Falafelkid's Leipzig conclusions

I wasn't able to get to Games Convention, though I've been scanning the web for the few interesting pieces of information that popped up in Leipzig. For example there were two things that Falafelkid said.

1. There might be an announcement from Nintendo of Kyoto concerning the price and launch date of Wii even before I expected. If that is so, what is Nintendo of America going to do on the 14th of Septembre? While I would appreciate to hear those things as early as possible, I'm not so sure if Falafel is right.

2. He spoke to some gamr designers in Leipzig and there were some interesting statements. Gabe Newell's hint that the Wii controller is the perfect thing for a Half-Life crowbar might mean nothing in the end, but it's good stuff for exciting speculation at least. Also Will Wright seems to be interested in porting Spore to Wii. Still, he couldn't make any statements on that. But honestly I would be surprised, if EA will not bring this to the Wii - Also I would be angry (once again), because Spore still is the only game from EA I'm really waiting for.

New Zelda pics

Holy shit! If this is, what Wii can, then I'm wholly satisfied (and I guess that at least a little more might still be possible). Zelda seems to look better and better from shot to shot.

Yes, that is not what Xbox 360 or PS3 is able to do. But hey! I am a pc gamer with little money, who therefore has not played too many games in best quality for years - so who the fuck cares, as long as the games look that good (and especially if they look good in motion) and play well?

Red Steel GC06 Trailer

Wii to cost no more than 250€ in Germany

Bernd Fakesch, boss of Nintendo of Germany, announced that the Wii will cost no more than 250€ in Germany. He gave no precise release date, but mentioned that Nintendo wants to sell 4 million exemplars until the end of 2006. That's twice as much as Sony is heading for with the PS3, so I guess Nintendo is thinking of a release significantly before the Big-Ugly (Nov. 27th).

I hope that this is a good guess, at least. I'm ruttish on playing with my Wii. I really thought of driving all the way to Leipzig (thats a expensive 720km way), just to try out the little white thingy. I eventually came to my senses. It feels good to be a bit of a nerd again though, when it comes to the Wii.

Lost in Blue 2

When I played Lost in Blue I was kind of fighting - with myself. I always was close to shut down the game and never play it again, because some of the things that had to be done were so annoying that I doubt anyone could have found they are funny. All in all it was a disappointing experience. Nevertheless the game somehow was cool so the announcement of a sequel is amazing.

Konami has made this announcement at GC and promises to add more touchscreen features. There will be more distinctions between the male- and female insular than before and the devs want to add natural desasters, but at least the sources I read didn't mention other gameplay tweaks such as easing the hunt food.

Well, let's wait. I am - once again - looking forward to this.

Wii: Battalion Wars 2 & Mario Stiker announced

Wow! Someone from Nintendo might read this blog. A new Battalion Wars for the Wii has been announced (as I wanted) at the press conference of Games Convention. Also Mario Strikers: Charged will be released for the new console.

Ah yes, a release date for Wii was not given to the public, of course.

New Zelda Wii-Controls & old new Wii games

There might be some reason to have a look at the current issue of Nintendo Dream. Shigeru Miyamoto stated that the Zelda: Twilight Princess controls have experienced major changes since the bumpy looking E3 presentation. You are now able to swing the controller for using the sword. The bow is also used different now - you still pull it, but now you have to press the B-button (which was the sword-key before).

Another maybe even more interesting thing is that Nintendo is going to re-release some GameCube games for Wii. Although Miyamoto did not say which games, he stated that the price would be significantly lower. It is possible that those games may be released on VC.

Raid Over The River

Here is a fresh tech demo of Ride Over The River, which is heading for an appearance on Nintendo DS (and also on the Wii) in the first quarter of 2007.



Looks great! It is developed by Nibris (who are also developing the horror game Sadness for the Wii). The devs say, they want to add a deep story

New NextGen Star Wars to be shown in Leipzig

I'm sure not to be the first one who tells the world about it, but I'm not sure if it is too old to mention either. LucasArts is going to show a "NextGen Star Wars" game at Games Convention in Leipzig. Shame on them, if this is no Wii-controls enabled light sabre-game.

Zelda on Wii not playable with Gamecube controller

George Harrison announced, that Zelda: Twilight Princess will not be playable with a Gamecube controller on the Wii - except you are going to buy the Gamecube version. That is quite a strange descision, since it shouldn't be a too big problem, to convert the controls from the GC-version to the Wii.

Well, this one better works fine guys.

Besides, Harrision mentioned the possibility of also releasing new Nintendo games on the Virtual Console. And Reggie confirmed again that there will be no extra costs for playing online, and also that there will be free games on the VC.

Wii vs. PS3

Though I don't think the cleverness is given to the right side in this movie, it is worth a laugh. ;)

Batallion Wars is the one and only Halo

It took a while, but I finally managed to get my copy of Batallion Wars on the GameCube. I'm not through it yet, though I think it is a really great game. When I first played it, I was not sure of what it reminded me, because I was sure that I never played something like Batallion Wars before.

Now I know. It is like Halo. No, no! Not that crappy Xbox Halo, that we were playing some years ago - it is a little bit like the true Halo. The one we saw on the first movies, when I thought it was intended to be a 3rd-person shooter with tactical elements, teamwork and a vivid world. When I saw a movie of Halo back at E3 2000, I was impressed (and when I look at it today, I still am). I know there might be some fanboys which will flame me for this, but neither the final Halo nor it's sequel impressed me (yeah, yeah, they were neat). And that's a pitty, because I had really been looking forward to it once.

So Batallion Wars finally comes quite close to what I expected Halo to be. It is something that everyone should have played - a real reason to buy a Gamecube, if you haven't done yet. Easy to learn but quite complex - and, most important, it's fun.

There ain't a Batallion Wars 2 announced for the Wii yet, is it?

Wii! Something about mii!

I was planning to do a Wii-blog for some months now, but only now I found the motivation to launch it. I have never launched a project about something this specific, I never did something like this in a different language than German - so I am quite curious, how this works out.

So who the hell am I? My name is Tom 'besux' Schaffer. I am a 21 year old gamer from Austria. I study politics and communication science (how is that called in English?) in Vienna and I am the editor in chief of Austria's leading independent gaming magazine Rebell.at. I am responsible for public relations at Bongfish Interactive Entertainment, who are working on a PC-snowboard game called Stoked Rider: Big Mountain Snowboarding. And last but not least I am a big Nintendo fan and really looking forward to the Wii (like everyone else should do).

Well, what else do you want to know about your new favorite game blogger? At your service - in the comments...