Luke Plunkett

DSi European Release Date, Price Announced

Completing the day’s glut of Nintendo DSi launch announcements, it’s been announced that the new handheld will be out in Europe before the US, and will retail for £149.99. Customers in both the UK and continental Europe (for whom the press release we received did not reveal pricing) will be able to get their hands…

Let’s Get A Good Look At That Blue DSi

Perhaps the only mildly surprising thing about the American DSi launch information today was the fact the US will be getting the handheld in a new colour: blue. So let’s take a look at her. As you can see, yesterday’s box art reveal was right on the money, and as you can also see, it’s…

Gabe Newell’s DICE Keynote: Left 4 Dead Sales, TF2 Comic Books

Valve boss Gabe Newell just got done with his keynote address at this year’s Design Innovate Communicate Entertain conference in Vegas. It was great! Here are the highlights. – He says some great sutff about combating piracy. Really seems to hit the nail on the head when it comes to the PC market. He says…

DSi Launching In Australia Before The US

While the DSi will be released in the US on April 5, it’ll be released a few days earlier in Australia, on April 2. There a catch? Yup. It’s a bit more expensive. Nintendo Australia let us know this morning that, along with the early release date, the console will cost AUD$300, which in February…

EA Brings Motion Plus To Tiger Woods, Tennis

Think of the applications that will most benefit from Nintendo’s Motion Plus for the Wii. Lightsaber fights, that’s one. But golf? You, or at least your dad, will go bananas for it. So get ready for bananas, then, because EA just revealed (courtesy of an invitation email) that next year’s iteration of Tiger Woods on…

Red Xbox 360 Mentioned Officially By Microsoft

Whoops! In an official Halo Wars email sent to retailers and games press in New Zealand today, Microsoft make official mention of the rumoured red Xbox 360 Elite console. The email was to announce a deal whereby anyone buying a 360 console in NZ would, for a limited time, receive a free copy of Halo…

Guitar Hero, Now On Google Phone

Activision like to exploit franchises. Guitar Hero is probably their biggest. So when a new platform – the Google Phone – comes around, you can bet Activision will be exploiting Guitar Hero on it. Announced yesterday was an Android-ready version of Guitar Hero World Tour Mobile. It differs from the standard version of GHWTM by…

Yakuza 3 Demo Out On Feb 19

Ryu Ga Gotoku 3 looks great. Blue Sega skies, hostesses, fisticuffs and tanning salons? Yes. Please. Alas, a Western release may never happen, so this demo might be as close as you get. Perhaps to celebrate the game receiving a mighty 38/40 (9/10/9/10) in Japanese mag Famitsu, but probably just to drum up a little…

Braid Makes The Jump From 360 To PC Next Month

Braid – the indie darling of 2008 – did good business on the Xbox 360, a platform not exactly renowned for its indie darlings. So how will it fare next month when released on PC? The game will be released on Impulse, the digital download shopfront of Stardock, who in turn are the publishers of…

Guitar Hero: Metallica Misspells Band Name

Uh. Whoops. Somebody at Activision thought it would be a good idea to put all the game’s featured band names on the cover of Guitar Hero: Metallica. Nobody at Activision edited said list. So we’re left with a cover that features band names like, well, Metallica. Queen. Alice in Chains. Slayer. And Lynyrd Skynrd. Where’s…

New Ensemble Studio Working on New Game

When Robot Entertainment said “hello, world” last week, it seemed likely that, being made up of an Ensemble co-founder and a bunch of Ensemble staff, they’d be taking over Ensemble’s work. Now it’s definite. A press release issued by the company today has confirmed that Robot will be continuing work on Halo Wars, supporting Age…

If Only The Consoles Got Along This Well In Real Life

The console wars can be brutal. It’ll divide families, end friendships. But it doesn’t have to be that way. You don’t have to devote your every waking moment to loving/hating a piece of consumer electronics. You could instead take the view that these delightful little comics – sadly, uncredited – take. It’s all cool! Everyone’s…

PC Sales Charts

That time of the week already? Yes, it’s that time of the week already. Time for your weekly fill of what’s selling, and what’s not selling, in the PC games market. And what’s selling at the moment? Same. Old. Stuff. Sims & World of Warcraft on the NPD charts, Left 4 Dead on the Steam…

American DSi Box vs Japanese DSi Box

We’ve seen the box the DSi comes in. In Japan. But what kind of box will it come in when released in the US? This is the kind of box it will come in. Nintendo have begun shipping review/promo units out to magazines and websites, and the first such person to take pictures of the…

So Who’s Playing Each Console, And For How Long? [Update]

Nielsen, masters of the survey and the percentage point, have come up with a rough idea of how long you play each of the three consoles for. And by “you”, they mean “everybody”. So it’s not just the 18-35 year-old male that’s been surveyed. We’re talking kids, adults, the elderly, and across both genders to…

Sony Presents NBA Players With Custom PS3s

Sony helped outfit the NBA Player’s Lounge during the recent NBA All-Star weekend. As part of the whole affair, a bunch of NBA players were given custom, laser-etched PlayStation 3 consoles. Seems the economic crisis has hit Sony’s marketing budget, as these are nowhere near as impressive as those seen at earlier sporting tie-ins, like…

Lost & Damned Reverts Australian GTAIV Censorship

In 2008, Grand Theft Auto IV on console was released in Australia in a censored form. No blood pools, no sexy camera angles. In 2009, though? All is forgiven, all censorship, removed. How? Well, let’s just say that for all the complicated legal issues that make Australia’s classification laws more cumbersome than most Americans realise,…

Microsoft To Buy Motion-Sensing Company

Here we go again. Fresh off speculation Microsoft were working on a motion-sensing controller for current generation hardware, seems the company is now in talks to buy a firm specialising in motion-sensing tech. Israeli site Haaretz reports that the makers of the Xbox console are in talks to buy locally-based company 3DV for $35 million.…

British Sales Charts

You may be forgiven for thinking these are last week’s British sales charts reprinted for the sake of convenience. They are not. It’s just looks that way, what with the top five games barely moving. See for yourself. Same games, give or take a couple. The only breaths of fresh air to be found are…

Run A Nuclear War On Your Desktop…Literally

Introversion, developers behind nuclear war party game Defcon, are no strangers to monkeying around with game code. This, we know. So don’t be surprised to see them working on Defcon for your desktop. By desktop, we don’t mean your desktop PC. We mean – courtesy of the wonders of the webcam/custom specs – running literally…