Video: The Simpsons Game Wii Gameplay

This funny video of \”The Simpsons Game\” shows Wii Gameplay and how the Wii controls will be used.

Capcom offering free wallet with RE: Umbrella Chronicles pre-orders

According to Japanese publication Famitsu, Capcom will be offering all those gamers who pre-order Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles through the official Capcom website a free Umbrella Corporation wallet as follows.

Rumor: Killzone 2 to have online co-op mode, HOME integrated with clan features

A website is reporting that a magazine called PSW UK has an exclusive scoop on Killzone 2\’s online play modes (no scans available, so posted it as a rumor). The magazine reportedly states that the title will definitely have an online co-op mode and HOME will be integrated bringing with it advanced clan features. Moreover, you can expect online leader boards and custom user created content such as camouflage.

PSP LE Recovery rev 3 for 3.71M33-2

TheKetchipman has released a new LE recovery for v3.71 M33-2 custom firmware, this acts as a plug-in and allows M33 custom firmware users to do a range of things including changing the M33 configuration on the fly, mout a video ISO and more. Check it all out here.

Finally the UK gets involved in the five free movie 360 HD-DVD action

Yep that\’s right, MS UK has followed suit and is now offering all those customers who purchase the Xbox 360 HD DVD player attachment between October 1st and January 31st 2008 the chance to snap up five free HD-DVD\’s. The offer seems similar to the one in US with movies including Swordfish, Serenity and Troy available. Full details on the promotion are available at Xbox.com.

Mario Might Save Christmas?

Last week there was a Nintendo media event giving the gaming press preview experiences for the Christmas season’s games. 1up has a look at all the titles on offer, but the one that (understandably) got the most attention was Mario Galaxy for the Wii. Wired’s Chris Kohler thinks Mario’s bee suit might save Christmas, while MTV’s Stephen Totilo has comments from an hour hands-on with the game ala Games For Lunch. From Totilo’s comments: “Each planetoid presents a challenge — squash things, collect things — that rewards players with the creation of a new launch star. I’ve launched Mario to a sphere that looks like it’s made of wood. A star guy of some sort is in a glass jar. I need to kill all the Goombas to free it. I can jump on their heads, but I can also do the spin move, which knocks them dizzy and sends them spinning themselves. If Mario runs into them while they spin, they die.”.

Video: Guitar Hero III Metal Gameplay

The Metal will live on, and Tenacious D is here to celebrate it.

PS3 warranty voided by surge protector - ‘great’ pay up $150 say Sony

A member of the Playstation forums called up Sony regarding his four month old PS3 which had turned into a brick, with the trouble starting back a while ago when the system would just shut off. However, the Playstation rep wasn\’t interested in all that, as soon as he heard the gamer had used a high quality power surge protector, the rep remarked \’okay great, Sony can fix it right up for you for $150\’ as the year-long warranty was voided by the surge protector.

Opinion: Does Halo 3 deserve the same rating GTA or Manhunt 2?

There have recently been many articles criticizing Halo\’s \”Mature\” ESRB rating. With even churches across the country using Halo 3 in their youth groups, is it really comparable to games such as Grand Theft Auto and Manhunt 2? All that parents will know is that the games share a common M rating, for years 17+. Surely many parents will be able to see the difference between Halo 3 and the violence in a game like Manhunt 2. Could this just end up confusing parents and dilute the meaning of the ratings?

Madden goes multilingual

Back in August, a handful of online retailer listings indicated that Electronic Arts was preparing a Spanish-language version of its Madden NFL football series for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox 360. While the product pages were devoid of details, it wasn’t tough to imagine what might be different about Madden en Español.

EA today announced the game officially, and confirmed its changes to the series. The game will be fully translated, with new play-by-play from Spanish-language Monday Night Football announcer Alvaro Martin and three extra songs for the soundtrack. Dominican Republic native San Diego Chargers defensive end Luis Castillo replaces Tennessee Titans quarterback Vince Young as the cover athlete for the game, and in-game sports news and alerts will be pulled from ESPN Deportes and NFLatino.com.

