“Metal Gear” creator cool under pressure (Reuters)

Reuters - The pressure on Hideo Kojima could hardly be greater, but the creator of the “Metal Gear Solid” video game series is cool as a cucumber.

Sony Electronics Inks Interactive Cable-TV Deal (NewsFactor)

NewsFactor - Six cable-TV operators that serve more than 82 percent of U.S. cable households have inked an agreement with Sony Electronics that will soon make it possible for cable subscribers to forego the use of stand-alone set-top boxes. The enabling Tru2way technology, based on Sun Microsystems’ Java runtime environment, enables interactive capabilities in TV sets, gaming consoles, portable media players, and even mobile phones.

Nintendo Channel launches tomorrow in Europe an Australia

Nintendo announced today that the Nintendo Channel will hit Europe and Australia on May 30. Downloadable free of charge via Wii Shop Channel, Nintendo Channel allows you to watch videos, search for games, download game demos to your Nintendo DS and recommend games you’ve played.

Rumor: Brit retailers reducing PSP shelf space due to poor sales

According to reports, some retailers in the UK are reducing the shelf space dedicated to PSP due to poor sales. One gamer claims that a worker at a Game Station in East London said that \”We\’ve been told to take them down due to them not selling. We\’ve put up more XBOX 360 stuff in it\’s place.\” Has anyone else noticed a shrinking PSP section at their local retailer?

SimCity Creator officially announced for Wii and DS

The Sims today announced the first details for SimCity Creator, exclusively for the Wii and Nintendo DS. SimCity Creator is an open-ended, highly creative game with a sense of humor that allows players to utilize the distinctive gameplay aspects of the Wii and Nintendo DS to create, enjoy and destroy epic cities. The most accessible and light-hearted game from the SimCity franchise, SimCity Creator will ship on September 22, 2008 in North America and on September 19, 2008 in Europe and Asia-Pacific regions.

Kojima might let the young staff take control of new MGS

Hideo Kojima recently said in an interview that he will probably take a different role in the next Metal Gear Solid game. \”Maybe I\’ll sit in as producer and let the young staff take control of the new series. I really want to go on to new things.\” said Kojima. Kojima also said that the expectation for MGS 4 to drive PS3 hardware sales did put pressure on him, but in a positive way that improved his creativity.

Playstation: The Official Magazine July review scores, LBP review next month

The review scores from the July issue of Playstation: The Official Magazine have been revealed. MGS4 - 5/5, Lego Indiana Jones - 3.5/5, Condemned 2 - 4/5, Monster Madness: Grave Danger - 3/5, Dragonball Z: Burst Limit - 2.5/5, Hellboy: The Science of Evil - 2/5. The magazine has said that next month they will be reviewing LittleBigPlanet, Mortal Kombat vs. DC, the next Bond game, Haze and Singstar.

Rumor: In-game XMB coming this June with Firmware Update 2.40

According to reports, PS3 Firmware Update 2.40 is coming this summer with many features including in-game XMB. There will also apparently be a few other surprises including soundtracks.

UK: GTA IV launch drives Xbox 360 sales 47 percent, PS3 onlu 8 percent

Chart-Track has revealed that Xbox 360 console sales are now 18 per cent more than the PS3 in the UK since the launch of GTA IV. Xbox 360 console sales rose 47 per cent when comparing sales for the four weeks before GTA IV\’s release and the four weeks after. In comparison, PS3 sales were only 8 percent up, but it was noted that they already had a boost from GT5 Prologue. For the year so far, PS3 console sales are 10 per cent ahead of the Xbox 360.

Gamer creates Xbox 360 themed gaming room

A gamer has created his own Xbox 360 themed gaming room that features 360 branding, green walls and a built in mini-fridge. He\’s been getting quite a lot of stick for it, but if you ignore the Xbox 360 branding, it could probably add a bit of value to the home?

MS: reviewers haven’t received final Ninja Gaiden II code

Microsoft have sent an email to point out that the reason reviewers are experiencing \”loading issues, visual glitches, and other noticeable flaws\” with Ninja gaiden II is because it is not the games final code.

Alone in the Dark demo coming Friday the 13th

Infogrames president Phil Harrison has said that a demo for Alone in the Dark will hit Xbox Live a week before the game comes out. That should mean the demo is released on Friday the 13th of June, the full game will be released on June 20.

