Gamernode: Latest Game and Console News

Wizard of Oz RPG coming to the DS

It's somewhat amazing that the actual implementation of this idea for an RPG hasn't come around sooner, but the good news is that it finally has--an RPG based upon the Wizard of Oz. The game is slated for release sometime in winter of 2008 for the DS.

Media Vision, the developers of WildARMS, an RPG that was released a few months before another little RPG made its debut, Final Fantasy VII, will take the helm in producing the game that will be titled, Riz-Zoawd.

Some of the original production members of WildARMS will be on this project such as game designers Tetsuya Ookubo and Nobuo Nakazawa, plus music composer Michiko Naruke.

Riz-Zoawd will be in 3D and will reproduce some of the locations that many Wizard of Oz fans are familiar with. Dorothy will be the main character in the game along wi...

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BioWare MMO due between 2010 and 2011

According to John Riccitiello, BioWare's MMO is scheduled to be released between April 2010 and April 2011. That's a long time from now isn't it? I won't complain as long as BioWare is focusing on other games as well. To create a whole new universe is a pretty daunting task, and if you are out to make a spectacular MMO (which I no doubt think it will be), polish and balance is key.

It has been rumored that the project is a Star Wars MMO, in specific, KOTOR. In his talk with the William Blair and Company during an investor conference, Riccitiello mentioned the BioWare MMO is "new intellectual property", and while one would think that this would kill the KOTOR MMO rumor outright, Eurogamer made an interesting point when they stated that while "Star Wars and KOTOR are hardly new, they would b...

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MGS4 Database now available on PSN

To understand everything that the Metal Gear Solid franchise has put on the table you would most likely need a Cliffs Notes booklet handy. From spies to who is the son of who, and who killed him when he was dead before while someone else was controlling the controller.

So if you are one of those gamers who want to know a little more about the backstory of MGS, Konami yesterday provided players a database that will hopefully answer all of your questions.

According to the official PlayStation Blog:

"The MGS4 Database is a free, downloadable interactive application that contains the official knowledge base of everything that is Metal Gear, reaching all the way back to the very beginning of the franchise. Including complete storylines, character profiles, relationship diagrams, and much more! T...

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Info on Gears of War 2 and host advantage

The original Gears of War is still one of the more popular games being played on Xbox Live to date, and those that stuck around with it after Halo 3 came out love every second of it, for the exception of one thing, host advantage. If you are one of the many games who play Gears of War online, you know what I mean. If you are a guest to the host server, there is a second delay that gets your teeth crunching and stomach to lift when you wonder whether that shotgun shot registered as a hit or not.

They call this host advantage because even though the guests of the server have this problem, the host plays the matches flawlessly, giving him the advantage over other players. In Gears of War 2. CliffyB hopes to annihilate this problem, so all players can have a flawless, seemless experience onlin...

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Metal Gear Solid 4 sells well in Japan

As of right now, Metal Gear Solid 4 has sold approximately 465,000 copies in Japan in the first week of sales, putting Konami on the top spot of the charts. We are not quite sure how big of an impact it had on PS3 hardware sales, but Famitsu believes somewhere in the range of 70,000 sales just for that week. What we do know is that the week prior to release, MGS4 shifted 10,856 sales of the PS3.

The top 40 was made up of 15 games on DS, nine on Wii, three on PSP, two on PS3 and one on PS2.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 1. Metal Gear Soli...

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EA: Boom Blox sales have met our expectations

With the casual gaming genre now one of the biggest money makers for developers, figuring out the best marketing strategy for the titles can be tricky. The tried and true plan of showing off trailers, screenshots, and bits of information almost an entire year in advance really doesn't cut it where casual games are concerned.

One of the best examples of this is the highly acclaimed Boom Blox by EA and Steven Spielberg. While heralded by some reviews as one of the best Wii games made, it should surprise some readers to know Boom Blox has only sold sixty thousand copies in the US. This has met EA's internal expectations, but there is no doubt they were hoping for more. Interestingly enough, Boom Blox may still net the numbers to make it be considered a bigger success.

It all comes down to how...

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Heavenly Sword 2 a no go?

While it was a huge hit at E3 2006, Heavenly Sword didn't turn out to be the monumental smash hit Sony had been hoping for. The game was good, but had some lingering problems that stopped it from being a system seller.

Talk of Heavenly Sword 2 has persisted for some time, but there has been a new rumor surrounding the franchise -- that the sequel had been canceled.

