sorry again..

Sorry for the lack of posts lately but I've had company over the last couple days and I didn't have time to post. I will get back to posting tomorrow though


EDIT: turn out they're staying a little longer so it will be about 3 more days then I can FINALLY get back to posting.

MAG: Massive Action Game

This game was shown at the end of Sony's E3 press conference which is turning out to be the most ambitious online title ever. MAG will support online for up to 256 players!!!!! Yes 256 players!!! Each side is split into 8 man teams that will amount to 128 per side. This game is being developed by the same team that developed SOCOM and its online component so I have good hopes for this game. This game is also a PS3 exclusive.

interview with makers of Wii motion plus

This is an interview with the creators or Wii Motion Plus.

Next spring, over two years after the launch of the Wii, we'll finally get 1:1 motion control. Those sublte movements that have previously caused the system to freak out will be possible. We caught up with InvenSense, maker of the Wii Motion Plus technology, to find out more about the device. Some of the following interview gets fairly technical, so it might be helpful to check out InvenSense's informational video comparing accelerometers and gyroscopes before you keep reading, to get a general idea of how the new chipset works.

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We're gonna need a bigger condom.

IGN: So tell us a little about what you did with the Wii Motion Plus.

Joe Virginia, VP of Wireless Business and Corporate Communications for InvenSense: What we're doing is, in combination with the sensor bar and the three axis accelerometer that is available within the current Wii Remote, we're now introducing MEMS gyroscope capability. And what that allows you is, rather than just having up/down, left/right, back/forth motion, you now have the ability to do rotational movements within each of those X, Y, and Z axis. So if you imagine you had extended straight out and twisted your hand, now you have the ability to measure rotational force. Did you have an opportunity to use the Wii Motion Plus attachment?

IGN: Yes, I got to play the sword fighting game in Wii Sports Resort.

Virginia: Great, so you had the opportunity to swing the sword above your head, behind your head, thrust right, thrust forward. All of those types of motions in the past weren't possible, but this is the gyroscope capability, combined with the accelerometer and the sensor bar within the Wii remote system that bring a new level of gameplay. There were several other things. Maybe not as cool of a game, but I'm looking at it from a motions sensing perspective, do you remember the jet ski demonstration? If you notice how [Reggie Fils-Aime] was using the throttle in the jet ski application where you had to move left and right and move through the course. The throttling really showed rotational movement that has never been able to be tracked before by the Wii Remote controller. So that was another area where rotational force was used.

So the multi axis gyroscope provides new capabilities to game developers. Now there's where the line is drawn. We provide the capability as a motions sensing provider and the game developer takes that and says "Okay what can we do with this new capability?" If you can measure six degrees of freedom in free space, a game developer has enormous opportunities. As you saw in Wii Sports Resort, the ability to control the angle of a disc flying through space, sword fighting. We can envision things in the future like golf swings. There's a very, very fast rotational time. The kind of specification we're looking at in response is between 500 and 2,000 degrees per second. So a very, very fast response, such as for golf swings or sword motions. So all we do is provide the capabilities and enable that, but that's where we stop and the game developers take over.


IGN: So what's the story behind your partnership with Nintendo? Who approached whom?

Virginia: Well, I can't get into the details of how all that began. All I'm permitted to say is that both companies were leaders in their respective fields, and the partnership just made sense. You've got the motion sensing leader in gaming understanding that a company called InvenSense makes a low cost, high performance gyroscope product with the ability to mass produce.

Wii Sports Resort

This is an article about Wii sports Resort.

Ever since we first played with the Wii remote and swung a virtual tennis racket or hit a virtual baseball, we threw out terminology like 1:1 control ratios and real-time manipulation. But the Wii remote never quite delivered on the promise it first showed, namely because the built-in accelerometers worked well with big, grandiose movements, but lacked the measuring accuracy to gauge and realistically translate the subtler motions. As a result, you could effortlessly swing your on-screen baseball bat in a big, arching motion, but you couldn't, say, swing a virtual sword with any sense that you had a great detail of accurate control over the action. The good news is that Nintendo is on the threshold of changing all of that once and for all thanks in whole to a little attachment that plugs into the bottom of your Wii remote. It's been coined MotionPlus, but we prefer to think of it as an integral ingredient -- that little something that's been missing from the Wii remote all along.

