press release:

Enabling race drivers to create their own championship circuits, Codemasters today announces Race Driver: Create & Race, an original title in the exhilarating motorsport series, coming exclusively to Nintendo DS this summer.

Race Driver: Create & Race has been designed from the ground up for Nintendo DS and lets players thrash the most formidable sports cars through closely-fought races on the world’s most prestigious circuits… and then lets players create their very own circuits with a full track construction kit.

Using the Nintendo DS stylus, the game’s track editor lets players select and place race track elements, such as hairpin corners, long straights and chicanes, to design unique circuits. Once all the pieces are placed to perfection, players can take to their track and experience exactly what it’s like in aggressive multiple car races.

In addition to the track editor, the game features 32 real-world circuits – from Silverstone and the Nurburgring to Bathurst – and 25 officially licensed race cars, including the Koenig GT, the AMG Mercedes C Klasse DTM, and the Chevrolet Silverado Truck.

Making use of the Nintendo DS Wi-Fi connection capabilities, players can challenge others to races on the game’s official tracks as well as the circuits of their creation. Race Driver: Create & Race also enables up to four players to go head-to-head in races gamesharing from only one cartridge. Further championships and cars can be unlocked from the World Tour Mode and then raced in realtime online and ad hoc multiplayer modes.

Prepare to get creative with chicanes and more as Race Driver: Create & Race charges out of the pits exclusively for the Nintendo DS this summer. Check out what’s under the hood at www.codemasters.com/createandrace.

Download Screens Via Comments ...

press release:

Enabling race drivers to create their own championship circuits, Codemasters today announces Race Driver: Create & Race, an original title in the exhilarating motorsport series, coming exclusively to Nintendo DS this summer.

Race Driver: Create & Race has been designed from the ground up for Nintendo DS and lets players thrash the most formidable sports cars through closely-fought races on the world’s most prestigious circuits… and then lets players create their very own circuits with a full track construction kit.

Using the Nintendo DS stylus, the game’s track editor lets players select and place race track elements, such as hairpin corners, long straights and chicanes, to design unique circuits. Once all the pieces are placed to perfection, players can take to their track and experience exactly what it’s like in aggressive multiple car races.

In addition to the track editor, the game features 32 real-world circuits – from Silverstone and the Nurburgring to Bathurst – and 25 officially licensed race cars, including the Koenig GT, the AMG Mercedes C Klasse DTM, and the Chevrolet Silverado Truck.

Making use of the Nintendo DS Wi-Fi connection capabilities, players can challenge others to races on the game’s official tracks as well as the circuits of their creation. Race Driver: Create & Race also enables up to four players to go head-to-head in races gamesharing from only one cartridge. Further championships and cars can be unlocked from the World Tour Mode and then raced in realtime online and ad hoc multiplayer modes.

Prepare to get creative with chicanes and more as Race Driver: Create & Race charges out of the pits exclusively for the Nintendo DS this summer. Check out what’s under the hood at www.codemasters.com/createandrace.

Download Screens Via Comments ...

via Spong

With all the next-gen news of late (and flurries of name calling based on leaked stats, manipulated figures and plain nonsense) the phrase “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics”†, appears to be more on the mark than ever.

But sometimes statistics can throw up some truly intriguing information. The ‘Many Eyes’ project’s findings regarding average game review scores for last-gen systems including Xbox, PS2, GameCube and Dreamcast, present one of these moments.

According to its ‘visualisation’ (pictured right), which is based on data from the Metacritic review-score site, both the Xbox and the PlayStation 2 are beaten by GameCube and Dreamcast in terms of games receiving the highest-scores.

Very little other information, aside from the raw data is given. So, for example, we don’t know over what period the information derives from (although Metacritic began business in 1999). However, what it does tell us (or in this case show us) is the following:

Of games rated between 97-100 points (from 100), the Dreamcast caught three while the Xbox and PS2 attracted two and one respectively. At the lower end of the scale, games that rated at less than 29 points appeared five times on the PS2, six times on the Xbox, twice on the GameCube; no Dreamcast games rated that low-down.

The number of review ratings used by the data in total is 2,913. This breaks down as follows:

PS2 – 1,417
Xbox – 854
GameCube – 500
Dreamcast - 142

What is also made clear by the stats is that the media likes to be 'nice', with the bulk of the review scores (2,077) appearing between the 57 to 84 point range.

