintendo gifts this Christmas," said Sam Dawson of the International Transport Workers' Federation.
Well, it's obvious than fandoms aren't all fun and games, but Peter Parrish warns that fanaticism could be downright dangerous for the industry at large — just imagine a world where unchecked fandom desires dictate how future games are going to play out. Using the example of the apparently large and vociferous Sonic fandom, Parrish points towards what he sees as a devolving series based on the whims of the 'fan-artist' and 'fan-author.' Oh, but it doesn't stop there:
You may not particularly care about Sonic, but the problem reaches beyond a solitary blue hedgehog. Visible pockets of fans can easily be mistaken for commercial opportunities, and developers are always under pressure to follow the money. Consider a future where Valve paid heed to the most unbalanced aspects of fandom. In this grim world, the Portal sequel is 12 hours of twee comedy songs played by a sexualized companion cube - where the end of every torturous utterance rhymes with "cake" or "triumph." Half-Life 2: Episode 3 becomes an extended anime-style romance between Gordon and Alyx (while her creepy dad watches), and Left 4 Dead is a tale of four hardy neck-beards battling a legion of flying ninja-monkey-zombie-pirate-samurai.
My first instinct is to say 'Oh, come on' — of course passionate fanbases with money to spend may have some sway, but I have a hard time seeing developers trawling through hundreds of pages of badly written fanfiction in order to cater to the whims of excitable fans. We could also argue about what constitutes the 'most unbalanced aspects' of fandom. Fanaticism doesn't appeal to all of us, but I really think there are bigger fish to fry in the industry than fanatics who have access to a tablet and a word processor.
A British-based anti-piracy group is seeking tougher copyright legislation that would require Internet service providers to turn over the names of suspected pirates to movie studios without requiring a court order. In a statement, John Lovelock, head of the semi-official Federation Against Software Theft (FAST), appeared to acknowledge that his group regarded such legislation as ideal but possibly beyond attainment. Under it he said, "personal data relating to a given IP address may be given to the rights holder on request, without a court order being needed, which is arguably gold plating." Lovelock appeared to suggest that an accommodation between copyright owners and ISPs, under which the ISPs would turn over information about suspected pirates upon request, is unlikely. "A voluntary approach would be the easiest solution but experience has shown that such an approach may well not work, as it is dependent on a full consensus [among all ISPs] being achieved," he said, noting some ISPs would be unwilling to alienate their customers.
I'm an archive junkie — I consider it a side-effect of my profession, since we spend half our lives in temperature-controlled buildings with lots of old stuff. So I watch the growth of the video game archives across the globe with no small measure of excitement — not only does my little historian heart go pitter-patter at the fact that people are being so proactive in figuring out how to preserve our beloved medium for future generations, but it means a couple more places to poke my head in when I have a good excuse. The recent announcement of the UK National Video Game Archive has led to some fruitful discussion on how to preserve games — not just in terms of the hardware, but also as a culture. Which, of course, is a hell of a lot harder than making sure books don't rot:
Newman also cited the vast variety of game formats as a major challenge to archiving and to displaying games in an attractive way. "There have been attempts to curate exhibitions of video games in the past, and they have been hit and miss affairs," he notes.
"Where you're dealing with coin-op games, you're usually fairly safe because they are designed to be approachable 'pick up and play' experiences," he continues, "but many pride themselves on the tens — even hundreds — of hours of gameplay they offer and on the complexity of their branching narratives and structures."
"How do you take a 150-plus-hour game that may take all sorts of different storylines depending on choices you make or your proficiency as a player, and show it to somebody who's never seen it before and may not have much experience of games?"
The Archive hasn't quite reached the point of answering that question. "This is not a brick-and-mortar building — not yet, anyway," Newman points out. Right now, the group is focusing on research and collection of games and gaming hardware, across several decades and myriad platforms.
Well, even if they can't answer the question yet, at least they're trying. Other archivists are struggling with many of the same questions, like 'How do we preserve MMOs?', but it's really cool to see how a variety of institutions are attempting to deal with this. I'm certainly looking forward to seeing how all these archives continue to develop and grow.
Fresh from the "Study finds violent video games do X to kids" pile, we now find — shock — playing them results in "a greater variation in Heart Rate Variability." This isn't straight out one's pulse quickening. HRV is "the oscillation in the interval between consecutive heartbeats" — more or less, a measure of minute changes in heart rate.
The research concludes that violent video games can have effects on your body's autonomous systems, without you even being aware of it. In this instance, kids who played violent games had a greater HRV during sleep but still reported they'd slept fine. Makes sense. Games can have effects on your voluntary systems beyond your control, too. Like Dead Space making you shit your pants.
There's debate on whether HRV means anything, but the researchers indicate they're going to use this research to study links between violent video games and aggression and, of course, "video game addiction."
Apparently the dmedia G400 MID was announced at the WiMAX Expo in Taipei back in June, but this is the first we've seen of it, and solid information is still a little hard to come by. The device will boast a 800 x 400 touchscreen, WiMAX, HSDPA / WCDMA, and GPS radios, a microSD slot, and will come in both 3.8-inch and 4.3-inch configurations. From what we could glean, the system with run atop a SiRFprima CPU, though we haven't seen a lot (say, any) of MIDs using those chips. So, is this actually just a glorified PND? It's hard to say, but we hear the units will hit retail sometime in the beginning of 2009, though we don't know how much they'll cost or where they'll be available.
Platform: Windows (98, ME, 2000, XP or Vista) PC
Developer: Stardock Entertainment(official game page)
Publisher: Kalypso Media
Designer: Brad Wardell
MSRP: £29.99
Ratings: PEGI
ESRB: Not rated (European Release, although all previous Galactic Civilizations II games received an E10)
Note: This is a standalone version of the Dark Avatar and Twilight of the Arnor expansions to the original Galactic Civilizations 2.
Short Overview: Planet/starship centered Turn Based Strategy game. Very mature due to it's lineage (second expansion to a second game in a series all made by the same core group). You can spend anywhere from a few hours to a few months on a single game. My favorite thing was most definetly the humor, which drives the gameplay and gives needed respite from the epic nature of the game. Only flaw is the absense of a number of features that make the game difficult to micromanage or macromanage.
features
A complete walkthrough, leading players through every mission.
AREA MAPS: Detailed maps calling out items, weapons, critical locations, and more!
WEAPON LISTING: In-depth listing of all weapons with expert tactics on how best to use them
MULTIPLAYER COVERAGE: Extensive multiplayer coverage with strategies for solo and team-based gameplay
UNLOCKABLES: All unlockables revealed!
Signature Series guide features bonus foldout and more!
Platform: PlayStation 3, PlayStation 2, Xbox360, Wii, Nintendo DS, PC
Still obsessing over sales statistics, Gamasutra has crafted a report on 2008's five top-selling games in the US -- so far. Though some figures are approximated, there's assurance that "the maximum possible error in each figure should not affect the rankings." All consoles considered, the rankings are as follows:
Super Smash Bros. Brawl (3.5 million, estimated)
Mario Kart (3.4 million)
Grand Theft Auto IV (3.2 million, estimated)
Wii Play (3 million)
Wii Fit (2.8 million)
Be sure to check out the report for further details, several of which are likely to fuel the fanboy fires for, oh, the next fifteen minutes at least. We look forward to entertaining your "Wii games don't sell," "GTA IV is overrated" and "Wii Play is just a controller in disguise" arguments. We do not, however, want anything to do with your "Why isn't Golden Axe: Beast Rider on there?" madness.
Call of Duty: World at War has charged to the top of the UK all-formats chart this week, becoming the third fastest-selling game ever in the region.
The shooter beat off competition from World of Warcraft expansion Wrath of the Lich King (in at two), which became the fastest-selling PC game in the UK of all time - a record previously held by Championship Manager 4.
But apparently football management games still draw the crowds. Football Manager 2009 enters the chart at three, proving that strategically placed adverts between big televised football matches pay dividends.
Last week's leader, Gears of War 2, falls to four - the spot previously held by Sony's system seller, LittleBigPlanet. That game, unfortunately, tumbled all the way down to 19. Oh dear.
And there were similar stories for other high profile releases, as Wii Music bucks the trend and enters at 16; sitting behind three other platform stalwarts: Mario Kart Wii, Wii Play and Wii Fit.
Perhaps more shocking, however, was a first-week entry for DICE eye-catcher Mirror's Edge at 20.
Their struggles make the rest of the top 10 spots all the more valuable. FIFA 09 sold well to take five, followed by Guitar Hero World Tour up from 17 to six, thanks to the arrival of the instrument bundles.
Bizarrely, to us at least, charming DS adventure Professor Layton and the Curious Village managed to drop just one spot to seven, ahead of Mario Kart Wii at eight, PES 2009 at nine, and WWE SmackDown vs. RAW 2009 at 10.
Other big movers and shakers this week were Fallout 3 down from three to 14, Quantum of Solace down from eight to 18, Far Cry 2 down from 14 to 26, and Fable II down from 16 to 27.
Quickly: LEGO Indiana Jones managed to burst back into the list at 21, as did Viva Piñata, albeit at 37.
This week waves goodbye to Saints Row 2, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed and Dead Space.
(Update: As a few of you have noticed, the chart this week is also noteworthy for the absence of Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts, which came out on Friday. Poor old Rare made 15th in the Xbox 360 chart, but couldn't dent the top 40, which you can see below. Ouch.)
Call of Duty: World at War (PC, Xbox 360, PS3, PS2, Wii, DS)
World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King (PC)
Football Manager 2009 (PC, PSP)
Gears of War 2 (Xbox 360)
FIFA 09 (PC, Xbox 360, PS3, PS2, PSP, Wii, DS)
Guitar Hero: World Tour (Xbox 360, PS3, PS2, Wii)
Professor Layton and the Curious Village (DS)
Mario Kart Wii (Wii)
Pro Evolution Soccer 2009 (PC, Xbox 360, PS3)
WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2009 (Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, PSP, DS, PS2)
Wii Play (Wii)
Wii Fit (Wii)
Dr Kawashima's Brain Training (DS)
Fallout 3 (PC, Xbox 360, PS3)
Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games (Wii, DS)
Wii Music (Wii)
LEGO Batman (PC, Xbox 360, PS3, PS2, PSP, Wii, DS)
Quantum of Solace (PC, Xbox 360, PS3, PS2, Wii, DS)
LittleBigPlanet (PS3)
Mirror's Edge (PC, Xbox 360, PS3)
LEGO Indiana Jones (PC, Xbox 360, PS3, PS2, PSP, Wii, DS)
Carnival: Funfair Games (Wii)
Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree (Wii)
Kung Fu Panda (PC, Xbox 360, PS3, PS2, Wii, DS)
Midnight Club: Los Angeles (Xbox 360, PS3)
Far Cry 2 (PC, Xbox 360, PS3)
Fable II (Xbox 360)
More Brain Training from Dr Kawashima (DS)
Ben 10: Protector of Earth (Wii, DS, PS2, PSP)
MySims Kingdom (Wii, DS)
Disney's High School Musical 3: Senior Year DANCE! (Wii, PS2)
Some background: reckless driving and young deaths on Australian roads are a fairly big problem here. We've got lots of long roads, lots of kids with big cars, and a culture of people driving big cars fast. It's been a problem in Australian society for decades, but since games are around these days, they're becoming a convenient scapegoat amongst those who should really know better (ie the police). Having armed himself with a German report on the subject, Superintendent Dave Evans of the NSW Police has told the Daily Telegraph:
Video games can have a negative impact on young drivers because it increases their complacency and their indulgence in risk-taking behaviour. In games you race, you crash and it is a matter of pressing the buttons and off you go again. In real life it doesn't work that way, you can be killed.
Do any of you kids really think that real life driving comes with Gran Turismo crash modelling?
When Guitar Hero III was released in 2007, it sold 1.39 million copies across the various platforms in its first week on sale. That generated $115 million for Activision. When Guitar Hero World Tour launched in 2008, it sold 534,000 copies in its first seven days. That "only" generated $67 million. That's got to be disappointing for Activision. Sure, you can point to the fact the complete GHWT package is prohibitively expensive in these troubled economic times, but you didn't need to buy the whole pack. Indeed, so many people own a previous Guitar Hero a lot of people could just buy the disc. So what gives? Who knows. Rock Band's probably got a lot to do with it, but I'd never overlook the fact that more casual gamers - and a lot of Guitar Hero owners are just that - don't stomach annual updates as easily as us suckers do.
One of Yu Suzuki’s legacies is gently fading into the shadows. Outrun was big in the arcades, but Sega’s racing series barely made a splash when Outrun 2006: Coast 2 Coast came out on three consoles. But, all is not over for Outrun, maybe.
The OFLC just turned up a rating for Outrun Online Arcade originating from Sega’s Japan office. I haven’t been able to find an arcade game under that name or any other Outrun title for that matter. So, could this be something new? Maybe an Xbox Live Arcade or PlayStation 3 port of an old Outrun game? Sega seems to have a tendency of looking back at their legacy titles with all of the Genesis collections on the market nowadays…
Everyone's got their favourite console, and usually that choice goes arm-in-arm with the games they grew up with.
Some machines were better than others, but what's really important is what gave rise to today's enormous gaming landscape.
Raise a glass, then, to 10 landmark home gaming machines. Some were smash hits, others were dismal failures - but they've all earned a proud place in history.
1. Sinclair ZX Spectrum 48K
A singularly British machine (it was Sir Clive Sinclair's finest hour), its graphical and sound limitations made it, on paper, more a computer than a gaming platform. Everyone still bangs on about copying its cassette-based games and the horrible loading noises, but that's doing its great legacy a huge disservice.
It clocked up well over 10,000 games during its long history - it was the first home to the likes of Manic Miner, Dizzy and Rebelstar, and received ports of most of the major arcade titles at the time. Never mind that its keyboard felt like zombie skin - the thing was relatively easy to program for, and as such was something of a training ground for many of today's big developers and unrepentant geeks. Hell, people are still making games for it even today.