MotionPlus will come bundled with Nintendo's newly announced WIi Sports Resort, which ships next spring. No price point has been announced. The Big N pulled back the curtain on three games featured in the soon-to-be-gatrillion-seller, including Power Cruising (racing a jet ski a la Wave Race), Disc Dog, in which you throw a frisbee to a canine, and Sword Play, a sword-dueling component that has us excited for the future of the Zelda franchise. In short, MotionPlus is no joke and it's going to dramatically change the way Wii games are played. As an aside, Shigeru Miyamoto has already hinted that MotionPlus may be packed with all Wii remotes in the future.

Think about some key Wii games currently available. Everything from Wii Sports tennis and boxing to Tiger Woods PGA Tour and Star Wars. You can't accurately add topspin or slice to a ball in tennis because the Wii remote can't translate your subtle wrist twists. You can't swing a lightsaber around in Star Wars for the same reason. And while golf games have always seemed perfect for Nintendo's console, developers have struggled to recreate a true swing without trickery or defects.

In Wii Sports Resort's Disc Golf, your only goal is to grasp a frisbee and hurl it into the air so that your Mii-like dog can run forward and catch it. The closer your frisbee soars to a virtual target on the field, the more points you get. It's so ridiculously simple and yet it's also a great deal of fun because the controls work so well. As you grip the frisbee, you can twist your wrist left and right, up or down, and you can do so slowly or quickly, and your on-screen Mii will do the same, closely mimicking your every movement. It works. Really. And because it works so well, it's fun. You can add very subtle movements to your throws and the frisbee will react accordingly. You really feel like you're in control. That a few extra accelerometers could make such a difference is almost comical, but it's true.

Swordplay seems to be Wii's holy grail and everyone in the industry has looked at either Nintendo or LucasArts to make good on the potential. But in the past, the accuracy just hasn't been there and so we've been left with games that use waggle and yet don't even approach 1:1 movement. Sword Play in Wii Sports Resort, though, is on the right track. You and a friend duel in a small arena in a best of three competition. If you knock your opponent off the ledge and into the water below, you win a round. And if you both win a round, you'll go to sudden death, where the battlefield shrinks to a tiny platform. Now, you won't be able to control the movement of your character -- that's all handled by the game -- but you will be able block (by holding the B-trigger) and slash by making motions with your remote. Again, it's fairly straightforward but it works, feels good, and most importantly, it's fun.

Nintendo suggested that you grip the Wii remote with both hands, the top able to press and depress the B-Trigger, when playing. You quickly learn that there's a lot of strategy to the duels. We held strong to a guarded approach in which we blocked our opponent's advances and then knocked them in the head with a single blow before shielding ourselves again. A method both devastating and humiliating to our adversaries. And since the controller actually factors in the speed of your swing, when you clock somebody, you really whack them, a truth that is all the more embarrassing for those who take a good head cracking. We're looking at you, Craig Harris. The accuracy is good enough that in pre-matches, you can actually sharpen up an oversized pencil if you swing correctly.

And finally, Wave Race with Miis. Or, we mean, "Power Cruising" with a "water scooter." What? Anyway, like the two aforementioned games, we walked away very impressed. First of all, the water graphics in the mode show realistic physics and pretty transparencies, which makes us wish that Nintendo would just make a legitimate Wave Race title. And after playing Power Cruising, the potential for such a racer is limitless. The control feels very good. This is the only game in the E3 demo that used the nunchuk. Plug it in and hold both controllers in front of you as though they comprised the top half of a virtual steering wheel. Turn them both to the left and you'll swing your "water scooter" (jet ski) to the left. To the right and you'll veer off to the right. We noticed right off the bat that our jet ski was very responsive, tilting quickly and accurately to our subtle movement. And a very interesting turn of events, literally, you can even rev up your gas simply by making a revving motion with your Wii remote. It works beautifully.

Wii Sports Resort is already shaping up to be an excellent addition to the WIi library. More importantly, it has with three simple mini-game-style offerings proved that Nintendo's add-on is a resounding success. Only good things can come of it. And frankly, I can't wait to see what lies ahead.

Animales De La Muerte

This is a in development Wiiware game from High Voltage software, the devopers of the conduit.
The game looks like a warped cross between Viva Pinata and Resident Evil. It's called Animales De La Muerte (Animals of the Dead) and it's one of the most exciting titles scheduled for Nintendo's download service. You might want to sit down as we explain the premise, especially if you fancy yourself a gamer with bloodlust.

It all starts "down in Mexico," where the Valle De La Sol Public Zoo, run by the charismatic geezer Don Eduardo Mendoza, has found itself in crisis mode. The animals -- elephants, monkeys, warthogs, and walruses, to name a few -- have begun dying only to be reborn as flesh-eating zombies. High Voltage elaborates, "Now, wandering freely through the zoo, the rotting beasts are no longer content with eating visitor scraps they get tossed into their cages -- instead they prefer to eat the whole visitor."

The cute style is complemented by gruesome carnage.

You take on the role of characters Marco and Maria Mendoza, Don Eduardo's weapon-proficient grandchildren, and bring the fight back to the animals -- the zombified ones, anyway. While the two will use a variety of powerful guns and items to mutilate the walking dead, they will also carry with them nets in order to capture and save the animals still unaffected by the outbreak.

nimales de la Muerte plays similarly to classic fixed position shooting games like Smash TV and, more recently, Alien Syndrome for Wii (the latter of which failed to live up to its potential, sadly). Since the title has been developed specifically with Wii in mind, High Voltage has naturally been able to make much better use of the Wii remote than SEGA did. To play, you move your character around the screen with the nunchuk's analog stick and aim with Nintendo's pointer. You aren't merely limited to shooting in various directions -- you can also very quickly and accurately target enemies with pinpoint precision (using an on-screen reticule) and blast them to bloody pieces. This control method nurtures the characters' abilities to run in one direction and simultaneously shoot into another. In addition, a speedy flick of the nunchuk will toss grenades at whatever spot you've got your reticule aimed. You can go it alone or with up to three friends in a four-player single-screen cooperative mode, which becomes chaotic.

Weapons

As you progress through the levels, doorways and gateways will become opened after you've disposed of a preset number of animal zombies and accomplished some secondary objectives. Along the way, you'll be able to earn pesos, which fall from the obliterated dead, from destructible objects and from boss characters, to buy upgrades -- both temporary boosts and full-blown weapons. If you like collectibles, you're in luck. The Valle De La Sol Public Zoo is home to a series of mold-o-matic machines which allow you to buy waxy replicas of your favorite animals. More importantly, though, the exhibit houses many handy gun-o-rama machines, too -- "... just in case," according to High Voltage -- and these store invaluable guns and items.

There's the uzi, a default weapon which enables rapid fire and features infinite ammo. The bullwhip is a secondary weapon, causes radius damage and pushes zombies back. The flamethrower is a medium range gun and it damages enemies over time. There's the rocket launcher, a long range projectile that causes a big explosion which will disintegrate several foes at once. And, of course, the chainsaw -- a melee-style weapon that inflicts ridiculous amounts of blood-splattering, limb-severing anarchy upon those animals unlucky enough to rub up against it.

On top of everything else, Marco and Maria are able to learn and master several "legendary attack moves handed down through their family tree." To execute these "Attacks Estupendo" you will need to fill their power meters first. There's the luchadore, which executes a high-flying wrestling kick. In some character art High Voltage showed us, Marco unleashes a luchadore that sends the character kicking directly through an elephant in a gruesomely awesome display of skill. There's the el mariachi, which triggers temporary invisibility and twin machine gun guitar cases for the characters. And the padre or sister, which effectively calls upon a higher power to eliminate any undead in the immediate area.

The siblings will need every move and weapon at their disposal to mutilate and eliminate the hordes of enemies attacking them at any given moment, each foe armed with unique abilities of its own. The monkey is cute in life, but the animal is a true pest in zombie form, throwing its own bones at Marco and Maria if they come too close. The warthog will try to impale the kids on its razor sharp tasks. The speedy penguin will slide on its belly and pounce, slamming its beak into opponents. And the walrus will hurl its grotesque slime into their direction if the children come too close. Don't even get us started on the elephants.

Attacks Estupendo

The title's premise is enhanced by real-time cut-scenes which use the game engine to advance the storyline and High Voltage is aiming to pepper the experience with lots of blood, guts and comedy, obviously. Check out some of our screenshots and videos to see the carnage on display. High Voltage's Eric Nofsinger compares the level of violence in the game to the cult movie Dead Alive, famous for its exaggerated gore. "Animales de la Muerte all started from a simple little drawing of a cute little rabbit with a flamethrower. Somewhere along the way it morphed into a zombie apocalypse in a Mexican Zoo. And then the idea just kind of took on a life of its own," says Nofsinger. "Between GenCon, Wizards World, Siggraph, and GDC we gave out 30,000 bookmark sized board games, 2,000 1" buttons, and 200 T-shirts. Quite a lot of people really seem to like seeing cute cuddly animals all zombified and dismembered. I know I do.

This elephant is going down. Hard.

The title uses the company's Wii-exclusive technology for a graphical style that is both cute and charming and offensively over-the-top brutal at the same time -- always a winning combination, as some titles like Conker's Bad Fur Day have shown.

The developer has not yet set a price point for Animales de la Muerte -- it's still plugging away on the title and will no doubt look at other WiiWare values in the coming months – but currently the studio is gunning for a September launch date). As just as soon as it becomes available, we'll bring the information to you. While you wait, definitely check out all the media we posted for this refreshingly different WiiWare game that oozes style and is sure to make you smile.

If you want to purchase Wiiware or Virtual Console games for FREE then just check out my post about Free Wii Points.

Madworld

"Madworld is an inventive third-person action game exclusively for Wii. Produced by Atsushi Inaba, MadWorld has a unique black and white style depicting an incredibly sharp backdrop that straddles graphic novels and 3D worlds. As players battle opponents, they must master the use of various weapons and items found within their environment, such as chainsaws and street signs, while entertaining sports commentary adds to the third-person gameplay. With its irreverent humor and over-the-top violence, MadWorld will deliver a unique core gaming experience currently missing on the Wii system."

The game is starting to show some promise. The protagonist is on some type of game show with these two guys doing a very funny commentary about his slaughter. Its a game that's kind of hard to describe so just watch the 2 video below and you see why i have hopes for this game

Some E3 game footage

Trailer

Gta coming to ds

At e3, Nintendo announced that a new installment in the Grand theft auto series would be coming EXCLUSIVELY to the Nintendo DS. The game is Grand theft auto chinatown wars. It will be set in Liberty City.

"This is a game that will deliver a rich, fast-paced and intense 'Grand Theft Auto' experience that will be truly unique to Nintendo's handheld platform," said Sam Houser, Founder of Rockstar Games. "Rockstar Leeds, along with the team at Rockstar North, has built upon a decade of progressive design on Grand Theft Auto, and has created something fundamentally fresh and immersive."


Not much is know about the game yet except that there will be some kind of online component.
Also GTA: Chinatown wars is slated for release around the holidays.

Animal crossing City Folk

Today during their E3 press conference, Nintendo unveiled a game thats been in the works for a while now, Animal Crossing City Folk. We had heard small rumors about this title before but today we actually get some real info.

At the E3 2008 Nintendo Press Conference, Nintendo a video that talked about its series, Animal Crossing and announced the latest in the series, Animal Crossing: City Folk.

City Folk has two sections, the Town and the City. The Town seems to be the residential section of the game, whereas the city is the business.

"The Town is where you live and do the stuff you like."

The City portion of the town is the shops section of Animal crossing. Many of the normal shops that have been in the prevous games are here, as well as new stores.

Among the new features is the ability to make you character look like your Mii.

Animal crossing will also take advantage of Nintendo's newest peripheral, Wii Speak. Wii Speak is a microphone peripheral that allows players to speak to each other. It's not a head set, but rather a microphone that sits on the TV and allows multiple players to speak into it, like a teleconference microphone.

According to Reggie Fils-Aime, Animal Crossing City Folk will be out by the end of 2008


Here is the video from E3 video

Here is a seperate gameplay video

Here are some facts i noticed from the video

• City - You can leave your town and go to a city, which has various things to do. There are also many shops, including one owned by Gracie (please post each store or feature you noticed in the city to be included in this list).
• WiiSpeak - Talk with other people in your town... voice chat.
• 2008 - The game's release date is November 16, 2008. - source
• Gracie has a store in the city - called Gracie Grace.
• You take a bus to the city.
• The city has an "academy" where you can learn what other players are interested in/what they're doing.
• A return of some of the holidays like Halloween
• Auction House in city... see what items are for sale
• Happy Room Academy (HRA) has it's own building in the city... Lyle is in charge of it????
• Harriet's Beauty Salon is a building in the city.
• Masks - This is done at Harriet's as well. You can change the appearance of your face "to look like your Mii". I wonder if they can be taken off or are more like hair... where it's a change and not something you wear.
• Send letters to people in different towns (through WiFi)
• With letters, you can also attach pictures
• Well since he said that, it means you can take pictures too! This feature was actually introduced in the Japan-only updated game of AC on the GameCube.
• Send your pictures/letters to computers.
• Visit anyone in the world? He mentioned this when he was talking about Wii Speak... in ACWW you couldn't go to the towns of people in Japan for example.
• Either the Basement is back or the upstairs room is a lot bigger... they showed a big room with stairs going down... I guess it could be either one of those things.
• ACWW-like house placement. By this I mean the house isn't in one area for every town, it could be anywhere in the town, like ACWW. I can't tell if each player of the town gets their own house though. When showing the top top floor (like ACWW has), we see only one bed in the video. However, this could mean that the town being showed only has one person playing the game. Edit: It looks like there isn't anymore room for another bed! This is good news... I'd say the chances of there being a house for each player is greater than only one house.
• The cliffs in the town... like AC GCN... are back. This makes the town look nicer in my opinion.
• Watch a show at a theater in the city according to Nintendo's E3 press site.

Wii motion Plus

players wondering if we'd ever see a true 1:1 experience on Wii need to wonder no more, as Nintendo announced today a new plug-in peripheral for the Wii remote, currently called Wii MotionPlus. Details are sparse so far, but Nintendo revealed the first snippets of information in a press release this morning. The following statement is -- in its entirety -- Nintendo's announcement of MotionPlus for Wii:

"Nintendo's upcoming Wii MotionPlus accessory for the revolutionary Wii Remote controller again redefines game control, by more quickly and accurately reflecting motions in a 3-D space. The Wii MotionPlus accessory attaches to the end of the Wii Remote and, combined with the accelerometer and the sensor bar, allows for more comprehensive tracking of a player's arm position and orientation, providing players with an unmatched level of precision and immersion. Every slight movement players make with their wrist or arm is rendered identically in real time on the screen, providing a true 1:1 response in their game play. The Wii MotionPlus accessory reconfirms Nintendo's commitment to making games intuitive and accessible for everyone. Nintendo will reveal more details about the Wii MotionPlus accessory and other topics Tuesday morning at its E3 media briefing."

The MotionPlus peripheral.

What I don't know, however, is how exactly MotionPlus will work with nunchuk controls, as the peripheral would need some sort of pass-through in order to give 1:1 motion to titles requiring analog control. The first shot above shows a small plug in the bottom of the attachment, which looks to be covering just such port, but we'll wait on Nintendo to give the final confirmation. Will we see first-person shooters that can make use of this technology? Will LucasArts find a way to adapt the upcoming Clone Wars game to include true 1:1 lightsaber technology, or could Nintendo beat them to it with a pack-in Link's Sword Fighting game (or news of a new Zelda Wii) to showcase MotionPlus? Will some sort of future "Wii-mote 2.0" automatically include MotionPlus, removing the need for an additional add-on peripheral? We'll have to wait and see how exactly the new technology works, and all signs point to Nintendo's keynote just 24 hours from now.

