The launch of Nintendo’s fifth iteration of Nintendo DS consoles, 3DS, promises 3D viewing without glasses as the future of Nintendo, says one analyst via the Associated Press.

What reports are calling the “worst” and the “rocked by,” Nintendo’s recent profit plunge scrolled across major news wires and television tickers with great prominence yesterday.

Nintendo, which does not break down quarterly numbers, said annual sales slipped 22 percent. Nintendo expects relative tough times to continue. They expect a sales drop through March of 2011.

At that point, analysts all around find the promise of the announced Nintendo 3DS to be a game changer.

Nintendo, confident as always; suspects 3D gaming without the necessity of glasses, and the backward compatibility with the current DS/DSi software, to be their silver lining of 2011.

Nintendo admits the rebound, this time, will be slower than usual. A fall of roughly 2.5 percent through the initial sales period of the new hand-held is expected.

As usual, Nintendo dismissed the idea that this major upgrade in hand-held play has any competition from the iPad. Nintendo is confident and proven in handling the game business, no matter new Apple fads. The 3DS could very well eat into PSP Go sales, yet Sony remains unmoved.

The launch of the 3DS “could largely determine for many investors whether Nintendo just got lucky in the last cycle or really has turned itself into a much more profitable company.”

Via the Associated Press

• Format: PSN (version reviewed), Xbox 360, PC
• Unleashed: Out Now
• Publisher: TimeGate Studios (PSN), SouthPeak (Xbox 360/PC)
• Developer: TimeGate Studios
  
• Players: 1-32
  
• Site: http://www.joinsection8.com/

Section 8 is a first-person shooter that defies gravity. More precisely, it’s an orbital-drop warfare based videogame. You’ll be floating and shooting a lot, at the same time. Strategy will play a role in where you dock for attack or safety. It sounds relatively easy; but it’s really not. The question before us is: is it all worth it, amidst dreary graphics and imprecise controls? Sometimes there are diamonds in the rough.

While the intro drop into enemy territory befits most similar fare, landing finds us losing lustre. The mechanics of Section 8 are simple – up down, left right, shoot. Perhaps too simple. But let’s talk strategy; on land, you want to change to third person view for more precise gameplay. Switching between first and third person will play into how you approach the terrain and surrounding characters. Strategy is really window-dressing in this game, and amounts to little more than moving to the left or right on screen, instead of something constructive. The game cheats itself with phooey combat and overall dullness.

Section 8 is full of action though, and should please most audiences; to a degree. It will however breed a subtle resentment and a desire for a similarly built, better game. Section 8 has an authority and a cadence worthy of better of things. This game has now appeared on all thre HD gaming formats, and garnered mediocre reviews all around. Potential is often not enough. So Section 8 is endowed with impressive concept, but is a muddled and tedious offering.

Single player mode is a bit of a bore, with bad enemy AI and brevity. Multiplayer is what this game is really made for, and in that respect it nearly mimics an MMO. Really, it’s a battlefield for space mayhem. In multiplayer mode, you’ll find a surprising opportunity to wreak havoc in a big way. As you play, you won’t know what hit you. Enemies can fall from the sky onto your head, and you can do the same to others; generally speaking, you must be in airspace to escape such manoeuvres. Even on land, the inability to know the number of enemies on the go, or where they’re coming from, makes for a jolly good time that adds a fright factor. Where’s the next attacker coming from? There is a frenetic energy about it all. Returning to ground from a rocket-pack boost while shooting your brains out, surrounded by your comrades, is the only place this game is a gem.

Excluding a few agreeable shudders, the game passes through a slow, plodding pace right off the bat. The ‘thrill’ of battle is laborious but functions with a degree of effectiveness, making the player pleasantly bothered. A grand idea for a Sci-Fi first person shooter is almost sunk by drab graphics and rough controls. Nonetheless, as the body count mounts up, Section 8 provides a (mildly) thrilling experience.

3/5

UK Game Company, Enter The Story, is seeking candidate photos to become character renders in a Spring 2010 online PC adventure title, after Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities. The company wants “ordinary” people to become immortal characters like Sydney Carton and Lucie Manaette.

The contest closes March 7^th and there is no fee to enter. Although, the agreement spells out in bold:

“There is no money. You don’t even get a free game. Sorry!”

Enter The Story Contest

Sony is hailing it as a “Naughty or Nice?” release of discounted streaming cinema for Valentines’ Day, but spending Valentines’ Day alone would be less painful.

Expect the box of chocolates to come out in sheer desperation as these stinkers come in at 5.99 GBP a piece (available on PSP too). They’re worth listing in their badness:

Cruel Intentions 1, 2 and 3 (…glad they included the third one)

Fatal Attraction (…cheery)

My Bloody Valentine (…yum)

When Harry Met Sally (…the cheery Fatal Attraction)

Indecent Proposal (…again, Sony’s idea of Valentines’ Day?)

The Ladies Man (…as if the T.V. character wasn’t tedious enough)

Vanilla Sky (…just creepy)

School of Seduction (…a nearly artful intro to the ‘seductive arts’)

…AND MY PERSONAL FAVUORITES FOR THAT SPECIAL VALENTINES’ TREAT…

Species II

Species IV: The Awakening

I suppose Part I and III weren’t romantic enough.

An Australian 20-something computer pro, or nerd, has agreed to pay Nintendo $1.3 million for illegally uploading New Super Mario Bros. to the web on November 6, 2009. The sloppy hacker surely had no chance against Nintendo’s attorneys and his case at face value is sceptical.

Hacker James Burt, aged 24, bought the popular game ahead of its global release when a shop sold it to him by mistake. Nintendo estimates they lost thousands of sales because of Hacker Burt’s antics.

Nintendo remained firm and threatening: “Nintendo will pursue those who attempt to jeopardize our industry by using all means available under the law.”

Our Hacker buddy Burt had one last treat in his massive debt. He was also ordered to pay Nintendo’s legal bills.

The GAME British Academy Videogames Awards are creeping up, just over a month, and now you get to decide GAME of the year!

From a list chosen by GAME BAFTA, anyone can vote from this selection. The games include: Beatles Rock Band, FIFA 10, Assassins Creed 2 and the hugely popular Modern Warfare 2. Before we take bets, go on over to BAFTA GAME award and make your vote matter.

My money is on Modern Warfare 2, it is the easy bet. I will vote for FIFA 10, not to throw my politics in your face. I think most will nod with approval, but then vote for Modern Warfare 2.

Last year’s winner was Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare raking in 60,000 votes.

The videogame market is returning to what loyal customers expect; follow-ups to their favourite games. A long list is slated for 2010, and if Mass Effect 2′s two-million in a week performance is any indication; the situation may stay “recession proof.”

“What the industry has learned here is that you are going to make money off your best customers,” said analyst Doug Creutz.

The next few months are crucial, as publishers have staked claim on their core, most loyal customers to shell out lots of cash over the next few months with such follow-ups as: BioShock 2, God of War III, Final Fantasy XIII and Battlefield Bad Company 2.

Publishers are going with “what works” on the back of a decline in casual games, surmised analyst Todd Greenwald.

NPD reports videogame hardware and software sales year-to-year down 8 percent and Holiday sales sliding 7 percent Stateside. This reverberated through the market, all four major stand-alone game publishers underperformed in the NASDAQ in 2009.

Via MarketWatch news

Is Sony finally squirming out of the RED? Sony’s profit pronouncements echo Sony’s presentation at last year’s E3. We are on top of it; restructuring, lower product prices and profits. We might have hit hard times, our position is tenuous; but we’ll always be on top, Sony would say.

It seems as much is true, and that Sony has declared war on the recession with a big win. They’ve cut losses by half, 30 billion yen.

Sony has posted profits for the first time in 5 quarters; remarkable feat in this economy. The posted operating profit came in at 146.1 billion yen (1 billion pounds).

Sony has earned its bones, but the strong yen, and global recession still loom.“Earnings have bottomed out…whether the recovery will continue in the next business year depends largely on its [Sony's] TV operations and videogames,” said Kazuharu Miura, a senior analyst at Daiwa Securities Capital Markets.

The report mentions Sony’s struggle with Nintendo for dominance in the world of videogames, and the strength of the PS3 Slim in holiday sales.

Via Reuters news service

 Currency fluctuations, American and European debt, and a shaking Wall Street landed squarely on the Asian market’s head, Japan experiencing a 6-week slump. Asian stocks dropped sharply at week’s close with poor company forecasts and a nuke-cloud of Western debt slowing global recovery.

Financial strategists Yutaka Miura said Japanese investors were “selling across the board” and acting “jittery.” Seems Obama’s recent State of Union speech did little to ease investor’s anxieties (read story here).

Sony was down 2.4 percent at Friday’s close.

More shaking, Nintendo was down 3.9 percent on the back of falling profits and a strong yen hitting exports.

With the same money flux cycle repeating itself, this report shows an alarming direction; the road less travelled.

 via Arab Times

BioWare, a division of Electronic Arts, announced today that Mass Effect 2 has sold over 2 million units worldwide in its first week of release. With an average rating of 96/100 from the world of game journalism, Mass Effect 2 has become a pop culture phenomenon.

The shooter gameplay of Mass Effect 2 has racked up plenty of adulation: 40 perfect scores, over 30 editor’s choice awards and donned the covers of 45 magazines worldwide. After all the hype, deserved review, worthy praise and phenomenal sales; Mass Effect 2 is the second highest rated game of all time on the Xbox 360.

Further, MSNBC claims, “Mass Effect will go down as one of the most influential videogame series of all-time.”

BioWare GM Dr. Ray Muzyka was not humble, nor should be: “Mass Effect 2 is poised to be one of the biggest games of 2010. We could not be more proud of the game’s universal acclaim and early commercial success.”