2. Mattel Intellivision
In 1980, the Atari 2600 reigned supreme - which inevitably inspired a slew of other technology companies to seek a piece of home videogaming pie.
Perhaps the most successful was Mattel's 'intelligent television', with its infamously hyperbolic ("the closest thing to the real thing") ad campaign that shouted about its technical superiority over the incumbent Atari machine.
The Intellivision sold an impressive 3 million units, despite a games library of just 125, before becoming one of the major casualties of the 1983 videogame crash.
While the history books give it less space than its major rival, it's notable as being the first 16-bit home games machine, the first with 16-way directional controller, the first with real-time voices (so long as you had the Intellivoice add-on) and the first with downloadable games - which vanished when you turned the thing off, as it lacked writeable storage.
3. Sega Dreamcast
The turn of the 21st century does, of course, belong to the PlayStation 2, but Sega's final console was the first of that sixth-generation of home gaming systems, and to this day inspires unbelievable loyalty amongst its fanbase.
Hardware shortages, mediocre marketing, the lack of EA's otherwise omnipresent sports games and Sega's bad rep off the back of the preceding Saturn and 32X consoles meant it couldn't compete with the PS2's eventual blitzkrieg.
It was a pioneer of online gaming, however - the shining light of the modem age. Its MMO Phantasy Star Universe still runs to this day. It even had a web browser and supported keyboards (the latter was also memorably employed in bonkers spelling-shooter The Typing of the Dead).
The Dreamcast might be long off the shelves, but its scene continues to thrive - which is at least partly due to the crazy ease of running pirated and homebrew games on it.
4. Nintendo Gameboy Advance
The heyday of pre-3D home gaming in your hand. While Nintendo's portable consoles' huge success tends to rely on the kiddie market, the third-gen Gameboy really hit all the right beats for nostalgics and the hardcore.
Gorgeous remakes of classic Marios and Zeldas made it seem like the NES/SNES golden years never ended, while new sequels to beloved series kept 2D gaming very much alive in an age obsessed with 3D. The GBA still lives to this day, its design simplicity and lack of gimmickry lending it an appeal its follow-up, the DS, never quite managed.
5. Atari 2600
The flagship of the first big home console boom, the Atari 2600 popularised the idea of games appearing on swappable cartridges (the more costly forerunner to today's CDs and DVDs) rather than being built-in to the hardware. In 1977, home gaming was Pong, Pong and more Pong: the Atari (as it was simply known to most) changed all that, reinvigorating the market with ports of arcade darlings such as Space Invaders.
The Atari was everywhere in the early 80s, and it spawned a raft of competitors - including Nintendo's first console, the NES/Famicom. The 2600 both partly caused and was primary victim of the 1983 videogaming crash, but you could still buy one new as late as 1992.
6. 386/486 IBM compatible
PCs had been around for years, but it was the early 90s 386 and 486 processors that really defined the system as the thinking man's gaming platform.
This was the age of Doom, of Monkey Island, of Sim City, of Civilization... PC gaming never looked back, and the level of invention and intelligence birthed in those crucial years still continues in today's thriving indie and mod scene.
7. Nintendo Entertainment System
The Phoenix from the ashes of the 1983 crash that almost killed home gaming. The NES (or Famicom, as it was known in its home Japan) was held aloft by a fantastic port of the arcade smash Donkey Kong, but it was the likes of Super Mario Bros and lightgun classic Duck Hunt that booted it into the public consciousness.
Zelda, Metroid, Final Fantasy, Castlevania and Mega Man (amongst a raft of others) all began life on the NES, and its classic controller remains the essential template for today's gamepads. The NES might not have been the great innovator of the machines that preceded it, but it's the major root of today's consoles. History would be entirely different without it.
8. Sony PlayStation
Sony's first console would be the best-selling home console of all time, were it not for its even more successful follow-up, the still-popular PS2. Incredibly, it began life as a planned CD-ROM add-on for Nintendo's then-ubiquitous SNES, but contract arguments saw Sony go it alone.
Its CD-ROM drive, a technology Nintendo remained resistant to with its competing, cartridge-based N64, was one of the major causes for its success. Loading times may have suffered for it, but discs were dramatically cheaper to manufacture than cartridges, which were fast proving a turn-off to third party manufacturers.
Couple with that the PS's shift into being the first major 3D home console and the fact it soon proved remarkably easy to pirate its games, and you have yourself a landmark machine that eventually cropped up in most every gamer's home.
9. Amiga 500
Before the IBM compatible (the template upon which today's PCs are still based) became dominant, the Amiga series was the main name in home computing.
Its graphics and sound were ahead of the competition, it was astonishingly versatile at creating graphics and music (even Andy Warhol was a fan), and many of today's big game names - including EA, Rockstar, Peter Molyneux and Will Wright - cut their teeth on the platform. The 500 may have been the baby of the bunch, but it remained the best-selling.
10. Nintendo 64
Far from Nintendo's biggest commercial success - it was quite the flop compared to the SNES that preceded it or today's Wii - but, like the rival PlayStation, it was one of the major blueprints for modern console gaming.
The Nintendo 64 pioneered the shift from 2D to 3D, the likes of Mario 64 and The Ocarina of Time proving that the third dimension meant so much more than simply graphics, while the analogue stick and four controller ports gave rise to Goldeneye, one of the main parents of the first-person shooter deathmatches that dominate today. Nintendo might have dropped the ball with the N64's tiny catalogue of games, but it did define the future.
PEGI, the Pan European Games Information system, is to introduce its traffic light system to games packaging in mainland Europe this spring.
While age rating symbols have not yet been finalised, the current imagery depicting a spider, fist, syringe and other artwork, will be expanded upon to include descriptive text.
Age ratings will be coloured rather than the current black and white, but the mock-up image first unveiled last month will be tweaked to avoid copyright issues with PEGI's UK rival, the British Board of Film Classification.
"PEGI has agreed those changes and they will be implemented as part of the PEGI system in the new year, probably in the spring by the time the information has been transmitted to all publishers and incorporated as part of the approvals process for the format holders," detailed Michael Rawlinson, managing director of ELSPA, to GamesIndustry.biz.
However, whether the new traffic light system will be used in the UK is still up in the air and will not become clear until the government finishes reviewing information submitted following the end of the consultation on age ratings, first initiated as part of the Byron review.
"Whether they will appear on boxes in the UK will depend on the outcome of this consultation period and the decision made by the UK government in the new year," said Rawlinson.
"The introduction of traffic light colours and changes to the descriptors have been approved, they are now being worked through with lawyers to ensure they do not infringe any existing trademarks and can be adopted smoothly," added ELSPA
Copyright is a sticky issue for the age ratings system. The BBFC, which specifically rates games in the UK, uses colour-coded symbols already, and is currently watching PEGI for violation of its established imagery.
"We have challenged a number of organisations who have come up with symbols that look very close to BBFC symbols," said David Cooke, director of the BBFC.
"There are legal restraints on what's called 'passing off', so we'll have to see what they look like. It's about making sure our protections are honoured and partly a matter of making sure that things aren't made more confusing for the public."
Over the past four months, ELSPA and PEGI have publicly attacked the BBFC as incapable of rating videogames, as all three organisations prepared evidence and research for the government's consultation period, which ends today.
However, the government hasn't given a time frame for any conclusions on who will manage the future of games ratings in the UK, with a decision expected in the first quarter of next year.
This year the PC gaming market is worth over $20 billion, that figure will rise to $34 billion before 2012, and since 2005 there has been more gaming PCs shipped than the Wii, PS3 and 360 combined.
This is the conclusion of a study from research group JPR. In the group's latest report - called The PC Gaming Market - JPR calculates that there are three classes of PC gaming machines and together, from Q3 2005 until Q3 2008, 196 million of these units were shipped. The study also estimated by comparison that 74.7m PS3s, Wiis and 360s have been shipped worldwide.
The research, however, does not include sales of Nintendo DS units nor PSPs, which together have sold around 125m units worldwide. Nevertheless, due in part to the mushrooming Asian market, the study believes that "the PC gaming market is bigger, worth more money, growing faster, and has better technology than the console market."
The study can be found in the latest edition of JPR's subscription-based newsletter, Techwatch.
Last week's Media Create chart topper, Hoshi no Kirby: Ultra Super Deluxe, holds on to the top spot amid plenty of new competition. Way of the Samurai 3 and Resistance 2 both debuted strong, kicking former top ten PlayStation 3 titles LittleBigPlanet and Grand Theft Auto IV out of the top ten.
The PS3 has another new game appearing on the chart, as FIFA 09 sells enough to land at #18. Pokémon Platinum creeps ever closer to the 2 million mark and DS Nishimura Kyotaro Suspense 2 Shin Tantei Series: Kanezawa kankan gokkan no kyoukoku fukushuu no kage brings extra long titles from Tecmo back to the forefront.
The rest of Japan's best sellers for the week of Nov. 10 to 16 are after the break.
01. Hoshi no Kirby: Ultra Super Deluxe (DS) - 97,000 / 363,000
02. Way of the Samurai 3 (PS3) - 81,000 / NEW
03. Tongari Boushi no Mahou no 365 Nichi (DS) - 72,000 / NEW
04. Fushigi no Dungeon: Fuurai no Shiren DS 2 - Sabaku no Majou (DS) - 34,000 / NEW
05. Resistance 2 (PS3) - 34,000 / NEW
06. DS Nishimura Kyotaro Suspense 2 Shin Tantei Series: Kanezawa kankan gokkan no kyoukoku fukushuu no kage (DS) - 33,000 / NEW
07. Ryuusei no RockMan 3: Black Ace (DS) - 33,000 / NEW
08. Rhythm Tengoku Gold (DS) - 30,000 / 1,159,000
09. Wagamama Fashion Girls Mode (DS) - 30,000 / 183,000
10. Pokémon Platinum (DS) - 27,000 / 1,917,000
11. Grand Theft Auto IV (PS3)
12. Wii Fit (Wii)
13. Ryuusei no RockMan 3: Red Joker (DS)
14. Gran Turismo 5 Prologue Spec III (PS3)
15. Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G (The Best) (PSP)
16. Family Ski & Snowboard (Wii)
17. Valkyrie Profile: Toga o Seoumono (DS)
18. FIFA 09 (PS3)
19. Wii Music (Wii)
20. Aruite Wakaru: Seikatsu Rhythm DS (DS)
21. Mario Kart Wii (Wii)
22. LittleBigPlanet (PS3)
23. Shape Boxing: Wii de Enjoy! Diet (Wii)
24. Yuusha no Kuse ni Namaikida Or 2 (PSP)
25. Wii Sports (Wii)
26. Animal Crossing Wild World (DS)
27. Shin Sangoku Musou 5 Special (PS2)
28. Inazuma Eleven (DS)
29. Cid to Chocobo no Fushigi na Dungeon: Toki Wasure no Meikyuu + (DS)
30. Avalon Code (DS)
By now it’s sadly common experience, hearing racist, homophobic, even anti-Semitic slurs during online games. Often it’s for no apparent reason other than as a term of abuse used against competitors, that packs more of a punch than your standard four-letter word. But a couple months back, I had a different experience, and I’m sure it’s no more uncommon for others, too. In a game of Castle Crashers — cooperative multiplayer — this guy I was playing with completely proffered some rather ugly opinions of African-Americans, and needlessly heaped racial slurs on the foes we were battling.
First off, the guy knew I was a weekend editor at Kotaku. Secondly, I’m not black. But what troubled me most was not his behavior but my reaction to it. It was worse than being told a racist joke at a party under the assumption you’d laugh along because you’re white. I continued to play a game with the guy, quite passively letting the comment go lest I be the one to make things too awkward. And I beat myself up about it later for not calling this guy out on the spot, or at minimum, quitting the game.
Turns out, according to a couple psychologists I spoke to, that would have been the wrong reaction.
“Ignore it completely,” was one of two suggestions of Dr. Stuart Twemlow, , professor of psychiatry at the Menninger Department of Psychiatry in Houston. The other was a more subtle call-out of the remark — interpret it and ask if the guy’s doing it to get an advantage. Since this is cooperative multiplayer, maybe something like “Does that help you play this game better?”
Because in a perverse way, that’s what you’re dealing with here. Psychologists call this behavior “paradoxing,” and it’s a classic attempt to gain the upper hand, to become dominant in certain settings. Competitively, it’s to frustrate and anger you and take you out of your game. Cooperatively, it’s to establish aggression and therefore take the decision-making and the leadership. As I recall, this guy had played Castle Crashers a lot longer than I had, and was taking it somewhat seriously.
“When you act very unexpectedly, and when that person is caught up in what you’re doing, they lose their orientation,” Twemlow said. “And in that little window, you can control their mind. It’s an intervention to unseat you,” Twemlow said, even in a cooperative environment, where the intent is more to establish control of how the game proceeds. “And one advantage they have is the anonymity of being online. It’s so open and yet a person feels anonymous enough to say the most outrageous things, practically to your face.
“And the reason for doing that is because it exposes your weakness. It means you really want to win.” Twemlow said. “And that means you’re not a good player, because an expert player would never say that winning is the be all and end all.”
Not every situation needs psychological hand-holding. It’s not uncommon to see some ad-hoc self-policing, or a collectively expressed rebuke — booting, often backed or preceded by their own swear words — when the worst offenders start ruining a multiplayer match. Strength in numbers there. This is more about dealing with a sociopath in a one-on-one setting.
“You’re not going to change the way this person thinks, so getting into a confrontation is not going to work,” said Sue Barnes, associate director of the Lab for Social Computing at Rochester Institute of Technology, who studies online behavior and social media.
So the key for anyone provoked by this kind of baiting would not be so much in the reaction as in the preparation. Know that it’s coming, and because, in my case, this was cooperative multiplayer where I was invited by the same person who ended up spewing the invective, my guard was down. But I’d be naive to think ugly language is new enough to be called a trend in online play. If anything, it’s getting worse, and we should expect to see it all the time, especially among those we truly don’t know. Part of the shock, the experts said, is that you feel because you share an interest in the game you know the person better than you actually do. He’s still no different from any other stranger in public of whom you have no expectations, and would gladly avoid.
