via Nintendo Wii Fanboy


For those of you who have yet to find a Wii, we have potentially good news! Or a totally mean waste of your time. We don't really know.

Tipster Memnoch tells us he saw a handwritten sign in a Wal-Mart electronics department in Fairfax, VA telling employees to hold Wii shipments for April 1st, when a new advertising circular would announce their availability.

Our readers have yet to lead us astray with these shipment tips, but we aren't 100% sure about it. It's not that we don't trust Memnoch-- it would just be foolish to take a rumor involving April 1st at face value. Hence the more skeptical, pensive Matthew Lesko. Good luck if you check this out! ...

via Nintendo Wii Fanboy


Reports are coming in from Taiwan and Germany that Nintendo has updated the Wii's motherboard with its latest shipments of the console. According to .MaxConsole. one of the solder points has been removed from the altered board, shutting out quicksolder modification chips like WiiKey. Other similar tools that don't use the missing solder point should not be affected.

DigiTimes suggests that these changes to the circuit layout were made with the sole intent of preventing piracy by blocking these warranty-voiding installations. If that's the case however, why did Nintendo only take steps to block just the WiiKey, a modchip that was released only several weeks ago?

There were similar concerns in the past about Mario Kart DS updating the Nintendo DS' firmware as an anti-piracy measure, but it was quickly discovered that the handheld was only saving its WiFi settings. It seems far more likely that Nintendo has had the Wii's revised motherboard planned for months, and that locking out any modification methods was an unintended result. ...

New for PS2:



features
Master a new world tour: Battle across all-new tracks built for every style of racing. Drift around the traffic on open urban roads and race in the oncoming lane in claustrophobic city streets.
Unprecedented speed: Drive like a maniac to max out your boost. Drain it totally to perform a Burnout and get an instant boost recharge. Chain multiple burnouts to keep the adrenaline burning!
New ways to burn: Don't just throw caution to the wind in Maniac mode -
Pulverise it. Drive on the edge in the most challenging race mode seen yet and watch your score soar!
Signature Shortcuts: Watch out for the signature shortcuts on every track. Ram a rival through the barrier of a shortcut entrance to unlock it and shave those precious seconds off your race times.
Unique rides: Every car offers a unique experience, and you need to master them all as you drift, smash and race your way through the world tour.
Domination Points: Win races, takedown rivals and nail the challenges thrown at you to progress to the deadly Dominator series.
Join the party: Pass the PSP or Analog Controller (DUALSHOCK®2) and own the competition in Party Play Mode or go head to-head in split-screen Multiplayer Mode on the PlayStation 2 and in Ad Hoc Mode on the PSP.

description
Push the limits of reckless driving and let adrenaline and danger take you to the edge in the most intense, challenging Burnout experience ever seen on PlayStation®2 and PSP® (PlayStation® Portable).

Rage against the road and engage in every type of dangerous racing. Ignite and empty a full boost bar without crashing to perform a Burnout and reach mind-blowing speeds. Chain multiple burnouts to push the score multiplier and your nerves to the limit as you tear across the new world tour!

Battle traffic across tracks built to handle every style of racing. Uncover and exploit shortcuts, master drift corners and unflinchingly weave through the oncoming cars in a bid to become the ultimate burner.

Pushing the limits of the PSP and the PlayStation 2, Burnout Dominator features the most explosive visuals seen on the platforms, engaging multiplayer modes to suit, and a PSP exclusive feature that allows you to synchronise your game with your friends and thrash their high scores and race times.

With a host of unlockable features, awards and exclusive downloadable content on the PSP, Burnout Dominator will keep you locked in vehicular combat this coming spring.

Buy Burnout Dominator ...

New for PS2:



Fighting game fans cheer for your life! As the legendary arcade hit Hokuto no Ken (aka. Fist of the North Star) is coming to your PlayStation2™. Made by the same team as Guilty Gear, this game sports some of the fastest paced action seen on a 2D fighter to date. Play as Kenshiro, Shin, Raoh, Yuda and many other characters from the Hokuto no Ken anime and manga series, and unleash their Fatal KO techniques!

Every player has a seven stars gauge that, through various attacks, can be lowered and once empty, a final "death star" will light up and the enemy player can perform a special attack that finishes of the opponent similar to the Instant Kill-moves from Guilty Gear. Unlike in Guilty Gear, where you could boost any number of times, Hokuto no Ken has a gauge that limits the number of boosts a player can perform, however, the boost is much more powerful than the one in Guilty Gear.

This game is based on the first half of the original manga (vol. 1-16) and uses the characters as they were depicted in the 1980's anime series. The voices of the playable characters are all performed by the original seiyu from the anime, with the exception of Kenshiro and Rei, who are both played by new actors.