Tecmo Bowl Kickoff Hands-On

Chances are that, even if you aren’t much of a sports-gaming fan, you probably spent some time playing a few quarters of Tecmo Bowl back in the day. As one of the first big sports-gaming franchises, the name alone is enough to spark a sense of nostalgia among gamers of a certain age. Now, Tecmo is looking to take advantage of that legacy fan base with the upcoming Tecmo Bowl Kickoff for the Nintendo DS. We had a chance to see the game for the first time during a Tecmo press event earlier in the week in San Francisco.

Tecmo Bowl is finally returning, this time to the Nintendo DS.

Unlike the more realistic football games that have become the standard over the last few console generations, Tecmo Bowl Kickoff is straight old-school. When you’re playing on the field, everything from the play-calling screens (which will let you choose from eight plays on offense or defense) to the player animations look like they’re straight out of the original games on the NES and SNES. Among the biggest visual differences are the brief cutscenes that happen during touchdowns, sack celebrations, and field-goal kicks; they’re reminiscent of the animation in the old game but obviously don’t feature real player likenesses or names.

Easy-to-understand controls are another hallmark of the game; though it does make use of the stylus and touch-screen combination for breaking out of tackles, you can play the game simply with the buttons if you like. The controls still play exactly as you remember them. When running, you can tap the A button to break tackles and, when passing, you cycle through your receivers by pressing one button and then throw the ball by pressing another. Super abilities are another of the switches from the original Tecmo Bowl. Certain players will have access to these special abilities, such as the lightning pass, which we saw during the demo of the game by Tecmo. Some (but not all) special abilities will be user-initiated.

With no NFL or players license, Kickoff will include 32 fictional teams with names like the Baltimore Bulldozers, New England Gunners, Indianapolis Narwhals, the Los Angeles Supercocks, and the Minnesota Yetis. Thanks to some handy, extensive editing tools, there’s nothing to keep you from editing those teams into their real-life NFL counterparts. You can edit a bunch of different attributes for teams in the game, including city and name, color scheme for all aspects of your uniform, as well as team logo, playbooks, and individual player names and attributes. Curiously, there’s nothing to stop you from taking a custom team and jacking every player’s attributes up to the maximum allowable, which we figure everyone will be doing once they start playing against friends.

Everything from team name to playbooks will be customizable in Kickoff.

Though the game will feature a single-player mode with preseason, season, and the All-Star Bowl, the multiplayer features in Kickoff will keep you busy. You’ll be able to play against a nearby friend via wireless play or take on a buddy via the Internet with the DS’s Wi-Fi capabilities. You can use custom teams when playing in multiplayer, so get ready to start jacking up all of your players’ stats now.

Fast-playing and addictive, Tecmo Bowl Kickoff certainly isn’t doing much new with the Tecmo Bowl name, but it will definitely have some old-school appeal to people who remember the original from their younger days. The game is scheduled to arrive on the Nintendo DS in September of this year, and Tecmo reps also confirmed yesterday that a Wii version of the game will be coming out in 2009. Whether it will be a modified version of the DS game or an entirely new version of the Tecmo Bowl series remains to be seen. Nonetheless, we’ll be keeping our eyes on both of these games throughout the year.

-If Its Games

Aussie game charts: May 19-25

Nintendo’s Wii Fit has spent its third week at the top of the overall Australian games chart, according to data trackers GfK Australia. Wii Fit, which debuted the week after Grand Theft Auto IV, jumped straight to first place and has remained there since.

The Xbox 360 version of Grand Theft Auto IV continues to outsell its PlayStation 3 competitor, holding strong in second place for the week of May 19-25. The PS3 version fell to fourth, just below the Wii Play bundle. The newly released Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures on the PC debuted at number five. Hannah Montana is at number six, whereas Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games holds seventh place. Six months after its release, the Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock Bundle for the PS2 continues to rock the charts, making it into eighth spot. It’s been quite some time since Rayman Raving Rabbids 2 for the Wii has been in the charts, but that changes this week as the Rabbids jump into the ninth spot. Ubisoft’s PS3 exclusive, Haze, managed only 10th position.

