Via CVG

Can tilting the Wii Remote provide an immersive driving experience or do we need an official Nintendo racing wheel?

The movement-sensitive Wii Remote provides developers with untold gameplay possibilities, not least the opportunity to form a makeshift wheel using its tilt-sensing functionality.

Quick to exploit this gameplay mechanic, Nintendo's Excite Truck and Ubisoft's two racers, Monster Trucks and GT Pro Series, all have players holding the controller on its side, tilting it left and right to steer the vehicles round the course.

CVG has played both Excite Truck and Mosnter Trucks, paying particular focus on how well this new control style works. The first and most important thing to note is that the technology itself works fine, both games picking up our movements with the greatest of accuracy and making for a solid gameplay experience.

Although Excite Truck made us, and many forum goers, concerned that this control system might be a little too loose, there were numerous gameplay videos revealing journalists, who you'd assume to be seasoned gamers, driving like they had their eyes shut.

But with Nintendo promising to give players a sensitivity option, and after a recent hands-on with Monster Trucks, which was far easier to control than Excite Truck, we have every confidence that the Wii controller forms a perfectly functional steering wheel.

The problem? There are two: the Wii controller isn't shaped anything like a steering wheel, and it's not locked to a central pivot point, like a normal wheel. The first problem has a negative effect on the illusion of it all - how can you feel like your driving a big truck when the 'wheel' in your hand is just a little white stick. It's nothing like the steering wheels on arcade machines, or even as visceral as the PS2 steering wheel with force-feedback.

Ubisoft's answer is a plastic wheel attachment in which you slot the Wii Remote to recreate the feeling of a wheel. It doesn't contain any technical parts - it's simple a plastic shell that the Remote fits into. Yes, this solves the first issue, and in a recent playtest, we found Ubi's attachment to be very comfy indeed, and getting it free with every copy of Monster Trucks and GT Pro Series makes it an even more attractive proposition. It will also work with Excite Truck, and any future driving game of the same control style because, as we explained, it's simply a frame in which to hold the Wii Remote, not a technical component.

But that doesn't solve issues of the wheel lacking a central pivot. Without this pivot your hands have no externally enforced stability. You might say that, with your hands simply left to float on their own as you viciously tilt the Remote left and right, this is a further compromise of the visceral feeling you should get from a steering wheel.

The obvious solution would be for a publisher or third-party peripheral manufacturer to create a wheel frame similar to Ubisoft's, but with a brace attachment that locks it to a table top or sits between your legs while in a seated position.

This would provide the perfect central pivot, but then problems of compatibility arise with games like Monster Trucks, which has you physically moving the controller in circular motions to perform stunts. If the wheel is locked to a pivot, these movements wouldn't be possible, rendering the game unplayable.

We think a detachable wheel would be the ultimate solution - giving gamers the option to attach the wheel for a locked, pivotal experience when compatible with the game they wish to play, and releasing the wheel to play more physically demanding games like Monster Trucks.

On the other hand, players who intend simply to use the Wii Remote alone to throw their Wii-racers around courses can expect responsive control, and even despite the controller's size and shape, it surely enhances the illusion further than an analogue stick ever could - which is the whole point of the Wii.

But what really matters, though, is YOUR opinion, so get yourself into the comments section and throw down your thoughts, opinions, ideas and idealistic driving game fantasies. And check back next week for a full hands-on preview of Ubisoft's Monster Trucks. ...

Swing your mouse pointer downwards to check out six sunny new shots of Jack Carver unleashing his feral abilities in Far Cry Vengeance on Wii.

Graphically, we can't see any improvements over the Far Cry Instinct Evolution on Xbox, but we're looking forward to seeing if Ubisoft has used the Wii controller to sharpen up the relatively loose controls of the Xbox game.

Far Cry Vengeance is one of eight Ubisoft titles due to launch aside the Wii on December 8. Eight games - crikey, they've been busy.

Screens At CVG ...

November is looking like a busy month for 360 shooter fans. The carnage kicks off on Xbox 360 first on November 10, with Gears Of War and Rainbow 6: Vegas following only weeks later.

The PS2 version is due on November 24 and World War Wii launches on December 1, a week before Nintendo's next-gen system goes in sale in Europe. The PS3 version is currently set for next March.

Interestingly there's a distinct lack of ANY release date for the Xbox version, which was seen up and running only a few weeks ago at an Activision event in Paris.

We know that because we were there. We've put a call into Activision to see it the Xbox version has been quietly canned, but no one was available to comment. ...

From midnight Pacific Time on Tuesday October 17 for up to 24 hours, or from around 8.00am or 9.00am Tuesday morning our time, depending on where in Europe you're hiding, Microsoft will flick the 'off' switch for XBL for up to 24 hours.

