Sony Heads get mixed up


First I'd like to apologise for our 2 week hiatus. Now onto the news.

Fresh off the release of the PS3, worldwide several important members of Sony are leaving their positions and moving to others. The list includes Ken Kutaragi, Jack Tretton, Kaz Hirai, Akira Sato and David Reeves. Kutaragi is now chairman of Sony. Hirai is filling the position and is now the president of SCEA.

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Command and Conquer coming to the 360

The upcoming game in the Command and Conquer series, Command and Conquer Tiberium Wars, which was previously stated for release only PC will also be coming to Microsoft's home console, the Xbox 360.

The game will be available in 2007.

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In a recent press release from Nintendo, new information came out about the Wii's Weather Channel and the News Channel. And the info isn't good.

Everything does not seem to be going as planned for the Big N as they have announced that the neither the Weather or News channels will be available to use on launch day. Instead, the channels will be rolled out in the upcoming 2 months.

The "Forecast Channel" will be launched on December 20th. The News Channel, which will be powered by the associated press, will come out in '07 on Jan 27. Yes, that is more than two months after the launch of the system.

Obviously, things are not going as well as Nintendo had hoped. About the Opera web browser, the press release said:
"More information about the availability of the browser will be released in the coming weeks"
Hopefully the browser is available at launch and not 2 months later.

Press release below:

Nintendo’s new Wii(TM) video game system not only changes how people play games, but redefines how they interact with both the system and their televisions. With the Wii Menu, Nintendo offers a gateway to new experiences through a collection of interactive channels people can use to customize their gaming and entertainment options.

The Wii Menu serves as the main portal to the different functions of Wii, and is designed to evolve throughout the life of the system. Some functions can be used right out of the box and more will roll out during the next few weeks and into next year, with content continually changing over time. Wii goes on sale in the Americas Nov. 19 at an MSRP of $249.99.

“The diversity of the Wii Menu has something for both gamers and non-gamers,” says Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime. “The options exist to help introduce current non-players to Wii and help us bring gaming to the masses.”

On launch day, players who want to play a Wii game or a (TM) game simply pop in the disc, aim their motion-sensitive Wii Remote(TM) at the Wii Menu and click on the Disc Channel to start the game. It’s that simple. But some of the real fun with the Wii Menu comes with customization. The Mii(TM) Channel lets users create caricatures of themselves (or anyone else) that can be used first in Wii Sports(TM), a collection of five sports games packed in with the Wii system. Up to 10 Mii characters can be stored in a single Wii Remote, and players can carry them to a friend’s house and populate multiple Wii systems.

Using the Photo Channel, users can explore their creative talents by developing a slide show or showing off their best shots in an easy, fun way. With an SD memory card from a digital camera, users can display their photos on their televisions and perform basic editing and manipulation.

The Wii Shop Channel serves as Wii’s online storefront, where visitors can redeem Wii Points(TM) to download games or other items. Users need a high-speed Internet connection to access the Wii Shop Channel and choose from at least 12 classic Virtual Console(TM) games that will be ready to play on launch day. Some of the games a player can download include: Donkey Kong(R) (NES(R)), based on the arcade game of the same name; SimCity(R) (SNES(TM)),
where players get to build a city from the ground up, being responsible for each decision they make; Super Mario 64(R), the first-ever true 3-D game, which changed the face of gaming forever; Sonic the Hedgehog(R) (Genesis(R)), the fastest blue hedgehog on Earth whips through hair-raising loop-de-loops and into dizzying dives; and Bomberman(R) ‘93 (TurboGrafx16(TM)), the exciting, powered-up version that followed the original Bomberman(R).

More Virtual Console games will become available weekly every Monday following launch and by year’s end, gamers will be able to pick from a library of 30 or more classic games from the Nintendo Entertainment System(R), Super NES(R), Nintendo(R) 64, Sega Genesis(TM) and TurboGrafx16 consoles. Users buy Wii Points at retail or with a credit card in the Wii Shop Channel and redeem their Wii Points to download the classic games. NES games start at 500 Wii
Points, Super NES games start at 800 Wii Points and Nintendo 64 games start at 1,000 Wii Points. Sega Genesis games start at 800 Wii Points and TurboGrafx16 games start at 600 Wii Points.

The Wii Shop Channel is also where users will go to download the Opera browser that will let them surf the Internet from the comfort of their couches on Wii’s Internet Channel. More information about the availability of the browser will be released in the coming weeks.

