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A battle of gigantic proportions is looming in the neon underground of New York City. The army of the night numbers 100,000 strong, and tonight they’re all after the "Warriors" -- a street gang wrongly accused of killing a rival gang leader. The Warriors must make their way from one end of New York to their turf on the other side of the city. All that stands between The Warriors and their survival are 20 miles and thousands of street gang members. The army of gangs owns the streets and there’s no turning back, The Warriors must fight for their lives and learn the meaning of loyalty as danger and uncertainty emerges from the city night. ...

Naruto finally hits the Nintendo Wii, this is a Japanese release but hopefully the US version wont be far behind.

Heres the box art:



Naruto Shippuuden: Gekitou Ninja Taisen EX is the sequel for Nintendo Wii to Naruto: Gekitou Ninja Taisen 4 on GameCube. The game contains the storyline of Naruto Shippuuden; the part after the time skip in the manga which will occur a month from now in the animation series.

Confirmed characters are post-timeskip Naruto, Sakura, Kakashi, Gaara, Temari, Kankurou, Rock Lee, Neji, Gai, Itachi, Kisame and Deidara.





Play Asia are selling the game for US$ 64.90 (~33.57 GBP) ...

via joystiq

Jalopnik has a nice little feature on how shiny drivable boxes are digitally scanned for the final release of Gran Turismo HD. The binary reproduction process includes two men in jumpsuits dimming the lights and unloading a bunch of lasers on a given car. Not sharks with lasers, but lasers none-the-less.

"It was bizarre. A red line swept across the interior. It was sort of a spacey type of a deal. The room was somewhat dimly lit, and you would see this red line sweep across - bzzzzzzzzt. As soon as it finished it was producing a 3d wireframe model to scale on the screen."

After wireframing is complete, four more nerds take comprehensive photos and videos to fill in the gaps, like turning wheels, braking, opening the hood, and every other type of human-to-car interaction imaginable. Better driving games through technology.

More Info ...

via insert credit

I got the idea last night - there's a lot of stuff we've reported about that hasn't been talked about many other places, and subsequently disappeared. I figured it'd be ncie to bring these things out into the open again, with fresh eyes. I may do another deeper post with news bits that have since dried up, but for now, I'll focus on things we saw at tradeshows and did full reports on. Let's begin! Just one for now, perhaps another tomorrow.

Here's the FreeOn. This was a korean handheld we saw at E3 2003, which had cellphone properties to it, but was a dedicated system with bluetooth and a 32bit ARM 7 Core CPU, and actually used carts. It was touted as the 'first bluetooth handheld,' but of course wasn't, as it didn't come out. Here are some things about it, according to, well, me when I wrote it! "The voice recognition device (though called a voice recorder above), allows you to tell the game to do certain things. Like if you want to drop a bomb, say 'bomb', and the game does this. Very curious thing to do with a handheld.

The SDK is free, and games can be downloaded online, though most will come in the rom carts. There's a Virtual Machine in the hardware, though it's not JAVA. It's a proprietary VM, and java games must be ported to it in order to work. Again, a very odd choice. "

We used to have a video of it, I'll have to see if it's still around somewhere. The website for the handheld has long since disappeared, but we had updates on november 27, 2003 and april 4, 2004 showing new hardware revisions. You can find those images here and here via the wayback machine. That last one I linked was basically the final update, and that original link is pretty much the only available english-language account of the thing.

What we saw was an actual playable version, which was a bit uglier than some of the concepts, but at least it worked. I also remember that the president of the company had really bad breath, so I didn't get as much information as I otherwise would have.

Screen Via Comments ...

Fans of Super Mario and of the Rubiks Cube will love this newly released version of the classic 80s puzzler. its retailing for around $20

...

via gamesradar

Last October, during an interview with Newsweek's N'Gai Croal, Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime declared that Wii wouldn't suffer the same, infamous, new game drought that had afflicted previous Ninty consoles. His reasoning was that three giant gaming brands - Zelda, Metroid and Mario - would "continue driving momentum through 2007", and give Wii the support it needed to keep gamers interested.

Back to the present, however, and two of those vital titles are lacking concrete launch dates. Both Metroid Prime 3 and Mario Galaxy - probably the biggest and most anticipated game yet to be released on Wii - look unlikely to appear until Christmas. So with the big hitters out of the action, how exactly does the number of games currently available for Wii compare with the early-doors experience of N64 and GameCube buyers?

