Via Wii UK


Konami shun the idea of Silent Hill on Wii, as 'grandma wouldn't like it.'

Clearly they've never met my Grandma - I bet she'd love caving in the heads of zombies or whatever it is you do in Silent Hill.

In an interview with Konami's Masashi Tsuboyama, he had the following to say about the prospect of Silent Hill coming to Wii:

'While Nintendo Wii sales are very high, and I applaude Nintendo for their sucess, I dont think Silent Hill is a game that would be sold on Nintendo Wii as much as a game like Zelda would worldwide. This by no means says we will not consider the idea but the general opinion is that Wii is for family games and im sure the fans don't play Silent Hill with their grandma!'

Please, please, if we have any grandmas / grandads reading this please get in touch so we can ram Konami's rather silly attitude right up their backside.

I find it surprising that Konami are naive enough to actually think that most Wii owners only play the console with octogenarian relatives, and never alone. I have one thing to say to that: bollocks.

There's already been a couple of 'mature' titles out on Wii, with more to come, so with any luck they'll be enough to change Konami's mind - for now, it doesn't look too promising. Thanks to C3 for the tip.

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Leave your thoughts below folks. ...

Via IGN

Built in WiFi isn't yet ubiquitous and plenty of gaming and home theater gear needs to get online. $99 adapters? No way. We do it on the cheap.

The internet has, after many years, finally penetrated the living room, primarily on the back of gaming consoles like the Wii, PS3, and Xbox 360. There's plenty of other stuff in the living room that needs a connection to the net, like high-end A/V receivers that can stream internet radio, HD-DVD and Blu-ray players for firmware updates and forthcoming interactive content, TiVos for sharing recorded content, and Slingboxes for streaming your own TV.

Despite the fact that WiFi is ubiquitous as the home networking solution of choice, almost none of these devices, including the Xbox 360 and low-end PS3, have integrated WiFi. As such, owners must extend Ethernet to their living rooms, or buy hardware-specific WiFi adapters, as in the case of the Xbox 360. Neither solution is terribly convenient, as running Ethernet all over the house is a pain, and dedicated wireless adapters are severely overpriced ($99 for the 360 adapter, common!).

Happily, there exists another option that is superior to all others in terms of cost, convenience, and expandability. WiFi-to-Ethernet bridges have fallen off the map since the early days of home networking, yet are exactly what so many need today. As the name suggests, the tools are essentially WiFi receivers with a built in network switch, the combination of which allows multiple Ethernet equipped devices to connect the adapter and share a WiFi connection to the home network.

A functional WiFi-Enternet bridge can be constructed from an old-school Ethernet router and a WiFi access point, if such spare hardware is lying around out of use. For the most convenient of installs, however, an all in one solution is ideal. The most readily available is Buffalo Technology's AirStation Turbo G High Power Wireless Ethernet Converter (WLI-TX4-G54HP), which Amazon sells for $64.65 at the moment.

Buffalo's product accepts up to four connected devices via Ethernet and connects them to 802.11G networks. In our Gear-test theater we're running one with an Xbox 360 (immediate $35 savings versus the official Microsoft adapter), a Home Theater PC, and a Slingbox AV. Setup is easiest if one is using a Buffalo WiFi-router, but after an initial configuration we had ours connected to our D-Link-router's network without much hassle. After that it was a simple task of connecting Ethernet from our devices to the Buffalo bridge and we were up and running.

In pretty much every aspect the Ethernet Bridge solution is superior to alternatives. It's significantly cheaper than just one Xbox 360 WiFi adapter and allows up to 4 devices to share the connection. Better yet, the Buffalo bridge can accept alternative antennas for situations in which signal strength is weak.

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Click here if you didnt see the amazon link ...

Via Kotaku

Is Capcom and Grasshopper Manufacture's psychological horror adventure game Killer 7 getting the Wii port treatment? Capcom of Europe implies such with its Killer 7 listing, hinting that the game originally designed for the GameCube may follow in the path of Resident Evil 4 and shoehorn in waggle control.

While such a listing may simply be an error, it would make a great deal of sense. Killer 7's on-rails gameplay and point-and-shoot action are a good fit for the Wii-remote. Plus, the game would take advantage of the Wii's expanded audience, filling in holes in the console's "mature" category. Still, checking with the usual online retail suspects turns up nothing and recent interviews with Grasshoper honcho Goichi Suda reveal no hints about such a project.

I've got an e-mail in with Capcom to see what they have to say. While this is simply a rumor, something about it smells of truthiness. ...

Via PSX Extreme

The details for Grand Theft Auto IV continue to trickle out from a variety of sources, and the latest will set your imagination spinning.

Thanks to a recent preview in the Official Xbox Magazine, it appears player will have a new way of transporting...well, any number of things. Many avid followers of the game have seen the Admiral (GTA car model) getting broken into during a preview video, but a bit more of that video was uncovered by the magazine: apparently, when behind the vehicle, an information prompt came up on the top left side of the screen, telling the player to press "LB" (left bumper on the 360 controller). This button will probably be the L1 controller on the PS3's Sixaxis. When you press the button, you pop the trunk.

Yup, the trunk. Perhaps you could store weapons and ammunition in any vehicle you take, or maybe you could even hide bodies! They've been talking about making this particular GTA installment much more realistic, so perhaps authorities could find bodies and then spring into action. Maybe hiding your tracks is more important this time around, and a trunk would be perfect in that capacity.

We'll let you know when we hear more about this feature, and how Rockstar plans to implement it. But isn't your imagination spinning right now? See, we told you. ...

Via PSX Extreme

The details for Grand Theft Auto IV continue to trickle out from a variety of sources, and the latest will set your imagination spinning.

