Lumines Live! To Get New Song And Add-on Pack

"Q Entertainment today announced that the self-produced Genki Rockets' song Heavenly Star," now available as a downloadable iTune song, will hit Xbox Live Marketplace as part of the "Heavenly Star Pack" in January 2007.

Lumines Live! hit the Xbox 360 Marketplace October 18 to mixed reactions, thanks to its mixture of great gameplay and unfortunately deceptive packaging. Q Entertainment's game felt unfinished, as several modes prompted gamers to buy add-on packs to "complete" them.

Q Entertainment didn't reveal a price for the Heavenly Star Pack. However, IGN learned today that Microsoft and Q have listened to gamers' complaints about its pricing structure and may sell it for cheap come the New Year. The song is purchasable for US$0.99 or 150 yen on iTunes."

Source

This is riduculous. The game should NOT have came out unfinished. And now they want you to pay even more just so you can have the full game. Talking about pulling an EA on it's customers.

Genius New Warioware Footage

I challenge anybody who says this game doesn't look amazing. Watch and laugh.

Great Video Demonstrating Elebits' Edit Mode

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I'm not interested in this game at all, but it really does make it look good from this video. I loved when he bashed the igloo with the bed and millions of Elebits came out. I could see some people being really creative and making brilliant levels with this.

Penny Arcade Wii Injuries Comic

These guys are putting funny comic, after funny comic. Click on the picture for a larger version. Great work. Source.

New Far Cry Trailer (May Contain Traces Of Raving Rabbids).

Those rabbids have to be the funniest video game charachters ever. It is unbearably funny when they scream and their eyesballs move outwards, and...and...

Brilliant New Warioware:Smooth Moves Video

Updated video.

Blue Dragon:Number 4 In Japan This Week

"Following its major showing at this year's Tokyo Game Show, Microsoft and Mistwalker's first joint game, Blue Dragon, is off to a good start in Japan. Mistwalker's Blue Dragon secured a place as the number four best selling game for the week, having sold 80,348 units.

Blue Dragon is only the second Xbox 360 game to make the top 10 Japanese charts, selling nearly twice as many units as Tecmo's Dead or Alive Xtreme 2. Given the number of new Xbox 360s sold in the recent week, 35,343, Mistwalker's game appears to have compelled many new users to buy an Xbox 360 solely for the RPG itself."

Source

This is hopefully the start of the Xbox 360 being accepted in Japan. It has got off to the worse start possible, with almost no games that look to interest the Japanese public, but now it seems to be selling a bit better than usual with the release of Blue Dragon.

First Wii Online Game Video

Video.

I really like the looks of it even though I have no interest in that game. It looks interesting and the interface seems to just blend in. In looks the same as single player basicly which is a good thing.

Gamespot Gave Zelda:Tp 1 Point Higher On Gamecube Than Wii

The extra one point was for the "Sound" catagory. I find this very strange.

Top 10 Franchises That Need A Redesign

Interesting article concerning the top 10 games that need a redesign. The number 1 spot is exactly what I thought of as soon as I saw the title. I mean, Sonic has needed to go back to its roots for years now. It has just been bad game after bad game for the franchise nowadays. They need to go back to their roots, I would even suggest a 2d version of Sonic (A new version) for the DS. Nothing new like what Sonic:Rush on DS attemped, just classic Sonic gameplay. It would be nice to see Sonic rise up again.

Friday-Virtual Console Updated

Virtual Console European Releases, Friday 15

NES - 500 Wii Points

Pinball (1986)
Solomon's Key (1990)
Urban Champion (1986)

TURBOGRAFX - 600 Points

Alien Crush (1989)

MEGA DRIVE - 800 Wii Points

Columns (1991)
Dr. Robotonik's Mean Bean Machine (1993)
Gunstar Heroes (1993)
Ristar (1995)

Not really interested in any of these games, probaly won't buy any of these few when I get my Wii at Christmas. Source

Weekly Australian Sales Figures

Ah, the DS charts. The console that has been selling the most consoles and games for months on end. Pokemon Ranger up top, no suprise really as Pokemon always sell. Good to see New Super Mario Bros still up there after the months.

Gears of war at the top of the list is a no-brainer after the news that it sold over 2 million copies in 24 days.


Zelda at the top, again. Rayman is right up there, wasn't expecting that even though I bought it.

The Legend Of Zelda:Twilight Princess, number 1. No suprise really as it is a Zelda game after all, and was the main game at the Wii launch.

To see more click here.

Lost Planet To Be Improved Greatly By Patch At Lunch

Some of the improvements from the demo:

• Private slots can be set by host.


• Invite friends to a match.


• Number of players in a room will be displayed next to name of the room.


• Players will not be kicked all the way out to the main menu if they try to join a full game.


• New button allows players to refresh the match list without going out to the main menu and selecting Quick Match again.


• Players will now go to a post-game lobby at the end of a match, not kicked back to the main menu.


