Gamernode: Latest Game and Console News

July 21st WiiWare/Virtual Console releases

Another Monday, another round of WiiWare and Virtual Console updates.

Whether Nintendo adds one game, ten games, or none at all, GamerNode will be here every Monday with the official details - titles, platforms, ratings, pricing, and even a taste of some corny marketing copy - keeping you up to date with everything from the online Wii scene.

Without further ado, the games:

WiiWare

Pirates: The Key of Dreams (Oxygen Games, 1-4 players, Rated E for Everyone-Mild Violence, 1,000 Wii Points): Pirates: The Key of Dreams is a frantic nautical shoot-'em-up. Sail your way across the Caribbean, cannons blazing, looting booty, running blockades and ultimately battling Blackbeard himself. The player takes control of a navy captain sent deep undercover as a ruthless pirate in order to seek out and retr...

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E3 Preview: Dawn of War II

The Dawn of War real-time-strategy (RTS) series currently has three expansion packs and is critically acclaimed as one of the greatest entries in the genre to date. Naturally, a sequel, due in 2009, is on the way.

At E3 we were given a private demonstration of the game by one of the lead designers. As expected, the graphics have received a substantial upgrade while still retaining their colorful artistic style. For example, the armor worn by the space marines includes even more damage detailing and the environments accurately reflect what’s happening in the area, sometimes greatly to your advantage. Fire effects cause surfaces to appear charred, buildings can be destroyed, and the craters created by the heavy marines landing from their jetpack jumps can be used as a form of cover. Tha...

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E3 Preview: Dark Void

The original developers of Crimson Skies, FASA studio, may not exist anymore, but they live on, quite literally, in Airtight Studios. With their first title, Dark Void, Airtight might receive a bit of criticism for creating another third-person Gears of War clone. Hopefully that criticism will be retracted quickly after players see that the game has more in common with the comic book hero The Rocketeer than big burly space marines drowning in their own testosterone. No offense to the latter, of course.

For a game with a mid-2009 release date, Dark Void looked and played fantastic. Jumping in and out of cover and using blind-fire felt as natural as it does in other similar titles such as Dark Sector and Gears of War. Using the jet pack to reach higher ledges and engage in air-to-ground comba...

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DQ: What games have you started but never finished...

There are not enough hours in a day to play all of your favorite games so what games have you started but never got to finish? I'll probably have to hand in my gamer card at the front desk because some of the games I started but never finished should probably have been no-brainers. Also to the folks who are shocked and want to exact revenge on those who failed to complete a classic game should keep the floggings at a minimum.

I reckon I'm a little interested in hearing the reasons why some of these games were never finished. I imagine they can range from not enough time, work or even just being a terrible game.

So for example, I love FPS but I never finished Prey (time), S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl (I'm a wuss during the underground parts and I've attempted to replay it multiple time...

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Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II teaser trailer

Here's a teaser trailer for Relic Entertainment's upcoming RTS sequel Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II. Now that the game will have a greater focus on your units and squads, I imagine the space marines featured in this trailer will settle some emotion in our hearts. After viewing the trailer below, check out Kyle's hands-on preview of the game (which I am very jealous of) after the jump. Expect Dawn of War II to hit stores in Spring 2009.

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E3 Preview: inFAMOUS

If there's one thing the nation is obsessed with right now, it's superhero stories. From the X-Men to Spiderman to Superman to Batman, we just can't seem to get enough of these superpowered men and women in tights. While many videogame companies are capitalizing on this craze by re-creating the worlds of these pre-existing characters, Sucker Punch is taking a different route with their third-person action game inFAMOUS -- they are creating a brand new, modern superhero origin story, and letting the gamer shape the star.

inFAMOUS tells the tale of Empire City, where a massive explosion leaves the urban center in shambles and effectively lawless from rioting and the elimination of the city's police force. Worse yet, the city is quarantined by the government, stranding the inhabitants in an un...

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E3 Preview: Sonic Unleashed

It's been a while since I've seen a Sonic the Hedgehog game that actually sparked my interest, but at this year's E3, Sega has given me just that. Sonic Unleashed is the first game starring the blue, spiked speedster in years that may actually break the mascot's streak of less-than-impressive videogame appearances.

