Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles Wii Details Emerge

After much fuss and not much to show for in the online press last week, SPOnG finally has some solid - and presumably valid - details about Capcom's first Wii game from their Resident Evil survival horror series. This latest story bares no mention of the game's final title, but according to earlier reports it will be called Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles (at least in Japan it's Biohazard: Umbrella Chronicles).

The name alone already holds indication as to the nature of this game, which will in fact chronicle the series' first four chapters, and it will be structured accordingly:

Chapter 1: RE1 Mansion - Jill and Chris

Chapter 2: RE2 Raccoon Police Department - Claire and Leon

Chapter 3: RE3 Raccoon City - Jill and Carlos

Chapter 4: RE4 Village - Leon and Ada

The players will therefore meet familiar faces and locations, in what's shaping up to be a neat retrospective of the series so far. Taking scenario, setting and gameplay elements from previous entries, Resident Wii'vil could also end up filling in plot blanks between other existing Resi titles. According to SPOnG, "further characters will also come into play in various subplots (in what is promised to be a very open-ended and massive title) including Rebecca Chambers, Hunk and Albert Wesker, tantalising glimpses of what to RE fans will be the most exciting game in the series ever".

Some brief gameplay sequences could already be seen in last week's Wii preview trailer, and by the looks of it the over-shoulder perspective and controls are to remain. SPOnG also says that each character will be able to dual-wield, packing two weapons at the same time, and their last bit of info is that the whole game will be presented in in-game cutscenes as was the case with Resident Evil 4.

No release date was given by Capcom yet, as Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles is still in early development.

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Nintendo Wii Launch Details For Europe And Australia

Over the weekend, the dust has finally settled in the aftermath of Nintendo's worldwide Wii press events. As such, the final launch details have also been announced for Europe and Australia, who will not only receive the Wii a few weeks later than the US, but also at a higher price. How fair is that, I ask of you!

In Europe, Nintendo Wii will launch on December 8, and it will cost €249 / £179 in the UK (around $315 / $336 respectively). The games will be priced between €49-59, extra "Wii-mote" controllers will be available at €39 each, Nunchucks at €19, and calssic controllers also at €19. Only one Wii Remote and Nunchuck controllers will be included in the package, as well as the Wii Sports collection of five games.

Regarding the launch line-up, around 20 games are expected for the console's European debut, and except for The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Wii Play (a mini-games package that includes a Wii Remote) and the bundled Wii Sports, most titles will be third-party - such as Red Steel, Rayman: Raving Rabbids, Need For Speed: Carbon, Cars, Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam or Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz. Some 15 classic games - such as The Legend of Zelda: A Link To The Past, Super Mario World, Super Mario 64 and Donkey Kong - will also be available at launch on the Virtual Console, and afterwards more classics will be added (around 5-10 titles each month).

In Australia, the Wii will debut slightly earlier and cheaper than in Europe - on December 7, for AU$399.95 (around €237 / $300) - and the package will have the same contents as in Europe: white Wii console, Wii-mote controller, Nunchuck attachment, and Wii Sports.

On a side note, Nintendo also announced that it managed to sell a staggering 6 million DS handhelds in Europe since March 2005, and expects to hit the 10 million mark by the end of 2006. Their most successful game so far is Nintendogs - with 4 million units shipped in Europe alone; and next up is the European release of the Nintendo DS Lite Pink console on October 27 - priced at around £100 / €150. I wouldn't mind one of those as well.

P.S. Since the new Zelda is one of the main launch titles for the Wii, you might want to check out this new trailer and a sole new screenshot we have just added on our website.

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It's curious how we - and some other "pros" it seems - have failed to notice this earlier, but in JoWooD's latest financial report from a couple of weeks ago, they were already hinting at an upcoming Gothic 3 expansion. The add-on package is supposed to be in development by now, and will probably be released in 2007. Albert Seidl, CEO of JoWooD, made this rather interpretable statement in the company's report:

"We are already working on add-on packages of JoWooD's SpellForce- and Gothic 3 series, which will partially be launched in 2007 already."

