Do you really, really love your Pokémans? Are the slow paced DS adventures not enough quality time with your critters? No problem, this week's Wii Ware release (yes, only one) will satisfy your Pokémon fantasy. My Pokémon Ranch is finally here, and in it, your very own Mii creations can interact with your virtual "a lot less work than the real thing" pets from Pokémon Diamond and Pearl (up to 1,000 at any given time).

Enjoy the relaxing ranch life by viewing your ranch and its Pokémon, taking pictures and sending those pictures to your friends via the Wii Message Board. The more Pokémon and Miis you bring to your ranch, the more fun it becomes.

My Pokémon Ranch will run you 1,000 Wii Points. First up for the Virtual Console this week is Dig Dug, originally released on the NES. You've no doubt played, if not watched someone else play, this game at some point in your life, but in case you've not, here's the lowdown:

Become Dig Dug, the champion of love and justice, as you drill up, down, left and right, defeating any enemies in your path. Avoid the persistent Pooka and the deep-dwelling but whimsical Fygar as you defeat all the enemies in order to clear each stage. Defeat enemies by hitting them with the harpoon and pumping air into them, or by dropping rocks on them from above.

 
Dig Dug will cost 600 Wii points when it goes live. Lastly, we have the 1980's NES classic Japanese-only action/platformer, Bio Miracle Bokutte UPA.

Players take on the role of baby Upa, a prince of the Akuyo kingdom. Prince Upa must take on an adventure spanning seven different worlds in order to rescue the kingdom from the dangerous demon Zai. Upa must defeat the enemies he meets along the way by inflating them. Upa can then use these floating enemies to his advantage by bouncing off of or riding on top of them.

Bio Miracle Bokutte UPA retails for 600 Wii Points. All titles will be available at 9 AM PST on the Wii Shop.

Years in the making and at one time even terminated, Eden Games and Atari's new reboot of the original survival-horror title, Alone in the Dark, is finally, officially done. The developer announced this morning that the title has gone gold, and will indeed be making its June 24th release date on Xbox 360, PC, PlayStation 2 and the Wii - with a PS3 version slated for "sometime" this Fall. Former Sony exec., now head of Infogrames, Phil Harrison, said:

With its genre-busting mix of gameplay, wide-screen presentation style and DVD chapter select feature putting the player in control, Alone in the Dark will thrill all gamers. It’s a game which will challenge the player but also reward them with a one-of-a-kind video game experience and a huge amount of fun.

If you've been following the progress of this game over the past few months, then you already know that it looks astounding, sounds astounding, and likely will be one of this year's BioShock-esque offerings. Well, unless you're getting it on the Wii, of course. Edward Carnby is almost back, are you ready for the park...after dark? *Muwahaha*

Full announcement after the jump.

The UK edition of the Official Xbox Magazine managed to score the goods with their latest issue, featuring a cover story announcing the details on Call of Duty 5.  Although Treyarch had previously been confirmed as the developer on the project, the article does confirm rumors that the game is set in a World War II environment, returning you to the Pacific theater for even more WWII action, with occasional returns to the European front as the Russians push their way into Germany. 

The game does indeed utilize the Call of Duty 4 engine, with some upgrades to include... fire.  Yes, fire.  Pretty, beautiful fire.  The fifth entry in the series brings on the flamethrower, which can be used to torch buildings, grass... and yes, even melt the skin off of other players.  You'll also have a party system for commanding your troops in single player.  Multiplayer is bringing back the Perk system, with new perks more specific to the era being introduced.  The good news is, Call of Duty may finally be heading to a proper online co-op mode, with support for up to four players in online campaign play, and 16 player support for standard multiplayer ranked matches.

Co-op play includes an XP system akin to what you saw in Call of Duty 4's multiplayer.  Accumulated experience points can be traded in for extra weapons and perks, or if you'd rather just beef up your multiplayer character, you can transfer the XP over to them.  Vehicle combat also returns, with entire single player levels dedicated to vehicle combat, and multiplayer levels that are more focused towards vehicular battles. 

Treyarch is declaring this game as the darkest in the Call of Duty series, and is working with military advisors to make sure that the Japanese fighting style is both accurately depicted and brutally violent.  There are separate teams working on each of the platform versions, as well.  Which is great, and all.  But does anyone else feel just a wee bit worried about this thing? 

Via Maximum Fear

Episode 81 - Seriously? Afrika?!?!

Sega passed us a copy of their latest video for The Incredible Hulk, giving us another behind the scenes look at the game.  This week's feature focuses on the voice talent for the game, and features Liv Tyler and Tim Roth discussing what it's like creating a virtual performance for a video game. 

Following the rumors, and then the direct confirmation that close to 100 employees had been axed this last week, and rumors that future unannounced titles were in dire trouble, another source is putting nails in the LucasArts coffin.

According to Shacknews, an anonymous ex-LucasArts staffer has revealed that after Star Wars The Force Unleashed is out the door, another 100 employees are on the chopping block, to be followed closely by the termination of all internal LucasArts development. As of today, the only other confirmed "major" title on the horizon being internally developed at the studio is the Euphoria-using Indiana Jones game (aside from the all-but-confirmed KOTOR 3, Battlefront 3, etc.), which according to the source, will join the rest of the company's future offerings in being outsourced to third party developers.

Some of LucasArts' best products have been the result of successful joint development with third parties, such as KOTOR with BioWare, the upcoming (though highly doubted) Fracture with Day 1, the Lego series with TT Games, Mercenaries with Pandemic and more. I think the real question is, though, what happened here? A spokeperson for the company said, just a few days ago, they they were "definitely committed to the internal studio", and that there were plenty of new games on tap for the future. Something very strange is going on within the bowels of LucasArts, and we're bound to find out.

