Games and Gadgets: How I see them.

PS3:

Dark Sector - (US) Action
Viking: Battle for Asgard - (US) Action
SEGA Superstar Tennis - (US) Sports

Xbox360:

Universe At War - (EU) RTS
Football Manager 2008 - (EU) Sports
Armored Core: for Answers - (JPN) Action Shooter
SEGA Superstar Tennis - (EU) Sports
Viking: Battle for Asgard - (EU) Action
Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 - (US) Action Shooter
Dark Messiah: Might and Magic Elements - (EU) FPS RPG

Wii:

Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 - (US) Sports
Dewy’s Adventure - (US) Platformer
George of the Jungle - (EU) Platformer
Sea Monsters: A Prehistoric Adventure - (EU) Action
Arctic Tales - (US) Action
Destroy All Human! Big Willy Unleashed - (US) Action
Puru Puru Pack - (US) Mini-games compilation
Cocoto Magic Circus - (US) Mini-games Complilation
My Horse and Me - (US) Pet Sim
Super Mario Galaxy - (US) Platformer
Big Brain Academy Wii Degree - (US) Mini-games Compilation
My Word Coach - (US) Mini-games Compilation
Worms: A Space Oddity - (EU) Action
Baroque - (JPN) RPG
No More Heroes - (US) Action
EA Playground - (US) Mini-games Compilation
Ninja Reflex - (US) Mini-games compilation
The House of The Dead 2 & 3 Return - (US) Light Gun Shooter
Go, Diego, Go! Safari Rescue - (US) Action

PS3:

Gran Turismo 5: Prologue (Chinese) - (Asian) Racing [Download or Blu-Ray]
echochrome - (Asian) Puzzle
Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 - (Asian) Shooter


XBox360:

Condemned 2: Bloodshot - (US) FPS
Army of Two - (US) Shooter
Turning Point: Fall of Liberty - (US) FPS
Lost: Via Domus - (US) Action
Frontlines: Fuel of War - (US) FPS
Lost Odyssey - (Asian) RPG


Wii:

Winning Eleven: Playmaker 2008 - (Jpn) Sports
Pinball Hall of Fame: The William Collection - (US) Pinball Sim
Bully - (US) Action
Balloon Pop - (US) Puzzle
SEGA Bass Fishing - (US) Fishing Sim

Nintendo then did a study, and concluded that the problem arises from dust building up on the Wii laser lens. As Super Smash Bros. Brawl uses a dual layer DVD (the touted D9), the disc is more sensitive to dirty lens. A fix to this problem is to clean the Wii laser lens but its not something regular Wii owners can’t do on their own.

To fix this, Nintendo of Japan have offered to clean Japanese Wiis for free and even pay for the shipping fees. All you have to do is ship your Wii, warranty card and a copy of Super Smash Bros. Brawl (to prove you actually bought the game, and not simply wanting a free service) to Nintendo’s service center in Kyoto. Only drawback, you lose your Wii for one week while Nintendo cleans your lens.

Be aware, please don’t send in your modded Wii and expect a free service, ya?

EA’s CEO John Riccitiello confirmed a Wii version of Rock Band is forthcoming during his third quarter conference call done on Jan 31, 2008. In it, he mentioned of a “coming launch” of the Wii version of Rock Band. This is in line with Harmonix CEO Alex Rigopulos’ mention of a Wii-specific version of the title, way back in April 2007.

No pricing, song list, DLC support nor release date was mentioned.

For the benefit of the few of you who don’t know this fact, Wii Fit, the fitness game with a balance board, have sold over a million units in Japan since its debut on Dec 1, 2007.

Now the rest of the world will get to work their flabby muscles on the same balancing boards. Wii Fit is dated for release in April 2008 for the US markets and June 2008 for the PAL (EU) regions.

Now where have I placed my workout clothes…?

Update: Corrected Japan launch date, from 2008 back to 2007. Thnx to concerned citizen and xtrocious for correcting my time travelling exploits.

After a long draught, games are slowly trickling back to MY stores. I expect the draught to last longer till mid February as Chinese New Year is around the corner and most stores will be closed for the holidays.

With many request for semi-bricked Wii and the solution to unbrick it, I have decided to share on how I semi-bricked my Wii and how I was able to unbrick it later.

Please note that Nintendo Wiis are region locked and accordingly, their firmware is also region locked. This mean that you can only update the Wii by using firmware from the same region. Wiis have 3 main regions: NTSC Japan (3.0J), NTSC US (3.0U) and PAL Europe (3.0E); the alphabet behind the firmware represents the region it beloings to.