If you do feel compelled to speak up — especially if you’re a person of color, or the actual object of hate speech’s intent — Barnes suggests another query. She notes that much of the racism and bigoted language, especially as expressed by much younger gamers, isn’t the product of a very self-aware person. And they’d be insecure about having a mirror held up to their behavior. “So, you could try asking, ‘What if I told you I was black?’ ”
It’s a valid question even if you’re not. And the person might get so caught up in wondering why you had said that, if you aren’t, that you’ve paradoxed him out of his offensive state.
ScrewAttack put together another of their always-great Top 10 lists, this time focusing on games that need to be brought back.
After giving Capcom the props for revisiting games like Bionic Commando and of course Street Fighter, he mentions a few things I'd personally like to see (like Starfox!), as well as a bunch of choices from the Capcom stable, including Power Stone, Strider, and... I won't give away their #1 choice.
But really? People want that? We had no idea! Anyway, tell us, what games do YOU think Capcom should revisit?
Welcome to this week's Games Update, our weekly summary featuring all new product arrivals from the last seven days.
The flood continues to wash into our warehouse. Some of the games form stunning contrast with the jolly, colorful Christmas Season.
Reflecting the people's needs for some fast paced action to vent their frustrations, Left 4 Dead drops players off in a nightmarish world and have them face off with the most bizzarre of enemies.
Less Bizzarre but just as exciting is Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe, the two of the most popular franchises in the US entertainment worlds crossovered and joint forces with each other to give you a fighting adventure that will blow all your troubles away.
Playing is part of the creative experience in Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts. Join the bear and bird team as they travel across the mischievously designed game worlds to win the place as a successor to Spiral mountain. But beware, as your opponent, the witch Grunty will do all she can to stop you.
Hunting and being hunted are big parts of adventures in Need for Speed Undercover. Go against and far beyond the speed limit, wrestle secrets from your reckless prey and maneuvre your way out of the clutches of the police force.
Bring your favourite team of soccer players to your living room through PES 2009. The gap between virtual reality and the actual world is seamlessly bridged, letting you feel the ball against the sole of your spikes.
Eternal Poison and Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World are crossing the ocean to English speaking audiences. Carefully translated and properly localized, these two strategic and action RPGs will transport you to fantasy worlds that unfolds extravagantly before your eyes, granting you a brief escape from the gloom.
Fly the skies in Otomedious Gorgeous. Rain bullets and energy balls at your opponents. Loyal to the arcade game, the Xbox360 rendition features the familiar faces and music. See how lethal shooting action and feminine cuteness are combined as one in this shooter.
After Infinite Undiscovery, Square Enix starts another RPG series. Last Remnant is a cross platform project that is available on both PlayStation3 and Xbox360.
While the PlayStation3 version is still unannounced as of yet, the Xbox360 version is right on time for Christmas. Revel in the imagination of Square Enix's game developers as you wait for the next episode in the Final Fantasy series.
Revise your Gundam history this Christmas via Gundam vs Gundam. All memorable action scenes and vocals throughout the series, from the first Gundam to the latest 00 are combined into one UMD. Step into your mobile suit and show the world your prowesses as a pilot. Alone or with friends, this mecha action will provide you hours of blood pounding excitement.
As usually, here's a summary of all new releases from this week, followed by a quick preview of what is expected to be hot next week.
Xbox360™
Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts ASIA US$ 39.90
Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts US US$ 44.90
Command and Conquer: Red Alert 3 US US$ 64.90
Left 4 Dead ASIA US$ 49.90
Mercenaries 2: World in Flames JPN US$ 74.90
Mirror's Edge US US$ 64.90
Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe ASIA US$ 49.90
Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe US US$ 64.90
Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe [Collector's Edition] US US$ 79.90
Need for Speed Undercover ASIA US$ 49.90
Need for Speed Undercover (Chinese Version) ASIA US$ 44.90
Otomedius Gorgeous JPN US$ 68.90
Otomedius Gorgeous + Hyper Stick Pro Otomedius Gorgeous Ver. [Konamistyle Limited Edition] JPN US$ 389.90
PES Pro Evolution Soccer 2009 US US$ 54.90
Shaun White Snowboarding US US$ 64.90
The Last Remnant JPN US$ 78.90
Xbox 360 The Last Remnant Premium Pack JPN US$ 444.90
PlayStation3™
Alone in the Dark: Inferno ASIA US$ 49.90
Aquanaut's Holiday (English/Chinese Version) ASIA US$ 49.90
Disney's Bolt US US$ 54.90
Mercenaries 2: World in Flames JPN US$ 74.90
Mirror's Edge US US$ 64.90
Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe US US$ 64.90
Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe [Collector's Edition] US N/A
MotorStorm 2 JPN US$ 59.90
Need for Speed Undercover ASIA US$ 49.90
Need for Speed Undercover (Chinese Version) ASIA US$ 49.90
PES Pro Evolution Soccer 2009 US US$ 54.90
Shaun White Snowboarding US US$ 64.90
Shaun White Snowboarding ASIA US$ 59.90
Nintendo Wii™
Animal Crossing: City Folk JPN US$ 59.90
Animal Crossing: City Folk (w/ Wii Speak) JPN US$ 79.90
Big League Sports US US$ 44.90
Bolt US US$ 54.90
Bratz Kidz: Slumber Party US US$ 44.90
FaceBreaker K.O. Party US US$ 44.90
Guinness World Records: The Videogame US US$ 44.90
Hasbro Family Game Night US US$ 44.90
Katekyoo Hitman Reborn! Kindan no Yami no Delta JPN US$ 68.90
Logicool Wireless Keyboard JPN US$ 59.90
MLB Superstars US US$ 34.90
Monkey Mischief US US$ 44.90
Monster Lab US US$ 49.90
Mortimer Beckett and the Secrets of Spooky Manor Wii US US$ 34.90
Rayman Raving Rabbids TV Party US US$ 54.90
Sengoku Basara 2 Heroes (Double Pack) (Best Price!) JPN US$ 39.90
Shaun White Snowboarding US US$ 54.90
Sugoro Chronicle: Migite ni Ken o Hidarite ni Saikoro o JPN US$ 59.90
Sugoro Chronicle: Migite ni Ken o Hidarite ni Saikoro o [Variety Pack] JPN US$ 79.90
Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World US US$ 44.90
PlayStation2™
Call of Duty: World at War Final Fronts US US$ 44.90
Dokapon Kingdom (Sting the Best) JPN US$ 34.90
Eternal Poison US US$ 44.90
Katekyoo Hitman Reborn! Kindan no Yami no Delta JPN US$ 68.90
Koihime Musou JPN US$ 68.90
Koihime Musou [Limited Edition] JPN N/A
Koisuru Otome to Shugo no Tate: The Shield of AIGIS JPN US$ 68.90
Koisuru Otome to Shugo no Tate: The Shield of AIGIS [Limited Edition] JPN US$ 99.90
Mercenaries 2: World in Flames JPN US$ 59.90
Monster Lab US US$ 34.90
PES Pro Evolution Soccer 2009 US US$ 34.90
Nintendo DS™
Avatar: The Last Airbender - Into the Inferno US US$ 24.90
Candy Factory US US$ 24.90
Chrono Trigger JPN US$ 48.90
Disney's Bolt US US$ 34.90
Dora the Explorer: Dora Saves the Snow Princess US US$ 34.90
Game Cleaning Cloth DS JPN US$ 4.99
Guinness World Records: The Videogame US US$ 34.90
Hello Kitty: Big City Dreams US US$ 34.90
Iron Chef: American Supreme Cuisine US US$ 34.90
Itsuma Demo Dev to Umou Unayo: DS Recording Diet JPN US$ 39.90
Monster Lab US US$ 34.90
National Geographic: Panda US US$ 34.90
Ninja Town US US$ 34.90
Pokemon Ranger: Shadows of Almia US US$ 34.90
Populous DS US US$ 34.90
Rayman Raving Rabbids TV Party US US$ 34.90
Real Soccer 2009 US US$ 34.90
Saka-Tsuku DS: Touch and Direct JPN US$ 48.90
Shaun White Snowboarding US US$ 34.90
Tomb Raider Underworld ASIA US$ 32.90
Tomyka Hero: Rescue Force DS JPN US$ 48.90
Zombie Bar-B-Que US US$ 24.90
Sony PSP™
All Star Yakyuken 2 Portable JPN US$ 37.90
Clank & Ratchet: Maru Hi Mission * Ignition JPN US$ 48.90
Mobile Suit Gundam: Gundam vs. Gundam ASIA US$ 42.90
Mobile Suit Gundam: Gundam vs. Gundam JPN US$ 48.90
Mobile Suit Gundam: Gundam vs. Gundam (PSP Pack) JPN US$ 349.90
Need for Speed Undercover ASIA US$ 42.90
PES Pro Evolution Soccer 2009 US US$ 34.90
Prinny: Ore ga Shujinkou de Iinsuka? JPN US$ 48.90
Prinny: Ore ga Shujinkou de Iinsuka? ASIA US$ 42.90
Sony PSP™ Accessories
Attachment Set Portable (Black) JPN US$ 4.99
Attachment Set Portable (White) JPN US$ 4.99
Clear Case Portable 3 (Crystal) JPN US$ 9.99
Flat Pouch Portable (Black) JPN US$ 6.99
Flat Pouch Portable (White) JPN US$ 6.99
PC Games
High School Musical 3: Senior Year Dance! (DVD-ROM) ASIA US$ 24.90
James Bond 007: Quantum of Solace (DVD-ROM) ASIA US$ 34.90
Left 4 Dead (DVD-ROM) ASIA N/A
Need for Speed Undercover (DVD-ROM) ASIA US$ 39.90
Tomb Raider Underworld (DVD-ROM) ASIA US$ 34.90
Game Guides and Magazines
Animal Crossing: City Folk: Prima Official Game Guide US US$ 19.90
Avalon Code The Complete Guide JPN US$ 22.90
Banjo Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts: Prima Official Game Guide US US$ 19.90
Call of Duty: World at War Signature Series Guide US US$ 19.90
Culdcept DS Official Perfect Guide JPN US$ 23.90
Knights in the Nightmare The Complete Guide JPN US$ 32.90
Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe: Prima Official Game Guide US US$ 19.90
Need for Speed: Undercover: Prima Official Game Guide US US$ 19.90
Saka-Tsuku DS: Touch and Direct Playing Manual JPN US$ 16.90
Valkyrie Profile: Toga o Seoumono Final Guide JPN US$ 21.90
Weekly Famitsu No. 1041 (2008 11/28) JPN US$ 7.90
World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King Official Strategy Guide US US$ 24.90
Video Game Related Soundtracks
Ishinomori Shotaro Sakuhin Shudaika Collection JPN US$ 34.90
Nekketsu Kouha Kunio Kun Original Soundtrack JPN US$ 47.90
Here is a preview of what are expected to be hot next week:
Xbox360™
Agarest Senki: Rapier Lance JPN US$ 64.90
Agarest Senki: Rapier Lance ASIA US$ 44.90
Guitar Hero World Tour (Band Kit) ASIA US$ 289.90
Guitar Hero World Tour (Guitar Bundle) ASIA US$ 129.90
Naruto: The Broken Bond ASIA US$ 49.90
Naruto: The Broken Bond US US$ 64.90
Tomb Raider Underworld ASIA US$ 49.90
Tomb Raider Underworld US US$ 64.90
World Soccer Winning Eleven 2009 ASIA US$ 49.90
World Soccer Winning Eleven 2009 JPN US$ 79.90
PlayStation3™
Guitar Hero World Tour (Band Kit) ASIA US$ 289.90
Guitar Hero World Tour (Guitar Bundle) ASIA US$ 129.90
Tomb Raider Underworld ASIA US$ 59.90
Tomb Raider Underworld US US$ 64.90
World Soccer Winning Eleven 2009 ASIA US$ 49.90
World Soccer Winning Eleven 2009 JPN US$ 79.90
Nintendo Wii™
Animal Crossing: City Folk US US$ 54.90
Castlevania: Judgment US US$ 54.90
Naruto Shippuuden: Gekitou Ninja Taisen EX 3 JPN US$ 64.90
Nintendo DS™
Chrono Trigger DS US US$ 44.90
Luminous Arc 2 US US$ 44.90
Metal Slug 7 US US$ 34.90
Rune Factory 2: A Fantasy Harvest Moon US US$ 34.90
Sony PSP™
Eiyuu Densetsu: Sora no Kiseki Set JPN US$ 89.90
Musou Orochi: Maou Sairin JPN US$ 48.90
Patapon 2: Don-Chaka ASIA US$ 42.90
Patapon 2: Don-Chaka JPN US$ 48.90
Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters GX: Tag Force 3 JPN US$ 48.90
PC Game
EverQuest II: The Shadow Odyssey (DVD-ROM) US US$ 44.90
A recent report by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) has revealed that video game console usage across America stands at approximately 16 billion kilowatt-hours per year—which is roughly the amount consumed by the entire city of San Diego. This is only a rough estimation, but there is no doubt that many of us waste a significant amount of energy when we leave our consoles running for hours on end. Even Energy Star has recognized the problem and begun setting standards on energy consumption for these devices. Obviously, the short-term solution to the problem would be to save your game and shut off the system when you are done—but it's a bad habit that is hard to break. So, my question is: do you leave your game console running when you are not playing?
Square Enix's new Los Angeles studio is still hiring, but they now have a small core staff of coders. To ease the new kids gently into the world of Squeenix development, the new studio is going to focus on downloadable games.
"We started the in-house development team a couple of months ago and we're starting with downloadable content because the team is still small," explained the studio's US president John Yamamoto. "All formats – Xbox Live, WiiWare, PlayStation Network – are all viable formats for us"
The LA studio will also be investigating middleware solutions, after successfully using the Unreal Engine 3 for The Last Remnant. "I want to [...] evaluate lots of middleware," said Yamamoto, "because western middleware is much more advanced compared to Japanese middleware. So we will study and feed back information to Square Enix in Japan."
