Gamertell

Nintendo doesn’t know what it’s doing with multiplayer online gameplay.  It’s just that simple.

The Famicom and the Super Famicom, and the Nintendo 64 had online peripherals which were never a wide enough success to release in the US market.  Nintendo tried, and it decided nobody cared… and then the online gaming market exploded.  Nintendo was too far ahead of its time. Then, the DS and the Wii came along and Nintendo promised wireless internet connectivity right out of the box.  But Nintendo has left us sour in the one aspect that it has always claimed deserves the most attention:  The games.

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The sky just seems to be getting darker for Sony and the ill-conceived PS3. Variety Asia reported last Wednesday (June 27, 2007) that developers are leaving Sony like rats off scurrying a sinking ship. That’s also on fire. And being attacked by giant squid. It’s really bad.

The PS3 is still being trounced by the Wii here in the states in terms of sales and ...

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SimCity designer o’ fame Will Wright was heard complaining that too many sequel games are currently on the shelves. Wright made the comments during an interview with the German website Stern:

Yeah, that is indeed a bad development. One would rather play it safe than be creative. Still, this seems to work. But for how much longer? Besides, there are simply too many games on the market. Lots of bad games are coming out because of this.

Anyone who’s gone to a movie this summer can probably relate…

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Just in case, for some odd reason, you own a Wii and haven’t downloaded Opera’s web browser yet, June 30, 2007, is the last day you’ll be able to do so for free.

Everyone who has downloaded the browser will continue to get the service for free, assuming you didn’t delete it (or back it up on a memory card).  If you do try to download it on July 1, 2007, or later, it will cost 500 Wii Points, which is not a huge loss, but probably not worth it for such a low-res, keyboard-less portal to the web.

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D3’s immensely popular and addicting puzzle/RPG hybrid Puzzle Quest will be available later this summer on XBLA (Xbox Live Arcade), with expanded features that take advantage of the live arcade atmosphere.

Besides the full online play there will be a complete with a matchmaking service, ranked multiplayer games and voice chat. Additionally, the game has been tweaked and new features have been added to the single player mode, including…

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From our favorite Japanese import site, J-List/J-Box, comes a figure based on the Fantasy VIII PVC Playstation game. It’s part of the Masters Creatures 2 collection featuring 6 in. tall sculptures which will also include Odin, and Mateus the Corrupt. These aren’t scheduled to be available in the US until September 2007, so you’ll get a jump on all your figure collecting buddies. There are only two in stock, available for $35 each.

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Even though last Wednesday (June 20, 2007) marked the end of Blair’s term as Britain’s Prime Minister, Commodore Gaming wasn’t about to let the bloke go without throwing a huge LAN party in his honor. Okay, okay — the press event held in Soho probably had more to do with pushing Commodore’s shiny new gaming rigs than honoring Blair, but I bet more than a few of the gamers who took the machines through their paces on Wednesday were imagining the caricatured head of the Texas blue-blood prince sitting on the shoulders of the foes they blasted. And they were fantastically rendered foes at that.

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Video Games Live, a concert series that features classic computer and videogame music played by a symphony orchestra, will be joined by OverClocked ReMix, a fan-based organization dedicated to the appreciation and re-arrangement of video game music, this Friday and Saturday (June 29 and 30, 2007) for performances in Washington, D.C.

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From our favorite Japanese import site, J-List/J-Box, comes a Dig Dug dot art toy that’s a lot like a mini Lite Brite (without the lights).

For $9.50 plus shipping, you get a kit with 520 small colored pegs, two small peg boards and a stand to display your finished bit of pixelated goodness. You can also join the two pieces together to make a cute little scene for your desk, bookshelf or simply or tack on the wall.

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The fourth annual Penny Arcade Expo (PAX) , an event meant for gamers of all types, ages and creeds, has moved to a new location and increased its floorspace from last years’s event.  Created by Jerry “Tycho” Holkins and Mike “Gabe” Krahulik, the goofy duo who brought you the Penny-Arcade webcomic, PAX has been doubling in size each year starting with only a few thousand attendees and, now, needing room for tens of thousands.

PAX07 will take place August 24-26, 2007, at the Washington State Convention & Trade Center in downtown Seattle, WA.

Click through for more details including the complete list of exhibitors…

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