Talking about the future of Link and the epic Zelda series, Nintendo director Eiji Aonuma has expressed his wish to put more motion-controlled mechanics in the next Zelda game.

"I knew that the Wii was capable of many more controls than we added to the Wii version of Twilight Princess," admitted Aonuma in an interview with GameInformer.

He continued: "I was kind of afraid of adding too many [motion controls], because I didn't want to confuse the end user or make the game intimidating. Moving forward, though, that was a launch title so we had to keep it kind of "at the basics," but moving forward I can definitely see us incorporating more controls into the game."

Aonuma also declared that he would be prepared to bring back Princess of the Twilight, Midna, if that's what the fans wanted: "Because of the way Twilight Princess ended, I don't see her making a reappearance, but who knows. If we hear enough voices for her to come back, how can we not."

The cartoon-style Link from Wind Waker is set to live on in Phantom Hourglass on DS, and Aonuma had a bit to say about that too: "Because this game is on a handheld, the approach has been a little different than with the Wii or the GameCube.

"In this Zelda, there are several islands, and each one has its own story. It's pretty full because of this, and we'll explain more how this works closer to release. There are some dungeons that you'll have to play more than once. It's a very full, fleshed-out game."

He also confirmed that the one-on-one multplayer mode would be playable online. Check back on CVG later today for a full multiplayer hands-on preview from GDC.

For the record, we'll be all over Phantom Hourglass when it's released later this year.

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Nintendo's Takeshi Shimada, who last week spoke at GDC about the development of Brain Training, revealed that enhanced development tools are in the making for Wii.

Shimada spoke of a development application called NintendoWare. Being made by Nintendo and HAL, NintendoWare emulates Wii hardware on a PC so that developers can sample parts of their games without having to load it to a Wii dev machine.

Shimada also revealed that a new easy-to-incorporate fur-shading effect is in the works - we're thinking effects similar to those in Star Fox Adventures could be the result.

The motion recognition could also see an upgrade, with a new predictive input tool that uses prior movement to predict your next motion. Sounds complex.

And you Wii might be able to read the new and weather headlines to you soon, with a text-to-speech tool also in the works.

All we want is more games to look as good as Super Mario Galaxy which, at the moment, is graphically light-years ahead of anything else on Wii. Is Nintendo keeping the "How to make good graphics on Wii" to itself or something?

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id Software's CEO Todd Hollenshead has revealed that videogame piracy "has pushed id as being multiplatform."

In a lecture on videogame piracy during last week's GDC, he explained that the Doom and Quake developer started to eye console platforms as a method to battle the financial loss piracy incurs.

Enemy Territory: Quake Wars was given as an example of id's multiplatform direction. Originally in development for PC at the hands of Splash Damage and id Software, the multiplayer-focussed action game is now additionally heading to Xbox 360 and PS3.

In related news, the topic of videogame piracy was brought up in during a panel discussion focussing on the future of PC gaming at GDC last week.

In the discussion, Soren Johsnon - designer/lead programmer, Sid Meier's Civilization III & IV - said "game design on the PC is going to bend toward persistence" as in MMOGs. Massively multiplayer online games succeed because "You cannot pirate an MMO. Period", said Johsnon

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After a poor E3 showing and a stupidly-long stretch of delays (it was originally due on PSone), it looks like Silicon Knight's 360 action RPG Too Human has slipped again to 2008.

The word comes from a recent interview with Microsoft Game Studios VP Shane Kim, in which he suggests yet another delay for the first entry in the sci-fi trilogy.

"The game is coming along," Kim tells IGN. "It's coming along. We recently saw it. We'll have more to show on it soon. We did it an injustice last year at E3. We showed it too early.

"Some games take longer than others to develop, and since we have so many great games coming already, it's OK for some to develop slower than others. We already have a lot of games this year."

It doesn't sound hopeful for fans expecting Too Human this year then. But with all the massive titles flooding into the shops in 2007, we're actually quite pleased that Silicon Knights is giving its latest a little more polishing time, and hopefully it'll find a nice gap in the market in the post-Halo 3/GTA IV madness.

