The Anodyne Man

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword Review

2011-12-20T19:22:00.001-05:00

Ocarina of Time has met its match.

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword is the greatest Zelda game ever created. It's the best game for Wii and one of the finest video game accomplishments of the past 10 years. The game has once again raised the bar and forged new territory for an iconic and innovative franchise. It's not enough that it finally establishes a powerful, stirring origin story or that it features near-perfect pacing. What puts Skyward Sword over the top is its layered, dense, absolutely perfect gameplay that manages to not only nail motion-controlled combat but remarkably offers a stunning level of diversity.

Every story has a beginning, and The Legend of Zelda is no exception - we simply hadn't been privy to it until now. Nintendo is finally willing to take a look at Hyrule's distant past, focusing on a Link and Zelda who are childhood friends before, as you might expect, something goes horribly off track. Link then embarks on a quest with the fate of the world - and his friend - in the balance.

Skyward Sword sets a new, important benchmark for Nintendo. Modern video games have made significant strides in how they present stories to audiences, and it seems as though Nintendo has finally taken notice. Skyward Sword features cinematics that play out like a movie. At times they are downright captivating with their picturesque settings and powerful drama. The game lacks voice acting as always, but characters' emotions shine through regardless, and the framing of scenes is incredible. As the story moves into its final act, you'll be stunned at the quality on display here. This is easily Nintendo's best storytelling to date.

The tale is, at heart, fairly simple. An evil entity wants to destroy peace, love and happiness, and Link is going to make sure that doesn't happen. It's not so much the plot that's important but the people in it. Skyward Sword's characters are phenomenal. Link is his usual mute self, more of an avatar for the player than anything else, but everyone surrounding him is remarkably memorable and charming. Zelda herself is by far the star of the show and her relationship with Link early on forms the backbone of the entire game. You want Link to succeed not so much because you're worried about saving what will eventually become Hyrule, but because you genuinely care that he cares about Zelda.

You have a long journey ahead, Link.

The same could be said for most of the supporting cast. Fi, a spirit that functions as Link's advisor and guide, is a spectacular creation, probably best likened to a benevolent GLaDOS. Though primarily designed to give players direction and tips, Fi is actually a great source of humor as she fails to understand human emotion and reports brutally honest statistical percentages on your likelihood of success. Smaller roles, such as the couple dozen inhabitants of Skyloft, are so distinct and colorful you'll likely remember them despite their insignificance to the larger plot. Between day and night cycles as well as the ever-shifting narrative, there are plenty of side quests for Link to pursue - and that's to say nothing about the wider world, above and below the clouds.

Pairing itself with Wii MotionPlus, Skyward Sword's 1:1 combat is a revelation. I never want to play a Zelda game any other way again, and playing through this makes me wonder why we didn't see motion control of this quality before. The responsiveness and intuitiveness of the entire arrangement is superb. The applications of Motion Plus never step into gimmicky territory. Guiding your mechanical flying Beetle, rolling bombs, swimming in water and soaring through the sky by pivoting and flicking the remote not only feels natural, it makes you wonder how you ever played an action game that wasn't on Wii. Zelda: Skyward Sword is the purest, most perfect realization of Nintendo's ambitious goals for motion-controlled gaming. It somehow took five years, but the definitive proof plays out before you on the screen.

ATV FUN

2011-05-21T19:51:00.008-04:00

James

Me and James

I dont know her

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Project Cafe: The Tech Behind Nintendo's Next Console

2011-04-24T23:33:00.001-04:00

New pricing, hardware, design, and release information uncovered

More details of Nintendo's forthcoming console, codenamed Project Cafe aka Wii 2, have been revealed to IGN, including the system's estimated pricing, release, console design, processing architecture, and name.

According to sources with knowledge of the project, Nintendo's next console could have a retail price of anywhere between $350 and $400 based on manufacturing costs, and will ship from Taiwanese manufacturer, Foxconn, this October, putting the earliest possible retail release anywhere between mid-October and early November.

However, Nintendo could also opt to build up a sizable supply of the system and allocate more time for software and games development by launching in early 2012. Similarly, Nintendo could attempt to lower the retail price of the system with lower profit margins to make the price more alluring.

Since the manufacturing is taking place in Taiwan, the earthquakes and tsunami that hit Japan last month will not impact the console hardware as previously expected.

Our Sources

Head over to Scott Lowe's blog to find out why we trust our sources and so should you.

Additionally, IGN has learned that the system will be based on a revamped version of AMD's R700 GPU architecture, not AMD's Fusion technology as previously believed, which will, as previously reported, out perform the PlayStation 3's NVIDIA 7800GTX-based processor. Like the Xbox 360, the system's CPU will be a custom-built triple-core IBM PowerPC chipset, but the clocking speeds will be faster. The system will support 1080p output with the potential for stereoscopic 3D as well, though it has not been determined whether that will be a staple feature.

In terms of the design of the console itself, the overall size will be comparable to that of the original Xbox 360 and the system is likely to resemble a modernized version of the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES).

As reported last week, it will indeed utilize controllers with integrated touchscreens and be capable of streaming games to each controller, though given the power of the system, could also feasibly provide a virtualized console for each individual unit.

Finally, Nintendo is considering naming the console Stream, though it is potentially one of several names currently being vetted by the company.

We contacted Nintendo representatives, but they declined to comment on "rumors or speculation."

For more on Project Cafe, stay tuned to IGN.com.

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Nintendo Set to Reveal New Console

2011-04-16T19:15:00.002-04:00

New console is backwards compatible with Wii software.

According to multiple reports today, Nintendo will reveal a new console at E3 this coming June. Game Informer first reported the details, saying the console is capable of running games at "HD resolutions." Our sources have said the the console is significantly more powerful than the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, and that Nintendo's intent is to recapture the hardcore market. Another source said it is capable of 1080p resolutions.

Nintendo is reportedly showing the console to publishers to garner interest for a late 2012 launch. Additional sources tell IGN that Nintendo will release a pre-announcement this month with a full reveal expected at E3 and that the console will be backwards compatible with current Wii software. A report from CVG states the new Nintendo console will use an all-new controller - not an updated Wii controller - with sources saying it will have a built-in screen. Additional sources informed IGN the screen has touch capability.

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Photo 35 of 38 :: My Photos Album :: Josiah DeLong 's Photos | Myspace

2010-10-26T22:43:00.000-04:00

Photo 35 of 38 :: My Photos Album :: Josiah DeLong 's Photos | Myspace: "- Sent using Google Toolbar"

Conduit 2

2010-10-23T15:14:00.003-04:00

http://gamerant.com/wp-content/uploads/Conduit2UseMe1.jpg

Dale Earnhardt, Jr., takes the #3 Wrangler Chevrolet to an emotional victory at Daytona

2010-07-02T23:03:00.000-04:00

And this was an historic finish. Dale, Jr., hadn't won a Nationwide Series event in four years. Until tonight. But as if it were written in Hollywood, the most popular driver currently in NASCAR, son of the most respected driver in NASCAR history, put the vaunted #3 in Daytona's victory circle.

way to go jr!

E3 2010: Best of Nintendo

2010-06-27T10:13:00.002-04:00

It was a very big show for Nintendo fans.

There's no question in my mind that Nintendo's showing at this year's Electronic Entertainment Expo was the company's best in years. After experiencing a dozen E3s and Nintendo press conferences first hand, I believe I'm comfortable in saying that the company finally gave us what we wanted: a competent line-up of games and a brand new console that we're genuinely and almost universally excited for.

While the other companies were fighting over dominance in the motion control category, Nintendo returned to the glory days and showed exactly what makes the company masters of the market.

The Legend of Zelda Continues the Legacy

The 3DS is Stunning

A few months prior to the show Nintendo let loose a tidbit that sent the fanboys abuzz: the next Nintendo DS system will feature a 3D screen without the need for glasses. That's all we had to go with until E3, but Nintendo focused nearly its entire show on giving its next generation handheld the kick-off it deserves.

Kirby's Creative Return

While Nintendo's pink puff has been living a pretty good life on the Nintendo DS, we haven't seen a console Kirby since the GameCube days. And for the little guy's Wii debut the company's offering up one of the most creative visual styles seen to date in a videogame.

Retro Ditches Samus for DK

It's only coincidental that the Texas-based Retro Studios has the namesake to match its published games: after three Metroid Prime games the company was ready to move onto something different – and Nintendo handed the team the keys to the Donkey Kong Country franchise.

The Winged Lad Returns

Another Nintendo franchise that's been given the cold shoulder is Kid Icarus, and even with a key role in Super Smash Bros. Brawl our hero Pit still lacked any strength at Nintendo to get his next Kid Icarus game. Even before the release of Brawl we knew that a Kid Icarus game was something Nintendo was looking at, but until he showed up in trailer form during the press conference, the official word never came down.

GoldenEye Is Still Golden

Any self-respecting first person shooter fan should appreciate the original Nintendo 64 FPS GoldenEye. Activision's attempting to capture that nostalgic feeling with a Wii game that takes the story of the game (and the movie it's based around) and retools it with Daniel Craig in the starring role.

Mickey Really Is Epic

Epic Mickey was easily one of the biggest third-party games at the show, not just on Wii but across all gaming platforms – it was difficult to walk the hallways without seeing the dripping ink-style logo plastered on the walls.

EA Understands Jam

Another franchise that's getting a revisit after many, many years is the arcade basketball game that nearly everyone knows and loves. The brand may have changed hands from Midway to Electronic Arts, but it's absolutely clear from the version at the show that the team really and truly understands what made NBA Jam such a classic.

Scribblenauts Works

Last year, Warner Bros. and 5th Cell walked away with an armload of awards with Scribblenauts, easily one of the most innovative concepts seen on any platform. While the end product was an impressive and fun experience on the Nintendo DS, the game never quite lived up to the exposure – it was admittedly a bit clunky and clumsy in places, elements that hurt the final game.

The incredible success of Scribblenauts gave the development team the ability to go back into the game and fix what was broken, and improve what it could over the course of a year. The wonky controls? Fixed. And now you can modify any object with adjectives: want a gigantic striped flying banjo? You'll get it in Super Scribblenauts.

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Super Mario Galaxy 2 IGN Review

2010-05-23T11:00:00.003-04:00

Can Mario outshine his last platforming adventure on Wii?

Read the Written Review

OR
WATCH
THE

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Conduit 2 First Look

2010-04-19T22:38:00.001-04:00

Last year's first-person shooter is getting a follow-up later this year and we got a peek at an early build.

LATEST IMAGES

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April 15, 2010 - I didn't write the official IGN review for The Conduit when it hit the Wii last year, but I did play it extensively. The game might not have blown gamers away with its story or character development, but it certainly offered up some fine single and multiplayer first-person shooting action on the Wii console. True, with The Conduit the team at High Voltage Software promised a lot of things that, in the end, it couldn't deliver, and while the final product was something pretty special for the Wii – at least in terms of third party designs – there was a lot of room for improvement.

And SEGA's giving High Voltage Software a second go at the FPS design on Wii with Conduit 2 – note that the company has dropped "the" from the title for the sequel. Conduit 2 is High Voltage Software putting a few tweaks here and there in a much tighter, deeper, and more impressive first-person shooter experience for Wii owners, and hopefully any qualms anyone had with the first game will find their complaints addressed in the final version of this sequel.

Expect a larger assortment of enemies in Conduit 2.

SEGA today invited me down to its office to check out a build of Conduit 2 in action. While still very early (the game's not scheduled to ship until this Fall), it's clear that a lot of effort is going into the game to spice up the narrative established in the first game, and bulk up the variety of gameplay modes, both in single and multiplayer.

Conduit 2 still involves you using a buttload of firepower, both foreign and domestic, to thwart an alien invasion on Earth. You've got realistic weapons as well as energy blasters from the alien technology, and High Voltage Software's working to get nearly two dozen different weapons into the final game. One of the coolest weapons I saw in action was something called the Vortex Blaster, an energy-based gun that has a charging ability that "collects" all the fired enemy bullets into a single cluster. When you've gathered up enough projectiles, you can throw them back in a powerful blast. There's also a mobile turret that can be picked up and moved to different parts of a level, and can be remotely fired via an iPad-like device that lets you look down the scope the gun while safely tucked away behind cover.

Catch bullets and throw them back with the Vortex Blaster.

One of the levels I got a chance to see is early in the game, where players are thrust upon an oil rig off of the southern coast of Florida. You can really see High Voltage Software's engine at work here, with weather effects (pouring rain splashing down on the deck) as well as the immense rolling waves rising and falling and cresting against the structure. In the controlled demo, firefights happened both inside and outside of the structure, and you can see that the variety of enemies are much more numerous. You'll even be able to peck off bad guys' armor and helmets, weakening them with well placed shots.

I noticed little things added to the experience, like the ability to flip over tables for cover. Added to the game is a sprint button so you can charge down enemies or run for the hills. Levels aren't corridor-based anymore, according to SEGA – while I did see a few of those same S-shaped hallways to assist in the level loading that were in the original game, levels were much more open and had multiple paths to explore in this sequel. There are even ladders, so levels can have structures and rooms stacked on top of each other. Ladders, people! We're in the big leagues now!

Thunder 09

2010-04-19T22:24:00.002-04:00

I was looking through my pics and saw this pic and thought how cute is my wife so i had to put it on here and i guess im hungry or something

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2010-04-18T21:58:00.000-04:00

Thunder over Louisville 2010

2010-04-18T11:50:00.003-04:00

This is the fake Grand Finale my camera died for the real Grand Finale
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2010-04-15T06:42:00.000-04:00

Duke Wins 2010 NCAA NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP: Duke Tops Butler, 61-59, In A Thriller

2010-04-05T23:45:00.000-04:00

Kyle Singler scored 19 points and Brian Zoubek rebounded Gordon Hayward's miss with 3.6 seconds left Monday night to help Duke beat Butler 61-59, ending the tiny underdog's try for a "Hoosiers" sequel one win short of the Hollywood ending.

Duke topped Butler in a nail-biter for the 2010 NCAA Basketball Championship

The Bulldogs had a chance to win it at the end in an amazing sequence that defined this tournament. When Gordon Hayward's half-court shot at the buzzer went flying, thudded off the backboard and rim, and out and most of the crowd of 70,390 gasped, "Ohhhh." So close.

