via joystiq

Although there hasn't been an official announcement yet, we expect to see the Wii-mic by Q3. Rumors have surfaced and GoNintendo confirmed that NDA was broken -- so, yeah, about that Wii-mic. The writing was on the wall earlier this week when High School Musical was announced for the Wii. The Karaoke Revolution-esque game by Disney Interactive will use a microphone. Unless the game is using the Gamecube's mic to be stuck in on top of the Wii, that means a microphone attachment will soon be officially announced by Nintendo.

The real NDA breaking rumor has EA working on a Harry Potter game using the mic in conjunction with gestures to cast spells. Now that's the type of Wii title we're talking about! "Wingardium Leviosah" FTW! Sadly, those who attended the EA Wii event on Wednesday signed NDAs -- so there's a lot of people out there sitting on information they can't confirm, deny or share with their readers.

Update: Statement from GoNintendo, "The NDA I am talking about has nothing to do with the mic for the Wii. I was just mentioning the mic part because we already knew it was coming according to High School Musical info. The NDA deals with something else completely. If EA talked about a mic at their party, I didn't hear anything about it. " ...

via joystiq



Tony Hawk's presence is so strong in the gaming world that he even has titles available for imaginary consoles! Tucked away in the lower right corner of TonyHawk.com is an image promoting the latest game, Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam. It's available for -- brace yourself -- Sony Wii.

We're sure this is an innocent slip-up and not a portent of the future to come. Or are the folks behind Tony's website doing tarot card readings on the side?

For the record, Downhill Jam is available for Nintendo's Wii, DS and Game Boy Advance. A PS2 version is in the works and will be released later this year. ...

via kotaku

Henry Lowood, the curator of the Stanford University History of Science and Technology Collections, announced this past week a list of the 10 Most Important Video Games of All Time. This game canon has been created to preserve to cultural and historical significance of gaming. The list is a result of a collaboration between Lowood, Warren Spector, Steve Meretzky, academic researcher Matteo Bittani and gaming journalist Christopher Grant from Joystiq, and represents the games we must protect at all costs...our cultural artifacts.

Spacewar! (1962)
Star Raiders (1979)
Zork (1980)
Tetris (1985)
SimCity (1989)
Super Mario Bros. 3 (1990)
Civilization I / II (1991)
Doom (1993)
Warcraft (Series) (1994)
Sensible World of Soccer (1994)

The games all represent firsts for lasting genres, such as adventure games, multiplayer, FPS, story-driven RTS, et cetera. Each gamer is required to save these titles to a microchip embedded in the base of their skull in order to preserve our gaming heritage. ...

via insert credit

No, this is not a hellish sequel to Act Zero but instead a series of Bomberman games on their way this month. We already have Bomberman Land on the Wii gracing Japanese shelves, whilst this does retain the plucky and cute aesthetic style we are all used to the main game modes are much more generic action platformer fare (though thankfully the Battle Mode has stayed intact).

The other two Bomberman games scheduled for release are another Bomberman Land on the PSP, which is ironically the most faithful in terms of gameplay, and Bomberman Story on the DS. The latter has transgressed into action RPG territory, though there is already a proper Bomberman game on the DS. So at least we have that to be thankful for. ...

via insert credit

No, this is not a hellish sequel to Act Zero but instead a series of Bomberman games on their way this month. We already have Bomberman Land on the Wii gracing Japanese shelves, whilst this does retain the plucky and cute aesthetic style we are all used to the main game modes are much more generic action platformer fare (though thankfully the Battle Mode has stayed intact).

The other two Bomberman games scheduled for release are another Bomberman Land on the PSP, which is ironically the most faithful in terms of gameplay, and Bomberman Story on the DS. The latter has transgressed into action RPG territory, though there is already a proper Bomberman game on the DS. So at least we have that to be thankful for. ...

via insert credit

No, this is not a hellish sequel to Act Zero but instead a series of Bomberman games on their way this month. We already have Bomberman Land on the Wii gracing Japanese shelves, whilst this does retain the plucky and cute aesthetic style we are all used to the main game modes are much more generic action platformer fare (though thankfully the Battle Mode has stayed intact).