Welcome to this week's Movie/Music news roundup, containing new Japanese and Hong Kong Video and Music releases from this week listed at Play-Asia.com. Around 630 new items are covered in this week, including new J-Pop, Anime as well as Japanese, Hong Kong and Western movie releases and much more.
NEWS released their third album, Color, this week. The album stays true to its title, with Spanish and Latino styled songs such as Taiyo no Namida and relaxed Jpop songs such as Happy Birthday, this album shows the large variety of music which the group excels in.
Collaborating with famous song writers such as Seamo and GReeeen, this album, available as Standard and Limited Editions, contains all the colors to paint your life with.
Uverworld seeks to whisk their listeners away to a new world through music. Their rock numbers rips the fabric of the reality apart and opens up a portal to another space. Hakanaku Mo Eikyu No Kanashi is exactly such a a rock song.
This is particularly suitable for Gundam 00 which parodies the strives between nations and people so well. The newest opening of Gundam 00 Second Season is available in these editions: CD+DVD and Gundam 00 Limited Editions and Standard Version.
The Limited Edition carries a DVD that records live performances of the band doing some hit songs from their last concert.
Just in time for a family holiday, Disney's animated feature film Kung Fu Panda is available as a gift set. The box comes with both the comedy which your loved one can share with his/her whole family and a plush toy which he or she could monopolize.
Here's a summary of all new releases that were published between Saturday, November 15th and Friday, November 21th. If some specific item that you are looking for is missing, please don't hesitate to contact our customer service with your request.
J-Pop Music releases (160)
ENKA Music releases (42)
Anime Soundtracks & Drama CDs (27)
Video Game Soundtracks (2)
Blu-ray Disc Movies (71)
Anime & Animation (100)
Hong Kong Version Movie releases (18)
Japanese Movies (15)
Non-Japanese Movies / Japanese Version (96)
J-Pop DVD releases (83)
Misc Japanese Movie releases (12)
UMD™ Video & Music (2)
Bethesda has confirmed that it's "working on" patches to fix a number of issues discovered in all three versions of Fallout 3.
While Fallout 3 has made a great start sales wise, numerous users have been left with a sour taste in their mouth after running into technical issues with the game.
Complaints on the game's official forums report crashes, lock-ups and graphical glitches, particularly with the PS3 version. But Bethesda assures players that a fix is on the way.
"We are currently working on a patch for all three platforms," wrote a Bethesda community manager. "When I've got more details, I'll let everyone know."
A brief and vague statement then, but at least we know for sure that Bethesda's on the case. Have you been one of the unlucky people to suffer from problems with the game? Fingers crossed it'll all be sorted soon.
Scalado is presenting its new Scalado Camera Solution, which will improves JPEG image handling performance by effectively managing the large files produced by high-resolution images, enables zero-shutter lag, burst capturing and instant zoom/pan in the camera.
“Thanks to the new technology, manufacturers can now offer real-time viewing and capturing of high-resolution images, totally eliminating shutter lag. As a result, camera phone users can finally take memorable photos instead of missing the moment.”, says Sami Niemi CTO of Scalado.
With Scalado’s new ‘zero shutter lag’ feature, however, users can be sure that the image which they see in the viewfinder is the image that they capture. Users can then instantly zoom into the resulting JPEG images to review the details of the image in real-time.
The Scalado Camera Solution is based on two products: The SpeedTags IP and The Scalado Camera Engine. The SpeedTags IP is a minimal modification to the HW JPEG encoder that enables the encoder to produce modified JPEG images, referred to as SpeedTagged JPEGs. Several camera sensors and camera modules for camera phones are already embedding the SpeedTags IP, such as sensors from both Aptina, OmniVision Samsung and MtekVision.
The weeklyreading for console sale in Japan come again with the following results:
Nintendo DSi: 85,327
Playstation Portable: 38,153
Nintendo Wii: 26,787
Playstation 3: 17,448
Xbox 360: 7,983
Playstation 2: 5,421
Nintendo DS Lite: 3,559
First in line is the DSi, takes a tumble roughly by 19,000 units. PSP is next, down 5,000. The Wii is 3rd, goes up by 2,000. PS3 comes 4th, down 900. Xbox 360 is 5th, drops 5,000. PS2 is next and is down just 300. Finally is the DS Lite, with 5,000 taken off from last time. All in all, just another week of slow sales. Figures from M-Create.
So many games, so little time. But do you ever wonder what happens to the also-rans? The non-AAA titles and the ones that don't have the huge marketing budgets behind them? Or even those that do, but just.. don't work? The answer, according to market analysts EEDAR, is not very much.
EEDAR offer a service to games publishers where they run the numbers on games in development and try to predict how they will perform. The success rates make sobering reading for any game developer.
There's a copy of Castlevania Judgment and Metal Slug 7 at Kotaku Towers West both with my name on it. My name just happens to be on a Post-It preceded by "Review these ASAP or you're fired - Brian" so that's my weekend right there. What Brian doesn't know is that I'll be playing Left 4 Dead until my eyes bleed this weekend, with me thumbing my nose at him and his "due dates." Boy, I hope he doesn't read this post or the jig is up. I've also got some exciting Meat Bun things to pre-launch and a mouse carcass to dispose of.
Welcome to the good life! How's your world lookin'? Got some gaming that needs to get done this weekend? Let us know in the comments.
The researchers at Electronic Entertainment Design and...Research have been looking at console game sales patterns. Looking at how long it takes a game to enter "price protection", which is a term used for when a publisher - having noticed a game isn't selling very well - lowers the wholesale cost of a game so that retailers can keep it on the shelves at full price, even when the public are ignoring it. What they've found is that this practice occurs for 7.5% of 360 games. And 9.09% of PS3 games. But the Wii? It happens for 15.1% of titles.
Today, a videogame adaptation of Terminator Salvation was announced that will launch alongside its silver screen counterpart in May of next year. Titled Terminator Salvation -- The Videogame (who would have thought?), you'll take on the role of John Connor as you fight against the overwhelming and vastly superior forces of Skynet. The game is being developed by GRIN Studios, however the press release makes no mention of what platforms the game will launch on.
"Terminator Salvation -- The Videogame allows players to battle for survival against Skynet enemies utilizing an incredibly fluid and realistic control set," said President of Halcyon Games Cos Lazouras. "The player will be led through a visceral story with extremely polished production values to create a fully interactive Terminator experience."
Developer: Treyarch Publisher: Activision Players: 1-18 (2-4 co-op) Genre: FPS Price: $59.99 Reviewed On: Xbox 360 ESRB:
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Overview: It seems like every year, a new call of duty game comes out during the holiday seasons, how does this one stand out from the rest? I really have no idea because I have never played a COD game before, so this year I am jumping in and heading out to see what all the fuzz is about in this bullet packed FPS. (CAUTION: DOES NOT CONTAIN ACTUAL BULLETS!)
Gameplay: There is no denying that WWII games have been done quite too many times, and for gamers that have been keeping up with the franchise this may be a good or bad thing, this is still Call Of Duty in every single way so if you didn't like the old ones, there is a slim chance that you will enjoy this one.
What REALLY sets this one aside from the rest is an extra game option you unlock after beating the game where you are stuck inside a house and an unlimited number of waves of nazy zombies, they can come into your house but they have to break walls and wood that covers windows first. You can re-build any barrier, buy new weapons, and expand your ground, tho when you expand your ground, you also increase the number of gaps that may lay in your home for zombies to come in. The zombies get faster and stronger as the waves go by making your initial guns useless against them, guns that use to kill them with one shot will later take 2, 3, 5, 7 shots to kill them after a few waves go by, tho a head shot will always blow them up, it is alot harder to do so when they are running at you by the bunch. this is a great experience specially with friends, but I do wish they had expanded a bit more in it, there is only one type of zombie and the house is pretty small, also, it is great to have a small group so that team work becomes easier to achieve, but having about ten guys in a house kicking zombie butt would have been cool too.
The flame thrower is a blast to use on enemies.
Now on to multiplayer, this game supports up to 18 players which is great, you have to constantly watch your back or else you will die easily, I learned this thanks to an awesome death cam that puts you in the eyes of your opponent seconds before your defeat, and sure enough, most of my deaths were caused by enemies whom i did not see mys self, if you learn from the mistakes that the death cam shows you, you will quickly be able to dominate the grounds. The ranking system on Call Of Duty: World At War is great, you level up constantly and get great rewards, from new weapons to perks that you can add to your character to give him more health or make his bullets inflict more damage, after you reach level four you can create your own class to fully be able to customize your character to fit your gameplay style.
The AI can be very dumb at times which takes away from the experience, sometimes I feel like i am just target practicing due to the fact that they just aim at me and wait for me to shoot at them, sometimes you can even stay behind them or follow them for long periods of times before they notice you which is odd because this could have possibly been done on purpose to encourage you to be stealthy in certain areas, but if they did, they need to fix it because even I would notice people when they are running behind me or starring at me with a gun few feet away from me.
Your team mates are no better, you will often see them shooting at walls just because there is an enemy at the other side of it, I once saw a squad member run sideways across an opened door and once the opening was over he started to shoot at the wall, it was quite a late reaction.
Any time you are at your feet (not on a tank or something) your gameplay will most likely consist of the following: walk around, get ambushed, hide behind something, come out to shoot at your enemies and get back in cover once you have taken enough hits, and then go to the next area, this is all good at first but after a while you start to notice this pattern.
The loading times are covered up by a mix between real live footage, and CG content, it always loads up before the introduction is finished and you are free to skip it afterward tho some of them are quite interesting and you may want to watch each at least once.
There is an icon on the bottom left of the screen where the map is located that tells you where to go, this way, you will never get lost which is a great touch, tho not completely necessary due to the fact that this game is very linear, tho this simply further escorts you to your next checkpoint.
Most of the achievements have to be done alone, which is a shame because normally you have the option gain achievements ether solo or with a friend, and who doesn't love to grab a friend and go achievement hunting right?
Aside from the regular gameplay where you run around and shoot there are only two missions that have you doing something differently and they are both short, one of them takes you inside a flame throwing tank that can self-regenerate somehow and while its nice to have a completely new mission and all, this particular one was not all that fun, and then there is the other mission that puts you inside a plane where you will have to shoot down boats and plains, here you can only control and fire turrets and the game will ask you to change position every now and then to shoot at objects on the other side of the plain, this one is actually fun.
Can YOU guess what will happen next?
Graphics: Character models are well made and often go out of their regular behavior to do a scripted one such as opening a gate or killing captured enemies which is rare in games, there is a strange mixture between high res textures and low res ones, the grass for example has an incredibly high resolution texture for what it is, I crouched and zoomed in on it and it was still relatively smooth, yet when I was hiding behind what seemed to be a desk, the texture was low enough for me to see each pixel without having to zoom in on it, I had so walk away from it to figure out what it was.
Another thing that HAS to be pointed out is that the level of detail in the environments is amazing, the jungle is filled with numerous species of plants, and the buildings are filled with chairs, dirty walls, garbage, ect, not to mention that your battlefield is always changing, this keeps the game from getting repetitive too early. The fire effects are also excellent and the reactions from the flames are normally good too, except for the fact that I think there is only one animation for being burned, I once burned two enemies at once and they were mirroring each others movements perfectly.
Sound: The sound in this game is top notch, you hear bullets coming from every direction and hitting the ground or walls near you, solders screaming for their lives and dying, voice overs are good too but the lip sync can use alot of work, while you are in cover you can count on the sound of bullets hitting your cover to see when the enemy is reloading so you can pop out and lay a nice grenade on their feet to keep them warm. Overall the sound in this game is so great it improves the overall experience by a long shot.
Replay Value: The main story can be fully played in co-op and the online mode is great too, that is not even counting the great zombie survival extra that you unlock once you beat the game, tho you don't need to beat the game in order to play it if you have been invited by someone to play it, the regular multiplayer modes also have missions that you can choose to completely ignore or you can face them, this missions are small things like stab someone a certain amount of times and things like that, but one should never look at the teeth of a given horse, if it is there as an extra and is not mandatory then no reason to complain but to appreciate.
Conclusion: The game will last you about 6-10 hours depending on the difficulty level and your personal skill level, it takes 6.5 GB to install this game and it only shaved off about one or two seconds of loading time on my end, so unless you REALLY want to play Call Of Duty: World At War with a silent xbox you are gonna want to play this one from the disk, and its not like you will hear the xbox with all the sounds from guns, grenades, tanks, and people screaming.
This is why stabbing a knife with your stomach is a bad idea.
Feeding Frenzy 2: ShipWreck Showdown
Publisher: Oberon media
Developer: Sprout Games
Genre: Arcade Action
System: Xbox 360 (Xbox LIVE)
Overview:
Big fish eats small fish. Its a fact of life, and is a saying that well explains the worlds state of life. Feeding Frenzy takes this saying quite literally, as you play as a fish in the big sea whose only purpose is to eat small fish and became a big fish to eat even bigger fish. Sounds simple right? Well it is, almost too much so. The game isn't broken(well, controls may be) but it certainly does what its supposed to, if by 'supposed to' means bore you in little over an hour.
Gameplay:
The gameplay revolves around trying to devour other smaller fish and grow larger, so that you can eat the larger fish. Thats the formula for every level you play, except for the occasional bonus level which has you doing some some mini game to attain a higher score. The thing is, its all been down before, and in 1995 at that. Playing this game reminded me of a lesser quality version of Odell Down Under, a similar game where the gameplay is nearly identical. However, Feeding Frenzy is far more simplistic. There is usually only a single type of fish you are able to eat, and that will, for most at least, get extremely boring as the game progresses, since there is really no change to gameplay. This results in a very repetitive experience all throughout story mode, as there is far too little depth in the game to really hold anyone other then a casual gamer's interest for very long. The 'not-so-different' special levels you do every so often do little to keep your interest.
