news via devmaster

Paris, France, February 22, 2007- Dassault Systèmes (DS) (Nasdaq: DASTY; Euronext Paris: #13065, DSY.PA), a world leader in 3D and Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) solutions, today announced the preview of a new Virtools solution for faster and easier developments on Nintendo’s new Wii™ console. The versatility of the Virtools platform, combined with 14 years of experience in virtual reality, allows faster and easier development on the Wii console.

“By delivering innovative solutions for the Wii, we are providing a powerful solution to developers, game designers and graphics artists, boosting all aspects of game development creativity” says Virgile Delporte, Virtools vice president of Electronic Entertainment for Dassault Systèmes.

Thanks to this new solution, especially the Wii Remote™ building block and Wii Remote client, Virtools components which allowing the access of Wii controllers on PCs with Virtools 4, authorized Wii game developers are now able see results in hours and tune their game play on the fly. Virtools technology is the most adapted platform for creative game development whileNintendo’s Wii console represents the perfect console for game developers to unleash their creativity. Virtools powerful render engine is currently being ported and optimized for the Wii console.

Dassault Systèmes’ Virtools will be present at the Game Developer Conference 2007, which is being held in San Francisco, March 5–9. To see demonstrations of this new technology, visit Virtools at booth 454 WH.

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news via nintendojo

The director of PlayStation 2's soon to be released God of War II recently received a Wii as a gift from his design team, and spent some time getting to know Nintendo's shiny white console. His final verdict?

Cory Barlog has played better.

"I must be honest it was not everything I had hoped it would be. It was fun… but the wow factor wore off fairly quick," said Barlog of Wii on his blog. Barlog mentioned his perceived inaccuracy of the Wii Remote during his play time with Trauma Center. He went on to question how much longer people would keep buying into Wii's motion sensing capabilities, referring to Wii as essentially a slimmed-down version of GameCube.

The GoW II director didn't completely bash Nintendo's console, praising the aforementioned slim form of Wii. "Very petite... I kind of like that since there really is no space left in my home theater cabinet," stated Barlog. "Big ups on that one Nintendo!"

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As you know Sonic and the secret rings is out and burning up the charts with its wild fire of traditional and new elements of game play. The folks over at IGN have already given it a score.
Be warned. Hard core sonic fans should take this with a grain of salt. As IGN is known to be blunt, direct and in rare cases even flat out mistaken. ( Recalls a certain negative kingdom heart 2 interview)

Anyhoo here is what IGN had to say about Sonic and the secret rings.

"Sonic and the Secret Rings is my favorite entry into the franchise since its 2D roots. That's high praise for some, I'm quite certain. Bearing that in mind, if you really liked the Sonic Adventure titles for Dreamcast or GameCube, I think you will find much more to be excited about in this Wii-exclusive undertaking. I can tell you that the experience is more fun and more beautiful than any other – at least, as far as I'm concerned. But that being true, there are still flaws – big ones – and I'm less willing to tolerate and forgive them now that 3D games have fully evolved and we've seen exactly what great developers can do in the third dimension. Sonic Team has taken a giant step in the right direction here, and of that there is little doubt, which is why I hope that more time and attention goes into the camera system and level designs for the inevitable sequel.

I want to take moment to specifically explain the score. For me, Sonic and the Secret Rings offers moments of greatness where I find myself caught up in the intensity of the experience and, oppositely, moments where I want to pull my hair out or throw the Wii remote down because of imprecise control or insulting design choices. I think that some gamers, particularly diehard Sonic fans, will be able to get past these drawbacks and enjoy the great times, which are also in supply. However, for me it's really pretty simple. Call me harsh, but I don't believe you should be forced to deal with the bad to enjoy the good and hence, I've scored the game with that in mind. "
IGN

Giving Sonic a overall passable grade of 6.9.
Still us true sonic fans know. An IGN grade of 6.9 equals out to a high 8 in "the land of reality"
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As some ps3 fans may already know. Tekken 5 Dark Resurrection is in the process of being nipped/tucked to become a ps3 downloadable. Recently Haruki Suzaki, The Tekken project director
Gave an interesting interview to the folks over at IGN.

Here is what that interview had to say. about this much anticipated downloadable.

IGN: Thanks for taking time out to quickly answer a couple of our questions. First up, how long was the team working on this port?

Haruki Suzaki: The Japanese version took about two and a half months.

IGN: One question we've gotten from readers since the day the game was announced is what improvements will we see over the arcade version? Is it only an upscaling to 1080p or is there more to it than that?

