Sorry about the hiatus in updates guys. I’ve had what I can only assume is flu this week and have been coughing, sneezing, headaching and occasionally hallucinating like a git. It’s largely gone now, but the leftover headaches are still putting a damper on me. As such I’ve not felt very motivated to get through my RSS feeds and update my blog — sorry! One thing I’ll post about to get back on track though is an absolutely superb fan-made trailer for Zelda: Twilight Princess, which amounts to a whopping seven minutes of footage and is accompanied by some random movie soundtrack-like music. It does the job though!

Although the video was evidently posted in June and features quite a bit of old footage, which is in turn from the GameCube version and hasn’t enjoyed the Wii enhancements, it manages to show off a massive variety of gameplay and locations in the game that’ve been carefully chosen from the spoiler-filled demonstrations and such that most of us have avoided thus far to produce a spoiler-free but highly impressive video. The huge contrast in locales is as abundant as ever, and it certainly looks like a world that’ll be an absolute joy to explore as Ocarina of Time and Wind Waker were. Minus the sailing in Wind Waker, anyway.

This video has really added to the general feeling of excitement I have about Twilight Princess. Not only does it look visually superb even in the outdated footage, but the game just looks massively fun. It’s very reminiscent of Ocarina of Time, yet takes that world so much further and makes it all look richer. Backed up with what we now know is at least 70 hours of gameplay and a larger game world than both Ocarina of Time and Wind Waker, the possibility of this being the best Zelda yet and consequently one of the best games ever remains very real. December really can’t come soon enough.

Although DEFCON hasn’t been on the radar for a particularly large amount of people, those who keep an eye on Introversion (also responsible for Uplink and Darwinia) have probably been quietly anticipating it. I’m one of them, and having just tried out the demo I am fairly impressed by how well they’ve managed to convey the atmosphere of carrying out a nuclear war.

The essence of the game is simple: you’re somebody high up the food chain sat deep within a bunker in your country of choice, and using an elaborate map (as you’ve seen in films) you watch global war unfold before you. What exactly’s happening is left to your imagination; whatever the case, some kind of war is happening down there and you’re the person who must coldly protect your nation from the biggest threat of all, while also deciding when and where to fire your own. All actions have consequences, and when we’re talking about nuclear ICBMs you can’t expect a country you just devastated to have much mercy when retaliating. It’s tense, and as the official site says: nobody wins, but maybe you can lose the least.

While DEFCON is a real-time strategy game and that may immediately turn a lot of you off, I wholeheartedly recommend trying it out simply to experience the atmosphere. If there’s one thing this game does well, it’s atmosphere. Everything from the stylish visuals (which look great ingame, though screenshots and videos seem incapable of conveying it) to the deeply moody music adds to the feeling. And then when one of your missiles hits a city, a white flash and a deep rumble lets you know and a matter-of-fact statistic such as “New York: 3.2m dead” pops up. It’s a dark feeling, and you don’t know whether to be proud or guilty of your destruction. If nothing else, it gives an appreciation of how devastating but impersonal nuclear war could be.

For a quick preview of the gameplay in action, this YouTube video is a rather good example. Also of note is the official trailer, although it fails to capture the sheer atmosphere and mood of the game. If you’re as intrigued as you should be, pick up the demo. You can also download the demo via Steam, and the game is just £10 to buy. If you’d like more detailed information about the accessible but deep mechanics of the game, head over to Wikipedia’s article.

Wow, I wasn’t expecting this at all. I mean there was a rumour ages ago that a Banjo game might be on the Xbox 360 horizon in some magazine article listing future titles, but I didn’t really have that much faith in it coming to fruition any time soon. After all, Rare’s been very busy with other projects on said console, the most predominant of which being Viva Pinata. But no, it looks like Banjo-Kazooie 3 really is coming and isn’t too far away. Although just a teaser, there’s now a one-minute trailer available that shows off the new style of the lovable bear and bird, plus a very short glimpse of one of the levels: the overworld from the first game, complete with Gruntilda’s Lair on the cliffside.

