via engadget

Last week marked the fourth month the Zune has been on the market, and its sixth month since being officially announced. We know the Zune was in development all the way back into 2005 -- so why the hell is Microsoft having such a hard time ironing out even the basic kinks, let alone adding features? Wasn't the whole reason Microsoft went into the portable media hardware business because only vertically integrated solutions seem to be able to guarantee a vaguely acceptable DRM user experience?

In month four it's not cool for the Zune to still have bugs causing skipping in (DRMed) content, nor any of the other severe issues, bugs, and limitations that keep the product from approaching likability by a larger audience than the handful of thousands of Zune users out there today. (Let's not kid ourselves here, Zunes haven't been selling, and most people don't take the Zune seriously at this point.) We're not trying to hate, but we think it's about time Microsoft acknowledged that the ball's been dropped -- and then pick it back up. Stop promising bug fixes and vaporous new features, and stop talking about future Zune products when the current product is ailing. Here are five simple things Microsoft should do to fix the Zune right now, and even make it into a somewhat aggressive contender in one of the most cutthroat gadget categories. In order:

Fix the DRM, syncing, and system bugs, and get firmware v1.3 out the door!
Add useful WiFi features: wireless streaming to friends, Zune Pass (subscription) song transfer to friends' Zunes (á la MusicGremlin), computer-free downloads content downloads.
Add podcast and vidcast support. It doesn't even have to be as comprehensive as the iTMS, just a basic RSS reader / enclosure scraper or something.
Increase codec support. Go out on a limb and add open (read: free) codecs like FLAC, APE, OGG, XviD; if you really want to make your customers happy, belly up to the bar and license DivX.
Drop the price. For most consumers, there is still a huge mental barrier in paying $250 for a Zune when you can pay the same $250 for an iPod. One isn't necessarily better than the other, but people really love the iPod. Make it $230 MSRP, and let that sink down to like $210 for online retailers. People will freak out that this player, that does all these things it does, is barely more than two bills.
See, that wasn't so hard, was it? We didn't even ask them to do anything vaguely unreasonable, like open up the Zune Marketplace for other players, drop the 3x3 pseudo-DRM, drop the silly over-marketing, or add 3G and a QWERTY keyboard. We know these things won't happen tomorrow, but it would be nice to know Zune has some intentions of actually improving its product, as promised. ...

Captain Jack Sparrow is making a return to videogaming in Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, a new adventure based on the upcoming film of the same name, and the previous film, Dead Man's Chest.

Players will hack and slash their way through scenes and event from both films playing as good guys, Captain Jack Sparrow, Will Turner and Elizabeth Swann.

The Xbox 360 and PS3 versions will apparently feature "innovative duelling controls", whatever than means, while the Wii version will allow for some Remote-waving, sword fighting action.

At World's End is due out on PS3, Wii, Xbox 360, PSP, PS2, and DS on May 22 in the US, with a UK release expected to follow shortly after.

via cvg ...

The Adventure Company is porting Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None to Wii.

The game, originally released on PC last year, has player work their way through a murder mystery based on Agatha Christie's novel of the same name.

New Wii-specific controls will allow players to tackle situations using various motions, like digging to unearth clues, or spinning the handle of a safe.

The PC game didn't do too well so we're hoping the Wii game will receive more of a re-working than simply updated controls.

A release date for the Wii version is yet to be announced.

via cvg ...

via cvg

New instalments in Namco Bandai's much-loved Katamari Damacy and Ace Combat series along with a port of PC RTS Warhammer: Mark of Chaos are coming to Xbox 360, internet reports claim.

The initial report comes from an alleged photograph of a Blockbuster Video computer terminal listing the inevitable Ace Combat 6, "Beautiful Katamari" and Mark of Chaos for Microsoft's console.

Adding weight to the rumour is a recent trademark Namco Bandai filed for the name Beautiful Katamari in January. In a recent blog post licensed Katamari merchandise company Panic Software also discusses the series' future.

This is also not the first time CVG has heard rummagings of a future Warhammer: Mark of Chaos console port, either.

When we picked up the phone Namco Bandai expectedly told us it has nothing new to announce regarding future titles, though we reckon there's a good chance we could see these three crop-up on a release list sometime soon. ...

The latest Wii Virtual Console update has just landed in the good old US of A, and for once gamers across the pond are getting the games we received many weeks ago.

Already released in Europe NES dirt-racer Excitebike is the first retro title up for download in North America, which if you're too young or memory fatigued to remember from the 80s you might recognize from the GBA Wario Wares.

