It’s official – the rumoured portable version of SEGA’s latest Sonic outing is live and kicking. Sonic Generations will be heading to the Nintendo 3DS system before the end of the year, according to the latest issue of Nintendo Power. The ‘anniversary event 20 years in the making’ promises to provide the perfect blend of old-school and nu-skool Sonic platforming. It’s unclear whether the 3DS version will be akin to its console counterparts or some kind of spin-off, but we’re willing to bet it’s the former.
The dude with the ‘tude will be dashing onto your screens in 3D at the end of the year.
Infinity Ward just posted up your first glimpse at Modern Warfare 3. Luckily for them, all the countries in the trailer just so happen to have an ‘E’ in their name somewhere, which they have oh-so-cleverly exploited, using the titular 3 as that ever-popular vowel/entactogenic drug.
The trailer ominously ends with the logo ‘WW3’ before the former ‘W’ flips on its head, to its final resting place – MW3. It’s coming this year and it’s going to own your soul. Spooky stuff.
2011 marks The Legend of Zelda series’ 25th Anniversary, and, as such, you’d expect Nintendo to have something pretty big up their sleeve to celebrate it. You might want to check if they’ve got anything tucked into their socks, because there’s certainly nothing here.
If you pre-order The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D for the Nintendo 3DS system at GAME or Gamestation, you will receive…wait for it…a poster. Oh, and a golden box. Sure, it’s better than a swift kick to the gonads, but it still seems a bit underwhelming, especially compared to the awesome swag that Nintendo of Greece is throwing in with the game, including a real Ocarina and a canister of Deku Nuts.
Of course, Skyward Sword will also release later this year on Wii, so it’s by no means a bad year for Zelda fans, but it just feels as if Nintendo isn’t really pushing this like they should be. I wonder what will accompany the launch of the first new Zelda game in 5 years this Holiday. I’m betting on a ROM dump of the original NES game…
For some unjustified reason, Nintendo have an image problem when it comes to their machines’ graphical capabilities. Granted, its handheld consoles have often been trumped in the horsepower department by competing products (think DS vs. PSP) and the Wii was a generational gap behind the 360 and PS3, but before Nintendo employed this new strategy, its consoles were always very competitive in terms of graphical fidelity.
The GameCube boasted arguably one of the most efficient architectures ever found in a console – its power surpassed that of the PS2 and was pretty much on par with the Xbox, even outperforming it in some areas. Further to this, Nintendo were able to produce the Cube at a fraction of the cost of its competitors’ offerings while still fitting the whole thing into a much smaller shell and having a much lower operating temperature. The Nintendo 64 was an absolute powerhouse compared to the relatively modest PS1 hardware, but its success was ultimately dented by a lack of 3rd party support.
Despite this misnomer, it’s kind of understandable, based on the Wii, why many were expecting Nintendo to skimp out on the hardware again and simply compete with current gen offerings, and leaked specs, whilst a bit vague, seemed to suggest that the next console would again be a beefed up version of what’s already on the market.
However, IGN built their own custom rig using equivalent parts to those supposedly being used on the Project Café, and the implications are pretty exciting. The results themselves were fairly impressive; the rig could run Crysis 2 on ‘Very high’ at full 1080p at 60fps. This in itself is practically what a lot of people were expecting from the console, but the test was a little unfair. Whilst the test utilised 2GB of RAM as opposed to the rumoured 1GB in order to compensate for the taxing Windows 7 OS, it’s likely that a console with similar specs would perform better still than this test would suggest.
Here are the components:
CPU: 3.2 GHz AMD Athlon II X3 with a custom Intel Triple-Core processor
Graphics card: XFX Radeon HD 4850
RAM: 2GB
IGN make a special and important note – “Nintendo’s system will be drastically different than ours, using custom-built processors, a streamlined OS and running optimised games.” While the rig did offer some improved textures, it’s likely that the console itself will be a pretty big leap above what the video shows due to this very fact.
Undoubtedly, the 720 will boast a few higher specs than the Café, but in the end it won’t account for much. The PS3’s Cell processor puts it quite a bit ahead of the 360 in terms of pure grunt, but it was never really utilised, except for in titles like Killzone 3 and Uncharted 2. To cut a long story short, the Café will be competitive. It will be able to run PS4/720 games without too much of a graphical hit, and, if it supports 1080p via HDMI, the differences will be negligible, unless everyone decides to go out and buy UHDTV sets in the next 3 years.
The difference between the Wii and the 360 was an ocean, the difference between the Café and the 720 will be more like a puddle. For Nintendo gamers especially, it’s looking set to be one of the biggest ever graphical leaps between consoles; the jump from Wii (a beefed up GameCube) to a console that’s reportedly 5 times more powerful than the 360 is going to feel more like a double generational leap.
This means that the Café will get very competitive versions of multiplatform games, such as Call of Duty, and, given Nintendo’s ability to squeeze the best out of their consoles, coupled with some of the best artists in the business, it means that we’ll be playing some of the most beautiful looking games ever burned to disc come 2012.
According to Games Maya, four of the industry’s big names will be holding retail meetings this week; Nintendo, Sega, Microsoft and Sony will apparently be accompanied by ‘leaks from attending retailers’, and, in the case of Nintendo, a ‘major announcement’. The dates are as follows:
5/11: Sony Computer Entertainment
5/12: Nintendo
5/13: Microsoft
5/13: Sega
Could we finally hear something concrete about Project Café in the weeks running up to E3?
