The new thing is the "DSi". It's a DS Lite. But slightly smaller, and with slightly bigger screens. Also two cameras (one external, one internal). No more GBA slot, but it has an SD Card slot (SD? MicroSD? SDHC? It is a mystery.), and some unknown quantity of internal memory (512MB IS ENOUGH FOR ANYBODY).

Right now it seems like that's . . uh ... . . it.

There are a few bonus services planned to roll out for it. There'll be a wireless shop . . thing . . to buy . .. .. . things .. with magic Nintendo Electronic Fun-Bux. Exactly what these things will be is still pretty nebulous, but smart money's on it containing some sub-set of Virtual Console games. There's also going to be some manner of syncing capability between the DSi and the Wii Picture Channel that no one has ever used outside of a Nintendo press conference.

Whether or not Nintendo will be joining us over here in 2008 where we use modern wireless encryption schemes like WPA2 is yet to be seen. The Wii can do WPA/WPA2, so there's no reason I can see why they would choose to not update the WiFi capabilities of the DS at this point, but hey it's Nintendo.

We're also not totally certain at this point what the hell Nintendo is thinking by putting an SD card slot right on the device. I mean, I know it's ostensibly there for storing pictures. Ok, sure. But Nintendo has to know that it's going to be cracked wide open, meaning all they will have done is cut out the middle-men when it comes to flashcarts, since you'll removable storage in a standard format built-in.

The DSi is set to release in Japan in a month for about $180. We might see it stateside by December . . . or Nintendo might make us wait until 2009 because they can. Hopefully some of the lingering questions will be answered shortly.

Edit: Oh look, in the time it took me to write this, Nintendo got their official site up for the DSi. Nice big pictures of the device, looks like they added a third LED to split the WiFi and Power/Standby light. Also looks like they made the power switch back into a button.

Welp, it looks like the one time I decide to sleep through a Blizzard announcement (I was dead-set convinced all the people saying "NO GUYS LOOK, THE EYES IN THE ICE IMAGE TOTALLY LINE UP WITH THIS DIABLO III BOX ART I MADE" were complete crackpots, and was sure that all the ice was going to mean "aces, more crappy Wrath of the Lich King news"), it turns out to be one worth getting out of bed for. Yes, after eight years of speculation Diablo III is here, ready to consume our social lives and destroy our mice.

Here's what we know so far, mostly condensed from Blizzard's great big Diablo III FAQ:

Diablo III
Genre: 3D Isometric Action/RPG
Release Date: When It's Done
Platform: Simultaneous PC/Mac release

Setting: Still on Sanctuary, the setting of Diablo I and II, 20 years after the vanquishing of Baal in D2X. Only returning character we know of is our good friend Deckard Cain (though he won't be sticking around long enough for us to stay awhile and listen, he's apparently the first casualty of the new wave of hell beasts . . and anyway, shouldn't he be like 90 or something by now? What the hell is the average life expectancy on Sanctuary?). It's unclear right now who our actual enemy will be, but Hell will obviously be involved to some extent. Probably also that glowy bitch Tyrael.

Classes: Five classes total, only returning class we know for certain right now is the Barbarian. The only new class right now is the Witch Doctor, who sounds a lot like the Necro. If they replace the Necromancer outright I am going to get mad on the internet. To make those five classes feel a little less constricting, you'll get to pick between male and female versions, though the difference will be purely aesthetic. This means things aren't looking too good for the Amazon, cause . . uh . . why would you have a male Amazon?

Engine: Brand new engine, fully 3D, features Havok Physics. Will this mean no more randomization, making the game like Titan Quest? We don't really know, they're sorta tight-lipped about that right now, but the handful of screenshots don't look very randomized. Instead they just look like a lot of bridges.

Media: Everything's over here. Blizzard's got about 50 concept art scans, 30 screenshots, 3 different trailers (cinematic, gameplay, artwork) and some random wallpapers for you to examine.

We don't know when it'll be out, or even if it'll be coming stateside, but we do know that you'll be playing as Edgeworth with Dick Gumshoe as your sidekick. Also from the screenshots in this week's Famitsu we can discern that there'll be an even further expanded investigation portion, where you'll be actually walking around crimescenes looking for clues.

We don't yet know if you'll be required to completely botch the case so the charming underdog defense attorney can completely own you in court, but hey, Edgeworth can't suck that much, can he?

Famitsu Article, Page 1
Famitsu Article, Page 2

7 SEP 2008

From the press release:

"The wait is almost over," said Maxis Chief Designer Will Wright. "We're in our final stages of testing and polish with Spore, and the team at Maxis can't wait to see the cosmos of content created by the community later this year."