Fortunately, Wii is beginning to pick up now, enjoying a more fruitful third month than either previous consoles. Plus a healthy line-up of 17 titles, including SSX Blur, Mario Party 8 and Tiger Woods, is predicted to burst into the shops in March, should each game hit its release date.

But, crucially, only a handful of the games are purpose-built for Wii, employing the console's exciting features - and only a few of those are worth spuffing your cash on. Meanwhile April is looking excruciatingly lean, and there's little hope of a killer game exploding out of nowhere in the coming months.

Wii might not be suffering a severe shortage by Nintendo's previous poor standards, but without the thrills of Mario Galaxy or Metroid Prime 3 to keep that momentum going, a summer videogame drought for Wii is almost certainly on the cards. ...

via gamespot

Regardless of what the name may say, there appears to be no end to the Final Fantasy franchise. The popular series continues to turn out the spin-offs with Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo Tales for the DS. Previously released in Japan under the name Chocobo to Mahou no Ehon, Chocobo Tales will ship to US stores on April 3, Square Enix announced today.

Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo Tales is a collection of minigames, card battles, and some role playing. These elements are bound together by a storyline that involves characters from the series rescuing friends from storybooks that mimic Aesop's Fables.

Chocobo Tales can be played with either standard or stylus-driven touch-screen controls and will occasionally make use of the DS's other features, like the built-in microphone.

Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo Tales is rated E for Everyone and will retail for $29.99. For more information on the game, read GameSpot's recent preview or visit the game's official Web site. ...

via gamespot

Last year a bill proposing gaming regulations in the state of Indiana stalled before it could be voted on by legislators. Lawmakers are trying again, however, as last month state Senators David C. Ford (Republican) and Vi Simpson (Democrat) introduced a bill that would ban the sale of games rated M for Mature or AO for Adults Only to children.

The bill passed its first test this week, as the Senate Committee on Economic Development and Technology (which Ford chairs) voted 5-2 to recommend it be passed by the full Senate. According to an Associated Press article, the committee members were shown a video of objectionable material in games, including characters "urinating on victims and setting them on fire" and "gunning down people in a church." Another clip showed a game that rewarded players' achievements with footage of strippers.

A representative with the Entertainment Software Association argued before the committee that the law was unconstitutional like those struck down in other states, the Associated Press reported. Ford responded by saying he would continue to work on the bill to make it constitutional. ...

via gamesindustry

Consumer gaming website Games Radar has come under fire from Gay.com UK for publishing an article "outing" five game characters.

The article, which is titled 'Are they gay?', begins by noting that God of War's Kratos "'accidentally' killed his wife and daughter. Which probably means he's got a grudge against women. Or something".

It goes on to suggest that Gears of War's Marcus Fenix, Bully's Jimmy Hopkins, Dead Rising's Frank West and Vaan from Final Fantasy XII also "show signs of covert - and not so covert - campness".

Speaking to GamesIndustry.biz Hassan Mirza, news editor for Gay.com, said, "While it's reassuring to know that gamers are interested in the sexual orientation of digital superheroes, Matt Cundy's 'Are they gay?' article relies on a series of juvenile stereotypes and clichés.

"I can't imagine any homophobic intentions, but it can be dangerous to suggest that looking "camp" means gay, or worse, that gay men hold violent grudges against women. It's a completely misinformed suggestion."

Mirza also criticised the part of the article which states: "[Frank West] enjoys dressing in woman's clothes. And children's clothes. Probably not gay per se, but definitely a bit kinky and not one to shy away from carnal 'experimentation'."

According to Mirza, "Cundy's facetious tone, dismissive of an impressionable audience, justifies making jokes about the LGBT community."

The Games Radar article has been featured on gay news site PinkNews.co.uk, which poses the question, "What is the point of "outing" characters? Is this yet another bunch of childish "str8" boys laughing at gay people?"

Speaking to GamesIndustry.biz, online editor Tony Grew said he was not offended by the piece but did question its objectives.

"I didn't really know what to make of it. I know a lot of gay people play games and feel they're under-represented, and it's interesting that the macho world of games is taking this kind of approach," he observed.

"I'm not insulted by it, but I would question what it's trying to achieve. It will be interesting to see what our readers think of it." ...