Smash Gamers

Penny Arcade Launches 2009 Child’s Play Charity Drive

Kris Pigna — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 21:27:00 +0000

It’s that time of year again, folks. Penny Arcade has announced the official start of the 2009 Child’s Play charity drive, where throughout the holiday season gamers (or anyone, really) can make gift or money donations to children’s hospitals around the world.

As before, participating in the charity drive is made excruciatingly simple: Just click on over to the official Child’s Play website, choose one of the participating children’s hospitals from the map, and you’ll be taken to that hospital’s Amazon wish list where you can purchase one of the many listed items for donation. If you’d rather donate money directly, you can do so through PayPal here.

Through sponsorships from various organizations, the tally so far already exceeds $250,000, and that’s before donations from the public at large got underway. Looks like this is already shaping up to be another big success for a charity that’s done a lot of great work over the last few years.

Nintendo ‘hasn’t committed’ to new Zelda for Wii in 2010

Griffin McElroy — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 20:30:00 +0000

We all know that home console Zelda games take longer to develop than most small, fledgling nations — still, we’d secretly hoped that Nintendo would pull a hat trick next year, releasing new Wii installments in the Metroid, Mario and the aforementioned Triforce-centric series. Sadly, a recent quote from Reggie Fils-Aime has made us doubtful that this scenario will be realized — speaking on GameTrailers TV, Fils-Aime explained that Nintendo hasn’t “committed to Zelda for 2010.”

So, feel free to keep that hope in your heart that you’ll be Ganon-thwarting once more within the next 365 days — but don’t get too upset if it doesn’t happen. Much like a college-aged Lothario, Nintendo’s remaining non-committal. You might say the company’s as free as a bird, darling — and this bird, you cannot change.

Nintendo ‘hasn’t committed’ to new Zelda for Wii in 2010 originally appeared on Joystiq on Sun, 08 Nov 2009 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Nintendo ‘hasn’t committed’ to new Zelda for Wii in 2010

Griffin McElroy — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 20:30:00 +0000

Nintendo ‘hasn’t committed’ to new Zelda for Wii in 2010 originally appeared on Joystiq on Sun, 08 Nov 2009 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Head Tracking for Desktop VR Displays using the WiiRemote

Cadelaf — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 02:54:43 +0000

of your head and render view dependent images on the screen. This effectively transforms your display into a portal to a virtual environment. The display properly reacts to head and body movement as if it were a real window creating a realistic illusion of depth and space. By Johnny Chung Lee, Carnegie Mellon University. For more information and software visit johnnylee.net … wii remote wiimote virtual reality VR display head tracking 3D games interactive computer nintendo immersive window …

Tales of Vesperia voice actor says game is coming to Wii

Griffin McElroy — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 22:30:00 +0000

Lock the doors and board up the windows, folks. Considering the seismic backlash to the announcement that the (formerly) 360-exclusive Tales of Vesperia would be coming to the PS3, we fear for what might happen when this story gets out. Japanese voice actor Rikiya Koyama, who provided the voice for Vesperia’s pseudo-antagonist Duke, recently mentioned on his blog that, “Tales of Vesperia is coming out on one thing after another: Xbox 360, then PS3, and now upcoming, goes on sale even on the Wii.”

While this may deeply excite RPG-loving Wii owners, keep in mind that it’s entirely possible Koyama meant to say Tales of Graces, the franchise’s next installment which is, in fact, coming to the Wii. Just think about that before you start snapping the pieces of your already-snapped 360 Vesperia disc in protest. Those edges can get pretty sharp.

[Via Kotaku]

Tales of Vesperia voice actor says game is coming to Wii originally appeared on Joystiq on Sat, 07 Nov 2009 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

New Zelda Wii Not ‘Committed’ to 2010 Yet

Kris Pigna — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 20:12:00 +0000

For a company that’s long been notorious for delaying their games, is it any surprise to see they’d be cagey about committing to anything so early in a project’s development? Speaking to Geoff Keighley on the latest episode of GameTrailers TV, Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime was very deliberate in not setting a release timeframe for the new Legend of Zelda in development for the Wii.

“We haven’t committed to Zelda in 2010,” Reggie elusively said. Keighley clarified that Miyamoto has so far said the game is “tracking” for 2010. “That’s what he said, and we’ll see how that continues to develop,” retorted Reggie.

