Nintendo to officially launch Asian Wii in Games Convention 2007

Nintendo's distributor in Asia, Maxsoft, will be launching Wii for the Asian market during the Games Convention 2007. This year's event is held in Suntec City from 6th to 9th September 2007.

Although Wii have been available in Asian stores pretty much for a long time now, these Wii are primarily either the US or Jap version. With the official launch of the Asian version, we can possibly look forward to having game in Chinese or Korean, perhaps?

How different will the Asian version be, you will just have to wait for them to launch it here first.

Review: EA's Tiger Woods 08. Now in MY stores.

EA's Tiger Woods 08 for Wii is now available in MY stores. With the short time lapsed between the yearly increment of the game, it was expected that the game will not be improved much. And I was right.

I had not bought Tiger Woods 07 mainly for the fact that it was a PS2 port with Wii motion tacked on. I had hoped that the next release, the 08 version, will fare better. This was not the case as EA pushed the game out to us within a short development time of just five months.

New to Tiger Woods 08 is the Putt Preview, which will help in lining up your putting shots and lets you take a preview shot to gauge how well you are doing. Then you do it for real. For some reason, the shots managed in the preview is still not exactly the same as the actual putt, or it could be my hands not swinging the Wiimote exactly the same, I don't know.

The game also now allows you to slice/hook your shots, but not while in-swing. You will need to twist your hands (to hook or slice), hold the B button and finally take a swing in that position. Its not as per the real thing, but at least now you can hook/slice you shots if you choose to.

Visually, Tiger Woods 08 is the same as the 07 version, which looked liked a PS2 version. With the Wii showing that it is much more capable to handle better graphics (Metroid Prime 3), its very disappointing for EA to work on Tiger Woods 08 without any graphical updates.

In short, if you don't have any Wii golf games, Tiger Woods 08 is a good place to start. If you have the 07 version, you may wanna skip this and wait for a better version, Tiger Woods 09 perhaps??

Ratings: 6.5 / 10

Nokia's online suite, OVI

Nokia OVI is a three in one internet services that will allow its members to access an online music store, the N-gage games as well as Nokia Maps. While N-gage games and Nokai Maps have been available from Nokia's website for sometime now, the Music Store is a wholly new product.

In a move that competes with Apple's ITunes Music Store directly, Nokia's very own Music Store is obviously targeted for high speed users. Owners of HSDPA handsets can purchase 192KBps DRM protected WMA tracks from Universal Music Group and several other unnamed labels. Buyers will be able to stream their purchase over the cellular networks and two-way sync with their PCs, which is not available from Apple's ITunes store, and this could be the edge Nokia OVI has over ITunes.

Other application within OVI includes the revamped and tuned N-Gage games, which is now dedicated to games on the N Series 60 handsets. PC users can head to http://www.ngage.com/ to download a free application that allows you to browse, try and buy the games for the said N Series handsets, which as of now are N73, N81, N81 8GB, N93, N93i, N95 and N95 8GB. Games currently listed as The Sims 2 Pets from Electronic Arts, Asphalt 3 from Gameloft and Crash Bandicoot from Vivendi Games Mobile as well as Nokia's own titles like Snakes Subsonic and System Rush: Evolution.

Prices are not made known, so we will have to wait till November when OVI is made available in selected markets.

Nokia introduces OVI, and unleashes new multimedia models

In Nokia's Go Play event in Singapore yesterday, Nokia have rolled out their own internet services brand, OVI. Meaning "the door" in Finnish, OVI will be the gateway to access Nokia's Music Store, N-Gage games and Nokia Maps.

At the same event, Nokia also introduced four multimedia phones, all to be available in the last quarter of 2007. These models are the N95 8GB, N81, 5610 and 5310 XpressMusic models.

Details of OVI and the new models will be up shortly.

Porcelain White PS2 in Singstar bundle for US

While we in the Asian region have the porcelain white PS2 since 2005, Sony US is giving US buyers a chance to own the white version come November 2007. Sold in a Singstar bundle, the package includes the Singstar game, a matching white controller and two microphones for you and a friend to sing your hearts to the 30 songs and 6 medleys within the Singstar game to.

The whole bundle will be available at US$150, for those few of you yet to land yourself the current world's most successful console.

Unbrick your PSP with Pandora's Battery.

