And that's the only Wimbledon-related preamble you're going to get out of us - if you want sports punditry go and look at the BBC website. You're here because GamesRadar has been given first dibs on an admittedly amusing render made specially to cash in on the 100% increase in interest in tennis activity around Wimbledon fortnight. It's a rabbit scratching her arse. To be honest we preferred the original better but we can't use it here as it's the most copyrighted image on the Internet. Make do with the bunny and click her cheeks for a closer look.

Así es, se ve bien groovy, y necesito tenerlo. Nunca me imaginé poder jugar algo con mis pompis jajaja, se ve bien divertido, y el nuevo modo de baile se ve bien chingón, será algo así como el efecto "Casa de Zana" jaja.

L'avevo detto in tempi non sospetti: adoro i Rabbids.

There’s a snowboarding segment that sees you sit down on a Wii Fitness Board and lean left and right to steer your Rabbid, who is sliding down the snowy piste on a hog (ina rather suggestive position on its belly, if truth be told). The control is actually very good, with smooth increments of steering accessible through fine balance control.

Fortunately there’s no need for clenching, and although it would have been fun to access the turbo boost through flatulence, it’s actually achieved through leaning backwards. We made it through all the gates with our first attempt (at that point the only attendee so far that day to manage it), and while we found it quite easy, other people had a lot of trouble.

Either way, everyone who played got up at the end with a broad smile on their face, so the game must be doing something right. Obviously, this isn’t going to set the gaming world alight, but in terms of a high quality game that makes good use of the Wii’s capabilities, the Rabbits look like they’re succeeding again.

The rest of the game uses the Wii-mote and nuchuk and we were given a go on the dancing section where you must strike Travolta-esque disco poses with the two peripherals in time to illustrative icons on screen, along with the beat of popular disco music tracks.

This wasn’t as much fun as the butt-boarding game (nor Samba De Amigo if we’re honest), but if there’sa great enough variety of minigames with similar quality to the two we played, there’s no reason this shouldn’t enjoy decent success when it’s released. There's no shots yet, though we're expecting some real soon, but for now you'll just have to imagine us using our pert gluteus maximus to manipulate Rabbid's mini-games. Actually, don't.

Fuente

It's been an underwhelming few weeks in the games business. Not an unusual turn of events at all considering the calm that typically precedes the media storm of E3, but, to tip the Ace Gamez hat at just a few of this year's highlights, with the release of Burnout Paradise, a new Devil May Cry and GTA IV, what, I wonder, has been typical about 2008 thus far? Nonetheless, embargoes across the internet lifted yesterday on the assorted revelations of Ubidays 08, and around the world, Tom Clancy franchise fanboys wondered in unison where the prolific French developer had hidden the latest iteration of Ghost Recon.

Other than that strange oversight, the news thus far has proved well worth a look. Before we get our teeth into the good stuff, though, let's get the relative non-events out of the way. HAWX has a rather ridiculous acronym for a name but looks solid enough otherwise; the new Brothers in Arms I could honestly care less about, although it's worth saying that the transition to next-gen looks to have gone very smoothly, without losing the unique squad mechanics that sold the series to its many fans in the past; and the less said about Rayman Raving Rabbids TV Party and Easy Way to Stop Smoking the better.

To my surprise, newcomer Shaun White Snowboarding looks rather promising. On the Wii it'll feature full balance-board intergration, making the expense of that accessory in Europe a little less outrageous. On the PS3 and Xbox 360, meanwhile, the über-powerful Assassin's Creed engine looks to be performing better than ever in the trailer.  We can only hope it proves to be the sport's Skate rather than another Tony Hawk-inspired button-masher - I expect SSX has that covered already, anyway.

More groundbreaking, however, is Far Cry 2. Take the much-discussed setting of Resident Evil 5, open the world up in the mold of Grand Theft Auto, throw in the excellent, if somewhat extravagant FPS mechanics of the original Far Cry - and what do you have? Pure awesome, perhaps. We can only hope.

Despite talk of an Earth-shattering new paint job, the trailer for the relaunched Prince of Persia looks strangely familiar, and for all the talk of revolutionary new gameplay, the dark/light angle has been done too often already.  So it's certainly no Okami, nor worlds apart from the previous instalments in the series, but distinct enough all the same to get a little excited about. If you ask me, it's been too long since we wall-crawled our way to winning our very own Arabian princesses anyway.

