I’ve never really been into Gran Turismo, I don’t know why. Many of my friends got hooked to it all the way back when it first came out, though, so I am sure there is something to it. Ha ha, GT fans, don’t hate me. Each to his own, right?

Anyhow, despite my not playing GT all that much, I found this interesting piece of news regarding the new official wheel for Gran Turismo. Manufactured by Logitech, Driving ForceTM GT promises the ultimate experience with Gran Turismo 5. Here are some of its features:

Control
• 24-position realtime adjustment dial: Fine-tune brake bias, TCS, and damper settings on the fly for unprecedented control over your car’s performance.
• 900-degree wheel rotation: Go 2.5 times around lock to lock, just as you would behind the wheel of many real cars.
• Force feedback technology: Feel every inch of the road for maximum control and the ultimate racing experience.
• Gas and brake pedals: Get precise throttle and brake response with true-to-life pedals.
• Sequential stick shift: Go through the gears for the ultimate in control.

Comfort
• Rubber-overmold rim: Enjoy a comfortable grip during intense races.
• Solid, one-piece wheel construction: Drive with confidence knowing this rigid, sturdy wheel won’t squeak or flex during aggressive maneuvers.

Performance
• Custom tuned for popular games: See and feel every bit of wheel movement reflected in-game, without dead zones or lag.
• Ultra-precise optical encoding: Experience reliable and accurate handling race after race after race.

That’s straight from the Logitech site. Even other bloggers have taken note of this toy – people at PS3Vault can’t wait to get their hands on this baby – despite the cost.

The Game Developers Convention was recently concluded and the awards are out. Nintendo enthusiasts will be happy to know that Nintendo got the Developers Choice Award. This is an excerpt from GoNintendo.com:

The 2008 Game Developers Conference has honored Nintendo with a Game Developers Choice Award. The Legend of Zelda®: Phantom Hourglass for Nintendo DS™ won for Best Handheld Game of the Year. The game continues to enjoy strong momentum in the U.S., with more than 1.1 million copies sold since its Oct. 1, 2007, release.

Nintendo received nominations in three categories: Best Game of the Year (Super Mario Galaxy™), Best Handheld Game of the Year (The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass), and Best Game Design (Super Mario Galaxy). The awards were presented during an annual ceremony the night of Feb. 20, 2008, at the Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco. The awards are among the highest honors in game development, acknowledging excellence in game creation.

Obviously, Nintendo is not on its way out in the gaming scene. Based on the events that went on in the Game Developers Convention, it is quite the opposite. Nintendo fans must be jumping in their seats right now. To be honest, though, this did not really come as a surprise. After all, Nintendo has always proven to be reliable when it comes to satisfying its customers. Just look back into your childhood and the chances are that you will remember – with a certain degree of wistfulness – a Nintendo game or two.

I still remember when people were bashing Sony for promoting the Blu-ray format, especially together with the PS3. Experts were claiming that this only resulted in the hiking up of the PS3 selling price. While this could very well be true, it seems that the other premises about the Blu-ray not catching on are just about to say goodbye.

Of course, Blu-ray was pitted against Toshiba’s HD DVD, which was supposed to be just as good but available at a far cheaper price. So what has become of the HD DVD? The battle for the “next generation format” has come to an end with the formal announcement from Toshiba that they will stop manufacturing HD DVD players and discs. According to Atsutoshi Nishida, president and chief executive officer of Toshiba, “We carefully assessed the long-term impact of continuing the so-called ‘next-generation format war’, and concluded that a swift decision will best help the market develop.”

It seems like a selfless deed, doesn’t it? However, I wonder how much impact other factors made on the decision. For example, Warner Bros. decided to back the Blu-ray. A couple of weeks ago, I saw an announcement saying that an online store would start phasing out HD DVDs and focus on Blu-ray only. I would say that the whole market seemed to lean towards Blu-ray, precipitating the decision of the other camp. PS3 enthusiasts are rejoicing as I write, I am sure. As for those who have already shelled money out for HD DVD, I feel sorry for them.