On Dec. 20, Nintendo will roll out the Forecast Channel. Users will be able to access free local weather information, which is continually updated. Users can access worldwide weather information by browsing a 3-D globe. Weather information will be supplied by Weathernews. A high-speed Internet connection is required to access the Forecast Channel.

Then on Jan. 27, the Wii Menu News Channel will make headlines with the latest news from around the world provided by the Associated Press. A high-speed Internet connection is also needed to access the News Channel.

For more information about Wii and the Wii Menu, visit Wii.com.

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Nintendo Wii Commercials

Here are the commercials that aired last night for the Nintendo Wii, the first one aired during 'Dancing with the Stars', we are not sure about the second one. We have to directly link to the last one because for some reason, we do not have permission to embed it. Damn Google.

There are supposedly 4, we will bring you more as we get them.



Click here for second

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New Pokemon Revolution screens



Pokemon Revolution for the Wii will be one of if not the first game for the Wii that will have online play.

So without further ado, here are some links to the pics. Thanks to GoNintendo for the headsup.

It appears in the 'Roster Screen' that there will be Wii-DS compatibility. Even more excitingly, it should be wireless.

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Wii: The Movie - The Official Trailor


This video is, put simply, amazing. The Nintendo Wii will launch on Sunday, and this video will make all fanboys, and just gamers in general, squeal with glee. The guys who made the video make the Wii seem like the holy grail and that the world's future depends on it. Bravo to the guys who made this.

Thanks to reader Josh Gilfoy for the heads up!

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Above is the boxart to Asterix & Obelix XXL2 Mission Wifix for the Ds. I'm gonna go out on a limb and predict that this game is gonna be crap. Besides the pointless addition of an X to wifi, I also noticed something interesting about the art. There are four characters who strongly resemble video game icons. We have Lara Croft, Pacman, Sonic, and Mario complete with FLUDD. Lets just hope there is no courtroom drama to follow.

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Yay! Wii Accessories!

EBgames has a bunch of accessories for the Wii on their website. They're pretty interesting too.

First up, as you can see below, there is an SD card out with the name 'Wii' on it. Thats all, nothing special here. The only reason that is has the Wii on it is to try and get people who don't know much about videogames to buy it. This is because some people may worry about compatibility with the Wii, but if the name of the console is specifically on it, they will feel much better.


Second up we have a stand for the Wii, and the Wii-mote and nunchuck. It looks pretty slick from the photo, even though the photo appears to be a prototype picture because everything looks mildly photoshoped. It looks pretty good, hopefully the plastic won't be cheap and have a crappy feel to it. The product sells for $19.99, which isn't bad if you want to be able to keep all of your Wii things together.



Who really gives a crap about the following item. Its just a case to put game disks in with the word 'Wii' on it. Most people would rather keep their games in their respective boxes anyways, so this is kind of foolish.



Here is a case to hold the Wii-mote in along with some SD cards. Nothing much to see here either.


We also have to mention this 3rd party nunchuck, as seen in a previous post. This one is confirmed as it can be seen on the Walmart website. To quote the previous article we wrote about this,
"Its not just a nunchuck in itself, it also comes packed in with a stand that will hold the Wii console, SD cards, the nunchuck, and it also appears to be capable to hold the Wii-mote behind the nunchuck. It doesn't look very slick though. It looks kind of sloppy and cheaply made, but it is nice to see that metal will hold the nunchuck and Wii-mote instead of cheap plastic."

Last we have a Wii 'Sling' bag being advertised on Barnes & Noble. This is actually a pretty good idea! The size of the Wii is very small, making the system very portable, so why not have a specific bag to hold the system in, along with all of its games? The only problem with it is that you're basically advertising that you have a Wii in your bag, so prepare to get mugged.

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3rd Party Wii nunchuck!

There is a 3rd party nunchuck coming to the market, and this one we can confirm, mainly because of the fact that it is on the Walmart website.

Its not just a nunchuck in itself, it also comes packed in with a stand that will hold the Wii console, SD cards, the nunchuck, and it also appears to be capable to hold the Wii-mote behind the nunchuck.

It doesn't look very slick though. It looks kind of sloppy and cheaply made, but it is nice to see that metal will hold the nunchuck and Wii-mote instead of cheap plastic.

