BLOG FOR VIDEOGAMES.COM

From the outset, gamers had their doubts about 20th Century Fox’s film adaptation of Eidos Interactive’s Hitman series. Those worries only amplified once Deadwood star Timothy Olyphant was cast in the lead and largely untested helmer Xavier Gens sat down in the director’s chair. Finally, even the most optimistic fans’ faith was tested when Gens was reportedly yanked from the project by studio bosses for including too much violence in his final cut.However, like the titular assassin, Hitman proved pretty much unstoppable. Despite being pistol-whipped by most critics–although Roger “Games Are Not Art” Ebert quite enjoyed it–the film took in an estimated $21 million over the Thanksgiving weekend, according to Variety.

Full Article on This Link…

[UPDATE] Publisher announces revenues down across the board, admits that it has “substantial doubt” about its ability to carry on.

Last week Atari CEO David Pierce resigned after just over a year on the job, with his post being temporarily filled by the company’s chief restructuring officer Curtis G. Solsvig III. The resignation came the week after the company announced its long-delayed financial results for its first fiscal quarter, which ended June 30, 2007. Those figures painted a bleak picture of the once-iconic publisher’s future.

The company also announced its plans in North America to withdraw from the production business, and its plans to license the Test Drive series to parent company Infogrames in exchange for a $5 million advance on royalties. The statement from Atari also indicated that it has “regained compliance with Nasdaq’s periodic reporting requirements.”

Today the second-quarter results for Atari are in, showing that net revenue for the period between July 30 and September 30 was $13.3 million compared to $28.6 million in the same period last year. Publishing net revenue was $11.4 million, versus $23.1 million last year, and distribution revenue was $1.9 million compared to $5.5 million the prior year. The net loss for the second quarter was $7.7 million, or 57 cents a share.

[UPDATE] As if the faltering numbers were not bad enough, Atari has admitted in a SEC filing that its road ahead is less than certain. The report explains that although the company has relied on Infogrames for loans and purchases of assets, the parent company has its own financial needs, and as a result may be unable to continue to help.

Full Article on This Link…

Call of Duty 4 storms the retail beachfront.

This week the Australian retail scene was dominated by Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, which came in at number one on the All Formats chart, the 360 chart, the PS3 chart and the PC chart. Elsewhere, the Guitar Hero III bundle came in at number one on the PS2 chart, bumping Crash of the Titans down to number two. Star Wars Battlefront Renegade climbed to top position on PSP, while the Big Brain value pack edged out Metroid Prime 3: Corruption for top billing on Wii.

Full Article on This Link…

No, the other one.

In March of 2006, German game developer 4Head Studios announced it was working with graphics producer 3D-IO to create a videogame based on the epic tale of Beowulf.

Fast forward to late 2007 and the release of Paramount Pictures’ Beowulf film, accompanied by Ubisoft’s exclusive tie-in game of the same name, and the Beowulf-themed videogame arena starts to look a bit crowded.

So today 4Head (now part of DTP Entertainment) announced that its Beowulf project is no more. The company sold its trademarks, web domains and other assets related to the game to Paramount.

Full Article on This Link…

After all, you can’t play Crysis at work. Unless you’re us.

IGN has been closely following Kongregate, one of the best sites around for free Flash games. We learned a few months ago the site was planning to fund premium, large-scale titles that will still be free to play but will have microtransaction components. Today Kongregate unveiled the first five premium games that should start appearing next March or April, in one month intervals.

“With our Premium Development Program, we’ve set out to find and sponsor some of the most talented small studio and indie developers today,” said Jim Greer, CEO and co-founder of Kongregate. “These original and exclusive Flash games will build on the compelling social and community-based experiences already available on Kongregate, but on a larger scale. For developers, Kongregate provides a wonderful launching pad for new content, where funded developers still retain full rights to their games and share in a percentage of Kongregate’s revenue.”

While retail PC and console games get a lot more attention than Flash offerings, Kongregate doesn’t see them as competition.

