The Select and Start News Report 08.29.06
Posted by Vincent Chiucchi on 08.29.2006
A little something of everything this week. New Metal Gear Solid 4 trailer, why Nintendo are idiots, PS3 cures cancer, and everything is turning PINK!
Before I go on with the news, I'd first like to announce that this news report will soon be available in a new "Pretty Pink" color.
NEW WII GAMES [credit: Gamasutra, GameSpy, 1UP]
Nintendo have announced two new games for the Wii at the Leipzig convention: Mario Strikers Charged and Battalion Wars II. Both games will take advantage of the Wiimote and both will have online multiplayer.
Battalion Wars? Blah. Mario Strikers? Cool.
ZELDA GETS MAJOR CONTROL UPDATE [credit: Gamepro.com]
Zelda: Twilight Princess for the Wii had you using the B button for slashing with the sword due to Miyamoto feeling that using the Wii to swing would tire gamers. However, he has changed his mind and now you will get to swing the Wiimote as a sword and the B button will be for arrows.
Yayness!
WHY NINTENDO WHY?!?![credit: 1UP]
Despite having a good line-up of 3rd party support, Nintendo is not having any 3rd party games go online until some time in 2007, leaving only their games to be online.
So after finally getting the third party support that they needed to not have their console sink like the N64 and Gamecube, they decide to not have them do any online games until 2007? Excuse me while I hit my head against the wall several times.
RED CARD ON MICROSOFT FOR LYING [credit: Evil Avatar, 1UP]
Microsoft earlier announced that Konami's Pro Evolution Soccer (Winning Eleven) was to be exclusive for a year to the Xbox 360. BUT Winning Eleven producer/creator Shingo 'Seabass' Takatsuka claimed that was untrue. "We never said exclusive for one year on the next-gen platforms. We said this year. We were agreed that it was this year." He said it was exclusive for this year because the PS3 version may not ship until as early as Spring 2007.
AND THEN...Hans-Joachim Amann, Head of European Product Management at Konami Digital Entertainment, made this announcement:"We're very pleased to be bringing the next-generation edition of Pro Evolution Soccer 6 exclusively to Xbox 360 until late summer 2007. The power of Xbox 360 takes our critically-acclaimed franchise to new heights of realism, playability, and fun. We know true football fans will enjoy the new experiences that Pro Evolution Soccer 6 on Xbox 360 will offer."
Somebody somewhere needs to be headbutted for all this confusion.
HALO 3 = HALO 1 [credit: Gamepro.com, 1UP]
Bungie's Content Manager Frank O'Connor recently talked about how it feels playing Halo 3: "I have been playing through Campaign mode purely for kicks," O'Connor writes. "Exploring, in fact. There's lots of the feel of the original Halo, where you'll find yourself in a huge (dangerous) and intrinsically fascinating environment and just want to go tool around and check things out."
He also dimisses how they're trying to develop a sandbox/GTA style game. "At this stage in development, the encounters are very carefully placed. Sometimes that means you're in frantic firefights (on a significantly bigger scale than in Halo 2, although all I will confirm numerically is at least one more Grunt.) but there's also time for exploratory reflection and the, "Oooh, maybe I can climb up there and check that thing out," sort of play."
It's Halo so I don't care.
2 MILLION PS3'S? [credit: Gamasutra, GamePro.com]
Despire Kaz Hirai mentioning how manufacturing for the PS3's hasn't begun yet, a Sony spokesperson has stated that Sony is still on schedule to ship 2 million units on launch day.
Japanese brokerage firm Mitsubishi UJF Securities has cut its rating for Sony Corp. and cast doubt on the company's shipment target and expected sales for the PlayStation 3 console. The company lowered its rating for Sony from a "3" to a "2" and halved its estimates on PlayStation 3 sales for the business year ended March 31st to just three million units. Mitsubishi UFJ Securities analyst Masahiko Ishino said in a note to clients: "In the medium term this would mean that it would take longer for Sony to recover its huge investment in PS3 and thus we are downgrading the stock."
Like I said last week, all this means that you the gamers will have a great advantage in making HUGE profits!
PS3 CURES CANCER? [credit: Gamepro.com]
Because of the power of PS3, a Folding @ Home client has been announced for the console. Started in October of 2000, Folding @ Home is a distributed computing project that harnesses a decentralized network of computers to perform complex mathematical simulations; in this case, of protein folding, which aids researchers in their quest to cure diseases such as Alzhemier's and Huntington's diseases, as well as certain forms of cancer.
The Cell processor that powers the PS3 should be able to produce performance that's equal to 100 gigaflops. 10,000 PS3's working in unison could reach a petaflop, or a thousand trillion floating point operations a second, which surpasses the performance of the fastest supercomputers in the world.
Suddenly, paying $600 doesn't seem so bad now does it? Sure Wii and Xbox 360 may be a whole lot of fun, but this thing is going to cure diseases damn it!
PENNY ARCADE THE GAME [credit: 1UP]
Creator of the comic website, Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik, are teaming up with Hothead games to create Penny Arcade Adventures, a series of episodic adventures for Windows, OS X and Linux. The first episode, 'On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness", has no release date yet. Hothead Games are the developers behind Simpson Hit 'N' Run and Hulk: Ultimate Destruction.
This will be awesome as long as the Fruit Fucker is not involved.