3rd party devices are usually cheaper than 1st party ones, but not in this case. The device will sell for $26.82 USD, the official Nintendo nunchuck is $19.99. I guess that, to be fair, you do get a stand to hold the Wii with it, so it isn't a bad deal. The only problem is that this nunchuck may not be as responsive as the Nintendo one, making this a bad buy.

Link
Source

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Nintendo interview about Virtual Console

Computer and Videogames recently had an interview with Nintendo asking them about the Virtual console. Check out the interview here, or below.


Do N64 games on Virtual Console have the rumble feedback compatibility?
Nintendo: The rumble feature is not supported on N64 games downloaded to the Virtual Console.
Multiplayer games - will these now incorporate an option to allow the second/third/fourth player to connect over the internet to play, as some PC emulators have made possible?
Nintendo: All games will be faithful recreations of the original versions so they will not feature new functions like multiplayer or internet play if the original title did not.
Will the Wii iron out all slow-down that existed in old games, including the 2D formats? It would be great to play all the old games at a silky-smooth framerate, but some retro gamers, for some reason, consider the slowdown to a part of the game's old-school appeal.
Nintendo: The Virtual Console games faithfully reproduces the original game in all areas, including content, movement and expressions. Principle programming, characters, sound etc. have not been changed.
Being as the Wii classic controller cannot be used to play GameCube games, will Nintendo continue to produce and sell GameCube controllers?
Nintendo: No plans have been announced to date. But Nintendo GameCube accessories are still available from all good retailers.
How configurable will controls be? The N64, with its C-buttons, effectively had six face buttons. The VC controller only has 4. How will this mapping work?
Nintendo: Controller layouts will be determined on a game-by-game basis and detailed in the electronic manual.
Will their be any price difference between buying Wii Points through the online Wii Shop Channel and via retail stores?
Nintendo: Wii points will cost the same online as they do in retail. They can be purchased on the Wii Shop Channel using all major credit cards. 2000 points cards will cost €20 (£14) both online and in shops.
Will there be a published release schedule of VC games or will they just come out as and when?
Nintendo: More Virtual console games will be announced at a later date. New Virtual Console titles will be added in 2007 and beyond creating a constantly growing library of games.
How large (in storage terms) will VC games be? At present what is the average size for games on each of the formats?
Nintendo: Games vary in size but approximately NES games will be 1MB, SNES 5MB and N64 32MB.
How will VC games be organised on the channels page? Will each game be an individual channel or can users group say all the titles of one format (SNES) or all the titles of one series (Zelda)?

Nintendo: Each VC title downloaded will be displayed as an individual channel. Users may move these channels around to suit them.

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Microsoft to buy Capcom?

According to the lastest issue of EGM, Microsoft is looking to buy the Japanese game developer, Capcom.

Capcom, which has been around for over 25 years, would give the Xbox 360 a large advantage over the other consoles. This would be because they would have exclusives such as Resident Evil, Devil May Cry, Mega Man, Street Fighter, along with a couple other small brands. Having Resident Evil all to themselves in Japan would definitely help out Microsoft who has never been able to break into the Japanese market well.

Capcom has shown Microsoft a good amount of support recently with the release of the zombie killing game 'Dead Rising', along with the upcoming game, 'Lost Planet'.

Rest assured Sony and Nintendo fans, Capcom would not sell out to Microsoft. If they ever did, then that would mean that the apocalypse is coming.

Nintendo fans may remember when Microsoft bought Rare, the creator of games such as the 'Banjo-Kazooie' series, along with Goldeneye, Perfect Dark, among others back in the early 2000's. But to be fair, Nintendo didn't want the company anymore, so they sold out too. Because of the fact that Microsoft owns Rare, no original games made by the company will appear on the Wii's Virtual console system, like Banjo-Kazooie.

[Update] In response to comment #6,

"Who cares. The games will all still be good, its just that MS will have access the Japanese market. Quit your winging, MS haters! You really want to change things, petition games to be developed for the Mac."
Any company buying out a game developer is not good for the industry overall. Capcom currently develops for all of the consoles, but if Microsoft buys out Capcom, Resident Evil and so on will all be exclusives to the Xbox 360. If Nintendo was planning on buying Capcom, it would still be rather depressing.


Digg!

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Nintendo screws the earlybirds

A bunch of major gaming network's received a pleasant surprise today, and that surprise was the Wii.

