More Free Stuff

First Saints Row then Oblivion now Wii. Nintendo is allowing users to download the Opera browser for free starting today and extending into June 2007.

I Love Christmas

Earlier this week, THQ got into the holiday spirit by offering up the Ho Ho Ho Pack for Saints Row. The free pack spread some cheer by giving gamers a Santa Claus outfit that could be put on their in-game characters.

It appears that Bethesda is sipping from the same eggnog. The publisher has revealed that it will be giving away a content pack for the Xbox 360 version of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion for free.

Mehrunes' Razor, originally released in June for 250 Marketplace points ($3.13), will be available as a free download beginning December 22. Gamers had better not dillydally on the offer, as the content pack goes back to its original price on January 1.

Halo Brutes

Who Says Girls Can't Play

he battle of the sexes is heating up in the predominantly male sector of gaming. A four-person team from the Frag Dolls--an all-female collective of gamers--took first place at the Rainbow Six Vegas finals at the Dallas stop of the Cyberathlete Professional League.

The team, sponsored by Ubisoft, included Amy "Valkyrie" Brady, Emily "Seppuku" Ong, Alyson "Calyber" Craghead, and Nelly "Psyche" Morel. The squad beat the previously undefeated "The Unknown" team, who made it to the competition through an online ladder.

While Ubisoft touts the victory as "the first time an all-female team has won a tournament at a pro-circuit event," Frag Doll Morgan "Rhoulette" Romine was a bit more cautious. In her blog post about the achievement, she repeats the above statement but precludes it with "as far as we know."

"The team has been playing Rainbow Six Vegas up to 12 hours a day since the game came out," said Rhoulette. "We played as a team, communicated well, stuck to our strategies and won."

-Cindy

It's Good to be The King

Last week, Microsoft proudly touted the sales figures of its Xbox 360-exclusive shooter Gears of War, mentioning that it had achieved sales of 2 million copies worldwide in just six weeks of release. Microsoft was mildly one-upped by promotional partner Burger King today, as the fast-food chain announced that its trio of games for the Xbox and Xbox 360 had broken the 2 million mark in just four weeks.

That number represents the cumulative sales of Burger King's three games--Pocketbike Racer, Big Bumpin', and Sneak King. All three were developed by Blitz Games, maker of the original Fuzion Frenzy, and are rated E for Everyone. The games sell for $3.99 each with the purchase of a value meal, while supplies last. For more on the Burger King collection, check out GameSpot's reviews of Pocketbike Racer, Big Bumpin', and Sneak King.

Crackdown Release Set

The holidays aren't over quite yet, but given the current state of release lists, it's understandable that gamers would be planning their purchases for early 2007 already. One title that Microsoft hopes makes the cut is Crackdown, the free-roaming action game where players take control of superhuman crime-stoppers to clean up the streets of the fictional metropolis Pacific City.

Microsoft today gave gamers some guidance on when they could expect Crackdown to roll into retail by announcing an official release date of February 20. What's more, those on the fence about whether or not to pick up the game can download a free demo from the Xbox Live Marketplace starting January 18. The demo version of the game will include online cooperative play as well as single-player action.

It's About Time!!!

"Medic!"

That was the cry of gamers after being sidelined by some issues found in the multiplayer portion of Call of Duty 3. COD3's developer, Treyarch, has heard the call and has made available a patch for the World War II first-person shooter.

The auto-update is now available over Xbox Live and addresses problems relating to both ranked and player matches in Call of Duty 3's online component. The development team says that the greatest improvement in gameplay comes with searching for and joining multiplayer sessions. Ranked games allegedly come together much faster, and searches for player matches return many more results than before.

Other additions include basic improvements to gameplay, options, and the heads-up display. Among them are consistent brightness settings between single- and multiplayer, the ability to choose between playing as the Axis or Allies in ranked games, and consistent amounts of players per team in rotating-map games. More details on the patch are available on the game's forums at Xbox.com.

For more information on C

Classic PlayStation Games to be Downloadable

Sony Japan has announced a range of new PlayStation Store downloads for the Japanese market. Launching on the 21st of December are nine PlayStation classics, all priced at 525 yen. (See list below).


