Showing posts with label Wii. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Wii. Show all posts

02 September, 2008

Disaster: Day of Crisis confirmed for Europe

NOE has stated that it's coming and sooner than you think. Disaster: DoD is set to hit Europe this October!

"Earthquake, tsunami, volcanic eruption, flood, hurricane... and the small matter of an ex-military terrorist group with their hands on some nuclear weapons - and all in just 24 hours?! Welcome to Disaster: Day of Crisis, the action adventure game on Wii from Nintendo and Monolith Soft., sweeping across Europe on 24th October 2008 guaranteed to bring out the survival skills in everyone.

Stepping into the shoes of Raymond Bryce, a traumatised but highly decorated retired US marine and former operative of the International Rescue Team, prepare for a day like no other. Called back into action to deal with the threat of SURGE, an ex-military terrorist unit led by former elite forces specialist Colonel Hayes, Ray must overcome personal tragedy and numerous devastating natural disasters to prevent the threat of nuclear warfare.

Wracked with guilt over the loss of his best friend in the line of duty, Ray finds out that SURGE has kidnapped a leading seismologist and his assistant to predict the arrival of an earthquake, which will act as a diversion for their plan to seize the nuclear weapons. However, upon finding out that the assistant is his lost friend's sister, Lisa, the mission turns personal and offers Ray the chance of redemption he's been craving for.

Disaster: Day of Crisis is a dedicated single-player all-out action adventure blending a variety of exciting gameplay activities around an intense and absorbing 23-stage storyline. In addition to vanquishing the SURGE threat, players must come face-to-face with a series of daunting natural disasters and take full advantage of Ray's survival expertise to rescue stranded civilians left helpless.

As the story unfolds, the player's skills are thoroughly tested as Ray finds himself in increasingly hazardous situations. Gameplay varies from exploring devastated city streets for survivors to thrilling shooting sequences, as well as driving, swimming and intense quick time events all intuitively controlled with the Wii Remote and Nunchuk. Players are awarded Survival Points and Battle Points which are vital for improving Ray's abilities and ensuring he has the skills needed to overcome the game's hard-as-nails bosses, survive the effects of each disaster and ultimately, rescue Lisa.

During the majority of stages, players will find themselves searching for civilians in need of rescuing, which will help improve Ray's skills. With each civilian saved, Survival Points are awarded that can then be freely distributed amongst five critical skills such as Strength for unarmed combat and lifting objects, Firearms for handling weapons and Mental for Ray's ability to concentrate his mind.

Along the way, Ray will face adversity from SURGE, at which points the game automatically switches into combat mode. Similar to an on-rails shooter, the action becomes fast and furious where players use the Wii Remote and Nunchuk to dispatch enemies with a variety of lethal weaponry including handguns, automatics and shotguns. Once every hostile is taken down Battle Points are yielded that can be used to purchase new weapons or tune current equipment to perfection.

Even after the main storyline is completed, there are numerous incentives for players to keep coming back for more. With additional modes such as a shooting range and a staminas campaign, and a wealth of hidden content covering unlockable weapons and costumes to the extra hard 'Real Disaster Mode' difficulty, Disaster: Day of Crisis will keep gamers entertained for many months to come.

So are you ready to step into the shoes of an action hero and emerge victorious after one hell of a day? If the answer is yes, then Disaster: Day of Crisis is crying out to be rescued from your nearest retailer across Europe on 24th October 2008."


[Source]

22 August, 2008

GC Videos









Smash Brothers Brawl World Records

The Smash Brothers Dojo has put on world records for Target Smash and Home-Run. You can check them out here.

17 August, 2008

Disaster: Day of Crisis get's classified downunder

Could this mean the game could still come out?
[Source]

Swords & Soldiers Press Release

- UTRECHT, THE NETHERLANDS – August 15, 2008 – The developers of the original version of 'de Blob' announce their new game studio Ronimo Games and their first title: Swords & Soldiers.

Ronimo Games is founded by seven developers in Utrecht, the Netherlands. As students the team was responsible for the original pc game 'de Blob.' Being an innovative and fun game, 'de Blob' became popular on the internet and was eventually picked up by THQ. The publisher bought the IP and will soon release the new version of 'de Blob' for Nintendo Wii.

Fabian Akker, one of the co-founders: "de Blob was the eye opener for us, that we can make cool games and function as a good team. The game definitely gave us the opportunity to start our own company".

The team is developing a new game for WiiWare: Swords & Soldiers. Swords & Soldiers is a sidescrolling real time strategy game, in which three distinct factions battle for the powers of the gods. The game will feature a single player campaign and a competitive splitscreen multiplayer mode as well as several other game modes. Three screenshots are included with this press release.
Akker: "We always dreamed of designing an RTS and when Wii Ware came out we immediately figured that this was our chance."