The key word we marked above is "partially" - which could mean that only the SpellForce 2 add-on will get to be released in 2007. But if that were the case, does it also mean that SpellForce 2: Dragon Storm is being delayed from its planned "Winter 2006" release? I for one wouldn't be surprised, but at this point a 2007 launch for a Gothic 3 expansion also seems reasonable.

Before that clears up, another confusion - this time regarding Gothic 3's system requirements - arose on the JoWooD forums. Producer Michael Paeck claims that Gothic 3 will be playable with a solid frame-rate on a 2 GHz PC with 1 GB RAM and an "older" graphics card, if the detail level is adjusted accordingly; while community manager Johann Ertl says that he had an excellent graphics performance on his Athlon XP2800+, 1 GB PC-333 and a GeForce 6600 GT on medium details and without tuning. Thanks RPGDot for the translation.

You'll get your chance to see for yourself how the game runs in just a few weeks, as Piranha Bytes' now Gold role-playing sequel is set for a European release on October 13.

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Wii Profitable From Day One, But Region-Locked And With No DVD

While everyone else (i.e. Microsoft and Sony) would rather make expensive consoles and sell them cheaper than their manufacturing cost, hoping to make up for the loss through software sales, Nintendo are doing the smart thing: they're selling cheap Wiis, and making them even cheaper! So instead of losing money with every unit they sell, Nintendo will actually turn a profit from day one of the console's US launch, on November 19.

In an interview with Reuters, the president of Nintendo of America, Reggie Fils-Aime said that:

"We will make a profit on the entire Wii proposition out of the box - hardware and software. That really is a very different philosophy versus our competitors. We are a company that competes only in the interactive entertainment space so we have to make a profit on every thing we do."

Because of the Wii's relatively cheap price ($250) and low development costs, analysts are starting to predict even better numbers than previously announced by Nintendo. By March 2007, the company might crush the 6 million mark it set for itself, and sell as many as 8 or 9 million units. At least in a highly optimistic scenario.

And all that, despite the fact that the final Wii specifications are lacking DVD playback, a feature that many have been hoping for. Also, speaking to GamesIndustry.biz yesterday, a Nintendo UK spokesperson admitted that the Wii console is region-locked after all, despite comments from Nintendo of America to the contrary - who admittedly made a mistake in saying otherwise. So much for imports then.

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The sequel to Vivarium's quirky pet-raising game Seaman was announced by Sega for the PlayStation 2, though without any planned release date in the English speaking world. As with the original game (released in 1999 for Sega's Dreamcast, and ported on the PS2 in 2001), the player will interact with an unusual creature through the use of a voice recognition system. Only this time around the creature will look more like a miniature Neanderthal man, and less like a... well, seaman (imagine what you will).

Vivarium's technology has since evolved, and according to the stuiod's president Yoot Saito, the voice recognition engine will actually work with complete phrases in Seaman 2, rather than single terms like in the original installment. Still, the microphone-enabled controller that was bundled with the first Seaman game (called Seamic) will once again be usable in the sequel.

Actual gameplay sequences are yet to be shown - probably next weekend at TGS 2006 - but in the meantime Sega revealed the premise in Seaman 2. As the story goes, a species of prehistoric mini-men were found to have lived in Peking China. A company in Moscow took their bones and created a factory to clone them and mass produce them as pets. Only 3,000 of them have been created so far, but guess what: you're one of the lucky first to own one.

Crazy games for playful crazy people...

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Record Number Of Games At TGS, Lost Odyssey To Prevail?

In the wake of E3's collapse, the gaming shows from the second half of this year have been seeing increasing support from publishers and such. It's how the Games Convention in Leipzig got to receive a great amount of attention, and it's how this month's Tokyo Game Show is expected to do the same. CESA, the show's organizers, are claiming that TGS 2006 will host a record number of games, with a total of 573 games on public display - 57 more than last year.