Second is Namco's TurboGrafx offering Splatter House, which appeared on the European Wii Shop last week. In case you missed it the first time around, Splatter House is an early attempt at the survival horror genre, pitting you and your girlfriend against zombies in an abandoned mansion, which sounds familiar.


Finishing up this week's North American VC update is Beyond Oasis (or The Story of Thor to us), a Mega Drive action-RPG that apparently has you playing as Prince Ali, a bloke who's found a golden armlet and is using it for all kinds of spirit-y mischief.

Look out for the Europe Virtual Console update this Friday, where hopefully we'll get some more notable titles than in recent weeks.

via cvg ...

via cvg

Graphically what we've seen so far of Halo 3 hasn't exactly blown our socks off, but according to Bungie's latest community update the more-complete version of the game has improved leaps and bounds visually, and is looking "amazing".

"The exteriors still needed some polish, but sweet crimeny Christmas. It looked amazing," the update reads, describing a more complete Halo 3 campaign stage, which apparently has "lit, shader effects, proper detail, atmospherics" and "audio" up and running.

"Last week I talked about how we were adding all this hyper realistic stuff, while still trying to keep it true to the look and feel of Halo," the post continues. "The evolution of those ideas is that some of the test screenshots we took for an internal presentation, looked exactly like their concept paintings. Not just in terms of scale or detail, but the actual color palette. It's rich and vivid and full of life."

"As a matter of fact, we ran the screens back to back with concept paintings, and sometimes you had to blink to distinguish," Bungie claims.

The update goes on to admit that there's still plenty of optimization to be done, and while there's realistic-looking scenery the 360 sequel still has the Halo look

"The graphics have a painterly quality, sure, but this is more to do with the impression they leave you than the details," the update reads. "A game's a game's a game. We're not going cel shaded or oil painting-y." ...

via Ninteno Wii Fanboy


For those of you who thought that Oblivion could grace the Wii (the game is coming to the PSP, so why shouldn't it be doable on the Wii, right?), you might want to take a seat. Oh, wait, you're already sitting, aren't you? Right, right ... well, uh ... it's not coming to Wii. Nope, no chance it'll grace the system as Bethesda's vice president of Marketing Peter Hines denies the rumor during a GameIndustry.biz interview.

Hines goes on to destroy our hopes by stating "It's something we'd like to do, but unfortunately it's not a very good fit with Oblivion. Oblivion is a very demanding game hardware-wise and in terms of graphics processing and raw horsepower. It's not something the Wii was designed to do. They decided not to make the focus on raw horsepower but on interface and so forth. It's a great console and many of us at Bethesda have one but I know that bringing Oblivion over is not possible - we'd have to do a whole new game." Right, but couldn't a port, with some cleaned up graphics, of the PSP Oblivion be possible on the Wii? The PSP is just a smaller PS2 or something, right?

What do you guys think? Would you want Oblivion on the Wii? ...

via Nintendo Wii Fanboy


Seriously, we want you to let go of your mouse, take your other hand out of the box Cheez-Its (we assume you browse the net like we do) and give these fine gentleman responsible for the above technological marvel a round of applause. These two dudes have managed to harness the power of the Sun (the bane of any good gamer's existence) and use it to power the Wii, a television and set of speakers.



With the TV and speakers requiring around 130 watts to operate and the Wii needing a smaller 40-45 watts, in direct sunlight, during a normal sunny day, they can get from 6 to 8 hours of game time out of this bad boy. That's more than enough time to throw down in some Wii Sports: Bowling or maybe get some people together in the parking lot outside of the Wendy's for some multiplayer WarioWare: Smooth Moves. So where do they take their new toy? Down to Venice Beach, of course! ...

via Computer and Video Games


Following the announcement of its first title on the console, it turns out that Treasure Island Z won't be Capcom's Wii debut after all, as remote-enabled Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles is apparently "still on track" for release this year.

This is all according to Wired Blogs, which got word from Capcom that the Wii Resi is indeed still on for a 2007 release, as stated in the extremely short debut trailer released last year.

Not a terrible lot is known about the game at the moment, though according to Famitsu Umbrella Chronicles is comprised of 2 parts; a traditional Resident Evil single-player campaign and an arcade-like mode in which you play as different characters through sections of previous Resi games.

According to Wired Blog, Capcom will also be announcing a new title in the next few weeks. We'll see what Capcom's UK op has to say about that one, and keep our eyes peeled for you in the meantime. ...