If you had asked us what Ozzy Osbourne had in common with Bret Michaels just yesterday, we would have only been able to come up with "relentlessly unwatchable reality shows." But today we learn that both are members of the proud fraternity of artists featured in Guitar Hero games that aren't really known for playing guitar. G4 reported today that Ozzy would appear in Guitar Hero: World Tour, as would his tracks "Crazy Train" and "Mr. Crowley."
Arguably, Ozzy makes for a more logical addition now that the game includes singing as well as shredding. But we're still happy to hear that he'll be bringing actual guitar hero Zakk Wylde along for digitization.
With Brett Favre booked for a one-way ticket out of retirement and into New York (as a Jet!), Madden NFL 09 will look decidedly vintage when it releases next week with Favre on the cover ... as a Packer. Some may attribute the gaffe to evidence of the "Madden Curse" at work (c'mon, it can do better than that!), but EA Sports boss Peter Moore assures, "There's a plan."
While IGN has already confirmed there will be no second printing -- Favre will remain a Packer on the surface of Madden 09, at least -- a Crispy Gamer interview with Moore and marketing director David Tinson published last week addressed the possibility of Favre switching teams; to which Moore offered his vague assurance. "It will ship with what you've seen. Yes. And then we'll have a plan if he's not [a Packer]," Tinson added. Day-one roster update confirmed!
Update: EA will indeed release a day-one update placing Favre on the Jets (and reflecting any other relevant roster changes), reports MTV Multiplayer. But that's not all: "We do not plan to re-issue packaging, but WILL offer a free downloadable cover in the coming days on easports.com featuring Brett Favre in a Jets uniform. Fans can print this new cover out and insert it into the case of Madden NFL 09," a company spokesperson revealed to MTV. See, EA did have a plan! ... But if you're not feelin' it, why not make your own cover?
Remember that Wii system menu hack we told you about yesterday? Among other things, HackInstaller removes the health warning at startup, the background music and -- most importantly -- all region encoding for GameCube and Wii games and Wii channels (you can view a walkthrough of the patch, above). Homebrew coder "Crediar" has released HackInstaller into the wild.
Installation requires the homebrew channel. If you haven't taken the leap to homebrew, check out the Wii Pack Generator for a no-fuss entry into the scene. We suspect Nintendo isn't going to take this loss of region coding concern lightly.
The original Rock Band on Wii was, well, not really Rock Band. It looked and played the part, but lacked a certain something. Or, rather, somethings. You know, like downloadable songs, online play, create-a-rocker, and a proper World Tour mode a la the 360 and PS3 versions. Thankfully that won't be the case with Rock Band 2.
Wired reports that the Wii version of Rock Band 2 will, according to Harmonix, be "fully-featured." In fact, this includes DLC (no word on how that's going to work storage-wise) and online play. If it's going to be a "much more competitive product" as its developers say, then we should also expect to be making music with band members of our own design and touring the world as we see fit when the game hits the stage in November.
As you might have noticed, the first episode of Strong Bad's Cool Game For Attractive People, "Homestar Ruiner," did not make its target month of July. Maybe he was too busy pining for Trevor or [insert more recent Strong Bad reference here], who knows? Thankfully, the wait has nearly ended: Telltale has announced on its site that the first episode will arrive on WiiWare and PC Aug. 11.
We're happy to finally see SB make the leap to the somewhat larger, yet still small screen. But we're more hopeful that the announcement means Telltale can now move on the to the episodic Teen Girl Squad game we all secretly crave.
Let's be honest: Shigeru Miyamoto would never post on Joystiq, and if he would, we'd like to think our response would be something wittier than ":(". So while we object to The Slackerz'totally false characterization of us, we are required by Blogger Law to award it webcomic of the week.
A very close second (as of this writing) goes to Dueling Analogs, with Digital Unrestin third. Thanks to everyone who voted, and be sure to let us know of any game-related webcomics you stumble upon this week!
There's nothing wrong with your speakers. The above video is totally silent, although its content speaks volumes. What you're looking at is a new Wii System Menu hack from homebrew coder "Crediar." What's special about this one – which is installed via the Homebrew Channel we've covered previously – is that it does away with the annoying health warning screen at boot-up, the Wii Menu background music, and, most importantly, region coding for Wii games, GameCube games and Wii Channels. The video is annotated so you know exactly what's going on during the walkthrough. Crediar hasn't made his work public as of yet, but we can only imagine Nintendo – unlike Wii owners – will be none too pleased.
