http://www.dpadz.com/index Video Game News, Reviews and Articles-Xbox, PS2, Gamecube, DS, Gameboy, PSP,PC en koibumi@gmail.com Copyright 2006 2006-11-17T02:56:00-07:00 http://www.dpadz.com/index/video-games/win-a-wii/ Gamefly is offering a contest to win a Nintendo Wii by joining up their game rental store. It’s like Netflix but just for games. Check it out. News, Nintendo-Wii 2006-11-17T02:56:00-07:00 http://www.dpadz.com/index/video-games/video-game-importers-new/ With the death of Lik-Sang due to Sony lawsuits some people may be asking which other importers are out there, especially ones that will ship to Europe as our buddies over there always seem to get screwed on launch dates, often getting their consoles months after Japan and North America. Here is a short list of Hong Kong based importers but with the recent Lik-Sang fiasco, these video game importers may be a bit wary of shipping systems before their official release in other countries. In fact maybe Sony purposely hit Lik-Sang arguably the largest importer especially hard as a message to the others. Play-Asia Formerly Lik-Sang’s biggest competitor. Play-asia has an extensive selection of games and hardware with good prices. This video game importer has a well run store with specials and a newsletter. They also get involved in movies, music and toys. NCSX National Console Support is a video game importer based in the US but it’s unknown whether they can get consoles before official release. DCSLinks A Hong Kong based importer of mostly Japanese games. They seem smaller than some of the other stores with a smaller selection. MovieTyme MovieType has locations in the UK and US. Will they ship American consoles to Europe after the Lik-Sang fiasco remains to be seen. YesAsia A large Hong Kong based web store that carries all sorts of goodies. They are like the Amazon of Asia with DVDs, video games, karaoke, music, anime, books, comics, collectibles, toys and electronics. Again, with Lik-Sang getting stomped will they ship Sony PS3’s overseas? Articles 2006-11-04T05:59:00-07:00 http://www.dpadz.com/index/video-games/top-10-nintendo-wii-games/ Mark Bozon’s blog on IGN picks his top 10 Wii launch games. Here’s my synopsis on his picks with some personal pithy comments. 10. Mystery Virtual Console Game Nintendo’s will release some new games for their Wii virtual console, the backwards compatible software download service that will include NES and N64 games as well as old Sega games for systems like the Genesis. 9. Metal Slug Anthology For all you Metal Slug nuts out there. 8. Red Steel The much hyped shooter, katana wielding FPS with some pretty complex control schemes. 7. Wii Sports The bundled game included with every Wii system. Essentially a bunch of sports mini games. 6. Excite Truck An arcady open terrain truck driving game that should be interesting to control. Rotating the Wii controller like a steering wheel drives the truck. 5. Madden 07 Wii Sports. This is where the Wii really has the potential to shine. Innovative gameplay using the unique aspects of the controller like the built in speaker. 4. Elebits A wholly interactive 3D space using the Wii controller to grab, push, pull, open doors, rotate handles etc. This sounds like the game that will really sell the controller to the masses. 3. Monkey Ball This old chestnut makes another appearance on the Wii. If you’ve played monkey ball before and like it you will probably like this. 2. Trauma Center A surgery game? Why not. With the current slew of TV shows about forensics and hospital trauma/dramas like Gray’s Anatomy, the CSIs, House and on and on this game perfectly feeds the current milleau of the macabre. 1. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess What else did you think was going to be number one? News, Nintendo-Wii 2006-10-26T19:10:00-07:00 http://www.dpadz.com/index/video-games/scarface-the-world-is-yours-reviews/ A collection of Scarface game review links: 1up give it 6 out of ten. Scarface is a good enough open-world game. It tweaks a lot of flaws in the genre and even goes so far as to bring a few new ideas to the thing, even if they don’t work out very well most of the time. Worth a tour if you really loved the movie, but maybe less so if you’ve already played the hell out of Vice City. We can’t really blame Scarface for the familiarity of the setting, but the fact remains that we’ve been here before. Gamespy says 4 out of 5. There’s a lot to praise, but despite being fun and interesting, the game isn’t perfect. Gamers who are getting used to the next-generation of console visuals aren’t going to be impressed with either the PS2 or the Xbox version of the game, although options like widescreen and progressive scan are supported on both. Past superficial faults, there are bound to be a few duller moments in the game where you need to work hard banking drug money or pumping your reputation to move on to something more interesting. Controlling your henchmen for side-missions isn’t very interesting or enjoyable. The game’s outrageous tone does dull a bit as you move on, and the action and