Disney
puts together the
Ultimate Band
Disney
Interactive Studios announce a new music rhythm game for Wii and
Nintendo DS today, called
Ultimate Band
.
Designed not only for a teen-and-up audience, but for younger gamers
as well,
Ultimate Band
gives players a chance to play solo or jam with friends, slightly
similar to popular music rhythm games like
Guitar Hero
and
Rock Band
, without
requiring them to take a hit to their bank accounts for specialized
accessory controllers. The only controllers players will need for the
game are the Wii Remote and Nunchuck or the Nintendo DS stylus,
depending on which version they are playing of course.
Disney
teamed up with London-based music consultants, Radial Music, to help
pick out the track list for the game.
Ultimate
Band
's
track list will consist of a mix of music from a number of genres
including roc
k,
alternative, pop, emo and indie, some of which will include current
hits and all-time favourites.
"Radial
worked closely with Disney to compile the perfect song list for
Ultimate Band," said David Hill of Radial Music. “With iconic
songs from every decade since the 60s, these games feature music for
everyone." And who knows? Considering the money and influence
Disney has, maybe we'll actually see music from bands like The
Beatles appearing in a music rhythm game some
time in the near future. Who are we kidding?
Ultimate
Band
is
currently slated to released this holiday season for Wii and Nintendo
DS. Disney is expecting the game will receive an E10+ rating from the
ESRB.
News
we missed
Whether
it was game releases, release date announcements, new console model
announcements or other regular video game news, we missed quite a bit
of it all this week, thanks to some unfortunate mishaps that happened
earlier in the week. In order to bring things back up to speed, we
bring you, in shorter format, the news we missed!
FIWC
The
FIFA Interactive World Cup 2008 is hitting Los Angeles this Saturday,
March 1
st
.
This will be the only live qualifying event of the FIWC, and it will
be held from 2:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. at the GameStop at
1000
Universal Studios Blvd., Universal City
,
CA.
FIWC
will showcase 128
of
the best interactive soccer players in North America competing for
one of 32 berths in the FIWC Grand Final on May 24 in Berlin.
Up
to 50 competitors can pre-register for the event by logging on to
www.easports.com/fifa08/fiwc.jsp
while the remaining 78 spots will be filled on a first-come,
first-served basis on the day of the event.
That, of course, is based on eligibility restrictions. For more
information, go to http://fifa08.ea.com/us.
New
80GB PS3 coming this summer
Sony
Computer Entertainment America (SCEA) announced yesterday that it
will be releasing a new 80GB Playstation 3 bundle in late Quarter 2
of this year. The bundle will include a new 80GB Playstation 3, the
upcoming
Metal
Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
and the new DualShock 3 wireless controller. Sony also announced that
the DualShock 3 wireless controller will become available in North
America in April. The new 80GB Playstation 3 will cost $499 USD and
CAD, while the DualShock 3 wireless controller will cost $54.99 USD
and CAD.
Limited
Edition
God
of War
PSP Entertainment Pack
SCEA
also announced a specially designed
God
of War
PSP Entertainment Pack this week. The special bundle will include a
new “Deep Red” PSP with a Kratos silkscreen on the back, the
upcoming
God
of War: Chains of Olympus
game, a copy of
Superbad
on
UMD, plus a Playstation Network voucher to download
Syhphon
Filter: Combat Ops
from the Playstation Store at no charge. This new PSP Entertainment
Pack will be releasing in June and will cost $199.99 USD and CAD.
Mass
Effect
for PC dated
Electronic
Arts has officially announced the release date for the PC version of
Mass
Effect
.
The game will be releasing in North America on May 6
th
.
The PC version will include the following features:
·
New squad control interface –
Players
can now issue commands to individual squad members, providing a new
level of depth to the tactical combat.
·
Hot-key functionality –
Biotic
powers and abilities can be mapped to individual keys, allowing a
faster “run and gun” style of gameplay.
·
Re-designed Mako controls –
Players
can explore alien planets and engage in vehicular combat with an
intuitive and fully camera independent control system for the Mako,
their all-terrain vehicle.
·
Quick-save –
New
quick-save button and increased number of save slots.
·
New decryption mini-game –
A
new decryption mini-game invites players to test their skills as they
avoid obstacles and move their icon to the center of the digital
mechanism.
·
New inventory screen GUI and functionality –
The
enhanced inventory system makes it easier for players to equip and
modify their weapons and armor.
Patapon
available for PSP
SCEA's
new cartoon, music rhythm/combat game is now available for PSP. The
game is quite a value, priced at only $19.99 USD and CAD. In
Patapon
,
players use various combinations of drumbeats to command their little
cartoon army to march, attack, retreat, charge defend and even use
magic.