“We ask for a year of exclusivity for the game,” says Chris Pasley, Director of Games at Kongregate, who came from Adult Swim’s Flash game portal. “We don’t own the IP, we don’t own any of the rights except to have that game on our site for a year. And we do share revenue during that year and forever more it’s on the site. After that year they can do whatever they want to with it, put it on any site they want to. But even during that year of exclusivity, as long as it’s a non-competing platform like Xbox Live Arcade we are more than happy to let those guys go and put their game on a different platform. It’s not directly competing with us so it’s not going to hurt us.”

Pasley believes the relevance of Flash games is increasing.

“People want to kind of jump in and jump out of games, and Flash is the best way to do it. There’s also a very low barrier to entry. Everyone has a computer that can run Flash games, more or less. You can use your computer at home to play, you can go to the library to play… You can’t really drag your console around wherever you go.”

Are the developers working on Kongregate’s premium games doing it full-time? Or are they hobbyists with day jobs?

“I think it’s about half and half. Most of them are young in the field, even if they are full-time at the moment. A couple are doing it in their spare time, but they are really dedicated to doing it. I don’t know how they sleep much.”

Kongregate gave us the rundown on its first five premium offerings:

Dinowaurs - In development by Intuition Games, Dinowaurs is a multiplayer trajectory shooter in which cute, innocent cartoon dinosaurs battle unknowingly to the death in real-time. Dumb and ignorantly sweet, these dinos don’t think a thing about their cruel, barbaric human handlers strapping things like missile launchers, cannons and even aircraft carriers to their backs to wage war - inadvertently causing their own extinction.

“I had been pitched Dinowaurs at Adult Swim and it was turned down for not pushing the limit enough [there],” says Pasley. “But they pitched it next to Kongregate and when I took the job here I had the opportunity to greenlight the game.

Pasley likes to describe Dinowaurs as “Barney the dinosaur with a rocket launcher strapped to his back running through the D-Day scene from Saving Private Ryan.”

Zening - Created by developer Michael King, Zening is a futuristic strategy game that casts the player in the role of Katrina, a hospitalized war journalist who begins having startlingly vivid dreams of war and battle with horrific fantasy creatures. With the help of other ensnared dreamers, Katrina must fight through the monsters to uncover the terrible truth behind the dreams. Zening also features team deathmatch multiplayer modes, two- and four-player combat, webcam support and a fully voiced narrative.

“[Zening] has an interesting, unique story that we’re hoping to accentuate with full voice over,” Pasley says.

Full Article on This Link…

With a new Star Trek film coming out, diehard fans of the series will need to brush up on their Klingonese and start thinking about the costumes they’ll wear for opening night. Should some of those fans settle on a member of the Enterprise, they might be interested in replicating the far-flung technology of tomorrow with the help of Sony’s console of today.

KipKay, a site with a host of videos showing users how to do everything from improving gas mileage with acetone to quickly chilling a can of warm soda, has posted a video detailing how to use a Blu-ray laser assembly from the PlayStation 3 to create a convincing Star Trek phaser for under $100. Using a laser assembly and a toy replica phaser both purchased off eBay for a total of $75, a dremel tool, a soldering iron, and other handy tools, the video shows how a user can replace the toy’s existing light bulb with a Blu-ray diode.

Full Article on This Link…

Now-independent studio tells Develop magazine its dev teams are “running full-speed” on new projects, as planned.

Shortly after Halo 3 went on sale in North America in late September, much of Bungie Studios’ staff went on a long-overdue vacation. Only a few were on hand when the developer dropped the news bombshell that it was amicably separating from Microsoft. The unprecedented deal made Bungie a totally independent operation, a status it had not enjoyed since the 1990s, when it released Myth and the Marathon series.

However, the agreement didn’t mean that Bungie was walking away from Halo, the series that made it a household name. “Bungie and Microsoft have forged a deep and long-term development and publishing relationship focused on the continued success of the Halo franchise,” the company said in a statement. “It is also the intent of both parties to expand their partnership to include new IP created and owned by Bungie.”

Now, with Bungie employees snapping back into position, the plans laid out in the Bungie/Microsoft separation agreement are apparently proceeding apace. After largely shunning the US media, Bungie studio manager Harold Ryan told British-based Develop magazine that “We’re actively engaged with the senior staff here on a couple of new IPs right now, but the team that can generate cool Halo games is still running full-speed as well.”

Although hard details on any new Halo games were hard to come by, Ryan did sound optimistic about the franchise’s future. “Both I and some of the more senior guys from the original Halo game have deep piles of game designs for the Halo universe that we are excited to build at some point,” he explained. “If the stars align and motivations are good, and the platforms are right, we’ll do them…

Full Article on This Link…

Shooters from Bungie and 2K get most nods for testosterone-infused network’s December 9 award show.

Even without the next two week’s lineup of highly promising titles, 2007 has seen more than its fair share of critically acclaimed games. While the high quantity of high quality is unequivocally great for gamers, it’s sure to create a massive headache for those looking to parse out the best of the best. Charged with the onus, Viacom-owned Spike TV unveiled its nominees for the 2007 Video Game Awards today through its official Web site.

This year, Spike has trimmed off a few of last year’s more superfluous categories, such as Cyber Vixen of the Year–Half-Life 2’s Alyx Vance in 2006, for those counting–nominating games in 22 categories. Microsoft console-exclusives dominate the coveted game of the year category, with noms this year being Halo 3 and Mass Effect, as well as BioShock and The Orange Box. 2K Games’ dystopian shooter BioShock and Bungie Studios’ sci-fi shooter Halo 3 received the most nominations with seven apiece. Valve Software’s compilation The Orange Box semi-matched that number with five overall, as well as solo nominations for Portal and Team Fortress 2.

To be eligible for nomination, a game’s release date must fall between November 16, 2006 and December 1, 2007. The nominees were chosen by Spike TV’s advisory panel, which is made of nearly two dozen game journalists, including editors from the San Jose Mercury News, EGM, Game Informer, and GameSpot. The category most addictive game will be selected by online voters polled on the official VGA site.

Spike TV’s Video Game Awards will air December 9 at 9 p.m. Eastern on Spike. Last year, Samuel L. Jackson emceed the event, which featured live performances from Jack Black’s Tenacious D and goth rockers AFI. Spike has not yet announced the master of ceremonies or other entertainers for this year’s event.

A complete list of nominees for Spike TV’s 2007 Video Game Awards is listed below.

Game of the Year
BioShock
Halo 3
Mass Effect
The Orange Box

Best Shooter
BioShock
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
Halo 3
The Orange Box

Best Action Game
Assassin’s Creed
God of War 2
Super Mario Galaxy
Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction

Best Rhythm Game
Guitar Hero Encore: Rock the 80s
Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock
Jam Sessions
Rock Band

Best RPG
Eternal Sonata
Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions
Mass Effect
Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3

Best Driving Game
DiRT
Forza Motorsport 2
Need for Speed ProStreet
Project Gotham Racing 4

Best Military Game
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2
Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Vegas
World in Conflict

Studio of the Year
Bungie Studios
Harmonix
Irrational Games
Valve

Best Graphics
BioShock
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
Crysis
Mass Effect

And More…

The year in commerce, at a glance. 

Everyone loves sales figures. eMarketer has done us all the favor of rounding up the 2007 monthly sales of each current-gen console (which they mistakenly call “next-gen”) and dropped it all into a sharp table. Here is said table, but note the total numbers at the bottom are not year-to-date totals. They are total lifetime console sales.

Full Article on This Link…

To help get you started with wine tasting.

You may know Square Enix for all those Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest games, but in Japan, the company has quickly become one of the most prolific producers of non-games for the DS thanks to its DS: Style series. The latest in the series could be the most non of the non-games as Square Enix invites you to learn the finer points of wine in How to Get Started with Wine DS.

This wine guide (which actually isn’t the first such title for the platform — EA beat Square Enix to fermentation months ago) was announced a while back. New today is first word on the “Wine no Hajimekata Set,” which bundles a copy of the game with a real life bottle of wine!

Square Enix has selected France’s Dourthe No.1 as the red wine of choice for the limited edition set. Why? Well, we’re not exactly sure. Maybe by playing the game we’ll learn the finer points of choosing a wine to bundle with the limited edition of your wine tasting game.

The wine set will retail for 4,830 yen, up by about $15 from the standard 2,940 yen price point. The extra yen will also cover the fancy box that will hold the bottle and game.

