via Computer and Video Games


WiiConnect24, a system built into Wii to keep the console constantly connected to the internet when on standby, is reported to be causing consoles to develop faults.

A number of disgruntled gamers are hitting internet forums saying their consoles have broken after being left on standby with WiiConnect24 enabled for long periods of time.

Although Nintendo says the console only consumes a tiny amount of power when in WiiConnect24 mode, supposedly comparable to a small light bulb, the console gets very hot - far hotter than when the console is on and being played - because the internal fans are deactivated in WC24 mode.

is suggested that this heat is cooking the main CPU, causing it to become faulty.

Nintendo has told CVG: "we've had no reports in the UK of anything like this happening," and advises users to contact the Nintendo Service Centre for further advice on 0870 60 60247 should a fault occur.

In the meantime, if you're worried about your Wii burning up, just deactivate WC24 - it's proved to be a non-essestial feature so far anyway. ...

via Computer and Video Games


PS3 outsold 360 last week in North America, following the $100 price-drop on the 60GB version.

According to stats collected on vgchartz.com, 41,005 PS3 consoles were sold in the week ending July 14, compared to 360's 35,084 sales.

Wii, meanwhile, still dominated the pack with 76,394 sales.

On Monday last week Sony cut the price of the 60GB PS3 down to $499 in the US, while confirming the release of an 80GB version in August.

The drop seems to have made an impression on sales, but will it last? Sony confirmed to CVG that the 60GB console will be phased out in favour of the $600, 80GB version after July. We'll see what happens then... ...

via Eurogamer


The demo for Heavenly Sword is finished and waiting on Sony for a PlayStation Network release date.

News comes from developer Ninja Theory's forum, where studio co-founder Mike Ball told fans that work on it had finally been completed.

"Well, let me just tell you all that the dev team has finished work on the demo," he said. "That's it, it's in the bag."

"So now it's a case of Sony deciding when they feel is the best time to release it to PlayStation Network."

Heavenly Sword is one of the biggest titles on PS3 this year, and was on show last week in Santa Monica at E3 2007.

It's a third-person action game with God of War-like combat and what is promised to be an emotional and cinematic story - directed and voiced by Andy "Gollum" Serkis. It's even got brain-box WETA involved, the visual effects studio made famous by its work on Peter Jackson's Lord of The Rings.

We recently had a chin-wag with one of the other co-founders and designer at Ninja Theory, Tameem Antoniades. Head over to our Heavenly Sword interview to see what he had to say.

Unfortunately Sony was unavailable to comment at the time of writing. ...

via Eurogamer


Halo 3's Saved Film feature received glowing reports at E3 last week, but just you wait for Bizarre Creations' PGR On Demand service - a database with the potential to store every race ever played out in PGR4.

That's "every race in the game ever" in the words of Bizarre's Craig Howard, demoing to Eurogamer at E3 last week. "You can be in a world cup tournament - it gives you a nationality, so you can go and prove that you're the best American racer or whatever. And you can watch the whole world cup. If you get knocked out, you can watch the people who beat you, and watch all their races too. It's just all there. We're trying to create a base for all racing enthusiasts."

You can watch every race that's ever taken place in the game? "Yep." Right. "It's not our server," says biz director Brian Woodhouse, with a grin.

"When you get to the end of a race," Howard explains, "you can choose not to upload it, if you really want to." Right, so it's opt-out. But who would? Especially if the file-sizes are kept to a minimum, which - given the volumes they're talking about - you'd have to say they will be. "You're not uploading an actual AVI," Howard confirms.

"Plus you can use keywords like 'crash' or 'slide' or 'Macau', if you want to," he says, "so when people do a search they can find you. You can rate them too - 'that's a wicked crash' etc."

It's all part of PGR On Demand, mentioned during last week's Microsoft E3 conference, which will also allow you to share photos ala Forza Motorsport 2 and Halo 3. The online video-sharing stuff is quickly becoming a must-have feature for Xbox 360 games, having first - to our memory at least - appeared in the 360 port of Burnout Revenge. ...

via Eurogamer


Do you have an Xbox 360? Do you like racing around in cars? Then you've come to the right place! Well, you've come to a news item talking about the right place. Because the right place is Xbox Live Marketplace, where demos of Juiced 2: Hot Import Nights and FlatOut: Ultimate Carnage await.

