Namco Bandai has popped on its ninja outfit this afternoon and revealed the very first Naruto game for PSP.

Ultimate Ninja Heroes will launch America this summer, but a date for Europe is still unconfirmed.

The biggest new feature from developer CyberConnect 2 is the team-based wireless multiplayer mode. Here you and your friends will be able to assemble your ultimate dream team, using combination and team attacks to best your opponents.

You'll be able to pick from 20 different characters that can be levelled-up by tackling progressively more difficult missions, eventually displaying your ninja rank in your player profile. Skills and abilities will also be upgradeable, using power-up points earned from battle, and special hidden skills will lie in different groups awaiting your discovery.

A single-player campaign is here to get to grips with, and you'll still be able to take on a solo friend in head-to-head combat using one copy of Naruto to game share.

"We are thrilled to be bringing the unique Naruto style of fighting exclusively to the PSP system," said Makoto Iwai, big cheese at Namco Bandai America. "Fans of both the show and franchise will be able to create and play as their favorite ninja dream team, and we are excited about introducing the Naruto brand to a whole new batch of gamers."

Naruto is a manga by Masashi Kishimoto, which spawned a popular anime television series in Japan. It follows the loud and adolescent Naruto Uzumaki as he searches for approval in the ninja world and quests to become Hokage - the best fighter in the whole village.

via eurogamer ...

Pandemic Studios has been leaking top secret information about it's next-gen WWII stealth action title, which puts you in the role of a saboteur for the French resistance.

But wait, wait. Apparently it's not just another one of those war games. You see, Nazi occupation of France is largely used as a backdrop on this occasion, and while it will naturally have a hefty influence on what goes on, the story actually revolves around an Irish race-car driver who happens to get caught up in Paris on the eve of Hitler's invasion.

This chap, Sean, finds people close to him caught up in the mayhem, and the story soon turns into a tale of revenge.

"This isn't about defeating the Nazis," game director Trey Watkins told Game Almighty. "This game is about a guy and his personal story that happens to be set in WWII."

"Much in the way people don't think of Indiana Jones as a WWII movie, this isn't a WWII game."

It's third-person territory, though stealth and sabotage will be more effective than action. And you'll constantly be trying to avoid suspicion as you progressively become a bigger blip on the Nazi radar.

However, you won't be some super stealthy does-the-impossible-before-breakfast kind of fellow. So, when you get up close and personal with someone it'll balled-fists and head-butts, rather than roundhouse kicks and neck snaps.

Sean's strengths as a race-driver will come in handy too, and you'll be able to use numerous vehicles strewn around Paris to evade police in daring car chases. It's part of Pandemic's "if you can see you can use it" plan for the game; a sort of 1940s Grand Theft Auto.

Another interesting aspect Pandemic is trying to introduce is its "Will to Fight" system. For this it will use a Sin City-inspired colour-coding system for the level of resistance to the Nazi occupation in certain areas. Those with less "Will to Fight" will verge on being black and white, devoid of colour and hope, while areas with a strong resistance will be vibrant with colour.

Saboteur has already been in development for two years, and is due to release on PS3 and Xbox 360 sometime next year

via eurogamer ...

via eurogamer

The Chinese Government has given online game operators until 16th July to implement software that severely restricts the amount of time children under-18 are allowed to play their games, People's Daily Online reports.

With the software installed, games will allow children to play for up to three hours, before halving the amount of points they can earn for the next two to try and drive them away from the computer screen.

After five hours, scores will be zeroed with no more points to earn, and a warning will flash up every 15 minutes explaining that this is "unhealthy game time", advising the player to have a rest.

Peculiar, eh? But probably not all that surprising to Chinese gamers, who have heard this sort of thing before. The Chinese Government has previously taken steps to try and keep kids away from the Internet too. Good idea - we bite.

Even the game companies seem to have little problem with the new regulations, since most of their customers are adults anyway, but there is concern that one element of the new scheme could cause problems: the need for gamers to register their real names and identity card numbers in order to play.