Dino Crisis (Capcom, action-adventure)
Gekisou Tomaranna (SCE, racing)
Global Force (SCE, sim)
Maru Oukoku no Ningyou Hime (Nippon Ichi, RPG) Mr. Driller (Bandai Namco Games, action)
R-Types (Irem, shooter)
Taiyo no Shippo (aka Tail of the Sun, Artdink, action)
The Convenie Ano Machi wo Dokusen se yo (Hamster, sim)
U-SA (Artdink, puzzle)

These games must first be downloaded via a PS3, but can only be played on the PSP. Also, you will need to update your PSP firmware to version 3.03 (the latest version) in order to play these games.

-James

Virtua Fighter 5 - release date announced

Virtua Fighter 5 will ship across North America on February 20th 2007 exclusively for PlayStation 3.

Furthermore, SEGA Europe confirmed that VF5 will be a European launch title (tentatively March 2007).

Scott Steinberg, Vice President of Marketing at SEGA America, summed up the next generation fighter:

"Virtua Fighter 5 will be the first martial arts style fighting game available on the PlayStation 3 system with brand new offensive moves, customizable characters, stunning graphics, and highly detailed 3D fighting environments."

VF5 is one of the most anticipated and best looking titles of 2007. Its developers are also responsible for titles such as OutRun and Space Harrier.

-James

Grand Torismo Japanese Demo

Gran Turismo demo details

Japanese magazine Famistsu has revealed a number of details about the upcoming Gran Turismo demo.

As a pleasant Christmas gift, Japanese PS3 owners will be able to download Gran Turismo HD Concept from December 24th through PlayStation Store.

The demo will include one course, playable in both directions, and ten cars.

The full list of cars available is as follows:



Suzuki Cappuccino '95
Mazda Eunos Roadster '89
Honda Integra Type R'04
Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IV GSR'96
Infinity G35 Coupe
Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX GSR'05
Lotus Elise 111R'04
Nissan Sky Liner GT-R V Spec II '94
Toyota Celica GT-FOUR Rally Car '95
Ferrari 599'06


You begin the demo with Cappuccino, but unlock the rest by beating a range of times in time attack mode. Once you have beat a certain time, you will have unlocked all cars as well as drift trial mode.

The magazine interviewed Kazunori Yamauchi, who said that plans for Gran Turismo HD were scrapped when fans at TGS cried for a full game. Originally, GTHD was going to be released with almost nothing included, and gamers would then purchase tracks, cars and modes through microtransactions on PlayStation Store.

The change of direction has resulted in Gran Turismo HD Concept. It includes Polyphony's next generation driving simulation engine. Further downloads will be made available before Gran Turismo 5's expect release in 2008. Whether these will be addons to the current demo, or completely new demos, has yet to be determined.

-James

Line Rider for Wii and DS

Bored members of the cubicle-bound workforce have found a bit of relief with Line Rider, a Web-based application incorporating fun with physics. Developed by a Slovenian student, the game has users draw lines on which an animated sled rider cruises down. The "toy" has inspired some amateur designers to create some impressive backgrounds, many of which have ended up on YouTube. As it is based on drawing, inXile entertainment figured it would be a perfect fit for the Nintendo DS and Wii, and today acquired the rights to develop Line Rider games for the consoles. The games, which will include "new added features," is expected to be released in spring 2007. No other details were mentioned.

For anyone who hasent seen line rider here is a little video...

PS3 Makes Times "Buzz to Bust" top Five

Some of you will be interested and some will be disappointed to find out that the PS3 sits right next to OJ and Snakes on a Plane on this years top five "Buzz to Bust" but instead of me explaining it here is Time Mag. reason for the ranking...

"The big story in computer games this year was HOW TO BLOW A HUGE LEAD, by Sony. Its PlayStation 2 was the champ in the last round of the console wars. This time Sony bet on a chip called the Cell and a disc format called Blu-ray. They're probably awesome, but how would anybody know? The PS3 is hideously expensive--it goes for up to $600--and Sony manufactured only a piddling few hundred thousand for the U.S., fewer for Japan. Plus it's hard to write games for; the launch titles were lame. You know you're in trouble when you get beat by something called a Wii."

But this is not the first time Time has criticised PS3 here is a bit from a article on the release day of the system...

"Sure, the Playstation 2 was the bestselling machine from the previous generation, and sure, the Playstation3 is powered by a stupendously powerful chip, the "Cell processor." (I'm sorry, but naming a computer chip is like naming your genitals: you're compensating for something.) Patience, young padawan. The time has not yet come."