Sonic Unleashed actually plays like two separate games, thanks to the implementation of a day and night theme and Sonic's new "werehog" ailment. In the game's daytime levels, Sonic Unleashed plays with all the speed and acrobatics one would expect from a current generation interpretation of the franchise's 16-bit glory days, both from an over-the-shoulder perspective and a throwback side view. At night, the pace slows down, and the focus is more on combat and exploration in a t...

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E3 preview: LittleBigPlanet

Coming into E3, LittleBigPlanet sat high on my list of most anticipated games for the show. After Sony's LBP "Breakout Event" and some hands-on time with the game, I can say with certainty that the hype is well-deserved.

LittleBigPlanet is an action platformer from developer Media Molecule that aims to take the "web 2.0" mentality and apply it to videogames via a piece of software centered around the player community and their interaction with one another.

The core gameplay is reminiscent of traditional platform games such as Donkey Kong Country, but with significant improvements for the current generation of consoles. Essentially 2 1/2-D, it is a side-scroller with just enough depth to the play field to greatly increase the possibilities for varied navigation of the game's environments. Phy...

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EA: Lucasarts and BioWare building KotOR MMO

Even though this might not come to a shock to many of us, it is nice to finally hear official word that Lucasarts and BioWare are indeed making a Knights of the Old Republic MMO.

Portfolio.com published a short excerpt of its interview with EA boss John Riccitiello who tells the site that it's "got two of the most compelling MMOs in the industry in development" including "the one that people are dying for us to talk to them about -- in partnership with Lucas, coming out of BioWare."

Joystiq talked with N. Evan Van Zelfden, the writer of the report, who told them that when asked specifically if this game was "KOTOR Online", Riccitiello responded unequivocally, "Yes." Well there you go guys, it's good to finally hear that the game is in the works, and that another Star Wars MMO (hopefully mu...

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E3 Preview: The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom...

What combines silent films, Back to the Future, and a love for pie? If you answered The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom you'd be correct. This black-and-white indie title and from lead designer, lead artist and programmer, Matt Korba, has been in development for less than a year and it's one of my personal favorite titles of this year's E3.Coming into the event, I was already well aware of Mr. Winterbottom and his time-bending ways. This last February, the title was one of the finalists for the 2008 Independent Games Festival's Student Showcase. It may not have won the award, but it gained national attention and, as Korba told me...

Read the full preview here.

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E3 Preview: ibb and obb

How does the idea of a two-player-only game sound? Excellent? Then you'd agree with Richard Boeser, sole creator of ibb & obb where the vibrant minimal aesthetics reflect the simple game concept of moving from point A to point B without dying.

Of course that's not the entirety of how the game operates. Player 1 and Player 2 control the seemingly identical blob-like creatures ibb and obb, distinguished by color and a minimal difference in height, and in age-old left-to-right plumber fashion, try and reach the end of the level without getting your goofy whimsical asses killed by the spikey black balls who may or may not just be going about their business.

Read the full preview here.

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E3: "Ghetto Vader" wants to gate crash E3

While the E3 convention has decidedly taken a turn for the more serious rather than the former glory days of glitz and glamour, one particular individual going by the assumed name of "Ghetto Vader" wants to spice things up a bit.

The die-hard gamer traveled all the way from the Bronx in hopes that his costume and playful personality would get him past the gatekeepers at E3. Attendees to the convention are given entry by invitation only.

Whether Ghetto Vader made it past the guards is uncertain. But one thing we do know is that he made it into the lobby of the LA Convention Center where he was able to hobnob with some of the E3 personnel.

In addition, GV made a homemade music video; he stars himself in a rap proclaiming the glories of E3...if you can understand the distorted soundtrack, that i...

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Gears of War 2 event at GameStop!

Proving again that not all news comes from E3, we just received a tip letting us know that there will be a mysterious Gears of War 2 event held at GameStop stores next Friday.

Details are scarce but we were able to get a scan of the email sent out to GameStop stores.

Could this be another midnight trailer showing like they did for Gears the first? Or is Epic done with Gears of War 2 and they're having a surprise release next Friday? I'm willing to bet on the former.

Check out the FBI looking document after the jump. 

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E3: 60GB Xbox 360 Pro revealed

It was pretty much a given that Microsoft would be showing off a new Xbox 360 at E3. The big question on everyone's mind was what sort of machine would it be?

Microsoft answered that question by unveiling the Xbox 360 Pro 60GB game console.