We've been unable to verify recent speculation (which we totally made up, just now) that Hudson has shipped all those units directly to a New Jersey landfill, but we have our suspicions. Still, we can't help but wonder if a few copies of Deca Sports have actually passed through retail checkouts, purchased by Wii owners desperate to rediscover the riotous, wrist-racketing revelry that faded from the living room once they ran out of friends who hadn't tried Wii yet. Well, they sure got what they paid for: a Wii Sports knockoff ... made with the craft and care of a drunk baboon.
Shown for the first time at the company's Captivate 2008 event in June, Capcom's Wii-exclusive action title Spyborgs is undergoing some serious ... re-tooling. This news comes as little surprise, considering the game was a complete no-show at E3.
In an official forum post, Christian Svensson, Capcom's senior director of strategic planning & research, said, "You won't see new [Spyborgs] assets for several more months," adding, "We're refining it considerably (pretty much as significant an overhaul as Dark Void underwent from its first announcement to its first big reveal)." Hoping to quell fears that the game has outright stalled, Svensson assured that, "I have seen a new build recently though. It's coming along nicely."
THQ president and CEO Brian Ferrell believes traditional hardware cycles are dead. MTV Multiplayer reports that Ferrell explained his thinking at a leadership conference and believes there are now several sub-cycles in the industry.
Sub-cycle #1: The Handheld market.
Sub-cycle #2: The Wii market.
Sub-cycle #3: The Xbox 360 and PS3 market.
Ferrell even thinks that the online market is becoming its own category. He expresses it's hard to do business around traditional concepts like "the cycle" and that THQ now plans around platforms. The THQ CEO does have a point, there's a lot of different pools for publishers and developers to jump in ... although we hear someone left a deposit in the PC one.
Ready to "beat it" with fire-lit butterfly wings? (Note to self: That came out wrong.) The latest issue of Stuff Magazine (via Guitar Hero Community) has a Guitar Hero World Tour preview, which lists nine confirmed tracks and five more confirmed artists. Although we already knew a few of those songs, five of them are new, including The Doors' "Light My Fire," Smashing Pumpkins' "Bullet with Butterfly Wings" and -- yes, really -- Michael Jackson's "Beat It."
Additionally, two of the listed artists with "unknown" track contributions already have confirmed songs (Foo Fighters' "Everlong" and Van Halen's "Hot for Teacher"). Newcomers include Muse, Beastie Boys and Nirvana. We've compiled a list of confirmed GHWT tracks after the break.
Capcom's going out of its way to make sure its deliciously stale Mega Man 9 offers a true 8-bit experience, bugs and all. The company's Hironobu Takeshita recently told Gamasutra that the download will have the look and feel of a NES-era release, and that things such as sprite flicker have even been included as a -- thankfully optional -- feature.
"Yeah, there were some things, like you couldn't have more than three enemies on the screen at once, so we had to make sure that that's how it stayed in our game. In the part with the dragon with the flame, [there should be] flickering, and whatnot," noted the game's producer. "In the options of this game, you can adjust that, unlike the old games. We purposely put some of those old-school bugs into this game, so it does recreate that feel." Now, if only Capcom could emulate blowing into the cartridge we'd be in retro heaven.
Saints Row 2 producer Dan Sutton tells CVG that the game isn't coming to the Wii over controversy and graphical concerns. He explains that implementing Wii controls for "chainsaws, satchel charges, stuff like that" in the game might risk the title running into Manhunt 2-style controversy. That's a bad thing? Apparently, SR2's developer, Volition, isn't totally run by the marketing department.
Sutton also explains that SR2 won't be making it to Nintendo's waggle-enriched juggernaut because Volition is "about pushing really good graphics" -- he believes the Wii feels like an older console. Ouch, at least he didn't mention duct tape.
Nintendo president Satoru Iwata recently had a little chit-chat with the Wall Street Journal, letting it know that his company's plethora of purchasable peripherals polluting shelves could possibly slow down. The WSJ points out that Nintendo recently unveiled the Wii Motion Plus and Wii Speak to go with its other pieces of plastic, ready to fill a landfill near you, like Wii Fit, Wii Zapper and the Wii Wheel. Iwata states that the accessories the company originally had planned for the Wii are all out now, but that doesn't mean it's going to stop ... it just currently doesn't have plans to release many more.
Iwata also covers some other items briefly, saying that the company plans to offer the Wii Motion Plus "for as little as possible." Considering it'll be necessary for games like Wii Sports Resort and the absurd amount of money the company is currently making, that seems like a reasonable thing to do.
Here we are again, another month, and another 31 days of gaming possibility. August of 2008 is actually faring a bit better than stinky, unsatisfying predecessor July of 2008, with a handful of titles we can't wait to take for a spin, and a few that we might carve out a few minutes for.
Posts in category wii
_thumbnail.jpg "I Am 8 Bit: 2008")