Full Article on This Link…

Leading mobile phone carrier delays built-in gaming service “a couple of weeks” due to extended software-testing period; Warner Music pulls support.

In August, Nokia announced it would be reviving the N-Gage gaming platform. Eshewing the clunky “sidetalkin’” N-Gage hardware of the past, the latest incarnation of the service will be built in to new Nokia mobile phones and will be based on software downloads versus game cartridges.

The N-Gage service was scheduled for a global was launch this month, However, Reuters reports today that the service has been postponed due to an extended software-testing period. “N-Gage is coming in December. Software testing is taking a bit more time than what we had expected,” said Nokia representative Kari Tuutti. “We are talking about a couple of weeks.”

When the service does go live, it is expected to offer mobile versions of The Sims 2: Pets, Tetris, FIFA 08, Crash Bandicoot and other games for around $8 to $14. Models thus far slated to be compatible with the service include Nokia N73, N81, N81 8GB, N93, N93i, N95, and N95 8GB.

Full Article on This Link…

Watch the Portuguese footballer show off his skills.

Konami has released outtakes of the Pro Evo 2008 TV ad campaign featuring Ronaldo, showing the Portuguese winker displaying his mad ball skills alongside the star of the game’s intro sequence, Billy Wingrove. There are four in total, which you can check out in the gallery below, plus if you want to see more then head on over to the official PES2008 MySpace page, where you’ll find the full two minute clip.

Full Article on This Link…

Latest model of DX10-compatible high-performance GeForce 8 series graphics card now available; $199 to $259 range.

By Crytek CEO Cevalt Yerli’s own admission, Crysis is a high-end game. However, it also happens to be one of the most anticipated shooters on the horizon, and one that has many PC gamers downloading its demo and contemplating upgrades. With that game quickly approaching its November 16 release, Nvidia today announced that its GeForce 8800GT is now available at retail.

A budget-line model of the GeForce 8 series cards, the 8800GT is aimed at the $199-to-$259 price range. The 8800GT offers 256-bit memory clocked at 900MHz as well as 112 stream processors operating at 1.5GHz. As with its big-brother counterparts, Nvidia’s latest card also features DirectX10 compatibility.

Full Article on This Link…

Wii Sports sweeps the board while BioShock, Crackdown, Okami and God of War 2 get well deserved pats on the head.

Following last night’s glitzy and glamorous BAFTA Video Games Awards, trembling fists across the globe grip shiny new gongs, courtesy of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts’ second annual celebration of creative excellence in the games industry.

No mantle piece is more threatened with permanent displacement than Nintendo’s though, with the company skipping away from the event with a staggering six awards - all for Wii Sports. In fact, the popular family pasttime secured wins under the following categories: Casual, Gameplay, Innovation, Mulitplayer, Sports, plus Strategy and Simulation. Speaking to IGN, Nintendo said of the accolades, “We are very honoured and proud to have been recognised in this way by the Academy”.

However, it wasn’t empty hands for everyone else. In fact, homegrown UK developer Realtime Worlds got its mitts on two awards for Crackdown - best Action and Adventure title and best Use of Sound. Elsewhere, Okami scored a much deserved slap on the back in the Artistic Achievement and Best Score categories, while God of War 2 attempted to maintain its angry exterior in the face of jubilation as it took home awards for best Story and Character, plus best Technical Achievement.

Finally, Best Game of the night went to 2K’s superb Bioshock and the only public-voted category, The PC World Gamers’ Award, shook its bucket of recognition in the general direction of Sports Interactive’s Football Manager 2007.

For the full rundown of nominees and eventual winners (listed in bold), cast your eyes below. Don’t forget to post your opinions on the whole shebang in the comments underneath.