• The ability to replay a match with the same group without leaving the post-game lobby.


• Cycling maps on replayed matches when map selection is set to Random.


• Text size on the team selection screen will be greatly increased when using non-HD resolutions.


• When manual team selection is set to ON, players will have 20 seconds to form teams.


• The time limit on each match will be maxed out at 60 minutes, instead of the current unlimited time.


• A player's custom match criteria will now be saved.

Source

Some very nice additions in there, the text in the multiplayer was so hard to read. It's very nice to see some game developers using demos to improve the final product.

Gears Of War Sells 2 Million Copies In 24 Days

"Microsoft announced today that Gears of War has sold more than 2 million copies worldwide. This third-person shooter is also breaking new records on Xbox Live with more than 1 million unique gamers engaging in 10 million online gameplay sessions and unlocking an impressive 7 million achievements. In addition to being the most playable game on Xbox Live, Gears of War has driven new subscribers to Xbox Live, with paid registrations per day increasing more than 50 percent since the game’s launch. "

2 million. Already. Wow. It deserves it though, it is such an amazing game.

New Halo 3 Trailer To Hit Marketplace, Brutes Playable!

"On December 20 a new Halo 3 video will be available on marketplace. It’s a seven-minute video that will be released next week. It highlights the emergence of the Brutes as playable characters in the game. It touches on their skills, origins, and how they are being created. It has about two and a half minutes of gameplay footage."

I'm sort of worried how they are going to balance this. If they are playable in Multiplayer, it might be a big risk as it could completly change the multiplayer. Only time will tell. Role on December 20th...

Rainbow Six:Vegas Patched For 360

According to the Ubisoft forums, the patch includes the following fixes:

"-Getting stuck at briefing screen when joining a match in progress
-Fixed a coop crash when failing a mission numerous times
-Fixed an exploit where observers received same kills as host in terrorist hunt
-Fixed a intermittent coop crash in map Factory
-Fixed a disconnection bug when host changes map
-Fixed a bug with live camera that forced a reboot.
-Fixed an issue with max players not being related to recommended players for maps.
-Added better feedback in the game search menus.
-Fixed a bug with the siege specialist achievement.
-Fixed players crashing when using shield and entering a game with shield restricted.
-Fixed a rare crash when starting a coop story game
-Fixed a bug that made the shield become invisible in certain circumstances.
-Fixed a display bug with weapons disappearing while using shield
-Fixed a crash while using the Live Vision Camera
-Fixed a display bug with the canister in retrieval staying visible after being taken.
-Fixed a random crash for clients in COOP games.
-Fixed a display error that showed 14 players instead of 16 for dedicated servers.
-Fixed a bug with score limits not working properly.
-Fixed a bug that sometimes prevented grenades from being used at game start.
-Fixed a crash through the world bug related to starting COOP games while playing Terrorist Hunt.
-Fixed a crash through the world bug in Casino COOP.
-Fixed a bug with invalid recommended players in COOP maps.
-Fixed a lockup in COOP mode related to clients joining a game late.
-Fixed a bug where a dedicated server set for 16 players only accepted 14.
-Added better feedback in the game search menus
-Remove proximity voice chat from team games.
-Adjust TerroHunt XP based on density setting:
- Fixed bug regarding voice chat - Now voice chat works for all players
- Fixed a crash where clients crash when host change map or quit the game before they have time to load lobby
-Fixed a crash when clientnt selects Option/ Map name either in the lobby or In game
-Fixed a bug related to the infiltration specialist achievement
-Fixed a bug where when score limit is 10 a game does not end when canister is deposited
- Fixed a bug in splitscreen:Crash when player 2 Press ready before player 1 in the login profile menu
- Fixed a bug where game occasionally crashes on boot at the Title Screen.

General

-Fixed some localization errors in Spanish"

Alot of fixes there, most of them could (and should) have been sorted about before the launch of the game. Nothing worse than an incompleted game.

Funny, Fake, Wii Fatality

Video

Nice video. Looks semi-real but is funny to watch.

Mii-Shirts!

And thus, the madness begins. The crazy people at www.mrcloud.com have begun creating T-Shirts with your Mii charachter embedded into them. I don't think I would be caught dead wearing one of these. If you are interested for some reason in ordering one, go here.

Wii Is Owning Europe

"The Wii launch figures are in for the whole of Europe, and they're...well, they're impressive. Nintendo sold 350,000 Wiis over the weekend of 8-9 December. That's two days, at 175,000 consoles a day. A lot of them went into a bag with Twilight Princess, which ended up in 240,000 homes (that's a 74% attach rate), while the Wii Play/Wii Remote bundle sold around 175,000 copies.

Those numbers are good, but the DS, the DS is going gangbusters. The DS, in a single week, sold 515,000 units, bringing the total number sold in Europe to 8.5 million."