There is a new PSP unbricker, named Pandora's Battery. It works as follows:-

• You run a program on a homebrew-enabled PSP that will convert a standard PSP battery into a jigkick battery. Note that you can't then use that battery normally - so you should use a spare one.
• You run a program to generate the unbricker memory stick image, built from the v1.5 update EBOOT (note that this, and the custom IPL, means the release is completely free of Sony copyright materials).
• You run some programs on a PC to install the image to your memory stick.

Upon which you will have a battery and memory card combo that works like a jigkick battery combo - you can insert them into any bricked PSP and it will re-install firmware v1.5 into it, effectively unbricking it. Seems it even works for future firmware versions.

To find the instructions, donation methods (if you do use it) and do it on your own risk, click here.

Dell US blames delay in shipping colored Inspirons to problems in painting.

Dell XPS M1330 and Inspiron range of notebooks buyers in the US have complained of delays in receiving their orders. Dell have acknowledged this issue, and have issued statements that blames the delays on the difficulties in achieving acceptable results for the painting of the lids, and was more difficult than anticipated.

Last week, Dell MY website are informing the local buyers that ordering the painted Inspiron notebooks (other than the colors Alpine White and Jet Black) may subject your delivery to be slower by 3 to 4 weeks. However, a quick check today at the same Dell MY website shows no such disclaimer exists when buyers select the color lid option.

Does this mean that Dell MY does not have such delays anymore? Anyone had ordered a Malaysian or Asian Dell Inspiron with optional colored lids recently?

New "M" rating for Manhunt 2, hitting the streets end October 2007.

After receiving an "AO" (Adults Only, effectively meaning that Nintendo and Sony wont approve the game for their consoles) by ERSB (US) and BBFC (UK) for Manhunt 2, Rockstar have reworked on the game and resubmitted the game to ERSB for reclassification.

ERSB have given the reworked game a "M" rating (age 17 and over) and Rockstar is happy to announce that Manhunt 2 is currently scheduled for release in the US on Wii, PS2 and PSP this Halloween, October 31.

Wii sells 10.57 million units, becomes worldwide console leader.

As of 23rd August 2007, there are a total of 10.57 million Nintendo Wiis sold worldwide. Despite of current shortages in the console in many regions, Wii has in a short period of less than one year (it was released to the world in November 2006) overtaken Xbox360 as the market leader in home console sales. Microsoft's problematic console have sold 10.51 million units since its launch in November 2005, a full year ahead of Nintendo's launch.

For comparison sake, Sony's PS3 is trailing at a distant third with 4.32 million units sold.

Review: EA's Boogie. Available now in stores.

It could be the quiet before the storm, as Metriod Prime: Corruption is few days from being released. Only one new game made it to the local games stores shelves this week, its EA's dancing game Boogie.

With 35 new and older songs (Don't Cha - Pussycat Dolls, I'm A Slave For U - Britney Spears, Girls Just Wanna Have Fun - Cyndi Lauper, etc.) to dance to, the songs list are impressive. All you have to do is to move your hands in basic up, down, left and right in rhythm to the indicators on the screen, similar to Konami's DDR except you wave your Wiimote in your hands instead of tapping arrows with your feet. Doing this right will fill up a boost bar and execute special dance moves which are cool to watch. You can also change three dancing styles by pressing the A button.

Boogie even ships with an USB microphone for you to sing Karaoke to. As with other Karaoke games, you simply have to keep the right tone to be scoring well. You can even sing the wrong words in the right tune to pass with flying colors, so I gave that a skip and concentrated on swinging my arms. Strangely, you are scored for performance for one part only, either dancing or singing. You cant score double even if you dance AND sing very well.

Graphically, Boogie is very pretty with pretty graphics with progressive scan and 16:9 support.

There are some quirks that bugs me in the game, like the Wiimote movements don't match the beats of the songs. I know Girls Wanna Have Fun's beat pretty well but the movements don't match the beats, so you dont get a solid sense of dancing to the song but simply dancing to the visual clues. This is made slightly worse as the vibrating beats on the Wiimote too don't match the song beats.

