Gaming News | GameViper » Nintendo DS

New DS On Its Way

Daniel — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 04:44:28 +0000

Last month, there were rumors that a new version of Nintendo’s DS handheld gaming device was on its way. Today, IGN learned that the rumor is most likely true, and that we should be seeing the new version by April or May of next year.

Rumored changes include touchpad functionality on both screens, and a wider screen aspect ratio. There is no word yet on whether the next version will just be a revision, or a completely new DS. Meanwhile, Sony is already on it’s third version of it’s PSP console.

Here are some user mockups of what the new DS might look like:

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Leipzig: Games Convention 2009 Date Set; GC 2008 Breaks Record

Daniel — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 04:36:50 +0000

Leipzig is almost over, but the 2009 event has already been scheduled. Wolfgang Marzin, CEO, claims Leipzig 2009 will be held August 19-23.. in Leipzig obviously. GC 08 also beat it’s previous record for amount of visitors. This year GC 08 attracted over 203,000 people in a 4 day period. It also attracted 234 software and hardware companies, up from 189 last year.

In a survey of visitors, it was also found that over 90% believed there should be another Games Convention in 2009. The general consensus may be different for other events like E3, whom have limited the number of attendees drastically.

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Another Viewtiful Joe Sequel Coming

Daniel — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 21:29:05 +0000

A new Viewtiful Joe Sequel may be on it’s way according to Christian Svensson, Capcom’s Corporate Officer.

“There’s no ‘percentage chance’ that I could give you [Viewtiful Joe this generation] that would at all be accurate. If it strikes someone of influence (a producer of note, Inafune, Takeuchi, perhaps even me) that it’s something that has potential (both gameplay and sales) then it could happen. If not, it won’t. I can’t predict who might or might not see that potential.”

Of course it all depends on it’s ability to show it’s potential.

If you don’t remember, the original Viewtiful Joe was released in 2003 and 2004 for the GameCube and Playstation 2, respectively, by Capcom. It was widely known for it’s japanese anime-inspired artwork and incredibly fun gameplay. Further sequels to the game were released by Clover Studios, including Viewtiful Joe 2 (GC, PS2), Viewtiful Joe: Red Hot Rumble (GC, PSP), Viewtiful Joe: Double Trouble (DS)

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July Game Sales Up 28%; 35% Year-to-Date

Daniel — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 18:22:35 +0000

According to the NPD Group, Video Game sales in July have risen nearly 28 percent since last year, and 35 percent year-to-date. Sales have reached $1.19 billion.

Hardware sales have also seen a positive trend this year, up 17 percent since last year according to the NPD group, for a grand total of $446.9 million in sales.

The standings:

Nintendo:

The Wii sold 555,000 units, whereas their portable gaming system, the Nintendo DS, sold 608,000 units this month. Nintendo has a firm grasp on the first place spot in this generation of consoles, including the portable gaming market.

Sony:

Sony sold 242,500 Playstation 3’s, over 222,00 PSPs, and 156,000 Playstation 2’s. The Playstation 3 is finally starting to overtake the XBOX 360 in the US — whereas the XBOX 360 is finally starting to overtake the PS3 in Japan.

Microsoft:

Microsoft is in third place this month, coming in at 205,000 consoles. Despite Microsoft’s lower console sales NCAA Football ‘09 for the 360 holds the number one spot in software sales.

July Hardware

608k - Nintendo DS
555k - Wii
225k - PlayStation 3
222k - PlayStation Portable
205k - Xbox 360
156k - PlayStation 2

July Software

398k - NCAA Football 09 (360)
370k - Wii Fit (Wii)
310k - Guitar Hero: On Tour (DS)
284k - Wii Play (Wii)
243k - NCAA Football 09 (PS3)
219k - Soul Calibur IV (360)
175k - Mario Kart (Wii)
166k - Rock Band (Wii)
156k - Soul Calibur IV (PS3)
148k - Civilization Revolution (360)

Console Sales (US, Total):
Wii: 13 million, 31 million;
XBOX 360: 12 million, 20 million;
PS3: 5.5 million, 15 million

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On Spore and Awesomeness

Daniel — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 22:02:03 +0000

Spore promises to be one of the biggest hits of 2008 — completely original, and fun the whole family can enjoy! (well, unless you’re a fundamentalist Christian) Here’s why spore will be awesome and why you should pick it up in about 3 weeks on September 5th.

1) Originality — It’s been a while since we’ve seen an original game… Katamari Damacy and Valve’s Portal can only last us so long. Sure, we’ve had great games recently like GTA 4 and Call of Duty 4, but they’re just more of same. (albeit excellently executed) Spore allows you to create your own one-celled organism and and influence how it evolves — up to when your race of retarded frog-cow creatures take over the universe with space ships and lasers.

2) Family Friendliness — It’s not often that we get a game that is great and still remains family friendly. Even though there’s nothing greater than sharing a spectacular headshot with your son or daughter, one has to question the influence on your kid’s mental well-being. (I’m not saying violent video games are bad, but we’ve all seen those demented, and annoying, 9 year olds on XBOX Live and PSN..)