Even though these guys get their Wii first, don't be too jealous, because they can't do everything that they want to. Nintendo seems to have placed a failsafe in with the Wii console. Just in case somehow gamers got their hands on the Wii early, they would not be able to access any of the online features. It appears that the Nintendo network will only be up and running on launch day, November 19. This will stop any retailers who sell their Wii units early from giving the consumers any advantage over the guys who play the game fair. This means no Virtual Console, News Channel, Weather Channel, Console Messaging, or Opera Web Browser. But yes, you can still play the games.

This is typical of Nintendo who just loves to keep secrets from the public, making the hype build up more and more. They're pretty damn good at marketing, you have to give them that. Interestingly, when the Wii 'Update' disk that updates the Wii's firmware was put into the console, it 'froze' for a couple of minutes, only to say that it could not connect to the network. This would mean, more likely than not, if you do not have access to WiFi internet, then you will not be able to update the system. This would mean that the only update has to do with the internet.

It was previously announced that the Opera web browser would be available to those who buy a Wii before June of 2007. Although the browser is not pre-loaded onto the console when you take it out of the package, you will be able to either get it off the Wii shopping channel, as previously stated, or it may possibly be automatically downloaded from

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Universal releases Castlevania poster

According to /FILM, Universal has released a teaser poster for their upcoming project, Castlevania, based on the very popular video game series.



We can not verify whether or not this is definitely the poster for the movie, so for now, take it with a grain of salt. It is strange that Universal would put the name of the director along with the other movie's that he did at the top of the teaser posted in large font. Teaser posters are usually meant just to say, "We're coming..", and it regularly just the name of the movie and a picture. Who knows. What do you guys think?

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PS3 Is Losing Launch Titles

Oh Sony, how can you let this happen! If you've been with us since the early days, would know that one of our first stories was the complete list of launch titles for the PS3. Well call us liars, but the list just got smaller. The latest Sonic game will be late, NBA 07 has been scrapped all together, but the most disappointing delay was Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, the launch title I was most excited about (sorry Resistance.)

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If you are a loyal citizen to Azeroth like I am, then it's more then likely you are highly anticipating the game's first expansion pack, Burning Crusade. The game is expected to be released on January 16 in both North America as well as Europe. The game is being released in a standard edition, as well as a limited edition, packed with a bunch of extras. The expansion includes two new races, the Drenai and Blood Elves, and a higher level cap of 70, among other things. Blizzard is hoping to release one expansion every year, but with all the delays of Burning Crusade, I doubt that it will happen.

On another note, the population of Azeroth has exceeded 7.5 million. It's only a mater of time until WoW out sells The Sims and becomes the highest selling game of all time.

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Do you want a PS9?

With the launch of the PS3 just around the corner, lets look to the future, because we know that Sony sure is. Lets look way into the future, lets look, at the Playstation 9. Here is a video of what your future has in store. The Wii can't beat this.

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More Virtual Console games!


Here is a list of more games that will be coming out for the Virtual Console sometime in the near future. Here they are.

* Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars (Super NES; rated E for Everyone)
* Kirby's Super Star (Super NES; rated E for Everyone)
* Mario Kart 64 (Nintendo 64; rated E for Everyone)
* Starfox 64 (Nintendo 64; rated E for Everyone)
* Super Metroid (Super NES; rated E for Everyone)
* Kirby's Dream Land 3 (Super NES; rated E for Everyone)
* The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time (Nintendo 64; rated E for Everyone)
* Excitebike (NES; rated E for Everyone)
* Ice Climber (NES; rated E for Everyone)
* Dr. Mario (NES; rated E for Everyone)
* Mario Brothers (NES; rated E for Everyone)
* Ice Hockey (NES; rated E for Everyone)
* Soccer (NES; rated E for Everyone)

=The list is starting to look better, and thankfully, some more SNES and N64 games were added.

Source

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New Necro-Nesia for Wii screeens and video!

Here are some new screens for Necro-Nesia, a Resident Evil type game that will be coming out for the Wii.
The game looks very, well, interesting. Check out the video below, and tell us what you think.

It looks kind of choppy so far, and at the very start of the video, you can tell that there is an invisible wall there, which always ruins the experience. Combat in the game also looks very annoying and if you don't have the Wii-Mote strap around your hand, you will end up throwing the Wii-mote across the room.






Source

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First PS3 Review

Gamespot has posted it's first PS3 review today. The game reviewed was Genji 2, the sequel to last years Onimusha Esq samuari adventure. Lets just say it wasn't very impressive. The game got a 6.4, ouch. They say that the game feels slightly rushed. So remember, all crabs have a weak point that you have to stab.

