The president of Famitsu publisher Enterbain expects the DS to cross the 30 million shipment mark in Japan by 2009 and also expects Dragon Quest IX to surpass sales of five million. However, the prez also noted that there has been no big hit for the Wii beyond Wii Sports and 67% of Wii owner\’s haven\’t used their system recently.
Remember that middle-aged something guy who droaned and moaned about PSP custom firmware users? If your answer is yes, then you\’re in luck as there is another barell of laughs to be had as he has since made a few other follow-up videos. Check \’em all out here here.
According to an internet report, many film executives are convinced that potential cinema go-ers shunned the box office as they stayed home to play Halo 3. Recent stats show that around Halo 3 launch time, the industry experienced its worst performance for an October weekened since 1999.
If you’ve been clamoring for a new Advance Wars to hit the Nintendo DS–and we suspect there are a lot of you–you’re in luck. Developer Intelligent Systems is back with a second game in the massively popular, cutesy strategy series due out early next year. Except Advance Wars: Days of Ruin isn’t so cute anymore. The core strategy gameplay here remains largely unchanged, but the wide-eyed anime stylings and jubilant, juvenile commanding officers of the past games have given way to a far more serious visual style and a lot of doom and gloom in this new sequel.
Days of Ruin has no connection whatsoever to the past series installments. It takes place in an entirely new world where a large-scale meteor shower triggered massive global destruction that eradicated 90 percent of the population. After the catastrophe, he survivors have formed together into militaristic bands that are warring over the last remaining scraps of civilization. You’ll take control of Will, a young military cadet (whose hair is admittedly just a little spiky) who quickly becomes embroiled in the conflict at the outset of the game. The storyline is still conveyed through dialogue-heavy cinematics, but the characters have a much more rough-and-tumble look and more dour attitude. One of the enemy commanders, affectionately known only as “the Beast,” at one point makes a reference to wearing a necklace of human ears. Look at you, Advance Wars, you’re all grown up!
We got to play a sample mission from early in the game and found the gameplay in Days of Ruin to be almost exactly like you’ll remember from Dual Strike. There are a lot of subtle improvements, though, and of course some new units. You can now zoom in and out of the battlefield to get a wider view of the overall tactical situation or focus on one local skirmish. Nintendo has also “optimized” the stylus controls in the game, which will supposedly make the game much more playable via the touch screen than in the last game. On the new-unit front, we saw a new light-armored vehicle that can fire a flare to reveal a large part of the map (by eliminating the fog of war), and it can also lightly attack with machine gun fire. There’s also a new motorcycle with a sidecar that’s one of the most nimble units in the game. In addition to its speed, the bike’s biggest advantage is that it can capture enemy buildings, just like infantry. Of course, there will be plenty of other new units in here, but Nintendo wasn’t ready to show them off yet.
Some of the new gameplay changes won’t reveal themselves till you’ve spent more time with the game. For instance, individual units can now level up as they gain combat experience, and then you can bring them into subsequent missions with you. So for instance, a powered-up tank unit that only had seven tanks in reserve might still be able to best a 10-strong tank with no previous experience. The commanding officers’ special powers have purportedly been greatly reduced in potency as well. You’ll gain them much later in the game now, and they won’t have the potential to completely swing the flow of battle in the opposite direction the way they did in the last few games. Now the focus is more on your overall strategy, and while you can use a CO power to aid your combat effort, you won’t be able to rely on using a carefully timed power to turn the tide all by itself.
How about online multiplayer? Of course, it’s in here–you can go head-to-head over Nintendo’s Wi-Fi Connection service to get your online battling on. We were surprised to learn you’ll even have full voice chat during online matches via the DS’ built-in microphone and speakers–no external headset required. The game will also offer a full map-creation utility as in past games, and this time you can upload them for others to download directly. We didn’t get a look at the multiplayer firsthand, but it certainly sounds like Nintendo is giving online COs the full spectrum of options.