The controls are quite a mess. Constantly, you'll end up drifting into the mouth of a bigger fish on accident because of the Astroids-style drift that happens after releasing the controller stick. It also makes devouring small fish a pain, at least until you get the Vacuum ability to suck up fish.
The good news is there is co-op, and if you have a relative who doesn't generally like video games, this is a great game that can be played with them. The game's difficulty is easy and its learning curve is non-existant. Just try to make sure your friend or family doesn't fall asleep while playing it.
Try doing this for just 10 levels and see if your not sick of it.
Graphics:
The charming underwater theme of the game fits very well with the mood of the game. Vibrant and colorful, but all too bland and reptitive. The backgrounds repeat, the same fish sprites are used constantly, and all in all its just becomes boring after the 15th level of the same background and fish. I guess the solution Sprout games used for this was to invert the fish colors every so often. Meh.
Sound:
The tranquil music does its work, like the rest of the game, to make you feel tired, and sort of relaxed. The creepy sound effect you hear of the guy saying "Feeding Frenzy" is more likely to scare you then relax you though. Sound effects for eating fish will get annoying after a few hours of continuous play, but hey, at least they didn't have you hear the fish screaming bloody murder every time you eat them.
Closing comments:
Feeding Frenzy is one of those games that your sister would play on an internet game site rather then a game you'd be wanting to spend money for. After all, there are some almost identical flash games you could play at no cost. I suppose Feeding Frenzy's biggest offense that it commits is just not being all that fun, even though it generally does what its supposed to. Which I suppose, is make you get very drowzy.
Shredmaster Hero on Tour Controller
Manufacturer: Nexilux
Site: Buy from TotalConsole
Price: $14.99
Overview : Portable guitar controller for Nintendo DS and Nintendo DS Lite.
Shredmaster portable controller
Adjustable strap
Instructions booklet
Quality/Usability : The Shredmaster Hero on Tour Controller is a 3rd party peripheral for Guitar Hero for the Nintendo DS. The controller plugs into SLOT-2 (bottom of the DS). Installation and buttons is the same as the controller pad that comes with Guitar Hero On Tour.
Inserting the controller pad onto the DS is a little more stiffer. The buttons are also stiffer as well. The backside of the pad is a velcro padded strap for securing to your hand. During gameplay, the buttons worked well but to me, it felt a little uncomfortable. This could be because of my big hands.
What would of been nice would probably be a slight curve on the back of the pad where my palm would rest. When holding the controller, my hand is not flat like the controller. It arches a little. This would make holding the controller pad a little more comfortable instead of making my hand strain.
Conclusion : Overall, the Shredmaster Hero on Tour Controller is good as a replacement but wont replace the original. So if you broke the original pad that came with the game or purchased a used game without the pad, you'll need this in order to play the game. Installation and buttons are a little stiff for my likings. I prefer my buttons to be looser. Price is fairly cheap. Also, with the new DSi coming out, this controller pad will be useless.
Overview : This review is an update to Acekard 2 DS Card MicroSDHC SLOT-1. This review will only discuss the new changes in Acekard 2.1 as it is practically the same as Acekard 2.
The Acekard 2 is the same size as an original game cart and you don't have to flash your machine or use a passme in order to use the Acekard 2.
Never lost save data - Acekard 2 use the technology of directly writting save file to MicsoSD card. No need to manually select save size or backup save when turn on DS. No battery needed. Acekard 2 can use save files from other flash carts and do not need convert. All you need to do is make sure the save file has the same prefix name and put it at the same directory of ROM. Then you can just run the game to use new save file.
Perfect compatibility - Acekard 2 inherit the best quality of acekards products. AK2 support clean rom and you can just drag and drop it on MicroSD card to run.
*Loading would be a little long when first run a game due to creating save file. The load time will be very fast at the next time.
Support Homebrew programs/games - The Acekard 2 is compatible with all homebrew because of the DLDI auto-patcher. You can just copy the homebrews to the MicroSD card and run it. You can use Moonshell, one of the most well known homebrew software on DS, for multi media. Watching movie, listening MP3, reading TXT novel on DS is so easy! Please download moonshell for AK 2 here.
*Some homebrews need to be put at the root of MicroSD card for best compatibility.
Support any brand of MicroSD card - Acekard 2 can be meet with any brand of MicroSD card. Do not need to worry about the speed of MicroSD card. AK2 supports also HC memory (4Gb+).
Support Action Reply cheats. Build-in editor - Acekard 2 support Action Replay cheats in .dat, .xml and .cc format. You can select how to use AR cheats by using the build-in editor.
1, Copy AR cheats in .dat or .xml format to /__ak2/cheats. Copy .cc format file to the same directory of ROM.
2, Press "Y" to popup the editor.
3, Select "Cheat DB file".
4, Select the cheat file.
5, Select "Rebuild".
6, If you have the cheat code of the game then a list window will be shown. You can use "X" and "Y" to enable or disnable them.
7, Press "A" to save your changes and enter game for fun.
acekard2
Built in "Rom Trimming" Function - The Acekard 2 has a "Rom Trimming" Function built in. When you copy a file in the Micro SD , the Acekard 2 will automatically trim any un-necessary data in a ROM.
Fully touch screen operation - The Acekard 2 (and R.P.G.) utilizes the idea of the iPhone which gives the customer a totally new control experience.
* You are able to use "Button Control" as well.
Can be used as a Passme to boot from slot-2 flash cards. Run GBA games by using expand card - the Acekard 2 can be used as a passkey, so you can boot your slot2 flash cards with it.
AK2 also support 3-in-1 expansion card. You can run gba games from MicroSD card directly.
*You need insert MicroSD card with OSMenu to use Passme function.
*Expansion card sold separately.
Build-in file operation - You can use copy, paste and delete at the files in MicroSD card.
Support Multi-language - You can easily change the language within Acekard 2. There are 8 languages in the firmware, Which are Simple Chinese, Traditional Chinese, English, French, Italy, Spanish , Japanese and German. You can modify and replace these languages text as you wish. They are all in /__ak2/language/.
Support Skin and Dynamic skin change - Acekard 2 use the same skin system of AK RPG. You can easily DIY Acekard 2 skin, and change it at anytime. All the pictures, buttons, text, even their coordinate can be customized. You also can add your own customer text and customer pictures. Same skin different style! You can find more skins here.
Perfect GUI -
Ak 2 will jump to the folder which you have run game last time.
Every file and folder has icon in front of the name. Games will display games icon directly.
You can use simply content view for more content shown.
You can config the scrolling speed and whether to show the hidden files.
Support soft-reset, Download play and WIFI playing - AK 2 support soft-reset in game. You can return to AK 2 menu when you're playing game. You do not need turn off DS to change games. You can disable this function in menu.
Support brightness adjustment
Features :
Perfect compatibility. No need to convert, No need to flash!
Save file is written directly to TF card. No need to manually select save size, no data loss.
Automatic DLDI patching. Run homebrew programs without converting.
Support soft-reset, Download Play and WiFi gaming!
Support SDHC TF card. Virtually unlimited storage size !
Support any brand of TF, with no slowdown!
Support Action Replay cheats . Build-in editor!
Low power consumption for longer operational time!
Built-in multiple languages and DIY skinning!
Quality/Usability : Remember that this review is an update to Acekard 2 DS Card MicroSDHC SLOT-1. I will not discuss all the features of Acekard but more on what is different and new between Acekard 2.1 and Acekard 2.
First off, the packaging is different. No more plastic blister packaging. It is now in a cardboard box. The sticker on the cartridge looks exactly the same with the exception of "ver 2.1" is added to the sticker. A new PCB board is added with new firmware that has all the great features of the Acekard 2 but is said to be more stable, resolve the Fat Error issues, consume less power and the new features in the firmware.
The cartridge size remains the same and feels sturdy. However, the PCB chip does not protrude out from the sticker anymore. The top feels smooth. The Acekard 2.1 has a spring loaded microSD slot and has clips on the side that holds the casing together.
The GUI looks the same as well as the features such as brightness settings, folder/file navigation and menus. Acekard claimed to be more stable and consume less power? Honestly, Acekard 2 worked great for me and was stable enough. I'm so into my game that I fail to recognize the battery or how long I have been playing. So if what they say is true, its probably very minimal. You can always download the latest files at http://www.acekard.com/download.php and if you want to change up your GUI with different skins, Acekard has a site where other gamers such as yourself made their own to share with everyone. Visit http://www.acekard.com/skin.php as there is 400+ skins available for you to choose from.
Conclusion : Overall, the Acekard 2.1 DS MicroSDHC SLOT-1 works just as good as Acekard 2. Since Ak2.1 is an upgrade to Ak2, expect to see many online shops to be carrying Ak2.1. The GUI is one of if not the best looking ones around. However, I still prefer the Acekard R.P.G. due to the USB, built-in 1GB memory and ability to use a microSDHC as well. But if you're tight on funds, Acekard 2.1 is definitely worth a look or try.
Please note that none of the "upgrade" products listed in this site are endorsed by Nintendo, Sony and/or Microsoft. DCEmu Reviews and DCEmu Network does not condone piracy. The primary functions of a "modchip" and/or "flashcart" are to allow you to play imported games and homebrew software that you legally own or simply just for experimenting with hardware. We in no way endorse piracy, and encourage all users to do the right thing and support the developers/manufacturers that support them. We do not take any responsibilities for any use outside of these parameters or where the use of such a device is illegal.
What hasn't Doom been ported to at this point? You can't answer "Flash 10!" anymore, as an enterprising Newgrounds contributor has gone to the effort to port the id Software classic to Adobe's platform, making the first-person shooter playable in the web browser of your choice. It's a tidy little port, if a bit slow on my 2 year old MacBook Pro.
Sound is a little wonky — there's no music either — but we can't lodge complaints against this version of Doom. If you've never powered through the thing, here's just one more option for the pile. It's as promised. Doom. Flash. Playable.
A relaxing day at a video game center in southwestern China turned deadly yesterday when an argument sparked an armed battle that resulted in the death of five people. According to Chongqing city police as quoted by the official Xinhua news agency, some youths were involved in an argument with the manager of the Milky Way Express games center, which escalated into a full-scale fight involving more than 20 people, some armed with knives and batons. When the smoke cleared, five people were left dead, with at least two injured.
Investigators are still trying to determine the initial cause of the violent brawl. As a precaution, earlier today Chongqing city police ordered security inspections of all internet bars and game centers in the area.
Fable II
Publisher: Microsoft
Developer: Lionhead Studios
Genre: Adventure RPG
System: Xbox 360 (exclusive)
Opening:
The original Fable was quite a controversial game. The game's creator Peter Molyneux had promised the world to gamers, and much of that promise went unfulfilled in the first game. The strange thing about it, was that although many of the features that were said to be in the game weren't, it still proved to be a very fun game, and the features that were in it were very innovative. The opposite of the scandal is true with Fable 2. This time around, Peter Molyneux under promised, and over delivered. Whereas Fable was a good game, Fable 2 takes everything from Fable, entirely new concepts, and a world ten times larger the the original, and expands upon it in every way imaginable. Funny, thrilling, emotional, and entirely too short, Fable 2 is everything people wanted it to be and then some.
Story
Like the original, Fable 2 is all about its satirical nature, that is, its very very funny. What makes it stand out from other "funny" games is that its GENUINELY funny in its nature. While containing a very serious plot and story, everything from the people to the expressions, which are basically your way of communicating to people, to the things that the characters say, it has a unique charm and humor to it.( A bit of an understatement; this is one of the most unique game worlds ever created, in part due to its charming atmosphere.) This atmosphere of Fable sets it apart from the countless other fairy-tale style games, and it truly gives it its own image and personality as a game. This is by and large the most endearing aspect of the game, and what will have you coming back for more, even after you've completed all the quests and the story. And about the story...
The original Fable had a rather weak story, although thats what in part made it so fun(Not many times had a game been made where you can choose which way a generic fairy tale will be told). Fable II's story, while by a good margin better, isn't great. What it boils down to is a rather generic story of a hero who must combine powers with 3 other heroes to save the world. Not so original. What makes it original, is how you can essentially choose the way the story is told.(For all I know you might be able to even kill the mains, I never tried.) Everything you do, even down to the small chores you did in the beginning of the game influence how the world is shaped for you and how the story and sub stories will play out. This also means you sometimes have to be careful as to what quests you don't do(For the most part, quests you do do won't mean the desolation of entire cities) Still, the story mode itself
Graphics
The graphical style for Fable 2 is one of those games that you could call art and not have Kojima slapping you across the face for it. If a game should have ever been called "art" due only on its visuals, Fable 2 is up there with Okami and Shadow of the Colossus. The bright and colorful vibrant shades during the daytime in such places as Bowerstone lake and Market make you entranced by the world as very few games have been able to accomplish before. Just as well, in contrast the dreary, dark and pale colors of such places as Wraithmarsh and The Bandit Coast give the game a true air of tense feeling. Its these great graphical styles that really suck you into the world, and make it a treat to just run through the roads and look at the world itself.
The game isn't so much technically impressive as it is creative. The graphics are simple, as are the water effects and most of the game. The magic is positively striking, but the effects do have some negative effects on the game. For instance, most massive level 5 spells will cause the game to slowdown for a few seconds. Nothing major, but defineatly an annoyance. The thing is, as colorful and fun-filled as the graphics are, the sheer lack of technicality in this age of gaming is disappointing. Also, when night falls on the forest levels and other levels where the color attracts you to them, the levels appear very drab and boring.
You can jump off this bridge, like most things.
Animations are something that needs work as well. Stiff looking attack and magic animations, and enemies are no different. Expressions are well done. The characters movements pertaining to interaction with your character, such as fear, joy, admiration, and most actions on the parts of the villagers just feel fake and hollow. Despite this, your characters animations are fantastic when it comes to the customization you can do. Instead of the animations being absolutely terrible to fit with all the different clothing possibilities you'll have, the animations stay the same, even if the same does need a bit of work.