Why? "Because we're adding some cool stuff. And we have to take the service and xbox.com offline in order to do it," says Microsoft although it won't tell us what, apart from the fact that it's not a Dashboard update.

The planned downtime should last no longer than 24 hours, all going well... ...

Hot on the heels of the recently opened Xbox Live beta, Sega sends us a handful of Phantasy Star Universe images.

It took ages to connect but we managed to begin our beta adventure at the weekend. We got to shoot monsters, pick up items we're not strong enough to use and pull some funny poses in front of a futuristic fountain. So far, so good then.

These new shots undoubtedly make the game look more exciting that what we've got up to thus far, but we'll keep plugging away and bring you a hands-on preview as soon as we've got something interesting to talk about.

PSU will be out on 360 next month for PC, PS2 and 360.

Screens Here ...

Via CVG

Speaking in an DS Lite Retail Guide that recently came bundled with trade weekly MCV, Nintendo handheld product manager James Honeywell spoke about how DS sales compare with PSP.

"Up until the end of last year sale between the two formats were fairly evenly matched, with DS slightly outselling PSP," he said. "Since the beginning of the year, with our stellar line-up of releases, we have pushed our sales through the roof. Then with the fantastic launch of DS Lite in June we have begun to pull further and further away.

"Right now, with the combination of DS and DS Lite we are outselling the competition by a ratio of 3:1. This increase in hardware sales has also driven an increase in DS software sales, moving ahead of PSP in the total number of units and also, more interestingly, we have now seen that the same third party titles are selling more on the DS than on other formats.

We are seeing publishers start to rethink their strategies switching development from other formats to the successful DS platform and, more importantly, creating bespoke titles that fully utilise the DS features rather than simply porting content without taking advantage of the great things you can do on DS."

We're loving the DS at the moment and are already beginning to lose sleep over the huge anticipation for The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass! ...

As disclosed last week, the latest Rainbow Six is to use the Xbox 360 Vision Camera to put YOUR face into the game. Now we've got screens showing exactly how it works.

The N64 edition of Perfect Dark originally had a similar feature lined up, using the Game Boy Camera to stick a player's mugs onto virtual combatants, but it was eventually canned because of Daily Mail-enduced controversy.

But as you can see Rainbow Six's face tech is a bit more advanced than the Game Boy's black and white snaps, and we're very much looking forward to putting our arses onto the Rainbow teams' faces and shooting-up some terrorist scum.

All going well, Rainbow Six: Vegas will be in shops on November 24, with a demo also planned for Xbox Live next week.

Screens at CVG ...

Offering the usual 200 points Arcade games wield, most of Lumines Live's achievements are focused on the Time Attack mode, requiring hefty block scores to unlock. Frankly with our ninja Lumines skills, we reckon it'll take us a couple of hours tops to unlock the lot (we're a modest lot, us).

The list in its entirety is as follows:

20 points: Clear "Base" - Clear one round of Challenge Mode "Base"

20 points: 20K - Play Challenge Mode "Base" and score 20,000 points

10 points: Time Attack 60sec: 30 blocks - Play Time Attack Mode 60sec. and erase 30 blocks

10 points: Time Attack 180sec: 90 blocks - Play Time Attack Mode 180sec. and erase 90 blocks

10 points: Time Attack 300sec: 150 blocks - Play Time Attack Mode 300sec. and erase 150 blocks

10 points: Time Attack 600sec: 300 blocks - Play Time Attack Mode 600sec. and erase 300 blocks

20 points: Time Attack 60sec: 70 blocks - Play Time Attack Mode 60sec. and erase 70 blocks

20 points: Time Attack 180sec: 200 blocks - Play Time Attack Mode 180sec. and erase 200 blocks

20 points: Time Attack 300sec: 300 blocks - Play Time Attack Mode 300sec. and erase 300 blocks

20 points: Time Attack 600sec: 600 blocks - Play Time Attack Mode 600sec. and erase 600 blocks

20 points: Half Million - Play Challenge Mode and score 500,000 points

20 points: Single Lap Quarter Million - Play a Single Lap of the Skin Edit Mode and score 250,000 points

There's currently no solid release date for the Live Arcade version of Lumines, but be sure we'll let you know as soon as possible. ...

The arch-nemesis of CVG's social life has arrived on Xbox Live Marketplace; a demo of Sam Fisher's latest terrorist-busting, Splinter Cell: Double Agent, which has had us sitting in the dark shouting obscenities at the telly for most of the weekend.

The demo ways in at a hefty 702MB and lets you sample the excellent multiplayer section of Double Agent, which in case you missed previous Clancy stealth offerings, has you playing as either a spy or mercenary in a game of hide a seek - with guns.

This time around teams are expanded to three a piece, and spies have fancy new hacking gadgets that they can use to break glass and steal computer data.

As for the full game, according to Ubisoft's release schedule you can find that in shops on October 27. ...