Link

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EA will publish Hellgate London

Namco-Bandai has decided to let Electronic Arts co-publish their highly anticipated title, Hellgate London, which is coming out for the PC sometime next year.

Pretty much the only thing that EA has to do is marketing, sales, and distribution, which is making the CD's and getting them out to the stores. Everything else will be handled by Namco.

The game was announced in 2004 and has been greatly anticipated since. Many team-members who worked on Blizzard's Diablo series are working on Hellgate, which adds even more to the hype.

Press Release here

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Another PS3 commercial: SixAxis

We hate to post one video after another, especially for you guys out there on dial-up, but here is another PS3 commercial. This one is very interesting though. Sony is pushing their controller in this one, hoping to amaze people who have not heard of Sixaxis's special abilities. And it is done very well, good job Sony!

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FIRST Farcry Vengeance Wii video

Here is the first video for the Wii version of Farcry.

The game is an announced launch title and many fans of the PC version and Xbox game will enjoy this version. You guys say what you think of the video, we don't want to get into it this time.




Source

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New Virtual Console titles announced

IGN has posted a list of some upcoming Wii Virtual Console titles.

* Duck Hunt (E for Everyone)
* Hogan's Alley (E for Everyone)
* Kid Icarus (E for Everyone)
* Kirby's Adventure (E for Everyone)
* Pilot Wings (E for Everyone)
* Pro Wrestling (E for Everyone)
* Punch-Out (E for Everyone)
* Wild Gunman (E for Everyone)

We cannot verify whether or not they will be coming out at launch, but more likely than not, you will be able to pick them up, or download them, by the end of the year.

Interestingly enough, Duckhunt was on the list. It is likely that you will use the Wii-Mote to play this game. Strangely, no N64 games were on the list. The only game for that console that we know of available to download to this date is Super Mario 64.

Source

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Pokemon Wii video.

Here is a very quick post to show you all a battle out of the upcoming Pokemon game for the Wii. The graphics look pretty good, but the gameplay seems a little dull.







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THQ to make Pixar game

THQ today announced that they would be creating the game for the Disney-Pixar movie 'Ratatouille'.

The developer of the game of the game, Heavy Iron Studios, has made game 'The Incredibles', based on the Disney-Pixar movie of the same name. They also made a sequal to the game that was not based on the movie. They also made 2 SpongeBob Squarepants games along with a Scooby-Doo based game and 'Evil Dead'.

The game will be coming out in the Summer of 2007 when the movie launches.

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Final Fantasy XII- Hands on impressions




With most games, after you play them for 15 hours, you're pretty close to the end. That is not the case with Final Fantasy XII. On the contrary, 15 minutes is barely scratching the surface. I'm estimating there's still about 60 hours left in the main storyline + another 30 hours to complete the side quests.

If you've played Final Fantasy Tactics or Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, then you've already been to the world of Ivalice, where FF XII takes place. There are six races in Ivalice; Humes, the adorable Moogles, the female only rabbit/ human hybrid Viera, the reptilian Bangaa, the rarely mentioned Nu Mou, and a new race, the pig-like Seeq. Your party will consist of six members; five Hume, and one Viera. More on these characters later. Six is rather small for a party in a Final Fantasy, and I think it wouldn't of hurt to at least have a Bangaa in your party. As well, it's disappointing that the Nu Mou have only been briefly mentioned one time in the story so far. Another unique thing about Ivalice are the Judges, elite warriors that enforce the imperial law.

With all Final Fantasies, the story is the best part about XII. In brief, two countries are fighting a war. You play as Vaan, an orphan that wants to become a sky pirate, kind of reminds me of Zidane. One of the members of your party is a princess named Ashe, believed to be dead, she is trying to reclaim her throne, which is currently being ruled by the antagonist Vayne, kind of reminds me Seymour. It's up to you to bring the princess back to her rightful position. Along the way, there is much political corruption. That's pretty much it, no love, not even the eminent destruction of the world. Besides Vaan and Ashe, your party also includes Penelo, Vaan's childhood friend, Basch, a knight who is accused of being a traitor, Balthier (my favourite,) a well manored sky pirate, and his partner Fran, a Viera.