Gameplay
Fable 2 has a very fun and repetitive combat system. That sentence about sums up what you'll be feeling by the combat. The thing about it is that it stays mostly fresh throughout the entire game. Its absolutely simple and has, as the creator pointed out, a one button combat system, yet the feeling of combat in the game doesn't get boring for a long while. This is due in part to the upgrades you can level up during the game. As you earn experience from killing enemies, you can use the experience to level up different areas of your character, such as power, skill, and will--or in other words, swords, guns, and magic. Each time you level these areas up, you gain a different skill in that area--whether its the ability to block an attack, zoom in on your gun, or get a far more powerful spell, the combat will stay fresh until you've unlocked everything that can be unlocked. Unfortunately, unlocking everything doesn't take a huge amount of time to do, so the combat may bore some people after a while. Its simple, which is a double edged blade in this case. Figuratively and literally. The control is responsive, though there are occasional hiccups during combat. Movement could be a little more fine tuned. But the choices for how you kill the enemy are still there. Tons of different weapons, both melee and range that have their own special attributes make it very fun to swap out weapons every so often and see how the battles will play out that way.
Also, leveling up your character in these three aspects will produce physical changes on your characters appearance as well. Level up power and you'll get buffer. Skill and you'll grow taller. Will and blue magic lines(which I thought looked kickass) will start appearing on your skin. For the most part, these changes are appealing in the game. The problem is, if you don't want these changes to occur but still want the benefits of that certain level, your outta luck. For example, if your playing as a female character and actually care about appearance in the game, then your not going to want to level up power much or you'll start to look like a berserker from Gears of War(i.e. like a freak). Or, if you don't want to be a Goliath looking creature you'll probably refrain from upgrading skill.
Thankfully, Lionhead seemed to come prepared for this. They split each group--skill,power,and will-- into 3 groups each. only one upgrade group within each group effects your characters appearance, and thats the group that determines the amount of damage they will do. And once you have legendary weapons with massive amounts of damage, you will no longer need those possibly-freaky enhancements. Just in case though, Lionhead made a feature where you can downgrade at any time, one of your upgrades. So if your extremely tall but want to be shorter again, simply downgrade that skill. Its simple.
Undead. What RPG would be complete without them.
Another feature that will effect your characters appearance is also one of the most innovative features in an RPG, that of the ability to choose your path in a non-linear fashion. Most of the actions you take in Albion will yeild you either Good or Bad karma. This can be anything from stealing random stuff from someones house or killing your spouse, to making a crowd of people upbeat by playing the lute to donating to the Temple of Light. The game lives up to its motto "For every action, a consequence. Who will you become?" But all these choices you make won't be for nothing, and many of them will certainly be very hard to make(especially if you plan on being good.) Depending on how evil or good you are, your physical appearance will change. You hair will become golden and you'll get a halo if your good. If your bad, your eyes will become red and you'll grow horns. There is also a more subtle layer of "good and evil", which is more of the grey area in between, called Purity and Corruption. Doing kind acts and eating good foods will give you purity points, which will make your character look attractive. Eating pies and meats all the time and charging your tenants massive rent will give you corruption, in turn making you fat and ugly. These features are where Fable 2 shines its brightest, and are one of the most fantastic innovations in an RPG in years.
There is also the world around you that reacts to your actions. For instance, if you go on a crime spree in a town and kill people, then crime and panic will break loose in the town. The economy will drop, and it will become a miserable place to be. On other other hand, if you spend tons of money there and charge your tenants less in that area, it begins to flourish, and the economy will skyrocket. People will love you more, and more people will begin to appear there. Your ability to influence and change the world around you as well as yourself is, too, a fantastic innovation that Fable 2 introduces well. Oh, and yes, P.M. was telling the truth when he said that you can buy everything in the game world of Fable. Pretty much, everything.
Sound:
A good bit of the music is recycled from the original Fable with minor changes in what instruments seem to be used to play the song. Still, the music sounds like orchestral music, which fits the game's "epic fairy tale" premise well. Sound effects are nice and varied; different blades and guns yeild different sounds, as well as each different spell you cast. The sound also helps the world come alive to you, as this game plays fantastic in Dolby 5.1(Lets give a round of applause to Thomas, who let me test his surround sound to the point of almost breaking it. Sorry Tom.)
The game also runs on some fantastic voice overs. Each NPC has some well written and executed lspeech they want to say to you, and the greatest thing about the VOs is that they are done comically, like the rest of the game. In fact, I'd be willing to go so far as to say that without the VOs being as funny as they are, the game simply would be far more boring. At least to your ears it would be.
When a game manages to make hopping fences fun, you know its good. Fable II is good.
Replayability:
The game's story takes about a mere 12 hours to finish. But to be perfectly honest, thats not what your gonna be doing most of the time anyway. After opening all the doors, buying all the property, spending a good while at the crucible and finishing most of the quests, I found that I had taken about 50 hours, give or take a few. That means, after basically finishing the game, it took a good deal of time to accomplish. This really isn't much in the way of Oblivion or a JRPG, but its fairly long.
Co-op won't have you running back for more. Playing with a friend whos right beside you will end up being more funthen the online co-op. This is due to a number of reasons. First off, the joining player can't play as his character, only a premade one. Second, your Skill powers get flushed down the drain. Third, if your "friend" is bored, he can just as easily slaughter a very important character who you can never get back. And fourth is the lag. Lots of lag. Stupendous ammounts I have experianced in fact. If you can get over these issues, then you may yet have some fun here. Well....
Closing Comments:
In all honesty, I love this game to death now. Pretty much one of the only games I've really went back and did all the side quests after finishing the story mode. I bought this game with moderate expectaions, which made it a pleasent surprise to find out it was worth the money. But I won't lie; errors and glitches mess this game up badly. If you can get over those errors though, you'll find an experiance deeper then any RPG or JRPG you've played in the last ten years.
Major Selling points:
-Fantastic and colorful graphics
-Addictive Combat system
-Ability to play the game on your own path, and be as good or evil as you want to be.
-Lots of cutomization and choices that reflect on your character
-Wide, open freeroam world
-Huge game; many quests and things to do
Major Breaking Points:
-Lots of technical hiccups
-Co-op sucks
-Story mode is a bit short
We may take the system for granted now, but your inner 10-year-old is simply amazed by the Yobo FC3 Plus. A console that's fully compatible with NES, SNES and Sega Genesis titles, you can finally put those old cartridges to use without filling your home theater setup with unsustainable levels of boxes and wires. Including an NES-compatible light gun and two controllers, the FC3 Plus is a smart eBay purchase for the time being, going for about $50 from various independent retailers.
Here is a question for all the parents and troublemaking kids out there. Is taking away favorite gadgets an effective form of punishment? I ask because an amusing story about a stoner having his Xbox 360 confiscated by police today reminded me, in a strange sort of way, about the tragic story of a 15-year old who recently died after running away from home. That case also centered around the confiscation of an Xbox 360. Obviously, the latter incident proves that this tactic can backfire in a big way—but again, in your experience, has it proven effective?
The head of Europe's first treatment center for gaming addicts has revealed that 90% of young people who seek counseling for compulsive gaming habits aren't actually addicts at all.
Keith Bakker of The Smith & Jones Centre in Amsterdam explains that while a gamers who show other addictive behaviors such as drinking or taking drugs have been successfully treated using traditional abstinence-based treatment models, the vast majority of compulsive gamers have a social problem, rather than a psychological one.
"This gaming problem is a result of the society we live in today," Mr Bakker told BBC News. "Eighty per cent of the young people we see have been bullied at school and feel isolated. Many of the symptoms they have can be solved by going back to good old fashioned communication."
Responding to this realization, The Smith & Jones Centre is now changing it's treatment plan for compulsive gamers, moving away from substance-abuse type methods in favor of a plan involving activity-based social and communication skills, to help players interact better with the real world.
The BBC article this story originates from goes on to speak to a gamer called "George" who sought help at the center to help overcome his 10 hour-a-day Call of Duty 4 habit.
"I liked gaming because people couldn't see me, they accepted me as my online character - I could be good at something and feel part of a group."
Underlying that new sense of belonging was a young man who felt powerless and neglected in real life.
"I was aware that I played too much but I didn't know what to do. But it helped me because I could be aggressive and get my anger and frustration out online," he says.
Bakker believes that the key to keeping this sort of thing from happening lies with parents communicating with their children, which is the old-fashioned way of preparing them for the real world, back before electronic babysitting was invented.
He also warns of the dangers of continuing to refer to compulsive gaming as an addiction.
"If I continue to call gaming an addiction it takes away the element of choice these people have," he says. "It's a complete shift in my thinking and also a shift in the thinking of my clinic and the way it treats these people."
Earlier this year, Blizzard once again impressed us with its ability to churn out a handful of April Fool's Day news pranks that were not only hilarious, but were uncharacteristically delivered on time. One of those was the announcement of World of Warcraft: The Molten Core, the first WoW release for a console, the Atari 2600. The game is a fabrication no longer — someone's made it.
While maybe not up to the spec laid out by Blizz and apparently not playable on a proper Atari 2600 emulator as some other recent demakes were, The Molten Core is playable and visually more authentic than previous attempts to make this joke serious.
The Windows-only download is a mere 2MB and, according to its author, offers about 20 minutes of gameplay. I've yet to walk to the Windows box to try it out myself, so downloaders beware.
_____________________________ Developer: MommysBest Genre: Side Scrolling Shooter Players: 1 Price: 400 Rating By Community: Violence=3/3
Sex=2/3
Mature Content=2/3
_____________________________________
Overview: The new Xbox experience is out along with a hand full of XNA or "Community" games, there are many to pick from and after playing all the demo's on a $5 budget this one seemed like the clear winner, does it live up to its name? or is this just another one of those games that are thrown out there to make a quick buck?
Gameplay: Tho ridiculously short, this game brings a new fresh twist to side scrolling shooters with a good deal of characters to choose from each with their own weapon, special double jump AND secondary fire for each, plus, they all hold one extra weapon in common that you will be completely ignoring throughout the game but is still nice to have.
A problem I have with XNA games is that you MUST be connected to Xbox live in order to play them, I found this out when I went to play it as I was just starting this review (I like to have the games on while I write about it in case I have to double check anything) this off course became an instant frustration for me. Off course no points will be taken off for this as ALL games are the same, but this is one thing to have in mind for any future purchase of an XNA game.
Another problem that I wish Microsoft would fix is the lack of achievements on these XNA games, it was fun playing them, but would be even funner if I knew that all my hard work would be rewarded, plus, it adds value. Now that I have listed the problems of ALL XNA games, allow me to continue by listing the problems of this particular one, the frame drops at least once per level, this is not consistent but very noticeable, also, it takes about fifteen minutes to get through the story once, you have the option to complete each level through different paths which adds a bit of replay value but not much. All the characters can be unlocked within half an hour which is about how long it takes to beat the whole game seance you have three different paths to choose from starting from the first level and each path takes ten to fifteen minutes to complete.
Each character also has a strange gadget that will grab on to walls and roofs for you, this not only looks cool but once you get used to it can be very helpful as well.
One last feature of this game that needs to be mentioned is the automatic "bullet time" effect that activates when you are near death, this looks and feels cool, plus gives you a second chance at avoiding mortal hazards near you, this makes the game very forgiving, but the fact that this game revolves around the hone hit kill philosophy sort of evens things out. Once you die you will be taken to the character selection menu and after you choose one, you will be blasted back to action, once all of the players die, the game is over.
There are various enemies and terrains in this game.
Graphics: The game has a visual style unlike any other, monsters are imaginative and colorful, the backgrounds and environment are well detailed, and bullets in weapons are distinct. Opponents are animated strangely, their bodies are often stretched and my best guess is that its part of the style they are trying to pull of.
Sound: This seems like a game made for the stereotypical gamer male, there are big buns, chicks (you don't really get to see them up close tho) explosions, monsters, and aliens.....the sound is no different, it is very squishy and crunchy at times mostly when an enemy is killed, and there is rock on the background, could this possibly get more manly?
Replay Value: If you have been ether reading or paying attention to my review so far, you will know that there are not many reasons to come back to this game, no multilayer support, only about seven levels, and even tho it has three different endings, it only takes about thirty minutes to get there, on the bright side, there are seven unique characters. For 400 I would really have liked to get at least one hour of fun, overall whether or not you should buy this game comes down to how much is 400 worth to YOU, and how much you are willing to pay for a fun, but VERY short experience.
Conclusion: It seems like almost every single game that does something new or cool for the first time is very short, take portal for example, it was a completely new and awesome puzzle game but only lasted about two hours and it always ends up coming down to how much you are willing to pay for a very short but awesome experience. There IS a surprisingly alright story, and this is how the three endings are broken up, whoever you choose to serve will determine where you will go next, but be careful, you die in two out of the three endings.
It is easy to ignore backgrounds while in the heat of battle...don't.
SanDisk was first out of the gate with a 16GB microSDHC card, but Toshiba's just two months behind with the announcement of its iteration. Slated for mass production in January of 2009, the capacious SD-C16G should provide plenty of room for your EMF albums and that Rage Against the Machine discography. In related news, Tosh also introduced the soon-to-come SD-F16G and SD-F08G, 16GB / 8GB Class 6 SDHC cards that should handle even the quickest of cameras when they launch over the next few months. No prices to chew on just yet, but we'd wager they'll be competitive.
An awkward cross-breed time-travelling mongrel is a fairly fitting description for this mod that's jammed an Atari 2600 emulator into the shell of a Sega Game Gear. Sure, it's not the prettiest of mods, but taking the '80s-era Atari and squishing it into the '90s-era Sega took some tricky work: it has a built-in 40-game Atari chip, and can actually take 2600 carts into a slot on the back. The resulting "Atari Game 2600" has a 2.5-inch screen and can go for 7-8 hours on AA batteries, which seems pretty impressive.