All sales stats, including console-by-console breakdowns, can be found below:

Top 10 Full-Priced Games

1. Wii Fit, Wii

2. Grand Theft Auto IV, Xbox 360

3. Wii Play bundle, Wii

4. Grand Theft Auto IV, PlayStation 3

5. Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures, PC

6. Hannah Montana, Nintendo DS

7. Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games, Wii

8. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock Bundle, PlayStation 2

9. Rayman Raving Rabbids 2, Wii

10. Haze, PlayStation 3

Top 10 PS3 Games (over A$60)

1. Grand Theft Auto IV

2. Haze

3. Gran Turismo 5 Prologue

4. Time Crisis 4 bundle

5. Assassin’s Creed

6. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

7. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock bundle

8. FIFA Soccer 08

9. SingStar bundle

10. Iron Man

Top 10 Xbox 360 Games (over A$50)

1. Grand Theft Auto IV

2. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock bundle

3. Assassin’s Creed

4. Halo 3

5. Iron Man

6. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

7. Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Vegas 2

8. FIFA Soccer 08

9. Soldier of Fortune: Payback

10. Army of Two

Top 10 Wii Games (over A$50)

1. Wii Fit

2. Wii Play bundle

3. Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games

4. Rayman Raving Rabbids 2

5. Mario Party 8

6. Super Mario Galaxy

7. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock bundle

8. Mario Kart Wii

9. Super Paper Mario

10. Boom Blox

Top 10 PC Games (over A$20)

1. Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures

2. World of Warcraft

3. World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade

4. The Sims 2: Kitchen & Bath Interior Design Stuff

5. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

6. The Sims 2: Free Time

7. Enemy Territory: Quake Wars

8. The Sims 2

9. Command & Conquer 3: Kane’s Wrath

10. Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War: Soulstorm

Top 10 Nintendo DS Games (over A$40)

1. Hanna Montana

2. Dr Kawashima’s Brain Training: How Old Is Your Brain?

3. New Super Mario Bros.

4. Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games

5. Tak: The Great Juju Challenge

6. Mario Kart DS

7. More Brain Training from Dr Kawashima: How Old Is Your Brain?

8. Professor Kageyama’s Maths Training: The Hundred Cell Calculation Method

9. Nintendogs: Dachshund and Friends

10.Imagine Babyz

Top 10 PS2 Games (over A$50)

1. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock bundle

2. Iron Man

3. Buzz! Pop Quiz

4. Crash of the Titians

5. SingStar ’90s bundle

6. V8 Supercars 3 Platinum

7. SingStar Pop Hits bundle

8. WWE SmackDown! vs. RAW 2008

9. Bee Movie

10. SingStar ’80s

Top 10 PSP games (over A$40)

1. God of War: Chains of Olympus

2. Need for Speed ProStreet

3. The Simpsons Game

4. WWE SmackDown! vs. RAW 2008

5. Iron Man

6. MX vs. ATV Untamed

7. FIFA Soccer 08

8. Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops

9. Jackass: The Game

10. SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs Tactical Strike

All data supplied by GfK Australia.

EA erecting SimCity Creator on Wii, DS

Building and managing virtual cities is one of those genres that doesn’t seem to lose popularity. The SimCity series started in 1989, designed by Will Wright–also the creator of the Sims–and since then a slew of sequels and similar titles, including City Life and Caesar, have followed.

Today, Electronic Arts announced a new game in the series for the Nintendo Wii and DS. Billed as an “accessible and light-hearted” title, SimCity Creator will let players customise their cities into a variety of regional styles. These will include American, Asian, and European city styles, although EA isn’t prepared to get country specific just yet.

The gameplay for the Wii version sounds as if it will be similar to previous titles in the SimCity series, with the gamer playing as the city mayor and allocating city zones in areas such as business, retail, or residential. There will be a redesigned interface for the Wii Remote, and “hero” buildings will also be available, with some becoming unlocked depending on the current day or the time period.

SimCity Creator DS, on the other hand, will have players guiding their city from ancient times into the future. There will be four game modes: Challenge, Free Play, Chance Encounter, and Gallery.

SimCity Creator will be released on September 19 in Europe and in Australasia and on September 22 in North America. It is the second SimCity game for the DS, after SimCity DS, and it also follows the Wii Virtual Console rerelease of the SNES SimCity.