Via IGN

Today Namco Bandai announced that Tamagotchi: Party On! for the Wii will be coming to North America this Spring. Party On! is a port of the Japanese launch title Tamagotchi Pika Pika Daitouryou, or Tamagotchi's Sparklilng President. The party game set in the Tamagotchi universe supports up to four players in a race to become the most popular Tamagotchi on Tamagotchi Planet.

"Tamagotchi Party On! is a seamless blend of both party game and board game as players swing, shake, and turn their Wii controllers in order to control their favorite Tamagotchi," said Naruo Uchida, Namco Bandai's Vice President of Localization. "It's the wackiest and cutest popularity contest ever as up-to-four players compete in fun mini-games to become the president of Tamagotchi planet."

Party On! allows players to choose their favorite virtual pet and either challenge their friends or go solo in over 15 mini-games that include shaking hands, finding lost children, and testing your public speaking skills. In order to win the election, players will have to call upon every politician's favorite political tool: the Wiimote.

Gamers can also use Gotchi points that they earn along the way to level up their characters and customize their campaign headquarters. With over six towns to win over and loads of popularity points to be earned, Tamagotchi Party On! hopes to inject some fun into politics. In Namco Bandai's own words: "Be happy! Be popular! Be president!" ...

Via IGN

Having already dominated US skies on Xbox 360 and PlayStation, Ubisoft has announced that Blazing Angels, its WWII plane-based shooter, is flying on Sony's next-gen console in time for its March launch (whenever that is, obviously). What's more, the game will hit our shores boasting brand new content and improved graphics compared to the Xbox 360 version.

As one of the world's finest fighter pilots, your stiffest upper lip is required to get through some of the most famous and action-packed sky battles from 1939 onwards, including the Battle of Britain and Pearl Harbour. To make the experience as realistic as possible players can use the SIXAXIS's motion-sensing capabilities to pilot their aircraft, tilting the pad to fly. It'll be just like being in the cockpit of a Spitfire.


To celebrate the imminent arrival of Blazing Angels in UK skies, IGN went behind enemy lines at Ubisoft Romania to interrogate the game's lead designer, Bogdan Bridinel, about prepping the PS3's hottest historical fighter for take off.

IGN: How has the introduction of the SIXAXIS's motion sensing added to the gameplay, and how sensitive and accurate is it compared to the analogue controls?

Bogdan Bridinel: Initially, we didn't know what to expect from the SIXAXIS controls but they turned out surprisingly well. While they do not offer the same level of accuracy as the analogue controls, the accuracy is still quite good and the freshness of the experience easily makes up for the somewhat higher difficulty. We certainly see players using the motion sensing controls and having fun with them, although we can't say for how many players they will actually become the standard playing method.

IGN: Why did you decide to rewrite and re-record the dialogues from the Xbox 360 version?

Bogdan Bridinel: Before starting on the PS3 port we did a review of the criticisms aimed at the 360 game and tried to see which of the problems could be fixed in the time that we had. Rewriting and re-recording the dialogues was not exactly a small enterprise, but we felt it was absolutely necessary, seeing that the dialogues of the original version had been almost universally criticised.

IGN: Although the game was released last year in America on PS3, can we expect to see any improvements for Europe, bearing in mind the additional development time you've had?

Bogdan Bridinel: The PAL version will be identical to the US one.

IGN: Some of the gameplay elements have been improved for this PS3 version - can you explain what these refinements are and why you chose to include them?

Bogdan Bridinel: Most of the changes are refinements based on our post mortem of the game and on the feedback that we received from players and the press. There are many tweaks to the missions and the game mechanics aimed at making the game less linear and more challenging, but also a number of more significant changes. More playing styles are now catered for, as the game offers a cockpit view and the option to switch to a simulator-style control method. Some new HUD elements like a radar were added to give the player more awareness and therefore more options. Plus a new multiplayer mode, called Assault, has been included, along with two new single player missions. The dialogues were completely reworked.


IGN: When you're including new content, at what point do you have to stop yourself and consider that maybe you should make a follow-up instead? Would it have been easier to start from scratch with this version rather than tweaking the 360 game?

