The release of New Super Mario Bros. Wii, Left4Dead 2 and Assassin’s Creed 2 signified the end of major releases for 2009. There are still noteworthy ones throughout the rest of the year, but it’s more spread out and not jammed into a single week. I’m looking forward to this calm.

I still have yet to start the new Ratchet & Clank. I have NSMBWii and God of War Collection coming. And that’s without the fact that I still wish to play Modern Warfare 2 and Forza 3 regularly. That’s a lot of games and, thankfully, we’ve now got the time. The only releases which I’ve deemed noteworthy include:

• The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks – DS – Dec. 7, 2009
• The Saboteur – PS3, 360, PC – Dec. 8, 2009
• Silent Hill: Shattered Memories – Wii – Dec. 8, 2009
• Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers – Wii – Dec. 26, 2009

Three games in one week. 2009′s gaming finishes with one final push in December and then it’s onto 2010.

I don’t know if I will get Spirit Tracks since I have yet to finish Phantom Hourglass. As for the other two? I re-imagining of the original Silent Hill is very much welcomed since I’ve not gotten a chance to try the original yet. And The Saboteur looks to be visually intriguing to say the least. It’s Pandemic Studio’s last game and it looks to be pretty decent.

Edit: I also forgot about The Crystal Bearers.

Related Posts

• Silent Hill V Preview @ 1UP
• Checkpoint: I’ve Been Playing Games Edition
• Games to Play Before 2009 GOTY Talks

• Bionic Commando Coming May 19, 2009 for Xbox 360 and PS3
• The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks announced for Nintendo DS. Coming 2009
• Virtual Console Arcade games initiative launched today (via PR)
• Katamari Tribute coming to PS3 (via 1UP)

Miscellaneous

• Wii 4.0 System Update Available Now
  • Enables SD-HC card use
  • Enables the ability to run Virtual Console games from SD cards
  • Improved data management
• Apparently, Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Announced for June (via Blu-ray.com)
• CryEngine 3.0 GDC 2009 Trailer (via GamerSyde)

Video of the Day

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Press Release

NINTENDO PRESIDENT ANNOUNCES Wii STORAGE SOLUTION,
NEW ZELDA GAME AND 50 MILLION GLOBAL Wii SHIPMENT
Keynote Details Nintendo DSi News on Eve of Launch

SAN FRANCISCO, March 25, 2009 – Nintendo President Satoru Iwata today revealed surprises for consumers and an expanded palette of video game development opportunities for the industry during his keynote address at the Game Developers Conference. Iwata announced a new storage solution for Nintendo’s Wii™ home console and showed video highlights of a new Nintendo DS™ game from The Legend of Zelda™ franchise.

Video game developers now have expanded opportunities given that worldwide shipments for the Wii system surpass 50 million units and worldwide shipments for the Nintendo DS franchise are at more than 100 million units. Iwata said, “It is in the power of game developers to invent things that gamers have never seen – or even imagined – before.”

Nintendo also noted several key initiatives that are on the way for consumers, some of which are available at the Nintendo GDC booth.

Nintendo DSi

• The new portable Nintendo DSi system goes on sale in the North America on April 5. For the first six months after launch, consumers who buy the system and connect to the Nintendo DSi Shop will automatically receive 1,000 Nintendo DSi Points, which can be redeemed for downloadable Nintendo DSiWare™ games and applications through the Nintendo DSi Shop. In order to receive the free Nintendo DSi Points, consumers must access the Nintendo DSi Shop by Oct. 5, 2009, and the Nintendo DSi Points can be redeemed at any time after that (wireless broadband access required).
• Similar to how the WiiWare™ service works in the Wii Shop Channel, the Nintendo DSi Shop will feature a variety of downloadable Nintendo DSiWare™ games and applications. These games and applications will be available at four different price categories: free, 200 points, 500 points, and 800+ points. Consumers can purchase Nintendo DSi Points in the Nintendo DSi Shop with a credit card or by purchasing a Nintendo Points Card™ at retail locations for redemption in the Nintendo DSi Shop. All points from one Nintendo Points Card will need to be redeemed at the Nintendo DSi Shop. Nintendo Points Card will start to become available at select retail locations beginning Apr. 5.
• Iwata gave conference attendees a glimpse into some of the upcoming Nintendo DSiWare games and applications such as Moving Memo (name not final) and WarioWare™:Snapped! . Moving Memo (name not final) lets users create animated digital flipbooks of their own design, while WarioWare™: Snapped! uses Nintendo DSi Camera functionality for a fresh gaming experience.
• On the show floor, conference attendees are able to experience some of the Nintendo DSiWare games and applications that will be available soon. Bird & Beans™ and Art Style™: Aquia™ are fun mini games that will be perfect to play on-the-go.