So far, Days of Ruin looks like the perfect example of jumpstarting an established franchise without messing with the core features that made that series great in the first place. You’ll notice little touches here and there that make the game feel fresh–for instance, the combat animations now depict the units attacking from a variety of angles, making for a more cinematic presentation. You’ll get to find out what other changes have been added when Days of Ruin hits shelves in the first quarter of 2008.
-If Its Games
Sega today has confirmed to If Its Games that the PC version of Universe at War: Earth Assault has been pushed from its projected October 30 release to “early December.” As cause for the delay, the Sega representative noted that the game, which entered closed beta testing at the end of July, is undergoing further development. “We wanted to give the game a little more time for polish so that gamers get the best UAW has to offer,” said the rep.
Universe at War is being published by Sega and is the second project from Las Vegas-based developer Petroglyph. The studio, which includes several former Westwood Studios developers, made a splash in the real-time strategy genre in 2006 with Star Wars: Empire at War and its follow-up, Forces of Corruption.
With a focus once again on interstellar strategy, Petroglyph’s latest has gamers fending off alien invaders. As detailed in If Its Games’s previous coverage, the game features robust multiplayer modes where gamers can compete in a persistent online campaign to rule the universe. An Xbox 360 version is slated for the first part of 2008, and Petroglyph plans to integrate Microsoft’s Games for Windows - Live service to allow for cross-platform play.
The MTV Multiplayer blog has a first look at the World of Warcraft comic book slated to start its run next month. Set to be published by the Wildstorm imprint, and written by “Thor” and “Orion” veteran Walter Simonson, the comic will focus on the exploits of an amnesiac human washed up on the shores of the continent of Kalimdor. “Simonson said the comic will be ‘very much tied to the lore and to the Warcraft history.’ ‘If you’re a longtime player, I think the comic is a revelation about some of the mysteries,’ he explained. ‘There are mysteries from the past that have never been totally addressed within the game, or at least we’re able to address them in the comic in a way that the game hasn’t been able to.’ He also said that he tried to write the comic so that it appeases Warcraft fans as well as newcomers.” For a taste of the art from the first issue (done by Ludo Lullabi and inker Sandra Hope), the site has the first five pages available for viewing..
Newsweek’s LevelUp blog continues to produce some highly interesting material. Today they have up a look at the ‘flight’ of game studios from Microsoft’s corporate umbrella. BioWare’s purchase by EA distances it a bit from their cosy relationship with Microsoft, as does Bizarre’s purchase by Activision. Bungie’s departure from the company itself goes without saying. So what does all this mean? Is this a sign of troubles in Redmond, or just more fallout from the huge undertaking required to get the Xbox 360 to the position it has today? “For us, the flight of the Killer B’s is a clear indication that Microsoft as a whole is still shell shocked not only by the massive losses in the Xbox division, but also more importantly by the poor showing of Rare, which has to rank as not only one of the Microsoft’s least successful purchases, but as quite possibly the worst acquisition in the history of gaming. Microsoft paid $375 million in cash for Rare, and based on the modest revenues from its ensuing titles–a Conker’s Bad Fur Day remake, Grabbed by the Ghoulies, Kameo, Perfect Dark Zero and Viva Pinata–all they’ve got to show for it is that proverbial lousy T-shirt, completely stained with red ink.”.
The recent controversy over church groups making use of Halo 3 to attract young men to their services continues to be a subject of debate outside of the fan press. GamePolitics notes that the debate is indicative of flaws in the ESRB’s system, and in mainstream culture’s understanding of those ratings. “When you look at it like that, it’s hard to blame those who criticize bringing Halo into sacred space. For the most part the critics are not gamers and have no concept of the vast difference between Halo and GTA. All they know is that the games share a common M rating, a designation assigned by the game industry itself, theoretically for the protection of impressionable youth. For the uninitiated it’s only logical to assume the content must be of a similar character as well. As someone who has played both, I’d argue that there is a world of difference between Halo and GTA.”.
The founder of Facebook called Mark Zuckerbeg has been named as the most influential person in the tech industry as awarded by a panel of experts in the annual Agenda Stter\’s poll by Silicon.com. Zuckerberg managed to beat off competition from the likes of the CEO of Google, Apple, Nintendo and HP to claim the top spot.