Finally the US Version of the game has been released:



Put a puppy inside your Nintendo DS! Described as a "puppy simulator", this innovative new title gives you a small amount of money to purchase your own puppy...and from there, the sky's the limit! Using the Nintendo DS's built-in microphone, you can name your dog, and then teach him tricks! Nintendogs also makes heavy use of the DS Touch Screen. Use the stylus to pet your dog, rub him on the belly, or touch his nose! But be careful: different dog breeds have different personalities, and not all like to be treated the same way.

More info/buy here --> http://www.yesasia.com/?/info.php?pro...0&lsaid=219793 ...

Activision has announced UK release dates for Call of Duty 3.

The Xbox 360 version will be arrive in stores on 10th November, the publisher says, while the PlayStation 2 version is due out on 24th November.

Interestingly, Activision is quoting 1st December for the Nintendo Wii version, although the console itself isn't due out in Europe until 8th December.

As for the PlayStation 3 version, that's going to follow along with the console next March (or, you know, whenever).

Call of Duty 3, of course, is being developed by Treyarch and aims to combine more of the series' historical accuracy and reverence for the subject matter with its similarly trademark cinematic intensity. You can read more about how the developer's bringing these apparently conflicting elements together in our recent hands-on with the game. ...

Emulation-packed PMPs are becoming a dime a dozen these days, but Ainol's V1000 manages to add a few impressive touches to the media-playing side of this two-faced device. The landscape oriented unit sports a sleek, silver enclosure with a simple five button control layout, and boasts a 2.5-inch QVGA display, 400MHz ADI Blackfin processor, and the ability to give every retro gamer his / her fill of NES emulation. Aside from the obvious Mario love, it supports AVI / MP4 video playback at 30 frames per second, and plays nice with MP3, WMA, and FLAC audio formats on the musical side. Handling all those audiophile-approved lossless files is the 512MB / 1GB of internal storage, while the addition of an SD slot ensures room for that bulging ROM collection. Although details concerning battery life, availability, connectivity, and price aren't yet available, we're sure these handy all-in-ones will be popping up in China's gadget shops real soon.

Screen Via Comments ...

It's not like we haven't seen plenty of PMPs already that sport a modicum of gaming controls and enough pep to manage a NES or SNES emulator, but the new Gemei X-900 sure goes the extra mile. The 4.3-inch screened device is really quite svelte, at a mere 0.6-inches thick, but you can bulk up with some dedicated controls to spice things up, which include dual analog sticks along with the usual compliment of buttons. Otherwise, it's pretty standard fare -- though the PMP does manage a small built-in camera. The screen sports a 480 x 272 resolution, there's 1GB of built-in flash memory along with an SD expansion slot, and the codec support includes FLAC, MP3, WMA for audio, along with AVI and MPEG-4 for video. Battery life isn't too shabby, at 25 hours for audio and 6 hours for video, and the usual FM tuner and voice recording are present as well. Unfortunately, CNET sez those gaming controls aren't quite as great as they look, but we suppose they really couldn't hurt. No word on price or availability, but we're probably not going to see this thing around these parts anytime soon.

Screen Via Comments ...

The Wii controller's resemblance to a TV remote sure hasn't been lost on us -- hence the affectionate "Wiimote" moniker that most people have assigned to the unique little controller -- but it doesn't look like it's been lost on Nintendo either. They've just shipped Wiimotes of the channel changing variety to Platinum members of Nintendo Japan's Club Nintendo rewards program. Platinum members also received a wall calendar with artwork from main Nintendo franchises, but somehow we're guessing they'll be a bit more excited by this TV remote that fully apes the form of one of the most discussed game peripherals of all time. The excitable kids professional reviewers over at IGN are sure pumped. They've posted up an unboxing of their unit, along with the inevitable comparison shots with other gaming peripherals, TV remotes and slices of bread, etc. Of course, even with those snazzy Japanese labels for each button, we can't imagine this thing would be too incredibly useful as a TV/home theater remote, but it should do fine for fanboys in search of a little wrist conditioning to get in shape for the Wii launch.

Screens Via Comments ...

Apparantly Sony have been releasing UMDs to YourPSP members containing Beta versions of firmware 3.0. Wonder howe long it'll take before it ends up on the internet?



Added features-
Gif playback
Quicktime playback
Playstation One emulator
Watching flash videos on web browser
Streaming wmvs on psp browser

Hmmmmmm, interesting?

Update: its a big bit of fake pie, live and learn eh.

Come on Sony dish the goods. ...