Published by Sega, a first batch of Hokuto No Ken / Fist of the North Star for PlayStation2™ is shipping today. Just like Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix+, this release has been affected by a delayed shipment. around 25% of all preorders are shipping today, more supply is likely to arrive tomorrow, available at US$ 64.90 only.

Buy Hokuto No Ken / Fist of the North Star ...

New for PS2



Based on Square-Enix's popular action adventure game Kingdom Hearts II, the game returns as "director's cut" Final Mix+ edition in Japan. As it's common for top sellers in SE's franchise, this final cut edition contains a couple of new interesting features, targeted to fans of the series as well as those that haven't played the game before.

New features are:


English Voice Cast

New Explorable Areas as well as redesigned navigation maps

A new "Serious Mode" Difficulty

New scenes that were featured in the Japanese manga have been added to the game

New boss battles against the mysterious Orginization XIII

A fight that was a cutscene in the original is now playable

The censored parts of the game are no longer censored

All Difficulty modes have been tweaked up

The game also contains a second disc which features a remake of the GBA game: Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, which is titled Kingdom Hearts: RE: Chain of memories. This Game's features are:


Rendered in fully 3D

KHII's Reaction commands system

New Cards and boss battles

New scenes and previous scenes are fully voiced in Japanese

Save data affects Kingdom Hearts II: Final Mix

Buy Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix+ ...

via joystiq

With a pint of Guinness in his (virtual) belly, Crackdown producer Phil Wilson reluctantly braved a swarm of fanboys eager to squeeze his brain empty of downloadable content details. Wilson's tight-lipped policy didn't last long, and he was quickly charmed by the Eurogamer forum rats, already dropping hints in his first response (a question about aircraft): "airborne antics [are] definitely not off the table going forward."

What we know is that Realtime Worlds has created several competitive multiplayer modes, with one being optionally cooperative. Apparently, one of the modes was inspired by a user-created video posted online (GASP, Game 3.0 on Xbox 360?!). Wilson suggested that the creators would "eventually" be credited for the idea, adding that many of the videos popping up on YouTube (particularly this one) had impressed the development team. The new modes will likely be limited to two players, though Wilson teased that "the prospect of mass co-op is definitely an exciting one."

Wilson also confirmed that a free update will include a 'reset gangs' option, eliminating the frustrating need to delete the game data (or your Gamertag) from the hard drive in order to start over. Wilson apologized for the oversight and added, "while I'm spilling beans, there's also another great mode that I'm pretty sure is also kinda what you're asking for but a whole lot more -- so I hope that goes some way towards compensation." Could you be anymore vague? ...

via joystiq

Maybe it has something to do with Phil's adorable accent, or their slightly upsetting European This is Living ads, but Sony did a number on the UK. Not only did the PS3 manage to break the record for best-selling home console launch in its weekend debut (take that, PS2!), but PS3 titles like Resistance and Motorstorm are sitting pretty at the top of UK entertainment software sales charts. Toss some free TVs into the PR mix, and things may just be looking up, but what's this?

According to BrandRepublic, "as many as 20,000 pre-orders of the £425 console [were] canceled in the run-up to its delayed launch last Friday," totaling over £10m in lost sales! ...

via joystiq

Research at the U.K's University of Bolton says that gaming addiction may be over-diagnosed up to 10 percent of the time because indicators that were previously thought to relate to a gaming addiction had been borrowed from gambling addictions; what are the odds? Those markers may not translate between the two behavior patterns as well as previously thought.

10 percent doesn't sound like a major mistake -- unless you're in that group -- but the study balances some recent reports that hype and overstate the problem. (Oh Tyra, we thought you were better than the local news.) Still, the research stresses that gaming addictions are real. ...

via kotaku

Over one-hundred and fifty thousand British folks parted with a chunk of cash to make kissy face with the PS3. Actually, it was 165,000 but who's counting... Sony is! The PLAYSTATION 3 UK was apparently a smashing success, outselling the Wii and the PS3. Apparently, it could've been more, way more. Website BrandRepublic reports that right before launch, 20,000 pre-orders were cancelled. That's not good. Says Stephen Lynne, senior promotions and partnerships manager at Virgin Megastores:

The launch of the Play-Station 3 has been a victim of its own success. There are so many available that consumers know they can get one when-ever they want.
A victim? I'm so confused! I thought British people were hoarding PS3s, that the launch was a smashing success, the greatest thing to happen to the UK since the Stone Roses played Spike Island. How can it be a victim, then? Wouldn't it mean that Sony met the demand? Nick Parker, an analyst at Screen Digest adds this:

This time next week we could be saying that the PlayStation 3 has been the most successful console launch ever. ...