I love the myth of Beowulf. One of the reasons I bought the 13th Warrior on DVD is because it is a retelling of Beowulf. My computer is named Naegling, after Beowulf’s sword. When I finally get myself a pet dog he shall be named Grendel. So, naturally, when I hear Robert Zemeckis is going to be directing a movie written by Neil Gaiman and Roger Avary called “Beowulf”, I get excited. I get more excited when a video game of the movie is being made.

Then I remembered that video game adaptations are usually horrible.

Nonetheless, Ubisoft has put out a press release revealing that they’ll be handling the video game of the film. Honestly, it’s bad enough that Ubisoft games tend to either be quite good or quite terrible. The fact that this is a game based off the movie honestly makes me skeptical. Nonetheless, I’ll be sure to check it out anyway.

Also, the destination platform of this game is mysteriously absent from the press release. No mention as to what consoles it will be on. Nonetheless, I’m sure we’ll see it available on Xbox 360, Wii, PS2, PS3, Nintendo DS and PSP. After all, it’s a movie game.

- Chris (Grohdinger)

P.S.: If Beowulf doesn’t completely tear Grendel’s arms out with his bare hands in the movie, I’ll be quite disappointed.

Ace747 has managed to get an advanced review copy of the game and has written a review for Wii60! European and not sure whether to pick it up on Friday? Take a look at what he has to say and see if it helps you decide!

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Basic Info:
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Title: Mario Strikers: Charged Football
Platform: Nintendo Wii
Region: PAL
Players: 1-4 (Online: 1-4)
Genre: Sports Game
Age Recomendation: 12+ (PEGI)
Release Date: 25 May 2007
Prequel: Super Mario Strikers Football (Gamecube)
Sequel:
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Main Review
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The first Mario Strikers game came as a surprice, expected to be a game slightly above a mediocre rating only made to make more money of the fat little red guy. However, the game was more then just good, it was a game you could play for days and still enjoy it as much…at least that’s what I was told.

(more…)

The third induction into the Video Game Hall of Fame has been selected. Space Invaders, one of the foremost Shooters in the genres simplest form gets the nod so stop in and check the article to read up on why Taito’s arcade classic is Hall of Fame material!

To view the full article click here. And remember to check back next Sunday for Induction #4!

-EarthViper

After another cliched internet countdown site, the new official Smash Bros Website is finally up and available to the public. However there is almost nothing on it at this moment. Why you may ask? Well it will apparently have “Daily Weekday Updates”. I’ll chalk the redundancy up to either a slight translation error or a possible heavy handed reassurance that new stuff will be added every day.

The site has seven categories; Characters, How To Play, Game Modes, Stages, Items, Music, Notices. Excluding the E3 and Nintendo World videos, there are only three pages at the moment. One is the beginning of a how to play guide, covering the damage system for people not familiar with it. The second is a description of the stage “Battlefield”. Battlefield is the simple island stage seen at the beginning of the E3 trailer. Lastly there is a rather large list of people involved with the music, simply dubbed the musicians. The list includes composers whose collective musical work span from Twilight Princess to NiGHTS to Metal Gear Solid 4 to even the Everybody Votes Channel, to name only a few. The list concludes with a redone version of the menu music from Super Smash Brothers Melee.

Click the link, or just type www.smashbros.com in your browser to see for yourself.

-BrainBoxLtd

Today’s Wii backwards compatibility release is a pretty sweet combination. Primarily sweet because one of the greatest Super Nintendo titles to ever grace the platform has been released: Donkey Kong Country 2.

I can’t tell you how many hours I’ve spent on this game. Possibly even more than I spent on a game like Final Fantasy 6, and that game was huge. Now all they need to do is release MegaMan X on the Wii and I’ll have the only two SNES games I actually need. Of course, that’s likely not going to happen what with the MegaMan X Collection and all. Bollocks.

Also out is Streets of Rage 2 for the Genesis and Blazing Lazers for the TurboGrafx 16. Never heard of Blazing Lazers, but I know a few people that have been waiting for Rage 2 for quite some time.

Diddy and Rage are both 800 points, and Blazing Lazers is 600.

- Chris (Grohdinger)

I’m going to have to assume this is NA going by the Jul 30. date for Strikers. Theres one date in here that should have you screaming like a little school girl! Via GoNintendo:

Whether you’re a longtime gamer who likes classic franchises or a newcomer aiming to keep your brain sharp, Nintendo’s summer lineup of games has something for you. Nintendo’s offerings are anchored by key Wii™ games like Metroid Prime® 3 Corruption and Mario Strikers™ Charged. Nintendo DS™ owners can challenge their minds with games like Brain Age™ 2: More Training in Minutes a Day and the new picture-based puzzle game, Picross DS™.

