In an otherwise un-noteworthy article about the "console war," BusinessWeek reveals that Pandemic Studios is developing a concept title for Wii. So would that be Project B, Q, X, Y, or Z? In other words, we can rule out another version of Mercenaries 2 -- apparently this Wii project "could attract younger players."

We don't know how you all see it, but when it comes to the children, 'Pandemic' is for the children.

via joystiq ...

Speaking about the history of upstart developer That Game Company at GDC, President Kellee Santiago revealed an extremely interesting tidbit as to where flOw was heading on consoles. Two companies were interested in the title: Sony, as we all are now aware of, and Nintendo.

"That was the hardest decision we ever had to make, choosing between Sony and Nintendo," admitted Santiago. Speaking during the Q & A, Santiago clarified that "they weren't right for us at the time. Sony kind of came to us with the process of incubation ... They helped us get our studio started." Nintendo did not approach them; the team actually cornered them about Cloud at a prior Game Developers Conference. FlOw creator Jenova Chen chimed in, saying "in the end, we are game makers and not console makers," expressing his satisfaction working with Nintendo on other projects. That Game Company did not rule out working on the Wii in the future.

From our current impressions, we think Nintendo missed a golden opportunity here. We'll have more on That Game Company's presentation later in the day.

via joystiq ...

via GamePro

Capcom's Keiji Inafune doesn't buy into the whole "video games are an art form" spiel. The creative force behind such games as Lost Planet and the Mega Man series believes strongly that video games are first and foremost a business, and the level of success a game receives is proportional only to the number of copies it sells at the end of the day.

So with that mindset intact, Inafune didn't have many kind words to relay to the former producers at Clover, Capcom's now-defunct development studio previously responsible for Okami and Viewtiful Joe. In a session at GDC hosted by Newsweek's N'Gai Croal, he spoke candidly about Clover's inability to produce a successful bottom line in spite of rave critical reviews:

Perhaps I might get into trouble if I say this in front of people from the mass media. Games are not a work of art. It's actually a product. If we think of it as a work of art, then... when we think about Picasso and Van Gogh's paintings, the end result is beauty, so it doesn't matter if you sell it or not. However for games, it's a product. It is a commodity. The producer has to think about that.

Okami and Viewtiful Joe, I think, are wonderful games and because they are wonderful games I think, the job of the director was fantastic. But the producer didn't do his work. The producers work is to make the team make good games and then sell those games. The producer has to do the promotion. They have to think about the promotion. The producer has to take those good games and think about how to deliver it to as many users as possible. Certainly to get good reviews is part of his job. However, the producer has to make sure the game sells [on par with the review]. I think the producer dropped the ball there. Capcom said they would do it, but Clover said "Oh, we'll do it ourselves." And I think this was a failure.

Great directors may exist in great numbers, however, if you don't have a good producer it won't lead to sales. And I think this Clover Studios example is a really good example of that.

Consistent with other remarks made in the past (although not nearly as vocal), the Lost Planet team has made something of a name for themselves by evangelizing to Japanese development teams about the importance of broadening their global audience. Producer Jun Takeuchi himself had stated in a previous interview that most Japanese developers are in danger of isolating themselves by concentrating exclusively on Japanese niche markets.

Leave feedback via comments. ...

via GamePro

Microsoft plans to decrease focus on backwards compatibility in favor of concentrating on future Xbox 360 titles

It doesn't seem to be a good time for backwards compatibility, if one takes into account what Sony and Microsoft have had to say about the matter. While the downgrading of backwards compatibility on the PS3's European model made headlines across the world, very little has been stated recently on the progress to make more original Xbox games compatible with the Xbox 360.

Kotaku recently spoke with Microsoft rep Chris Satchell at the Microsoft Blogger Breakfast yesterday, and asked him about the status of future backwards compatibility updates. But, what he stated in response doesn't bode well for owners of Xbox games:

"At some point we're going to focus less on it. When you get to the end of this year there will be a reduced focus on backwards compatibility. There are so many 360 games out there. I don't know if it's important anymore."

It looks like backwards compatibility on next-gen consoles is turning out to be what it's supposed to be in the first place: a thing of the past.


Leave feedback via comments. ...

Publisher Take 2 Interactive may undergo vast changes in the wake of its annual general meeting - including, potentially, a sale of the company or of some of its business units.

That's according to CNN columnist Chris Morris, who reported today on his CNN/Money column that many industry insiders are predicting that a shareholder revolt, aimed at taking over the board of directors, will succeed.

The investors behind the revolt currently hold 46 per cent of Take 2's shares - and with both financial and public relations catastrophes still besetting the publisher, it's certainly possible that they could oust the board and with it, current CEO Paul Eibeler.

According to Morris' sources, if that happens Take Two could be immediately put up for sale - with plenty of interested parties both inside and outside the videogames industry likely to want to get their hands on franchises such as Grand Theft Auto. Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation is cited as a potential suitor, for one; the firm has long been interested in moving into the game sector, and in the past has contemplated deals including a takeover of Electronic Arts, which was ultimately abandoned as too costly.

The other option, Morris says, is that parts of Take Two would be sold off - possibly divesting the firm of all of its divisions with the exception of the vastly successful Rockstar Games label and studios, which develop and publish titles such as Grand Theft Auto, Bully / Canis Canem Edit and others.

via gibiz ...

For 3.03 OE-C Custom Firmware

While disabling some of my icon tex_focus files, I decided to try to make use of that annoying "blink".

Just leave parts of your icon transparent, (or don't and put text or whatever around it) and use the Zinga Burga's RCO Icon Editor 1.11 to change your tex_focus for that particular icon...

So far, we can only add white to this file, but maybe eventually, someone will find a way to add color.

NOTE: this wouldn't work with a 480x272 bg, because it corrupts the icons. So if you want a bg with more than just color gradients, then resize it to 250x142. Then rename it to 01-12.bmp

A huge thanks to Zinga Burga. His RCO editor, has made all kinds of incredible XMB hacks possible


Look at the memory stick icon:




It's simple enough.
If this seems confusing for some people, I will post a quick tutorial later tonight. ...

Via ZionMax

Yes, here it is. V3.0 of DreamChip.

DreamChip is a chip8 emulator ported & being optimised to the psp by zion.

Changelog :

- The emulator now runs in full screen mode.
- Flickering reduced (only seems to affect pong).
- Input working flawless (no more stickyness).
- Slight Speedup.
- More compatibility (games like space invaders now work)

Quite a few changes there

It was possible becuase i finally managed to get a working psp

So while this could have taken a while with me not having a psp, it ended up a lot faster with me having one

Plans For Dreamchip V4.0 :

- More compatibility (a few bugs are hampering a few games)
- Solve Flickering issue (flickering issue will be solved by the next release)
- File Browser (its been low on priority, but i will definatly incude in next release)
- Speed (more speed )

Thanks

Source code included

Download and Give Feedback Via Comments ...

via wiifanboy

We've had enough time now with the Wii to discover some real gems (how many hours have you put into just Wii Sports so far?) ... but like any system, there are also a few duds, particularly within the launch window. If you're looking to expand your collection, or if you're one of the Wii-less trying to figure out how to budget when your day comes, we're here to help you find the best and the worst of the Wii so far.

First up? The five best games according to metareviews of those titles released so far:

1. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
Metascore: 95%

Maybe everyone doesn't agree -- and we know some of you aren't terribly enthused by the Wii's premiere launch title -- but reviewers on the whole had nothing but praise for Link's latest epic adventure. And with the sales the title has boasted, unless you have been living firmly under a rock, it should be no surprise that this is tops on many Wii lists.


2. Wario Ware: Smooth Moves
Metascore: 83%

There's nothing like a game that encourages players to use the Wiimote to pick their noses. Wario Ware: Smooth Moves deserves the second slot on this list if only for all the comedic fodder and raised eyebrows it brings to this series of tubes we call home.


3. Madden NFL 07
Metascore: 81%

We've seen such mixed player reviews on this one that we're surprised it pulls in at number three. For football fans, the Wii's Madden NFL 07 seems to be a love-it-or-hate-it proposition, and enough reviewers loved it to make up for those who didn't.


4. Trauma Center: Second Opinion
Metascore: 80%

While we didn't find this particular edition of Trauma Center quite as soul-crushingly difficult as the DS version, we were definitely pleased with the move to the Wii. We're not surprised to see this one here at all, particularly after watching random people encourage others to buy it, sight unseen.


5. Rayman Raving Rabbids
Metascore: 76%

There are a lot of things that bunnies can't do, but we'll tell you what they can do, and that's rock your socks. While Super Monkey Ball has a few gems (though they're in the rough), and Wario Ware is a fun, frenetic challenge, Rayman Raving Rabbids shows us exactly why minigames are just so good on the Wii. This one has it all.

While we can mostly agree with the above as a representation of the best the Wii has to offer right now, we have to say ... as great games go, those scores seem a little low overall. Since the SSX Blur debacle, there have been some rumbling questions about reviews for Wii games in particular. Is the system so different that the old reviewers have trouble adjusting? Do you think the above scores are fair ... and are there other games that you think are better overall?

It's not all about reviews and scores, though. Sometimes, a game just has a certain something that defies all logic and reason, and even we here at Wii Fanboy are not immune. We'll even own up to our guilty pleasures.

Alisha: I can't deny it -- I spent a ridiculous amount of time playing Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam. I didn't even particularly like the game at first, but I'm what you might call a Tony Hawk obsessive devotee, so I had to give it a fair shot, and it quickly grew on me. I found the controls much more engaging than Excite Truck (which is somewhat similar in control style), and it's definitely fun for multiplayer races.


Dave: Elebits, because I never really grew out of loving to play hide and seek. That and I get evil fun from trashing the neighborhood capturing those poor, defenseless, cute little guys.

Frankly, we're shocked. Shocked! That Dave seemed like such a nice fellow.

But what good is a list of the best without a little something to balance it out? While we love the Wii like ice cream, we're not above admitting that not everything has been exactly spectacular. So which three games have racked up the worst reviews so far?

1. Far Cry Vengeance
Metascore: 38%

At first, it seemed like everything was gonna be okay ... and then ... well, the review scores are worth a thousand words. So far, Far Cry Vengeance sports the worst scores of any Wii game, and serves as a good lesson that sometimes, graphics do matter.


2. GT Pro Series
Metascore: 41%

Once we saw the first screens from GT Pro Series, it quickly became the game everyone loved to hate, and for good reason. We've seen better pictures slapped onto refrigerators with a magnet before.


3. Rapala Tournament Fishing!
Metascore: 42%

Fishing may seem like a natural fit for the Wii, but this isn't the game to prove it. Shoddy controls and subpar graphics mean that not many are nibbling at Rapala's hook.

So there you have it -- the top contenders and the bottom of the barrel. With a lot to look forward to in the coming months, we doubt that the top five will remain static until the end of the year. Is it possible that something could take the top spot away from Twilight Princess? 95% is tough ...

New from SuccessHK



Specialise in design for Wii remote control, multi-color and design bring to you different mood.
Special craftwork treatment and no remnant pastern
With preventign slippery function, let you reach success easily in the game.
Precision measure and easy to use.
Protecting your remote control completely and can be reuse. ...