Boogie is a very simple dancing game, perhaps too simple compared to the feet tapping of DDR (or perhaps I am better at swing my hands than tapping my feet to the visual clues on screen). Its a mediocre but well commended effort by EA for the music rhythm genre on Wii. Nice to see third party developers coming out with better and original games for the Wii. Lets now see how better can Konami do it with their Wii DDR game.

Now I am anxious to getting my hands on Metriod Prime 3, how long do I have to wait after the Aug 27th launch date?

Michael Bay kools down.

Michael Bay, the possible director of Transformers 2, have back pedaled on his earlier statement about Paramount's decision not to release Transformers in the blu-ray format.

He has posted in his blog forum that he "drank the Kool-Aid.... yadda yadda yadda... so I think I might be back on to do Transformers 2!"

Hahaha.... so much for standing up to your beliefs...

Wii multicolored removable faceplates.

With the vast amount of Wiis sold worldwide, more accessories are being churned out for Nintendo's hot console.

While we have seen the multicolored silicone sleeves for the Wiimote and the Nunchuk, these are China made faceplate replacements and is packed with Tri-wing screwdrivers (which will let you open up any Nintendo products.) All you need is to unscrew the screws, pull off the white faceplates, and replace with the colored faceplates, which comes with matching colored buttons and D-pad. Simple and it wont damage your Wiimote.

These new multicolored faceplates are not available in any shops in MY yet, but I am hoping some resourceful importer will be bringing these cool mods and I will be the first in line to get me some.

Dual Shock 3???

After the above promo appeared on the internet (allegedly taken from the official GT5 site, but I cant seem to find it), strong rumors are flying about that the silhouette of the PS3 controller is the new Dual Shock 3. This is the alleged rumble-enabled Sixaxis (aka Rumbleaxis) that Sony will release with the October release of GT5 Prologue.

Whether this controller is real, if its going to be called Dual Shock 3, with or without motion sensing capabilities, and the actual features of this "Dual Shock 3", its a secret that only Sony knows for now. We'll know as soon as October comes around, or even earlier during the Tokyo Games Show during 20th - 23rd September 2007.

Michael Bay responds to Paramount's decision to go HD-DVD exclusively.

Michael Bay, director of Transformers, have reportedly stated in his blog forum that that Paramount's decision to go HD exclusively has pissed him off.

In his blog forum title "Paramount pisses me off!" Michael goes on the record saying "I want people to see my movies in the best formats possible. For them to deny people who have Blu-ray sucks! They were progressive by having two formats. No Transformers 2 for me! "

Oh no!! No Transformers 2.... curse you Paramount!

Paramount and Dreamworks on HD-DVD exclusively.

The format war between HD-DVD and blu-ray is heating up even more.

Paramount Pictures and Dreamworks Animations have been releasing movies in both HD-DVD and Blu-ray format for a while now. In fact, they started in the HD-DVD camp before they decided to release them in blu-ray format too. Now all this is about to change again.

Both studios have announced that they are dropping the blu-ray format and be exclusive to the HD format. This means that latest summer blockbuster movies such as Transformers, Shrek The Third and Blades of Glory (which will come out first) will not be getting the blu-ray edition. To view them in HD, you have to use the

Reason given for the switch? Cheaper HD-DVD players and manufacturing costs will trump out the more expensive blu-ray players (which are mainly PS3).

Oh no! Do I have to get the Xbox360 (a 30% failure machine) and the HD-DVD attachment, or get the Toshiba player, to see Transformer in high def?? Why cant I use the PS3?

Curse you Paramount! Hahaha....

In2Games to bring motion sensing games to PS2.

As Nintendo's Wii is poised to be the numero uno (number one) in worldwide sales very soon (currently 10.41million Wii sold versus 10.43million Xbox360 sold) , motion sensing controllers are the flavor of the year.

Sensing this (pun intended), In2Games have announced a whole set of games that rivals the Wii Sports/Wii Play, for the PS2! These games under the Realplay moniker, consisting of Golf, Tennis, Pool, Racing, Bowling, and Puzzlesphere (?). Each of these games will ship with a custom shell and a motion sensing controller, and is said to be priced at US$60 (RM207) per pop.

No pictures of the controller or the games have been released, and In2Games are said to be targeting existing PS2 owners who have not jumped on to Wii bandwagon yet.

