Archive for the 'Gaming' Category

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Lots of Wii News!

Published on Thursday, September 14, 2006 in Gaming, Noteworthy, Software, Technology, TV's and Wireless. Closed

Before I get to my other posts, there has been a lot of Wii information released today, and I don’t have the time to post about them all, so I’ll give you the lowdown:

USA TODAY have posted an article detailed the release information of the Wii, as well as the box that will be used (above). [link]
Games downloaded to the virtual console, will be tied to a user’s Wii account, so that in the event of something happening and all the games are lost, then they can all be re-downloaded for free. [link]
USB storage is initially limited to flash drives, and USB hard-drive support is not yet included, however they have not yet planned any USB hard drive compatibility yet. [link]
First-party Wii titles (ie, produced by Nintendo) will be region-free, however whether 3rd party games will be locked, is upto the manufacturer. It is not yet known though whether GameCube titles, which are region locked, will play in all Wiis, though they are supposedly fully compatible. [link]
The Wii will not be supporting DVD playback of films. Kerrin Kaplan, Nintendo of America’s vice president of marketing and corporate affairs confirmed with IGN today. The decision was made because it made the Wii cheaper, and that most people already have DVD players, so there is no need for the function. [link]
Wii Sports, which is bundled with the Wii, will include Tennis, Baseball, Golf, Bowling and Boxing. [link]

That about covers it! I told you there was a lot, I’ll bring you more news as it comes as European pricing has not yet been disclosed.

Wii Pricing and Dates for America: November 19th

Published on Thursday, September 14, 2006 in Gaming, Noteworthy and Technology. Closed

It looks like Northa America will be getting the Wii earlier than Japan which is quite strange. The details were also spilled early in by Seattle PI, then removed and re-instated. But at Nintendo’s NYC press conference the details were official revealed. The Americas will receive the Wii at a MSRP of $249 USD (or $280 CDN in Canada), in only white (therefore one configuration). Wii Sports, a game that has bowling, tennis and other sports games will be bundled with the console. Signiture game titles are Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, and Excitetruck both of which are available at launch. These first-party games will cost $49.99 US, and there are a lot of third-party games as well.

“These titles represent fantastic trio of first-party titles. There’s nothing like Legend of Zelda, first time we’ve had a Zelda title on launch. Gives us a huge boost and momentum right out of the box. We will continue to make those big masterpiece titles for the core gamer. Because of Wii remote and nunchuk, this Zelda game plays like no other. If you played all day, you’d only scratch the surface. This is the best gotta-have-it title since Mario 64.” – Reggie

A new section has been created in the Wii menu. Called Wii channels these offer different areas, ie) games, news, shop, weather, etc. A downloaded classic game will have its own channel. Starting on launch day, until the end of year, Nintendo offer 30 legacy titles. Next year, ten new titles will be released a month. 500 Wii Points for NES Games, 800 Wii points for SNES, 1000 for N64 Games. 2000 Wii Points for $20 USD. Wii points are used to buy things, like MS points for the 360. 2000 Wii points will go for $24CDN in Canada.
You can read Engadget’s full article, giving you a blow by blow of the event with photos.

Nintendo’s Japanese Wii Conference

Published on Thursday, September 14, 2006 in Gaming, Noteworthy, Technology and Wireless. 2 Comments

nintendo japan wii conference

Today at Nintendo’s Japanese Wii Conference, they revealed the pricing and more details of the Japanese launch for the Nintendo Wii. Japan receive their Wii on December 2nd, which is less than a month after the US get it (November 19th). The price will be 25 000 yen, which includes tax. That is roughly £113 or $213 USD. Nintendo’s Japanese press release states that the following will be included with the Wii:

Wii Console
Wii Remote with strap
Nunchuck attachment
Wii AC adapter
Wii A/V cable
Wii Console Stand
Sensor bar
Sensor bar stand
2 AA batteries

Joystiq has some sources, and used Engadget’s Japanese translator to get most of the information. Photos are from Japanese blog Famitsu. European and US details have been revealed at separate conferences, I’ll post more details on that later.

Links for 13/09/2006

Published on Wednesday, September 13, 2006 in Gaming, Noteworthy, PC, Random Stuff, Software and Technology. Closed

The shorts for today (and some from the past) are:

Rotating Lego Chaingun that shoots elastic bands at 11 rounds per second – with video [link]
Why Linux doesn’t need defragging (good article) [link]
World’s worst hacker – IRC transcript (absolutely hilarious) [link]
iTunes 7 for Windows includes a Software Update like app to update Quicktime and iTunes [link]
Joystiq’s Wii rumour roundup [link]

The Xbox 360 Laptop!

Published on Wednesday, September 13, 2006 in Gaming, Noteworthy, PC, Technology and TV's. Closed

Although this is a couple of days old, I thought I should blog about it because it is really unique. You may have seen somewhere on the internet, devices that are portable versions of old consoles — ie, the N64, NES, etc — well this is like that, except it is unbelievably small. Folded up it seems smaller than the 360 itself, with a full keyboard and 17″ High-Def monitor. Now that is true portable gaming! Ben Heckendorn has created this masterpiece which is 2.8″ thick and weighs14 pounds. It also has a built-in WiFi adapter as well as a water cooling system, for noiseless gaming. And he all did this in 3 months!
On Ben’s site you can go to the final page and view the finished pictures, or browse through the four pages which detail his steps with plenty of pictures. This is one article which is definitely worth reading.