Action and Adventure

Crackdown (X360)
Gears of War (X360)
God of War 2 (PS2)
The Orange Box (PS3)
Ratchet and Clank: Tools of Destruction (PS3)
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (Wii)

Artistic Achievement

Bioshock (X360)
Heavenly Sword (PS3)
Okami (PS2)
Ratchet and Clank: Tools of Destruction (PS3)
Skate (PS3)
Viva Pinata (Xbox 360)

Best Game

Bioshock (X360)
Crysis (PC)
Gears of War (X360)
Guitar Hero II (PS2)
Kane & Lynch: Dead Men (X360)
Wii Sports (Wii)

Casual

Big Brain Academy for Wii (Wii)
Cake Mania (DS)
Guitar Hero II (PS2)
More Brain Training (DS)
SingStar (PS3)
Wii Sports (Wii)

Gameplay

Crackdown (X360)
Gears of War (X360)
Sega Rally (PS3)
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (Wii)
Warhawk (PS3)
Wii Sports (Wii)

Innovation

fl0w (PSN)
Okami (PS2)
Super Paper Mario (Wii)
The Eye of Judgment (PS3)
Trauma Center: Second Opinion (Wii)
Wii Sports (Wii)

Multiplayer

Battlefield 2142 (PC)
Crackdown (X360)
Guitar Hero II (PS2)
Wii Sports (Wii)
World in Conflict (PC)
World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade (PC)

Original Score

Final Fantasy XII (PS2)
God of War 2 (PS2)
Lair (PS3)
Okami (PS2)
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (Wii)
Viva Pinata (Xbox 360)

Sports

Colin McRae: DiRT (X360)
FIFA 08 (PS3)
Football Manager 2008 (PC)
MotorStorm (PS3)
Virtua Tennis 3 (X360)
Wii Sports (Wii)

Strategy and Simulation

Command & Conquer: Tiberium Wars (X360)
Forza Motorsport 2 (X360)
Medieval II: Total War Kingdoms (PC)
Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Vegas (X360)
Wii Sports (Wii)
World in Conflict (PC)

And More…

Publisher’s revenues up 52 percent, but full-year expectations remain same following delay of mystery quartet to beyond Q1 2008.

The work week is only two days old, but it has already seen more than a dozen game delays. Yesterday alone, Electronic Arts delayed Army of Two on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, and THQ pushed back both versions of Destroy All Humans!: Path of the Furon, as well as the Wii and DS editions of de Blob, and the PS3 version of Frontlines: Fuel of War. That’s in addition to Capcom’s delays for Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law for the Wii, PlayStation 2, and PlayStation Portable.

The list of postponements has grown a bit longer today. In its financial earnings report for the half-year ended September 30, Ubisoft announced that it has delayed four games into its next fiscal year, which begins in April of 2008. However, the publisher did not specify which projects have been pushed back and said only that one of the games is from a franchise, and that three of them are new brands. An Ubisoft representative confirmed for GameSpot that none of the delayed games have been announced yet. Ubisoft also added that an unannounced game in an existing franchise would also make it out before April.

One announced game appears to have suffered a delay. Nitrobike for the Wii was left off the publisher’s updated release schedule for the holiday quarter. The publisher has “announced” delays in the past using the same method.

As for the cause of the delays, Ubisoft said the postponements were made as a result of “positive trends” in the first half of the company’s fiscal year and a positive outlook for the holiday quarter. Sales for the first six months of the fiscal year totaled €261 million ($371.9 million), up more than 52 percent over the same period last year (or 55 percent at constant exchange rates, which is notable given the current weakness of the US dollar). The strong first-half performance will apparently cancel out the effect of the delays, given that Ubisoft left its full-year financial projections unchanged.

Full Article on This Link…

Pneumatic force feedback jacket responds to in-game damage. Won’t break ribs, may break competitors’ will.

E for All was all about offering the public a taste of the gaming convention action previously reserved for industry professionals (and peeps with the temerity to sneak in). While Nintendo was able to draw a crowd without really trying thanks to playable demos of Smash Bros and Galaxy, not to mention its short skirted hosts, those who ventured away from the big N’s space could also get their hands on some hot new hardware.

Most interesting among the various demonstrations was the premier of TN Games’ 3rd Space Gaming Vest. The device, which bears a degree of resemblance to the flack jackets that contractors wear in Iraq, is buckled relatively tightly to the wearer and connected to the PC via USB. Another cord leads to an external controller box and air compressor.