Gone for the weekend

This is just to inform you guys that im going to be gone from friday to sunday so i wont be able to post then. If someone would like to do some special guest posts while I am gone just email me at lambofield_961@hotmail.com.

monster hunter 3 Wii exclusive

This is the Wii exclusive that could raise the bar for online on the Wii, Monster hunter 3. If you don't know this series, its a dungeon crawler set in a town filled with hunters. You then go and kick the crap out or dinosaurs and other beasts with close range/melee or distance attacks. Then you skin and collect objects off the monsters you defeated. The more you kill and if you kill larger monsters, you can make better equipment from the skins, bones, teeth, etc. This system revolves around making your character 100% customized to your liking.



What’s really interesting about the series though, and something that makes me wonder just how the game is going to work on Wii, is its online focus. Players can hop online into a main world with tons of clans full of hunters, and join up in temporary or permanent groups to go on specific hunts and gain material to use either in more online, or back in local play. The PS2 Monster Hunter debuted with keyboard support as well, and even though voice chat wasn’t something I remember being a focus (or even in there, if memory serves), keyboard functionality was included, and it was used by most users in a big way. It was a bit archaic at the time to sit there and type, but it also gave the game this crazy “classic” feel to it, and I dug it.

And since Monster Hunter Wii is the official sequel to the series, making it “Monster Hunter 3” in all respects, I’d expect the series to really shine on the system. After all, the team knows the “last gen” tech that allowed for PS2 and PSP titles, and using the added power of Wii could make it an awesome title for the franchise’s non-Sony debut.

As a final quick reality check on the game, just check out a few of the stats for Monster Hunter Freedom 2. The PSP version – which I’d assume will be smaller than what we’d seen in the next official sequel of the series – already included over 250 quests, 70+ monsters, more than 700 weapons, and 1,400 armor types. That’s a lot of customization, and if done right, Monster Hunter 3 has the potential to be the top online Wii title thus far, and easily the deepest third party experience out there. For fans of games like Diablo or even select MMO titles, Monster Hunter has all the potential in the world to be one of your top games on Wii.

This is one heck of a win for Nintendo and i am hoping that they can get over the hurdles like medal of honor heroes 2 did with nintendos online. If they can do this it could turn out to be one of the top games on the Wii

Sorry guys

Sorry i havent posted in so long but ive been busy with 4th of july and all.


http://wii.ign.com/dor/objects/872578/line-rider-/videos/techdogj4.html


Here is a video of a linerider 2: unbound level for the 4th of July. I am very excited for this game as I am a huge linerider fan but im still not sure which version i should get PC Wii or DS.

rewards1 offer guide

This is a short guide to getting points fast on rewards1. If you haven't read my previous post about getting free stuff on rewards1 read it here.

1. Clear your cookies before and after you do an offer an then remember to log back in.

2. Make sure you let every page of the offer load 100% to ensure you get your points.

3. Be sure to complete your offers all the way.

4. If you do an offer such as the bigbrandgiveaway offers (which i recommend doing because they are quick and give 1 point each time) when you get to the silver, gold, platinum offers just click however many it says for silver and leave those open. Then do the same for gold. Then do the same for platinum and leave these open for about 1 min or more.

I just ordered my 2nd set of Wii points from here to pay for Dr. Mario online off of Wiiware. If anyone wants to play online dr mario just email me at lambofield_961@hotmail.com

Nintendo E3 countdown

Very soon one of the biggest gaming events in the US is going to be taking place, E3. If you don't know what that is its a convention where all the major gaming companies come to show there latest games of. The show is mainly dominated by the big three, Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft. I will be adding a widget to the site after I post this to remind you guys when E3 is taking place. EDIT just so you know I added the countdown widget at the bottom of the page.

Faster way to rewards1

As i hope many of you have read my Rewards1 guide to Free Wii points/anything else gaming related and if you haven't I highly recommend you do so right now! Just click on the link to the right under top posts. I am adding a banner to the site to make it much faster for people to sign up but you can also just click on the link if you wish.

Very cool commercials

I while ago Sony created these ads for their Bravia LCD TV. These are some of if not the best tv ads I have ever seen. Below are the three different commercials. Not really gaming related but i just thought I should post them.

Paint

Rabbits

Bouncy Balls

Make sure to check out my guide to free Wii points on the right side of the page