The Blue Devils (35-5) snapped Butler's 25-game winning streak and brought the long-awaited fourth national title back home to Carolina and the Cameron Crazies.

The "Big Three" – Singler, Jon Scheyer and Nolan Smith – won the Big One for coach Mike Krzyzewski, his first championship since 2001 and the fourth overall, tying Coach K with Adolph Rupp for second place on the all-time list.

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Earnhardt wins pole at Atlanta

2010-03-06T21:08:00.003-05:00

Earnhardt claimed the pole Friday night for the Kobalt Tools 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway with a blistering speed of 192.761 mph.

Saints Win!!!

2010-02-16T21:16:00.001-05:00

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Saints Win!

2010-02-14T11:05:00.003-05:00

2009-12-13T12:34:00.000-05:00

New Super Mario Bros. Wii Review

2009-12-11T11:38:00.002-05:00

The classic formula returns to a Nintendo console. How does this stack up with the Mario best?

New Super Mario Bros. Wii is a great game, no question. This fresh platformer brings back all the gameplay elements that made the series such a noteworthy and inspiring franchise. And even though the series has made the successful leap from side-scroller to 3D platformer, the original formula still works extremely well today. New Super Mario Bros. Wii continues to prove that fact.The Wii game lifts the efforts that went into the company's original revival on the Nintendo DS. That portable game brought the 2D platformer formula back for a new generation of gamers. The end product was a fantastic experience, mostly because -- for gamers like myself who grew up on Super Mario -- it was an incredible thrill to play through a fresh Nintendo-developed experience that captured everything we loved about the franchise. The 2006 release was docked a bit for being a bit on the easy side and offering some unbalanced Mario elements (two worlds are locked?), but ultimately it's still one of the Nintendo DS system's best titles.

Check out our video review.

New Super Mario Bros. Wii isn't a port of the DS game but it certainly has the DS game to thank for a lot of its production. The game brings back the classic platformer gameplay of the 8 and 16-bit designs of Super Mario Bros., Super Mario Bros. 3, and Super Mario World, and -- like the Nintendo DS game --introduces new gameplay mechanics that just wouldn't have been possible on the gaming hardware back in the day. You're going to get platforms that tilt and sway, cloud mists that obscure the levels, areas that are quite literally infested with dozens of enemies, and sizeable bosses that take up nearly the entire screen.

The game controls just as the original games: there's an option to plug in a Nunchuk for analog stick control, but this game plays best with a stock Wii Remote to mirror the original NES pad. The game features identical control to the 8-bit designs with a bit of a current generation twist. Not only are there gameplay elements where tilting the controller affects the game world, but players can give the remote a bit of a shake for contextual control: carry obstacles by holding the button and shaking the controller, or get a bit of a jump "pause" by thrusting the Wii remote at the peak of a leap.

New to the game are power-ups such as the Ice Flower, the opposite of the Fire Flower stand-by, that'll freeze enemies in place and turn them into slippery platforms or obstacles to pick up and throw and the Penguin Suit that enables non-slippery walking on ice and spectacular swimming underwater. These additions feel natural to the design, though the Penguin Suit doesn't look nearly as hip as the classic Raccoon wear of the original suit game, Super Mario 3.

New Super Mario Guide

We detail the locations of all 225 Star Coins, Secret Goals and much more.

Read the Guide »

The game is a great challenge. Not brutally hard, mind you, but it puts up a good fight especially compared to the Nintendo DS game. Expect to put in several hours just in getting through to the final boss, and then returning to the levels to score each of the three coins that'll unlock even more levels. And then, to give it even more replay, there's the multiplayer aspect.

The original Mario Bros., an arcade game released in 1983, revolved around the idea that there were two brothers working together towards a single goal. But when Nintendo created Super Mario Bros., that partnership sort of disappeared and the adventure became solo. New Super Mario Bros. Wii brings the camaraderie back in a big way: not only can you play two players at the same time during the adventure, but it can become a quartet if you've got the controllers on hand.

Nintendo: Twilight Princess 'Starting Point' for New Zelda

2009-12-11T11:22:00.003-05:00

Link's next Wii adventure will owe a lot to the one before it, according to director Eiji Aonuma.

Nintendo has remained relatively quiet about Wii's next Legend of Zelda game. Company demi-god Shigeru Miyamoto spoke briefly about the adventure sequel at the Electronic Entertainment Expo 2009 and also showed off the first snippet of artwork for the still-untitled project. Since then, the publisher has dropped a few more details, first confirming that Link's swordplay would be enhanced by Wii MotionPlus and also revealing that it plans to alter the traditional "flow" of the series.

Now comes a new quote for fans to ponder endlessly.

Will the next Zelda owe a lot to Twilight Princess?

Speaking to IGN about the anticipated title, director Eiji Aonuma said, "With Twilight Princess, we challenged ourself to create the most vast and realistic world the series had ever seen, but we don't feel that we were able to fully complete this objective. With that as a starting point for our improvements to the series in the future, we are of course working on a new game for Wii."

Might the forthcoming Zelda title, which is purportedly set to be unveiled at next year's E3, be the Wii equivalent of Majora's Mask?

Says Aonuma: "For any game to be remembered for a long time, just like Ocarina of Time was, the game must give the strong impression that it has set a new starting point for future sequels to build upon. We are working to further improve upon the experiences found in Twilight Princess so that our future games can realize these innovations."

We don't know what any of this really means, but somehow we're excited anyway.

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Just a bad ass pick from Metroid

2009-06-03T17:00:00.000-04:00

2009-06-03T16:55:00.002-04:00

Sony's press conference just concluded here in Los Angeles, but not before Kratos, the legendary star of the God of War franchise, got a little screen time.

Although the focus was on the live demo which featured Kratos dominating some poor, defenseless opponents, the audience was told that God of War III will be hitting store shelves in March of next year. Sounds like PS3 owners have something to seriously look forward to..

New Super Mario Bros. Wii

2009-06-03T06:57:00.002-04:00

This New Super Mario Bros. is a throwback to the style of the original Super Mario Bros. and allows four players to play the game together.

Players can navigate the side-scrolling worlds alone as before or invite up to three others to join them at the same time on the same level at any point in the game for competitive and cooperative multiplayer fun. With the multiplayer mode, the newest installment of the most popular video game franchise is designed to bring yet another type of family entertainment into living rooms and engage groups of friends in fast-paced Super Mario Bros. fun.

click for video

Gladiator A.D. Revealed

2009-06-03T06:53:00.002-04:00

Development studio High Voltage Software, best known to Wii owners for its first-person shooter The Conduit, has not one, but two new games in the works for Nintendo's console. The first, revealed exclusively on IGN today, is called Gladiator A.D. and it's a brutal fighter that takes players back to ancient Rome to do bloody battle.

click for video

The Grinder Revealed

2009-06-03T06:48:00.004-04:00

Yesterday IGN exclusively unveiled High Voltage Software's new Wii title, Gladiator A.D., a very promising 3D fighter that pushes Nintendo's hardware where graphics are concerned. Today, though, we've got a special treat that we think fans of the Left 4 Dead series are simply going to love.
It's called The Grinder and it's a blood-drenched first-person shooter designed to accommodate four-player online cooperative action. This title looks absolutely phenomenal, as you're going to see below. Rather than spoil any more details, we've let the developer do the talking. Below, HVS CEO and founder Kerry Ganofsky, chief creative officer Eric Nofsinger and lead art director Matt Corso tell all about The Grinder. We think you're going to want to move this extraordinary Wii-exclusive to the tops of your must-have lists.

click for video

Metroid: Other M Nintendo WiiTrailer - E3 2009: Trailer

2009-06-03T06:43:00.001-04:00

Hardcore gamers wowed by the announcement of Super Mario Galaxy 2 at the Nintendo Media Briefing this morning better strap in for the next announcement. Nintendo is teaming with Team Ninja to create a brand new installment of the Metroid series for the Wii. Citing Team Ninja's "proven track record in the mature space" (Team Ninja is responsible for the Ninja Gaiden franchise), Nintendo president Reggie Fils-Aime is pleased to introduce a newer, darker look for Samus.

The trailer for Metroid: Other M shows off a huge action-oriented adventure with third-person views for epic fight scenes as well as some through-the-visor gameplay. In the teaser trailer, Samus is just tearing apart aliens and monsters with multiple weapons, including a winged beast the looks an awful lot like Ridley. (Really, once you see the trailer, you will realize you have never seen Samus like this; it's loaded with brutal action.) Fils-Aime also says the game will "take you deeper into Samus' story."

The partnership is an intriguing and promising step forward for not just Metroid, but Nintendo. Team Ninja is known for delivering seriously hardcore action. This is a recognition of the need to deliver core experiences for core gamers that have supported Nintendo in both fat and lean years.

Metroid: Other M is currently slated for 2010

No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle

2009-06-03T06:38:00.002-04:00

Click for video

No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle continues the tale of punk anti-hero Travis Touchdown, the Japanese anime Otaku, and pro wrestling-obsessed assassin. Travis finds himself at the bottom of the UAA (United Assassins Association) rankings and must wage war to become the No. 1 assassin once again. The follow-up to the popular No More Heroes will offer fans infectious, fun gameplay that allows you to wield not just one, but two swords and face multiple bosses simultaneously in bigger-than-ever boss battles.

E3 2009: Miyamoto Talks Next Zelda

2009-06-03T06:36:00.001-04:00

If you were wondering why there was no new Zelda news at Nintendo's E3 press conference this morning, it's because Mr. Miyamoto wanted to save a little something for his own private roundtable. At the closed door, no-photographs-allowed discussion with a select group of journalists this afternoon, the man who created Link dropped details and showed off artwork of the Hero in Green's next iteration.

The next console Zelda adventure will feature a Link who is more mature than ever before, and a swordplay system that is far more advanced than any ever seen before in the series. The game may ship as a MotionPlus-only design, as well, which should give you an idea of the swordfighting scheme Shigeru has in the works.

"Think of Zelda while you're trying some of the archery and sword play in Wii Sports Resort," Miyamoto said.

If the next Zelda were to employ MotionPlus in that way (and it totally will), it would be a significant shift for the property -- and one that may well be the change the franchise needs.

"There are people who think of Zelda more as an RPG with simpler controls, so trying to figure out how to make everybody happy is something that's going to concern me," says Miyamoto.

Stay tuned for more information as it becomes available. And get hyped!

Super Mario Galaxy 2 Nintendo WiiTrailer - E3 09 Trailer

2009-06-03T06:28:00.002-04:00

During its E3 press conference today, Nintendo President Satoru Iwata announced the news every Nintendo fan wanted to hear: a sequel to Super Mario Galaxy is on the way. This time Yoshi will be playable and he can be inflated in order to reach new areas. Footage shown during the conference was very pretty. Huge boss battles were spotted, as well as shots of Mario swimming, flying in his
Bee suit, and rolling a giant snowball around a planet.

Click for video

Metal Gear Solid: Rising

2009-06-02T06:47:00.000-04:00

UPDATE: Looks like there might be confirmation that MGS: Rising could well be coming to the PlayStation 3 and PC in addition to Xbox 360. Konami's list of games on Games Press (a private PR service for the press) now shows the title coming to all three platforms. Konami unfortunately will not make official comment at this time, so we will have to wait for all the rumors to be proven true or false until tomorrow afternoon when Sony has its conference (11AM PST).

There was quite a lot of confusion on whether this game would only be on Xbox 360. During the conference, Microsoft specifically stated that everything shown after Final Fantasy XIII would be exclusive to 360, thus the original implication. A few hours later, G4 was able to quickly chat with Microsoft's John Schappert, where he said, "You know, we didn't say that it was exclusive..." (We apologize for the confusion if you've been following the many, many updates on this ongoing saga.) Konami put out a press release listing only an Xbox 360 version, but the word "exclusive" has yet to be mentioned in any MGS: Rising statement from Microsoft or Konami, and the comment at the Microsoft E3 Conference could have been a mistake.

We realize that we're talking more about the controversy behind the unveiling rather than the game itself, but with only a short teaser of the game so far showing the same field and Raiden pose, we're stuck for new things to say. Instead, check out the most recent news leads for Metal Gear Solid Rising & Peace Walker and be sure to check back in tomorrow for more info.

Raiden is back! to bad its on xbox not ps3!

2009-06-01T18:46:00.001-04:00

Kojima took the stage at Microsoft's press conference and dropped a major announcement:

Remember all those teasers we saw over the past month? It wasn't the new PSP game. It was, in fact, a completely new series in the Metal Gear franchise.

Titled Metal Gear Solid: Rising, the game appears to mainly focus on the character Raiden, as there were no shots of Solid Snake at all in the extremely vague announcement teaser shown.

While this news comes at the Microsoft presser, no announcements of exclusivity were revealed, so for now, expect this to be multiplatform, or a timed-exclusive at the very least.

E3 2009: Lionhead Game for Project Natal

2009-06-01T18:37:00.002-04:00

Peter Molyneux shows off a project for new motion controller.

June 1, 2009 - Today Peter Molyneux came on stage at the Microsoft E3 Press Conference to demo what his studio has been doing with project Natal. This is the new motion sensing camera and facial recognition controller that Microsoft showed off today at the press conference.

His demo included a real person named Clair interacting with a virtual boy named Milo. The boy recognizes the person talking to him, he responds with different emotions based on your facial expressions. Clair can draw a picture on a piece of paper, show it to the screen, and Milo will recognize the shape and color of the drawing and react to it. He also takes the piece of paper into the virtual world. Players can interact with the virtual world by doing things like putting on goggles and looking into a pool of water.

They are showing this demo to a select group of people at E3 who will be able to interact with Milo and see how well this new project works. We'll have more info on this experience as it is revealed.

'Rusty' Brady returns to practice

2009-05-31T13:57:00.002-04:00

All eyes were on QB Tom Brady at the Patriots organized team activity practice Thursday.

Maybe it was the damp, drizzly weather conditions. Or maybe it was the long layoff. Most likely, a combination of both.

Whatever the reason, Tom Brady didn’t look quite as sharp throwing the ball Thursday (to be fair, neither did the other three quarterbacks on the Patriots roster), a fact Brady himself noted after the team’s practice.