Juiced 2's the bigger at 1.3GB, while FlatOut's ready to gobble up 750MB. The former's down for release in mid-September, aiming to build on the mod-heavy racing trends of the first game with lots of racing, drifting and betting (the first game allowed you to "pimp out" your car and then wager it in races). FlatOut, meanwhile, is already available, with its particular brand of Burnout-baiting action winning plaudits.

Elsewhere, Xbox Live watcher (and director of programming) Mr Major Nelson reports that our German friends can enjoy a special localised Blacksite teaser trailer, where all the aliens are all replaced by Care Bears and the big spaghetti octopus thing on the bridge is a flannel with a kitten on it. For all that and the truth, be German and download it. ...

via Eurogamer


Eidos has popped the kaleidoscope to one side and revealed a new psychedelic puzzler for Live Arcade.

Dubbed GEON: emotions, your task is to roll a cube around a very colourful grid-based course gobbling up as many "E-mote" pellets as you can - a bit like Pac-Man after "using some drugs".

Each controllable block represents a different emotion, and apparently you'll be able to use the strengths of each to your advantage - although admittedly we don't have a clue how.

You'll be able to play on your own in Time Attack and Mini-Game modes, or with up to four of your friends in Duel, Team Geon and Last Man Standing modes.

"GEON: emotions is our first title for Xbox Live Arcade and we're really proud of it," said Simon Protheroe, new media and IT director at Eidos.

"It's the perfect mix of fun, action and head-to-head competition which works so well on Live Arcade."

Strawdog Studios is the team behind the game, and is aiming for a release this summer. But unfortunately Eidos was unavailable to tell us exactly when or how much it will cost.


Screenshots
Trailer ...

via Eurogamer


Bungie appears to be playing down expectations of online co-operative Halo 3. Much as they'd like to do it, Frank O'Connor has reportedly told Electronic Gaming Monthly that they won't sacrifice quality for a bullet-point on the box.

"We're not dumb. We know that people want it and we're trying to make it happen," O'Connor said in comments allegedly reproduced from the June issue of the US mag. "I think the biggest problem for us for online co-op is that we have a situation where you can be in a Warthog with five troops, almost a mile away from the other player.

"That's a significant challenge. And there's lots of design things you could do to prevent that from happening, but they would make it not feel like Halo any more. If we can make it happen in a way that works well, we will - and if it works badly, we won't."

Bear in mind that we've not seen EGM ourselves, but write-ups of the feature cite previous unsourced claims that Bungie could try to add it as downloadable content following the game's 26th September release.

Not that any of this will jeopardise the two-player LAN/split-screen co-operative, while O'Connor himself was at E3 last week stoking rumours of four-player co-op with "wouldn't that be cool?" style responses to questions on the subject during Halo 3 presentations. ...

via Eurogamer


Silicon Knights' Denis Dyack says the company didn't bring Too Human to E3 because it's too busy finishing the game.

The decision was made a while ago, apparently. "The reason for this decision was that we have another event planned in the future for Too Human that we thought would be more appropriate," Dyack told GameDaily BIZ.

Not that anyone could have blamed SK for staying away after all the negative publicity that its last E3 demo attracted.

But it really would have been there, said Dyack, were it not for the other event on the horizon - "as the game is coming along very well and we are excited for everyone to see it".

The other reason we didn't see it might simply have been one of release dates. Microsoft made a point of saying everything at its press conference (except for Resident Evil 5) would be released this year.

Speaking to Eurogamer afterwards about prospects for 2008, outgoing corporate vice president of interactive entertainment Peter Moore identified "Too Human, Alan Wake, Halo Wars, Fable 2, Banjo Kazooie" as five titles "that I think about for 2008". ...

via Eurogamer


A 16 year-old lad from Norfolk who bought a PlayStation 2 on eBay ended up receiving GBP 44,000.

He paid 95 quid for the console that arrived without two of the promised games, but was soon cheered up to find an enormous lump of EUR 65,400 in the box, according to the BBC.

Spoilsport parents soon intervened and phoned the Police, who are now holding the cash while they investigate its origins. Should the matter remain unsolved the boy's family could potentially reclaim the money through the Police Property Act.

Mysterious seller "Sony" couldn't be tracked down, but sales in PlayStation 2 consoles on eBay have since gone through the roof. Ah, if only. ...