Suzaki: The best part about this game is the fact that it is a complete port of the arcade version of Tekken 5 Dark Resurrection. You will find that nothing has been changed about the nature of the game play itself. On top of that, it is fully HD compatible, which means that the graphics will look exceptional on any wide-screen TV that are becoming so widely available on the market these days. Being the console version, players will be able to play as Jinpachi Mishima, who has only appeared as a boss character in Tekken 5 and Tekken 5DR up until now.

IGN: How challenging was it to move Tekken from an arcade game to a PS3 downloadable title? What was the most difficult hurdle you had to overcome?


Suzaki: In a technical sense, it wasn't very difficult to port this game since the PS3 hardware is more powerful compared to the arcade hardware. Since the ability to display graphics differ so greatly, we had a difficult time recreating the stages and rearranging the combinations of the characters. It was difficult for us to reach our goal of 1080p. In addition, the short development time span represented to be the biggest setback for us, as we had not initially set aside time for this in our schedule.

IGN: Have you added anything new to the backgrounds or additional polygons or texture detail to the character models?:

Suzaki: Since the arcade version usually requires more detail than the console version, we were able to use the backgrounds, textures and character models just the way they were. In the past, we actually had to remove polygons or make the size of the texture smaller for the console version, but being a complete port this time, this is the first time we were able to fully utilize the assets. With the high definition graphics this time we had to use refine certain areas where the texture was rough.

IGN: Are you considering adding downloadable content or perhaps an online-multiplayer patch?

Suzaki: We initially planned to have the Gallery Mode as an additional downloadable content. If the demand is large enough, we may consider adding this feature. Actually, half of the downloadable contents in the US version were not originally available in the Japanese version. Other additions are undecided at the moment.

IGN: Will there be any other differences between the US and Japanese versions at all?

Suzaki: No, there will not be any difference between the US and Japanese versions

IGN: Were there adjustments made to characters in the PSP version and if so, will those adjustments be moved to your port of the arcade version? Are the characters 100% true to the arcade original?


Suzaki: We did not make any adjustments to the character for the PSP version and there will be no adjustments to this time either. For the PSP version though, we had to work around the mechanics of the character receiving damage as they hit the wall as a result of an attack due to difference in hardware. However, this time there is no difference in mechanics between the arcade versions this time; we were even able to keep this aspect the same.

IGN: Will you include any of the PSP version's exclusive modes?

Suzaki: Since this title was intended to be a compact port of the arcade version, there will be no PSP exclusive modes. However, a handful of features that were popular in the PSP version were included. For example, the idea of the Ghost Battle Mode, where players can earn fight money bonus depending on the outcome came from the PSP Gold Rush Mode.

IGN: On a totally unrelated note, SEGA's Katsuhiro Harada and yourself acknowledged several years ago that a "Tekken vs. Virtua Fighter" game was something you'd like to do one day. What are the chances of us ever seeing that?

Suzaki: I had the opportunity to speak with the director of Virtual Fighter on many occasions in the past and actually talk of collaboration came up again recently. Being from the same industry, this is something we definitely would like to ...

via MCV

Spong reports that whilst Nintendo still sees a place in the market for its struggling last-gen machine, manufacturing efforts have now shifted over to the likes of Wii, DS and Game Boy Advance.

“Are we producing any more GameCubes? No,” Nintendo of America’s vice president of marketing and corporate affairs Perrin Kaplin explained in an interview with GameDaily. “But do we have the inventory there for people to still purchase? Yes.

“Just like the PS2 sold really well this past holiday, GameCube is a great starter system – price, ease, games. Every one of the consoles has had its cycle and every single one of them has become a great starter system at the last leg of its cycle, and that's where GameCube's at.”

Kaplan also went on to confirm that Nintendo will not release any new games for the system – a decision reinforced by the company’s recent change of heart in relation to Super Paper Mario. That platformer was announced for GameCube at last year’s E3, but has since gone on to become a Wii-only title.

“If you're a core gamer you wouldn't buy a GameCube,” she continued. “It's not aimed at you anymore. But for new people as a starter system, how many games are there for them to pick from? Plenty.

“I mean, I wasn't the first to buy an iPod. By the time I bought it, it came to a price where I wanted it to be and looked the way I wanted it to look. So we're not selling GameCube to the people who are hardcore players and want all the gadgetry – we're going after the people who never really bought a system before now it’s finally at a price that they can afford for their family.” ...

new release via bhunter



heres what he had to say-

This is a PC based application which will reorder your Game menu on your PSP to the order you select.