Some gadgets are a work of art right out of the box, but for many people it is not enough to have the same beautiful piece of technology that everyone else has. So, they spend a little extra money to customize the product to their specific tastes. There are several ways to go about this, from custom paint jobs to skins, to laser etching. Hell, it can be as easy as throwing a few stickers on there to add some flair. So, my question is: do you like to decorate your gadgets?
Adafruit has just put their Uzebox based console into production. The Fuzebox is an 8bit game console based around the ATmega644-20PU microcontroller. Full 256 color 240×224 resolution video output is provide by either a composite connection or svideo. There is an SD card slot on board for future expansion. The chip takes care of all the I/O, so you just need to write your game code in C on top of it.
The kit looks easy to assemble. Almost all of the components are through-hole. The video chip is SMD and comes presoldered to the board. The kit has two SNES controller ports included, but you can use NES ports too. There are three ways you can load your program onto the board: 6pin FTDI, ICSP10, and ICSP6.
A couple of years after opening, a "game addiction" clinic in Amsterdam is still doing swift business, but its founder says he has realized that game addiction isn't really the problem. In fact, Smith & Jones Centre founder Keith Bakker says that 90 percent of those diagnosed with addiction are actually just compulsive gamers, pegging excessive gaming as a social problem rather than a psychological one. (And hey, he realized this just a little more than a year after the AMA. Great job!)
Not that the clinic has stopped taking money to treat over-gaming, oh, no, no, no. They've simply focused treatment on teaching patients more social skills to help re-acclimate them to the world. Right ... so, basically, Bakker has become Mystery.
Do what now? This must be the season for left-field consoles to materialize.
The MyRacer is an oddly named handheld games device from Korea. It comes with a 320x240 color screen, an MP3 player, subway map and the ability to play Adobe Flash Lite files. It ships with Mini game heaven, Super Action Hero, Penoa jeongi, Punupunupong, and Come2us soccer 2006.
The 1GB of storage can hold up to 1000 Flash Lite games. Actually, I'm not sure there are 1000 Flash Lite Games. Maybe use it for MP3s instead. If you can't contain your enthusiasm, this will set you back 90,000 Won ($70-ish).
It's Thanksgiving Day here in the states, which means that unless Lara Croft and Nathan Drake have a love child and proceed to shoot up a shopping mall, you're probably not going to hear a whole lot from us today. Even Ludwig, a South African, likes to pretend he's sharing in the festivities with a little faux-turkey he makes every year from hut roof shavings and leopard paws.
But we wanted to have a place for you, the Joystiq Biomass, to commune with each other and share what you're thankful for in gaming this year. It can be a developer, a favorite game, a new mechanic, anything: It's your choice. Heck, we don't even care if you're bursting to give thanks for something non-gaming, as long as we're all together.
We're a few years into this generation. We're getting increasingly comfortable with the hardware. While we're not ready to move on, we still wonder: How much longer will it last?
Microsoft's Chris Lewis thinks it's going to last much longer, because of things like scalability. "When you look at NXE, that is a complete revision of the interface and the look and feel and every aspect of the system," Lewis says. Continuing, he adds that this sort of thing is not predicated by new hardware and that Microsoft has done that through software and services.
"So if you think of that scalability and the opportunity to enhance and develop what we do with this platform, then I think it’s very, very possible — and indeed appropriate — that this generation will be longer," says Lewis. "But we’re not specific about when that will happen, and we don’t have a particular timeline that we share right now. But as I said, there’s a lot more still to come."
Moreover the upgraded SKUs help lengthen the live of the console. A longer generation is win-win. Win for companies because they get a better handle on the product. Win for consumers because we get better games and don't have to buy more consoles.
Welcome to this week's Games Update, our weekly summary featuring all new product arrivals from the last seven days.
This is another busy week as the Japanese games came in to join the flow. Realize your dream of becoming a star in You're in the movies. Be the director, producer and actor in your own story and spice it up with all kinds of gimmicks.
You might discover you have more talents than you give yourself credit for.
Aside from the stars the real life stars, classic game characters make their appearance this holiday season. Sega's key mascot Sonic the hedgehog is Unleashed to save the day. Go catch him and engage in some fast paced adventures.
Speed is essential for a ninja. Naruto is in two places at once. Gekitou Ninja Taisen EX 3 is out on Nintendo Wii, prove your skills as you mow down your enemies and combat one to one in boss fights.
In The Broken Bond [Asian & US vers.] Naruto's friendship with Sasuke will face the ultimate test. Can the fox spirit posessed youth save his friend from self destruction?
Travelling is another good way to spend your holidays. Join Lara Croft, the hottest archaeologist on her quest to uncover ancient secrets in Underworld, see the sights and display the moves. You'd realize that being an archaeologist is not just about history and books, there's a lot of ninja work involved.
Horizontal action or one to one arena styled fights, the battle between the vampires and the Belmont clan never ceases. In fact, the fighting spirit has spreaded over all characters, transforming the good against evil struggle into a massive battle event. In the new Nintendo Wii fighter Castlevania: Judgement, pit Belmont, Alucard and Dracula against each other.
Good games always get localized, the strategy RPG Luminous Arc 2 and the fantasy farming fun Rune Factory 2 are available as US versions. Both games carry a bit of sword and shield action, while Luminous Arc 2 requires a bit of military tactics while Rune Factory 2 combines it with nurturance.
Move to a greener environment in Animal Crossing: City Life. Enjoy all the possibilities life brings you and all the activities in an ideal city. Move a little further into the rural areas in Rune Factory Frontier. Laguna and Mist from the first Rune Factory game are back and are ready to make their farms prosper.
Sony PSP is another console that gets a lot of titles this week. Koei's massive crossover, Musou Orochi 2, the card battle Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Tag Force 3 [Asian & JPN vers.], the digital novel inspired fighter Higurashi Daybreak Portable, Falcom's most well known RPG trilogy Sora no Kiseki Box Set, and Kenka Banchou 3 [Asian & JPN vers.] that redefines masculinity.
Patapon 2 [Asian & JPN vers.], the family rhythm game is released just in time for the Christmas holidays. With its new network mode, gather a bunch of friends or family members together and engage in a battle that includes cooperation, a sense of rhythm, stylishly cute characters with next to no violence.
As usually, here's a summary of all new releases from this week, followed by a quick preview of what is expected to be hot next week.
Xbox360™
Agarest Senki: Rapier Lance JPN US$ 68.90
FarCry 2 JPN US$ 68.90
Guitar Hero World Tour (Band Kit) ASIA US$ 289.90
Guitar Hero World Tour (Guitar Bundle) ASIA US$ 129.90
HORI Fighting Stick EX2 JPN US$ 79.90
Karaoke Revolution: American Idol Encore 2 Bundle US US$ 69.90
Left 4 Dead US US$ 64.90
Lips US US$ 69.90
Major League Baseball 2K8 JPN US$ 59.90
NCAA Basketball 09 US US$ 64.90
Naruto: The Broken Bond US US$ 64.90
Need for Speed Undercover US US$ 64.90
Rock Band Track Pack: Vol. 2 US US$ 34.90
Sonic Unleashed ASIA US$ 49.90
The Last Remnant US US$ 64.90
The Last Remnant (English language Version) ASIA US$ 49.90
The Last Remnant (Japanese language Version) ASIA US$ 49.90
Tomb Raider Underworld ASIA US$ 49.90
Tomb Raider Underworld US US$ 64.90
World Soccer Winning Eleven 2009 ASIA US$ 49.90
World Soccer Winning Eleven 2009 JPN US$ 79.90
You're in the Movies ASIA US$ 59.90
You're in the Movies US US$ 79.90
PlayStation3™
Alone in the Dark: Inferno US US$ 54.90
Bluetooth Headset US US$ 49.90
Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway JPN US$ 68.90
Guitar Hero World Tour (Guitar Bundle) ASIA US$ 129.90
Karaoke Revolution: American Idol Encore 2 Bundle US US$ 69.90
NCAA Basketball 09 US US$ 64.90
NPPL Championship Paintball 2009 US US$ 54.90
Need for Speed Undercover US US$ 64.90
PlayStation3 Console (HDD 80GB Fallout 3 Collector's Edition Pack) ASIA US$ 469.90
Power Smash 3 / Virtua Tennis 3 (Sega the Best) JPN US$ 34.90
Rock Band Track Pack: Vol. 2 US US$ 34.90
The Eye of Judgment Biolith Rebellion 3 Expansion Pack (Voucher incl. 2 Bonus Special Creature Cards) ASIA N/A
Tomb Raider Underworld ASIA US$ 59.90
Tomb Raider Underworld US US$ 64.90
Winning Eleven x UEFA Champions League Anniversary Box JPN N/A
Wireless Headset ASIA US$ 44.90
Wireless Keypad ASIA US$ 49.90
World Soccer Winning Eleven 2009 ASIA US$ 49.90
World Soccer Winning Eleven 2009 JPN US$ 79.90
Nintendo Wii™
Animal Crossing: City Folk US US$ 54.90
Block Party US US$ 44.90
Castlevania: Judgment US US$ 54.90
Cooking Mama: World Kitchen US US$ 54.90
Gallop & Ride US US$ 24.90
Guitar Hero World Tour (Band Kit) US US$ 289.90
Hataraku Hit JPN US$ 49.00
Hori Classic Controller (Black) JPN US$ 29.90
Hori Classic Controller (White) JPN US$ 29.90
Karaoke Revolution: American Idol Encore 2 Bundle US US$ 69.90
Kotoba no Puzzle: Mojipittan Wii Deluxe JPN US$ 39.90
Luxor 3 US US$ 34.90
Merv Griffin's Crosswords US US$ 24.90
NPPL Championship Paintball 2009 US US$ 54.90
Naruto Shippuuden: Gekitou Ninja Taisen EX 3 JPN US$ 64.90
Need for Speed Undercover US US$ 54.90
PBR: Out of the Chute US US$ 34.90
Rock Band Track Pack: Vol. 2 US US$ 34.90
Rune Factory Frontier JPN US$ 64.90
Sonic Unleashed US US$ 59.90
Tomb Raider Underworld US US$ 44.90
Ultimate I Spy US US$ 34.90
Wii Speak US US$ 34.90
PlayStation2™
Dynasty Warriors 6 US US$ 34.90
Junjou Romanchika JPN US$ 68.90
Junjou Romanchika [Limited Edition] JPN N/A
Mana Khemia 2: Ochita Gakuen to Renkinjutsushi Tachi (Gust Best) JPN US$ 39.90
Moe Moe 2-ji Taisen Ryoku Deluxe JPN US$ 68.90
Monochrome Factor: Cross Road JPN US$ 68.90
Monochrome Factor: Cross Road [Limited Edition] JPN US$ 89.90
Murasaki no Honoo JPN US$ 68.90
Murasaki no Honoo [Limited Edition] JPN US$ 79.90
NPPL Championship Paintball 2009 US US$ 34.90
Naxat Soft Reachmania Vol. 1: CR Galaxy Angel JPN US$ 59.90
Naxat Soft Reachmania Vol. 1: CR Galaxy Angel [First Print Limited Edition] JPN US$ 99.90
Need for Speed Undercover US US$ 44.90
PBR: Out of the Chute US US$ 24.90
Rock Band Track Pack: Vol. 2 US US$ 34.90
Sonic Unleashed US US$ 34.90
Nintendo DS™
Bakumatsu Koihana: Shinsengumi DS JPN US$ 42.90
Bakumatsu Koihana: Shinsengumi DS [Limited Edition] JPN US$ 64.90
Disney Club Penguin: Elite Penguin Force US US$ 34.90
Guitar Hero on Tour Decades (software only) US US$ 39.90
Guitar Hero on Tour Decades (w/ Guitar Hero Peripheral) US US$ 59.90
Guitar Hero: On Tour (software only) US US$ 39.90
Guitar Rock Tour US US$ 34.90
Higurashi no Nakukoru ni Kizuna: Dai-Ni-Kan - Sou JPN US$ 39.90
Higurashi no Nakukoru ni Kizuna: Dai-Ni-Kan - Sou [Limited Edition] JPN N/A
Kaite Oboeru: Dora-Gana JPN US$ 39.90
Keiki J.B. Harold Jikenbo: Manhattan Requiem & Kiss of Murder JPN US$ 44.90
Layton Kyouju to Saigo no Jikan Ryokou JPN US$ 48.90
Luminous Arc 2 US US$ 44.90
Metal Slug 7 US US$ 34.90
Moshimo!? Kinen Surunara... JPN US$ 48.90
Moshimo!? Saibanin ni Eribaretara... JPN US$ 48.90
My Stop Smoking Coach with Allen Carr US US$ 34.90
Petz Rescue Endangered Paradise US US$ 34.90
Robocalypse US US$ 34.90
Rune Factory 2: A Fantasy Harvest Moon US US$ 34.90
Shiseido Beauty Solution Kaihatsu Center Kanshuu: Project Beauty JPN US$ 48.90
Shiseido Beauty Solution Kaihatsu Center Kanshuu: Project Beauty (w/ DS Scan) JPN US$ 59.90
Simple DS Series Vol. 45: The Misshitsukara no Dasshutsu 2 JPN US$ 28.90
Tamagotchi Kira Kira Omisecchi JPN US$ 48.90
Tecmo Bowl: Kickoff US US$ 39.90
The Conveni DS: Otona no Keiei Ryoku Training JPN US$ 49.90
Tomb Raider Underworld US US$ 34.90
Tropix...Your Island Getaway DS US US$ 34.90
Sony PSP™
Clear Case Portable 3 (Graphite) JPN US$ 9.99
Eiyuu Densetsu: Sora no Kiseki Set JPN US$ 95.00