NEW METAL GEAR SOLID 4 TRAILER [credit: Gamevideos.com]
Behold the new MGS4 Trailer:
Did those things just Moo like cows?
A REAL METAL GEAR PSP GAME [credit: GameSpy]
Konami has released new details for it's PSP Metal Gear game, MGS: Portable Ops. In the single-player campaign of MGS:PO, you'll be able to recruit soldiers to your cause and form a unique squad of troops, each with his or her own distinct strengths and weaknesses. The story takes place in 1970 with Big Boss waking up in prison and discovering his former unit is revolting in South America.
In multiplayer, MGS:PO will incorporate wireless support in a very unique way. The game will keep track of the unique IP addresses of wireless hot spots, and different spots will give you access to download different characters to add to your squad. You won't have to actually log onto the hotspot; the PSP only needs to detect the wireless access point to make the character available. You can even use them online, but if they die during battle, you'll lose these characters for good. That's why Konami will also be adding a "White Flag" system for surrendering.
As long as I don't have to recruit anyone named "Johnny", it's all cool.
STRAIGHT OUT OF ACTS OF GORD [credit: GameSpy]
18-year-old Kyle Ramer and 21-year-old Sam Hess from Berryville, Arkansas, have been charged with theft by the Berryville Police Department. They were caught on camera stealing $1,200 worth of video games from Wal-Mart and then tried to sell the games to the Gamestop right next door.
Don't drop the soap!
VALVE DELAYS [credit: Gamespy]
Doug Lombardi himself has confirmed that the Valve trinity of Half-Life 2: Episode Two, Portal and Team Fortress 2 is being delayed until early 2007, reason being that Valve was being "overly aggressive" on the original schedule.
As long as you make sure you don't get H@X0RED.
PINK CONSOLES. WTF? [credit: Gamasutra, GameSpy]
The day after announcing the new colored DS Lites for Europe, Nintendo of America revealed it will bring those colors, Coral Pink and Onyx Black, to the US September 13.
Meanwhile in Europe, Sony announced Pink slimline PS2's to be released November 8 along with Pink controllers and a Pink PSP to be released on the same day as the Pink DS, October 27th.
There's nothing I really need to say here.
WE NEED MORE FEMALE GAMERS SAYS EA [credit: GameDaily]
EA Chief Operating Officer David Gardner thinks they and the rest of the video game industry must do more to get women in gaming, thinking that the economic opputunities should make this a top priorty for the game industry. He points out about how games like The Sims was able to sell over 70 million copies thanks to a large percentage of women players. "The Sims is really a game about relationships - and that's what girls want - they want relationships, they want to be able to chat."
Part of the problem is the industry tries too hard to make games just for women that don't actually appeal to them. "They don't want 'pink games'. They are not trying to play girly games where Paris Hilton and Britney Spears go shopping and put make-up on. Those kind of things have not been that successful." He also pointed out how the movie industry was able to attact many women with the movie Titanic and thinks the game industry should take note.
This almost seems like old news to me, but he does make good points. The industry really does need to pay a LOT more attention to girl gamers and not come out with crap like Paris Hilton's Emerald Envy. Pink consoles? Yes. Pink games? No.
And go back to The Digital Pulse from yesterday to see that GTA Coke commercial.
OMG FEEDBACK?
Madden 07 was released last week, but not everybody was happy to play it. Peter Kohler rants about the PC version:
First off…great article…Now to my rant…
Why is it when a majority of gaming pc's are as powerful or more powerful than the 360 that we're stuck playing the PS2 version of Madden 07???
I was so excited yesterday when it came out, I ran to Best Buy, grabbed it, ran home and installed only to be in shock that it was basically the same game as last years pc version. What gives?
I think now that Madden is the only NFL licensed game, EA is starting to half-ass their games. Like the WWE, why do something so innovative and great when you're the only competition around?
And as for getting stuck with an inferior version for the PC, I can't really explain why. But that does really suck for PC gamers. PC ports of console games haven't exactly been good have they?
So beware PC fans: The PC version of Madden 07 sucks. Thanks for the heads up Peter.
TRICKSTER
A couple weeks ago I was introduced to a free MMORPG named Trickster. After trying it out for a little bit, I wasn't really into it. There was a couple cool things about it like the huge amount of crests and it's unique drilling-for-items system, but before I can do all that, I had to go through a LOOOONG installation process. After that, to play the game you actually had to go to the site and log in first. So should the website be having problems, you're screwed.
Other then that, the actual game also had problems I hated. They have this time system where when the game reaches nighttime, the place gets darker and limits your vision. I'd actually like to SEE WHAT I'M DOING THANK YOU! And they don't give you a big overall map to immediately access, so expect to get lost several times.
Overall, it wasn't really a bad game, but it isn't something I'd go back to play immediately.
THE GAMEFAQS CHARACTER BATTLE V
GameFaqs is once again going to start a character battle tournament. This one is going to be a bit different, as this time the big four that have won previous character battles (Link, Cloud, Mario, Sephiroth) are not in the main one. The 64 characters are split with 32 women and 32 men, and the best female and best male will take on the big 4 in a six-way poll after the finals. I always suck at these, but this time I hope I actually win.
So ends another week's worth of news. September is almost upon us, which brings the 2nd biggest...er, I guess now the biggest gaming show of the year, The Tokyo Game Show. I can't wait.