Thanks to a recent preview in the Official Xbox Magazine, it appears player will have a new way of transporting...well, any number of things. Many avid followers of the game have seen the Admiral (GTA car model) getting broken into during a preview video, but a bit more of that video was uncovered by the magazine: apparently, when behind the vehicle, an information prompt came up on the top left side of the screen, telling the player to press "LB" (left bumper on the 360 controller). This button will probably be the L1 controller on the PS3's Sixaxis. When you press the button, you pop the trunk.

Yup, the trunk. Perhaps you could store weapons and ammunition in any vehicle you take, or maybe you could even hide bodies! They've been talking about making this particular GTA installment much more realistic, so perhaps authorities could find bodies and then spring into action. Maybe hiding your tracks is more important this time around, and a trunk would be perfect in that capacity.

We'll let you know when we hear more about this feature, and how Rockstar plans to implement it. But isn't your imagination spinning right now? See, we told you. ...

Via CB Games

People have complained since the Wii’s inception into the next-gen race, that the graphics/visuals for the games aren’t all that great – with the exception of Twilight Princess, of course. But once you see the new Final Fantasy for the Wii, you might think twice about the Wii’s graphical power.

Before you get your knickers in a bunch and you let the drool hit the floor, you might want to calm down a bit and take a breather; this game is not coming to North American shores just yet. The trailer is for the Japanese Final Fantasy, which is set to be an exclusive for the Wii. Like many of the other Nintendo-exclusive Crystal Chronicle games, this one will have gamers embarking on a quest unlike its PS3 (and soon Xbox 360) counterparts.

Visually the game is rather stunning. It’s not far off from some games like Armored Core 4, and it looks much better than the new Beautiful Katamari for the PS3 and Xbox 360. Okay, I know, I know...those are bad comparisons. Fanboys will be quick to toss in Gears of War and Lair...but we all know Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers is not a $20 million dollar project. And even though the Japanese will be enjoying this game much sooner than North American and European territories, it doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy the trailer below.

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Click here to view the article with video ...

Via Gamers Hell

Electronic Arts today released new screenshots from the X360 version of Nascar 2008: Chase for the Cup, a game developed for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 2 and PlayStation 3. The game will be the most realistic NASCAR racing title ever with lots of cars to be unlocked, lots of tuning options and multiplayer modes for up to 16 players. A release date is still to be announced.

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Click here to view the screenshots ...

Via Personal Tech

With Nintendo's Wii still dominating the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3 in terms of sales, many wonder whether the Wii's performance can be sustainable. The question will be whether players will continue to be captivated by the Wii as game developers start taking advantage of the superior processing power of the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

The Nintendo Wii video game console continued its remarkable performance in April, with U.S. sales that far outpaced its next-gen rivals, Microsoft Relevant Products/Services's Xbox 360 and Sony Relevant Products/Services's PlayStation 3. According to figures compiled by NPD Group, the Wii sold 360,000 units in April compared to 174,000 Xbox 360s and just 82,000 PlayStation 3s.

According to David Riley, a Senior Manager at NPD Group, that puts the Wii's total sales since its release at 2.5 million units, a little less than half of the Xbox 360's 5.4 million total units sold, and roughly twice the PlayStation 3's 1.3 million. All sales figures are for the U.S. alone.

Riley said that it's not easy to summarize why the Wii is performing so well. "There are a lot of reasons," he said. "Nintendo has done great marketing for the [console], and after a slow start, has gotten great PR from the media. The [Wii] is remarkably easy to use, and of course, the price point helps as well."

Mass-Market Appeal

"The price points for the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360 are a killer when it comes to attracting the masses," Riley suggested. "They're not unattractive to the hard-core gamers, but they're simply not mass-market prices."

With a bewildering array of technological choices out there, Riley said, a lot of consumers find the complexity of the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3 to be intimidating.

"The very fact that the Wii doesn't use a lot of cutting-edge technology -- apart from the controller, of course -- gives it an edge," he said. "You can really start using the [Wii] without looking at the manual, and when you do need to read the manual, it's actually quite understandable."

Sustainable Lead?

Of particular interest to analysts (and the console manufacturers, of course) is whether the Wii's impressive performance is sustainable. The chief question will be whether players will continue to be captivated by the Wii's motion-based controls as game manufacturers start taking advantage of the other units' greater processing power.

Riley cautioned that the remarkable sales figures for the Wii only represent the first six months of sales, so it is not clear how it will perform in the long run. However, he said he thinks that the system will continue to be a hit with consumers.

"The Wii's started to take some hits in the media lately," Riley said, "but I think it will continue to do well. Nintendo's got a great line of titles coming out for the system, and excellent hardware Relevant Products/Services. But the company's biggest advantage is that it is attracting an audience that neither Microsoft nor Sony can attract. Nintendo just needs to keep coming out with titles that appeal to these nontraditional gamers." ...

Via Wired Blog



If you've already played Mortal Kombat Armageddon, you might be wondering why you should try the Wii version, which ships today. For one thing, it has a brand new character, Female Khameleon. Not enough? Ok, how about a deeply enhanced Endurance Mode? Yeah, that wouldn't do it for me, either. Well, there's Motor Kombat mode, where you...drive...around...actually, let's just forget that exists and move on.

The real draw of the Wii version is the motion-sensitive combat controls. The control scheme has been completely overhauled to take advantage of the Wiimote/Nunchuk combo, which could make the fatalities extra specially fun. Hmm...one wonders what the proper motion for ripping out a spine is...

Armageddon features more than 60 fighters from the entire Kombat line, in addition to the Kreate-a-Fighter and Kreate-a-Fatality modes. First one to make a character based on Kohler (come on, his name even starts with K) wins. Ready....go! ...