Madden series senior product manager Anthony Stevenson recently took time out to answer If Its Games’s questions about EA’s first dedicated Spanish-language sports game.

If Its Games: Where did the idea for a Spanish-language version of Madden originate? Did the NFL ask for it? Did Madden developer Tiburon suggest it?

Anthony Stevenson: The idea for a Spanish-language game is something we’ve thought about for a couple years now. As our partnership with the NFL has continued to grow, we wanted to support their Hispanic initiatives, including Hispanic Heritage Month, NFLatino.com, and more. The Hispanic fan base continues to grow both in passion for football and video games, so we felt this was a great opportunity to have a marriage of the two.

IIG: Other games simply have language options in the menu screens. Why release a separate Spanish-language version of this game?

AS: Our main goal with this release was to be authentic, and in order to do that, we felt like having a fully dedicated Spanish version of the game was the only way to go, including a cover athlete that fit the personality of the game. We wanted this gaming experience to feel as close to a Spanish broadcast as possible, and simply having menu language options wouldn’t allow for that.

IIG: In which countries will Madden en Español be released?

AS: United States, Mexico, and countries within Latin America.

IIG: Is this a one-time experiment in courting the Spanish-speaking market, or something EA plans to do with all subsequent Madden games?

AS: Each year we have to evaluate our resources and priorities; however, we went into this project with the hope that it would be well received and become a part of our annual release schedule.

IIG: Will future EA games en Español arrive alongside their English-language counterparts, or should we expect them to continue to trail the original release by several months?

AS: Again, this is something we will look at each year as we evaluate our resources and priorities, but the goal for the future would be to release these versions simultaneously.

IIG: Is this something EA plans to do with other sports, or with non-sports games at some point in the future?

AS: Anything is possible. We view this as a great chance to gauge the interest and reception of a localized game, and we will use our learnings from this to evaluate future opportunities.

IIG: What kind of reaction are you getting from retailers? Are they especially receptive to stocking a product in a language that a significant portion of their customer base doesn’t know? Is interest in the game primarily regional?

AS: Retailers have been reacting very favorably to Madden NFL 08 en Español. They are constantly challenged with how to diversify their marketing strategies, especially within more ethnic regions of the country. This is the perfect opportunity for them to tailor their efforts and consumer communications around a well-known product, and ultimately better serve their customer base.

Q&A: Pandemic’s EA deal postmortem

Last week, Electronic Arts stunned the game industry by announcing that it was buying one of the world’s biggest independent developers for $860 million. The studio in question was BioWare/Pandemic, the union of the eponymous Canadian RPG developer and the Californian action studio.

In November 2005, the two companies joined forces in a deal brokered by Elevation Partners, a venture capital group that vainly tried to acquire Eidos earlier that year. The merger was backed up by nearly $300 million in venture capital, a sum that helped the company break free of the traditional publisher/developer relationship, which sees the latter dependent on the former for financing.

Less than two years later, BioWare/Pandemic was purchased part and parcel by the world’s biggest third-party publisher. As soon as the news broke, EA’s numerous detractors decried the news as the ultimate sellout, given that both BioWare and Pandemic had been independent since the mid- and late 1990s, respectively. Critics of the deal predicted that the two studios would share in the fate of other EA acquisitions such as Origin Systems and Westwood Studios, both of which were eventually folded into the publisher’s massive corporate hierarchy.

That won’t happen, according to Pandemic CEO Josh Resnick and director of production Greg Borrud. Speaking with If Its Games, the two executives stated repeatedly in no uncertain terms that they still see Pandemic as an independent operation. They also look at EA not as a dominant corporate parent, but as a big brother with numerous connections, ample resources, and bottomless pockets.

If Its Games: How does it feel going from the best-funded, highest-profile independent developer in the world to becoming part of the biggest third-party publisher in the world?

Josh Resnick: Well, the reason we did both those deals is so we could focus on making great games. We asked ourselves what we could do to build the value of the Pandemic brand, to invest our technology and our IPs. There’s tremendous talent there. We’ve ha