Tennis is one of those games that's easy to learn, but very hard to master. Incredibly, for the past seven years, Sega has managed to strike the balance between a series that's easily accessible for novice tennis gamers, but deep enough for hardcore tennis fans. The latest installment of the franchise, Virtua Tennis 3, looks like it will uphold this tradition nicely by making its transition to the next generation consoles with striking visuals and a large roster of athletes. We recently got a build of the game into the office and came away with some new impressions.

Unlike the last Virtua Tennis title that came out on the PSP and featured sixteen professional players, Virtua Tennis 3 boosts that number up to 20 of the best athletes and up and coming stars. 13 athletes from the ATP take top billing, such as star players Roger Federer and Andy Roddick, as well as up and coming players like Taylor Dent and Gael Monfils. Seven WTA members step onto the courts as well, with Maria Sharapova, Venus Williams and Martina Hingis amongst the female roster. Gamers aren't limited solely to the 20 professional stars; you have the opportunity to load up customized athletes and put them up against these competitors at any time in Tournament or Exhibition play. Initially, players will have 7 courts available to them, ranging from the red clay of Barcelona to the hard courts of Milan and the revered grass of London. However, you'll be able to unlock additional stadiums as you play your way through the World Tour mode.

What has always been surprising is just how accessible the game is. The formula hasn't really changed since the Dreamcast days, so players can easily jump in and be comfortable with playing either a singles or doubles men's or women's exhibition or tournament match. Regardless of which game mode you choose, the control scheme is still very simple: Players have lob, slice and basic top spin shots, which you can use in combination with the angle of the ball to determine whether you'll hit it with your forehand or backhand. Depending on how long you press the button and whether you're in the right position, you can perform other shots like drop shots or overhead smashes with incredible accuracy. Even better, Virtua Tennis 3 provides a way to get accustomed to these mechanics with engaging mini-games.

There are ten new mini-games within Virtua Tennis 3, as well as two returning classic games. However, unlike previous Virtua Tennis titles, these are broken up into two categories: Court Games and training mini-games. The training mini-games can only be played within the context of the World Tour, and improves your created players stats when it comes to the various skills you need on the court. Court Games, on the other hand, are available at the main menu, but are strictly multiplayer affairs. You can't play a single player game against the computer, which should provide a lot of fun for up to four players to go against each other.

The first two are mild variants on each other. Pin Crusher is essentially bowling on a tennis court, with pins placed on the opposite side of the net. You've got ten frames to get as many spares and strikes as possible. Tricky Pin Crusher, on the other hand, is a bit different because instead of the standard pyramid configuration, the pins arrange themselves in different shapes, which makes it a bit harder to get strikes or pick up spares. Avalanche tests your fast footwork, as you attempt to grab fruits that bounce on the court without getting squashed by larger tennis balls. To test your reflexes, Panic Balloon sets up a number of bubbles on the other side of the court with arrows in them. Whenever the ball makes contact with the bubble, it will ricochet in the direction of the arrow, which will definitely keep you on your toes.

The last three are perhaps the office favorites. Super Bingo provides all players with a bingo card and a scrolling set of numbers. By hitting the tennis balls into various numbers, you claim them for your player and the first person to get four numbers in a line of the card wins. Alien Attack is somewhat similar to Space Invaders, except instead of dodging shots, you're trying to send tennis balls into the machines constantly descending towards the net. Finally, there's Court Curling, which is just like the sport on ice, except on a tennis court. Players can use the oversized tennis balls to propel their stones towards scoring areas, while trying not to send them out of bounds. Definite strategy can be involved when you knock your opponent's stones into yours for points, or try to push their rocks out of bounds. We'll have more on Virtua Tennis soon, but for now, check out these screens and movies.

Screens Here ...

At a panel held during DICE 2007 in Las Vegas, Phil Harrison gave the audience a taste of the upcoming PS3 version of SingStar. The popular karaoke game has earned a powerful facelift for PS3 with an intuitive and, quite frankly, beautiful interface. Sadly, Harrison did not play SingStar, so we didn't get to hear the singing voice that brought Europe to tears. Instead, Harrison demonstrated some of the cool features that gamers can look forward to.

Leveraging Sony's monstrous song library, and including songs from other labels to boot, SingStar offers hundreds of tunes for download from the PlayStation Store and instantly integrates them into SingStar. Each video includes a streamed preview and downloads in the background as you play SingStar. That's right, downloads won't prohibit your ability to use the PS3. Imagine that.

Along with songs, both free and premium wallpapers can be downloaded. Harrison added a lovely image of the ocean at dusk to the background. Animated birds flew at the edge of the horizon for added "oohs" and "ahhs."

The interface itself is slick, colorful and could easily be mistaken as an Apple product. Yes, it looks that good. Graphics heavy, the interface offers quick and easy access to all of SingStar's functionality.

My SingStar, clearly inspired by MySpace, is geared towards community interaction. The dynamic homepage provides the ability to meet gamers with similar music interests, enter weekly contests ("It's Elvis Week!") and upload video performances. Users can also rate and rank other gamers' videos. These features speak to Sony's desire to expand the PS3 to include more community interaction. It looks very promising.

Harrison's demo was brief and didn't delve too deeply into SingStar's offerings. Still, it gave enough of a glimpse to show the potential for greater interactivity in future Sony titles. As for a change to the PS3's Cross Media Bar, that may just be wishful thinking. Harrison told IGN that he liked the current look of the Media Bar very much, but that some improvements were coming soon.

Screen Here ...

Since the disastrous failure of Howard the Duck, the entertainment industry has shied from fowl of all kind. At a Q&A panel at DICE 2007, Sony Worldwide Studios chief Phil Harrison proved that Sony had the stones to take on ducks even if other publishers were still wary. Harrison revealed a new PlayStation Store download title, Super Rub-O-Dub, which he said would be available "in a few weeks."

Using Sixaxis motion control, you manipulate a square wading pool, tilting up, down, left and right to maneuver your mother duck around the stage. She needs to collect the numerous ducklings around the pool, avoiding obstacles and deadly traps. When the mother duck passes a duckling, it follows behind, soon creating a trail of tiny quackers. All of these little ones need to be dropped off at the exit point. While it sounds simple, the trail of ducklings is susceptible to the environment, so the bigger the duck train, the more difficult it becomes to avoid pitfalls and obstructions.

Harrison spoke little about Super Rub-O-Dub, playing a few early levels and offering almost no explanation. However, it appears that as the challenge of later levels increases, it's going to become quite tricky to get all your ducks in a row and move them to safety. While you can take fewer numbers of ducklings to the exit, that also extends how long it takes you to clear a stage.

It's unknown if multiplayer will be included or the exact release date of Super Rub-O-Dub. From the limited demo, it's hard to tell just what to make of the game. It looks to deliver some of the same addictive mixture of joy and frustration as SEGA's Super Monkey Ball.

via ign ...

From the official site

EZTEAM announce the one stop expansion pack solution whch integrated the 256Mbit GBA card/NDS Browser RAM Expansion Pack/NDS Rumble Pack all three cards in to one Lite sized slot2 card with several years experience on flashcard development .

GBA function: it equipped with 256Mbit Norflash, 2Mbit SRAM, Battery. so it can compatible with almost GBA game(except which needs special hardware). and it has three advantages to compare with SDRAM/PSRAM GBA solution.
1. the data still remain after power off.
2. can be used as a standalone GBA card.
3. perfect GBA/NDS linker

Browser RAM expansion function: it uses the highspeed ram cache as the offical one. perfect compatible with NDS Browser(JAP/EUR)

Rumble function: Perfect works with all official rumble enabled games. it also has three level vibration strenth adjust. now you can adjust between power consume and better game feeling by yourself. SDK also provide for third party developers. ...

Not really breaking news or anything, I just found it rather odd but in the latest issue of the Official Xbox Magazine for March of 2007, the editors have replaced their normal mugs with their Mii counterparts. It took me about 3 double takes to fully realize what was going on, reading an Xbox magazine with Mii’s inside of it. There is a very tiny blurb at the bottom of the page with a minor explanation as to what is going on:

“We like our Wii-generated Mii portraits so much,we thought we’d run them two issues in a row. Next month, we’ll go back to our ever-familiar photos.”

The whole thing is just.. odd.

Screens Via Comments
via wiiexperaince ...

Vixen posted a way of identifying what Wii you have for those worried about modchip compatability

Heres goes:

...

Heres the press release:

Xploder launches Cheat Saves with Movie Player & Media Manager for Nintendo Wii: Transform your Wii into the ultimate multi-media entertainment system. Includes Virtual Console Game Management functions.

Cheats Always Prosper! Access cheatsaves for the very latest Wii titles - Would a little extra Zelda help be useful? Or maybe you want to get past that difficult stage on Call of Duty 3? - by accessing the extensive Xploder database you can get the latest cheats for these games and many more.

Going Retro? We’ve raided our archives to bring you access to our extensive collection of NES, SNES and N64 cheats, so once spent your hard-earned Wii Points downloading those retro classics from the Virtual Console you can give yourself an unfair advantage in these games too! You can also use the application to back-up Virtual Console games to your PC via an SD card.

Join the Community! Once you’ve cracked your favourite game, you can add your best Wii, N64, SNES and NES gamesaves to the Xploder Community Database and share them with others!

It’s Movie Night! Home movies and many other movie file types (including DVD VOB*, MKV, Xvid, DivX, MPEG 1 & 2, M1P, M2P, MP4, TS, WMV, ASF, and AVI) can be converted to MJPEG and transferred to SD for Wii playback.

Go Go Slideshow! Manage your JPEG photo and image files to create fantastic slideshows on your Wii!

Add Some Tunes! Convert CDs to MP3 with auto album, artist and track naming and add them to your Wii slideshows.

Xploder Cheat Saves for Nintendo Wii - Everything you need to get the most from the Nintendo Wii - available for just £19.99 from leading retailers from March 1st 2007. ...

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