“There’s obviously a lot of rust on all of us, being out for four months … we need the work, and I need the work … I’m not completing as many passes as I want. I don’t think I’ve been very sharp the last three days in practice."

For now, however, that wasn’t much of a concern, at least not to what was estimated to be perhaps the largest media contingent ever assembled for a Patriots practice. An overwhelming number of reporters and photographers came to Gillette Stadium today for the primary reason of talking to Brady, the former NFL MVP who missed nearly all of last season with a severe knee injury.

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Funny Weird Moment

2009-05-27T13:37:00.003-04:00

OK so I'm at the Mexican restaurant with mike and Amy and were having a good time catching up
and then the guy comes to give refills Amy said yes I need Pepsi and mike said the same thing
then that's when it got weird I guess the guy felt mike didn't drink enough of his Pepsi to get a refill so he held the glass
and wanted mike to drink some more of it so mike tried to grab it and the guy said no
so mike started drinking out of the glass while the Mexican was holding the glass
(WISH YOU COULD HAVE SEEN IT)
he drank as much as he could as fast as he could and then the guy left and got refills needless to say we laughed for about 30 min

we couldn't believe it
anyway I just thought I would share this with everyone

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WATER OR COKE?

2009-05-15T15:03:00.001-04:00

WATER

1. 75% of Americans are chronically dehydrated.

2. In 37% of Americans, the thirst mechanism is so weak that it is often mistaken for hunger.

3. Even MILD dehydration will slow down one's metabolism as much as 3%.

4. One glass of water will shut down midnight hunger pangs for almost 100% of the dieters studied in a University of Washington study.

5. Lack of water, the #1 trigger of daytime fatigue.

6. Preliminary research indicates that 8-10 glasses of water a day could significantly ease back and joint pain for up to 80% of sufferers.

7. A mere 2% drop in body water can trigger fuzzy short-term memory, Trouble with basic math, and difficulty focusing on the computer screen or on a printed page.

8. Drinking 5 glasses of water daily decreases the risk of colon cancer By 45%, plus it can slash the risk of breast cancer by 79%, and one is 50% less likely to develop bladder cancer.

And now for the properties of Coke:

1. In many states (in the USA) the highway patrol carries two gallons of Coke in the truck to remove blood from the highway after a car accident.

2. You can put a T-bone steak in a bowl of Coke and it will be gone in two days.

3. To clean a toilet: Pour a can of Coca-Cola into the toilet bowl and Let the "real thing" sit for one hour, then flush clean. The citric acid in Coke removes stains from vitreous China.

4. To remove rust spots from chrome car bumpers: Rub the bumper with a rumpled-up piece of aluminum foil dipped in Coca-Cola.

5. To clean corrosion from car battery terminals: Pour a can of Coca-Cola over the terminals to bubble away the corrosion.

6. To loosen a rusted bolt: Applying a cloth soaked in Coca-Cola to the rusted bolt for several minutes.

7. To remove grease from clothes: Empty a can of Coke into a load of greasy clothes, add detergent, and run through a regular cycle. The Coca-Cola will help loosen grease stains.

8. It will also clean road haze from your windshield.

For Your Info:

1. The active ingredient in Coke is phosphoric acid. Its pH is 2.8. It will dissolve a nail in about 4 days.

Phosphoric acid also leaches calcium from bones and is a major contributor to the rising increase in osteoporosis.

2. To carry Coca-Cola syrup (the concentrate) the commercial truck must Use the Hazardous material place cards reserved for highly corrosive materials.

3. The distributors of Coke have been using it to clean the engines of their trucks for about 20 years!

Now the question is...
Would you like a Coke or a glass of water?

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Lyric of the Month

2009-05-15T14:09:00.002-04:00

What Will You Find?
By ZAO

What will you find?
when you stare through the mirror
into the graveyards of your mind
Where hatred is born
from the ashes of lies,
demons and angels blot out the sky,
blot out the sky.
You conform your faith,
making your opinion truth,
lash out every time
something disagrees with you.
Obsessed with protecting
some type of pride
is the cause many a man
with gun in hand has died.
And his ghost was thinking
as they buried him that night,
it was all in vain, cause everyone thinks
they’re the one who’s right,
the one who’s right,
the one who’s right,
the one who’s right.
Your face is alabaster and forgotten. Countless years of wearing masks. You’ll be rewarded with emptiness for staying faithful to the task.

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2009-05-10T13:35:00.000-04:00

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Countdown to E3 09

2009-05-10T13:31:00.001-04:00

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Bulls, Celtics deliver series for the ages

2009-05-03T13:27:00.001-04:00

The Celtics Had To Punch ,Slap, And Damn Near Stab Bulls Players To Win The Series .

I Can See Why They Won It All Last Year They Play Dirty.
It Don't Matter Anyway Its The Cav's Year

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Super Megan

2009-04-05T12:18:00.001-04:00

She can save me any time!!!!

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Nintendo DSi Hands-on

2009-04-04T15:44:00.003-04:00

US DSi systems are put through their paces.
by Craig Harris

When the Nintendo DSi launches in the US on April 5, 2009, it'll be extremely close to three years since Nintendo released the Nintendo DS Lite. Three years is nearly an eternity for an electronic gadget – heck, Apple seems to update its hardware almost every year. And that's exactly what the Nintendo DSi is – though it touts brand new features, it's not a brand new system. It's more an upgraded model of the existing platform. The iPhone 3G to 2007's iPhone, if you wanted to compare its direction.

We've been playing with the Nintendo DSi in its Japanese form since its release in November 2008, but we've only had a few days to tinker around with the North American version. Luckily, the experience is entirely identical, with the exception of the language barrier: the US version of the Nintendo DSi, with the exception of the English menus and slight localization issues in the internal software, remains identical to the system released in Japan five months prior.

After playing around with every function of the DSi, it's hard for a DS Lite fan like we are to not recommend true fans to upgrade.

The Black DSi system.

The Nintendo DSi takes what worked on the Nintendo DS Lite platform – the bright LCD screens, the slender clamshell design – and enhances it with new features that gives it brand new functionality over the existing handheld. The internal storage, 256 megabytes, enables the idea of "downloadable content," a feature that every current generation platform has enjoyed since their launches. The built-in cameras, one inside the system and one out, don't just give owners the ability to take pictures of themselves or their friends – they open up the opportunity for new elements in gameplay, like motion-sensing controls and pulling in images as in-game art. And the SD card will allow users to export and import content to and from outside sources.

The cameras aren't all that powerful, only offering 640x480 resolution snapshots from the .3 megapixel optics. But it's what you can do with the cameras that really make them special – the built-in software enables crazy realtime effects like squashing and stretching the images, replacing colors or slapping Link's eyes over the subjects. Over the past few months I've taken the Japanese version around to friends and family and many of them – male and female -- were hooked on the functions of the camera, and we expect the same out of the US version.

The camera might not be high resolution, but you can do so much with it.

Nintendo DSi is also a full-featured music player, but instead of MP3 files you can only play non-DRM protected AAC format audio. That might seem like a misstep, but the most popular PC and Mac software on the market – iTunes – makes converting MP3s into AACs a snap. Would we rather have MP3 compatibility? Absolutely. But hey, it's not the end of the world since we can still get our audio files into the system easily.

Of course, the DSi is almost fully compatible with every Nintendo DS game ever made, the exception being titles that utilize the secondary slot on the Nintendo DS and the Nintendo DS Lite for add-ons. Games such as Guitar Hero: On Tour, Tony Hawk's Motion and My Weight Loss Coach will not work on the Nintendo DSi because the new system lacks the slot needed to utilize the peripherals required to play the software.

NEXT>

MadWorld Kills Montage

2009-02-24T08:16:00.005-05:00

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Transformers 2 Trailer

2009-02-17T17:13:00.001-05:00

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Steelers rally to beat Cardinals 27-23

2009-02-03T06:37:00.002-05:00

Roethlisberger and the Pittsburgh offense ended a Super Bowl of incredible swings with a final-minute touchdown for a historic victory.

Santonio Holmes made a brilliant 6-yard catch deep in the right corner of the end zone with 35 seconds remaining Sunday night, lifting the Steelers to a record-settingsixth Super Bowl win, 27-23 over the Arizona Cardinals.

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Steelers defeat Ravens, Super Bowl bound

2009-01-19T06:35:00.000-05:00

A record crowd of 65,350 was on hand at Heinz Field to see something that has never happened there before – the Steelers winning the AFC Championship game with a 23-14 win over the Baltimore Ravens to advance to Super Bowl XLIII against the Arizona Cardinals.

The third time truly was a charm, with it being the third time this season the Steelers defeated the Ravens and the third AFC Championship game held at Heinz Field.

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Cardinals Win

2009-01-18T18:36:00.003-05:00

The Arizona Cardinals punched their ticket to Tampa on Sunday, following a 32-25 win over the Philadelphia Eagles. An improbable postseason run continues for Arizona as they’ll face off against the Baltimore Ravens or Pittsburgh Steelers in Super Bowl XLIII.
The Cardinals have pulled off what was nearly unthinkable just weeks ago and are headed to Super Bowl XLIII in Tampa, FL. After getting throttled 48-20 by the Eagles on Thanksgiving night, the Cardinals returned the favor en route to a 32-25 win in the NFC Championship game.

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2009-01-07T17:18:00.000-05:00

New Year, old Rose Bowl result as USC beats Penn State, 38-24

2009-01-03T19:51:00.001-05:00

USC quarterback Mark Sanchez celebrates a touchdown at the end of the first half against Penn State in a game that served as a superlative audition for the NFL.

The Lions were no match for the Trojans, who won their third straight Rose Bowl.

Mark Sanchez dismantled Penn State, throwing for 413 yards and four touchdowns and running for one in a game that was essentially over at halftime with USC in control, 31-7. The fifth-ranked Trojans scored on every possession of the first half after their futile first, converting drives of 86, 80, 67 and 58 yards into TDs and a 70-yard drive into a field goal. Besides their lone touchdown, the sixth-ranked Nittany Lions punted four times and fumbled once in the first half.

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Happy New Year

2009-01-01T00:01:00.000-05:00

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Miami Dolphins AFC East Division Champs!

2008-12-29T01:47:00.003-05:00

Miami Dolphins' Ted Ginn Jr scores a touchdown

The Miami Dolphins continued their Cinderella season, joining the Minnesota Vikings, Carolina Panthers and San Diego Chargers in grabbing division titles on the final day of the NFL regular season

The Dolphins, the league's worst team a year ago at 1-15, rode the quarterbacking of New York Jets reject Chad Pennington to a 24-17 victory over his former team to claim the AFC East Division crown and a playoff berth.

The win was the ninth in 10 games for the Dolphins (11-5), who will face the Baltimore Ravens (11-5) in Sunday's AFC wild-card game at Miami.

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Call of Duty: World at War Review

2008-12-28T00:34:00.002-05:00

Click here to watch sniper mission.

8.5		Presentation The pre-level loads are also the game's FMV story-driving sequences. The music is inspiring, the story hits home in a pretty brutal, historically-accurate way, and it lives up to its M rating.
8.0		Graphics The actual model detail and animations aren't always too hot, and environments are a bit inconsistent in overall quality, but the particle effects, smoke, lighting, and geometry make up for it.
8.5		Sound Kiefer Sutherland - the voice of Jack Bauer - does a great job, as do the supporting troops. Music is inspired and cinematic as well, with weapon audio also torn from the other versions.
7.0		Gameplay While the actual control could be much stronger, and the frame-rate isn't even a locked 30, the game's diversity in missions, and overall offering as a package trumps most FPS efforts on Wii.
8.0		Lasting Appeal Multiplayer is nice, but deathmatch only. Challenges, perks, weapons, levels and leaderboards are in, though co-op campaign, objective modes, vehicles, and zombie mode aren't. Online runs well though.
8.0 Impressive

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2008 Year in Review

2008-12-27T22:53:00.003-05:00

2008 Has had its ups and downs

let me share with you some of those ups and downs

I'll start with an UP
My cousin Haley Allen got engaged to Nick John they are to be wed June 2010.
we wish them nothing but happiness

DOWN
We still don't have are wood floors done yet and walking around on sub flooring is getting old.

UP
Its still not over yet but the dolphins season has been great compared to last year! If they only would have won 2 games it would have been twice as many as last year we might even make the playoffs. Lets wait and see.

DOWN
Are good friend Leah Otto was diagnosed with cancer she is undergoing chemotherapy
and is doing well we pray for her all the time and so should whoever is reading this
WE LOVE YOU LEAH AND OUR PRAYERS ARE WITH YOU!!!

UP
Even though the market is not doing so hot and people are not spending money (buying vehicles) I still have a job and my hours have not been affected
I hope it stays like that.
P.S. BUY A SIENNA

That's just some up and downs.
I mean really my year has not been that bad
its been pretty uneventful. About the same as last year.
But when it's all said and done I'd say its been a good year I still have my beautiful wife whom I love, My dogs are always happy to see me when I get home
and I still have my friends and family.

2008
7.5 OUT OF 10
Anyway have a good rest of 2008 and an even better 2009
O YEAH
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Official: SEGA Publishes The Conduit

2008-10-31T17:03:00.001-04:00

SEGA of America and SEGA of Europe today announced a worldwide partnership with High Voltage Software to publish and distribute the Wii home video game system-exclusive title, The Conduit. The first-person shooter garnered multiple awards at E3 2008, including Best Wii Game by GameTrailers and three awards from IGN: Best Shooting Game (Wii), Best Graphics Technology (Wii) and Best Overall Wii Game. The Conduit is a stunning, futuristic title powered by a new game engine technology that delivers remarkable visuals and effects, as well as a rich interactive experience that is unlike any other title on the Wii.

"The Conduit is one of the most talked-about Wii games this year and High Voltage Software has only scratched the surface of the game in terms of what they have shown so far," says Simon Jeffery, President of SEGA of America, Inc. "They have proven that graphical and technological innovation can be exciting to the Wii market, and SEGA is thrilled to partner with a team that truly shares our belief in the Wii's gaming potential beyond the casual market."