One of the biggest changes to XII is the new Active Dimension Battle system. This is pretty much a combination of the ATB system and the combat in FF XI. Pretty much, there are no more random encounters, yet it's still not in real time. Monsters roam the world, and you get to decide if you want to fight or not (unless they're aggro.) When you target a monster, a time bar fills up, you get to use an action, such as Attack. When ever you defeat more then one monster of the same type, you start a chain. The longer then chain, the better items you'll receive. Eventually the chain will become so long, your party will gain small amounts of health and beneficial status effects. Since you can only directly control one character at a time, you can program your allies AI with Gambits.

In my opinion, purchasing more Gambits is pretty much pointless, except for a white mage. Each character begins with 2 Gambits, and gain gain up to 12. Each Gambit consists of a target and an action, for example: Nearest enemy- Attack. You can also prioritise Gambits, it's wise to always have healing your top priority. Instead of spending Gil and License Points on Gambits, it's easier just to tell them what to do manually. I understand why they put it in, and it is somewhat cool, and very deep and complex, but if you select your gambits well enough, the game starts playing itself, and that's not fun. The programing in Kingdom Hearts 2 is better in my opinion.

If you're familiar with the law system from Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, then this will make a bit more sense. Due to the Judges, everything requires a licence to use, just like you need a license to drive a car. So if you buy a new shield, you'll need to buy the licence before you can equip it. This is also how you obtain the right to use Magick, Gambits, Quickenings (Limit Breaks), and Espers (Summons.) The License Board is fairly similar to FFX's Sphere Grid in concept. The License Board consists of two grids: one for weapons and armor, the other for Magick, Augments, Technicks, and Accessories. Espers and Quickenings are scattered throughout both grids. You're character starts off with only a few purchased Licenses, and all the rest are unavailable. Every time you purchase a license, the surrounding licenses become available. You purchase each license with License Points. You gain LP from killing monsters, just like Experience Points. Unlike experience points, the amount of license points you get from each monster is roughly constant. Almost every monster, whether it is level 5 or level 50, gives you 1 LP. The exception to this is rare monsters or bosses who give more LP. This is where the problem lays. If you're grinding to get enough LP to be able to equip that new sword, it's much easier to go to the first area and kill all the weak monsters then it is to fight monsters at your current level. This being said, the license board will be filling up rather quickly . It is also easy to get the more powerful licences early in the game. My Fran, who is lvl 13, can use all of the most powerful weapons in the game. a good thing about the Licence Board is that it allows you to fully customize your party. Do you want Vaan to be a fearsome tank or a devastating mage? It's up to you.

In the game, there are five types of Magick: White, Black, Time, and the new Green and Arcane. I can't help but notice the lack of Blue Magick. White Magick is of course for healing, and BlackMagick is offensive spells. Time Magick, which has often been sorted into White Magic, can speed up your allies, or slow down your enemies. For some reason, Break and Float are in this category. Arcane Magick is entirely random. Not only does it not go with the color scheme, but Square probably got the idea to call it arcane from Warcraft. The abilities in this category seem more like Technicks then Magick. Technicks are miscellaneous abilities, such as being able to steal or revealing your opponents stats. There are also some offensive Technicks like 1000 Needles.

Quickenings are the new Limit Breaks for FF XII. A character obtains Quickenings from the License Board. There are 18 Quickenings scattered throughout the board, and only one character can use each license. Each character can earn a maximum of three Quickenings. It doesn't mater which licence you use, the character will gain the same Quickening. Each of the Quickenings you earn are more powerful then the next, but the more powerful ones require more MP. A huge benefit is when you obtain your second and third Quickening, your MP will double and triple respectively. Depending on on the lvl of the Quickening, you havce to pay more MP. For example: if you use a lvl 2 quickening, you have to pay 200% of your MP. The way you use Quickening are interesting. After you select a Quickening, a timer appears at the bottom right corner. Above it are the names of everyone in your party who also have Quickenings. If their names are in white you can press the characters corresponding button to create a chain of Quickenings. The longest chain I've done was 13. If all of your parties names are gray, you have to press the R2 button, this creates new results. You continue this until you get a white name, so it's almost like roulette. The longer the chain, the quicker the timer runs out. After you run out of time, depending on your results, a Concurrence will trigger. These are powerful finishers that happen depending on what lvl of Quickenings you used in a chain. For example: if you use two lvl 1 Quickenings and three lvl 2's, Torrent will activate. Getting long chains is hard at first, but you eventually get better. Quickenings are also rediculously powerful. I killed all of early bosses at full health with a single quickening. They are also easy to get. In one point of the License Board, three Quickenings are within the licenses of each other. My Vaan had all three of his Quickenings by lvl 15. And by lvl 19, all my characters except for Basch had all three. Now that I'm fighting some more difficult bosses, Quickenings being used by my party are only doing about 1/2 of their health, which makes me question how useful they will be later in the game. A cheep way to get around this is after you use a Quickening, switch out one of your party members for another that has full MP. Then use that characters quickening, then repeat as much as you can. You should be able to pull off a maximum of four Quickenings. Oh yeah, the animation for the Quickenings are gorgeous.