Bogdan Bridinel: Tweaking an old game is definitely easier than making one from scratch, but it's true that the scope of the changes we made in the PS3 version is bigger than what you normally see in a port. We simply felt that it would be a pity if we released the game unchanged, when there were issues with it that could be easily, or reasonably easy to change. The only difficulty was in drawing the line between reasonable and unreasonable, as at times we did find ourselves getting carried away and thinking about changes that would be more suited in a sequel.

IGN: How well are World War II games received across Europe? Do you have to tweak content for different countries or is the same game released across the whole continent?

Bogdan Bridinel: Sensitivity is definitely required, but our approach was to make just one version for all territories, making sure that the content that would not prove problematic in any of the European countries.

IGN: The PS3 game already features two new missions - will these ever come to Xbox 360?

Bogdan Bridinel: No, the two missions will not be released on the Xbox Live Marketplace. They are exclusive to the PS3 version and were created specifically for it. ...

News/release from Grizzly Adams


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via dsfanboy

With this new barrage of Sim City DS images comes a nifty piece of information -- players will be able to trade certain city elements over WiFi. That does add an interesting spin to portable city building, and we can't wait to hear more about it. In the meantime, however, screens!

Screens Via Comments ...

New release of the Music player for GP2X fromWejp

...

Gnostic posted this news:

Nightshift 2007 Official Webpage
Register

Welcome to Nightshift 2007, Türkiye's biggest demoscene event. Creative minds work the nightshift where the continents meet : İstanbul. We'll all meet again for more productive and creative purposes. Bunch of people are gathering for the digital arts! Pure programming, designing and composing together. Here is your chance to join the different side of the “real computer” world.

Many activies, workshops, legendary computers like Commodore 64 & Amiga, many new generation devices like Playstation Portable (PSP), GP2X and more... Come and join the fun, meet with new people, see how they work, create and show! New technologies, video animations, video art, photography and more...

Chance to meet with Demoscene Legends, oldskool sceners, new skool sceners. Türkiye's famous demoscene groups/teams, great workshops , seminars & presentations. We've got all you need! Come and enjoy the feeling of being different! Let's live this unforgetable moments together at İstanbul Bilgi University's Student Hall. ...

via zodttd

It seems an anonymous person released a rip of the new GP2X value pack's 3.0.0 firmware. Get more information and it's download here:
http://www.gp2x.de/cgi-bin/cfiles.cgi?0,0,0,0,42,2027

And yes, it's real and working. ...

WFCStatus by Kevin is a status viewer for Nintendo's WiFi connection. It basically reads all the data from Nintendo's website without loading tons of animations and images in a browser.

Features
Global Wi-Fi Gaming Service Status
Online status for 11 gamehubs
Gamehub Player Stats (Top 5 Most Active & Player Logins)
Overall Gaming Stats (Top 5 Most Active & Player Logins)
Detailed Day vs. Night Activity graphs for all games
Now Online! Showing 20 random online gamers
Get notified when your nick shows up in Now Online! (11 games)
View stats for more than 50 wi-fi enabled DS and Wii games
View stats and online players for homebrew wi-fi games (OMalone 2 )

View the Last 20 Tetris DS Scores
Animal Crossing Wild World Events Calender
Easy DS and Wii Errorcode Submit
Runs in system tray

Heres whats new:


Download and Give feedback Via Comments ...

WFCStatus by Kevin is a status viewer for Nintendo's WiFi connection. It basically reads all the data from Nintendo's website without loading tons of animations and images in a browser.

Features
Global Wi-Fi Gaming Service Status
Online status for 11 gamehubs
Gamehub Player Stats (Top 5 Most Active & Player Logins)
Overall Gaming Stats (Top 5 Most Active & Player Logins)
Detailed Day vs. Night Activity graphs for all games
Now Online! Showing 20 random online gamers
Get notified when your nick shows up in Now Online! (11 games)
View stats for more than 50 wi-fi enabled DS and Wii games
View stats and online players for homebrew wi-fi games (OMalone 2 )

View the Last 20 Tetris DS Scores
Animal Crossing Wild World Events Calender
Easy DS and Wii Errorcode Submit
Runs in system tray

Heres whats new:


Download and Give feedback Via Comments ...