Ninja Theory, who worked on the original Heavenly Sword were not the creative minds behind Heavenly Sword 2, though. According to the unconfirmed story, due to some poor treatment by Sony, Ninja Theory very quickly decided they wanted nothing to do with their previous partner and would move on to bigger and better prospects.

But don't worry, because even though original news articles stated they were literally packing their bags...

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Pro Tip: Grand Theft Auto IV

Well, having braved cops, thugs, mobsters, bombings, hit men, angry citizens, and an assortment of other colorful characters in Grand Theft Auto IV, I have gained wisdom from the school of hard knocks and have made a list of things that may make your trip through Liberty City more productive and fun.

I had a blast playing the game and these are the little tidbits of knowledge that I acquired while dying needlessly or playing through a level a bizilion times because I didn't think through what I needed to do.

Look Both Ways Before You Cross the Street

It's such a simple rule and something that we all have been taught since childhood. But in GTA IV, you get the feeling that you're invincible...until a car slams into you while you're running across the street. Penalty? Your health goes down for ...

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Team Fortress 2 Pyro update - details revealed

The much-talked about Pyro update for Team Fortress 2 goes live in a mere hour and a half. In preparation for the patch, Valve has divulged exactly what the upgrade will bring to the table.

First of all, Valve has included two user-created maps in this update. Namely, CTF_Turbine and CP_Fastlane. You may have already played these maps as they've been available on custom servers for some time but now Valve is making them available to all TF2 players. Here are Valve's official descriptions for both of the maps:

CP_Fastlane: "A control point map with five points, in the style of Badlands. Its symmetrical layout provides for high-speed and well balanced gameplay, while the multiple indoor routes, connected to larger outdoor arenas, provide a wide set of interesting and varied combat spaces. The ...

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Thompson is pulled in by US Marshals

The Master of Disaster is at it again! It now seems as if the US government is counting Jack Thompson as a potential threat; with the US Marshals meeting with him after an extremely over-the-top sarcastic letter.

Yes, you read right. US Marshals were sent to the attorney's house by the US government! So why did the US government suddenly take interest in Thompson?

Well, it seems old Jackie, reacting to the "fact" that Al-Qaeda terrorists in Guantanamo Bay have more rights than he does, did the sensible thing and wrote to Chief Judge Federico Moreno.

He said, "I guess my 'mistake' was not killing 3000 people to make my point..." Yep, bringing up the notion of mass murder to a Chief Judge in a time of terrorist activity is totally cool, like saying that you should join the Westboro Baptis...

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Happy game developers live in...Wisconsin?

Quit giving California and the whole West Coast so much love game develoers! Not only is it home to the majority of game development studios but they have yearly gaming convetions situated there as well.

Why don't you look eastward toward greener pastures, like the lovely state of Wisconsin. If green pastures and an endless amount of high quality cheese isn't enough, what about tax reductions?

Wisconsin announced that it now offers devs a 25 percent tax rebate just for game develoeprs to call it their new home. Wisconsin is also trying to lure in more media for television and movie productions to take place in the state for more exposure and business agreements.

According to Joystiq: "Wisconsin is already home to a handful of notable studios, including Marvel Ultimate Alliance dev Raven Sof...

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New Sonic Unleashed trailer looks good

So I'm not surprised that another Sonic game is gracing our consoles this fall, but am I excited for it? Initially no, I mean trust me the series was great right until the Dreamcast died, then I believe the series died with it.

It was on top of the world on the Genesis and Game Gear but something about holding down forward and jumping once in awhile just doesn't have that same appeal like it used it.

No interest or appeal, until I saw this trailer. Even though essentially all you do is hold down forward and jump once in awhile, they did add quick button presses and different camera angles.

I give Sega a thumbs up for this level in particular. The city-scape looks great and the frame rate doesn't appear to dip, even when going as fast as Sonic. Let's hope they keep the fun level high in eve...

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Forza 3 to have 2 discs plus 400 cars

With the Microsoft information leak still fresh in our minds, one portion of news stands out amongst the others. Along with the Microsoft Avatars, and numerous games mentioned, one of the biggest titles in this leak was Forza 3.

Remember, this is a rumor.

Sources say Forza 3 is going to come packed with over four hundred cars, one hundred tracks, and realistic car deformation. But the biggest shocker has to be Forza 3 is going to ship with two disks instead of one. Along with Lost Odyssey, Forza 3 may be another game to suffer from the storage limitation of the Xbox 360 disk.

While this may not seem important to some, try to imagine Forza 3 with two disks. How does one separate an experience like Forza where the majority of the decisions are up to the player?

