DJ Shadow reckons the amount of freedom DJ Hero offers players over licensed music will "raise some eyebrows" this autumn.

"I don't think a lot of the people that made some of the music we're involved with have ever allowed their music to be so freely messed with, you know what I mean? And I think that this game - I definitely think it will raise some eyebrows on that level," DJ Shadow told Game Informer.

DJ Hero is in development for PS2, PS3, Wii and Xbox 360. And, like Guitar Hero, the game comes with its very own peripheral - a plastic turntable.

We've not see the device in action, but DJ Shadow said any eight year-old kid will be perfectly happy with it.

"Well to me the best way to answer that would be, 'Would this make some eight year old kid who got it for Christmas want to try the real thing?' And I think in that respect the answer is yes," said DJ Shadow.

"Because, you know, it's not the real thing, obviously - but to me when I played it, the first couple of times I was kind of like sensory overload trying to figure out, 'Wow, OK, so this does this and that does that.'

"I mean I've heard people say that with Guitar Hero it's the same thing, like just because you're virtuoso, just because you're Joe Satriani doesn't mean that you're going to be able to kick right into Guitar Hero and be an incredible game player. It's the same with DJ Hero, it takes practice to kind of not look like an idiot," he added.

DJ Shadow lent not only his name and likeness to the project, but also his opinion, which he described as a "bulls***-proof radar". That entailed suggesting the music and mixes to use, as well as checking various samples had been cleared. He's been quite hands-on, apparently.

As for gameplay, players will have to simulate what's being heard with two records and sample track, he said. But don't expect lots of previously unheard DJ Shadow music, as Activision caught him at a time when he didn't have "a lot of new material sitting around".

"So there isn't going to be any of my new stuff in the game, at least not in the first version, maybe in a subsequent version or in download form or something like that," he said.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/dj...raise-eyebrows ...

DJ Shadow reckons the amount of freedom DJ Hero offers players over licensed music will "raise some eyebrows" this autumn.

"I don't think a lot of the people that made some of the music we're involved with have ever allowed their music to be so freely messed with, you know what I mean? And I think that this game - I definitely think it will raise some eyebrows on that level," DJ Shadow told Game Informer.

DJ Hero is in development for PS2, PS3, Wii and Xbox 360. And, like Guitar Hero, the game comes with its very own peripheral - a plastic turntable.

We've not see the device in action, but DJ Shadow said any eight year-old kid will be perfectly happy with it.

"Well to me the best way to answer that would be, 'Would this make some eight year old kid who got it for Christmas want to try the real thing?' And I think in that respect the answer is yes," said DJ Shadow.

"Because, you know, it's not the real thing, obviously - but to me when I played it, the first couple of times I was kind of like sensory overload trying to figure out, 'Wow, OK, so this does this and that does that.'

"I mean I've heard people say that with Guitar Hero it's the same thing, like just because you're virtuoso, just because you're Joe Satriani doesn't mean that you're going to be able to kick right into Guitar Hero and be an incredible game player. It's the same with DJ Hero, it takes practice to kind of not look like an idiot," he added.

DJ Shadow lent not only his name and likeness to the project, but also his opinion, which he described as a "bulls***-proof radar". That entailed suggesting the music and mixes to use, as well as checking various samples had been cleared. He's been quite hands-on, apparently.

As for gameplay, players will have to simulate what's being heard with two records and sample track, he said. But don't expect lots of previously unheard DJ Shadow music, as Activision caught him at a time when he didn't have "a lot of new material sitting around".

"So there isn't going to be any of my new stuff in the game, at least not in the first version, maybe in a subsequent version or in download form or something like that," he said.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/dj...raise-eyebrows ...

EA, MTV and Harmonix have unveiled the list of songs included in Rock Band Unplugged, which launches on PSP on 19th June.

The tracks go as far back as The Who in the 1960s, and right up to present-day headbangers System of a Down. We like "Carry on Wayward Son" by Kansas and "My Own Worst Enemy" by Lit. We don't like Weezer.

Rock Band Unplugged features an in-game DLC store, too, where players can download extra tracks via PC. There will be 10 tracks available at launch, including "Under the Bridge" by Red Hot Chili Peppers.

In Rock Band Unplugged, players match the music by fingering the face buttons, and switch instruments - guitar, bass, vocals, drums - mid-song by whacking the shoulder buttons. Don't worry; instruments play themselves for a short while after a successful sequence.

Here's the tracklist in full:

2000s

AFI - "Miss Murder"
All-American Rejects - "Move Along"
Audioslave - "Gasoline"
Black Tide - "Show Me the Way"
Freezepop - "Less Talk More Rokk"
Jimmy Eat World - "The Middle"
The Killers - "Mr. Brightside"
Lacuna Coil - "Our Truth"
Lamb of God - "Laid to Rest"
Modest Mouse - "Float On"
Queens of the Stone Age - "3's and 7's"
System of a Down - "Chop Suey!"
Tenacious D - "Rock Your Socks"
1990s

3 Doors Down - "Kryptonite"
Alice in Chains - "Would?"
Blink 182 - "What's My Age Again"
Foo Fighters - "Everlong"
Judas Priest - "Painkiller"
Lit - "My Own Worst Enemy"
Lush - "De-Luxe"
Mighty Mighty Bosstones - "Where'd You Go?"
Nine Inch Nails - "The Perfect Drug"
Nirvana - "Drain You"
The Offspring - "Come Out and Play (Keep 'em Separated)"
Pearl Jam - "Alive"
Smashing Pumpkins - "Today"
Social Distortion - "I Was Wrong"
Soundgarden - "Spoonman"
Weezer - "Buddy Holly"
1980s

Billy Idol - "White Wedding Part 1"
Bon Jovi - "Livin' on a Prayer"
Dead Kennedys - "Holiday in Cambodia"
Motörhead - "Ace of Spades"
The Police - "Message in a Bottle"
Siouxsie & the Banshees - "The Killing Jar"
1970s

Boston - "More Than a Feeling"
Jackson 5 - "ABC"
Jethro Tull - "Aqualung"
Kansas - "Carry on Wayward Son
Rush - "The Trees"
1960s

The Who - "Pinball Wizard"
Downloadable songs (available from 9th June)

30 Seconds to Mars - "The Kill"
Belly - "Feed the Tree"
Disturbed - "Inside the Fire"
Lynyrd Skynyrd - "Gimme Three Steps"
Muse - "Hysteria"
Mute Math - "Typical"
No Doubt - "Just a Girl"
Oasis - "Wonderwall"
Paramore - "Crushcrushcrush"
Red Hot Chili Peppers - "Under the Bridge"

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/ro...d-songs-listed ...

Square Enix has unveiled a DSiWare game called Dragon Quest Wars. It costs 500 Nintendo Points (roughly GBP 3.50 / EUR 5) and is due out across Japan in June.

Western plans are "TBC", a spokesperson for the publisher told Eurogamer.

DQ Wars is a two-player board game by Fire Emblem developer Intelligent System. Cartoon characters from the Dragon Quest series become the pieces and the game will be "easy to learn, difficult to master", according to 4Gamer (translated by Joystiq).

DQ Wars will be playable over Wi-Fi with friends, too.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/sq...gon-quest-wars ...

Booboo has posted a new video of Linux running on the Dingoo a320 and is said to be releasing on google code his work soon, great news for the emerging a320 scene.

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Nintendo's Wii Fit is still the best-selling game in the UK, holding the position for the seventh consecutive week and notching up 16 weeks at number one since release.

Sales across the majority of the top ten were down on last week, in a quiet period where only one title – Eidos' Battlestations: Pacific – scraped the top ten.

Wii Fit sales were down 26 per cent, number two title FIFA 09 saw a dip of 13 per cent and X-Men Origins: Wolverine is at number three with a 42 per cent drop in sales.

The top ten All Formats chart supplied by GfK Chart-Track follow:

01 Wii Fit
02 FIFA 09
03 X-Men Origins: Wolverine
04 Call of Duty: World at War
05 Mario Kart Wii
06 Resident Evil 5
07 Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games
08 Professor Layton and the Curious Village
09 Wii Play
10 Battlestations: Pacific

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...iet-sales-week ...

Fallout and Oblivion publisher Bethesda has told GamesIndustry.biz that it plans to target the market for mature games on Nintendo's Wii, with at least one big release to be announced later this year.

Sega has already targeted the Wii with two 18-rated titles – MadWorld and House of the Dead: Overkill – with rival Electronic Arts also hoping to carve an adult niche on the home console with a squeaky-clean reputation.

"We are going to make an announcement on a really big Wii game this year, we've got a couple of other things in the pipeline, and it's a format we're really looking at with the right approach," revealed Sean Brennan, managing director for Bethesda in Europe, in an exclusive interview published today.

"I've got consoles at home but I wouldn't sit and play an 18-rated game with my family on the Wii," he said. "Is there space in the Wii market for that? I think there is, but again, it's all about finding out how big that is. Is it 5 per cent? If it's five per cent of the market and you can own that space it's worth doing because you can achieve volume. If you can't own it at five per cent, it's not worth doing, quite frankly," he added.

Brennan said that the company isn't going to announce a dedicated label for the Wii as some of its rivals have, and it isn't about to churn out sugar-sweet titles for the tween market.

"We're not going to establish a new range and call it 'My Girly Game Range' or whatever these other companies are doing, it's so me-too and boring.

"Looking at the opportunities in the Nintendo space is interesting for us because it's more driven by getting the right product for the demographic and also the right quality. We're not going to do a hamster simulator, it's not us. We're not going to produce games for girls or pet-sim products. There's nothing to distinguish them from one another," he said.

Sega's success with MadWorld – which only entered the charts at 34 on its first week of release – and House of the Dead: Overkill, has been marginal on a console considered to be family-friendly and awash with casual titles.

As well as Bethesda, Electronic Arts has its eyes set on capturing a more mature audience on the Wii, with the company's Glen Schofield confident the upcoming release of Dead Space: Extraction can sell well even if it only gels with a small percentage of the 50 million installed base.

Bethesda also sees the opportunity with a console that is leaving its home rivals behind. Only a handful of publishers are really making a success in the Wii's casual market, and Brennan believes that the idea of establishing a mature business on the machine isn't just the latest bandwagon.

"We have huge respect for the Nintendo platforms, and from a marketing perspective globally they've been phenomenal. It would be churlish to ignore that space," he admitted.

"It was a problem with the DS space as well, because as soon as you spot the bandwagon, it's already too late. People don't get that. There are still some people jumping on the bandwagon but it's not within our business philosophy."

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...ure-wii-market ...

Eidos has released another wicked video of its bound-to-be-brilliant Batman game, Arkham Asylum. This one's about the combat.

We recently had a chance to go hands-on with the game; click here to see why we think it might just turn out to be the best Batman game ever. Which isn't hard, to be fair.

http://www.computerandvideogames.com....php?id=215256 ...

Eidos has released another wicked video of its bound-to-be-brilliant Batman game, Arkham Asylum. This one's about the combat.

We recently had a chance to go hands-on with the game; click here to see why we think it might just turn out to be the best Batman game ever. Which isn't hard, to be fair.

http://www.computerandvideogames.com....php?id=215256 ...