The Many Eyes project is part of the part of IBM's Collaborative User Experience research group – and there’s a vague chance that you could take it seriously. However, the more you drill into the stats, the more questions need to be asked, including: with more than 2,500 PS2 games released in Europe, why only 1,147 reviews in this sample? Why so few Dreamcast games - 142? Which sites did Metacritic use?

So, once again, while looking over the lovely graph, bear in mind that stats are only as good as the information supporting them. ...

- read\extract IP.BINs and extract MR logos from CD-ROMs (low density GD-ROM also supported)
- bugfix: extracting a MR from a non-supported CD image format; sector size selector
- implemeneted save as (finally)

http://dchelp.dcemulation.com/?IP.BIN_Writer ...

You've read about the first ten minutes of the game, have undoubtedly seen countless videos, and now it's time to get into the real meat of Pokemon Diamond and Pearl. Our weekend was filled with battles and adventure (after all, we want to be the very best, like no one ever was) and as we're now more than 15 hours into the DS sequel we've got plenty to share.

Pokemon Diamond and Pearl follow the adventures of an unnamed soon-to-be champion (that's you) as he/she trek through the land of Sinnoh. It's a new world with new species, but for Pokemon veterans it's going to look very similar to any of the other locals from previous games. The goal is to capture as many pocket monsters as you can, raising them to do friendly-but-deadly battle with other Pokemon, and collect badges from Pokemon Gyms across the lands. Along the way you'll battle rivals, thwart the plans of the new "Team Galactic", and capture and raise your army of critters in hopes of becoming the greatest Pokemon master the world has ever seen. Epic, huh?

From the get-go, Diamond and Pearl play out very similar to their predecessors. You'll select a name for yourself and your rival, eventually select a starter Pokemon (through a crazy series of events this time), and be on your way through the world of Sinnoh. Per usual a player can carry up to six Pokemon with them as a team, and all other Pokemon captured will be blasted to a storage computer for later use. Any monster that battles gains experience, and can eventually learn new techniques and evolve into stronger Pokemon.

Full Article ...

You've read about the first ten minutes of the game, have undoubtedly seen countless videos, and now it's time to get into the real meat of Pokemon Diamond and Pearl. Our weekend was filled with battles and adventure (after all, we want to be the very best, like no one ever was) and as we're now more than 15 hours into the DS sequel we've got plenty to share.

Pokemon Diamond and Pearl follow the adventures of an unnamed soon-to-be champion (that's you) as he/she trek through the land of Sinnoh. It's a new world with new species, but for Pokemon veterans it's going to look very similar to any of the other locals from previous games. The goal is to capture as many pocket monsters as you can, raising them to do friendly-but-deadly battle with other Pokemon, and collect badges from Pokemon Gyms across the lands. Along the way you'll battle rivals, thwart the plans of the new "Team Galactic", and capture and raise your army of critters in hopes of becoming the greatest Pokemon master the world has ever seen. Epic, huh?

From the get-go, Diamond and Pearl play out very similar to their predecessors. You'll select a name for yourself and your rival, eventually select a starter Pokemon (through a crazy series of events this time), and be on your way through the world of Sinnoh. Per usual a player can carry up to six Pokemon with them as a team, and all other Pokemon captured will be blasted to a storage computer for later use. Any monster that battles gains experience, and can eventually learn new techniques and evolve into stronger Pokemon.

Full Article ...

You've read about the first ten minutes of the game, have undoubtedly seen countless videos, and now it's time to get into the real meat of Pokemon Diamond and Pearl. Our weekend was filled with battles and adventure (after all, we want to be the very best, like no one ever was) and as we're now more than 15 hours into the DS sequel we've got plenty to share.

Pokemon Diamond and Pearl follow the adventures of an unnamed soon-to-be champion (that's you) as he/she trek through the land of Sinnoh. It's a new world with new species, but for Pokemon veterans it's going to look very similar to any of the other locals from previous games. The goal is to capture as many pocket monsters as you can, raising them to do friendly-but-deadly battle with other Pokemon, and collect badges from Pokemon Gyms across the lands. Along the way you'll battle rivals, thwart the plans of the new "Team Galactic", and capture and raise your army of critters in hopes of becoming the greatest Pokemon master the world has ever seen. Epic, huh?

From the get-go, Diamond and Pearl play out very similar to their predecessors. You'll select a name for yourself and your rival, eventually select a starter Pokemon (through a crazy series of events this time), and be on your way through the world of Sinnoh. Per usual a player can carry up to six Pokemon with them as a team, and all other Pokemon captured will be blasted to a storage computer for later use. Any monster that battles gains experience, and can eventually learn new techniques and evolve into stronger Pokemon.