The other two Bomberman games scheduled for release are another Bomberman Land on the PSP, which is ironically the most faithful in terms of gameplay, and Bomberman Story on the DS. The latter has transgressed into action RPG territory, though there is already a proper Bomberman game on the DS. So at least we have that to be thankful for. ...

David Jaffe, the action-brain behind God of War, has spilt some enticing info-beans about the ill-fated PSP project he was working on last year, though as challenging and interesting as it sounds, it's now consigned to development purgatory.

"Heartland was the story of China invading America," David Jaffe explains in an interview with Entertainment Weekly, "where you played a soldier debating whether to stay and fight for America or go AWOL to meet up with your family".

"We were trying to put in a lot of gameplay that would evoke emotion," Jaffe continues, "[there were] sequences where you'd go into homes and your commanding officer would tell you to shoot innocent Chinese-Americans".

Sometime ago on his personal blog, Jaffe spoke of wanting "to make gamers cry" with his project, but he also had deeper hopes for Heartland - "It was very dark and was meant to cause players to consider what it's like to live in America and be an American today".

But it wasn't to be, and with Jaffe unwilling to desert his family for "90% of the time" in order to commit to developing the game, the project was dropped. Though Jaffe says that talking about Heartland makes him quite sad that it'll never see the light of day. Perhaps he'll rethink once God of War III has been polished off..

via gamesradar ...

via gamesradar

You could forgive us for speculating about a rise in Xbox Live Arcade pricing. Especially following the somewhat ambiguous proclamation made by Microsoft Casual Games manager Bryan Trussel, stating that we'd "see a correlation between some of the pricing" of games now that the maximum downloadable file size has increased from 50MB to 150MB.

Frugal gamers can put away their torches and pitchforks, because Microsoft shot back at us with a resounding "Nu-uh!" assuring us that a price increase will not be the case. Behold, the official statement from Trussel himself:

"There are currently no plans to offer Xbox Live Arcade games for more than 1200 points. My comments were meant to imply that a larger game may lead to a price that is at the high end of the current pricing range, not eclipse that range as suggested in the reporting."

That slight gust of wind you're feeling? The collective sigh of relief from all those who couldn't muster the balls to beg their boss for a raise just to play Root Beer Tapper. ...

via gamesradar

Despite garnering a ton of interest from fans when it hit in late 2006, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories didn't sell quite as well as other GTA titles. It could be that gamers are getting sick of the same recycled gameplay, but what's more likely is that they were just waiting for the game to arrive on PS2, instead of the notoriously hard-to-control PSP. If you're in that latter camp, then here's your chance to pick up the best GTA since San Andreas.

If you already caught it on the PSP, though, don't expect anything new. The multiplayer modes and custom-soundtrack feature have been stripped out and replaced by the smoother, rumble-enabled PS2 controls and a budgetastic price, but otherwise this is the same adventure that hit in October. Which, so long as you're not looking for multiplayer, isn't a bad thing at all.

Set in 1984 (two years before Vice City), Vice City Stories stars straight-laced Victor Vance, who - despite starting out as GTA's most boring protagonist - eventually becomes the series' most conflicted and most tragic anti-hero. He's also the big brother of Vice City sidekick Lance Vance, a walking disaster who shows up to comically ruin things and drag Vic deep into Florida's drug-smuggling underworld.

VCS is more than just a new story, however. Aside from serving up a sprawling, colorful, freely explorable city filled with jackable cars, boats, helicopters and even Jet Skis, it brings a few new features to the table. One of these is empire-building, which enables you to attack, take over and manage illegal rackets run by rival gangs, with the eventual goal of wiping your enemies off the map and owning Vice City's underworld. ...