Higurashi Daybreak Portable JPN US$ 58.90
Higurashi Daybreak Portable [Limited Box] JPN N/A
Hoshiiro no Okurimono Portable JPN US$ 58.90
Kenka Banchou 3: Zenkoku Seiha ASIA US$ 42.90
Kenka Banchou 3: Zenkoku Seiha JPN US$ 48.90
Lost Regnum: Makutsu no Koutei (Ertain the Best) JPN US$ 19.90
Moe Moe 2-ji Taisen Ryoku Deluxe JPN US$ 48.90
Musou Orochi: Maou Sairin JPN US$ 52.90
Need for Speed Undercover US US$ 44.90
Patapon 2: Don-Chaka JPN US$ 48.90
Patapon 2: Don-Chaka ASIA US$ 42.90
Patapon 2: Don-Chaka (Winter Gift Pack) JPN N/A
Peep Guard Filter Portable 3 JPN US$ 7.99
Shaun White Snowboarding US US$ 44.90
Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters GX: Tag Force 3 ASIA US$ 46.90
Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters GX: Tag Force 3 JPN US$ 48.90
PC Games
Imperium Romanum Gold (DVD-ROM) ASIA US$ 39.90
The Lord of the Rings: Mines of Moria (DVD-ROM) US US$ 44.90
The Lord of the Rings: Mines of Moria [Collector's Edition] (DVD-ROM) US US$ 89.90
The Political Machine 2008 (DVD-ROM) ASIA US$ 34.90
The Sims 2 Mansion & Garden Stuff (English Version) ASIA US$ 19.90
Tomb Raider Underworld (DVD-ROM) US US$ 44.90
Game Guides and Magazines
Famitsu DS + Wii [January 2009] JPN US$ 9.90
Hobby Japan [January 2009] JPN N/A
Kimi no Yuusha Complete Guide JPN US$ 24.90
Knights in the Nightmare Official Setting Sourcebook ~Dept. Heaven Episodes World Guidance~ JPN US$ 37.90
Left 4 Dead: Prima Official Game Guide US US$ 19.90
Mirror's Edge: Prima Official Game Guide US US$ 24.90
Rune Factory 2 Official Strategy Guide US US$ 17.90
Saihai no Yukue Perfect Guide JPN US$ 23.90
Tomb Raider: Underworld: The Official Guide US US$ 19.90
V-Jump [January 2009] JPN US$ 8.90
Weekly Famitsu No. 1042 (2008 12/05+12) JPN US$ 7.90
Video Game Soundtracks and Movies
Best of the Best Collector's Edition US US$ 15.97
Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway Original Soundtrack US US$ 15.97
Gears of War 2 The Soundtrack US US$ 15.97
Gessei No Canon (Galaxy Angel 2 Theme Song) (~Yui Sakakibara) JPN US$ 11.90
Gessei No Canon (Galaxy Angel 2 Theme Song) [CD+DVD Limited Edition] (~Yui Sakakibara) JPN US$ 19.90
Hanayoi Romanesque Kuchibiru Hana Toiki JPN US$ 29.90
Hanayoi Romanesque Mikazuki Ha Sora Ni Nokoshita Bokura No Shokon JPN US$ 37.90
Hi Touch! / Ashita Wa Kitto (Pocket Monsters Diamond & Pearl New Intro and Outro Theme) JPN US$ 12.90
Hoshiiro No Okurimono Character Song & Drama CD Soya Narutaki (~Daisuke Hirakawa, Daisuke Kishio) JPN US$ 21.90
Ragnarok Online 6th Anniversary Image Song Kamigami No Uta (~Ceui) JPN US$ 14.90
Sokoku No Kusabi - Hiiro No Kakera 3 - Original Soundtrack JPN US$ 24.90
Tales of the Abyss Sound Episode Vol.1 (~Chihiro Suzuki, Yukana, Takehito Koyasu) JPN US$ 28.90
Togeki '08 Super Battle DVD Vol.4 Guilty Gear XX Accent Core JPN US$ 39.90
Togeki '08 Super Battle DVD Vol.5 Super Street Fighter IIX JPN US$ 39.90
Togeki '08 Super Battle DVD Vol.6 Arcana Heart 2 JPN US$ 39.90
World Soccer Winning Eleven 2009 Music Collection - Around the World JPN US$ 28.90
Yusha No Kuse Ni Namaiki Da 1 & 2 Giant Recital JPN US$ 21.90
Here is a preview of what are expected to be hot next week:
Xbox360™
Naruto: The Broken Bond ASIA US$ 49.90
Prince of Persia ASIA US$ 49.90
PlayStation3™
Prince of Persia US US$ 64.90
Prince of Persia ASIA US$ 59.90
Pro Yakyuu Spirits 5 Kanzenban [First Print Limited Edition] JPN US$ 79.90
Nintendo Wii™
Kaze no Klonoa: Door to Phantomile JPN US$ 49.90 PlayStation2™
Dragon Ball Z: Infinite World JPN US$ 59.90
Pro Yakyuu Spirits 5 Kanzenban [First Print Limited Edition] JPN US$ 68.90
Nintendo DS™
Chrono Trigger DS US US$ 44.90
Hajime no Ippo The Fighting! DS JPN US$ 48.90
Prince of Persia: The Fallen King US US$ 34.90
Sony PSP™
LocoRoco 2 ASIA US$ 42.90
LocoRoco 2 JPN US$ 48.90
Extreme-Mods.com would like to invite you to our Black Friday Sale starting this thursday through sunday. We are starting this sale a day early and ending it on sunday so we don't bog down our servers on Friday. Just use the coupon code: blkfriday to recieve a 10% discount on your entire order with us! We don't have many discounts like this, so take advantage while you can If you have any questions please don't hesitate to contact us. Have a great holiday season from all of us at Extreme-Mods.com!
Five new titles have taken the top positions in the Japanese software sales chart for the week ended November 24, according to data provided by Media Create.
Wii title, Animal Crossing: City Folk, debuted in the top spot. Nintendo's latest title in the series, which makes use of the Wii Speak microphone and channel, sold 305,000 units, followed by the Chrono Trigger remake for the DS in second place with 271,000 units and Gundam vs. Gundam for the PlayStation Portable in third place with 267,000 units.
Square Enix's The Last Remnant for the Xbox 360 hit 101,000 units and debuted at number four, while Sega's Saka DS: Touch and Go landed in fifth place at 72,000 units.
Hoshi no Kirby: Ultra Super Deluxe for the DS came in at number six, Wagamama Fashion Girls Mode, also for the DS, came in seventh and Rhythm Tengoku Gold took eighth place.
Closing off the chart was Pokémon Platinum on the DS at nine and the PlayStation 3 title Way of the Samurai 3 at ten.
Japanese software sales chart follows:
01. Animal Crossing: City Folk (Wii)
02. Chrono Trigger DS (DS)
03. Gundam vs. Gundam (PSP)
04. The Last Remnant (Xbox 360)
05. Saka DS: Touch and Go (DS)
06. Hoshi no Kirby: Ultra Super Deluxe (DS)
07. Wagamama Fashion Girls Mode (DS)
08. Rhythm Tengoku Gold (DS)
09. Pokémon Platinum (DS)
10. Way of the Samurai 3 (PS3)
New figure come along for this weeks weekly console sales reading for Japan with some changes shown below:
Nintendo DSi: 88,843
Playstation Portable: 61,226
Nintendo Wii: 35,298
Nintendo DS Lite: 18,580
Playstation 3: 17,436
Xbox 360: 15,474
Playstation 2: 5,281
DSi is still on top, up roughly 3,000. PSP is second, jumps hugely by 23,000. Wii is 3rd and also up by 9,000. The old DS Lite makes a small comeback, up 15,000. PS3 comes 5th, sales stay the same from last week. Xbox 360 is 5th, sales double from last week (up 7,000). Last in line is the PS2, the only one to go down and just by 200.
All in all, it seems a good week for console sale in Japan despite the current economic conditions. Figures from M-Create.
We go once more into the breach, dear Survivors, with some additional Left 4 Dead planned for this weekend. Perhaps I'll call up my video-podcasting buddies for some much-needed training before our next session.
There's a copy of Dead Space that also needs some attention — as does this made from scratch apple pie. Other than that, looks like I'll be shipping Meat Bun orders to those lucky enough to profit from our Black Friday blowout. And maybe I'll get some of that sleep back that I lost worrying about inventory flying out of stock...
Anyway, what are your gaming plans for this post-Thanksgiving weekend? Any leftovers?
Welcome to this week's Movie/Music news roundup, containing new Japanese and Hong Kong Video and Music releases from this week listed at Play-Asia.com. Around 700 new items are covered in this week, including new J-Pop, Anime as well as Japanese, Hong Kong and Western movie releases and much more.
The release of Gears of War 2 created a stir in the gaming community, the blood pounding action and the stunning graphics combined to create a memorable experience for all those who have played it. And these are all highlighted by the Original Soundtrack.
Written by Hollywood composer Steve Jablonsky, the orchestral themes bring out the grandness of the game's landscape and the excitement that comes with the combat.
While Gears of War 2 uses music written by a Hollywood musician, the Winning Eleven 2009 Soundtrack contains the combined efforts of the veteran composers with the rising stars in the English music industry. Let the soccer spirit spread through music and ignite the flames in your spirit.
The fighting tournament in the game world is carrying on with the Togeki Series. Aspiring participants and novices alike should learn a thing from the veterans. See the smooth strings of attacks launched as the players face off with challenging opponents. The series continues with Guilty Gear XX Accent Core, Super Street Fighter IIX and Arcana Heart 2.
Here's a summary of all new releases that were published between Saturday, November 22nd and Friday, November 28th. If some specific item that you are looking for is missing, please don't hesitate to contact our customer service with your request.
J-Pop Music releases (213)
ENKA Music releases (35)
Anime Soundtracks & Drama CDs (67)
Video Game Soundtracks (12)
Hong Kong Version Music releases (6)
Blu-ray Disc Movies (58)
Anime & Animation (95)
Hong Kong Version Movie releases (38)
Japanese Movies (35)
Non-Japanese Movies / Japanese Version (122)
J-Pop DVD releases (17)
Misc Japanese Movie releases (7)
Idol DVD (2)
Interestingly enough, a lot of the gripes you readers had with the original Rock Band were addressed by Activision in the rivaling Guitar Hero: World Tour (cymbals, anyone?), but we're pretty sure the picky ones out there still have something to complain about. And seriously, when dropping upwards of $180 to $190 for the full-on band kit, you absolutely have a right to nitpick. Now that you've hopefully rocked through a few set lists, how are you enjoying things? Are the revamped / new instruments to your liking? Are the sensors accurate enough? Do you wish there was a freestyle mode in order to give real drummers free reign over what beats they play? Is your equipment holding up under the intense pressure of rockin' it all night long? Grab a mic and spit your feelings (in rhyme or prose, whatever) below.
Another week, another TUD. What's TUD? TELL US DAMMIT. So do that, TELL US DAMMIT. Here's how it works:
We ask a question, you answer it. Simple and no strings attached! This isn't some marketing survey or whatever. It's an emotional investment in you. Yes, we're interested in knowing you, You probably know ****tons about us — more than you even want to, we're sure. But, hey, we'd like to know about you. That way you won't be some faceless blob — and we might feel a tinge of guilt when we ban your ass. Or not, because really we're incapable of human emotion. Smooches.
Question: Did you buy any games or game hardware on Black Friday? If so, what?
If the debut of Animal Crossing: City Folk is any indication, Nintendo has another hit on its hands. City Folk landed at #1, with Wild World For the DS still in the top 30.
City Folk for the Wii was just one of five new debuts claiming half of the top ten, beating out Square Enix's Chrono Trigger DS and The Last Remnant. Another strong Xbox 360 Japanese-style role-playing game that should help Microsoft's fortunes overseas. Former chart-topper Kirby will likely move over 500,000 copies of Hoshi no Kirby: Ultra Super Deluxe by the end of the year.
A handful of PlayStation 3 titles show stronger sales legs than their counterparts, potentially a good sign for Sony in Japan. Media Create sales for November 17 to 24 are after the jump.
01. Animal Crossing: City Folk (Wii) - 305,000 / NEW
02. Chrono Trigger DS (DS) - 271,000 / NEW
03. Mobile Suit Gundam: Gundam vs. Gundam (PSP) - 267,000 / NEW
04. The Last Remnant (Xbox 360) - 102,000 / NEW
05. Saka-Tsuku DS: Touch and Direct (DS) - 72,000 / NEW
06. Hoshi no Kirby: Ultra Super Deluxe (DS) - 55,000 / 419,000
07. Wagamama Fashion Girls Mode (DS) - 25,000 / 209,000
08. Rhythm Tengoku Gold (DS) - 25,000 / 1,184,000
09. Pokémon Platinum (DS) - 24,000 / 1,941,000
10. Way of the Samurai 3 (PS3) - 20,000 / 101,000
11. Wii Fit (Wii)
12. Tongari Boushi to Mahou no 365 Nichi (DS)
13. Prinny: Ore ga Shujinkou de Iinsuka? (PSP)
14. Gran Turismo 5 Prologue Spec III (PS3)
15. Koihime Musou (PS2)
16. Otomedius Gorgeous (Xbox 360)
17. Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G (PSP the Best) (PSP)
18. Fushigi no Dungeon Fuurai no Shiren DS 2: Sabaku no Majou (DS)
19. DS Nishimura Kyotaro Suspense 2 Shin Tantei Series: Kanezawa kankan gokkan no kyoukoku fukushuu no kage (DS)
20. Ryuusei no Rockman 3: Black Ace (DS)
21. Mario Kart Wii (Wii)
22. Wii Music (Wii)
23. Secret Agent Clank (PSP)
24. Grand Theft Auto IV (PS3)
25. Koisuru Otome to Shugo no Tate: The Shield of AIGIS (PS2)
26. Resistance 2 (PS3)
27. Katekyoo Hitman Reborn! Kindan no Yami no Delta (PS2)
28. Family Ski World Ski & Snowboard (Wii)
29. Animal Crossing: Wild World (DS)
30. Personal Trainer: Walking (DS)
I would really have liked to get at least one hour of fun, overall whether or not you should buy this game comes down to how much is 400 
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