I am not sure of how well these games/controllers will work as compared to the Wii, but if I were to get all 6 titles at US$60 a pop, that will cost me US$360 (RM1200) in total! With that much money required to get games for the aged PS2, I will be buying a Wii with Wii Sports instead.

DVD playback on Wii using modchip.

A mod chip company has created an application for owners of its Wii modchips. Apparently this new application will allow their modchip owners to use the Wii as a DVD player!

Late last year, Nintendo have announced DVD playback enabled Wii to be shipped to Japan only sometime in 2007, but that has yet to happen. With no official announcement on DVD playback for Wii in other parts of the world, this maybe good news for those out there who don't have a standalone DVD player.

However, in this part of the world where local and China made DVD players are dirt cheap, this may not be a good reason to chip your Wii and void the warranty.

Happy 25th Birthday to Compact Discs!

To be fair, its a belated birthday wish to our shiny friends, the Compact Discs (CDs).

It was 25 years ago, on 17th August 1982, that the first CD rolled off the production line. The CDs eventually freed humankind from flipping their cassettes (although auto-reverse cassette players were available) and allowed us to skip directed to the songs we want to listen to almost immediately. The CD also introduced almost perfect audio quality and ushered in the era of digital of music, allowing us to easily copy music via these shiny discs.

With over 200 billion of these CDs being sold worldwide, we salute you, Compact Discs.

Wiimote with LED? Its a lookalike game player.

In a world where many famous things get cloned (ipod lookalike mp3 players?), fake Wii like gaming devices are beginning to surface. While these thing are more commonly found in these parts of Asia, Wal-Mart in US have carried an item which is very closely resembling the Wiimote.

Apparently to be some sort of American football (not soccer as its known in the States) in a small LED display at the top portion. I'd assume that the control is via the D-pad while I have no idea what the others buttons are for.

No price was revealed, and its interesting to see how fast Nintendo of America will act to stop this blatant patent infringement.

Guitar Hero 3 on DS will have guitar controller?

Its official, Guitar Hero 3 is headed for the DS. In an interview with cnet.au, RedOctane co-founder Charles Huang mentioned that they are interested to have a guitar controller for the DS, "as long as it makes sense and it plays well." He adds that RedOctane is working very closely with Nintendo to make this happen.

Could this happen? Sure, given that the DS have been getting new controller add-ons (like the Araknoid button controller, and the new Slide Controller). Will it be a mini sized guitar controller? We shall wait and see.

PS3 subjected to harsh enviromental operating tests.

With Xbox360s being reportedly to be at 30% failure rates (based on warranty reports by retailers in US), some US Xbox360 repair contractors are refusing to accept repair works on the Xbox360s.

In view of this, the fellas at PS3Vault have came up with a stress test for the PS3. They ran the PS3 continuously for 108 hours with no interruption in three conditions. The PS3s are used to play games (Motorstorm, Resistance and Enchanted Arms) and blu-ray movie discs (Casino Royale, The Departed, Pirates of the Carribbean, Terminator 2, etc.) in a continuous loop till the 108th hour is up. Finally the PS3s are played in the following conditions.

1) In typical room temperature of 22degrees Celsius. Obviously the Americans take 22degrees C as typical, as typical as if you switched on the air-con here in Malaysia. Still this is as close to real living room conditions as you can get. No issues was recorded at this environment.

2) In the back of a freezer van, with starting temperature of 10degrees C and gradually lowered to -17degrees C, to simulate extreme cold environments. Slight sluggish display was detected when temperature hit -17degrees C, but this was detected to the fault of the display cable, not the PS3.

3) In a heat sauna, with temperature of 37degrees C and increased to 48.8degrees C for the last 24 hours. Except for some burnt smell, nothing major happened to the PS3s.

For environments (2) and (3), the only the console was placed in the freezer and the sauna. The screen and the controllers were placed outside, as no one was willing to tolerate the extreme cold or heat.

In the end, the PS3 survived the extreme tests, and is still working after the tests. As Sony's executives are heaping praises for the PS3 hardware in their own blogs, this test could well be a big blow to Xbox360.

U can get the full test conditions and results here.

HDMi enabled Xbox360 Premiums still uses 90nm chips.

It has been noted that the new HDMI enabled Xbox360 Premiums still uses the older Zephyr boards. This means that these batch of Xbox360s are still using the older and hotter 90nm chips, the key suspect in the infamous three Red Ring of Death hardware failure.

