Nintendo is to radically revise the design of the 3DS, according to reports, with a new unit due in 2012 sporting a second analogue stick, reduced emphasis on 3D and perhaps even a new name.
The claims come from sources close to French site 01.net, and while they appear outlandish it should be noted that the site has, so far this year, published information on Wii U and Vita that was later proven largely correct.
Joakim Sandberg, the Swedish developer behind beautiful games Noitu Love & The Army Of Grinning Darns and Noitu Love 2: Devolution, takes Metroid Fusion as an example to demonstrate his idea of good action game flow. The video’s pacing isn’t too shabby, either.
The very last place you’d expect to direct your sympathies in the event of nuclear disarmament: those poor little warheads. Shaun Inman’s iOS game The Last Rocket evokes precisely such a response, however, placing you in control of an adorable missile named Flip. Every time his tiny pixelated eyes blink open and shut, a small royalty fee might as well get deposited in Nintendo’s bank account.
Human Revolution begins clumsily and in at least that sense it’s a true successor to the first game. Whereas 2000’s ‘thinking man’s shooter’ dropped the player off at a terrorist-occupied Statue of Liberty with barely more than a pat on the back, Eidos’ prequel over-eggs the orientation, locking the player into a series of technobabble-filled cutscenes and on-rails sequences that hurriedly set the scene.
Julien Merceron, worldwide technology director at Square Enix, believes that AI has been largely left behind in the current generation's charge towards realistic graphics and physics, telling us that it is such a complex discipline that it will be some time before we see significant advances in games.
"I think for many generations of platforms, people have been saying AI is the next thing," he tells us. "From my perspective, not a lot has happened. I don't think the leap will be as big as people believe, because it's a very complex area.
We are told that pre-owned game sales are bad for the industry: they deprive publishers of revenue, with the proceeds of the sale lining only the retailers' pockets. According to one retailer, however, pre-owned benefits publishers as well.
The claim comes from Mike Mauler, executive vice-president of Gamestop International. "I can understand the feelings," he tells us, "[but] we've sat down with developers and publishers and really gone through the data. I personally think there's a lot of benefit to the publisher.
“While developing LittleBigPlanet, and especially while making its sequel, we often ended up designing for creators and non-creatives as two distinct audiences. I also have no doubt that no matter how easy you make it for people to create there are some who will never make anything. The assumption goes that some people create and others consume.
Sometimes, what comes after the colon in a game’s title can be all too revealing. For example, I can exclusively reveal that the full title of Killzone 3, for some reason kept secret until now, is Killzone 3: Helghast Go To The Funfair. All that was missing, as I played through the campaign cooperatively with a friend, were the candy floss and toffee apples, the faint odour of vomit and the ambient threat of stabbing. Oh, wait: the game has an ambient threat of stabbing too.
Sometimes, what comes after the colon in a game’s title can be all too revealing. For example, I can exclusively reveal that the full title of Killzone 3, for some reason kept secret until now, is Killzone 3: Helghast Go To The Funfair. All that was missing, as I played through the campaign cooperatively with a friend, were the candy floss and toffee apples, the faint odour of vomit and the ambient threat of stabbing. Oh, wait: the game has an ambient threat of stabbing too.
Yes, it's still there. Despite an 18 per cent drop in sales from last week, 505 Games' Zumba Fitness is the UK all-formats number one for a tenth consecutive week, and the 13th since its release last year.
There's good news for Nintendo, however, with the 3DS price drop seeing The Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina Of Time 3D rise nine places to number four, with sales rising 59 per cent week on week.