What do you think? Does Time have a good point or is the PS3 truly worth 600+ bucks to get your hands on?

Wii Forecast Channel in Gameplay!

This is a great idea! It's a simple concept but so amusing. Ok lets say it's raining out side so you decide to pop in madden, when the game starts it will be raining! Now change you region to somewhere where it's snowing and pop in madden and now it's snowing.

Wii Mote Charging Station...Finlay

JoyTech's no stranger to the Wii accessory scene, and the firm is hitting us up once more with its Wii PowerStation. As the title implies, this docking unit can house two Wiimotes, and comes stocked with twin rechargeable battery packs to save you those late night trips to the battery department. Additionally, there's a pull-out cradle on each side to place your nunchuck, and while there's nothing to prove (or disprove) the theory, it looks as if the charging station can receive power from any USB port. So if the days on end of Wii Sportin' it are chewing through the Engergizers at an unacceptable rate, you can pick this up in late January for 39 clams.

LCD TV Price Drop!

If you've been holding out to experience gaming in HD the way it was meant to be, then you may want to wait just a little bit longer. A market research company specializing in flat panel displays creatively named DisplaySearch forecasts that prices for LCD HDTVs could drop as much as 40% in 2007. As more people adopt LCD TVs and parts become cheaper, 32" LCDs could possibly be had for as little as $400 (currently, they run anywhere from $700 to $900). 37" sets could drop to $799 and 42" sets might fall as low as $999 (currently, both 37" and 42" sets can run well over $1000). Frankly, a $400 32" HDTV would be too good to pass up. Let's hope these prices fall sooner rather than later.

Has anyone out there found any killer deals on HDTVs lately?

One Last New Writer!

Well I would like to introduce everyone to the newest Gamerz Corner addition, Anthony.

He has a Suberu WRX and he is Italian...

Gamerz Corner is no longer looking for anymore staff. However still let me know if you are interested in being a part of Gamerz Corner and I will see if we have a niche for you.

New DS!?!?

There are rumors of a new DS for 2007 with a larger screen. The rumor is that the screens will jump in size from 3 inches to 3.5 - 3.8 inches. As we all know Nintendo is notorious for udateing their handheld systems every 1 - 2 years. So lets hope that we get a bigger screen in the new year.

-Anthony

A New Approach to Burglary

A group of thieves broke through the cement wall of a Jacksonville, Fla., Gamestop with a sledgehammer and made off with 13 Xbox 360s within. The thieves cut the store's power, took the security tapes and scattered about a group of empty PS3 boxes, leading store manager Mark King to theorize the thieves "really wanted to get a PlayStation 3." Just goes to show you that Sony's shortages are hurting the criminal element as well.

Wii Web Browser!

"Opera Software today announces that a trial version of its Web browser for Nintendo's new game console, Wii, will be available on December 22, 2006. The trial version of the Opera browser for Wii is available for download, free of charge from the the Wii Shop Channel."

New Tomb Radier Moive?!?!

Obviously emboldened from the fact that Tomb Raider: Legend didn't draw a chorus of boos and hisses from the general public, Eidos exec Ian Livingstone has recently announced that Angelina Jolie may be returning to the role of Lara Croft in yet another Tomb Raider movie.

GamesIndustry.biz has that information, transcribed from a video interview with EurogamerTV.

The movie isn't a done deal by any means, though Livingstone did confirm its existence. "There's a possibility. We've been talking to Paramount, who've agreed to assign a scriptwriter. That's nowhere near the green-light process but it's a very healthy start to have a scriptwriter which they're going to pay serious amounts of money to write the first script."

Tomb Raider: Legend is the most recent iteration in what is generally been considered a franchise in decline. Lara's still a big moneymaker however -- the Tomb Raider brand has generated over a billion dollars over the last 10 years. $430 million of that comes from the movies themselves - Lara Croft: Tomb Raider and Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life.

Video Downloads for PSP

Sony has long indicated that it plans to leverage its considerable cross-medium entertainment content to add additional services to its consoles, but the company was beaten to the punch by Microsoft's Video Marketplace for Xbox 360. According to the Financial Times, however, the company has full intention to get into the content download game, with a downloadable video service launching for PSP in the first quarter of next year. Apparently, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment was responsible for developing the service; presumably Sony Computer Entertainment was involved in some capacity as well.

