Welcome to the weekend -- Posted by James on Friday, June 29 2007
Friday has officially wound down ( well, almost ), so welcome to the weekend. Here's what's coming up on Wii UK very soon indeed:
Wii UK TV Episode 4
The next episode of Wii UK TV is currently being edited - it's a special, featuring footage of the recent Mario Strikers Tournament held in a hall in deepest darkest Somerset on an 80" projector screen. We had big speakers, prizes, and pringles, so it's definitely one to watch.
GameShare.co.uk
We're partnering up with GameShare, an online-based games swapping service, so that you can swap those Wii games you're bored of for another, all through a central headquarters so they won't get lost. Expect to hear more about Wii UK and GameShare very soon indeed. If you sign up with GameShare please state in the referrer box that you came from here - if you do, you'll get an extra free swap credit. Cheers.
Wii UK Forum
Our new forums are doing very well indeed - since we killed off the old ones and started anew we've accrued over 4000 posts and over 100 registered users in just over a month. Come and join us!
We'll be bringing you our usual updates over the weekend of any interesting ( or not so interesting ) stories that surface, so stay tuned.
Two more games released for the VC -- Posted by Jonathan on Friday, June 29 2007
This week's Virtual Console releases comprise one SNES game (Kirby's Dream Course) and one TurboGrafx-16 title (Bloody Wolf).
Neither are going to sell the VC world alight, but I've played KDC before and it's really not bad at all. In case you haven't guessed, it's a crazy-golf game featuring Kirby as the ball. It's pretty strange as most Kirby titles tend to be.
I've never even heard of Bloody Wolf, but I'm informed it's a pretty good run and gun game.
The titles can be picked up for 800 and 600 points respectively. If you've played these games before or have downloaded them, please let us have your thoughts in the forums - just click here.
Win the new Harry Potter on Wii -- Posted by James on Thursday, June 28 2007
Time for a competition, and thanks to our chums at EA we've got a copy of Harry Potter and The Order of The Phoenix on Wii to give away.
The competition is dead easy to enter - to find out how you can be entered to win, just follow this link:
Midway announce 2 Wii exclusives -- Posted by James on Thursday, June 28 2007
Midway announced today that they are releasing 2 Wii-exclusive titles this year, to bolster the 5 Nintendo exclusives on their roster.
The first, Crusin', you might recognise - yep, it sounds rather suspiciously like a sequel to the N64 games Crusin' USA and Crusin' World. No concrete details have been released yet, but expect lots of driving fast cars around various global locales.
The second title, Game Party, is a mini-games compendium, featuring hockey, darts, and other activities. Personally I don't think Wii really needs any more mini-game titles - they seem to be dominating the release schedules for the rest of the year - but if nothing else it should provide multiplayer entertainment.
As soon as we get more details, you'll find them here on Wii UK.
Staff wanted: Media Editor -- Posted by James on Thursday, June 28 2007
Wii UK is currently looking to take on another staff member to fill the currently vacant role of Media Editor.
This is an invaluable post on the site, and would require experience and dedication to fulfil.
We're looking for a person with FTP and image editing experience to hunt down the latest Wii media and screenshots, resize them accordingly, and then upload them to our media server.
The usual privileges will be given to the chosen applicant, including chances to play games before they are released, review copies of games, Wii UK e-mail address, the chance to work for one of the fastest growing and largest Wii sites in Europe, and that warm tingly feeling you get inside when you're doing something cool.
Please do not e-mail me if you do not have the relevant experience or if you have no intention of regularly contributing to the site.
We've had plenty of timewasters over the past year and we don't want any more.
The deadline is Monday at 5pm.
Thank you.
Lightsabers on Wii: "we'll get there" -- Posted by James on Thursday, June 28 2007
A recent chat between Gamasutra and Lucasarts revealed that Lucasarts have already been tinkering with the Wii behind closed doors, and that it's practically inevitable that a lightsaber-based game will be heading to Wii at some point.
This news will no doubt make Star Wars fans and Wii gamers in general rather happy - assuming that such a game worked properly, of course. Here's what Lucasarts had to say:
"We're all over that, and internally we have already played a lightsaber game on the Wii. It's a lot of fun, and we'll get there."