However, Microsoft have added a second "daughter" heatsink to the CPU via a heatpipe, to deal with the heat issues. No news of the new 65nm boards manufactured by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, codenamed Falcon, or when it will appear on the Xbox360s, althought it has been rumored it will appear sometime during Fall 07.

So it may be still better to see how the newer HDMI-ed Xbox360 with the double heatsink performs before investing in them, or wait a while longer for the rumored 65nm boards to appear in the Xbox360s.

Nokia BL-5C battery may explode during charging.

Nokia have issued a product advisory for the Nokia BL-5C handphones battery, manufactured by Matsushita Battery Industrial Co. Ltd. of Japan between December 2005 and November 2006. Matsushita have produced a total of 46 million pieces of these batteries during the period stated above.

Nokia have stated that they "has identified that in very rare cases the affected batteries could potentially experience over heating initiated by a short circuit while charging, causing the battery to dislodge", and "very rare cases", the overheating could short circuit resulting in explosive burns. Nokia have went on to saying that they have only recorded over 100 such incidences worldwide, and in all these 100 cases, the overheating occurred during the charging of the batteries only.

Nokia have also made it very clear that other batteries in their whole range are safe, and have suggested for users of the BL-5C battery to "monitor" its condition during charging, if possible. The affected handphone models using the BL-5C battery is as below:-

Nokia 1100, Nokia 1100c, Nokia 1101, Nokia 1108, Nokia 1110, Nokia 1112, Nokia 1255, Nokia 1315, Nokia 1600, Nokia 2112, Nokia 2118, Nokia 2255, Nokia 2272, Nokia 2275, Nokia 2300, Nokia 2300c, Nokia 2310, Nokia 2355, Nokia 2600, Nokia 2610, Nokia 2610b, Nokia 2626, Nokia 3100, Nokia 3105, Nokia 3120, Nokia 3125, Nokia 6030, Nokia 6085, Nokia 6086, Nokia 6108, Nokia 6175i, Nokia 6178i, Nokia 6230, Nokia 6230i, Nokia 6270, Nokia 6600, Nokia 6620, Nokia 6630, Nokia 6631, Nokia 6670, Nokia 6680, Nokia 6681, Nokia 6682, Nokia 6820, Nokia 6822, Nokia 7610, Nokia N70, Nokia N71, Nokia N72, Nokia N91, Nokia E50 and Nokia E60.

Nokia will replace all batteries from Matsushita if you are affected. You will need to check that your battery is indeed the BL-5C as follows:-

At the front, "Nokia" and "BL-5C" is printed.

At the back, you can find "Nokia" and "BL-5C" on the top and take note of the 26-digit serial number at the bottom.

With this 26-digit serial number, enter to this Nokia

site, scroll down to the bottom and enter the serial number into the box. Hit "submit" and you will be notified if you qualify for the battery replacement and how to go about getting it, or not.

Please note that this applies to only ORIGINAL Nokia BL-5C battery manufactured by Matsushita Battery Industrial Co. Ltd. of Japan. So please don't bother if you own a "replica" version. If you do, please be aware of this situation as it may as affect your "replica" battery as well.

Wii Firmware 3.0 have been reported to be safe for modded Wiis.

Wii Firmware 3.0 upgrade have been reported as not "brick" your modded Wii. Many modded users (WiiKey, WiiFree, Wiinja, CycloWiz and etc.) have confirmed that their unit still works after the firmware upgrade.

However, the firmware kills the use unauthorised discs from Datel's range of products for Wii, namely the Freeloader, Action Replay and MaxDrive. If you have been using Freeloader to play imported Wii or Gamecube games from other regions (or even playing backups.... gosh!!), you will be greeted with a DRE (Disc Read Error) message and no longer be able to see the disc swap page. I doubt many owners actually use Datel's products in this region (South East Asia), so there may not be a lot of you affected by this.

Also, some other improved features of the 3.0 firmware are:-

• Improved loading times between menu changes.
• The fan may come on during standby mode, helps cools the unit especially during WiiConnect24 operation.
• Disc slot blue LED now glows during disc entry and eject, instead of a blink.
• The "+" and "-" keys can be used for for scrolling the options.