Full Article ...

via ign

Remember House of the Dead? Eidos will be unleashing its own take on that classic lightgun shooter with a completely independent, but certainly hugely inspired production called Touch the Dead. We got a chance to romp through the zombie-infested halls on the Nintendo DS today, and pun intended...we had a blast.

Touch the Dead has been in the works for well over a year at Nintendo DS development house Dream On Studio, originally titled "Dead & Furious." The project's been picked up by Eidos for a May release, and team's done a pretty decent job emulating the fun of an on-rails lightgun shooter using nothing but the touch screen and stylus.

The game begins with a comic book cutscene showing you, the lead character, thrown in prison. As you mull over your time, you're awoken by a loud sound -- the door of your jail cell swings open. Of course, you want to know why...and so begins the start of Touch the Dead. Without a weapon you don't have much to do but look around, luckily a pistol with infinite ammunition's been conveniently tossed on the floor in one of the rooms.

Touch the Dead automatically moves you through the corridors of the prison -- all you have to worry about are the seemingly endless number of zombies that are wandering your way to get their taste of fresh prisoner blood. A simple tap-tap-tap on the screen will fire your weapon to that specific location, and headshots seem to be the best way of taking out the undead. Unfortunately, while having a bottomless bag of bullets is certainly handy, you'll still have to reload after emptying your barrel. Dragging a new clip from one side of the screen to the other is a simple task, but it requires a quick swipe to do it, and that's precious time away from keeping the zombies back.

Later in the game you'll upgrade not just your weapons, but the ability to reload those weapons much more quickly. The D-pad is used to switch from one weapon to another, but you'll need to earn these guns before you can switch over to them.

Touch the Dead is a simple design that's not entirely original, but we were having a great time popping zombies in the heads with our revolver. The visuals might not be on par with, say, Resident Evil, but the game moves at a pretty rapid clip and allows for more than a half dozen zombies to stumble after you in one cluster. Shoot a zombie in the head and their heads can pop off with a nice blast of red blood -- it's clear that the game will earn an M rating when it hits store shelves.

We didn't get a chance to experience the game's two player cooperative mode, but Touch the Dead will support the local wireless feature of the Nintendo DS so that players can work together to wipe out the zombie threat. ...

via ign

Remember House of the Dead? Eidos will be unleashing its own take on that classic lightgun shooter with a completely independent, but certainly hugely inspired production called Touch the Dead. We got a chance to romp through the zombie-infested halls on the Nintendo DS today, and pun intended...we had a blast.

Touch the Dead has been in the works for well over a year at Nintendo DS development house Dream On Studio, originally titled "Dead & Furious." The project's been picked up by Eidos for a May release, and team's done a pretty decent job emulating the fun of an on-rails lightgun shooter using nothing but the touch screen and stylus.

The game begins with a comic book cutscene showing you, the lead character, thrown in prison. As you mull over your time, you're awoken by a loud sound -- the door of your jail cell swings open. Of course, you want to know why...and so begins the start of Touch the Dead. Without a weapon you don't have much to do but look around, luckily a pistol with infinite ammunition's been conveniently tossed on the floor in one of the rooms.

Touch the Dead automatically moves you through the corridors of the prison -- all you have to worry about are the seemingly endless number of zombies that are wandering your way to get their taste of fresh prisoner blood. A simple tap-tap-tap on the screen will fire your weapon to that specific location, and headshots seem to be the best way of taking out the undead. Unfortunately, while having a bottomless bag of bullets is certainly handy, you'll still have to reload after emptying your barrel. Dragging a new clip from one side of the screen to the other is a simple task, but it requires a quick swipe to do it, and that's precious time away from keeping the zombies back.

Later in the game you'll upgrade not just your weapons, but the ability to reload those weapons much more quickly. The D-pad is used to switch from one weapon to another, but you'll need to earn these guns before you can switch over to them.

Touch the Dead is a simple design that's not entirely original, but we were having a great time popping zombies in the heads with our revolver. The visuals might not be on par with, say, Resident Evil, but the game moves at a pretty rapid clip and allows for more than a half dozen zombies to stumble after you in one cluster. Shoot a zombie in the head and their heads can pop off with a nice blast of red blood -- it's clear that the game will earn an M rating when it hits store shelves.

We didn't get a chance to experience the game's two player cooperative mode, but Touch the Dead will support the local wireless feature of the Nintendo DS so that players can work together to wipe out the zombie threat. ...