dialogue eventually start to repeat themselves. Still, Scarface is a long-lasting experience that’s simply a lot of fun. Part guilty pleasure, part blazingly successful experiment in game design, Scarface: The World is Yours is definitely worth a shot. Gamespot gives Scarface: The World is Your 6.4 out of 10. Overall, Scarface: The World Is Yours is more a victim of some poor design choices than any glaring technical issues. The developers accomplished the task of bringing Tony Montana back to life. But by taking the focus off of the gameplay elements that you’d want in an open-city game and putting it more on the game’s bland mission design and all the dull side tasks you’ll have to do to earn a reputation, Scarface doesn’t play to its potential strengths. The end result is a functional game that presents an interesting premise, but underneath you’ll find a wholly uninteresting game. IGN thinks the Scarface game is 8.7 out of 10. There are a whole lot of little things about Scarface: The World is Yours that make it fun, but it’s the sum of its parts that make it the overall great game that it is. It does a whole lot to fix many of the problems with other games in the genre, and it does an absolutely fantastic job of bring the world of Scarface to gamers. While it isn’t quite perfect, we won’t hesitate for a second to recommend it to action fans everywhere. Reviews 2006-10-23T16:08:00-07:00 http://www.dpadz.com/index/video-games/defcon-pc-strategy-game-wargames/ Introversion’s new game DEFCON harkens back to 80’s video games where the learning curve is gentle, the interface is uncluttered while maintaining a strategic playground of infinite depth. With all the nuclear sabre rattling in the world right now with Iran starting a “peaceful” nuclear program, North Korea successfully testing a nuke detonation it seems prescient of Introversion to release Defcon now. The 80’s feel may not totally be arbitrary. As anyone who has seen the 1983 movie WarGames knows, DEFCON is short for Defense Condition with a 5 to 1 countdown rating on the state of seriousness of a nuclear threat. Defcon starts the game at Defcon 5 with some sobering statistics of nuclear yields, massive projected death tolls and radiation effects. To underscore the consequence of MAD doctrine and the game Introversion has named the site http://www.everybody-dies.com. From there play in real time against a clock to the final missile launch. The goal is simple, protect your cities, resources and military arsenal while destroying the same of your enemies. Sort of like Missile Command but with the ability to shoot back. Defcon’s mulitplayer elements come into play with “alliances”, secret chats with other players to team up against others. Of course since there can be only one “winner” eventually someone is going to play Brutus which only adds to the fun. Like some other 80’s games each match is relatively short at 15 to 30 minutes unlike the grueling mulit hour matches of some modern games. It seems this game has hit a nerve as the developers note on their site the download servers were slammed during launch but things have settled down now. You can download from their multiple mirrors or bittorrent. I chose bittorrent for the demo and the 59mb only took about 10 minutes. General reviews from various sources so far have been excellent. 1Up gave it a 8.9. PC Gamer gave it 97%. IGN gives it 8.8. News, PC, Reviews 2006-10-10T10:44:00-07:00 http://www.dpadz.com/index/video-games/nintendo-wii-system-cost-calculator/ The Nintendo Wii will come out at a reasonable $250 US and it comes with one controller and WiiSports title but come on, how many of you will be playing by yourself on a system that begs for group play. Plus you will most likely be itching for something more than Wii Sports when titles like NFL Blitz, Call of Duty 3, Legend of Zelda and 13 other titles will be available at lauch. So the question is how much will your system REALLY cost by the time you add in an extra controller or two, and a couple of games. Well looks like n-sider’s Wii calculator has come to your rescue with a comprehensive calculator that even takes into account state taxes to give you the final, final price you will burden your credit card with. News, Nintendo-Wii 2006-10-02T08:46:00-07:00 http://www.dpadz.com/index/video-games/xbox-360-price-drop-speculation-rumor/ Xbox 360 price drops are an eventuality if the history of consoles proves to be ongoing. Video game console manufacturers typically launch the hardware at a loss; making it up on the software side. Then a year or so after launch, redesigns, improved manufacturing efficencies and component price reductions allow the video game hardware manufacturer to drop the price, preferably breaking even or squeezing out a small profit. The PS2 has gone through about 6 different revisions up to the current iteration. So rumors of an Xbox 360 price reduction in time for the Christmas season seems a reasonable question to ask since it has been about a year since the Xbox 360’s release. Reducing the price for the busy holiday season and making