Wii News

Harmonix, MTV and EA have announced today the official sequel to the hit game 'Rock Band'. Rock Band 2 will be coming for the Xbox 360 this September and on "other platforms" later in the year.

Rock Band players who have purchased DLC tracks for the game will be happy to know that Rock Band 2 will feature cross-title compatibility. That means anything you've purchased for Rock Band will immediately work for Rock Band 2.

No word on how many songs will be included on the disc, but with the inclusion of all the previously released DLC, the set list at launch may top 300 songs.

Alex Rigopulos, co-founder and CEO of Harmonix had this to say:  read more »

Treyarch has released the official name for the upcoming Call of Duty 5, along with the first details about the game. The game will be called 'Call of Duty: World at War' and the game will be set in the Pacific theater of World War II. It was also confirmed that the game will include a co-op mode for the campaign portion of the game, making it the first game in the series to do so. As for the online multiplayer portion, vehicles have been confirmed and there will now be squad-based elements.

The game will be coming out on PC, PS3, Xbox 360 and Wii. The Wii version will have a different team behind it. The game has also been re-confirmed to be running on the Call of Duty 4 engine.

Apparently Treyarch is going for a more "gritty" approach with the game. Here is a quote talking about the beginning of the game:  read more »

On the eve of Ninja Gaiden II's release, some sudden and unexpected news has been delivered concerning the game's creator, Tomonobu Itagaki. He sent out a letter earlier today announcing that he has officially split from Team Ninja and has sued Tecmo for damages. Apparently he was owed some money from Tecmo after the completion of Dead or Alive 4 and was not paid. He has also stated that the president of Tecmo, Yoshimi Yasuda, has made "unreasonable and disingenuous" statements towards him. Unfortunately for the fans, this means that there will be no more 'Ninja Gaiden' or 'Dead or Alive' games from Itagaki in the future. He supposedly already has plans for his next game which will feature all the violence of Ninja Gaiden. No specific details on what he'll be doing next though.  read more »

The latest issue of Game Informer magazine, reconfirmed that Guitar Hero 4 would indeed have other instruments to play, such as bass guitar drums and vocals. Well, a scan of the article has been posted online (courtest of power-glove at destructoid.com). Here is a picture of the drum set:  read more »

New Guitar Hero 4 details have arrived in the June edition of Game Informer magazine. First off, Guitar Hero 4 will be coming on the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii, and PS2. All versions are said to have the same features, although the Wii and PS2 versions will obviously be a bit toned down. It has also been restated that Guitar Hero 4 will indeed feature other instruments, such as drums, bass and vocals. You will be able to customize the sound of your instrument and create your own rocker.  read more »

EA's Peter Moore has just confirmed via his official EA blog that Brett Favre will be featured on the cover of the upcoming Madden NFL 09. This will be the first time a retired player will be on the cover of a Madden NFL game, and Peter Moore had this to say on the issue:

"It is with great pride that we take the bold step of featuring a retired player on the front of packaging, an honor normally reserved for a player at the peak of his game.

I say with great pride, because some may question the marketing strategy behind this (and many at EA did just that, quite frankly). I don't for one minute."

Check out the source link to read Moore's full post.

Source: EA

The Guitar Hero franchise has seen major success over the years, although gamers have all agreed it needs something new. Well, it has been confirmed that something new will indeed be coming. So, what could that 'something' be? Vocals and other instruments, apparently.

Activision's CEO Bobby Kotick had this to say:
"We'll include a lot of other instruments, vocals. It will help us expand internationally. It's the first game we've had in which we can use local content and local bands."  read more »

A new batch of screenshots for Star Wars: The Force Unleashed (Wii version) has just arrived. The biggest news here is that one of them is a shot of the character selection screen. Not too long ago, LucasArts revealed that Darth Vader would be playable in the game. Now it appears that Count Dooku, Darth Maul, Anakin Skywalker, Luke Skywalker, and many others are also in the game. One thing that seems a little odd is that Yoda (who was also confirmed to be in the game) is missing. That leads us to believe that he might be a hidden/unlockable character. If that's the case, he may not be the only one. Anyway, check out the screenshots:  read more »

Activision announced today that the latest Spiderman game, Spiderman: Web of Shadows, is official in the works from Shaba Games and Treyarch for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 2, PSP, Wii, DS and PC. Web of Shadows will apparently be a free-roaming, open-ended, action-adventure game set in New York. The game will combine traditional web slinging with customizable superpowers. The ground combat will work the same way as before, with the combo attacks, but the game will also put more of an emphasis on vertical combat, which means fighting bad guys while in the air. The one thing that sets this game apart from the previous games, is that you will now be able to choose how you want to play. You can be the friendly neighborhood Spiderman, or you can succumb to the dark side and ignore the missions.  read more »

A few days ago Lucas Arts stated that they would be announcing something special regarding Star Wars: The Force Unleashed. Today they have confirmed that Darth Vader will be a playable character in the upcoming game.

Unfortunately, there's a catch. Because Vader is so powerful, he will only be playable during the first level. After the first level, the game will shift over to his "secret apprentice" who you will then play as for the remainder of the game.

Even if it's only for a short period of time, I'm sure playing as Vader will still be pretty awesome.

Source: onAXIS