We’ve seen various attempts at body-force feedback before but all were based on sound, generally big bass drivers to punch players with omni-directional oomph. The 3rd Space Vest, on the other hand, uses an air compressor to intelligently inflate eight air bags inlaid into the vest. When triggered, the air bags inflate rapidly enough to feel like rather noticeable taps.

The purpose of the whole operation at this point is to give FPS gamers the advantage of being able to feel where their character is being damaged. Taps across the back rather pointedly alert the wearer that he is being shot, bit, or mauled from behind. As opposed to the screen suddenly flashing red when damage is taken, you actually feel incoming fire and react more hastily to avoid it. We can speak from experience when we say it’s a pretty good effect.

Full Article on This Link…

Activision attempts to defend its skateboarding turf from encroaching competition; Prince of All Cosmos returns one more time.

Until last month’s release of Electronic Arts’ Skate, the Tony Hawk series hadn’t faced any legitimate competition in the skateboarding genre for years. This week, the aptly named Tony Hawk’s Proving Ground will give the series the opportunity to show it can still defend its turf from all comers by adding nail-the-grab and nail-the-manual mechanics to last year’s introduction of the nail-the-trick mode. Proving Ground will be available for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii, PlayStation 2, and Nintendo DS.

Rolling into stores alongside Tony Hawk will be Beautiful Katamari for the Xbox 360, the first installment of Namco Bandai’s quirky hybrid game to arrive on the current generation of consoles. Players once again pick up the role of the Prince of All Cosmos and roll ever-expanding Katamari clumps around in an attempt to make the largest spherical accumulation of random junk possible.

Fans of Nintendo consoles are a bit spoiled for choice this week, given that the DS release slate consists of nine games, most notably the new Touch Generations game Flash Focus: Train Your Vision in Minutes a Day, as well as the self-explanatory anime-based Fullmetal Alchemist: Trading Card Game. Meanwhile, the Wii will welcome a new Victorious Boxers game, Rockstar Presents Table Tennis, Guilty Gear XX Accent Core, and Ultimate Duck Hunting.

On the downloadable front, the Wii Virtual Console sees its first TurboGrafx-16 CD release, Gate of Thunder (800 Wii points, or $8), along with the NES action game Ninja Gaiden II: The Dark Sword of Chaos (500 Wii points, or $5), and the Super Nintendo sci-fi strategy game Metal Marines (800 Wii points, or $8). This week’s Xbox Live Arcade Wednesdays releases will be the futuristic sports game Speedball 2: Brutal Deluxe as well as Q Entertainment’s trippy shoot-’em-up game (without shooting), Every Extend Extra Extreme (both 800 Microsoft points, or $10).

This week’s new releases are listed below (list taken from retailer information–actual dates may vary).

OCTOBER 15, 2007
Tony Hawk’s Proving Ground (Xbox 360, PS2, PS3, Wii, DS)
Beautiful Katamari (Xbox 360)
The Elder Scrolls IV: Shivering Isles (Xbox 360 retail version)
Rockstar Games presents Table Tennis (Wii)
Flash Focus: Vision Training in Minutes a Day (DS)
Fullmetal Alchemist: Trading Card Game (DS)
Bee Movie Game (DS)
Seven Kingdoms: Conquest (PC)
Ninja Gaiden II: The Dark Sword of Chaos (Wii Virtual Console)
Metal Marines (Wii Virtual Console)
Gate of Thunder (Wii Virtual Console)

OCTOBER 16, 2007
Fury (PC)
Heroes of Might and Magic V: Tribes of the East (PC)
Sega Rally Revo (PC)
Crash of the Titans (PSP)
Spider-Man 3 (PSP)

And More….

Official Web site no longer lists the hotly anticipated Super Smash Bros. Brawl as shipping on December 3; game officially delayed until January 2008 in Japan.

News that Sonic and Mario could finally face off in hand-to-hand combat wasn’t the only Super Smash Bros. Brawl-related news to arrive today. Although the Wii brawler had been scheduled to ship on December 3 ever since the E3 Media & Business Summit in July, the game’s official Web site now has its release date as “TBD.” Web caches of the page show that the change occurred within the last 24 hours.