"High Voltage Software's partnership with SEGA to publish The Conduit represents an important milestone for this studio," said Kerry Ganofsky, CEO and founder of High Voltage Software, Inc. "SEGA shares our vision for the title and its tremendous potential, which is why we chose them from a long list of potential partners. With their support, we are confident that The Conduit will deliver the definitive shooter experience that Wii fans have been waiting for."

The Conduit takes players into a dark story in Washington D.C. after a vicious alien invasion has rocked the country. An organization called the Trust has sent in Secret Service agent, Mr. Ford, to go up against the insect-like alien race known as "The Drudge." Armed with an array of futuristic weaponry and an intelligence-gathering device simply called the "All-Seeing Eye," players follow an intricate storyline filled with conspiracy, shady government activity and terrifying aliens.

The Conduit's detailed control system allows players to customize and configure look sensitivity, turning speed, the dead zone and much more. As players delve further into the mystery behind the extraterrestrial invasion, shocking details reveal that the invasion may have been brought on with help from the government itself.

Powered by High Voltage Software's groundbreaking Quantum 3 engine, The Conduit ensures that players will experience single and multiplayer gameplay with graphical fidelity never seen before on the Wii. The Conduit will also support the recently announced Wii Speak peripheral, allowing online multiplayer gamers the ability to chat as they destroy aliens in each terrifying level. Additionally, the game will take advantage of the Wii MotionPlus for optimal control.

The Conduit, exclusively for the Wii, is slated to ship in spring 2009. For more information on the game, please visit www.conduitgame.com.

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Nintendo Wii HD coming in 2011

2008-10-04T13:07:00.001-04:00

It's been a busy week for Nintendo. After announcing the Nintendo DSi, an upgrade to the popular Nintendo DS that includes bigger screens and a camera among other upgrades, and announcing the long-awaited storage solution for the Wii, the Internet is buzzing about an upgraded Nintendo Wii due out in 2011.

Labeled the Wii HD, this upgraded console is expected to have improved graphics and storage capacity as well as being 100% backwards compatible with the Wii.

But will Nintendo try to take on Microsoft and Sony by delivering a machine that can rival the Xbox 360 and PS3 in graphics and power? The beauty of the Wii is that it doesn't try to compete directly with the more powerful consoles, but along with capturing the casual gamer market, it's also gained ground with hardcore gamers who have chosen to supplement their more powerful consoles with a Wii.

So, it might make sense to beef up the Wii and delve deeper into the hardcore market. The key will be keeping the price low enough for casual gamers while upping the graphics and processing power. It's doubtful the Wii HD will go all out -- it will likely still drag behind offerings from Sony and Microsoft -- but a bump in power will keep it a nice addition for the hardcore gamer and casual gamer alike.

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DSi Factoids

2008-10-04T13:04:00.001-04:00

Technical details dished out by Nintendo regarding the next DS handheld.

Last night in Tokyo and this morning in San Francisco, Nintendo revealed the next handheld system from the company: an updated Nintendo DS called the DSi. This handheld, to be released next month in Japan, upgrades the current platform with a unit featuring a smaller footprint, larger screens, an SD card slot, built-in browser, and dual digital cameras.

Nintendo engineers shaved a few millimeters off to make the DSi slightly thinner, but it's a bit longer and wider: when closed, the DSi is 137.0mm wide by 74.9mm long, and 18.9 mm thick. The current DS Lite is 133.0 mm wide, 73.9mm long, and 21.5mm thick. With the DSi, you'll be getting a longer stylus: 92mm long vs. the DS Lite's stylus at 87.5mm.

While both the Nintendo DS Lite and the DSi systems share identical LCD technologies for their displays, the DSi screens are 3.25 inches diagonal, compared to the DS Lite's 3.0 inches. The DSi system will have five brightness settings where the DS Lite featured four.

The DSi will have its own unique AC adapter and will not share the same battery pack as the DS Lite handheld. But with all the extras the DSi offers, the battery life isn't quite up to the same standards as the DS Lite. At the lowest brightness setting, the DSi lasts 9 to 14 hours on a single charge depending on a variety of factors like Wi-Fi use. This doesn't quite meet the DS Lite's energy usage, at least according to Nintendo numbers where the current system lasts between 15 and 19 hours on a single charge. At the highest brightness, the usage of the DSi drops to 3 to 4 hours on a charge, compared to DS Lite at 5 to 8 hours.

According to the spec sheet, even though the DSi won't play Game Boy Advance games due to the lack of GBA slot, it will play games written specifically for the DSi as well as current DS games. It is unclear whether there will be exclusive DSi packaging for games that are made only with the DSi and its unique functions in mind.

The DSi will ship in Japan on November 1st 2008 for 18,900. Nintendo of America has only offered a "2009" release window for our territory.

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Disaster: Day Of Crisis

2008-09-26T17:15:00.001-04:00

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Miyamoto Wins Special CEDEC Award

2008-09-11T06:47:00.000-04:00

Mario creator honored by fans and peers in Japan.

Nintendo walked away the big winner at the CEDEC Awards, an awards presentation held for the first time this year at CEDEC, Japan's equivalent of the Game Developers Conference.

These awards offered general users a chance to pick the top samples of programming, sound, game design, and visual arts for any game released until March 31 of this year. Following general nominations, which closed off on June 30, CESA had a special advisory panel narrow the list. That panel along with this year's CEDEC presenters voted for the final results which were announced at a ceremony held in Tokyo on Wednesday evening.

This year's award recipients stand with the presenters.

The programming award went to Capcom's MT Framework engine, which beat out the Gran Turismo series, Virtua Fighter, Pikmin, and Ridge Racer. MT Framework is the engine that Capcom uses for games like Devil May Cry 4, Lost Planet, and the upcoming Resident Evil 5. Capcom was honored for being quick to adopt the notion of a company-wide game framework.

The visual arts award went to Sony Computer Enteratinment's ICO, which beat out the Gran Turismo series, the Soul Calibur series, the Final Fantasy series covering parts VII to XII, and the Metal Gear Solid series. ICO was noted for its sense of atmosphere which ended up having great influence throughout the world.

Producer Fumito Ueda shared a few comments as he and his team members received the award. On his mysterious new project, he said that while it's still a ways off, he hopes that players look forward to it.

Nintendo dominated the remaining three rewards. Game Design went to Super Mario Bros., which beat out Dragon Quest, Virtua Fighter, Pokemon, and Monster Hunter. Sound went to the Zelda series, beating out the Gran Turismo series, the Jikkyou Powerful Pro Baseball series, New Onimusha Dawn of Dreams, and Hudson's Zettai Onkan Otoda Master. Nintendo's Takashi Tezuka and Koji Kondo took the stage to accept these rewards.

The final "special award" was given to who else but Shigeru Miyamoto. The CEDEC advisory panel gave this general award out in recognition of Miyamoto's influences not just on the Japanese game market, but on the worldwide market.

Miyamoto takes his special prize

Miyamoto appeared at the event to take the award and will also be giving a closed keynote address at CEDEC early Thursday morning.

Lyric Of The Month

2008-08-17T10:41:00.002-04:00

Artist Anberlin

Song Godspeed

Burning down neverland (scatter the ashes)
White lines black tar the matches
Is this another death by misadventure
Tell me what you got, what you really got (hey hey!)
We’ll rest in our graves,
Lexington course your veins
Sleepers can't just wake the dead
When needles and lovers collapse on guilty beds

Fall asleep, don't fall asleep
Don't fall asleep

(They lied when they said that the good die young)

THEY LIED WHEN THEY SAID THE GOOD DIE YOUNG!
woah-oh-ah-oh
THEY LIED WHEN THEY SAID THE GOOD DIE YOUNG!
stay with me, stay with me tonight

Burning down bridges now (scatter the ashes)
Godspeed to all you're after
Is this a life left just to remember
Tell them who you were, who you really were (hey hey!)
Kill yourself slowly over time, fashion statement suicide
She's still asleep in a Chelsea hotel
Bad turns to worse, and the worst turns into hell

Fall asleep, don't fall asleep
Don't fall asleep

(God save the eyes that dim tonight)

THEY LIED WHEN THEY SAID THE GOOD DIE YOUNG!
woah-oh-ah-oh
THEY LIED WHEN THEY SAID THE GOOD DIE YOUNG!
Stay with me, stay with me tonight

WOAH-OH-AH-OH

THEY LIED, WHEN THEY SAID THE GOOD DIE YOUNG!
woah-oh-ah-oh

THEY LIED WHEN THEY SAID THE GOOD DIE YOUNG!

Stay with me, stay with me tonight
THEY LIED WHEN THEY SAID THE GOOD DIE YOUNG!
woah-oh-ahoh
THEY LIED WHEN THEY SAID THE GOOD DIE YOUNG!
Stay with me, stay with me tonight

BuRnItDoWnAnDwAlKaWaY

PS3 Madden Rating

2008-08-17T10:02:00.002-04:00

Read Full Review

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Kat von D ... Hot!!!

2008-08-17T09:45:00.002-04:00

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Nintendo Hardware Sales Top July

2008-08-17T09:35:00.001-04:00

The console war continues.

Every month, game industry research firm The NPD Group tallies up the hardware sales figures of each respective game console. At around the same time NPD releases their figures, enthusiastic members of each faction engage in a frenzied brawls across the web. Similarly, each manufacturer—Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft—all prepare their own, albeit comparably restrained, retorts. In the case of July, The NPD Group reported that Nintendo is the crowned victor of total hardware sales, moving over 608,400 units of their DS systems, and another 555,000 Wii systems.

The combined total sales of the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, however, failed to even touch the total Wii sales. The Xbox 360 moved 204,800 units while the PS3 pulled 224,900 units. Not to be outdone, Microsoft released some figures of their own today to boast the success of the 360. Since November 2005, consumers have spent $10.4 billion on Xbox 360s, a 49 percent total share of the total market, the release said. On the software side, Microsoft claims that users have picked up nearly 7.9 games per console sold.

All the same, the numbers don't lie. As it stand, Nintendo takes the gold for the month of July, Sony takes the silver, and Microsoft takes bronze.

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NL Central Standings

2008-08-03T21:41:00.002-04:00

NL Central Standingsgreat free widgetsWidgetbox

2008-08-03T20:45:00.001-04:00

As I Lay Dying "The Darkest Nights"

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LyRiC oF tHe MoNtH

2008-07-18T12:39:00.001-04:00

Living Sacrifice

Symbiotic

Symbiotic
Conceived in fire
Panic strike
I cannot breathe
Piercing me
Conscience Deep
Consuming Like
Embrace this heat
Like love
Complete in me to see

what I could not see
This life inside
Symbiotic
Conceived in fire
Amniotic suspension
Heart rate rhythmic
Surround by sound blood
Nourished, blood nourished
This union by love destroys
the pain and changes everything

This life inside
Symbiotic
Conceived in fire
Waves of emotion
Lifted
Defeat
Consuming fire
Burning sin like wheat
This union by love destroys the pain
This union by love changes everything
This life inside
Symbiotic
Conceived in fire
Symbiotic

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Living Sacrifice & Josh Scogin cover Zao - "to think of you"

2008-07-18T12:30:00.001-04:00

The Torture Game 2

2008-07-18T12:05:00.001-04:00

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Wii Sports Resort

2008-07-17T12:12:00.002-04:00

It works. It actually works.

Ever since we first played with the Wii remote and swung a virtual tennis racket or hit a virtual baseball, we threw out terminology like 1:1 control ratios and real-time manipulation. But the Wii remote never quite delivered on the promise it first showed, namely because the built-in accelerometers worked well with big, grandiose movements, but lacked the measuring accuracy to gauge and realistically translate the subtler motions. As a result, you could effortlessly swing your on-screen baseball bat in a big, arching motion, but you couldn't, say, swing a virtual sword with any sense that you had a great detail of accurate control over the action. The good news is that Nintendo is on the threshold of changing all of that once and for all thanks in whole to a little attachment that plugs into the bottom of your Wii remote. It's been coined MotionPlus, but we prefer to think of it as an integral ingredient -- that little something that's been missing from the Wii remote all along.
MotionPlus will come bundled with Nintendo's newly announced WIi Sports Resort, which ships next spring. No price point has been announced. The Big N pulled back the curtain on three games featured in the soon-to-be-gatrillion-seller, including Power Cruising (racing a jet ski a la Wave Race), Disc Dog, in which you throw a frisbee to a canine, and Sword Play, a sword-dueling component that has us excited for the future of the Zelda franchise. In short, MotionPlus is no joke and it's going to dramatically change the way Wii games are played. As an aside, Shigeru Miyamoto has already hinted that MotionPlus may be packed with all Wii remotes in the future.

Think about some key Wii games currently available. Everything from Wii Sports tennis and boxing to Tiger Woods PGA Tour and Star Wars. You can't accurately add topspin or slice to a ball in tennis because the Wii remote can't translate your subtle wrist twists. You can't swing a lightsaber around in Star Wars for the same reason. And while golf games have always seemed perfect for Nintendo's console, developers have struggled to recreate a true swing without trickery or defects.
In Wii Sports Resort's Disc Golf, your only goal is to grasp a frisbee and hurl it into the air so that your Mii-like dog can run forward and catch it. The closer your frisbee soars to a virtual target on the field, the more points you get. It's so ridiculously simple and yet it's also a great deal of fun because the controls work so well. As you grip the frisbee, you can twist your wrist left and right, up or down, and you can do so slowly or quickly, and your on-screen Mii will do the same, closely mimicking your every movement. It works. Really. And because it works so well, it's fun. You can add very subtle movements to your throws and the frisbee will react accordingly. You really feel like you're in control. That a few extra accelerometers could make such a difference is almost comical, but it's true.
Swordplay seems to be Wii's holy grail and everyone in the industry has looked at either Nintendo or LucasArts to make good on the potential. But in the past, the accuracy just hasn't been there and so we've been left with games that use waggle and yet don't even approach 1:1 movement. Sword Play in Wii Sports Resort, though, is on the right track. You and a friend duel in a small arena in a best of three competition. If you knock your opponent off the ledge and into the water below, you win a round. And if you both win a round, you'll go to sudden death, where the battlefield shrinks to a tiny platform. Now, you won't be able to control the movement of your character -- that's all handled by the game -- but you will be able block (by holding the B-trigger) and slash by making motions with your remote. Again, it's fairly straightforward but it works, feels good, and most importantly, it's fun.
Nintendo suggested that we grip the Wii remote with both hands, the top able to press and depress the B-Trigger, when playing. You quickly learn that there's a lot of strategy to the duels. We held strong to a guarded approach in which we blocked our opponent's advances and then knocked them in the head with a single blow before shielding ourselves again. A method both devastating and humiliating to our adversaries. And since the controller actually factors in the speed of your swing, when you clock somebody, you really whack them, a truth that is all the more embarrassing for those who take a good head cracking. We're looking at you, Craig Harris. The accuracy is good enough that in pre-matches, you can actually sharpen up an oversized pencil if you swing correctly.
And finally, Wave Race with Miis. Or, we mean, "Power Cruising" with a "water scooter." What? Anyway, like the two aforementioned games, we walked away very impressed. First of all, the water graphics in the mode show realistic physics and pretty transparencies, which makes us wish that Nintendo would just make a legitimate Wave Race title. And after playing Power Cruising, the potential for such a racer is limitless. The control feels very good. This is the only game in the E3 demo that used the nunchuk. Plug it in and hold both controllers in front of you as though they comprised the top half of a virtual steering wheel. Turn them both to the left and you'll swing your "water scooter" (jet ski) to the left. To the right and you'll veer off to the right. We noticed right off the bat that our jet ski was very responsive, tilting quickly and accurately to our subtle movement. And a very interesting turn of events, literally, you can even rev up your gas simply by making a revving motion with your Wii remote. It works beautifully.
Wii Sports Resort is already shaping up to be an excellent addition to the WIi library. More importantly, it has with three simple mini-game-style offerings proved that Nintendo's add-on is a resounding success. Only good things can come of it. And frankly, we can't wait to see what lies ahead.

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God of War 3 Announced

2008-07-15T16:35:00.002-04:00

Kratos is coming back, and he's bringing chaos.

There is no release date set for God of War III yet.

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Grand Theft Auto Coming to the DS

2008-07-15T16:22:00.002-04:00

Dual screened GTA.

July 15, 2008 - Nintendo is known for surprises during E3 and at the E3 2008 Nintendo Press Conference, the company announced Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars for the Nintendo DS.

According to Nintendo the game will be the "same free roaming GTA" experience for the handheld.

There was no word on if it will be a toned down version for the DS or if GTA will be the most Mature rated game on the DS.

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Gears of War 2

2008-07-14T12:00:00.000-04:00

E3 2008: Microsoft Press Conference

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E3 08: Wii Remote Gets More Motion

2008-07-14T10:55:00.001-04:00

Nintendo will reveal the MotionPlus accessory at this year's show.

July 14, 2008 - Players wondering if we'd ever see a true 1:1 experience on Wii need to wonder no more, as Nintendo announced today a new plug-in peripheral for the Wii remote, currently called Wii MotionPlus. Details are sparse so far, but Nintendo revealed the first snippets of information in a press release this morning. The following statement is -- in its entirety -- Nintendo's announcement of MotionPlus for Wii:

"Nintendo's upcoming Wii MotionPlus accessory for the revolutionary Wii Remote controller again redefines game control, by more quickly and accurately reflecting motions in a 3-D space. The Wii MotionPlus accessory attaches to the end of the Wii Remote and, combined with the accelerometer and the sensor bar, allows for more comprehensive tracking of a player's arm position and orientation, providing players with an unmatched level of precision and immersion. Every slight movement players make with their wrist or arm is rendered identically in real time on the screen, providing a true 1:1 response in their game play. The Wii MotionPlus accessory reconfirms Nintendo's commitment to making games intuitive and accessible for everyone. Nintendo will reveal more details about the Wii MotionPlus accessory and other topics Tuesday morning at its E3 media briefing."

The MotionPlus peripheral.

What we don't know, however, is how exactly MotionPlus will work with nunchuk controls, as the peripheral would need some sort of pass-through in order to give 1:1 motion to titles requiring analog control. The first shot above shows a small plug in the bottom of the attachment, which looks to be covering just such port, but we'll wait on Nintendo to give the final confirmation. Will we see first-person shooters that can make use of this technology? Will LucasArts find a way to adapt the upcoming Clone Wars game to include true 1:1 lightsaber technology, or could Nintendo beat them to it with a pack-in Link's Sword Fighting game (or news of a new Zelda Wii) to showcase MotionPlus? Will some sort of future "Wii-mote 2.0" automatically include MotionPlus, removing the need for an additional add-on peripheral? We'll have to wait and see how exactly the new technology works, and all signs point to Nintendo's keynote just 24 hours from now.

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Pre-E3 2008: de Blob Blowout

2008-07-09T19:54:00.002-04:00

We're officially moving THQ's Wii-exclusive platformer to must-play sleeper status.

by Matt Casamassina

We've seen the Blue Tongue-developed de Blob on several occasions and the 3D platformer, which stars a paint-soaked gelatinous ball on an ambitious quest to restore color to a monochromatic world, has always shown heavy promise. You control said blob through large, construction-filled locales mostly devoid of color, and as you jump from building to building, from wall to wall, and from trigger zone to trigger zone, you splash everything you touch with different hues of wet, splattering paint. All the while, you must avoid or destroy the armies of the I.N.K.T. Corporation, an evil regime which has stripped the once-lavish city of Chroma of its natural color. de Blob has always possessed all the makings a of winning platformer, from a fun control scheme and compelling challenges to a highly unique style that plays to Wii's technical strengths. However, previous builds of the title have lacked a certain polish. An unpredictable framerate. Seemingly incomplete graphical effects. Drab music. So when we last left the big ball of color, we crossed our fingers and hoped that the end product would receive the technical tweaks and fixes it deserved.

We got our hands-on the latest build of de Blob this week and we've got some excellent news to report. The platformer has come completely and totally together. Blue Tongue has very clearly been busy for the last couple of months, as those framerate and visual deficiencies that frequented early incarnations of the title are all of a sudden nowhere to be found, a truth that has us very happy. Not only is the game's fluidity locked at 60 frames per second (sadly, you won't be able to see this in our videos since all of our footage is captured at 30 frames -- you'll just have to take our word for it), but out of nowhere, de Blob now boasts some of the prettiest particle effects we've seen on Nintendo's home console, from gorgeous shimmering water to beautiful heat distortion and extremely detailed paint splatters. Furthermore, the once-disobedient camera now shoots the action smartly and coherently. And to top everything off, the dynamic musical soundtrack will rock you.

Click to enlarge character profile.

All of the videos you will see in our pre-E3 coverage today are from the fourth stage of 10 gigantic worlds that encapsulate the single-player adventure in de Blob. Note that publisher THQ chose to demonstrate the fourth level because it wanted to prove to us that the game's difficulty very quickly ramps up. (In meetings prior, we had only been treated to very early worlds and therefore one of our most common concerns related to difficulty.) Having played through the latest offering, however, we're certain that de Blob will provide ample challenge for platforming purists, particularly if the selection of levels continues to ramp up where difficulty is concerned. The latest level features a variety of unique challenges, from timed paint competitions to puzzles that require you to mix and match colors in order to concoct the correct hue to open a doorway, and even a series of Z-trigger hotspots which jettison the character into zigzagging patterns between monochromatic structures. There's much more to the experience than merely rolling to and from.

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Countdown E3 08

2008-07-04T10:42:00.000-04:00

Get this widget!

Nintendo E3 2008 Press Conference Coverage at IGN

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Happy 4th!!!!!!!!

2008-07-04T09:40:00.000-04:00

Go and blow some shit up!
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Nintendo Holds off on Wii DVD

2008-06-29T10:38:00.000-04:00

Company says meeting Wii supply is the priority.

Nintendo's planned DVD-ready Wii system appears to be on hold at the moment. The morning edition of the Nihon Keizai Shimbun reports today that at a stock holder meeting on the 27th, company president Satoru Iwata said of the device, "With supply constraints [of the Wii] continuing worldwide, the priority is on the current model."

This updated Wii system has been mentioned by Nintendo before only in vague terms. The firm originally suggested a release date of some time last year.

Nikkei also reports that at the same stock holder meeting, Nintendo revealed plans for a retail release of the DS's 1seg tuner peripheral this July. The device, which allows Japanese DS users to view digital television broadcasts, is currently being sold exclusively online.

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This Is How I Roll!

2008-06-28T17:33:00.002-04:00

If you need me ill be playing something

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PS3 Loses $3.3bn Since Launch

2008-06-25T18:31:00.002-04:00

'Strategic pricing' hits Sony's pockets.

Since its launch in 2006, Sony's PlayStation 3 has incurred losses of some $3.3 billion dollars due to 'strategic pricing' that sees the console sold under its production costs.

Sony's annual report – cited by Forbes- admitted that, "Even if the platform is ultimately successful, it may take longer than expected to recoup the investment, resulting in a negative impact on Sony's profitability." Kotaku broke down the numbers to reveal that the PS3's pricing led to a loss of $2.16 billion in 2007 and a $1.16 billion loss in 2008.

With neither Grand Theft Auto IV or the exclusive Metal Gear Solid 4 having a significant impact on console sales, it could well be some time before Sony sees a profit from the PS3, with analyst Michael Pachter telling Forbes, "The console is still too expensive for the masses. A recession isn't going to help HDTV or Blu-ray sales."

Metal Gear Solid 4 did however make me buy one!
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O So True

2008-06-21T12:32:00.002-04:00

America is Dumb enough
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Xbox 360 Games of Summer 2008

2008-06-21T11:43:00.002-04:00

The games that will keep you indoors.

The days are long and the weather is fine. Now let's ignore the great outdoors and get to some gaming because this summer's release list is hotter than your sun burnt back. There's something for everybody, whether you like shooters, sports titles, strategy, action or role-playing. We've sorted through the packed release list for this summer (June 21 - September 21) and made a handy list of the titles that we think look most promising. You're welcome.

Baja: Edge of Control
m Developer:2XL Games
Publisher:THQ
Release Date:September 8, 2008
Genre:Racing

This is where spin-off dev 2XL Games comes in. Formed by key members of the Rainbow staff, their first game is definitely familiar territory, but a decidedly different take on things. The same drive-anywhere open worlds have been given a next-gen face-lift and the tracks are finally getting the chance to stretch their legs too, with new Hill Climb and of course point-to-point marathon Baja races that span far, far more distance than the ATV or MX games (we're talking up to four hour races if that floats yer boat).

Throw in more than three dozen different vehicles each with their own damage models that let independent parts break (and be repaired) and you've finally got a proper evolutional leap from Rainbow's pedigree.

Battlefield: Bad Company
Developer:DICE Sweden
Publisher:Electronic Arts
Release Date:June 23, 2008
Genre:First-Person Shooter

The Frostbite Engine, and in particular its all-encompassing approach to letting you run around in and carve a path through the world, is the real star here. Sniper making getting across an open stretch a pain? Whip out an RPG and simply blow his entire roost to kingdom come -- and that includes nests that are made of concrete. Building standing between you and your objective? Nothing a few grenade blasts and some... creative architectural changes can't fix...

Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway
Developer:Gearbox Software
Publisher:Ubisoft
Release Date:August 26, 2008
Genre:First-Person Shooter

The squad-based command system of previous games makes its return, but a decreased reliance on systematically suppressing enemy troops or making calculated movements that the developers had in mind means that battles are far more fluid. No longer will flanking an enemy, pulling up your rifle and plugging a few shots at a bunch of guys result in them simply getting a little antsy. Make no mistake, though: authentic tactics, weapons and locations are still the game's focus, and they look more impressive than any previous game in the series.

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Looks alot like the ps3 list anyway
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The PS3 Games of Summer 2008

2008-06-21T11:35:00.002-04:00

See the games we'll be playing in the hottest season of the year.

Now in its full second year, the PlayStation 3 has quite the lineup ahead of itself this summer. From shooters to racers to music titles to sports games and even strategy releases, there looks to be something promising for everyone on the looming horizon. Here's our picks for the biggest and most promising games of the summer.

Baja: Edge of Control
Developer: 2XL Games
Publisher: THQ
Release Date: September 8, 2008
Genre: Racing

What to Expect: After becoming synonymous with off-road games, the folks at Rainbow Studios hit something of a rough patch with their ATV vs. MX games. So many games in so few years meant that the developer had all but exhausted the idea of racing vehicles around tracks. This is where spin-off dev 2XL Games comes in. Formed by key members of the Rainbow staff, its first game is definitely familiar territory, but a decidedly different take on things. The same drive-anywhere open worlds have been given a next-gen face-lift and the tracks are finally getting the chance to stretch their legs too, with new Hill Climb and, of course, point-to-point marathon Baja races that span far, far more distance than the ATV or MX games (we're talking up to four hour races if that floats yer boat). Throw in more than three dozen different vehicles each with their own damage models that let independent parts break (and be repaired) and you've finally got a proper evolutional leap from Rainbow's pedigree.

Battlefield: Bad Company
Developer: DICE Sweden
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Release Date: June 23, 2008
Genre: First-Person Shooter

What to Expect: The Battlefield series has long been a staple sandbox, drive-anything, fly-anywhere multiplayer franchise, but with Bad Company, EA and DICE have decided to add the one thing the series has always lacked: a story. Take four guys with less-than-enthusiastic attitudes toward their tenure in the armed forces, add in plenty of humor and drop the whole mess into a world that provides a level of destruction unseen in the series -- or even in most games. The Frostbite Engine, and in particular its all-encompassing approach to letting you run around in and carve a path through the world, is the real star here. Sniper making getting across an open stretch a pain? Whip out an RPG and simply blow his entire roost to kingdom come -- and that includes nests that are made of concrete. Building standing between you and your objective? Nothing a few grenade blasts and some... creative architectural changes can't fix...

Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway
Developer: Gearbox Software
Publisher: Ubisoft
Release Date: August 26, 2008
Genre: First-Person Shooter

What to Expect: It may seem like Gearbox's latest Brothers in Arms game has been in development limbo as they've toiled to bend the Unreal Engine 3 to do their bidding, but slow, steady progress has been made in pushing toward the game's inevitable release. Luckily, it certainly sounds like all that time spent in bringing the strategic FPS to next-gen will bear fruit; the cinematic approach to painting the battles of Operation Market Garden have certainly been told before, but not with Gearbox's particular brand of strategic flair. The squad-based command system of previous games makes its return, but a decreased reliance on systematically suppressing enemy troops or making calculated movements that the developers had in mind means that battles are far more fluid. No longer will flanking an enemy, pulling up your rifle and plugging a few shots at a bunch of guys result in them simply getting a little antsy. Make no mistake, though: authentic tactics, weapons and locations are still the game's focus, and they look more impressive than any previous game in the series.

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The Wii Games of Summer 2008

2008-06-21T10:56:00.004-04:00

Take a look at the Top 15 potential blockbusters hitting the Wii in the next three months.

The days are getting longer. The temperatures are climbing. The allure of the outdoors is increasing, and you may feel inclined to spend some time socializing out under the open sky, enjoying the many opportunities of entertainment afforded by the season that now falls upon us – summer. We wouldn't be doing our jobs very well, though, if we didn't try to dissuade you from all that. And so we present to you The Wii Games of Summer 2008 – a Top 20 list of the best and brightest potential blockbusters scheduled to be released in the next three months, each one of which serves as an excellent argument against venturing out into the sun in favor of staying parked safely inside with your Wii and TV. So take a look, friends. Educate yourselves as to what we're looking forward to in the months to come, and plan out just how you're going to afford to own the many hits listed below – because the myth that summer is a slow time for new releases doesn't hold up too well when you see the strength of this Wii summer lineup. Read on!

Rock Band: Special Edition
Publisher: MTV Games
Developer: Pi Studios / Harmonix
Release Date: June 22, 2008
Genre: Music

The summer kicks off on Wii the way last fall concluded for competing consoles, because Rock Band is finally arriving on Nintendo's machine after having already been available on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 for the past seven months. The delay has been a bummer for fans of the music genre, but Wii owners' patience will be rewarded with new, white-colored instruments. The drum kit, microphone and one guitar all come packaged together in the Special Edition Rock Band box, and the game will be available unbundled as well.

As for extra songs, those will be hitting during the summer months too – Rock Band: Track Pack Volume 1 will arrive in mid-July with the first supplementary set of songs for accomplished Wii rockers to try as an encore. The Track Pack will ship to stores on a physical disc, rather than taking the form of digital downloads like on the other consoles – thank the continued lack of a good expanded storage solution on the Wii for that one. (No room in the fridge.)

Top Spin 3
Publisher: 2K Sports
Developer: PAM Development
Release Date: June 23, 2008
Genre: Sports

Fans of more realistic tennis experiences will be able to get their fix on Wii in just a few more days, as the virtual renderings of real world stars of the court like Roger Federer and Maria Sharapova will stand in stark contrast to the cartoon mascots of SEGA Superstars Tennis and whichever random Mii you prefer to use in Wii Sports. Top Spin 3 marks the first time the 2K Sports franchise will come to a Nintendo home console, after having originally debuted on the first Xbox half a decade ago.

The game will come complete with recreated real world venues from around the globe to compliment its cast of champions, and will further set itself apart from the existing tennis competition on Wii by offering a unique style of racket control – the Wii Remote will be held rotated in your hand, such that the D-Pad and buttons point toward your television screen and your index finger rests on the B Trigger on the back. You can read more about the twist on "traditional" Wii tennis control by checking out Bozon's hands-on preview of the title right here. And you can expect a full review of Top Spin 3 soon, as it's set to arrive on store shelves in only a few more days.

Alone in the Dark
Publisher: Atari
Developer: Hydravision Entertainment / Eden Studios
Release Date: June 24, 2008
Genre: Adventure

Like Top Spin before it, Alone in the Dark is another established gaming franchise that's never previously been seen on a Nintendo home console – but it will next week. The series, which is thematically similar to some other survival horror franchises that Wii gamers might be more familiar with, originated on PCs in the '90s. This installment will be the fifth in the line, and stars protagonist Edward Carnby investigating supernatural disturbances in the shadows of New York City.

Though Alone in the Dark is a multi-platform release set to hit pretty much every gaming platform there is, this Wii edition includes the requisite integrated motion control to take advantage of the Remote's unique abilities. You can read more about that in Erik's hands-on preview of the game.

Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo's Dungeon
Publisher: Square Enix
Developer: Square Enix
Release Date: July 8, 2008
Genre: Action RPG

The legendary yellow riding bird of the Final Fantasy franchise has appeared in countless Square Enix games in supporting roles over the years, but the Chocobo's been making a bigger name for himself as a headlining star in the past decade. Many of the Chocobo games have stayed exclusive to Japan, but the positive reception to the American release of Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo Tales on the DS paved the way to a localization for this latest adventure, a dungeon-crawling "roguelike" most similar in style to games like Nintendo's Pokemon Mystery Dungeon series.

If you're a fan of strategic RPG action and don't mind a little old-school level-grinding, you'd be well served to take a glance at Chocobo's Dungeon this July. Daemon's preview from the most recent Tokyo Game Show is a good place to start in getting yourself up to speed.

MLB Power Pros 2008
Publisher: 2K Sports
Developer: Konami
Release Date: July 29, 2008
Genre: Sports

Last year's arrival of MLB Power Pros on the Wii was a great success, as 2K Sports and Konami conspired together to finally bring Japan's famous Power Pro-kun baseball franchise to the States for the very first time. Now the two companies are poised to make a second run for home, as the 2008 edition of the franchise is warming up in the dugout and getting set to take the mound at the end of next month.

The Power Pro franchise is famous for its visual style, as it renders the pros of the Major League as short, squatty, big-headed cartoon characters. It looks a little silly, but it totally works – Power Pros is one of the most accessible baseball titles you're ever likely to play. Though we haven't had a chance to go hands-on with the 2008 upgrade yet, you can get a scouting report of what to expect by checking out Bozon's review of the original MLB Power Pros from last year.

Madden NFL '09 All-Play
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Developer: Tiburon
Release Date: August 12, 2008
Genre: Sports

What would any summer gaming season be without the latest edition of Madden Football hitting the consoles? Things are going to look a lot different for Wii gamers this year, though, as the innovations begun with last year's Family Mode in Madden NFL '08 have evolved, finding refinement as the new "All-Play" mode for this next installment. It's such a big deal that EA has decided to add it to the name of the product, and further distance this game from the versions that will be available on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 – All-Play is all-Wii.

You can read Bozon's hands-on preview to get the scoop on the new mode set to revolutionize the Madden experience for Nintendo gamers. Or, better still, see the changes in action through our video preview of the title.

Mario Super Sluggers
Publisher: Nintendo
Developer: Nintendo
Release Date: August 25, 2008
Genre: Sports Action

One of only very few first-party Nintendo releases scheduled for the next three months, Mario Super Sluggers is arriving on Wii just in time to give gamers an alternative to MLB Power Pros as the Major League season heats up at the end of August. Like Mario Strikers Charged before it, Super Sluggers is a Wii-refocused sequel to a GameCube Mario Sports title from previous years – this one's original inspiration was Mario Superstar Baseball, which was met with the infamous 7.9 when it arrived three summers ago.

Will Super Sluggers' Wii Remote swinging control, Mii integration and vibrant new stadium environments be enough to push its score up into the 8's when it arrives? We'll find out in a couple of months, but until then you can prepare yourself for Mario's return to the ballpark with a viewing of the latest videos captured from the recently released Japanese version of the game.

Harvest Moon: Tree of Tranquility
Publisher: Natsume / Marvelous Interactive
Developer: Marvelous Interactive
Release Date: August 26, 2008
Genre: Adventure

It's spent over a year in the process of localization, but the Wii debut of Natsume's famous Harvest Moon franchise is finally set to arrive on American shores this August. Harvest Moon: Tree of Tranquility updates the storied farming sim series for Wii and introduces motion control to its set of agricultural tools – you'll use the Remote like a hoe, a shovel and an axe on your way to making your acreage produce the best possible digital crops it can.

Along the way, as always, you'll get to interact with local villagers, upgrade your home and seek a single young woman to court into marriage. Gotta love Harvest Moon. If you want to learn more, you can read Anoop's playtest of the Japanese edition as it arrived last summer. And let's hope it doesn't take Natsume quite so long to turn around a localization for the next sequel to the series, whenever it eventually arrives.

Tiger Woods PGA Tour '09 All-Play
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Developer: Tiburon
Release Date: August 26, 2008
Genre: Sports

The real Tiger Woods may be sidelined for the season with his recurring need for knee surgery, but that hasn't slowed down the virtual Tiger one bit – this year's edition of Tiger Woods PGA Tour on the Wii looks like the best installment of the franchise so far. Like Madden NFL '09, this year's Tiger is introducing the "All-Play" system that seeks to make the game more accessible for newcomers and families. If you or anyone you know has ever been intimidated by the complexities of past Tiger editions, then All-Play might be just the thing you need to make a fresh start on the front 9.

Matt went hands-on with the game just earlier this week, and came back with positive impressions from his experience. Have a read by clicking right here, and see for yourself why he thinks this year's EA offering might end up besting Camelot's own We Love Golf!

Sam & Max: Season One
Publisher: JoWood Productions
Developer: Telltale Games
Release Date: August 29, 2008
Genre: Adventure

Never say that an online fan petition can't make a difference, as the stalwart Sam & Max supporters over at GoNintendo mobilized their readership into action to get this game to happen. Sam & Max: Season One is a collection of six installments of the Telltale Games' episodic adventure series starring crime-fighting rabbit Max and his straight-man canine counterpart Sam. The series began on PCs, but found such success there that it began to branch out to home consoles – this Wii edition was specifically sought by a large group of dedicated fans operating an Internet support campaign that began in 2006 and ran until the official announcement of its imminent arrival on Wii was made a few months back.

You can make the jump over to IGN's PC Channel to catch up with reviews of the individual episodes that will be featured in this compilation package. We'll get you started with a link to the first one, Episode #1: Culture Shock.

LEGO Batman: The Videogame
Publisher: Warner Bros. Interactive
Developer: Traveller's Tales
Release Date: September 1, 2008
Genre: Action

Having already been home to the blocky adventures of LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga and the recently released LEGO Indiana Jones, the Wii now awaits the arrival of the third pop culture property to be transformed into LEGO style. LEGO Batman: The Videogame will follow the same gameplay formula as the two other LEGO titles to come before it, but the setting will be a building block Gotham City inhabited by Batman, Robin and the entire rogues' gallery of Arkham Asylum inmates. You can expect to see The Joker, Two-Face, Catwoman, The Penguin and many, many more of the Dark Knight's most notable foes, all running around and trying to break each other down into their component blocks. So violent, but so cute.

Chris Roper's recent review of LEGO Indiana Jones would be your best bet for getting a sense of how Batman will play out – you can click right here to give it a read.

Monster Lab
Publisher: Eidos Interactive
Developer: Backbone Entertainment
Release Date: September 16, 2008
Genre: Simulation

If the high heat of the summer's dwindling days has driven you insane by mid-September, you'll likely be right in the proper mindset for reinvisioning yourself as a mad scientist in Eidos' Monster Lab. The game surprised us when it was originally announced back in January, and it looks to be shaping up as one of the most unique offerings for the Wii so far – playing as a maniacal doctor, it's your task to mix and match body parts to create the most gruesome and powerful monsters the world has even seen. Then, taking control of your fearsome creations, you direct them to scour the planet searching for more advanced parts and upgrades to craft even more intimidating creatures.

If you ever imagined yourself screaming "it's alive!" as your very own Frankenstein rose resurrected from a laboratory table underneath the churning chaos of an electrical storm, you'll definitely want to click over to Matt's interview with Monster Lab's producer Kelly Tainton and get ready for your new life as an evil genius. Vampire zombie wombats, here I come.

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed
Publisher: LucasArts
Developer: Krome Studios / LucasArts
Release Date: September 16, 2008
Genre: Action

You might be excited by the recent reveal of the Wii-exclusive Star Wars: The Clone Wars – Lightsaber Duels and the Force-fueled combat it promises to bring this holiday season, but don't forget that that same Force is getting Unleashed first this September. Star Wars: The Force Unleashed launches across all gaming platforms at the end of this summer, and its storyline that tells the tale of Darth Vader's secret apprentice will certainly be something for fans of that galaxy far, far away to be looking forward to in the coming months.

The Wii version will feature motion control to direct the apprentice's saber strikes and Force powers, but it won't go over the top in trying to introduce complex Wii Remote motions into every area of the gameplay. You can read up on Bozon's impressions of the game to center your emotions, as you prepare for your intentional turn to the Dark Side soon.

de Blob
Publisher: THQ
Developer: Blue Tongue / Banana Games
Release Date: September 22, 2008
Genre: Action

We're shamelessly stretching the rules of the feature to include these last two titles, as September 22 is officially the Autumnal Equinox and, technically, not part of summer any more. But as it's a matter of mere hours, we figured what the heck – let's talk about de Blob. This game in which you control a glob of goop will have you painting the town red, and yellow, and blue, and every other color in-between as you seek to restore visual vibrance to a drab, grey cityscape. de Blob began as a student project and has evolved into a full-scale Nintendo-exclusive experience that's sure to serve as a sleeper hit for many as this season ends and the next begins.

You can feast your eyes on Matt's most recent hands-on impressions with the game right here, and get an even better view of the action in store this September by clicking over to our videos page. Nothing stops de Blob.

Samba de Amigo Wii
Publisher: SEGA
Developer: Gearbox Software
Release Date: September 23, 2008
Genre: Music

And, finally, ushering in the autumn of '08 will be a SEGA revival from the days of the Dreamcast – Samba de Amigo, starring the world's most maraca-mad monkey. No simple port of the old Dreamcast project, Samba de Amigo's Wii debut is an all-new sequel. It features a more vibrant graphical presentation and richer audio experience than before, and will also utlize the motion-sensing abilities of your Wii Remote to mimic Amigo's maraca motions on the screen.

The IGN UK team got to go hands-on with the in-progress game most recently (yesterday, actually), so click here to read their impressions of Amigo's return to the spotlight. And then, get busy! You're going to need to take on some extra hours in your minimum wage summer job to be able to afford all these summer hits for the Wii. Good luck with that – and be sure to stay tuned in right here at IGN Wii for updated information and, ultimately, reviews of all of the games featured here. Have a great summer!

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Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots Review

2008-06-21T10:29:00.003-04:00

A legendary hero gets a legendary send off

June 12, 2008 - Twenty-one years ago, the gaming world was introduced to a hero: a soldier that fought alone against impossible odds to save the world. Over time, the hero grew into a legend that changed the gaming landscape and redefined stealth action games with his epic battles. After more than two decades of service, Solid Snake is finally receiving an honorable discharge in the latest chapter in the Metal Gear Solid franchise. While this is Snake's final mission, he isn't going quietly into that good night, nor is he being constrained by previous titles. Indeed, Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots shatters the proverbial bar, becoming a technical, cinematic and gaming standard that future action and stealth titles will be judged by. It's been a long time coming, but this game is a true classic and a masterpiece from Hideo Kojima, Kojima Productions and Konami.

The world of Metal Gear Solid 4 is quite a bleak one. In fact, in many ways, it's precisely the one that Solid Snake and Otacon have been hoping to avoid. Set six years in the future, war and conflict are no longer a sporadic occurrence with hot spots around the globe; instead, the entire planet is engulfed in constant battle. War has become its own self-sustaining industry, replacing the overall global economy with the contracts of private military corporations, or PMCs, that sell their services to the highest bidder. These mercenaries constantly try to prove their effectiveness on the battlefield to gain even more contracts, which causes more and more destruction as nanomachine-enhanced soldiers clash in cities, in buildings and on the streets. With such a chaotic environment, not even civilians are safe from the constant fighting, as skirmishes can break out at any point.

Be sure to watch or download the video review here (HD available).
This is the setting that Solid Snake has been called out of retirement for: one final mission issued by Col. Campbell to save the world from one last threat. Snake is initially inserted into the war zone of the Middle East undercover as a UN PMC inspector to gauge how the situation on the ground is being handled by troops there. Of course, he has a more direct task that takes advantage of his specialized skills: he must find and assassinate Liquid Ocelot, who has become the head of five of the largest PMCs in the world. That's definitely easier said than done, as Ocelot has surrounded himself with a group of deadly comrades -- including a quartet of deadly females known as the Beauty and the Beast Corps who appear to be half woman, half machine -- to eliminate Solid Snake.

Or perhaps we should say Old Snake? You see, the legendary soldier is suffering from accelerated aging due to cellular degeneration. This is much more harmful than his multiple pack-a-day smoking addiction, making him physically older than his years and hampering his movements every so often. To accomplish his toughest mission yet, Solid Snake will need to pull a couple of new tricks from his camouflaged sleeves. Fortunately, there are plenty of them to go around in Metal Gear Solid 4, which is easily the deepest and most expansive title in the series.

Welcome to the war zone.

Fans familiar with previous Metal Gear Solid games are aware that each title has introduced new gameplay mechanics for Snake to take advantage of. The incredible part about Metal Gear Solid 4 is there are tons of additional features added to this title, and even when you run into a system or mechanic that you wouldn't think would fit in the Metal Gear Universe, Kojima and his team have figured out a way to make it blend seamlessly with the gameplay, which easily allays any fears or concerns you have. Not only are they well balanced and quite layered, each one adds to the scope of MGS4, which can be considered epic. From the first action sequence in the Middle East where you and a squad of militiamen fight against PMCs, to escorting Meryl and her Rat Patrol squad through a fierce gunfight with The Frogs (Liquid's private army), to the climactic battle at the end of the title, you'll be amazed at the sheer depth included within the game.

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TSHIRT HELL

2008-06-08T14:12:00.001-04:00

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Lyric of the Month

2008-06-08T13:54:00.003-04:00

Artist:Becoming The Archetype

Album:Terminate Damnation

Song:Elegy

Death reigns over the earth
Opressing justice and truth
Nations plagued by despair
Are collapsing hopelessly into themselves
We watch while sanity dies
Forever lost upon the Earth
Countless souls embracing condemnation
One by one marching to the grave

Into the Mouth of the ruin that feeds upon the Damned and the Deceived
And they will cry there is no life here only death
Deceived
Wide is the path that leads to destruction
Wide is that pathway down into the pit of despair

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McCain 08

2008-06-08T13:10:00.002-04:00

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Happy Birthday Anodyne

2008-05-23T06:35:00.001-04:00

Five years of posting shit no one cares about

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Guitar Hero IV Details Revealed

2008-05-15T17:52:00.002-04:00

Create your own songs, solo on the drums and fully customize your character.

Rock Band may be currently cornering the full-band music game genre, but Activision and Neversoft have come out swinging, revealing loads of new info on the next installment in the franchise, aimed at unseating EA and MTV games' reigning rockstar simulator.

According to a cover-story spread in this month's issue of Game Informer magazine, Guitar Hero IV will introduce massive changes to the traditionally guitar-focused series, starting with a drum set addition meant to knock Rock Band's kit offstage.

The kit looks similar to Rock Band's, with its bass drum pedal and primary-colored circular pads (there are only three in GHIV), but that's where the similarities end. Activision's set – which the company claims is built more sturdily than the competition's -- adds two raised, wedge-shaped cymbal pads (used to activate star power), and each pad on the kit is pressure-sensitive. Itching to freestyle on the Rock Band drums after playing Weezer's "Say it Ain't So" for the 75th time? The GHIV drum career mode will let you do your thing during encores.

Although Activision didn't reveal specific details, the publisher told GI the next Guitar Hero axe will feature a "totally new input mechanic" in addition to the standard buttons. The game will still support current GH controllers, however. All instruments in the game, including the drum set, will be wireless.

Guitar Hero IV will also feature an expanded character creation system similar to those found in the Tony Hawk and Tiger Woods games -- think facial sliders and customized outfits, accessories and even reaction animations. Instruments will be able to be personalized, too. Licensed guitars are out, drums will have different wood grains available, decals can be created and you'll even be able to slap your band's name on the bass drum head.

Activision and Neversoft also told GI they will release more downloadable songs for Guitar Hero IV than they have for Guitar Hero III and plan to introduce a new music-creation tool. The new Studio Mode will let users not only freely jam over songs in the game but also create and upload their own original tracks. Using a vertically-scrolling grid, you'll be able to record rhythm, lead, melody, bass and drums (sorry, no vocals) and create loops and effects.

There's still no release date for Guitar Hero IV, and despite the wealth of info Activision has now shared about he title, there's still a lot we don't know. As long as we get to play a keytar, we'll be happy.

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Mad World Wii

2008-05-15T17:48:00.000-04:00

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Mario Kart Wii Review

2008-04-20T20:12:00.002-04:00

Nintendo delivers one of the best console Karts in years.

It's been more than 15 years since the dawn of the Mario Kart franchise on Super Nintendo and the series is still going strong. Indeed, since its inception Kart has become a household name, seeing six iterations, over 100 tracks, and spawning millions upon millions of players worldwide. Every version brings something subtly different to the table, and everyone seems to have a favorite amidst a franchise that never quite changes, but never really stays the same from game to game. Ask players which characters they prefer, what levels top the list, and which items need to stay or go, and you'll get as many diverse responses are there are gamer types. And yet, most Nintendo fans will agree that the Kart games are enjoyable single-player experiences and addictive multiplayer ones.

Online is even better than off. This one raises the bar for Wi-Fi on Wii.

Supposing you're new to the phenomenon -- hey, this is Wii after all; you might come from that coveted "blue ocean" corner -- Mario Kart Wii, like its predecessors, is a pick-up-and-play racer drenched in Mushroom Kingdom characters and overrun with outlandish track designs. You can race against foes or engage them in vehicular battle -- not with guns, mind you, but turtle shells and bananas. This is a Nintendo game, remember. The concept may seem downright childish as you read about it, but the end experience is both charming and fun.

Mario Kart has never really been full-blown "hardcore," and neither has it been wholly "casual," a truth that Nintendo has fully embraced this time around. Mario Kart Wii comes complete with three Grand Prix speed classes – 50cc, 100cc, and 150cc – with the expected unlockables after that. Each character fits distinctly in a race class, has specific light, medium, or heavy cars to choose from based on that class, and there's of course a healthy dose of local multiplayer via classic versus ad battle modes. If you grew up with Kart, you will not find the Wii iteration full of pioneering new play modes, which might prove disappointing for some. At the same time, though, Nintendo's series was founded on a winning formula and we can therefore sympathize with any reluctance to break from it.

Still, there are some welcomed additions. Not only does Kart for Wii ship with a Wii Wheel -- a shell that encapsulates the Wii remote and makes the process of motion-controlled steering more believable -- but now there are bikes, Mii support both on and off the tracks, 32 total stages (half new, half classic), as well as a few new items thrown into the mix. It all feels and looks like Kart, mind you, but the extra bells and whistles are definitely recognizable But you knew that. The real question here is how exactly the game plays, what works and what doesn't, and whether or not you need to start sending hate mail to Nintendo for screwing up your now-teenage baby.

Mario has a slick new ride.

Overall, Mario Kart Wii is extremely rewarding and we take into account the Wii wheel shell (yes, we just complimented a shell…), the inclusion of IR and non-IR supported menus, the seamless integration of console Miis, and never-ending laundry list of WiiConnect24 and Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection features, the continued support of traditional control schemes, the retro levels, and much more. For the thick-minded, Mario Kart Wii offers a seemingly never-ending amount of content. Some of it you'll love and some you won't want to play through a second time.

For the first time ever on a Nintendo console, the online portion trumps the single-player offering, and we'll explain why. Both 50cc and 100cc races are fine in Grand Prix, though the exclusion of the Mario Kart 64-like cooperative two player GP is a serious misstep in our opinion -- you can certainly go in and create your own GP competitions, but they work separately from the normal GP cup progression. Mushroom Cup is a bit boring, Flower Cup starts to mix things up with some decent track design, Star Cup really starts to take off with some superb levels and true innovation, and a Special Cup that rounds things off with one of, if not the, best Rainbow Road tracks in franchise history.

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Exclusive First Look: The Conduit

2008-04-20T19:53:00.006-04:00

A futuristic first-person shooter designed from the ground up for Wii.

With Wii, Nintendo has created the best-selling current-generation videogame system in the world and the company's little white box is showing no signs of slowing down. Case in point, March 2008's hardware and software sales – not only did the Big N's console destroy the competition (more than 720,000 people bought a Wii last month compared to 260,000 for Xbox 360 and 250,000 for PS3, according to NPD), but with epic titles like Mario Kart and Wii Fit just around the corner, demand for the system is sure to remain at an all-time high. And yet, developers faced with the prospect of creating original Wii titles don't always have rosy stories to tell, a truth attributable to the fact that so many third-party publishers remain unwilling to gamble on high-budgeted projects for the console. Something that skews older. Something that doesn't revolve around a series of mini-games. Something that looks better than a PlayStation 2 game.

The argument, going on in the board rooms of major third-parties around the globe, is that adult-oriented Wii software doesn't sell. That there's no market for it. Developers on the other side of the fence assert that there's no such proof since only a handful of quality games with an edgier style have even made their way to Wii, most of them ports. Several studios have flat-out told IGN that their attempts to make darker software for Wii have been politely declined by a host of big-name publishers. (And we'll have more on another such game in the near future.)

High Voltage Software, making games for 15 years, is one company well underway with a title built from the ground up for Wii. It's a first-person shooter that revolves around government conspiracies and alien cover-ups. It's using an advanced 3D engine that really makes the most of Nintendo's hardware. And it features a control scheme that fully utilizes the Wii remote. And right now, the game needs a publisher.

High Voltage is gambling that Wii owners want a mature FPS.

It's called The Conduit and it takes place during present day. Washington D.C. finds itself the epicenter of an extraterrestrial attack and it's up to gamers, as the secret service's Agent Ford, to discover the truth hidden behind the invasion. To do that, he'll need a variety of guns and the skills to use them. High Voltage calls The Conduit a straightforward first-person shooter in the style of Halo, Medal of Honor Heroes 2 or Resistance: Fall of Man – basically, fast, run-and-gun battles and stylized weapons. The Conduit also features advanced enemy artificial intelligence enabling "human-like behavior" and a special device called the All Seeing Eye (or ASE), which, according to the studio, allows players to "reveal concealed objects and enemies, providing a deeper level of puzzle-solving."
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2008-04-18T06:21:00.003-04:00

A 5.4 earthquake early Friday rocked people awake as far away as Indiana, surprising residents unaccustomed to such a large Midwest temblor.

The quake just before 4:37 a.m. was centered 6 miles from West Salem, Ill., and 66 miles from Evansville, Ind. There were no immediate reports of injuries.

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2008-04-14T17:55:00.000-04:00

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Texas Crash Michael Mcdowell

2008-04-07T06:32:00.002-04:00

Guitar Hero DS

2008-03-19T21:22:00.002-04:00

Activision's Guitar Hero to go.

March 19, 2008 - More than a year ago, Activision revealed that the company was interested in branching its Guitar Hero franchise onto platforms such as the Nintendo DS. It's been a long wait, but the company has finally revealed the Guitar Hero game that will soon hit the dual-screen handheld later this year.

The Nintendo DS version -- Guitar Hero: On Tour -- is in development at Vicarious Visions, the team best known for the Tony Hawk and Spider-Man series on the dual-screen handheld, as well as the Nintendo Wii conversion of Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock released late last year. This portable version will feature the same rhythm-based "play to the music" gameplay of the big boys, and will even have its own peripheral to get the job done: Red Octane has developed what it's calling the Guitar Grip to give players the ability to finger chords in similar fashion as the console version's guitar peripheral.

Guitar Hero: On Tour for the Nintendo DS.

The Guitar Grip will plug into the Game Boy Advance slot at the bottom of the Nintendo DS system. Players put their hand through the strap of the Guitar Grip for a firm hold on the system, and then position the system in its vertical book form. The peripheral has a storage area for a specially designed stlyus pick, which is used to strum the guitar strings on the touch-screen. As the notes slide down the screen, players strum the strings while pressing the corresponding fret buttons, all to the rhythm of the song that's being played. According to the video released by Activision, the microphone comes into play during songs -- we're guessing it'll be used as control to activate Guitar Hero's "Star Power" mode to increase the points multiplier.