I'm not entirely sure exactly what they're 'all over,' but it sounds promising. Lucasarts hinted that something tangible might rear it's head this Autumn.
Red Steel 2 on the cards -- Posted by Jonathan on Thursday, June 28 2007
It's been one of the industry's worst kept secrets, but Ubisoft have all but confirmed that a sequel to Red Steel is underway. Speaking at the IDEF conference in Cannes, Ubisoft spoke about the game, claiming this incarnation will take the best parts of the first game and improve the areas that sucked, including a completely reworked swordplay system. They also claimed that the game will include an online mode.
Let's hope there's full motion-capture swordplay and a decent deathmatch option this time.
Since this news was first posted by French website Impact Virtuel, Ubisoft have since contacted the site and clarified that it is not official just yet. Perhaps they are saving the 'news' until E3.
Update - Wii Software announced -- Posted by James on Wednesday, June 27 2007
Nintendo have announced that Wii Software, known as WiiWare in other territories, will launch in 2008.
According to Nintendo, Wii Software "paves the way for smaller, more creative games to make their way to the public at lower prices, without any inventory risk to developers."
Sounds rather marvellous to me - it effectively makes Wii's download service the best of the current consoles. Old games from decent consoles plus new efforts from developers adds up to a rather comprehensive service.
"Independent developers armed with small budgets and big ideas will be able to get their original games into the marketplace to see if we can find the next smash hit."
Quite why it has been renamed for Europe is beyond me.
More details are set to be released in a few weeks.
Stay tuned for more news.
Big Wii announcement today? -- Posted by James on Wednesday, June 27 2007
Rumours are currently doing the rounds that Nintendo are going to be making a big Wii-related announcement today.
According to reports, Nintendo are today going to announce 'WiiWare,' a service where Wii gamers can download original games to their Wii, in a manner similar to that of Xbox Live Arcade.
Nintendo is reportedly looking for games from both large publishers and smaller indie outfits, so if this turns out to be true then there should be a fair amount of diversity.
This news comes hot on the heels of a confirmation from Reggie Fils-Aime, that annoying Nintendo of America chap, that WiiWare is indeed coming. Fils-Aime insinuated that "while Nintendo, as the retailer, would itself determine the appropriate pricing for each game on a per-title bases, the games themselves would not be vetted by Nintendo." However, Adult-Only titles are still not going to be allowed onto to the system, in keeping with Nintendo's software policy. Interesting.
Stay tuned to the site - we'll be keeping our eyes peeled.
Tiger Woods not online for Wii -- Posted by James on Tuesday, June 26 2007
According to reports coming from EA Sport's Media Briefing, it appears that the upcoming Wii title Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08 will not feature an online mode.
Rather strangely, EA's other big sports titles, Madden NFL 08 and NBA Live 08, both feature online play on the Wii versions.
Quite why it was decided that Tiger Woods couldn't feature online on the Wii version is unknown at this moment in time - it does seem like a strange decision, but perhaps it's because we're not yet privy to the reason.
Mysterious.
Stay tuned for more news.
Wii UK Chat -- Posted by James on Tuesday, June 26 2007
Not many people know this, but Wii UK actually has it's very own chatroom. It's a bit sluggish, and a bit too brightly-coloured, but we love it nonetheless - at least, we would if more people came in.
So if you're trawling the internet, come and join us so we can get a chat going. Inevitably it'll turn to arguing or something thoroughly crude and distasteful, but that's the whole point of the internet. Sort of.
Trauma Center Wii release date -- Posted by James on Tuesday, June 26 2007
Nintendo have, at long last, announced the release date for operation sim 'Trauma Center: Second Opinion' - August 10th.
The Americans have had their hands on Trauma Center for Wii for a considerable amount of time now, and we've played it so many times we've practically completed it - quite why they've made Europe wait this long is beyond me.
However, it's jolly good fun, as you can read in our report from last year. We'll be bringing you a full review before the game hits the shelves in August.
Budding surgeons had better start practicing their relaxation techniques - an enhanced 'extreme difficulty' mode means you'll be needing steady hands. Due to my chronic impatience rather a lot of patients have died under my 'care' so far in my experiences with Trauma Center - with any luck by August I'll be a master of zen. Or something.