"The system requires every online player to register with their real identity. This will scare away many adult and young users," BDA China chief analyst Liu Bin told People's Daily Online.

Whether they like it or not though, companies that don't take steps to fall into line with the new rules will have their games shut down when the three months are up. ...

via engadget



Oh dear, just when we thought we'd had our fill of exploding Apple devices, along comes an Australian forum member named eeno who saw his first generation iPod nano go up in flames, and has some snuff-esque pics of the aftermath. As is usually the case with these things, eeno's iPod was charging when it happened. He says the force of the battery's explosion sent the iPod off his PC onto the floor, where it continued to smoke and spark until he unplugged the USB charging cable from the back of his computer. Since his iPod is out of warranty, the local computer repair shop didn't do him much good, but they did take a few pics to send to Apple. Hopefully this iPod was just an anomaly, and we won't be seeing a whole wave of these explosions as 1G nanos exit their warranties and head towards retirement -- but somehow we fear the worse. ...

via engadget

You know how it goes: pictures are fabulous, but videos are probably the next best thing to handling it yourself. In this case, a video walkthrough is about as close as you're going to get to May 7th whilst still chillin' in April, and considering you already know just about everything you can ever desire about the impending update and QWERTY thumboard, why not relearn it all again care of an "official" on-screen walkthrough? You know you can't resist, so be sure to hit the read link and pull up a chair, because you're going to get tired of standing after 25 or so minutes.

More Info ...

via engadget

This rumor is just about as old as iTunes itself, and while it has remained fairly dormant due to Steve's insistence on maintaining the oh-so-lucrative existing model, the subscription-based iTunes question has somehow surfaced again. According to Les Ottolenghi, CEO of INTENT MediaWorks, Apple could be leaning towards implementing such a service "within the next six months," and even went so far as to suggest we not believe any Apple-based denials that could potentially follow. Interestingly, several analysts even suggested that subscription-based systems haven't garnered much fanfare simply because the head honcho in digital music distribution isn't playing along. Unfortunately, no hints were dropped in regard to future pricing schemes, but you'll only be waiting about half a year to find out, anyway. ...

EA's revival of the Command & Conquer series on PC has unsurprisingly proved a resounding success, with Tiberium Wars holding the number one spot in the Chart Track all-formats chart for two weeks running.

Whether or not the Xbox 360 version of the RTS will experience the same success we'll discover as of May 11 - which is the release date now confirmed for the console iteration in EA's release schedule.

According to IGN, a Tiberium Wars demo will hit Xbox Live before the full game ships. We contacted EA for further details on the demo but the publisher was unavailable for comment at the time of writing.

via cvg ...

A Nintendo distributor has let slip some juicy new info about the Wii Music and Health Packs that Miyamoto has been teasing us with since the E3 show last year, which appear to suggest the coming of a new Wii Health channel.

Speaking to Greek site, Contra.gr (linked with babelfish translation), the CEO of Greek Nintendo distributor Nordec Multimedia, George Katrinakis, revealed that the Wii Health Pack will have users perform exercises, and "biometric elements" will be gathered and sent to hospitals contracted by Nintendo "via the corresponding channel that will exist in the Wii". Sounds like a new Wii Channel to us.

Speaking about the Wii Music Pack, he went on to uncover that it will allow players to use different instruments, presumably with clever use of the Wii Remote's motion control.

He also said, according to the rough babelfish translation, that players will be able to create their own musical compositions and send them to others via the internet.

A Nintendo UK correspondent told CVG there had been "no official new details" issued by the company.

No official release date has been set for either packs.

via cvg ...

A 434Mb demo of Artificial Studios' Monster Madness: Battle for Suburbia has crept onto Xbox Live.

Epic's Unreal Engine 3 beats away at the heart of the top-down shooter, which finds a group of teenagers battling supernatural monsters in a slice of typical small-town America. It's all presented in B-movie style, with a tongue-in-cheek approach to the horror invasion.

The full game is due out next month, and comes complete with co-op and competitive multiplayer modes that support up to four players.

via cvg ...