The report indicates that online retailers such as Amazon.com as well as existing download services such as Movielink and CinemaNow are speaking with Sony about offering content through the program, suggesting that it may not be a closed centralized system like iTunes or Xbox Live Video Marketplace. With multiple non-proprietary storage formats, Blu-ray, and standard hard drives being compatible with PlayStation 3, alongside the lackluster sales performance of films sold on the proprietary UMD media format, Sony may be making broader moves away from centralized distribution and storage methods.

Wii Forecast Channel

The Wii Forecast Channel has been released (well, the official release is December 20 and today is the 19th but you can still access it)! You will need to perform a system update on your Wii before you can use the Forecast Channel.

Ho Ho Hos

Hos on Saints Row are nothing new, but the new Ho Ho Ho Pack released by THQ today on Xbox Live Marketplace is an entirely different subject matter. The download includes new clothes for in-game thugs that would normally be worn by another famous person known for breaking and entering--Santa Claus. Gamers can get into the spirit with a new Santa Claus ensemble that includes the famous hat, boots, coat, and hair of St. Nick. In the spirit of the holidays, the Ho Ho Ho Pack is free to download.

MGS4 Rummor Smashing

MGS4 one of the flagship tittles of PS3, and rumor has it that it wont just be strutting it stuff on PS3 but Xbox 360 as well. Well I'm sad to say this as I am both a 360 and MGS fan but the 360 will not will not be seeing MGS at least anytime soon. Konami is worried about the number of PS3 units out their vs. 360 and they did say it was a option but at the moment they are remaining loyal to Sony. I would also like to take this moment to debunk another MGS rumor, I'm sure most of you heard the rumor that touted the power of the PS3 vs the 360, stating that it melted a PS3 and is to much for the 360 to ever be able to process. Well while it was confirmed by Konami that they did not intend on opening up MGS to the 360 at this point in time they did confirm that it is technically possible. That being said the PS3 may be a more powerful system but for the moment at least they are both on equal footing.

It's Just a Game...

Looks like some people are enjoying the new Guitar Hero II a little bit to much...

New GRAW Screens

PS3 outsells Xbox360 in Japan

It has taken Sony only 4 weeks to outsell the Xbox360 in Japan. Recent news from Japan reports that the Sony PlayStation 3 has recently sold over 187,000 units compared to Microsoft's Xbox360 which is sitting pretty at around 178,000 units. Media Create, the Japaneses tracking organization, is responsible for keeping track of the product sales for each major gaming company. They have also reported that it took Microsoft 52 weeks to sell the number of Xbox360s they are currently at.

The news itself shouldn't come as a shock to anyone considering Japan has been ruled by Nintendo and Sony for almost as long as video games have existed. Microsoft will have a hard time making progress as both the Wii and the PS3 are currently selling out as fast as each respective company can make them. Microsoft still has high hopes for its RPG title Blue Dragon which has hit Japanese shores just recently. It will be interesting to see how the game effects Xbox360 sales.

Currently Nintendo is king in Japan with their highly successfully launch of the Wii. The Wii has sold over 350,000 units in Japan, just under all the PS3s and Xbox360s sold combined. With the Wii and Nintendo DS selling so well, it's fair to ask the question, "Does Sony and Microsoft stand a fighting chance in the land of the rising sun?" Either way, the nex-gen war has only begun.

-James

150 developers working on GTAIV

According to analyst Mike Hickey of Janco Partners, Take-Two Interactive has about 150 developers working on the next gen Grand Theft Auto.

"Rockstar Games is fully capable of ushering in an entertainment experience categorically superior to the prior cycle’s GTA product," Hickery stated.

Although details are slim on GTAIV, we do know that both the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions plan to ship on October 16th, 2007. It will also have episodic content available on Xbox Live and PS Store.

-James

PS3 Linux runs Wiimote as a mouse

In a recent public demonstration of the PS3 running Linux, a PS3 spokesperson was showing off the Linux capabilities of the PS3, and used a Wiimote as a mouse. Nintendo's wireless remote/controller was plugged into one of the PS3s spare USB ports, and functioned identically as it would on the Wii itself.

According to www.qj.ps3.net, all that is needed to use the Wiimote on a PS3 is an install of Linux, and the proper drivers. Given this is all functioning in Linux, it is highly unlikely that the Wiimote would work while playing a regular PS3 game.

-James