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In a trickling update on its official website, RTS veteran Ensemble has released a new Halo Wars image, but don't get too excited; it's only more concept art.

But while it's not in-game, the pic does reveal a new vehicle that will likely crop up as a controllable unit in Wars; a sort of Command & Conquer Orca with a big laser gun on the bottom.

Going by the swarming, wasp-like appearance of the 'copter and lack of UT-style redeemer launchers, we're guessing that this is some sort of scouting unit available early in the game - though that's just our educated guess.

Actual gameplay details on Halo Wars have been scarce since the game was unveiled last year, though an assortment of random MS execs apparently had a good time during recent internal playtests, where a "fairly polished" version of the 360 RTS was up and running at Ensemble.

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Maxis Game Designer, Robin Hunicke, has spoke out about her enthusiasm for Wii and the thought behind the reinvention of the Sims series for the console.

"The Wii is so cool ... Almost everyone on my team is a Nintendo fan. Almost all game developers are Nintendo fans," commented Hunicke. An appropriate choice of words after fellow Maxis developer, Chris Hecker, last week cited the Wii as "a piece of shit".

"It's not clear to me that Nintendo gives a s**t about games as an art form," said Hecker, who has since appologised.

Now it seems Maxis are only too pleased to express please with Nintendo's console, with Hunicke pointing to its clean design and family-orientated approach to gaming as the key factors in the new direction MySims has taken.

Despite the radically changed controller, Hunicke stressed the importance of sticking to the fundamentals of a franchise on a new console. "We wanted to bring The Sims to the Wii in a way that we could say we were at home on the Wii."

Unlike many other Wii games out there, Hunicke also wanted to avoid using flailing arm movements in MySims.

MySims comes with a radically re-invented cartoony style, and a new emphasis on community as players seek to rejuvenate a run-down town to attract new residents.

MySims is due out on Wii and DS later this year.

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Juárez Mayor Héctor Murguía has condemned Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter 2 which is set in El Paso and Juárez, reports the El Paso Times.

Ubisoft's tactical shooter launched last Friday here in the UK, which features fictional battles between the US Ghosts and Mexican rebels. Keyword there being 'fictional'. But the Mayor of Juárez (one of the locations featured in the game) isn't impressed.

He said, "Violent video games instill values which are upside down, and these actions are despicable because they attempt to divide the good will of the residents of American and Mexican cities."

Murguía sais that GRAW 2 exposes children and teens to ideas that are xenophobic and warlike and that generate violence. He went as far as asking Mexican federal authorities to band the game from reaching children. On the flipside, El Paso Mayor John Cook said he had no problem with the game.

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Rebellion has snapped up Ignition's Banbury dev studio, formerly known as Awesome Developments, which was responsible for puzzle game Archer Maclean's Mercury on PSP.

Whether the Ignition Banbury will continue to work with the PSP platform at Rebellion is unknown. Rebellion wouldn't spill any beans when contacted earlier, only saying that it's currently working on "three major projects" in connection with "large publishers".

"This acquisition takes the Rebellion headcount to 280 full time members of staff. We're fully booked with work until later in the year so these additional highly talented staff will be a valuable addition to the team", Rebellion's CEO and creative director Jason Kingsley has added. ...

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Mark Rein has responded to reports that Gears designer Cliff Bleszinski confirmed a Gears sequel is in development, saying there are wrong.

On the back of GDC, Gamespot posted an article (quickly followed-up by IGN) proclaiming that Bleszinski has confirmed Gears of War 2 is in development. Hardly a suprise really.

But Epic VP Mark Rein was quick off the mark over the weekend to shoot down the stories saying, "The Gamespot article is wrong. Cliff didn't confirm anything of the sort."

Of course a Gears sequel will be in the pipeline, especially on the back of the success of the original. Just don't expect anything official until Microsoft says so though. ...