Gamers who are into sci-fi have been looking forward to the release of Turok – and why not? This game promises to present the best of both worlds. If you have not bought your copy yet, here is the dish – according to various sources all over the Web – to help you decide whether or not you should go ahead and shell out some dough for this game.

Turok has versions for both the Xbox360 and the PS3, so if you have either of these two gaming consoles, the option of purchasing Turok for your system is open. However, what I have been reading up on Turok does not seem to be so good. Ever reliable Gamespot gave it a rating of 7 over 10 – that does not bode good news at all.

They do highlight some good points such as battling with dinosaurs (fun, fun, fun!), a great voice cast, and getting to kill a T-rex with a knife (yeah, we all have had that fantasy). However, the bad points are a bit weighty:

• Set-piece battles go on for far too long
• Few checkpoint saves add to frustration
• Human opponents aren’t dinosaurs.

It seems that Gamespot is not the only one who is showing disappointment in the game. Take Tom Orry’s review in Videogamer, for example. He gave the game a sad 5 out of 10. He even called Turok an “aging franchise”!

I am sorry to say that Turok may not be the game that you want to buy next. Then again, you may want to find out for yourself – and why not, if you have the extra cash to spare?

Tags: first person shooter, New Games, PS3, sci-fi, xbox360

Wii enthusiasts, here is something for you. The hit series Super Smash Bros Brawl is coming to the Wii! It is one of the world’s most popular franchises due to the simple fact that characters from the whole Nintendo world are incorporated into the game. Imagine playing Sonic and Pikachu against each other. Or maybe Zelda and Mario.

Yahoo gives us all the reasons anyone would want this game for himself:

1. Actually, there are over 40 reasons you want it
Link. Zelda. Snake. Mario. Samus. Sonic. Pikachu. Bowser. Kirby. Peach. Wario. Smash Bros. Brawl features a huge list of characters from classic Nintendo games — and for the first time, favorites from non-Nintendo hits like Sonic the Hedgehog and Metal Gear join the party. Each comes with special attacks, props, sound effects and signature moves. Snake has even brought along his all-important cardboard box: no Special Forces agent leaves home without it.

2. Smash yourself
Smash Bros. games usually opt for multiplayer madness over single-player content. Not so with Brawl, which includes a solo Adventure Mode called “Subspace Emissary.” Written by a designer culled from the Final Fantasy games, it’s the perfect way to hone your skills before humiliating your friends, and if you get too lonely, you can even team up with a friend to take on the evil Subspace Army cooperatively.

3. Play with the world
That’s not to say that Brawl doesn’t have plenty of multiplayer content. In fact, it has more than any other Super Smash Bros. game to date. Not only can you enjoy four-player matches on one console you can also use the Wii’s wireless networking to take on players from your Wii friends list or the world at large. You can even capture replay footage of your victories and mail it to your rivals in the ultimate of trash-talking hijinks.

Oh, there’s more – just visit Yahoo’s feature on this and read to your heart’s content. After that, order your own copy.

Tags: New Games, Nintendo, Wii

You probably know by now that I am a big fan of the GOW franchise. Well, here is the moment that many of us have been waiting for – the GOW for PSP is coming out! In gaming lingo, when developers announce a game has gone gold, it means that the development is complete and that it will be ready to launch pretty soon. For God of War: Chains of Olympus, the PSP version of the popular game franchise, we could expect it to hit the stores early next month – that is, at least in the United States.

So what is notable about Chains of Olympus? Here’s Wikipedia’s take on this:

At a God of War II launch event on March 13, 2007, God of War II director Cory Barlog indicated that the PSP God of War game would be a spin-off, side story, or prequel of the main God of War video game series: “It is its own story that connects to the overall story. God of War, God of War II, and then if all the stars align God of War III will be the telling of a trilogy. This PSP story will be a further fleshing out.”