Outside of the obvious upgrade to a 60GB hard drive, other amenities rumored for this newest iteration of the 360 may include ATI Xenos GMCH, a smaller 65nm CPU, and other internal performance upgrades, although Microsoft has not made any official announcements on these improvements yet.

Albert Penello, Xbox director of product management at Microsoft said, "We know consumers need more and more space to store the amazing digital content Xbox 360 offers, and we're giving it to them at no extra charge. No one device offers the depth and breadth of entertain...

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E3 Preview: Flock

Capcom had a little game called Flock on display at this year's E3, and I had the opportunity to stop by and try my hand at the charming physics-based animal herding puzzle game coming to Xbox Live Arcade, the PlayStation Network, and the PC later this year.

The premise of the game is simple: use your little flying saucer and its tools to direct a number of animals into the Mother Flocker spacecraft, earning points for meeting and/or exceeding your quotas and for performing other fun actions on your way to fulfilling those goals...

Read the full preview HERE.

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E3 Preview: Deer Hunter Tournament

Atari was showing off a handful of games at E3 this year, one of which is a virtual outdoorsman's (is that an oxymoron?) dream. Deer Hunter Tournament is the next in a long line of sport hunting titles, due to arrive on the Xbox 360 from SouthLogic Studios in the fall of 2008.

The biggest addition this time around is what gives the game its name -- tournament servers. The developers have responded to past Deer Hunter message boards, on which players have been known to routinely set up competitions to bag the best of a certain animal in a specific area of the game. In Deer Hunter Tournament, this will be incorporated directly into the game...

Check out the full preview HERE.

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E3 Preview: Left 4 Dead

Left 4 Dead. I could pretty much just write the name, and it would easily be one of the most read previews I've written here at GamerNode considering half our community comes from a Half-Life based site. (In fact, I almost took the easy way out--I'm tired and it's 2AM, people!)

To say that L4D has received an enormous amount of hype would be an understatement; L4D may be one of the most anticipated games of the year, if not the most anticipated for the PC. And for good reason.

After months of waiting to have a chance to try it, my time finally came Tuesday afternoon in Valve's Left 4 Dead room here at E3. Sitting down with GamerNode's own David Henry, one of Valve's people, and another journalist, we embarked on a journey to find safety from the zombie hordes. (Spoilers: we didn't.)

To read ...

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E3 Preview: Dead Space

Dead Space was one of the few games Kyle, Eddie and I all agreed on wanting to see when we got to E3. The mixture of survival horror, sci-fi, and all of the elements trying to truly immerse players in gameplay intrigued and excited all three of us. Kyle and Eddie unfortunately didn't get a chance to check Dead Space out, but after playing it for a while (and getting my ass kicked by it several times) I have to say it's still near the top of my "Games I MUST Get!" list.

One of the most unique elements of Dead Space is the way the game is presented. EA Redwood Shores wanted players to be fully immersed in the story of engineer Isaac Clarke, so there's no in-game menu or displays of any sort. The health is displayed on Isaac's back in the form of lights, ammo is displayed on weapons, and even ...

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E3 Preview: Bionic Commando

While Eddie was in heaven playing Resident Evil 5 and Street Fighter, I was busy swinging my way across the destroyed landscape of Ascension City in Bionic Commando. (And wearing the replica Bionic Arm.) Based on the original Bionic Commando games and set ten years in the future, this re-imagining takes the once iconic video game franchise and places it in an updated current-gen engine. The result? Plenty of swinging goodness.

The developers from GRIN were telling everyone that understanding the ropes of swinging in Bionic Commando would take quite a while. Quite to the contrary, I and the person playing after me got used to it after a very brief period of trial and error. In other words, it's difficult enough that you have to practice, but easy enough that you can get it down (at basic lev...

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E3 Preview: Ninjatown

We all know the Tower Defense games have taken off in the last year and a half. What once started as a simple flash game has expanded into a verifiable genre. So what's someone to do to make their tower defense styled game stand out? The simple answer is to use cute little ninjas.

Ninjatown DS is a game developed by Venan and being released by Southpeak. Based on former EGM editor Shawn Smith's Shawnimals line of toys, Ninjatown features a colorful cast of cute ninja characters all trying to protect their city from Mr. Demon and his forces.

The plot of the story seems rather simple-Mr. Demon and his demons are trying to destroy Ninjatown-but Shawn was adamant that Ninjatown will have much more than just the simple, possibly cliché setting behind it. Featuring a lot of dialogue and characteri...

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