Nintendo DS & Nintendo DSi Software

• The new The Legend of Zelda™: Spirit Tracks game that Iwata announced will utilize the intuitive touch control of Phantom Hourglass in an all new adventure that will please longtime Zelda™ fans while keeping the game accessible to all DS owners. The concept behind this Zelda game includes utilizing a steam locomotive to travel around the world, switching Phantom and Link to explore the dungeons, and solving puzzles using new items.

Wii

• As the library of downloadable WiiWare and Virtual Console™ games continues to grow, Wii owners have asked Nintendo to provide easy, expanded storage space. Starting today, Wii owners will be able to save downloaded WiiWare, Virtual Console video games, and Channels directly to High Capacity SD cards, in addition to SD memory cards. To play games that have been saved to SD cards, consumers will be able to select and launch them from an SD Menu icon on the Wii Menu. (Note that when launching games or channels from an SD card, an equivalent amount of internal Wii memory is required. To clear space from the internal memory, users can transfer games or channels from the Wii Menu to the SD card). This feature is included in the latest version of the Wii System Menu Update, which owners will receive immediately after performing a system update today.
• Gamers will be glad to have that additional storage space, as the Virtual Console will expand to include the arcade versions of classic third-party games like STARFORCE by Tecmo Ltd., and Mappy, Gaplus and Tower of Druaga by Namco Bandai Games Inc. starting today.
• Upcoming games Punch-Out!!™ and Excitebots™: Trick Racing are available to play at Nintendo’s booth. Excitebots: Trick Racing, a new and refreshing take on the classic Excitebike™ series from the arcade and NES™ days, is slated to launch on April 20, while a new game in the classic Punch-Out!! series will be on store shelves on May 18.

WiiWare

• To highlight new development opportunities for independent developers, Iwata unveiled a game for the WiiWare downloadable game service called Rock N’ Roll Climber™, which uses the Wii Balance Board™ accessory to help users simulate the experience of rock climbing. The game is being developed by Vitei.

If you haven’t done so you must watch the CryEngine 3.0 video in 720p. It’s amazing how the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 can produce something so gorgeous.

Related Posts

• Nintendo DSi N.A. Launch Date Announced
• E3 2009: Coming Exclusively to Nintendo
• E3 2009: Everything Else From Day 0

“What I’ve been saying to our development teams recently is that “Twilight Princess” was not a bad game, by any means. But, still, it felt like there was something missing. And while, personally, I feel like “Super Mario Galaxy” was able to do some things that were very new and were very unique, at the same time, from another perspective, certain elements of it do feel somewhat conservative in terms of how far we branched out with design. And so this is something I’ve been talking to both of those teams about.”

That’s a quote from an interview from MTV Multiplayer blog’s latest interview with Shigeru Miyamoto. I’m pleased to know that Miyamoto is still interested in pushing the Mario and Zelda franchises forward. Super Mario Galaxy was an absolute gem and I cannot imagine how an non-conservative version of that would be — mindblowingly awesome comes to mind, though.

He also goes into talk involving a bit of Spore, Portal and the upcoming installment of Punch-Out for Wii.

Related Posts

• Super Mario Galaxy: Tips, Tricks and Spoilers
• The Confusing Zelda Timeline by the AVGN
• E3 2009: Coming Exclusively to Nintendo

The press conference was a mixed bag and just like Microsoft’s press conference, it’s a lot more exciting to read the list. Enjoy.