Although the visuals look terrific in typical Rare fashion (presumably they will look very similar on to this trailer ingame, if not the same), I have to say that I’m not too keen on the new style of Banjo’s face. While I’m sure it’s barely noticable in actual gameplay since you’re zoomed out quite significantly for the majority of the time, it looks like they’ve tried to lower the cutesy value; since Banjo-Kazooie had a distinctive, weird sense of humour to contrast with the cutesy look I’m not sure it’s necessary.

Still, it’s presumably quite a way off and the fact that another sequel to one of my favourite 3D platformers of all time is coming along is good news in my book. I just sincerely hope that Rare has managed to sort themselves out and come up with the goods this time, a hope that I’m also keeping alive for Viva Pinata. I’m sure there’s nobody who doesn’t want Rare to recapture their earlier magic and consistently deliver stunning games.

You can watch the trailer on YouTube where it’s scaled down and lowered in quality, or alternatively try to download the 640×480 original (11mb) from Everdred.

Update: You can now grab a high-definition version of the trailer (direct link). Having been following forum comments and such, the general consensus seems to be that while Banjo’s new look is overall fairly good, it’s the eyes that totally throw it all off; I’ve seen people do some quick image edits where they put his old cover art eyes onto the new body and it looks pretty damn fine. I just hope Rare realises this before they get too far into development.

To celebrate it being ten years (Jeeze!) since the release of the Nintendo 64, 1up has decided to post a five-page article that looks at the rich history of the machine, ranging from its original aspirations to the disaster that was the hyped but generally absent 64DD. If you’re a fan of Nintendo and owned a Nintendo 64, you’ll definitely want to give this feature a read.

It gives some insight into various aspects of the console’s achievements and failures, and is generally really nice to read considering a lot of us were in our gaming prime once the Nintendo 64 kicked into action. I wasn’t actually aware the console only launched with two titles, though I’m not sure if that was the case in Europe. There’s also a bunch of other tidbits in there that I’m sure you didn’t already know.

I’d also like to remind you all that Zelda: Ocarina of Time is one freaking hard game. My sister’s currently playing through it alongside Wind Waker, and it’s just a complete sod. I’m not sure if it’s as generally infuriating to play as the stealth fortress section towards the beginning of Wind Waker, but it’s certainly up there once you reach the adult Link dungeons. I advise not going back to the game if you feel tempted, and instead make do with your happy memories of it. Going back to it will ruin them.

In a move that I think is really positive for the game, Valve has decided to make the prices for weapons in Counter-Strike: Source be determined by how much people buy them. For the uninitiated, Counter-Strike: Source is a terrorists and counter-terrorists game where one team is pitted against the other; the terrorists typically have to blow up something, and the counter-terrorists must stop them. The more each player kills and/or achieves this objective, the more money he gets to spend on juicier weapons.

“The cost of weapons and equipment that you purchase in Counter-Strike: Source are now based on an algorithm that calculates the global market demand for various weapons. As more people purchase a certain weapon, the price will rise and other weapons will become less expensive.”

Since Counter-Strike’s birth around the beginning of the millennium, the prices of the weapons have basically been decided by the game’s developers based upon a variety of things such as power, effectiveness at certain ranges, etc. However, just like with any balancing system it can be a pain to get right. Certain weapons end up used all the time because they’re the best trade-off between price and effectiveness, and often a lot of weapons are simply discarded. The new system will be much smarter in my opinion, even if purist fans of the game who’ve religiously played for the past several years are unsurprisingly taking offense at the change.

I really like this idea because it adds a kind of massively multiplayer angle to the game. It’s not quite as in-your-face as Battlefield 2’s system of allowing players who earn a certain amount of medals/points/kills to use more powerful weapons than those available to most players, but it still adds a sense of continuity to the thousands of Counter-Strike: Source servers out there. It’s also adds another touch of realism.

All in all, good move, Valve. There was once a time when fairly dramatic changes to the Counter-Strike formula were made often, but those days largely came to an end once Counter-Strike: Source hit the streets, save for extra maps. It’s good to see things moving again, what with this new change due to go live on October 11th and the recent revamp of the radar system. I just hope those who’ve grown used to a couple of years of staling don’t have a heart attack.