Another day, another example of how healthy competition is good for the industry – Modern Warfare 3 will feature larger maps and destructible environments. DICE fired some warning shots at Activision’s Call of Duty studio earlier in the year, claiming that their project, Battlefield 3, had been designed to ‘take down’ the ludicrously popular CoD series.
It seems that DICE is experiencing some return fire, though, as MW3 will supposedly feature “a much larger, epic scale” and that the game “will explore the lead up to a blossoming set of engagements that could pull in other countries, creating a potential World War III scenario”.
It was also noted that “the game will feature large, urban destructible environments.” in line with Battlefield‘s Destruction 2.0 mechanic. DICE’s Frostbite 2.0 engine has been built from the ground up, specifically for the Battlefield series, whereas Call of Duty still runs on a heavily modified version of the Quake 3 engine; for Modern Warfare 3 to feature fully destructible environments to the extent of the ones showcased by Battlefield 3, it would require a complete engine overhaul, which seems unlikely.
Familiarity, it seems, does not breed contempt in the CoD camp. As such, destructive environments are likely to be of a much more conservative nature in MW3, but it surely won’t hurt to have them.
EA Sports announced some specifics on their latest handheld footie sim today, boasting that it will provide “the largest feature set ever developed by EA SPORTS for a hand-held football game”. The game, which features over 500 licensed teams, promises to fill the void left by PES 2011 3D for a deep, fully-featured football game on the 3DS, offering “fully authentic 11 versus 11 gameplay, head-to-head online matches using Nintendo® Wi-Fi Connection, Tournament Mode with over 50 real-world competitions, a full in-depth Career Mode that enables gamers to play or manage their way to glory, 3D Street Football, Be A Pro and a Training Mode”.
Optional touch screen controls are also in, which should help with mastering those tricky set-pieces and changing tactics on the fly, which you’ll be able to see the effects of in one of nine different camera angles, allowing you to get the “perfect view of the pitch”. Street Mode, as its name suggests, sounds like it harkens back to the somewhat overlooked FIFA Street series as you battle for glory in 5 vs. 5 matches, taking place in “exotic street locales and indoor environments that are true to the spirit of street football”.
You can find the first screenshot here. FIFA 12 for the Nintendo 3DS system is expected to launch alongside its console counterparts this Autumn.
The Nintendo Keynote date for E3 2011 has been announced, and rather unfortunately for my friend, it lands on his birthday. I’m sure he’ll understand. Nintendo will be delivering their 2011 press conference in the Nokia Theatre at 9am PST (That’s 5pm for us Brits) on Tuesday, 7th June, 2011.
The Japanese gaming giant is expected to show off a trove of 3DS and Wii titles, including Mario Kart 3DS, Super Mario 3DS, Animal Crossing 3DS and The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. There are also rumblings of an official North American announcement of Xenoblade Chronicles and The Last Story. Throw in a brand new home console, and this year’s E3 is looking pretty damn tasty for Nintendo fans.
We will be liveblogging the event to the best of our abilities. Excuse me one moment.
Hello? Yes, is that front desk? Yeah, I’ve just had a foreboding vision in which I got mercilessly run over by a bus on the way to College on the morning of Tuesday, June 6th…
It’s been leaks galore recently, and Gamestop are making sure there’s no let up. A leaked release schedule had been holding a few interesting secrets with regards to certain games coming to certain platforms. Arguably the most interesting news to come from the list is that Sonic Generations will be dashing onto the 3DS. The game promises to offer mechanics from both the old-school Sonic platformers, and the newer 3D offerings. Such as werewolves.
Also on the list is a new title from Namco – Time Crisis 3DS. It appears that the arcade classic will be making an appearance on Nintendo’s handheld, but whether this will be a port of an existing title or a brand new entry is yet to be seen. Literally no information is available about the game as of yet, but it’s probably safe to assume that the game will feature either a control scheme akin to Point Blank DS – that is, you tap to shoot – or, more likely, that the game will make use of the 3DS’ gyro-sensors and/or cameras.
And last but by no means least, it looks like the gorgeous Rayman Origins will also be making its way onto the Wii and the Nintendo DS in some form before the year’s out. Thumbs up!
A ‘release date’ for Skyward Sword was also on the list – 1st November, 2011 – but it’s almost certainly the case that this is simply a placeholder date until retailers get official word from Nintendo.
What? Another Call of Duty title? Why would Activision want to release another entry into a series that’s practically guaranteed to break all kinds of silly sales records and generate record prof-
Oh.
Yes, it was inevitable, but that doesn’t make it any less exciting; The Official PlayStation Magazine teases that they will feature a worldwide reveal of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 in next month’s issue. The franchise has been a phenomenal success this generation, particularly following the release of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. Its blend of cinematic campaigns and addictive, accessible Online multiplayer has seen the series break all kinds of entertainment sales records, but up until now, it was helped by a lack of direct competition.
This year, though, EA have said their gorgeous, graphical showcase – Battlefield 3 – has been designed to compete with Call of Duty, and from what we’ve seen, it’s certainly looking like a worthy competitor to the successful shooter. All fighting talk aside though, Modern Warfare 3 is all but set to outsell loo roll, sliced bread and the Bible.
No information is available concerning platforms, but the Wii and 3DS are likely to receive their own, outsourced, iterations.
O WiiLY? 