EA says they've got a simultaneous release lined up, targeting PC, Mac, DS and Cellphone platforms. Well, now that we've got a date, the only questions left are "Will it really get released on time?" and "Will it remotely meet expectations?" Hopefully both answers end up being yes, but with a game that's been so frequently delayed it's tough to have high hopes at this point.

A few weeks ago Andy picked up the Nintendo Wii Zapper and was - as we assume many people were - completely dismayed by the fact that it wasn't compatible with Resident Evil 4. The problem stems from the fact that the zapper and all other third-party gun-type attachments for the Wii Remote all depend on either a mechanical switch that presses the B button, or on opening a hole for you to be able to press the B button on your own. That's all fine and well for games like Link's Crossbow Training, but RE4 uses the A button as "shoot" and the B button as "draw weapon".

So, of course, Andy took things into his own hands, got himself a toy electronic gun, and started soldering.

The result was the RE4 Gun, a wonderful ugly mash-up of a toy gun and Wii Remote, which can work just as well for A-Trigger and B-Trigger games.

Interested? Check out the detailed post-mortem he wrote up over here: Hardware Hacking for a Better Wii Zapper.

Valve has two options to fill the Weighted-Companion-Cube-Shaped void in your life: Full-size plush (6" cube) or Fuzzy-dice-sized (4" cubes).

They've got other new stuff, too, like some new Aperture Labs Propaganda Posters and an Aperture Labs Mug.

Then there's the older stuff. If you haven't seen it, it's new to you! A few weeks back they released three lithograph prints, a set of Aperture Labs Holiday Cards, a Portal shirt, and Aperture Labs parking tags.

They also had some super neato Team Fortress 2 posters, but unfortunately it looks like those sold out. Damn. But hey, to replace one thing going away, they brought back headcrab plushes and headcrab hats. That's a good enough replacement for me.

So, get out of here! Go buy! Buy! Buy! Buy! If you hit over $50 you get free shipping!

So . . . it looks like we're down to three omni-platform super-developer/publishers now. In one corner we have EA, the only company allowed to make sports games, and who will be making sports games with tiny little incremental upgrades every year until the end of time. They also have a stranglehold on the cross-promotional branded shovelware market, and have lately been bolstering their army of developers by buying-up companies like Bioware/Pandemic.

In the next corner we have the newly-formed Activision Blizzard. Activision on their own is already in the middle of a record season thanks to Guitar Hero 3, Call of Duty 4 and Tony Hawk 39, and as for Blizzard, well, Blizzard is always in the middle of a record season thanks to having the MMO industry by the balls. Normally when a company I like (such as Blizzard) gets gobbled up in a large merger like this I get worried, but in this case I'm not concerned at all. I'm pretty sure everyone involved knows Blizzard knows full well how to make mountains of cash without any intervention from whoever their corporate masters are this week. Furthermore, I'm rather sure everyone involved knows not to try and mess with Blizzard's practices.

In the last corner we've got Ubisoft. . . . but really, in light of this merger, Ubisoft is looking kinda weak. I mean, they've only got a tiny fraction of the licenses either EA or Activision Blizzard have rights to, and have only 3 or 4 studios compared to the jillions EA and Activision Blizzard have.

I'd watch your back, Ubisoft. Looks like you might be next.

Oh and they announced that their first game would be another multi-platform Deus Ex.

With no Warren Spector, or any of the original dev team.

The studio's general manager had this to say:

"This game was very highly rated at its release in 2000, and we have this great huge mandate to do the third one, and everybody is very excited,"

Why yes, Eidos has already tried to cash-in on the name and FAILED MISERABLY. And that time they actually had Spector and what was left of Ion Storm on board.

Oh well, we'll see if they manage to flub this one again in a year or so. Please prove me wrong, Eidos Montreal. Please please please please please.

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Yes, the endlessly recurring rumor of "OMG IF YOU DO [insane/impossible thing] IN [a Smash Bros game] IT TOTALLY UNLOCKS SONIC!!1!1!1" is now real. No movelist yet, just an announcement and some screenshots. There's also a video at that link to introduce him, and there's another one over here, but it doesn't actually involve Sonic at all, it's just a video that was shown at the same event where this was announced.

Based on how they've done updates in the past, we might see a movelist update tomorrow or Friday, or we might get something even bigger, or we might get an incredibly important update about something irrelevant like the home-run bat.

Update: Looks like there's more news and it doesn't look good. We might have a delay on our hands. At the event Nintendo held in Japan yesterday / today (depending on your timezone), they announced a month-and-a-half delay for Japan. The game is now slated to launch over there on 24 JAN 2008. Over on the US site the release date (expected to be 3 DEC 2008, if Reggie's E3 keynote is to be believed) and the MSRP are still listed as TBD. I hope they get the release date stuff cleared up, and I really hope they don't wait for next week's E for All to drop a bomb like that.