Maybe a bit surprising, given Japan's console culture, most of these games will be for the PC (127 titles) and mobile phones (125), closely followed by the long-running PlayStation 2 (about 100 titles). Nintendo's DS will have 52 titles shown, and there will also be 33 games for the PSP, 20 for the Xbox 360, 18 for the PlayStation 3 (although a lot more are expected to be presented behind closed doors), and only 5 Wii games, most likely third-party. Because, as usual, Nintendo will once again be absent from the event. Stats courtesy of Gamasutra, who also have a breakdown on games count by genre to be shown at TGS.

The most significant Xbox 360 announcements are expected to take place at Microsoft's X06, between September 27-28, however a few of them might surface a few days ealrier at TGS 2006, which is taking place next weekend between September 22-24. In particular, Next Generation is anticipating that Hironobu Sakaguchi's Lost Odyssey role-playing game could easily steal the show in Tokyo, despite the Xbox 360's rather undesired status in Japan (not to mention Konami's Metal Gear Solid 4).

Lost Odyssey is being created by Mistwalker, the young studio founded in 2004 by Hironobu Sakaguchi - if the name "Final Fantasy" rings any bells. Another veteran of the FF series, Nobuo Uematsu is also involved in the project, as composer of the game's music. Little has been shown about Lost Odyssey so far, but there's a new picture in our local gallery in case you missed it earlier this week.

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Nintendo Wii Final Launch Details: November 19, $250

Nintendo's big announcement of the final launch details for their Wii console was hijacked today by a New York Times story, just hours before Nintendo officially confirmed that the Wii will retail in the US for $250, starting November 19.

That's two days after Sony's PlayStation 3 launch on November 17 (at least in the US), which is somewhat disappointing for those of us who trusted Nintendo's previous promise of going on sale before Sony. On the other hand, the Wii is expected to be available in much larger numbers (not to mention a lot cheaper) than the PS3, as Nintendo plans to ship four million Wii units worldwide this year.

At today's press conference it was confirmed that around 30 Wii games will be available by the end of 2006, out of which at least half (some say 25+) are expected from day one. Among the launch titles will be the highly anticipated action-adventure game The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, although its GameCube version has just been delayed until December 11. Excite Truck will also be part of the console's launch offering, and so will Wii Sports - which will actually be bundled with all Nintendo Wii units in the US!

The standard price for first-party Wii games will be $50, and as for classic NES, SNES and N64 games downloadable to the Wii's Virtual Console, their price will range from $5 to $10. The original Zelda is also said to be one of them, and by the end of the year a total of 60 classics are likely to be re-released (half of them from day one).

However games aren't the only thing that Nintendo talked about today. In fact, the Wii will offer an incredible amount of additional features through its "media channels". Twelve of them are expected to accompany the launch as well, including up-to-date news and weather channels (I just love that interactive globe view!), a photo channel (allowing you to browse and edit digital photos stored on SD cards), as well as an Internet channel, giving full web browsing access via the Opera web browser - which will be available at an additional cost.

Most of these channels are presented in short videos on Nintendo's website here, and I have to admit I was really amazed to see what that cute lil' Wii is capable of. If you're more into games, there's also another clip you can view on their website, featuring plenty of gameplay footage. All in all, this looks really great. Just wait 'til I make my news posting rounds from it!

Unfortunately we're still waiting for the European launch details, but we should have them tomorrow after Nintendo's press event here on the old continent. And as for the company's homeland, the Wii will only arrive in Japan on December 2, which might seem curios at first. But in fact, the same thing happened with the Nintendo DS launch back in 2004: it was first released in the US on November 21, and later in Japan on December 2. I wonder what they'll be popping out in November / December of 2008...

P.S. Here's a supposed picture of the Wii package:

UPDATE: The European and Australian launch details have also been announced.

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WoW:BC - Outland World Map, Talents And The Story So Far...