The game is being produced by Vicarious Visions.

The idea for the peripheral came during the prototyping phase of getting Guitar Hero working on the Nintendo DS. "We began prototyping ideas for Guitar Hero on DS in early 2007," said Karthik Bala, CEO of Vicarious Visions. "We quite frankly didn't know whether it would be possible to bring the core essence of the franchise to handheld and have it actually work. It was 20-something gameplay prototypes that were built, all trying different mechanics and uses of the hardware. Some were pretty cool, others were total disasters!

"At some point, we hit upon the idea of creating a peripheral that would have the fret buttons plugging into the GBA slot of the DS," he recalled. "We ripped apart an old GBA cartridge and did some electronics work on it to rig up a prototype device. As awkward and crude as that prototype was, that's when we knew we were onto something. We figured that attaching a full-size guitar or even a mini-guitar would be too awkward to play on the road, hence the design of the more compact Guitar Grip, which gives you the tactile sense of the fret buttons, with the touch screen depicting the strings of the guitar."Activision's hasn't released all details regarding Guitar Hero: On Tour, but we do know that the Nintendo DS version will feature similar single player Career Mode progression as the console game. On Tour will contain a line-up of more than 20 licensed songs from bands as Nirvana, OK Go, and No Doubt; Activision will most certainly reveal the full list of bands and songs as we get closer to the game's summer release date. Players will be able to pick from six different guitarists to represent them in-game -- while four guitarists have been in Guitar Hero before, two of the characters have been designed exclusively for the Nintendo DS game. As they get through career mode, they'll unlock venues as well as outfits to deck out their chosen persona.

Along with the single player campaign, Guitar Hero: On Tour will also support multiplayer. The game will feature both co-op as well as competitive two player options using the local wireless functions of the Nintendo DS system. The game's battle mode will feature similar gameplay as the mode created in Guitar Hero III, with power-ups created specifically for Guitar Hero: On Tour. For example, players can activate power-ups that'll send raving fans to the other screen, and the opponent will have to sign autographs on the touchscreen to get rid of them. Or out-of-control pyrotechnics will be set ablaze, and players will have to blow them out using the Nintendo DS microphone.

The DS device has four fret buttons compared to the console's five, but there's still a whole lot of rockin' to be had.

Activision has yet to announce a price-point or a release date, but the company did reveal that it's shooting to ship Guitar Hero: On Tour this summer. While console games have been branded with ESRB's T for Teen rating mostly due to song lyrics, Guitar Hero: On Tour will be rated E10.

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Super Smash Bros. Brawl Review

2008-03-10T20:57:00.004-04:00

One of the most anticipated Nintendo games ever made is finally here. Has it been worth the wait?

by Matt Casamassina

March 9, 2008 - With more than six million copies sold worldwide since its release seven years ago, Super Smash Bros. Melee remains – easily -- GameCube's best-selling title. The 3D fighter, a sequel to 1999's surprise hit Nintendo 64 project Super Smash Bros., packed in more characters, more stages and a seemingly endless supply of nostalgic trophies and collectibles to become one of the system's most beloved efforts. There was so much content squeezed into Melee, in fact, that the multiplayer fighter kept devoted fans entertained not just for months, but years. Yet, compared to the Whopper that is Super Smash Bros Brawl, a Wii game dripping with different play modes, characters, stages and online components, Melee has been reduced to a plain old hamburger. (And by the way, we're hungry.)

Hungry, that is, for some epic offline and online multiplayer fights, and thankfully Brawl – like its predecessors – satisfies. If you want numbers, we've got them. Nintendo's latest fighter features 35 mascots – a figure up from 12 in the original and 26 in Melee. It also includes more than 40 different levels, each a throwback to classic franchise stages, both from Nintendo and also from the likes of SEGA and Konami, but we'll get to that. Point is, it's a much meatier package -- we honestly don't know why we can't seem to break from our hamburger analogies – and we haven't even started in on the customization options, online support, and more.

With Brawl, famed series director Masahiro Sakurai and his Sora development team have spared no expense to bring to life the full Smash Bros. universe with a meticulous attention to detail and a decidedly un-Nintendo approach to presentation. For example, whereas the Big N chose not to spring for orchestrated music for The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, one of the company's biggest titles, Sakurai has enlisted the aid of the industry's greatest musicians to record a largely orchestrated soundtrack for his fighter. In what other game will you be able to listen to music from Masafumi Takada (of Killer 7 fame), Kenji Ito, Koji Kondo and Akihiro Honda (who recently helped score Metal Gear Solid 4)? There are nearly 40 musicians providing songs to what is one of the greatest Nintendo soundtracks available.

Meanwhile, if you're a longtime Nintendo fan, you will be amazed by the presentation of the story sequences in Brawl's unnecessary, but nevertheless lengthy (eight-plus hours) single-player mode, known as the Subspace Emissary. Crisp, colorful full-motion animation sequences tell the story of a ridiculously epic battle between dozens of Mushroom Kingdom characters. It's clear from the opening cinematic that the studio has put a lot of time and thought into crafting the action-packed snippets, which successfully bridge the gap between the traditional platformer-esque challenges comprising the single-player affair. The storyline itself seems almost randomly compiled – a pieced together jigsaw puzzle of different factions coming together. Only after you advance halfway through are you likely to grasp the tale's underlying purpose, but at least it looks and sounds great along the way.

Mario and Sonic face off in Brawl

Brawl looks like an enhanced version of Melee. The title runs in both 480p and 16:9 widescreen display for the first time, and it also hums along at an uninterrupted 60 frames per second. This is true despite the fact that the in-world characters are comprised of more polygons and skinned with more detailed textures, likewise for the many environments (some of which are destructible), and that the title features some of the most beautiful particle explosions in any Nintendo entry yet. It's certainly a good looking Wii game, and yet many of the backgrounds are kept very simple in an effort to the keep the framerate up and character animations, while speedy, typically ignore the laws of physics, weight, and momentum. These minor nitpicks will be tossed to the side, however, the moment you're engaged in an intense four-player battle overrun with explosions and background destruction, all without so much as a hiccup in fluidity.

That said, there are some presentational deficiencies, too, although these shortcomings aren't nearly as blatant as the fighter's many qualities. The cartridge-fast speed in which you can navigate Brawl's character and stage selection screens is marred by a 20-second front-end load, a truth that clashes with the majority of other Nintendo-published titles. Meanwhile, the Subspace Emissary's flow is broken by similarly too-long loads between in-game progress and the animation sequences that complement them.

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Dragonball Movie Rundown

2008-02-17T03:11:00.002-05:00

The skinny on the live-action version of the manga and anime hit.

After years in development, the live-action feature film version of Akira Toriyama's manga and anime classic Dragonball is now in production. 20th Century Fox will release the movie -- referred to as either Dragon Ball Z, Dragonball, or simply DBZ by different publications -- on August 15, 2008. Here's what we know about the highly anticipated feature film thus far:

PRODUCTION:

Fox snagged the film rights to Dragon Ball Z way back in 2002. Since then several personnel have been involved, including director Roland Emmerich (Independence Day) and screenwriter Tedi Sarafian (Terminator 3). Last fall, Emmy nominee James Wong (director of the first and third Final Destination films, as well as The One) came aboard to direct Dragon Ball Z from his own screenplay.

Wong rewrote an earlier draft by Ben Ramsey (The Big Hit). Actor-filmmaker Stephen Chow (CJ7, Kung Fu Hustle) is producing the film. Chow informed the Oriental Morning Post last November, "I have been a Dragon Ball fan for a long time. ... The airy and unstrained story leaves much room for creation."

Filming on DBZ began last December in Mexico and Los Angeles. Final Destination's Robert McLachlan is the director of photography, with Bruton Jones (Underworld) serving as production designer, Patricio M. Farrell (Right at Your Door) as art director, and Mayes C. Rubeo (Apocalypto) as costume designer.

The special effects are being handled by Amalgamated Dynamics, Inc., which has worked on the Spider-Man films. Ariel Velasco-Shaw (300, Freddy vs. Jason) is serving as Dragonball's visual effects supervisor.

THE PLOT:

While story details are being kept under wraps, The Hollywood Reporter's synopsis says Dragonball "centers on an adult humanoid alien named Goku (Chatwin) who, after discovering he was sent to Earth to destroy the population, tries to fulfill the wish of his dying grandfather and collect all seven of the world's mystical Dragon Balls to keep them out of the hands of the evil aliens." Variety added that Bulma's "father's Dragon Ball is stolen by Piccolo."

THE CAST:

Justin Chatwin as Son Goku: Chatwin is best known to audiences for his roles as Tom Cruise's son in War of the Worlds and as the lead in David Goyer's The Invisible. Chatwin has reportedly trained with stunt performance company 87Eleven (The Matrix, The Bourne Supremacy) to prepare for his fight scenes in Dragonball.

Son Goku is immensely strong, pure of heart, extremely competitive, not inordinately bright, but dedicated wholeheartedly to the cause of beating the living hell out of evil. Though he grew up on Earth and appears more or less human, Goku is a specimen of the alien warrior race of Saiyans, who originally sent him to the planet to prepare it for conquest. A coincidental knock on the head cleared his mind of his natural inclination towards global domination, though – instead, he eventually chose to become the planet's greatest champion.

- Buena Vista

Justin Chatwin will play Goku.

Goku's alien heritage gives him many advantages, of course, including great physical strength, speed, and resilience, the ability to fly, and a leg up in focusing his chi energy to develop many unusual martial arts techniques. Those include his famous "Kamehameha" energy blast, which has become his signature technique over the years, and the ability to transform into progressively more impressive levels of "Super Saiyan" power.

Emmy Rossum as Bulma: This singer-actress first came to audiences' attention as Sean Penn's doomed daughter in Mystic River before she captured the lead role of "Christine" in the big-screen version of Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical Phantom of the Opera. Her other credits include Poseidon and The Day After Tomorrow.

In a December posting at her MySpace blog, Rossum wrote that Bulma is "so different than any role I've ever played. I love the character and I'm excited to get to share something so fun with you. In prep for the film I've been training very hard, learning how to fight, fire a gun, weapons training and even some martial arts. It's fun to play such a different character when I am such a pacifist in real life."

Rossum blogged in January, "I've been listening to some harder music to access the edge inside me to bring to the character, some Lincoln Park and Dream Theater. I'm enjoying developing the character and training, learning to ride a motorcycle has been thrilling." Also, Diario.com.mx claims that Rossum will wear a blue wig in the movie.

- Warner Bros.

Emmy Rossum will play Bulma.

Any crew of heroes needs a good gadgeteer, and that's Bulma's job in the Dragon Ball universe. The heir to the massive Capsule Corporation, she creates all kinds of inventions to aid her friends in their fight to defend Earth and otherwise beat up on evil. In her younger days, she built such handy devices as the Dragon Radar, which she used to detect and hunt down the seven legendary Dragon Balls. (Her plan was to wish for the perfect man to spend her life with.) Her quest was what first introduced her to Goku, after which the two quickly became fast friends.

Later in her career, she was able to build everything from spacecraft to shrinking devices to Super Saiyan armor. In the alternate timeline from which the future version of Trunks arrived, she survived the near-destruction of Earth long enough to build Trunks' time machine. Bulma's very proud of her genius intellect, and sometimes very easily offended. Her personality makes a good match with the Saiyan prince Vegeta, who she eventually falls for and marries. Akira Toriyama's goofy sense of humor named her entire family after various types of underwear. "Bulma" is a corruption of "bloomer," her son is named "Trunks," her father is "Dr. Briefs," and so on.

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Junior Drives Hendrick Ride to Win

2008-02-10T04:12:00.000-05:00

Dale Earnhardt Jr. aced his first test with his new team.

Earnhardt had a smashing debut in his Hendrick Motorsports ride, getting a boost from his new teammates to power past Tony Stewart to win the Budweiser Shootout on Saturday night.

It was Earnhardt's first victory in any series since summer 2006, and could be a sign of things to come now that NASCAR's most popular driver is partnered with its most powerful team.

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Mario Kart Update

2008-02-07T06:36:00.000-05:00

New courses, online details, and Mii support!

With Smash Bros. at last out (in Japan, at least), Nintendo appears to have penciled in Mario Kart as its next big title. We're assuming that much, considering the unexpected blowout on the game in the latest issue of Famitsu.

The Wii installment of the cart racer that started it all looks like it's going to have lots of variety. Famitsu reveals a total of 32 courses, with 16 remakes of old courses, and 16 completely new courses. New courses include Mario Circuit, Momo Country, Kinopio Factory, DK Snowboard Cross, Coconuts Mall, Kinoko Canyon, and Luigi Circuit.

Some of these courses will put a new feature of the karts to use: mid-air tricks! Karts and bikes are both capable of performing actions and tricks in the air. Get a trick just right, and your cart will perform a dash upon landing.

In addition to a ton of content, Mario Kart Wii will have some serious multiplayer options. The game will include Wi-Fi based play for up to 12 players. You'll be able to select to play against players from throughout the world, players in your country, and players on your friend list.

As part of the new network mode, Nintendo will be making use of the Wii's Channel interface in yet another unique way. We're not sure of the specifics, but it seems that you'll be able to install a Mario Kart Channel to your Wii hub to view world rankings as well as your own records.

Going along with the Wi-Fi multiplayer play, Nintendo will be giving players a means of customizing the game. You'll be able to make your very own Mii ride a bike or kart, adding that bit of you to online races.

The online mode will also expand the single player fun. The game will offer downloadable ghost data, so you can play against some of the best players.

Not big on the whole internet thing? In addition to the Wi-Fi play, the game will also let players play together the old fashioned way: through split screen for up to four.

With this Famitsu blowout just hitting Japan, we expect the Nintendo marketing machine to start getting into gear and remind everyone why Mario Kart is so great.

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DUKE 89 - UNC 78

2008-02-07T06:26:00.000-05:00

Just Like Home

The Dean Dome was Duke's own personal playground on Wednesday.

Duke and UNC are separated eight miles. But on Wednesday, the Blue Devils were feeling so at home in UNC's Smith Center that they hit 13 3s and pulled away for an 11-point win.

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