Though not yet 100 percent officially delayed in North America–Nintendo had not responded to GameSpot’s request for official confirmation as of press time–the date change could be a signal that Super Smash Bros. Brawl is slipping from its initially announced 2007 release window. In doing so, it would join a throng of high-profile games pushed into the now sardine-can-tight early 2008 shipping schedule. However, at a Tokyo press conference this morning, Nintendo announced that the Wii game won’t arrive in Japan until January 24, 2008.

Full Article on This

Headliners joined by Spider-Man: Friend or Foe, FlatOut 2, Crash of the Titans, and Chibi-Robo on retail shelves this week.

Contrary to what Cortana has been leading us to believe, last week did not see the end of the world. However, it did see the end of the wall of Halo 3 noise hyping Bungie’s latest shooter. Lo and behold, it turns out that a whole mess of anticipated games come out this week, led for many by Link’s latest maritime adventure in The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass for the Nintendo DS. A sequel to 2003’s GameCube favorite–and GameSpot Game of the Year–Wind Waker, Phantom Hourglass is the first DS installment for the Big N’s pointy-eared protagonist Link. Phantom Hourglass is rated E for Everyone and retails for $34.99.

Project Gotham Racing 4 takes to the streets this week for the Xbox 360, and it’s potentially the last installment in Microsoft’s series developed by Bizarre Creations. That’s because Bizarre Creations announced last week that it would be creating a new racing series for Activision, its new parent company. Whether or not that spells the end of the Microsoft-owned PGR property for Bizarre is yet to be seen. In the meantime, fans of the series still have PGR4, which for the first time includes motorcycles and dynamic weather effects, as well as its standard array of exotic sports cars. Rated E for Everyone, PGR4 retails for $59.99.

With the 2007-2008 NBA season tipping off in just a few weeks, 2K Sports’ NBA 2K8 and EA Sports’ NBA Live 08 are taking to the court for their annual showdown on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PlayStation 2 (as well as the Wii for NBA Live 08). A demo for each is available on Xbox Live and the PlayStation Network. (A free trial of Sony’s midcourt air ball NBA 08 is also on the PSN.)

Also out this week is the well-reviewed Enemy Territory: Quake Wars (PC) as well as Sierra’s platformer Crash of the Titans (Xbox 360, PS2, and Wii), and the once-suspected-canned Chibi-Robo: Park Patrol (DS). Activision’s latest Spider-Man spin-off–Friend or Foe–swings to the Xbox 360, PS2, PSP, Wii, DS, and PC, while Bugbear’s FlatOut: Ultimate Carnage crashes onto the Xbox 360. In addition to free demos for Friend or Foe and Ultimate Carnage, the latest interpretation of Alexey Pajitnov’s 1985 puzzler–Tetris Splash–can be found on Xbox Live on Wednesday for 800 Microsoft points ($10).

This week’s new releases are listed below (list taken from retailer information–actual dates may vary).

SEPTEMBER 30, 2007
Hot Wheels: Beat That (Wii, DS)
Balls of Fury (Wii)

OCTOBER 1, 2007
The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass (DS)
NBA Live 08 (X360, PS3, PS2, PSP, Wii)
Monopoly 2008 (PC)
The Chosen - Well of Souls (PC)
Race (PC)
Popx3 (Wii)
Hoyle Casino 2008 (PC)
Hoyle Puzzle and Board 2008 (PC)
Hoyle Card Games 2008 (PC)
RACE 07 - The WTCC Game (PC)
Ultimate 3D Pinball (PC)
Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels (Wii VC)
Sin and Punishment: Successor of the Earth (Wii VC)

Full Article on This Link…

In Winneconne, Wisconsin, a teen now faces theft charges after his mother contacted the police about discovering an Xbox 360 and several items in her son’s bedroom. A police report states that when the mother asked her 16-year-old son about the discovery, he claimed that one of his friends gave the Xbox 360 to him. The mother then reported the finding to authorities on September 18 after that friend knew nothing about the console or other items, according to the Oshkosh Northwestern. The teen is being held in the Fond du Lac Juvenile Secure Detention Facility for two counts of theft and two counts of criminal trespass to a dwelling.

Full Article on This link…