In these last few days Blizzard revealed plenty of new things about their upcoming World of Warcraft expansion, The Burning Crusade. The talents & spells preview that began in late August is almost complete now (only the Druids and Hunters still remain shadowmelded), and in the meantime they're also giving us a lengthy read about the story so far... aaand, hot off the press, an interactive world map of the Outland!

The talents and spells preview page most of you know by now, I'm sure, but a couple of days ago it was updated with the new Priest spells, abilities and talents that will be available in WoW:BC. I'm still fiddling around with a Mage build, and I must say, that new "Slow" talent at the end of the Arcane talents tree... that, I must have!

Then there's the story overview page, for those of you looking to catch up on events that took place in the world of Warcraft over the past thousands of years (but also plenty of recent stuff).

Finally, the latest update on the World of Warcraft website adds an interactive map of the Outland - the broken remains of the orcs' homeworld, Draenor, from the other side of the Dark Portal. Blizzard is inviting us to arm ourselves with knowledge of each zone's faction bases, dungeons and neutral cities, and prepare for the challenges to come.

On a personal note, I was long since hoping for a fully submerged dungeon (meaning full of water, not like the Sunken Temple), and looking at that map over the Zangarmarsh region - with its Coilfang Reservoir dungeon - my hopes have renewed.

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New (And Final) NWN Premium Module: Wyvern Crown of Cormyr

Hah, what do you know! Despite Atari's saddening decision to discontinue the Neverwinter Nights premium modules program some time ago, apparently one of the modules was so good and close to completion, that they changed their mind and made an exception for it. Therefore, BioWare is now happy to offer their fans one final NWN premium module, called Wyvern Crown of Cormyr.

The last of the Premium mohicans is the result of the hard work done by community developer DLA in conjunction with BioWare, and it features the long-awaited addition of fully ride-able horses, plus cloaks, tabards, a completely new tileset, creatures, placeable objects and a lot more. In Neverwinter Nights: Wyvern Crown of Cormyr you can become a Purple Dragon Knight, and try your hand at jousting and ride your horse through the Kingdom of Cormyr and into battle. The 234 MB module is available for purchase from the BioWare Store for $11.99, and it requires both NWN: Hordes of the Underdark and Shadows of Undrentide expansions to function.

To get an early feel for it, you can view the local Wyvern Crown trailer, screenshots and a nice big wallpaper. But getting back to Atari's (in)decision, here's what BioWare designer Georg Zoeller had to say in the NWN forums:

"You can believe us when we say, we would have liked to give an official store release to all the premium modules tht were in production when the decision to discontinue the program came down. Everyone involved with those modules has put incredible effort into them and we would have loved to give all of them their official release.

As for WCoC, it was the most complete of the premium modules at the time the decision to cancel the program was handed down to us, in fact it was very close to release.

Atari and other parties were very impressed with the amount content and quality of work that had been done and how close to completion it was, so they changed their mind and decided to make an exception for this module.

I'm sure Robert's persistence about the matter didn't hurt either."

Here's hoping for more "exceptions"!

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Short and sweet, that's the best way to describe Piranha Bytes' latest announcement. I'm sure most of you have been dying to hear this, so let's cut to the chase: Gothic 3 is gold! At 02:00 in the morning yesterday, the RPG sequel was finally shipped for replication to Sony Austria, after over three and a half years of development time.

Once that is taken care of, Gothic 3 will start filling up retail shelves as soon as October 13 in various European territories. Last we heard, the North American launch date was set for November 20, so eager gamers from over there will just have to keep themselves busy with... I don't know, Oblivion maybe?

For a much shorter while - around 6 minutes or so - you can also kill some time by watching the latest Gothic 3 trailer recently added to our download section. In it, producer Michael Paeck talks about the factions you can choose to help in the game, and shows quite a bit of gameplay footage, so be sure to check it out as well.

Finally, a playful fact about Gothic 3 should also be in order now. As indicated by our (actually your) "Most Wanted" list, Piranha's RPG sequel has kept its ground on the top spot for quite a while now, clearly making it the most yearned for RPG since the release of Oblivion. I wonder how the two of them will end up being compared...

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