Sony’s PS3 introductory price seem even more outlandish seems like good strategy. However, The Inquirer gives us some good arguments on why that may not happen despite recent rumors of Microsoft’s recent contract renegotiations. “Due to these rumours and statements, a number of industry pundits are suggesting the drop will come in to effect at a similar time as the launch of the Playstation 3, to inflict maximum damage on Sony’s launch. But despite all of this, it still seems a price cut in 2006 is highly unlikely for two reasons. Firstly, it would seem odd to drop the price just before the holiday season, considering demand for the console will be at its highest and also that the PS3 will be in incredibly short numbers - further driving up demand for the 360, without the need for any lowering of price. Secondly, the Xbox 360’s CPU is expected to receive a die-shrink from 90nm to 65nm in the first quarter of 2007, and possibly the ATI supplied graphics chipset too. Although this news is doing the rounds at the moment, its of no surprise and was well known sometime ago by the Inq and others. It’s unlikely that the re-costing of multiple components from Taiwanese companies has effected a plausible $100 drop in price for the 360, however, these die shrinks coupled with the cost refactorings, could present MS with the significant drop in price they need. By the time the die-shrink and cost-savings are incorporated into the console in Q1/Q2 2007, Sony will be ramping up production of the PS3 to allow for the shipment of much higher numbers of the product than the meagre offering expected at launch, and will also be belatedly releasing the console in Europe. This is the perfect time for the 360 to receive a price cut. µ” News, Xbox-360 2006-10-02T01:36:00-07:00 http://www.dpadz.com/index/video-games/ps3-price-cuts-not-coming-to-north-america/ Sony has stated that the recently-announced 20 GB PS3 price cut over in Japan is for their native country only and will not be offered to North American consumers at launch time. Sony’s new console will cost US buyers at least $499. Since Sony is pushing the higher capacity 60GB version chances are consumers will be paying the $599 for that unit.  2006-09-30T08:13:00-07:00 http://www.dpadz.com/index/video-games/nintendo-wii-launch-titles-and-publishers/ From the Nintendo Wii Launch Release Annoucement. Nintendo Wii Third-Party Wii Titles Available from Launch through March 31, 2007 PUBLISHER Nintendo Battalion Wars II Big Brain Academy™ (temporary name) Excite Truck The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess Mario Strikers Charged Metroid Prime 3: Corruption Super Mario Galaxy (temporary name) WarioWare: Smooth Moves Wii Sports Activision Call of Duty 3 Marvel: Ultimate Alliance Rapala Tournament Fishing Tony Hawk’s Downhill Jam World Series of Poker Atari Dragon Ball Z Budokai: Tenkaichi 2 Atlus Trauma Center: Second Opinion Buena Vista Games Chicken Little: Ace in Action Disney’s Meet the Robinsons Codemasters Dance Factory Sidewinder EA The Godfather Madden NFL 07 Need for Speed: Carbon SSX Tiger Woods PGA Tour Konami Elebits Majesco Bust A Move Revolution Midway The Ant Bully The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy Happy Feet Mortal Kombat: Armageddon Rampage: Total Destruction Sega Sonic and the Secret Rings Super Monkey Ball Banana Blitz SNK Metal Slug Anthology THQ Avatar: The Last Airbender Barnyard Cars SpongeBob SquarePants: Creature from the Krusty Krab Ubisoft Blazing Angels: Squadrons of WWII Far Cry: Vengeance GT Pro Series Monster 4x4: World Circuit Open Season Prince of Persia Rayman: Raving Rabbids RED STEEL Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Double Agent Vivendi Ice Age 2 News, Nintendo-Wii 2006-09-15T05:40:00-07:00 http://www.dpadz.com/index/video-games/nintendo-wii-launch-date-price-and-games/ The Wii facts as we know now. Wii US launch date is November 19th (assume this is North America) Wii launch price $250 16 Wii launch titles 30 titles for the Wii by the end of the year Wii game prices will be around $50 Wii console bundled with “Wii Sports” and a nunchuck region free! no restrictions, play games from any region, like Japan downloadable games loaded to your account like Xbox Live no external hard drive support no DVD playback support Zelda: Twilight Princess, available at launch for about $58 unlike Sony’s PS3 or Microsoft Xbox 360, the Wii hardware will be classic games for download at prices between $4.25 and $8.50 profitable right at launch first Nintendo console launched outside Japan first Japanese price to be lower than US at $212 for Japan launch on December 2nd Nintendo plans to ship 4 million Wii units by year end and 6 million units by March, roughly twice Sony’s shipment plans for the PS3. Microsoft has said it will have 10 million Xbox 360s to market by year end. Nintendo also introduced “Wii Channels,” a feature that extends the capabilities of the device to allow users to view photos, watch video, surf the Internet and perform other PC-like activities. News, Nintendo-Wii 2006-09-15T04:53:00-07:00