Licensees also are demonstrating a strong commitment to Wii and Nintendo DS by announcing more than 40 titles in all genres. The unique controls of Wii and Nintendo DS make the Nintendo platform versions of these games entirely new experiences. No matter what your taste or experience level, you’ll keep busy this summer!

July 30 Mario Strikers Charged Nintendo
Aug. 20 Metroid Prime 3 Corruption Nintendo
September Battalion Wars 2 Nintendo
Aug. 14 High School Musical: Sing It! Disney Interactive Studios
Aug. 14 Madden NFL ‘08 EA
August Tiger Woods PGA Tour ‘08 EA
August Space Station Tycoon Namco Bandai
August Brunswick Pro Bowling Crave
August Dave Mirra BMX Challenge Crave
August Pinball Hall of Fame: The Williams Collection Crave
September Brothers in Arms Ubisoft
September Looney Tunes: Acme Arsenal Warner Bros.
September George of the Jungle Crave
Fall Boogie EA

Click more for NDS titles

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A sequel has been confirmed for one of the best Wii titles to date- Rayman Raving Rabbids. Promising to be more story-centric and prettier as far as graphics are concerned, a few details have risen to the surface via Kotaku:

The graphics look more polished this time round, and details on new minigames are a bit scarce. We know that one has 4 Rabbids strapped to lab tables, with electricity-throwing cathodes above them. Cue lots of screaming when they get zapped. Another one involves some Rabbids in some theatre seats (naturally, they are wearing costumes like a Pirate, American Sport player, and one in bandages) talking on cellphones. Hopefully there will be some unique usages of the Wii Remote’s Speaker here.

Discuss!

-Andy

Source

Apparently via “accident” a Halo modding community has leaked some features that will be found in the next rendition of Halo. Check them out below:

New equipment:
Instacover
Smoke (suggested this might be a smoke grenade?)
Jammer

New vehicles:
Chopper
Pelican
Shadow

New weapons:
Flamethrower
Claymore Grenade

New mode:
Infection (described as “Destroy the Flood or become infected. Score points for killing flood or big points for infecting a human. The player with the most points wins.”
New rankings:
The highest rankings are now Killpocalypse and Killionaire, instead of Double Kill and Triple Kill. 

Ooooh! Flamethrower! :D

Thanks to Raziel for the tip over at the forums

-Andy

One might ask if there was really any doubt, but after Epic had denied it a few times I can admit that I was a little bit shaken in my hopes. However, it looks like we have confirmation of Gears Of War 2, check out the bit from onthebox below.

During the Wednesday night Game Developers Choice Awards ceremony in San Francisco, Cliff “Cliffy B” Bleszinski, Games designer for Epic games collected four awards for the gritty Gears of War, including Game of the Year.

The next morning Cliffy B was able to make a 9AM media presentation where he was able to confirm that the over 3 Million selling Xbox 360 exclusive would have a follow up by Epic games.

There are no details at this time, gamespot have run with the story, which includes coverage of the Cliffy B description of the original concepts behind Gears of War.

Thanks to KennyK for the tip over at the forums

-Andy

I hate Square-Enix.

With that out of the way, let me bring you the latest news from the Squaresoft front. Though at this point almost any game they make with “DragonQuest” or “Final Fantasy” in the title is a guaranteed release outside of Japan, they felt it necessary to calm all of our beating hearts that, yes, more of these titles are confirmed for a U.S. release. Be still my my pulsating heart.
Their latest press release guarantees a release of Dragon Quest Swords: The Masked Queen and the Tower of Mirrors in America in 2008. For all two of you that were uncertain if it would be leaving the shores of Japan, you may now relax the grip on your chairs and let out that breath. Your dream of slashing at slimes of every color of the rainbow shall be coming true.

Also being released in America, and this year in fact, is Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker on the Nintendo DS. The release is set for Q4 2007, which basically means this holiday season. Also on the DS is Final Fantasy XII Revenant Wings, which merely has a release of “this winter”. That could technically mean as far as January or February of 2008, so I wouldn’t dance around hoping for it to be a nice and shiny gift under the tree (or Menora, or that Kwanzaa candle thing, or what have you) this December. Not yet, at least.

For those of you that have not yet been jaded by Squenix, I’m sure this just made your day a bit brighter.

- Chris (Grohdinger)