Nintendo Wii

Animal Crossing: City Folk – Wii Exclusive – By End of 2008

• Supports WiiSpeak microphone peripheral which enables online voice chat support.

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Call of Duty: World at War - Multiplatform – Fall 2008

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Rayman: Raving Rabbids TV Party - Wii Exclusive – Fall 2008

• Supports Balance Board

Shaun White’s Snowboarding – By End of 2008

• Supports Wii Balance Board

Star Wars The Clone Wars: Lightsaber Duels - Wii Exclusive - By End of 2008

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Wii MotionPlus – Spring 2009

• Supports Nunchuk attachment
• Coming with WiiSports Resort

WiiMusic - By End of 2008

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Nintendo DS

Guitar Hero: On Tour Decades – Fall 2008

Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars

Pokémon Ranger: Shadows of Almia – November 10, 2008

Spore Creatures – Fall 2008

Related Posts

• Nintendo Press Conference Goodies
• E3 2008: Sony Press Conference Summary
• E3 2008: Microsoft Press Conference Summary

Grand Theft Auto 4 is just around the corner and reviews are beginning to crop up. IGN’s review is lengthy, but I didn’t bother reading it since it’s just a lot of anecdotes which you shouldn’t be reading, but experiencing for your own. IGN gave it a 10/10. Shocking? No. As for the differences between the PS3 and XBOX 360 versions, it appears that speculation of the PS3 version being “technically superior” appears to be true:

“For those wanting to know which version looks better, the edge goes to the PS3. The textures and framerate are comparable, but the PS3 has far less pop-in. The 360 has richer colors, but the PS3 has better anti-aliasing making it look a little cleaner. Because GTA IV can preload onto the PS3 hard drive, the in-game loads are faster. Don’t worry Xbox owners, the load times are rarely more than 30 seconds and don’t occur very often. The slight visual edge goes to PS3, but the 360 is no slouch. Either version will do you proud.”

Less pop-in, faster load times and better anti-aliasing are pretty significant for those who expect consoles and console games to live up to their potential. In reality, though, unless the game’s differences are as pronounced Assassin’s Creed’s – it doesn’t matter which one is better.

I know there those who can live with inconsistent framerate, load times, unrefined image and texture pop-in, but not I. These are issues which should not be plaguing games developed for fixed hardware. Developers know the console’s limits. If the hardware cannot handle it: scale it back. If I wanted framerate problems and texture pop-in, I’d have picked up the PC SKU and played it on my outdated hardware.

Mass Effect made this very apparent to me.

Truth be told, it was Mass Effect which discouraged me from purchasing software for the XBOX 360. It’s not that I don’t want to, but more like me and my intolerance for the hardware’s faults. It’s noticeably louder than any other AV equipment in the room, susceptible to RRODing or worse: Disc Read Errors which cause me to lose precious unsaved progress. I would gladly install 5 GB worth of data for 20 minutes (DMC4 for PS3 demanded this for ‘negligible’ gain) than be interrupted by long load times, texture pop-ins and the revving of a 12x DVD drive. Microsoft can fix these problems with future iterations of the XBOX 360, but until then, I’ll be increasing my PS3′s library. That is, unless wicked deals drop by.

I picked up Sega Rally Revo for the XBOX 360 two days ago for $9.89 “new”. (It’s actually the display box with a brand new disc) I tried it for a bit and unlike the demo which whooped my ass repeatedly without mercy, I was able to go to Championship mode and familiarize myself. The game is very solid. Exotic visuals and a slick framerate goes a long way. And then there’s the mud and terrain deformation which is just genius. A good preview of the game can be found on GameTrailers. If you have interest in cars, even just passing interest and can pick up this game for cheap: go for it.

As for the weekend, it may actually be spent getting to know Metal Gear Online and watching NBA Playoffs. You can also sprinkle in a bit of Zelda: The Phantom Hourglass for the Nintendo DS as well.

Related Posts

• Checkpoint: Framerates and Image Quality Edition
• Checkpoint – GTAIV Edition
• Checkpoint: Post MGS4 Edition

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This reminds me that I have to play Zelda: Twilight Princess one day.

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