3) Creativity — Like I’ve said, Spore allows you to create your very own creature and test it’s abilities in nature. All creatures are completely customizable — want a giant penis monster? You got it! Want a Grey and purple spider-cow.. thing? You can make that too! And even better, you can showoff and your works of art with the rest of the world.

4) Create Your Own Civilization — In addition to creating your creatures you can also form the civilization and society in which they interact with each other, and even other creatures. Spore allows you to create tribes, build cities, and create your own vehicles. You can interact with other tribes and civilizations (associate with them, fight with them, etc.) Think — your favorite RTS meets your favorite RPG!

5) Accessibility — “Wow this here game sounds purty nice, but I haven’t been able to play a new release on the PC since 2005!” No problem, Spore has amazingly low minimum specs. (P4, 512mb RAM, 128mb Video Card) Any computer bought within the last 2-4 years should be able to handle this game. Spore will even be released on the iPhone.. be God, on the go!

6) It’s pretty – Even though the requirements are relatively low, the game doesn’t skimp out on the prettyness factor.

It wouldn’t be fair if I only told you the good parts of Spore, so here are the some not-so-awesome parts:

1) No multiplayer — That’s right, no multiplayer.
2) Published By EA — Why, God, why! Why does the most original game have to come from them?! Even if the game is good EA will just milk the title for every penny it’s worth!
3) SecuROM — Yup, it’s back. The horrible copy protection that came with Bioshock will also come with Spore. You’re limited to 3 installs, total, including reinstalls.

Spore has been confirmed for the PC, Mac, Nintendo DS and Wii.

Check out the Official Spore Site and the (free) Spore Creature Creator.

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Can Call of Duty 5 Live Up to the Expectations?

Daniel — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 07:30:46 +0000

As we all know Call of Duty 4 is best shooter of 2007, and probably 2008, thus far. So you’re saying: “It’s a Call of Duty game, of course it’s going to be awesome. What’s the big deal?” Unfortunately there are several differences between Call of Duty 4 and Call of Duty 5. The first and most important difference is that COD5 isn’t being developed by same people who developed Call of Duty 4. Rather, by a developer with questionable experience… The second major difference is the time period that the game is placed in — World at War will be set during World War 2, specifically in the Pacific arena. So much for progression, eh? And finally we question Treyarch’s ability to simultaneously develop for 5 very different platforms. Can one developer really deliver all the features they’ve promised including online co-op, and most importantly — flamethrowers for 5 platforms?

In Activision’s never ending quest to take over the world they’ve decided to pump out one installment to Call of Duty every year. To meet this goal they’ve contracted two developers: Infinity Ward, creators of the original Call of Duty (9.3), Call of Duty 2 (8.5), and Call of Duty 4 (9.4), and Treyarch, who developed Call of Duty 2: Big Red One (7.0) and Call of Duty 3 (7.7). As you can see Treyarch has consistently pseudo-shamed the Call of Duty series with mediocre games. Sure, they weren’t that bad, and Treyarch has released pretty good games over the years. Unfortunately they put out giant pieces of crap more so than quality games in recent years. Treyarch has established itself as the go-to developer for lame cookie-cutter movie games including Minority Report (4.8), Spiderman (7.4), Spiderman 2 (7.2) and Spiderman 3 (6.6).

Unfortunately Treyarch tends to do more of the same as well. In their almighty wisdom Treyarch thought we couldn’t possibly be tired of World War 2 games, despite the success of COD4’s Modern Warfare approach… So lucky us, we’re going back to World War 2! And here we thought the World War 2 genre was finally coming to a close. Talk about beating a dead horse! Maybe they’ll stop making more WW2 games once the in -game casualties exceed the actual casualties! (too soon?) “Hey! It doesn’t matter what time-period a game is set in as long as it’s a good game!” True, but what can Treyarch do that hasn’t been done better in the World War 2 genre? Certainly online co-op, pretty graphics and flamethrowers won’t be enough to set itself apart from the hundreds of other WW2 shooters, will they?

Flamethrowers galore!

With all these promised features Treyarch has a hell of a long way to go. Treyarch must develop the game for the Playstation 2, Playstation 3, PC, Xbox 360, Wii, and Nintendo DS. All of these are very different platforms. Not only do they have to develop around varying levels of hardware, they must also develop around each platform’s online networking capabilities. Ask yourself: How good can one game be whilst the developers are making that same game for four other platforms at the same time?

Activision certainly delivered a nice presentation at E3 2008, but we must look beyond the pretty graphics and uber-cool trailers. I’m not saying Call of Duty 5: World at War will be a bad game per se, but you probably won’t be seeing it get GOTY in 2008 either. Let’s hope Treyarch has learned from previous experiences and delivers a game that our beloved Call of Duty series deserves. Call of Duty 5: World at War is scheduled to release in Q3 2008.

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