The summons in this game are known as Espers. I've only just obtained my first so I can't go into much detail. Each Esper is based off of one of the Zodiac beings and either a previous FF boss, such as Zeromus, a Totema from FFTA, such as Famfrit, or a demon from the original FFT, such as Zalera. You gain an Esper after you defeat it in battle, then you have to purchase it's License. Only one character may purchase each Esper. Like Quickenings, it costs a certain percentage of your MP to summon an Esper, depending on how powerful it is. When they are summoned, the other two party members leave. The Esper follows you wreaking havoc for 1:30 or until it dies. When the time is up, the Esper leaves with a devastating attack.

Probably one of the best things about FF XII is the beautiful graphics. In some cut scenes, I had a hard time distinguishing between whether it was in game or CG. Another good thing about the game is the currency. In very other RPG I've played, the equipment you find in dungeons is far better then the stuff found in stores, and monsters drop enough helpful items to get you through. All these things make stores nearly obsolete, and your money just piles up. With all the mandatory things to buy (weapons, armor, items, accessories, Magicks, Technicks, and Gambits), you'll be spending a lot of Gil. You get just enough Gil adventuring to buy a couple nice things, then when you run out, you go off on another quest., only to return richer and buy more things. The game does a good job of balancing the player on the fine line dividing poor and rich.

If you plan on buying this game, be warned: It will take a looong time to complete. Hopefully it will take long enough to help fill in the waiting time For the Wii.

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Picture of Zelda disc

We're a little late posting this, but here is the disk for 'The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess'.


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5 year old doesn't like SixAxis

This isn't good news. A Kotaku writer's son tried out the PS3's motion sensing controls and said that he prefered the thumbstick over the motion sensing controls.


This is really bad news for Sony when a 5 year old isn't fond of the controller, but once again, hes a 5 year old, so its not like he is a pro at reviewing games or anything. We'll just have to wait and see how the controller is going to be.

There is no doubt that if Sony's motion sensing component is done right, then driving games will be amazing! With the Wii, you are tilting a stick side to side, but with the PS3, it will feel like you are kind of riding a bike. Yes yes, you can get the 'Steering Wheel' component for the Wii, but the PS3 racing games will be amazing, especially with the great graphics and effects.

Source [Kotaku]

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Mario Party 8 Videos!

Here are a couple of videos of Mario Party 8. The game looks good and you can tell that there is a graphics upgrade, although it is very minor. The Wii-mote integrates into the game very well. As long as the game can go online, this game is going to be a smash hit. Hell, even without online play its going to sell like crazy.






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PS3 controls gone bad



When it was announced that the Playstation 3 controller, since dubbed 'SIXAXIS', had motion controls, many yelled "Foul" at Sony for what many gamers felt was a cheap rip-off of Nintendo's Wii controller.

Sadly, it doesn't look like the motion sensing components of the PS3 are going to be put to good use. As you can see above in the screenshot, this is how you will play Virtua Tennis 3 on the PS3. Sega just wants people to think that their motion sensing controller is a good idea, but this is just dumb, and its going to be more complicated than anything to try and control the characters on the screen tilting the controller everywhich way. The controller could have been put to good use, but this just looks, sadly, too complicated. You are not emulating what it is like to play tennis, you are just swinging the controller forwards and backwards.


With the Wii controller, you just whack the controller against the air, just like a real tennis racket, and your character on the screen will do the same, but with the PS3 controller, you push the controller forward, and backwards. Is this really necessary? If you can't do it right, then just don't try. People were wondering if the Wii would exhaust the gamer, it looks like the same question will be asked for the Playstation 3.

We presume that Virtua Tennis 3 players will also have the ability to play the game the 'old fashion' way by just pressing the buttons and moving around the analogue stick. If you can't, then this game is sure to be the first most frustrating game on the PS3. We'll have to wait and see what its like. But from what it looks like, this isn't going to be an easy game to play. But.. well... it unique alright.