Although it’s not live yet as mentioned in the previous paragraph, you can browse the Counter-Strike Weapons Market right now. Soon to be a very popular page with Counter-Strike: Source players I’m sure! It’ll be very interesting to see how this system performs in a live setting though, and even more interesting will be seeing the ways that players try to game the system and make delicious weapons a lot cheaper than they really ought to be — and how Valve try to prevent it!

I found something really weird out today, and I can’t actually work out whether it’s something that matters or not. While I heard a while ago that the Wii version of Zelda: Twilight Princess (see my older posts about Zelda: Twilight Princess) would deviate from the Zelda tradition of Link being left-handed as it’d be strange to use the Wiimote with your right hand and your character to use his left, I didn’t think much of it. I just assumed the character animations would be flipped to compensate.

But according to a Wii Source Online post, it’s not just Link who is reversed. No, the entire game is mirrored, meaning that if you were to put two televisions next to each other with the GameCube version on one and the Wii version on the other, it’d look like one was a mirror of the other.

Now, assuming that Nintendo is smart enough to not have mirrored text and whatnot (simply a matter of flipping the textures in Photoshop I’d imagine), does this really matter? Or assuming you get it for the Wii, will the knowledge of knowing that you’re playing it backwards from how it was originally designed detract from your enjoyment of the game? I don’t think I really care, but it’s a weird thing to be aware of.

As a side note, I read earlier this week that the Wii version of Zelda: Twilight Princess has been graphically updated for the Wii. It looks like the majority of this involves stuff like blooming and various other general changes (ie: stuff that doesn’t require them to redo every model and texture) so it’s not going to be pushing the Wii to its absolute limits, but at least it’s some more incentive to get the Wii version, alongside the more engaging controls and earlier release date. If that floats your boat, anyway.

In a move that I’m sure many will find useful, IGN has put together a six-page article that takes most of the information known about the Wii as of now and produces an easy-to-read shower of information. Decorated with fancy pictures of the Wii(mote) and various other nonsense, I can see it being a good resource for people to share with friends when explaining the Wii and whatnot.

There’re also a few facts buried in there that while I’m sure have been public knowledge for weeks, I simply didn’t pick up. After all, even the best of them can’t be aware of everything, so I certainly can’t. An example of something I missed includes the fact that even if you lack a wireless network in your home, you can still plug in an old-fashioned USB adapter to connect a normal broadband modem or whatever.

Another interesting tidbit is that the inbuilt speaker is very low quality, which while I was kind of expecting I didn’t know for a fact. I’m hoping that Nintendo will provide a way to completely disable the speaker and route the sound through your normal speakers instead, since not only would the Wii speaker sound pretty out of place when alongside an extremely expensive sound system, but it might be annoying for those who want to play at night using headphones as I sometimes do.

Also of note is that the classic controller (basically a SNES pad, but with a few more buttons that bring it to at least the same number as the GameCube) also connects wirelessly, but it plugs into the bottom of the Wiimote as a replacement for the Nunchuck. I’d have preferred it if it were a completely standalone wireless controller, but I guess it’s still better than having the wire going across the room for people to trip over as they frequently do in this household.

One thing I’m not absolutely sure of is the implication that the channels (see my post on those) the Wii ships with might only be the beginning. The article quite plainly states that the Wii can hold up to 48 channels, but whether or not they can be filled up with customisable versions of existing channels (ie: one for each user of the console) I’m not sure. Perhaps Nintendo is planning to introduce other channels over time? It’d certainly tie in well with their “frequently wake up to a new surprise” statements anyway. I mean, the damned thing only ships with about seven channels. That’s a lot less than 48.

And finally, there’s confirmation that the Wii is roughly twice as powerful as the GameCube. While anyone who’s actually played on a GameCube can establish this fact immediately after looking at Wii videos, and even though rumours going back well over a year put the performance increase at around 250%, it hasn’t stopped people describing the Wii as a repackaged GameCube with a fancy new controller. Erk.

So yes, it’s a good article. Give it a read.