The Island of Rhodes website revealed that God of War: Chains of Olympus is a prequel to the God of War series. It chronicles the various adventures of Kratos throughout the ten years he spent in servitude of the Gods (hence the game’s name which implies a bond between the series’ protagonist and the deities of Olympus) preceding the events of God of War.

The Official UK Playstation site reveals that, “Kratos will journey to lands that no mortal has ever walked upon. With the world plunged in eternal darkness and the gods rendered powerless, Kratos will face the most feared creatures of Greek mythology, and ultimately be forced to choose between his own personal redemption and saving the ancient world from certain destruction.”

No matter what, we are going to find out what is in store for GOW fans in the coming weeks.

Tags: games, God of War, PSP, sony

It seems to be the year of leaving big production studios – not too long ago, we heard of Cory Barlog’s leaving Sony, in effect leaving many questions about God of War III. Now, the lead producer of Madden, David Ortiz, has left EA Tiburon. Ring a bell? Well, EA Tiburon is merely the arm of EA which develops and produces the football games.

What was his reason for leaving? The official version is that he left due to family reasons. Personal reasons are always undisclosed – something to cover another issue, perhaps? Well, I am not one to speculate but 1UP says that they have sources claiming that David Ortiz had become frustrated with the “inner workings of the studio.” I am sure that’s what’s going on in the minds of many people as well.

So what are the implications of this incident? There is no doubt about it, there will be some changes with the upcoming football games that EA Tiburon will be releasing. This is what the studio has to say:

As for the remaining team, it will be Phil Frazier who will be taking the lead now. For your information, he was involved in the earlier days when football games were developed for the PS2 – he, in fact, is attributed with the success of the franchise. He was also recently involved in the development of the NFL Tours.

A lot of fans have been waiting for Devil May Cry 4 and early this month, their long wait ended. So what’s the buzz about the new game? A lot of PS3 enthusiasts have been complaining about the hard drive feature which, unfortunately, turns out NOT to be optional. Here’s what The Sixth Axis has to say about this:

1. The hard drive feature is not optional. Most of us knew this already, but I’ll just restate it just in case you already heard.

2. Upon booting the game, it takes 20 minutes to install 5gb of data to your PS3′s hard drive. Don’t fret though! There’ll be a history of Devil May Cry playing whilst it’s installing, and if you don’t want to watch this, just go and do something else (though not on the PS3, it’s out of action until it’s done). Grab a coke, get a sandwich, complain on forums via PC, whatever. It’s only 20 minutes, it’s not a problem (unless you’re really impatient).

3. There are mixed stories on the decrease in loading times the install is supposed to do. Capcom say that it’ll result in ‘near Super Nintendo’ loading times. All the accounts I’ve seen say that there is only a second or so difference between the hard drive-using PS3 and the DVD streaming Xbox 360 versions.

So which one is better – the PS3 version or the Xbox360 version? Though there are a lot of reactions on the Internet, I guess it is too early to tell as of yet.

If there is one thing that I cannot ever think of associating with the PS3, it would be the idea of budget games. There is no doubt that the PS3 is the best gaming console for the hard core gamer (I know, there will be a lot of arguments against this from fans of the Xbox 360 and the Wii), but the fact is that it does not exactly fit the budget range of gadgets. If you remember, when the PS3 first came out, one of the biggest concerns of consumers was the price. Despite the price cuts on the console, it still comes at a considerable price.

Anyhow, at a surprising turn of things, Sony has recently announced that they will be releasing – of all things – a budget game line for the PS3. This line is meant to be released next month, the 19th of March to be specific and is going to be called “PlayStation 3 The Best.”

So what can we expect from this budget line? Simple – big titles at much lower prices. To give you a sneak peek into the titles:

Resistance
FolksSoul
Ninja Gaiden Sigma
Gundam: Target in Sight
Ridge Racer 7

How much is this going to cost? 3,800 yen – about USD36. Pretty good, huh? The thing is, the line is being released in Japan only. Well, at least that’s the official word. I am sure that sometime in the future, similar versions will be released in the US and Europe.