Swords & Soldiers will be the first competitive strategy game on Wii Ware and is scheduled for European, Australian and American release in Q4 2008.

15 August, 2008

Sega president Simon Jeffery "great opportunity for hitting hardcore gamers"


Sega of America president Simon Jeffery is unhappy with the amount of bad games on the Wii and thinks it will come to an end when developers realize they do not sell. He notes that "There is a lot of crap coming out for the Wii in general," but also points out the systems potential.

Jeffery also notes that hardcore games can work on the Wii. stating that:

"The Wii is a great opportunity for hitting hardcore gamers. No one is doing that. With MadWorld from Platinum Games, we are trying to show that millions of Wii gamers want to move on to mature games. They don’t have to have an Xbox 360 to do that."
More 3rd parties are stepping up there Wii games and it just be a matter of time until we see more quality game push out the "shovelware"

[Source]

Overlord Dark Legend, a ground up game for Wii


Codemasters has Climax Studios working on a new Overlord game for the Wii. The game will be made from the ground up and try to take advantage of the wiimote. There are not a lot of details yet but the game will be at Leipzig.

[Source]

Nintendo to target Latin American

Nintendo is setting it's eyes on expanding it's marketing in Latin America. They see the region as having potential and could be worth as much as $2 billion this year alone. Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime stated that, "Nintendo has experienced phenomenal growth in the region over the past few years growth that has even surpassed what we have seen in the United States".

[Source]

13 August, 2008

Wii could hit 1 million a month

Michael Patchter believes that the Wii could sell as many as 1 million a month. This would be an increase of around 300,000 units. The Wii's good sales are already well known but could they really hit 1 million a month? Let's wait and see...

[Source]

07 August, 2008

Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People Ready

That is right the game is ready for both Wiiware and PC. It is set to come out on the 11th. As of now there is no news of a Steam release but considering the Sam and Max games are on Steam it could happen!

[Source]

New Clash of Ninja Videos from IGN



29 July, 2008

Wii can't do 1:1 Plus

Welcome to another edition of Wii can't do 1:1. This edition will cover what Wii Motion + is and what it does.

First let's recap how the wiimote's accelerometers work. They read motion based on the force put on them. This data is reported as a number on one of 3 axis. For instance a quick move to the right could read as x=7, a slow one x=3. The greater the force the larger the number. Left and right movement is read as x, forward and back y, and up and down z. For each axis one direction is a positive value and the other negative. In the case of x right is negative left is positive. With this you can make gestures that are as simple as a quick move to the right or as complicated as the shapes in a game like SSX Blur.

Tilt is done using the force of gravity. When you tilt the wiimote two of the 3 values change do to the pull of gravity. The wiimote uses this data to tell what angle it is being held at. It reports this as one of two angles, pitch and roll. It can't do yawn because gravity doesn't change when you tilt the wiimote left and right. Up until recently I thought this was a great way to read tilt.

Even though tilt controls tend to work well the way they are they still have there limits. The lack of yawn is one. The fact it uses the accelerometers is another. The force of gravity can not be used when the wiimote is in motion meaning you can not have both tilt and normal acceleration at the same time. A great example is Wii Sports baseball. The game uses tilt to make you think the Wii can do 1:1 motion but any quick motion triggers a swing. The Wii is just using tilt until it sees a quick motion and this triggers the swing. It can't determine the wiimote's angle while it's in swing because it can no longer feel the force of gravity. You can see this in Warioware was well in the samurai game. If you tilt the wiimote quickly the sword disappears for a second up till it can feel the pull of gravity again. You may also notice this in racing games if you turn the wiimote quickly. What Wii need is a something else to handle tilt.

This is where Wii Motion + comes in. It is a gyroscope. A gyroscope is a device that can determine it's orientation by resisting gravity. Using this the wiimote can always tell how it's tilted. To make things better it can also adjust the accelerometers so they know there being tilted and can discount the pull of gravity. This means the wiimote and always know how it is being held and moved! Similar systems are used in inertial navigation systems.

Now there are many thing that can be done with this setup. Sword fighting is just one of them. Now games like baseball, golf and tennis can read both the speed and angle of your swing like never before. Your passes in Madden can now take your angle into account like never before. Why not have a free throw system in an NBA game that requires you to have just the right angle and power to make the shot. It may even be possible to use the wiimote like a gyroscopic mouse and remove the need for the sensor bar. There is little doubt that this will be big for the Wii. If it will mean true 1:1 however I'm not fully convinced.

The accelerometers may still not be good enough to know distance the player moved. The wiimote knows how much force was applied to it but will that be enough to know how far it moved. If you look at the sword fighting in Wii Sports Resort you can see that the angle the sword is held at still determines where it is held. I have yet to see some one hold a sword in front of them and up at a 45 degree angle. If the sword is held at a 45 degree angle the Mii holds it up at a 45 degree angle even if the player holds it out strait.