[Update]: As predicted, LucasArts have denied the rumors, further reiterating their previous statements.

We're committed to our internal studio. "We're working on the next Indiana Jones game internally.."I'm not going to comment on projects we have not announced."

We've always had a good balance between the internal studio and working with external partners. Expect that to continue.

*Sigh*, here we go again. "It's coming." "Sorry, it's not coming." "No really, it definitely is on the way, maufacturers are making it right now." "Actually, no, that's not true. sorry, folks." That's what we've been hearing for almost a 7 months now in regards to Blu-ray Disc coming to the Xbox 360, especially in the wake of HD-DVD's painful, agonizing death. Tomorrow, Apple is set rock to technology industry by debuting their new tweaks to the OS X operating system, and goodies; chief among them the oft-rumored 3G iPhone. But what's that? Microsoft's not going to let the spotlight fall directly on Steve Jobs?

Apparently so, as a new rumor has appeared from CrunchGear stating that they've heard from a source  that used to work in HD-DVD, and who now resides in the Entertainment and Devices division at Microsoft, that tomorrow morning, the company will roll out a press release announcing that an internal Blu-ray drive is headed to the 360 before Holiday 2008. And if that's not enough, it seems that it might be cheaper than we thought.

I’m told MS will upstage Apple with a Monday 9am PDT announcement (1 hour before WWDC) via press release that the Xbox 360 will get Blu-Ray before Christmas. Price was “under the current Elite," but i could get any more details.

So...$399 Blu-ray Xbox 360? Sold. VERY interesting. As you can see, that's all we know right now, and it's a completely unfounded rumor. Stay tuned, if such an earth-shaking announcement is made, we'll let you know as soon as possible. 

I know quite a few folks [slightly] fell for our April Fool's Day post about Nintendo "cancelling" the Wii, and moving on to an HD, Hard Drive-equipped system, but if that did anything, it further cemented the notion that Nintendo really, really needs to figure out what they're going to do for the future of the system.

Virtual Console titles slowly but surely will overtake your storage, and the new Wii Ware offerings are all but maxing out folks' internal Flash memory. And I don't know about you, but I refuse to return to the PS1 days of having 20 memory cards lying around. Knowing that, there's got to be some kind of solution brewing within ther House of Mario, no? Perhaps there is, and perhaps we'll hear about soon.

Acording to a recent job listing on the company's site, they are looking for new Software/Hardware Testers who will be responsible for "Creating and executing a test plan for Wii’s USB device" as well as the usual additions to that which include being able to test said devices, report bugs and more. Hmm, I can't think of any other USB devices that Nintendo themselves could be pondering over other than an external Hard Drive, or some more gimmicky peripherals that are limited to a handful of mini-games. E3 announcement? Hope so...

Boom Blox is pretty awesome.  Granted, our review of it had some valid points, but when you sit down and play it, Boom Blox is one of the most fun and enjoyable titles to play on the Wii, even considering some of the nits you can pick.

So we're giving away one copy of Boom Blox for the Nintendo Wii.  We want to share this fun and enjoyable game.  It's a good single plaer game, but it's an even better experience at parties.  

To enter our Boom Blox giveaway, just post a reply to this thread telling us what your current Worn Out Party Game is.  Pick something that you've run through its paces and now you're getting tired of it.  Are you tired of the same old lanes in Wii Bowling?  Does Cranium just not appeal to you any more? Tell us about it.  On Sunday, June 15th at 3pm Pacific Time, we'll randomly draw a winner from the list of entries.  You must be a resident of the U.S. in order to win, and you'll want to review our contest rules before entering.  Only one entry per household is allowed.

Best of luck! 

Bringing us word last week that soon, everyone's favorite [real] axe-wielding, flamethrower-carrying Team Fortress 2 class, the Pyro, would be seeing an overhaul/tweak akin to the Medic, it's needless to say to folks were excited. "But... for what? What exactly are those supposed changes?  I need to know!" Glad you asked, mate, Valve's happy to answer tease that out.

Announcing that they've all but finished up the update, the Pyro's enhancements, among other, yet-to-be-revealed features, will include a new item called the "Axtinguisher."

Although it does about half of normal damage to standard run-of-the-mill non-burning enemies, once you light someone on fire the Axtinguisher will guarantee a critical hit...Along with all of the new content, we're also going to be making some significant changes to the Pyro class for everyone, regardless of whether they have unlocked any new items.

Huh. That was a vague tease. Thanks a bunch, Valve. You sneaky bastards. Currently, there is still no word on when the update will hit, but Valve is pretty quick with this stuff, you know. Any bets on what class is next? *cough* Heavy *cough*

A good game of trivia is capable of separating the strong minds from the weak. It can boost the intellectual egos of the victors, and it can force shame upon those who fail. Thankfully, Buzz! The Hollywood Quiz isn’t one of these games.

There’s nothing better than sitting around the living room, enjoying an evening with friends, and ridiculing your gaming counterparts. Buzz! creates a fantastic trivia environment, where testing your film knowledge becomes less of an exam and more of a party. Nothing beats throwing virtual pies at the face of your buddy after he joked about your cinematic incompetence.

Frankly, it doesn’t matter whether you consider yourself a movie buff. Games like Buzz! are not centered on successful gameplay. If you have friends with whom you can play, this game is for you. It’s hard to imagine a gaming scenario that provokes more enjoyment than an exciting 4-person battle royale for movie trivia supremacy.

Even though you may not know it, this game has your name written on it. Find out exactly why after the jump.

Episode 21

The outro music is performed by Amen1ty, who you can contact at darkmattermedia.com

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