Zodttd posted this update about his Pandora and Iphone projects:


http://zodttd.com/blog/zodttd/what_i...32d28c3d1.html ...

Zodttd posted this update about his Pandora and Iphone projects:


http://zodttd.com/blog/zodttd/what_i...32d28c3d1.html ...

via Eurogamer


Criterion has fixed the frame-rate issues in the 360 version of its Bogart Burnout Paradise patch and re-released it to the masses.

The problems began on 28th April, prompting the developer to recall the update and get its wrench out.

Bogart is the first of several planned updates for the game, with Cagney due at the end of June, Davis due in August, and Eastwood out in the autumn.

Cagney will bring with it a Hunter Olympus car, fresh Freeburn modes, 70 new timed multi-part challenges, liveries, custom soundtracks for the PS3, plus plenty of bug fixes and updates.

Davis is our favourite because it introduces motorbikes, and also adds a day and night cycle to Paradise City.

Eastwood, on the other hand, will be the first of the island updates you can get to from Paradise City. Head over to the official site for the first aerial footage of it.

These downloadable additions a part of the much talked about ongoing commitment Criterion has to its Burnout Paradise community. ...

via IGN


Atari today announced the forthcoming European release of NAMCO BANDAI Games' Family Trainer exclusively for Wii. Family Trainer lets all the family and friends get physical by engaging the whole body in a variety of easy-to-understand, fast-paced and wildly entertaining activities. Family Trainer is scheduled for European release in September 2008.

The game includes the specially designed Family Trainer mat controller which, when combined with the Wii Remote, lets players get totally physical in a series of crazed challenges. Unlike other games for the Wii which only focus on the arms, Family Trainer gets the feet involved too for total body gameplay. Simple controls and intuitive play make the game easy to just pick up and play, and let players of any age get involved, get physical and have maximum fun.

There are over a dozen frantic single and multiplayer challenges to choose from all based on outdoor challenges amusingly interpreted for the world of Family Trainer, such as river rafting, mine karting, log jumping, rope skipping and much more. The activities take place in a variety of colourful locations including jungle forests full of ancient ruins, a haunted mansion complete with hordes of zombies, and a fairytale world where riding on toys and floating amongst the clouds is the order of the day.

Players can challenge friends or family members on the same mat, or cooperate together, for example trying to balance a runaway mine kart as it hurtles round a gravity defying track. Players can track their progress and set new records for their friends and family to beat, bringing a dose of healthy competition into the madcap mix. ...

via Joystiq


Curious to see what sort of "trouble" is brewing in Viva Piñata's candy-colored paradise? The six screenshots Microsoft released this morning don't offer many clues (Graveyards? Volcanoes? Evil tiki guys?) but should be enough to whet your appetite if you're eager to get back to Piñata Island.


Screenshots ...

Progress on the upcoming homebrew game for Sega Dreamcast.

...

via Computer and Video Games


A recently-released PS3 promo video offers a glimpse of what could be the next iteration of the PS Store, packing a search feature and video content.

At one point in the ad, screens of the PS Store whoosh past, revealing a search feature along the bottom panel of the Store that isn't in the current version.

In another fly-by shot, it also shows a video download page donning the logos of TV networks NBC, HBO, Cartoon Network (yes!) and MTV, among others. Could this be the first glimpse of what Sony has in store for PS3 video downloads?

Although no announcement has been made, Sony is expected to reveal plans for a video-on-demand system for PS3 for launch this year.

Check out the snapshots below taken from the trailer courtesy of eagle-eyed Scrawlfx.com, where you can also see the full, otherwise unexciting video of a guy acting like a complete plonker.


Screenshots ...

via Eurogamer


Since you've already stared lovingly at the European WiiWare launch line-up, some of which are due out on 20th May, we thought you might like a bit more information on each of the games. Prices listed are based on US and Japanese equivalents, as Nintendo was unable to confirm European pricing when we asked.

• Dr. Mario & Germ Buster (Nintendo) - 1000 Wii Points (GBP 7 / EUR 10 approx)

Like a semi-sick man wandering barefoot around a British hospital, Dr. Mario has picked up some new friends - although support for Miis, online gameplay via Wi-Fi Connection, the ability to share a game demo with friends via WiiConnect24 and a new Germ Buster mode are probably less fatal than MSRA. Otherwise it's the classic Nintendo puzzle formula: kill off viruses in a bottle-shaped gameplay area by using pills to create lines of a single colour. There's support for up to four players, two locally.

• Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King (Square Enix) - 1500 Wii Points (GBP 10.50 / EUR 15)

As you know if you read our roundup of US WiiWare titles last month, My Life as a King is more of a construction game than an RPG, tasking players with rebuilding a young king's homeland using the Wiimote and some hired help. It also promises to have "Add-on data download" according to Nintendo's press bumf.

• LostWinds (Frontier) - 1000 Wii Points (GBP 7 / EUR 10 approx)

Developed here in the UK, LostWinds is a platform game where you guide a young hero around a 2.5D world on gusts of wind, solving puzzles as you go. We've been playing this already and think it's wicked, and you can find our LostWinds review elsewhere on the site. The best of the launch games? If it isn't then that's good news for whoever's better.

• Pirates: The Key of Dreams (Oxygen)

A "frantic nautical shoot-'em-up" in the words of its creators, Oxygen Interactive, you play as a Navy Captain working undercover as a pirate trying to hunt down and kill Blackbeard. You rescue castaways to man your ship, upgrade weaponry and do other things like cartography. There's also local multiplayer for up to four people and a "turbo" mode, which seems like something other pirate games are missing.

• Pop (Nnooo) - 700 Wii Points (GBP 5 / EUR 7 approx)

Another game we checked out last month, in Pop you simply point the Wiimote at the screen to pop bubbles. Less simply, you're doing this against the clock, and every miss shaves off seconds, and there are power-ups, and chain reactions to master. This has four-player support too - just hook up some more Wiimotes - and there are online leaderboards and messaging via WiiConnect24.

• Star Soldier R (Hudson) - 800 Wii Points (GBP 7 / EUR 10 approx)

Obviously eager not to be typecast after releasing 738 TurboGrafx shoot-'em-ups on Virtual Console, Hudson's first WiiWare release is a shoot-'em-up where you try and set a high score with a two- or five-minute time limit. Apparently it's got "tons of replayability", ship upgrades and online leaderboards, but it's only for single players. We won't pretend this matters to us, since we hate everyone

• Toki Tori (Two Tribes)

Do you remember Toki Tori on the Game Boy Color? Nor do I, but Wikipedia says it's a platform/puzzle game where you try and rescue chicks scattered around four big environments. The WiiWare version by the same developer, Two Tribes, sounds much the same, but uses the Wiimote for controls and has 70 levels, WiiConnect24 message board functionality and the option of letting a second player draw hints on the screen with a Wiimote to help you out. Eurogamer actually has a system a lot like this where we punch each other and withhold wages whenever Bertie makes spelling mistakes.

• TV Show King (Gameloft) - 1000 Wii Points (GBP 7 / EUR 10 approx)

Last and - call us cynics - quite probably least, TV Show King is a "fun TV trivia show". We bet. Select a Mii and answer questions in competition with your family. There's more than 3,000 general-knowledge questions promising "an alternately serious and hilarious game", perhaps by asking who killed JFK and then asking if his bum looked big in it.

Look out for reviews of all of those very soon. ...

via Eurogamer


Broadband company PlusNet has said the day after Grand Theft Auto IV launched it saw its "two busiest ever hours for gaming in the UK".

The ISP watched 90,000 of you playing it online at one point, which is more than a third of its total subscriber base.

"The demand to play Grand Theft Auto IV online has been absolutely phenomenal. Our broadband usage figures have gone through the roof as customers battle it out on the streets of Liberty City," said Neil Armstrong, product director at PlusNet - over the moon and perhaps not for the first time.

"Our usage data shows that the day after release we had the two busiest ever hours for gaming in the UK.

"Gaming accounted for approximately 7.6 per cent of all downloads in that hour - we'd normally expect to see between 3.5 per cent and 5 per cent by gaming around that time of day," he added.

Between 8pm and 9pm on 30th April - the day after release - usage shot up by 30 percent on the previous day. The "unprecedented demand" continued early into the morning, with 4am to 7am traffic up by 35 percent.

The previous highest hour for online gaming witnessed by PlusNet was between 9pm and 10pm on 4th November, 2007. We're not sure what was special about this date; it was a few days before Call of Duty 4 came out, and the Sunday after Tabula Rasa and Hellgate came out. ...