Newsgab

The latest edition of Mario Kart has arrived for the Nintendo Wii titled “Mario Kart Wii”. There are a few additions and a few disappointments to this newest outing.

There are now multiple control schemes to make use of the Wii-Mote/Wii Wheel combo, the Wii-Mote/Nunchuk combo, the Classic Controller and the Gamecube controller. Each controller has it’s advantages and makes for a unique play experience.

The Wii wheel which is included with the game is a molded plastic shell that you insert you Wii-Mote control into. The design is fairly simple and doesn’t really ad much for functionality but I was surprised at how much more fun the game was to play. Nintendo tweaked the power sliding speed boosts to work better with the Wii wheel as well as adding a stunt system that rewards you with speed boosts. The new system seems fair and more balanced for all control combinations.

I recently , forked out just under £50 for PS3 version of Pro Evolution Soccer 2008. After spending most part of the last year on the PS2 version, i thought this would be an excellent game for a slightly higher price, but i thought it would be worth it on a next gen system.

However after playing the game for the first time, i was shocked and annoyed at the amount of advertisement in the game. Now im not just talking about the adverts of the side of the pitch, i think that adds to the realism of the game and is generally a good thing. However the menu system is plagued by adverts from companies such as MySpace, Play.com. IGN.com and Zoo Magazine. How much money does Konami need to make?

Ok so its about that time of the year where the coming years best games are showcased for all the world to see, and although this year it won’t be open to the public, i’m sure they’ll be enough pics, vids and stories on the net, to satisfy even the most avid gamer.

So what shall we expect to see this year, ill breakdown the best games from each of the platforms to wet your appetite that little bit more.

Unreal Tournament 3
The next installment of one of the most successful franchises to hit the PC over the last decade. UT3 uses a totally new engine, has new game modes and new vehicles. Apparently this game is said to make Gear of war look ugly despite using the same engine. I, for one will be eagerly awaiting any new snippets of info regarding this game.

Sony of America announced their playstation camera will be arriving this summer for the PlayStation 3. Formally known as the Eye Toy the device will now simply be known as the PlayStation Eye.

It will feature better frame rate and resolution, improved zooming, a noise reducing microphone and will be bundled with EyeCreate software.

The software will allow you to capture audio and video to the PS3’s hard drive as well as add visual effects to photos. Sony claims that the EyeCreate software “can turn your media into professional looking movies.”

The camera is optimized for low light conditions. It will include optional resolutions of 640 x 480 at 60 frames a second or 320 x 240 at 120 frames a second.

Hopefully Sony makes better use of their new toy better than their SIXAXIS tilt motion features on their rumble-less PS3 controller.

Yesterday in an interview with CISN 103.9 FM Dan Aykroyd was asked about the rumored Ghostbusters sequel. To much surprise Aykroyd revealed that the was a movie in production.

“It lives! It lives today! Last year it didn’t!” Aykroyd confirmed. The script written by Aykroyd is called “Hell Bent”. The movie will be about the Ghostbusters crossing dimensions to go to the Hell side of Manhattan called Manhellton.

The basic premise seems like a flipside of the real world where everying will be related to real world people and locations. The visualization given includes cops as blue minotaurs, Central Park as a huge mine with green demons surrounded by black onyx thousand foot high buidlings with classic red devils. Aykroyd says ther will also be a Donald Trump type character named Mr Siftler.

A few days ago prototype videos of an unknown Ghostbusters video game were seen around the internet. The game appeared to be somewhat of a sequel to the popular blockbuster hit movies from the eighties. Yesterday European developer ZootFly confirmed the videos to be in-game footage an early prototype on the Xbox 360. The promising videos show gameplay to be a “Gears of War” style 3rd Person Shooter.

The developer recently updated their site in response to the excitement generated by the videos:

What you’ve seen is indeed in-game footage of early prototypes on the Xbox 360, running on ZootFly’s proprietary engine. Due to licensing issues, further development of the Ghostbusters game hit a bump on the road, but everybody here at ZootFly is working actively on resolving the challenges with the owners of the Ghostbusters IP.

Sony annouced earlier this year that there would be 700+ Playstation One titles available for the PSP made avalible on Sony’s Playstation 3 download service. Sony of Japan has released the first 10 games on their Japanese website. Here they are with their names in English as we know them:

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Lawyer Jack Thompson is preparing to argue in California that the contentious video game Bully, is a public nuisance. The judge has agreed to review and play the game before making a decision whether or not to ban it.

The action is being brought under Florida’s public nuisance laws, normally they are used to regulate and prosecute in the areas of environmental pollution.

The legal action is against the US publisher Take 2, as well as retail giants Wal-Mart and GameStop. The game has a teenage only rating in the US and a 15 rating in the UK.

In Bully the main character has to defend himself from school bullies as well as form alliances with different cliques in the school, to head off the action of the bullies. Defence, counter action against the bullies are a key feature of the game. The point of the game is that the victim’s have to stand up to the bullies, not just for themselves, but they must prevent the bullies from reacting by picking on other kids.

videogamesblogger.com has posted the final list of 40 songs for Guitar Hero II. The game will also include 15 bonus songs to be unlocked. The game will arrive on the Playstation 2 on November 7th and will be available on the XBox 360 sometime in spring 2007.

1. Opening Licks:
Motley Crue - Shout at the Devil
Danzig - Mother
Cheap Trick - Surrender
Wolfmother - Woman
Spinal Tap - Tonight I’m Gonna Rock You Tonight

2. Amp-Warmers:
Kiss - Strutter
Nirvana - Heart-Shaped Box
Police - Message in a Bottle
Van Halen - You Really Got Me
Kansas - Carry on Wayward Son

3. String-Snappers:
Foo Fighters - Monkey Wrench
Alice in Chains - Them Bones
Iggy Pop and the Stooges - Search and Destroy
Pretenders - Tattooed Love Boys
Black Sabbath - War Pigs

Well, it’s less then two months now until the launch of the Nintendo Wii and it only seems right that we should whip you guys into a Wii frenzy by looking at some of the detail behind this great console. (click thumbnails for larger versions of each picture).

On September 14, 2006 and September 15, 2006, Nintendo announced release information for Japan, North and Latin America, Australia & Europe, including dates and prices.

The confirmed Wii release dates are; November 17th 2006 for the lucky Folks living in the USA, Canada, Mexico, Colombia and Peru, December 2nd 2006 for Japan, December 7th 2006 for Australia and New Zealand, And December 8th 2006 for the UK and other EU Regions.

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