Smash Bros Character Update -- Posted by Calum on Monday, June 25 2007
The latest update of the Super Smash Bros. Brawl website has confirmed that Princess Zelda will remain a playable character. Whilst the news isn't as interesting as the announcement of a new character to the series it's nice to know which characters will be kept and which will be tossed aside and forgotten about. Rather than beat around the bush, here's the official word from the site:
"Just like Link, Zelda's design has also changed. She has a slightly more subdued color scheme.
Her movement capabilities are not that good, but her magic adds power to her physical attacks. There's a reason why her hands and feet glow, after all."
I was never too fond of Zelda in Melee so hopefully the changes in magic will improve the character somewhat. That said, I'll most likely stick to Link.
What this rather expected news does hint at is the unveiling of other characters over the coming days. However, we'll have to wait and see.
Win the new Harry Potter on Wii -- Posted by James on Monday, June 25 2007
Time for a competition, and thanks to our chums at EA we've got a copy of Harry Potter and The Order of The Phoenix on Wii to give away.
The competition is dead easy to enter - to find out how you can be entered to win, just follow this link:
Manhunt 2 - $1 million to get classified -- Posted by James on Monday, June 25 2007
According to a report, industry analyst Michael Pachter has stated that he believes the cost of modifying Manhunt 2 to make it palatable to the BBFC could reach as much as $1 million.
Here's his views on the current situation:
"They will probably spend $1 million or so to rework the game. They will not have revenue from the game this quarter (ending July), so they will likely miss their guidance, but will make up most of it in a future quarter when the game is released. The overall financial impact is not that serious, provided sales don't suffer. It is hard to know whether the publicity helps or hurts, but my guess is that it hurts."
This assumes, of course, that Rockstar don't already have a toned-down version ready and waiting. Part of me suspects that Rockstar knew the game would never pass the censors, and this whole debacle has been nothing but extra publicity for them.
Either way, publishers Take Two seem resolute when it comes to getting the game a release. They have an appeal to the BBFC in a few weeks, so it'll be interesting to see if they are successful - somehow, I doubt they will be.
The true litmus test will be how long it takes Rockstar to fire out a more toned-down version - a few weeks, and we'll know something rather fishy has been going on.
Super Smash Brothers this month? -- Posted by Jonathan on Monday, June 25 2007
Probably file this under "cock up", but Amazon.co.uk have recently sent out emails inviting people to buy Super Smash Brothers Brawl off them for delivery by the end of the month. Clearly this is in contradiction to Nintendo's own schedule of releases published last week, but it is possible this could be slipped in as a surprise (albeit unlikely).
Corroborating the story slightly, Hideo Kojima was quoted as saying the game felt complete back in April and that Nintendo "could put it out right now and it could sell millions of copies."
I'm thinking it must be an automated email that has picked up a forthcoming release date that hasn't been updated since initial speculation put it down for a "Q2 release". Would be nice if it was true though. Don't hold your breath.
Metroid Prime 3 - more details -- Posted by James on Sunday, June 24 2007
According to our chums over at GoNintendo, the latest issue of Play magazine contains some rather interesting updates on Metroid Prime 3, seemingly based on a playable version of the game.
According to reports, the game utilises the Wii remote control system so well that the magazine describes it as being entirely superior to dual analogue control. I've personally never been a huge fan of dual-analogue shooters anyway, finding them to be somewhat imprecise, but this is certainly good news if it turns out to be true.
The control system reportedly features an 'advanced mode,' featuring very high sensitivity, which will no doubt please the more hardcore gamers. Different visors are available by holding minus and flicking the Wii remote in different directions - a system that sounds fairly intuitive, although the positioning of the minus button could cause problems.
According to the report, Nintendo wanted 'Twilight Princess levels' of polish - certainly not a bad thing, as despite the low-res nature of Twilight Princess it certainly looks lovely. Larger environments, better effects including bloom lighting, and higher resolution textures are also promised.
Play magazine says it could be the biggest revolution in first person shooters since Halo.
My excitement continues to grow.
No doubt there'll be some Halo fans who'll point out, quite rightly, that they've had large environments and high-quality graphics for some time now - personally, however, I'd rather play as Samus than some big Yank goon, especially if I can wave the remote around like an idiot and still have the same level of control that games like Halo offer.
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