American McGee is best known for his twisted tale Alice.  His spin on the classic story was an imperfect game, yet was creative and enjoyable enough to be more than worth playing.  Since then, McGee hasn’t made a game nearly as good as Alice.  I was thinking this game would be a return to form for him, but...it’s a little too happy looking for my tastes.  Hopefully the game itself will be more fun to play than his latest releases.  I’ll definitely give this GameTap exclusive a shot when it comes out.  It may be released in other forms after a period of exclusivity but nothing has been announced yet.

With WiiWare’s impending release, more and more titles are being revealed all the time.  Personally, the idea of having an XBLA system combined with the unique controls the Wii offers really gets me going.  LostWinds is a 2D platforming game that plans to take full advantage of the interest in such a title.  Here’s how the developers describe it:

LostWinds is an enchanting adventure bursting with new gameplay ideas that embrace the innovative controller of the Wii - it puts “the power of the wind in the palm of your hand”.

You wield the awesome powers of Enril the wind spirit - from raging tornados to the gentlest breeze – to guide and protect Toku, a young boy who is the only one who can help you release the curse placed upon the world of Mistralis by evil Balasar. Mistralis is a stunningly presented, magical land full of wonder and intrigue that bursts to life with your every action and exploration.

The game’s novel, playful control mechanism lets you use Enril’s elemental powers to help Toku in your quest to overcome Balasar – powering his jumps and glides through Mistralis’ different regions, buffeting and smashing enemies, and solving puzzles.

Whether the game is fun or not we have yet to see, but it’s nice seeing some fresh ideas.

The GDC has been particularly interesting for Microsoft fans with some great Xbox 360 news.  November 2008 will allegedly be bring Gears of War 2 exclusively to your Xbox 360.  Considering they released an uninteresting teaser trailer with no gameplay footage, I hope the game can make the release date.  I don’t see why they’d be so secretive about the game when people pretty much know what to expect from it.  I’ll definitely be getting this game right when it comes out, and I can’t wait to see what they’ve done with the already fun multiplayer.

The Game Developers Conference has been shedding some light on some of Nintendo’s long anticipated products.  WiiWare is definitely the most exciting for me, considering we’ll be getting original games similar to XBLA.  Wii Fit functions as a weight monitoring program of sorts...trying to keep you active but not necessarily designed for losing weight.  I’m really pleased to hear about WiiWare but I’m curious why we haven’t heard anything on the Everybody’s Nintendo Channel.  Japan has had this channel for months now which offers DS demos, patches, game trailers, and more.

Nour Polloni, a designer working on Alone in the Dark has revealed that you’ll be able to skip some of the more difficult sequences in the game.  They decided to implement this feature so that everyone has a shot at beating the game.  Here’s what she said about it in the latest OXM:

Another achievement is linked to whether or not the player skips. We want everybody to be able to finish our game, so one of the other new features we’ve added is the ability to skip sections using a DVD-style menu if you get stuck, but always at a cost, and achievements is one way to reward players who don’t skip.

I have to say this is a fantastic feature.  Will I ever use it?  No way.  The challenges that games provide is a large portion of the fun for me, but not everyone feels that way.  Many people come across a difficult section in a game, then end up never finishing it because they were never able to overcome that particular sequence.  This is a much better solution than making games easier, since that then takes away from people looking for a challenge.  The best part is if you don’t like the feature, you don’t have to use it.  Everybody wins.

[Via Destructoid]

This week brings Ninja Gaiden III and Phantasy Star II to the Virtual Console.  Considering I never played either of these I can’t comment much on them.  I enjoyed previous Ninja Gaiden games so I imagine this game is similar to those...only slightly better.  Click below to see the full press release.

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This Wednesday N+ will be released for 800 Microsoft Points.  It’s an improved version of the original (and free) PC game known only as N (download the free version here). 

This probably comes as a surprise to nobody considering the success of the Guitar Hero series, which was just a different take on Konami’s GuitarFreaks franchise.  Now it appears that they are likely attempting their own spin on one of Konami’s other successful music franchises, Beatmania.  Is it just me or is Activision becoming the next EA?  Their games come out way too often, don’t seem to be making huge improvements, and they’re just expanding way too fast into every aspect of gaming.

[Via Ars Technica]

For fans of physics and unique ways of approaching every situation, Alone in the Dark is one game you’ll want to keep your eyes on.  In the above tech demo we see very creative use of...just about everything in your environment.  The new direction Alone in the Dark is going reminds me a lot of Penumbra (which you should check out if you haven’t already), a PC horror game where you must use objects you find in creative ways in order to survive.  As a huge horror fan, it looks like this game could give some of our old favorites like Silent Hill a run for their money.  Watch the above video and tell me what you think, it definitely blew my mind.

Reuters is reporting that Toshiba has given up on HD DVD, ending the format war.  An official announcement should be coming soon.  This is very unfortunate news for Toshiba since they are set to lose tons of money in the wake of their defeat.  Technically DVD is still beating Blu-ray, but it’s only a matter of time before more people upgrade to an HDTV and want an HD movie format to go along with it.  I have always preferred HD DVD, but with last week’s announcement that Netflix was going Blu-ray exclusive, they made my decision for me.  The PlayStation 3’s high cost had been attributed to Blu-ray, and if Blu-ray hadn’t won Sony’s system would have been in serious trouble.  Now they are likely to benefit greatly from its inclusion.  Being one of the cheapest Blu-ray players on the market is nice, but in addition the PS3 has many other features making it an attractive purchase for anyone looking to upgrade to an HD movie format.

[Via Reuters]