He did, however, reconfirm that Super Mario Galaxy 2 and Metroid: Other M are committed to 2010, so that’s at least two big titles to look forward to next year, Wii fans. And looking more toward the immediate future, Reggie also made a bold challenge to Infinity Ward: He predicted that New Super Mario Bros. Wii will outsell Modern Warfare 2 on Xbox 360 by the end of the holiday season.

Tales of Vesperia May Be Coming To The Wii

Kat Bailey — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 05:20:00 +0000

It’s one thing to send Tales of Vesperia to the PlayStation 3, but how about the Wii? That may be exactly what happens, as popular Japanese voice actor Rikiya Koyama has reportedly leaked the news that Namco-Bandai is planning on porting the game once again (via Kotaku).

“Tales of Vesperia is coming out on one thing after another: Xbox 360, then PS3, and now upcoming, goes on sale even on the Wii,” he wrote on his .

“More shortly, the feature film anime version is also opening in theaters (But I’m not in it…), and after that, there’s also a CD.”

Nintendo DSi LL{HQ]-NEW NINTENDO DSi!!!!RATE 5 STARS!

Cadelaf — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 05:18:29 +0000

PLEASE RATE 5,SUBSCRIBE,COMMENT!Earlier today Nintendo revealed their new Nintendo DSi.The rumors were true.It will be launching this November in Japan.The DSi LL is bigger than the Dsi.Has a screen of 4.2 which is way higher.What do you think?Even if the handheld double the size,do you think…

Square Enix summons Earnings Report; Final Fantasy XIII Sales Projections evade attacks

David Hinkle — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 03:30:00 +0000

Square Enix recently chose to attack with its annual earnings report, and among the 12-page PDF file’s barrage of numbers, things look pretty good for the company. Net sales for the six months ending September 30, 2009 were up 33 percent over the same period last year to 91 billion yen ($1 billion), while operating income was also up by 39 percent to 13 billion yen ($144.5 million) over the same period last year. It’s not all roses and Dragon Quest IX sales, however — net income was down almost 58 percent to 2.7 billion yen ($30 million).

The statement also talks about the acquisition and assimilation of Eidos in direct proportion to Square Enix’s games group division — which includes video games across all platforms and online games for personal computers. Through the aid of titles like Batman: Arkham Asylum, Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days and the aforementioned Dragon Quest IX, the games division rose its net sales and operating income by 117 percent and 63 percent to 4.8 billion yen ($53 million) and 1.0 billion yen ($11 million), respectively.

As for the company’s upcoming darling, Final Fantasy XIII, Square Enix prez Yoichi Wada spoke about concern regarding the title’s projected domestic sales. Basically, he’s not concerned at all! “PS3 sales continue to increase. We’re bundling PS3 and FFXIII, and can expect even further sales increases. Orders for FFXIII are definitely not bad,” he said. While he didn’t reiterate anything as bold as six million, Wada did claim that the game is expected to sell in the millions.

Source – Square Enix earnings (PDF) [Via andriasang]
Source – Wada comments on FFXIII sales

Square Enix summons Earnings Report; Final Fantasy XIII Sales Projections evade attacks originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 06 Nov 2009 22:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Tony Hawk: Ride videos are in-game and out-of-game

Griffin McElroy — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 22:30:00 +0000

We debated which of the two video assets Activision recently sent us for Tony Hawk: Ride should go a the top of the post, and which should be relegated to the unfavorable, post-jump real estate. The in-game trailer is pretty slick, and features that super catchy We Are Scientists jam. (You know the one, you hip guy, you.) However, the gameplay demonstration actually shows the peripheral being used to go on a “sick run,” apparently part of a long-standing feud between Activision and Robomodo.

We decided to put the “sick run” at the top of the post, if only because we want you to know that this is exactly how we looked the first time we played the game at E3. Only we didn’t crash quite so much, and also, when we finished playing, Tony Hawk himself came up and gave us a high-five with one of his giant hands. Check out the video above, then click past the jump to check out its neglected (but catchy!) brother.

Continue reading Tony Hawk: Ride videos are in-game and out-of-game

Tony Hawk: Ride videos are in-game and out-of-game originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 06 Nov 2009 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments