March 6th, 2007 Wii Roundup

I’ve been a little on the busy side, with my job, moving, and my bills, so I decided to make a list.

-Manhunt 2 Details:
- The Director, gangs, CCTV cameras and death row dodger, James Earl Cash, from the first Manhunt won’t play a part
- Manhunt 2′s main character, scientist Dr Daniel Lamb, is locked in a private asylum by The Project – shady backers of a top secret drugs-based weapons program that Lamb was working on
- After breaking out of the asylum, Daniel Lamb goes on the run with psychotic inmate Leo Kasper, who is happy to coach Lamb on the brutal art of violence
- Like the first Manhunt, kills are executed in three deadly shades – Hasty, Violent and Gruesome
- Environmental kills have been introduced (push an enemy face first into a live fuse box, for example)
- Loud ambient noises can be exploited by Lamb to drown out his own crashing about
- When hiding in shadows, if an enemy comes close the player will sometimes have to copy a button combo in order to regulate Lamb’s breathing and ensure that he remains undetected
- Lamb can climb and crawl – two moves that Manhunt’s James Earl Cash couldn’t do
- Guns can be used for stealth kills
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-41% of US homes with a Video Game Console:
Now the Nielsen Company says that 41% of households own at least one game console and that this means that this was an increase of 18.5% since 2004.
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-SSX Blur Event at the Ice Hotel:

Matt Casamassina from IGN missed his chance to be a part of the recent SSX Blur event in Montreal, Canada. Known as the “Ice Hotel”, the place is fully constructed of snow roofs and ice sculptures. Man, I wish I went. Oh well, check out the screens from the hotel:
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-Ready 2 Rumble 3?
10tacle Studios is bringing back the beloved franchise, but to what consoles and features will it have are currently under wraps. It’s scheduled to ship this fall.
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-Blazing Angels Online?
Multiplayer for up to 16 players online (with one new PS3/Wii mode) Engage in head-to-head dogfights or cooperative team play between squadrons on huge maps with large formations.

This rumor has popped up a lot recently, but according to GoNintendo, Ubisoft has no online plans for the Wii build. Too bad…

-Rare VC games:

Rare recently was received an email from their homepage through a curious gamer who was wondering what VC games Rare may put on the Wii. Well, it looks like a bunch of licensing and mess, but they didn’t rule out the possibility that some of their games may see the light of day.
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-EA Motion Sensing
Jay Balmer of EA talks about the intricities of motion sensing and just how much work is needed to get it just right. He talks about how he plans on implementing motion sensing in his new PS3 game, Skate.
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-Okami Director Downed by Twilight Princess

(Okami PS2 above)

(Zelda: Twilight Princess above)
Hideki Kamiya, creator of Okami, said in a recent award ceremony that he seemed to dislike the art direction of Twilight Princess compared to his own paintbrush-styled game. Well, Mr. Kamiya, not every game can look like Wind Waker, even though I do appreciate how much you like that style.

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-Activision the First to have Wii Online Games?
Activision has teamed up with Demonware middleware solutions for an efficient means of being able to reduce the lag and increase the effectiveness of online play. In the interview, they mention that they are definitely making Wii games online also, and that they will probably be the first third-party company to make Wii online games. As they said, they were the first third-party company to make a DS online game and are usually the first onboard for online games.
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