Via CVG

Can tilting the Wii Remote provide an immersive driving experience or do we need an official Nintendo racing wheel?

The movement-sensitive Wii Remote provides developers with untold gameplay possibilities, not least the opportunity to form a makeshift wheel using its tilt-sensing functionality.

Quick to exploit this gameplay mechanic, Nintendo's Excite Truck and Ubisoft's two racers, Monster Trucks and GT Pro Series, all have players holding the controller on its side, tilting it left and right to steer the vehicles round the course.

CVG has played both Excite Truck and Mosnter Trucks, paying particular focus on how well this new control style works. The first and most important thing to note is that the technology itself works fine, both games picking up our movements with the greatest of accuracy and making for a solid gameplay experience.

Although Excite Truck made us, and many forum goers, concerned that this control system might be a little too loose, there were numerous gameplay videos revealing journalists, who you'd assume to be seasoned gamers, driving like they had their eyes shut.

But with Nintendo promising to give players a sensitivity option, and after a recent hands-on with Monster Trucks, which was far easier to control than Excite Truck, we have every confidence that the Wii controller forms a perfectly functional steering wheel.

The problem? There are two: the Wii controller isn't shaped anything like a steering wheel, and it's not locked to a central pivot point, like a normal wheel. The first problem has a negative effect on the illusion of it all - how can you feel like your driving a big truck when the 'wheel' in your hand is just a little white stick. It's nothing like the steering wheels on arcade machines, or even as visceral as the PS2 steering wheel with force-feedback.

Ubisoft's answer is a plastic wheel attachment in which you slot the Wii Remote to recreate the feeling of a wheel. It doesn't contain any technical parts - it's simple a plastic shell that the Remote fits into. Yes, this solves the first issue, and in a recent playtest, we found Ubi's attachment to be very comfy indeed, and getting it free with every copy of Monster Trucks and GT Pro Series makes it an even more attractive proposition. It will also work with Excite Truck, and any future driving game of the same control style because, as we explained, it's simply a frame in which to hold the Wii Remote, not a technical component.

But that doesn't solve issues of the wheel lacking a central pivot. Without this pivot your hands have no externally enforced stability. You might say that, with your hands simply left to float on their own as you viciously tilt the Remote left and right, this is a further compromise of the visceral feeling you should get from a steering wheel.

The obvious solution would be for a publisher or third-party peripheral manufacturer to create a wheel frame similar to Ubisoft's, but with a brace attachment that locks it to a table top or sits between your legs while in a seated position.

This would provide the perfect central pivot, but then problems of compatibility arise with games like Monster Trucks, which has you physically moving the controller in circular motions to perform stunts. If the wheel is locked to a pivot, these movements wouldn't be possible, rendering the game unplayable.

We think a detachable wheel would be the ultimate solution - giving gamers the option to attach the wheel for a locked, pivotal experience when compatible with the game they wish to play, and releasing the wheel to play more physically demanding games like Monster Trucks.

On the other hand, players who intend simply to use the Wii Remote alone to throw their Wii-racers around courses can expect responsive control, and even despite the controller's size and shape, it surely enhances the illusion further than an analogue stick ever could - which is the whole point of the Wii.

But what really matters, though, is YOUR opinion, so get yourself into the comments section and throw down your thoughts, opinions, ideas and idealistic driving game fantasies. And check back next week for a full hands-on preview of Ubisoft's Monster Trucks. ...

Swing your mouse pointer downwards to check out six sunny new shots of Jack Carver unleashing his feral abilities in Far Cry Vengeance on Wii.

Graphically, we can't see any improvements over the Far Cry Instinct Evolution on Xbox, but we're looking forward to seeing if Ubisoft has used the Wii controller to sharpen up the relatively loose controls of the Xbox game.

Far Cry Vengeance is one of eight Ubisoft titles due to launch aside the Wii on December 8. Eight games - crikey, they've been busy.

Screens At CVG ...

November is looking like a busy month for 360 shooter fans. The carnage kicks off on Xbox 360 first on November 10, with Gears Of War and Rainbow 6: Vegas following only weeks later.

The PS2 version is due on November 24 and World War Wii launches on December 1, a week before Nintendo's next-gen system goes in sale in Europe. The PS3 version is currently set for next March.

Interestingly there's a distinct lack of ANY release date for the Xbox version, which was seen up and running only a few weeks ago at an Activision event in Paris.

We know that because we were there. We've put a call into Activision to see it the Xbox version has been quietly canned, but no one was available to comment. ...