Many Wii owners have accidentally semi-bricked their Wii when they installed the wrong firmware that don’t correspond regions. Usually, installing firmware from a different region that you Wii will brick the “Wii Setting” menu, basically it gives you an error message stating a problem in accessing the Internet via the Opera browser.

This effectively prevents you from accessing the Wii Settings menu. Games will still load and play, but you simply cant change any settings on your Wii, thus the term “Semi-brick” used by myself.

This happened to me when I inserted Super Mario Galaxy JAPAN without noticing the game’s region coding, and proceeded to install the firmware. After installing the firmware, my Wii Setting menu crashed with the prior mentioned error code. The games plays fine, but I am stuck with a locked Wii Setting menu.

The solution to this is rather simple. Just wait for the next Nintendo first party game to be released, get that game and make sure it is the same region as your Wii and load it up. Most first party titles by Nintendo comes with a firmware checker, it checks the firmware in your Wii and updates it to the latest version on the disc. Run the update if the disc prompts you to, and it should install the firmware as per the same region as your Wii, and unlocks the Wii Settings menu.

For me, I used Link’s Crossbow Training. It ran on my Wii and asked for a firmware update. I installed the update, and behold, my Wii Setting menu is back up and running Firmware 3.0U.

So for those of you who had semi-bricked your Wii, feel free to try this method as it has proven successful to me and other users having the same issues.

Disclaimer: Following the method mentioned above don’t guarantee absolute success, just simply coz it worked for me. Also, this method may not unbrick modded Wii. Leave your comments if it works for you.

Due to the excessive time from the previous update, the list of games out in MY stores is very long, and I have chosen to simply list the titles without the boxart. Fear not, boxarts will return very soon in the future.

Here’s the long list, most of the big games of 2007 are now in stores, good luck in finding some of them.

PS3:
The Orange Box - (ASIAN) FPS
Kane & Lynch: Dead Men - (US) Action Shooter
Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune - (US) Action Shooter
Assasin’s Creed - (US) Action
Time Crisis 4 (with Guncon3) - (ASIAN) Light Gun Shooter
Timeshift - (US) FPS
Soldier of Fortune: Payback - (US) FPS
Beowulf: The Game - (US) Action

Wii:
Wii Fit - (JPN) Fitness
Trauma Center: New Blood - (US) Medical Sim
Soul Calibur Legends - (US) Action
Geometry Wars: Galaxies - (US) Shooter
Ghost Squad - (US) Light Gun Shooter
Link’s Crossnbow Training (without Zapper) - (US) Light Gun Shooter
Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles - (US) Light Gun Shooter
Tomb Raider Anniversary - (US) Action Shooter
Super Mario Galaxy - (US) Platformer

Xbox360:
Black Site: Area 51 - (US) FPS
Mass Effect - (US) Action
Soldier of Fortune: Payback - (US) FPS
Kane & Lynch: Dead Men - (US) Action Shooter
Beowulf: The Game - (US) Action
Assasin’s Creed - (US) Action
Need For Speed: Prostreet - (US) Racing
Bioshock - (US) FPS

PS2:
Puzzle Quest - (US) Puzzle
Nicktoons: Attack of the Toybots - (US) Action
Fire Pro Wrestling Returns - (US) Sports Sim
Need For Speed: Prostreet - (US) - Racing
Petz: Catz - (US) Pet Sim
Petz: Dogz - (US) Pet Sim

Wii Fit is out in Japan as of Dec 1, 2007. Nintendo of Japan’s idea of getting their customers healthy via a console game is shipped with a new peripheral, the Balance Board. The Balance Board is wireless with its own sensors, and connects to the Wii effortlessly powered by 4AA batteries, and weighs slightly more that Wii itself.

Players, or rather users, loads up the game and steps on the Balance Board. Data such as age, height and clothing that you are wearing (it does affect your weight) needs to be entered, and Wii Fit will do the rest. It will give you your weight, BMI (Body Mass Index) and spells out your ideal BMI.

You can then choose to set your target BMI and planned duration to achieve it, and Wii Fit will help you work out towards your target. There are 4 main groups of exercises to be had: Yoga, Balance Training, Cardiovascular Workout, and Muscle Training. Each type has 9 to 15 exercises, and you unlocked new ones with points earned based on the amount of time you’ve spent working out.

Wii Fit allows up to 8 users with individual password access to secure your data and progress. Retailing at 8300Yen or USD$80 (RM280), the whole package consists of a Wii Fit disc (can call it a game?), Balance Board with wireless sensors and 4AA batteries. US will get Wii Fit sometime in January 2008.