Even though this is a big steep for the Wii I can not lie and say it is perfect. I started this feature not to make the Wii look bad but to explore it's potential. To do that I can not ignore what it can and can not do. Rest a sure what it can do is impressive but I don't want people to have unrealistic expectations. For now I say the Wii still can not to 1:1.


Here is a video that should help explain things (Thank you -VashTS):

Note this is the first Wii can't do 1:1 in this blog. Others can be founded on my other blog.
Update:
The accelerometers are better then I thought. The Wii can finally do 1:1.

Thanks AmazingJanet

Red Steel 2 Conformed may use MotionPlus

In an interview with GamesIndustry.biz Ubisoft's Alain Corre stated that the game has been in development and hits that it may use MotionPlus:

It was a great announcement, what [Nintendo] showed [in its press conference], because it's true that on Red Steel it's the typical product that will appreciate the new device.

Red Steel 2 has been in development for many months now, and this new device will help us be even more precise in what we do with the product. The Red Steel brand is strong - I think we released it on year one, and that people understood that it was a first try on new technology, technology that wasn't completely finished.

And our game tried to grab the best out of it, and was a bit rushed to be sure to offer something in year one to Wii consumers. But Red Steel is still selling well - at a lower price of course, but still it's in the top 30 or 40 in every country on Wii.

So Red Steel is a brand, and as with every brand we have, we now have to reach the top quality possible. What was missing was the preciseness of the sabre - and with this new device I think it will change the experience.


[Source]

A group of IGN videos

Disgaea


Livewire


28 July, 2008

Nintendo still working for the hardcore

In two different articles on Edge Online both Michael Pachter and legionary designer Shigeru Miyamoto say Nintendo will still support the hardcore. Pachter had this to say with his latest financial predictions:

"Some hardcore gamers were critical of Nintendo’s failure to announce new Mario and Zelda games at the show, but overall, we think that Nintendo focused upon building upon its formidable lead with the mass market, and do not consider the lack of major hardcore game announcements to be an abandonment of its core."


Miyamoto in a via Telegraph has stated this:

"Making these 'traditional' games is what I am best at, because games of that nature take upwards of two or three years to make, we always have to keep the teams working on those projects going. At any given time, the team could be five to ten people, or it could be fifty-plus. People are always switching in and out of those teams. They are all working on more Mario, Zelda and Pikmin projects. And they all work in close proximity to me, so I can keep a good eye on them."


Many people can care less what an analyst has to say but Miyamoto's words my do some damage control. There are still people who want such a game shown and by Nintendo. When will we see these games? Keep it here to find out!

[Sources:1,2]

EA wishes it backed Wii more

The CEO of EA John Riccitiello has expressed feelings that EA should have supported Wii more to The San Jose Mercury News:

"One thing that's different is we typically figured out who the market leader was going to be before the start of the cycle and bet with our development resources on that platform... We made the wrong call there [by betting on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360], which made this transition harder than it would otherwise be. But now we're catching up, and I think we're fine... We've got some incredibly innovative Wii titles, incredibly innovative DS titles coming. And so I think that issue's sort of behind us."

EA is going to increase it's Wii support. This is not the first time EA has felt they should have supported the Wii more. Both the number and quality of there games have been increasing.

[Source]

Comcast giving out free Wiis

I'll spare you the full PR fulled press release and tell you the just of it. People who order Comcast Triple Play will get a Wii. They say the Wii and there internet are a perfect couple. It seems like a weird deal but ok.

[Source]

27 July, 2008

New redemption option hits Japanese Wii Shop Channel


Images have surfaced of a new option has been added to the Japanese Wii Shop Channel. This option allows users to use a redemption code to get "bonus software". The codes come from buying retail games. That is all that is known at this time. More as it breaks.

[Source]

New Castlevania my come to WiiWare

A little investigation from the Wiire points out evidence that a new 2D Castlevania may hit WiiWare. In one interview with MTV the game's creator Koij Igarashi stated that he is "definitely interested in WiiWare and I think it's one of the areas that 2D can still be very strong...I'm very much looking into that." and mentioned to Wired about Mega Man 9 that he's "watching that very closely to see how it does. Myself, I'm a big retro gaming fan, so if it is successful, that definitely opens up doors for what I can do." This could be big news if you like 2D Castlevania games.

[Source]

23 July, 2008

RE5 to Wii?

Well we all knew that Capcom is a good Wii supporter. Not to long ago they said they where going to port Dead Raising to Wii. People felt RE4 was made for Wii. They started to want RE5 for Wii. Can it be done? Sega of America's Simon Jeffrey seems to think so:

"The Wii's selling incredible amounts of hardware, but Nintendo knows it needs to expand the demographic. It needs to connect with the core gaming demographic. Resident Evil 5 - when that happens on the Wii that's going to help."


Does he know something we don't? How will the newly announced coop work on Wii? Stay tuned for more!