Twilight ingress
Originally scheduled to reach Wii way back in June 2010, Enclave: Shadows of Twilight should hit the console on 22nd May.
Learn a trade
Video games celebration GameCity returns to Nottingham, UK this year on 20th October with a host of big names and ambitious initiatives. GameCity director Iain Simons, councillor Nick McDonald and Eidos life president Ian Livingstone OBE all took to the stage to explain their vision for this year's festival, which for the first time will run for seven days. With the UK games industry high on the agenda, the festival will host a week-long STEAM school to teach core skills in science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics, aiming to engage and inform anyone interested in developing games. The school will run in partnership with Crytek, TT Games, the Mozilla Foundation, the British Library and more, with teachers including Martin Hollis — director on GoldenEye 007 and WiiWare's Bonsai Barber — TT Games director Jonathan Smith, respected writer Kieron Gillon and Anna Marsh, former Tomb Raider executive designer and founder of new studio Lady Shotgun Games. The school is free and open to anyone. If school's not your thing there's plenty more on offer. Renowned developer Peter Molyneux will curate a day of events reflecting on his career and inspiring attendees, while Broadway Cinema will host a series of panel debates, Q&As, films and interactive events. There's also a celebration of the Commodore 64's 30 year anniversary, the return of the GameCityPrize and more details yet to be announced, all wrapped up in a charming Kirby's Epic Yarn-style aesthetic from Philippa Rice. If you're at all interested in the significance of video games, learning more about how they're made or exploring what they could become, mark 20th to 27th October in your calendar for GameCity 7. You can find more details at GameCity.org.
Nintendo will host its E3 press conference on Tuesday 5th June. It'll be our first look at Nintendo's Wii U games including Pikmin 3 and Super Mario Bros., plus new games for 3DS. It all kicks off at 9am Pacific Daylight Time, which we've handily converted into these time zones for you:
9am — PacificWe'll be bringing you live coverage as it happens so make sure you're glued to your internet-enabled devices on 5th June. That's in 34 days.
12 midday — Eastern
5pm — UK
6pm — Central European Time
2am Wednesday — Canberra, Australia
While Nintendo may have struggled to explain adequately the Wii U's unique charms at E3, the machine was created with one principle in mind: to do what Wii can't.
Back in One Piece
Nintendo-published games have returned to the shelves of UK retailers Game and Gamestation.
Mi casa es su casa
As we all expected, so far Nintendo's arguably made the best use of the 3DS's stereoscopic screen, but it's not all high and mighty about it — it wants to help third party developers get up to the same level.
Value perception is key
When retail games hit the 3DS eShop in August, they'll cost around the same as they do in stores, a practice many believe is counter-intuitive: without the costs of physical manufacturing and distribution, digital games sidestep many costs. But Nintendo president Satoru Iwata disagrees, claiming download games have a different value: having them with you at all times.
Has "several proposals"
The 3DS had a lacklustre line-up of games. You know it, we know it and Nintendo knows it. The real question is how the company will avoid a similar situation with Wii U when it launches later this year. Nintendo president Satoru Iwata told investors that it has plans in place but that it pledges to create "evergreen" titles to help the machine sell long after launch.
10GB? No problem
Wii U will launch with a digital store offering downloads of retail games, but with the Wii U disc holding up to 25GB you could probably learn a sport to an Olympic standard in the time it'll take to download Pikmin 3. Nintendo president Satoru Iwata knows this, so Wii U will let you download games overnight.
My name is James Newton, and this is my website - a collection of my writings about
videogames, music and all my other thoughts.