Engadget’s Hands-on with Apple’s new devices…

Published on Tuesday, September 12, 2006 in Apple, Gaming, Movies, Podcasting, Technology and TV's. Closed

Engadget were at Apple’s “It’s Showtime” press event today and they were able to get hands on with all the new releases, including the iTV prototype, which was a big shocker. Check out the links for all the juicy pictures.

2G iPod nano hands-on [link]
5G iPod v2 hands-on [link]
iTV hands-on [link]
iPod Shuffle and new headphones hands-on [link]

They all look really good, and I’m even impressed with the iTV, even though that hasn’t been officially released. I’m still not sure about the shuffle though, however I do like the nano now. I do want to try them out, but my nearest Apple store is in Birmingham and we won’t go there for no reason just to visit an Apple Store. The other one is in London, and I don’t think we’ll visit it for a while. The other ‘tech’ shops around town are pretty rubbish. They wouldn’t have the new iPods for a while. The Currys.digital shop still has the iPod nano labelled under Hard-disk player. The obviously don’t know anything, but I was amazed to see a MacBook there. I tried it out and it was very fast, I really want one now. After I finished playing with it, one of the store clerks went and started that god-awful screensaver thing they have. I hate those so much; they aren’t really going to get customers to buy the product if they can’t test it.

iTunes 7 – With Movie Store!

Published on Tuesday, September 12, 2006 in Apple, Gaming, Internet, Movies, Noteworthy, Podcasting, Software, Technology and TV's. Closed

The new version of iTunes has a lot of new features, you can find a good walkthrough of the main features at TUAW. These are the main enhancements:

TV Shows are available in h.264, in 640 x 480 which is up from 320 x 240.
You can update your iPod from right inside iTunes now, you don’t need to go to Preferences. You can say, “I want to sync the 10 most recent unwatched episides of all my TV shows.”
You can sync content between multiple computers as long as you have the same iTMS account and both the computers are authorised.
Coverflow mode allows you to scroll through the artwork of your music as if it was on a shelf.
Music Artwork can be downloaded free from Apple, and it will fill up all the missing artwork in your library!
“Today we’re starting out with films from Disney, Pixar, Touchstone, and Miramax – four studios owned by Disney. Today we’re making over 70 films agvailable online today including Pirates of the Caribbean. They’ll be available the same day they’re out on DVD.“
New movies will be $12.99 if you pre-order them or buy them during the first week. Other movies are $9.99. The movie store is integrated into iTunes and you can preview new releases in album cover flow mode. They will also be at 640 x 480 with Dolby Surround Sound. Initially it will be for the US only, but it will go international in 2007.
Games for iPod are $4.99 and only work with the 5G iPod (old and updated).
A refined look with sections for music, other content, playlists etc. It is not really too big, but it allows iTunes to flow more seamlessley. You have to see for yourself, it is hard to describe.

It is available for download now. I think that’s virtually it, I’ll update it if I find anything else.

The updated iPod

Published on Tuesday, September 12, 2006 in Apple, Gaming, Noteworthy, Software and Technology. Closed

So no 6G iPod with real video capabilities, but an updated ‘version 2′ iPod, if you may call it that. So what’s new? Well for starters, there is a new 80GB model, which has the same size as the 60GB. The battery life has been bumped upto 20 hours of music, and 6 and a half hours of video, that is of course on the 80GB model. There is a search capability, so you can search through the music you have and find what you want easily. You can watch movies and TV shows from the iTunes ~~Music~~ store (more on that in a separate post) on the 60% brighter screen. There are also dedicated games for iPod, including Texas Holdem, Zuma, Pac Man, Tetris, Minigolf and many more. These are available for download from the iTunes store for $4.99 each. The 30GB is selling for £249/£189 and the 80GB for $349/£259.
Nothing else has changed from the iPod, so I would consider it a minor revision. I like the fact that Apple has included game support, and the search is also really good. The battery life is the thing I’m most pleased about as I have always thought it would be quite short for video (though I own a 4G iPod). I can’t wait to try it out, whenever I can. Though it is a shame there is no true video iPod yet, but I think Apple are working on a few things they need to work out.

The Wii’s sensor revealed, sort of!

Published on Saturday, July 1, 2006 in Gaming, Noteworthy, Technology and Wireless. Closed

Nintendo are going on a travelling tour demo-ing the Wii in many countries and letting the public have a go at them. Their latest stop, was Spain where a Revogamers.net managed to snap lots of photos of the event and a few videos as well. You definitely need to take a look at the photos, as they show some closeups that very few people managed to take. The most interesting photo, which wasn’t covered at E3, was the sensor that Nintendo uses to detect the field where the Wii’s controller works. A comparison shot is shown above, however we don’t know how close the pen is to the sensor, so we can’t really grasp the size. But, assuming the pen is directly under the sensor, I think it does look quite nice, though it may not be very discrete with some TV sets.

Links for June 30

Published on Friday, June 30, 2006 in Apple, Gaming, Noteworthy, Software and Technology. Closed

The shorts for Friday June 30^th 2006.

DocCRP’s Wii and PS3 comparison images. Looking small! (above) [link]
Beneath the Wii’s mysterious flap — SD Slot and Sync button [link]
Mac OS X 10.4.7 now available for download via Software Update [link] and re-release for Intel Macs [link]
Get iClip free only today from MacZot [link]