Note: While I have gathered many information of not "bricking" of modded Wiis after the 3.0 firmware upgrade from the internet, you will be totally responsible for the anything that happens to your modded Wii if you decide to do so. Please don't rely on my article as the absolute truth, so you have been warned.

Nintendo's Slide Controller for DS/DS Lite.

Nintendo of Japan have revealed a new slide controller attachment for the DS and DS Lite. It will be bundled with the game Slide Adventure: Mag Kid, the device attaches to the cartridge slot of the DS/DS Lite, very much like WarioWare's tilt attachment.

This slide controller allows you to place the DS on a flat surface and slide the handheld unit while controller a worm like dot that attracts other round dots like a magnet. For a clearer idea, pls visit here to see it in action.

The slide controller bundle is available for Yen5800 (RM160), currently announced for Japan only. Will it reach here and the cost, that depends on local game importers.

Gamecube games passed on as Wii games in Phillipines.

As reported on http://www.gameops.net/ early this week, Philippine's shops are passing pirated Gamecube games as Wii original games. These Gamecube games are ripped and pressed onto DVD, complete with Wii looking sleeves.

Many such stores there are passing these older Gamecube games as the current ones, like Metriod Prime Echoes (second in the series) as Metriod Prime Corruption (the real one coming out end Aug 2007!!), and even available are titles as Resident Evil Zero, Zelda compilations and Metal Gear Solid (the Gamecube remake of the PS1 game).

There is another problem to this issue: if you dont have a Gamecube controller, how will you play the Gamecube games? You need the Gamecube controller as you cant use the Wiimote/Nunchuk as Gamecube games controller, and you need a Gamecube memory card to save those games. So these merchants are not being very kind to the Wii buyers in the Philippines. This is if you bought these Gamecube games thinking they are Wii games, you cant play them without the Wii controllers, effectively buying shiny drinks coasters at Peso250 (RM17) each.

I have yet to see these Gamecube games being passed off as Wii games here in Malaysia, but will keep a keen eye on them. Be careful so you don't buy Gamecube games passed on as Wii games.

Below are the sleeves of Gamecube games being sold as Wii games (courtesy of http://www.gameops.net/):-

Metriod Prime: Echoes

(2nd in the series, not the latest)

Resident Evil Zero

(This is the Gamecube remake of the PS1 game, this is not Resident Evil 4, the Wii remake of the PS2 game.)

Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes

(This is the 2004 remake of the 1998 PS1 game, no Metal Gear Solid was released for Wii)

The Legend Zelda: Wind Waker

(not the Wii version, called The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess)

HDMI output on Xbox360 Premium.

In an unannounced move, Microsoft have upgraded their Xbox360 Premium package (US$350 - RM1200) with HDMI output. This HD 1080P enabled output was previously exclusive to the highed prices Elite package, as well as the recently announced Halo3 package (US$399 - RM1375) only.

This was confirmed by Microsoft official statement: "Yes, we are offering an HDMI port for Xbox 360 simply as another choice in Xbox 360 owners' games and entertainment experience. Retailers are gradually introducing HDMI-enabled Xbox 360s into the channel to meet demand."

All HDMI Xbox360 Premium external box packaging will have a HDMI logo to differentiate it against the older non-HDMI sets. So do keep an eye out for the logo to get the spanking new addition to the Xbox360 Premium, especially if you dont want to get the older configuration models.

There is no feedback from Microsoft if this new HDMI Xbox360 also has the new cooler 65nm chip, as its been suspected that the current 90nm chips gives out more heat that "kills" the Xbox360.

Will we see the HDMI enabled Xbox360s here in MY? I would like to think so, but I wont hold my breath waiting for it to surface so soon.

Wii Firmware 3.0 update may brick modded Wiis.

The latest firmware 3.0 update for Wii may "brick" your modded Wiis. Some Wii users have reported receiving the following message before they download the latest 3.0 Firmware from Nintendo. The message states that:

"If your Wii console has an unauthorized technical modification, this upgrade could cause interoperability of your console."

So now its official, updating Firmware 3.0 in your modded Wii may cause it to stop working completely. This is no surprise as Nintendo is pretty agressive in trying to eradicate modded Wiis in the US recently.

You have been warned, so if any of you have updated Firmware 3.0 to you modded Wii, please do share your experience and the status of your modded Wii after the firmware upgrade.

US Xbox360s price cut official.

Its was a lousy secret that cant be kept very well and now its official.

Microsoft is has announced a price cut for the US Xbox360s (pressumable in response to Sony's PS3 US$100 price cut) effective 8th August 2007.

From tomorrow, US Xbox360 will be priced as such:-

• Premium Xbox360 - US$350 (RM1200), lower by US$50;
• Elite Xbox360 - US$450 (RM1550), lower by US$30; and
• Core Xbox360 - US$280 (RM960), lesser by US$20.

The prices are effective US only, so you may need to wait for a while (if ever) the prices will be reduced within MY.

Wii Firmware 3.0 is now available.

Wii owners can head to the Wii Shop Channel (if you have an internet connection to your WiFi enabled Wii) and download the latest firmware update released by Nintendo. This update will bring your firmware to version 3.0, with some changes to the Wii console look as the majority of the changes are within the Wii Shop Channel itself.

On the consoles main menu, a digital clock is added to the bottom of the Wii menu. The Wii News and Weather Channels have new displays for up to date information, with the News Channel able to scroll two lines of headlines when clicked on. Within the Wii Message Board, Today’s Accomplishment notes are now as white envelopes to help users differentiate it and the standard yellow notes, which is now also ignored bu the calender. The scrolling sound effect is now a click sound, and owners can now grab and move entrees in their address book by pressing A and B together, like when you are grabbing your Miis and other menu items.

As for the the Wii Shop Channel, it's now includes four recommended titles, with twenty further selected titles just a click away, and also available is a list of the channel’s most popular games, ranked by downloads. All titles are now sorted by publisher, genre and system. with a new search function which is a great addition to look thru the bulging library of available games.

WiiConnect24-enabled consoles will get a prompt to download the update when they power up their Wiis, while for the rest of you, just head to the Wii Settings menu and select the Update option when you’re ready for a bit of Wii 3.0 action.

How this will affect the modded Wiis (seeing that NOA is very much into curbing mod chips in the Wiis) is unknown, so downloading the Wii Firmware 3.0 is at you own risk of "bricking" your Wii.

You have been warned.

Microsoft's portal for Xbox360 repair tracking.

After realising that the Xbox360s cant heal themselves in silence, Microsoft have finally opened a portal for American owners to register and provide their MSN Live ID, to schedule repair and tracking the status of the repairs. Also, users can get a US$5 off their future out-of-warranty repair, but this may be useless to new owners as the Xbox360 now carries a 3 year warranty period.

Oh yeah, the site is at: http://service.xbox.com/servicesignin.aspx.

But be warned, the site is for American owners only, and dont bother to register your modded Xbox360 either.... hahaha...

Unreal Tournament 3 on PS3 will support keyboard and mouse setup.

In an effort to level the playing field with various control schemes (ie. controller versus keyboard/mouse setup), Epic have announced that Unreal Tournament 3 for the PS3 will support keyboard and mouse setup.

Whether this will settle the eternal question of which is better, dual analog or keyboard/mouse, will be more clear once UT3 ships. What's more intriguing is the possibility of PC and PS3 online play for some really serious fragfest.

Ghost Squad / Wii Zapper bundle, in Japan.

Sega Japan have announced that their game Ghost Squad, to be released in Japan on 25th Oct 2007, will ship in 2 version. One will have the Wii Zapper in the bundle, while the other is the game alone.

Now news on price of the Ghost Squad and Zapper bundle, or any such bundle will be available for other regions. Still, during E3, Nintendo of America did announce that the Zapper will be available as a bundle with an unamed game for US$20. Is this the game being mentioned?

New Wiimote straps soon?

An online forum reader of http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/ has report that there is a fourth generation Wiimote strap. These straps are to prevent the Wiimote slipping from your sweaty palms (while playing) and fly towards your displays units or go crashing out your windows.

This latest incarnation features a lock clip, replacing the sliding clip that of the previous model which tends to slips away from the wrist and loosen the strap. No news on when it hits the streets, whether its available for sale on its own or even its price.

For info sake, the 1st generation straps are the ones that break easily, the 2nd generation straps are replacements ones with a thicker connector to the remote, and the 3rd is mentioned above.

Sony denies "Rumbleaxis".

A few days after the news that Rumbleaxis (rumble-enabled Sixaxis) have been send to games developers, Sony's director of corporate communications Dave Karraker told GamePro that Sony have "not added rumble [to the Sixaxis], and have no announcements regarding this feature." How's that for a non-denial denial?

At the same time, Karraker also confirmed that the updated SIXAXIS controllers with refined motion-sensing features were shipping out, but characterized that as "part of the normal development and evolution of controllers."

Look forward to having more motion sensitive PS3 Sixaxis controllers soon, but I was hoping for the rumble feature to be reality sooner than later.

New Wii games now available.

Two new Wii games are available at local retails stores (at least in KL) since 30th July 2007. These games are Sega's Alien Syndrome and Secret Stash Game's Escape From Bug Island. Here's my summary review.














Alien Syndrome is a isometric top down shooter. This game is a port of a PSP game, with Wii IR features for aiming. Featuring weak but slightly better than PSP graphics (it is a PSP port) and a way better aiming system with the IR aiming, this game also offer RPG like features like character upgrading as well as the ability to create stuff to use during the battle.

Rating: 5.5/10. Get it if you dig top down shooters like the old school Contra or even the original Alien Syndrome on Sega Genesis.














Escape From Bug Island is an "insect survival horror game" where you find yourself battling gigantic bugs on a deserted island. The game features Wiimote and Nunchuk movement for controls, ugly PS2ish graphics for Wii (compared to the premier survival horror title AKA Resident Evil 4 also available for Wii), sluggish movement controls, but feature a rather interesting way of playing as you swing your Wiimote as if you are holding a weapon and also to evade danger.

Rating: 4/10 (mainly for the Wii motions). Get it if you are a big fan of survival horror games, but I will replay Resident Evil 4 over getting this game or wait for Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles for my survival horror fix.

Rumor: Rumble going back into the Sixaxis?

Rumor One: It is rumored that games developers have been given access to new Sixaxis controllers WITH rumble features. Also, it is also rumored that the new Sixaxis with rumble (netizens have dubbed it as "Rumbleaxis") will be revealed two or three months later, when there will be some games that support it can demo the function.This should be exciting news as the PS3 Sixaxis do not feature any rumble feature since launch, so in the close future, gamers will be able to feel the rumble in their controller once again.

Rumor Two: It is also rumored that a new and improved Sixaxis have been shipped with new PS3s. The newer Sixaxis is said to have refined motion control sensors. Its been said that the older Sixaxis have a bigger dead zone making it less sensitive.

Rumor Three: Finally, it also a rumor that the 80GB PS3 will ship with the new Rumbleaxis. Some eagle eyed gamers have noticed that the Sixaxis picture on the new 80GB PS3 box has a red PS logo, and are quick to deduce that this is the new rumble-enabled Sixaxis.

Which of these are true? I'd say rumors one and two are the stronger, while rumor three is anyone's guess until the 80GB version hits the streets in a few months time. Keep checking this space.

Microsoft sues Immersion for "settlement" agreement with Sony.

The whole rumble saga started in 2002 when Immersion (the company which owns the patents on force-feed back for controllers) starts suing SCEI, SCEA and Microsoft for patent breach, as their console (PS2 and Xbox) controllers support rumble technology from Immersion. Microsoft paid Immersion in July 2003 (with license for future products, AKA Xbox360, to the tune of US$26million for infringement and future licence, and a 10% stake in the company), while Sony chose to meet Immersion in the courts. Sony lost the case and appealed.

Early 2007, Sony dropped the appeal and paid Immersion US$150 million (US$127.8 million for patent infringement and US$22.5 million for future license till 2009) and released a joint statement on 1st March 2007, annoucing that Sony and Immersion had "agreed to conclude their patent litigation at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit and have entered into a new business agreement to explore the inclusion of Immersion technology in PlayStation format products", the exact words.

Microsoft is now suing Immersion for breach of legal agreement as apparently, there is a clause in Microsoft's agreement in 2003 that states Microsoft will be liable for payments if Sony decides to "settle" their case with Immersion. It is the term "settlement agreement" that is in the middle of this case, as Immersion and Sony have used the term "concluded their patent litigation" instead of settlement. The case of word interpretation is going ahead in the land of Us-Sue-All (USA).... hahaha.