Tweak a car, run a race, compet...

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Second motion controller coming for PS3

The PlayStation 3 launched with a motion controller, but hasn't had near the success of the Wii remote. Instead of tossing in the towel, Sony is sticking with its guns and working on a second iteration of their original design.

Many have made the claim that Sony is stealing the motion controller idea from Nintendo and reports on the new design from Sony won't do much to stem these opinions.

Rumor has it that the new controller can break into two pieces and both have motion controller functionality, thanks to an accelerometer like those found in the Wii remote and the Apple iPhone.

With the rumors stating also that this new controller has already been shipped out to some developers, one has to wonder if Sony's new toy will make its debut at E3 this year.

[Via Eurogamer]

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Nintendo apologizes for "geeks and otaku" remarks

The Wii accomplishes its game saves and storage of downloadable content on its internal 512MB memory and removable SD memory cards, which can be a chore, and has started discussions about an HDD among Wii owners.

About a week and a half ago, Laurent Fischer, marketing director for Nintendo Europe said that only "geeks and otaku" would want a hard disk drive add-on for the Wii game console.

The insult didn't go unnoticed by the Wii community and Fischer has apologized for his harsh remarks.

"I have huge respect for those who, like me, share a common passion for Nintendo and want to make it clear that I would never use and I didn't use this terminology in such a context or way to cause offense, he said. "I regret that this misunderstanding has created such offense and disappointment within the...

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Firefox 3.0 launch crashes servers for 20 minutes

The most serious contender to Microsoft's Explorer web browser is Firefox. Today, the latest version of Firefox was released at 1PM EST.

Prior to the launch, the Mozilla Foundation was asking users to form download parties around the world in an attempt to set a Guinness World Record for the most downloads in one day.

The flood of hits was so great that the servers froze up for 20 minutes. Mozilla hopes to see 5 million downloads in just 24 hours.

The newest iteration of Firefox promises to be twice as fast for web applications such as email, more efficient use of memory, new security measures, automatic updates of plug-ins and add-ons, better integration with Windows, and virtually thousands of other improvements to the Firefox browser that are transparent to the user.Firefox is the secon...

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Daily Q: Which games were big disappointments?

Hot on the heels of yesterday's Daily Q, where I asked about games that exceeded expectations, I'm now here to find out about the other end of the gaming spectrum -- games that were utter disappointments. I know there have been a great many of them over the years, so let's hear your picks.

Which games have completely disappointed you?

These are a little bit more difficult for me to come up with off the top of my head because I usually do my best to forget such gaming experiences, but I'll give it a shot. Recently, Grand Theft Auto IV was a bit of a disappointment, because it promised so much, yet delivered what I felt was but an incremental update to the existing formula. Mass Effect, too, was hyped to the sky, but presented something far less than revolutionary. These are both decent games,...

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Team Fortress 2 "Meet the Sniper" video

Valve released the latest in their Team Fortress 2 "Meet the..." video series today. This time around, we are treated to a behind-the-scenes look at the life of the Sniper class, who apparently hails from GN writer Sean "jambo" Pincombe's backyard in the land Down Under. Check it out; it's good for a laugh or two.

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Suit against Tecmo represents all employees

The future isn't looking very bright for videogame publisher/developer Tecmo.

Earlier this month, Ninja Gaiden and Dead or Alive series lead designer Tomonobu Itagaki publicly announced his resignation from, and subsequent lawsuit against what is now his former employer. He cited reasons such as "unpaid completeion bonuses," and "unlawful...unreasonable and disingenuous statements" made towards and about him.

Now, others are following...ahem...suit, as two more employees have brought their case against the company to the Tokyo District Court on behalf of all 300 of their Tecmo co-workers. The suit claims that Tecmo is guilty of gross labor violations and withholding employee wages under a "flexible hours" work scheme. Under this plan, individuals could and have put in over 100 hours of over...

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Daily Q: Which games exceeded your expectations?

Welcome to the late edition of the Daily Q. Today I've been thinking about videogames. More specifically, I've been thinking about really good videogames; the ones that you never expected to be as great as they ultimately were; the ones that totally exceeded expectations.

They're out there. They come along every now and then to remind us that in this industry that so often hands us let-downs and leaves us with the broken remains of our once-high hopes, there is justice and there are pleasant surprises. Those surprises are the subject of my question:

Which games have totally exceeded your expectations?

There have been quite a few to do this throughout my gaming career, so I am going to stick with the most recent pair that stand out in my mind. The first is Bioshock, which I never really got pr...

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