Source

Nintendo is doing excellent now, with the amazing success of the DS and DS Lite, and now the Wii. Nice to here Zelda had such a high attach rate-even if it wasn't such a suprising statistic.

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Review (Old)

This was my first review which I wrote for another blog a while back.

Gameplay Too start with, this is just an amazing game. I don't want to spoil much to do with the Main Quest in case you may not have the game yet. After you have chosen your charachters class, starsign and race, you will be thrust out into the open wilderness. This is when you begin to realise the true meaning of 'Freedom'. The first thing you will notice is how amazing the graphics look when you are out in the open. The various parts of the map are greatly detailed and honed to perfection. The wilderness is completly full of varying types of trees, grass and of course- Rivers, lakes and oceans. The controls are extremely easy to use on the Xbox 360 Console, as it plays out like any normal First Person Shooter, although this game can also be played in Third Person view, but it is easy to tell that it was made to be played in First Person View. The Framerate also keeps steady during most of the time while playing, just stuttering when it is loading a new area or when there is large-scale battles taking place. There is supposedly bugs or glitches in this game, but you can avoid most of them if you want, such as money or duplicating glitches. The game will also occasionly freeze, I have put in around 50 hours into this game within 1 week and it has froze only 4 times. Some of these may put you off the game a bit, but it is well worth your time to suffer these things now and again, and have a truly amazing gameplay experience. The Main Quest in this game is deeply engrossing, it just completly grabs your attention from the moment you start the game. Unlike most games of this kind, Quests in this game are not clear-cut. Normally you would expect something like this: Ask somebody for a quest, you are told to go and kill someone, you kill him then come back for your reward. In Oblivion the quests almost always have more than one objective, which makes it alot more interesting and encourages you to do more quests. There are also many Side-Quests, and many of them are just as good, or better, than some of the Main-Quests. The Radiant AI system is truly amazing, you could just follow a random NPC about the cities all day, seeing what they get up to in their spare time. The first time I broke into someone's house while they were sleeping, I was suprised to see that they had a guard-dog in their house that destroyed my level 1 Warrior. Graphics What can I say? The graphics are just awe-inspiring. Every tree, every blade of grass, every weapon, every piece of armour have all been produced in the highest quality of graphics that I have seen in a game. The wilderness in this game looks utterly brilliant, with the water reflecting all the buildings and rocks. I will not say anymore about the graphics, as i'm sure you have already seen them. Sound Like the graphics, the sounds are stupidly good. The music completely gets you in the mood for exploring, with the vicious battle music kicking in just at the right time when an enemy plans to attack you. When you hit someone, it actually feels real because of the *Thud* you hear. This changes depending on who or what you hit, such as a wall or a creature. All in all everything just sounds just as it should and how you would expect it to. Conclusion Considering everything that is right and wrong with this game, if you are thinking about buying it, I recomend that you do. I am currently playing it more that I have played any of my other Xbox 360 games, and I know that I will still be playing it in the months that follow. The Collector's Edition of the game is also very nice, it opens like a book and includes some nice extras. I played Morrowind and I didn't like it all that much, but this is like a completely different game. Nearly everything in it is done right, and it was well worth the money for me. Rating- 9.8

Xbox Live: December 2006 Backwards Compatible Update List

December 2006 Back Compat titles added/updated:

Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Burnout 3: Takedown UPDATED
Conker: Live and Reloaded
Dead Or Alive Ultimate
Destroy All Humans!
Dynasty Warriors 4 / Shin Sangokumuso3
Evil Dead: A Fistful of Boomstick
Ex Chaser (Japan Only)
Family Guy
Far Cry: Instincts
Fahrenheit/Indigo Prophecy
I-Ninja
Leisure Suit Larry: Magna *** Laude
Mortal Kombat: Armageddon
MotoGP
Incredibles/ Mr. Incredible (J)
Muzzle Flash (Japan Only)
MX Unleashed
Open Season
Pariah
Plus Plumb 2 (Japan Only)
Psychonauts
Psyvariar2 Extend Edition (Japan Only)
Rainbow Six: Lockdown
Rapala Pro Fishing
Rent-A-Hero No. 1 (Japan Only)
Scarface
Shark Tale
Shenmue II
Soul Calibur 2 North America only
Splinter Cell: Double Agent
Tenerezza (Japan Only)
The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie
Ultimate Spider-Man
Wakeboarding Unleashed: Featuring Sean Murray
Whacked!
Winback 2: Project Poseidon
Xiaolin Showdown

Source

Some nice new additions in there, such as Splinter Cell:Double Agent, Mortal Kombat:Armageddon and Conker:Live and Reloaded. I am, however, a bit dissapointed with some of the new additions. I would have loved to see Timesplitters 3:Future Perfect on the list and especially The Elder Scrolls III:Morrowind. It was a "Game Of The Year" after all...

Welcome To The Blog!

This is my new blog which I will be posting on very frequently with all the news concerning next generation gaming. I hope you enjoy the blog and leave comments.

Kingstevie