Whats next? God of War where you make Kratos attack by tilting the controller sideways and then pulling it upwards? Hopefully a game will come along at some point that will make good use of the motion sensing features, the same goes for the Wii.

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Xbox 360 Headset pics- In the wild


NoOnesWatchingYou has posted some pics of his Xbox 360 headset working, and it looks pretty cool, even better than it did in the promotional pictures. It looks very comfortable to wear too. Go to the site and check out some more of his pics!

Source

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New PS3 Commercial!

Here is the new PS3 commercial, except this one actually makes sense!

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Nintendo World '06 video lineup



Hey guys,

Here is a wrapup video of all of the games showed at Nintendo World 2006. A bunch of new games are shown in the video. Games include: Harvest Moon, Day of Crisis footage, Project H.A.M.M.E.R, new Mario Galaxy footage, Smash Bros. Brawl, Battalion Wars 2, Mario Party 8, Resident Evil Umbrella Chronicles, Two new puzzel games, Sudoku, new fishing game, new Bomberman, The Dog Island, and more footage of other games.

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Wii Startup Disk photo


Joystiq has a photo of the Wii Startup Disc that we reported on earlier last month.

It appears that we were correct and it is a simple firmware update. Although what do you think the Wii will be like without the firmware update? We'll make sure we test it out once we get our Wii on Novermber 19th.

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New Super Smash Bros Brawl trailer UP

To see the new Super Smash Bros Brawl trailer, head over to HERE.

It looks pretty good, but realtime gameplay isn't anything amazing, it is actually kind of hard to tell the difference between the Gamecube and the Wii version. The backdrops over all look pretty good though, strangely, all of the ones they showed looked fairly dark.

Also, there appears to be destructible environments! Check it out.


[UPDATE] Here is is

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EA sequals for next generation

EA has said which games they will be producing sequals for in the next generation, and it is a pretty interesting list.

The Wii will get its very own 'The Sims' game for itself, which is sure to be a hit. It might even possibly resemble the PC version since the Wii-mote could be used as something like a mouse. The Playstation 3 will get "The Sims 2: Holiday Edition", which is also coming out on the PC, so its gameplay should be interesting to see. And our best friend, the PC, will be getting 'The Sims 3' by 2009. Another Sims game, 'SimCity', will also come back to the table. This game will most likely be called 'Sim City 5', but we cannot verify that, because EA may not want to call it that, or may not make a true sequel to the city building series.

Another Lord of the Rings game will also be coming to the next generation, most likely all of the consoles and the PC. A sequel to 'Black' will also be coming out at some point. 'Army of Two' and 'Crysis' have both been delayed until after March, 2007.

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EA thinks PS3 is gonna be hard to get

Electronic Arts recently said to GI that there it will be hard to get a Playstation 3 this upcoming Christmas. "We're thinking that with PlayStation 3 in North America, the range is probably 500,000 to 800,000."

This is very interesting news. If a developer knows that a console will not be in the hands of enough gamers, then they are less likely to spend high production costs on creating a game for it. This may be the same case for EA.

We also found it very interesting that a week or so ago, they stopped by GoNext and watched the somewhat disturbing PS3 ad.

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Wii comes to South Park


Weeks ago, South Park aired an episode based on "World of Warcraft." To keep with the trend, this weeks episode was based on Cartman obsessing over the Wii, and the desperate attempts he makes to get one early. Unfortunately, it's a two part series.

Watch the show here.

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Mario Party 8 for the Wii screenshots


Here are a couple of screenshots for the upcoming game, 'Mario Party 8', for the Wii. And to start off, sorry they're so small, but its either this or nothing.

The graphics appear to break the horrible ones in the previous games. Interestingly enough, it appears that Samus makes an appearance in the game. This is good news, because the same old characters game after game were starting to get repetitive. Strangely, if you look at the screenshot at the very bottom, you can see a scene which resembles the environment that 'Super Mario Galaxies' is based in.

So far, there is no clue to when the game will be released, but once the first one comes out, you can expect another one to follow year after year. Maybe at some point, Nintendo will try refreshing the series by calling it something different. Like 'Nintendo Party' maybe?

Curiously, to the second screenshot to the bottom, you can see a 4 and 2 way split screen. This enforces the obvious fact that the game will have multiplayer play, but does it also mean that it will have online play? Lets all hope so because this game was meant to be played online, and Nintendo hopefully will realize that.



Source

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