Handy to be able to mix up your Homebrew files and its just great to make sure that the Recovery folder lives down the bottom.

Cheers

Blade Hunter

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news via cubed3

With developers watching the Wii's userbase grow at a rapid rate, various studios have recently announced a shift in production to try to meet the demand for their games on Nintendo's system. In a recent call with investors, Midway announced an increase in Wii production.

According to Gamasutra, Midway had been "bullish" toward the Wii since the console's launch, however will "look more significantly at the Wii going forward", with two currently unannounced projects in the pipeline for Q3/4 2007.

The added Wii support, officials noted, was due to an increasing userbase and lower development costs in comparison to the two powerhouses Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3.

Positive news for Wii, hopefully bringing some Midway titles with meat instead of mediocre brand tie-ins.

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news via indystar

Families who have been cutting their gaming teeth on "Wii Sports" will be a little disappointed with "Wii Play," Nintendo's newest collection of easy-to-learn minigames.

While the "Wii Play" games will turn the Wii controller into a fishing rod that you pull up on to hook fish or a pool cue to smack balls on a virtual billiards table, the nine games just aren't as much fun to play as those found in "Wii Sports," and they lack depth. Touted as a follow-up title to "Wii Sports," "Wii Play" also misses the boat for group play by limiting the multiplayer option to two people instead of four.

However, like "Wii Sports," "Wii Play" does offer easy entree into playing video games and encourages those new to video gaming to give it a try. And for families who haven't bought enough controllers, "Wii Play" comes packaged with one at a reasonable price.

"Wii Play" offers nine games in either single- or two-player mode. By playing the games in order, you unlock them. The first is "Shooting Range," a game of point-and-shoot target practice involving balloons, clay pigeons, soda cans and UFOs. Four of the games are adaptations of common activities: table tennis, fishing, billiards and air hockey. Two others involve matching Miis (Miis are on-screen characters generated by the game and that you create to represent you). In "Find Mii," you scan other Miis' faces to match pairs or triplets. With "Pose Mii," you twist the Wii controller to make your Mii match the position of the silhouette floating in a bubble. A cow-racing game and a strategy game called "Tanks!" round out the selections.

Our kid testers, avid fans of "Wii Sports," excitedly put the "Wii Play" game through its paces. The Wii controller turned out to be a responsive paddle to send the puck flying across the "Laser Hockey" table. When turned on its side, the controller was an effective way to control the cow that was racing down the road in the game called "Charge!" Tilt the controller forward and the cow goes faster, yank the controller up rapidly and the bovine jumps over obstacles. Tilt it left or right, and the cow veers in that direction. Testers had some trouble with the billiards game, because the controls were sometimes nonresponsive. The "Find Mii" game reminded them of hunting for people in the "Where's Waldo" books.

Our testers enjoyed the novelty of exploring all nine games, but they would rather play "Wii Sports" because those games have more depth and provide endless game play. When playing a tennis game in "Wii Sports," the game is always fresh because it depends on your finesse to add topspin or a slice to the ball. With "Wii Play," the similar game of table tennis is lackluster because you simply place your paddle to hit the ball back (as in the arcade game "Pong") and you can't add spins or fancy serves to keep the game interesting. The "Wii Play" games got old quickly.

Here's the bottom line: "Wii Play" costs $50 and comes with a Wii controller. That additional controller is worth $40 so the cost of "Wii Play" is really only $10. If your family could use another controller, this collection of games will provide some short-term entertainment.

Rating: 3 stars (out of 5)

Best for ages 6 and up

From Nintendo, www.nintendo.com, $50, Nintendo Wii.

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news via itweek

The Nintendo Wii is outselling its closest competitor in the console wars by nearly 50 per cent, according to January sales data for Norht America from analyst firm NPD.

Nintendo sold 436,000 units in the month, data from the firm indicates. Sony's previous generation PS2 claimed the second position with 299,000 units, trailed by Microsoft's Xbox 360 (294,000 units) and the PS3 (244,000 units).

David Riley, senior marketing manager with NPD, told vnunet.com that all three console makers performed well.

But Nintendo outsold its competitors because it offered a more innovative product that is easy to use and set up and featured strong game titles at launch. It also sells at a better price point and didn't suffer from a limited availability as much as the PS3, Riley commented.

The Wii retails in the US for $250, compared to $300 and $400 for two versions of the Xbox 360, and $500 and $600 for Playstation 3 models. Microsoft launched its Xbox 360 in 2005. Both Nintendo and Sony started shipping their latest consoles last November.

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