But none of these games can stand up to the highlight of Ubidays 08: Beyond Good and Evil 2. Yes, you read right. Music to these ears, and plenty more besides. Despite rock-bottom sales of the first game, creator extraordinaire Michel Ancel is bringing back the critically-acclaimed Beyond Good and Evil for another go-around. One of the most singular experiences I've ever had with a video game, or indeed in any media, I was next to inconsolable when its abysmal sales figures came through to seal the unfortunate fate of an often sung but obviously not often bought piece of brilliance. That this sequel could be greenlit boggles the mind (in a good way!) and reassures some of the more serious concerns I have about the industry that regulates our entertainment of choice. What could possibly be next? Metroid Dread at last? A follow-up to Wii adventure gem Zack and Wiki?

At least on the latter count, I've certainly heard as much. Readers: rejoice!

Thats the title for the 3rd installment of the crazy waggling fest on Wii!

More pictures and videos here.

Strange that I am the one that's reporting this here, and not clouette - the resident Rabbids fan. :D

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Não pretendo ter o Balance Board, será que serei exclusido do game? :( Achei o mini-game musical ao final do clipe bacana, diferente do que foi feito nos games anteriores.

The video features a Rabbid encountering the Balance Board in a nice looking living room that wouldn't look out of place in one of Nintendo's lifestyle advertisements.

He/She/It treats the peripheral with the type of skepticism that hardcore gamers have shown towards the device. After kicking it, the Rabbid tries to eat it. It seems he/she/it hasn't got a clue what to do with it, either.

We hope the developers behind Rayman Raving Rabbids have got a better idea of how to use the Balance Board than their character does, as we imagine the teaser trailer foreshadows an announcement that Ubisoft will be using the peripheral in a new Rabbids game.

Take a look. As always with Rabbid videos, it's quite amusing.

Courtesy of CVG.

Apr 29, 2008

source

The video features a Rabbid encountering the Balance Board in a nice looking living room that wouldn't look out of place in one of Nintendo's lifestyle advertisements.

He/She/It treats the peripheral with the type of skepticism that hardcore gamers have shown towards the device. After kicking it, the Rabbid tries to eat it. It seems he/she/it hasn't got a clue what to do with it, either.

We hope the developers behind Rayman Raving Rabbids have got a better idea of how to use the Balance Board than their character does, as we imagine the teaser trailer foreshadows an announcement that Ubisoft will be using the peripheral in a new Rabbids game.

Take a look. As always with Rabbid videos, it's quite amusing.

Courtesy of CVG.

Apr 29, 2008

source

Anyway to add fuel to the fire here is the trailer with one of the Raving Rabbids demonstrating to us what it means to have "One Square Meal a day."

You can check out the teaser here if youre a fan of fake animals and terrible puns. (anyone that knows me know I'm a connoisseur of both)

-(MS)Mike out.

De momento no hay nada confirmado por parte de Ubisoft los padres de estos graciosos ¿conejillos?. Pero en un trailer lanzado recientemente se puede ver a una de estas criaturas que encuentra la Wii tabla y claro comienza hacer de las suyas con ella. El rumor de que salga un juego para este periférico protagonizada por los rabbids tiene fundamento dado que en una entrevista con IGN el presidente de NOA, Reggie Fils-Aime , señaló que 10 juegos ya estaban en desarrollo para el periférico. No obstante habrá que verse si en  el evento Ubidays , que tendrá lugar este mes de mayo en Francia, estará este entre sus futuros títulos.

Fuente: http://wii.ign.com/articles/870/870164p1.html

The included WiiBoard (I have to find out if you can add more than one) has a scale in it so it can measure both your weight and your BMI (Body Mass Index) just by standing on it.  It tells you the average and overweight levels are and gives you a healthy time target to get to your desired BMI.  This obviously includes training each day and keeping track of your progress.  One disheartening part of it , however, is how it mirrors your weight to your Mii, extending the tummy to make it look like a wee blob.  Of course it's for kids too so they're not going to emphasise chest and ass, the two places fat gather to have a good time but still, that wee tubby Mii kinda mocks you.

The fitness exercises are great.  The more serious ones include Yoga, Aerobics and Muscle conditioning while the more fun sections have tightrope walking, downhill slalom and ski-jump.  You also get a virtual coach of your choice, a buff muscle man or a skinny little miss.  

All in all a fantastic idea in both concept and execution.  Even at almost £70 a pop it's still cheaper than two months gym membership and it's in the comfort of your own home.  You don't have to psych yourself up to get ready and head down to the gym to wait about for the machines to become free or feel self-conscious at all the poseurs exercising in baby oil and full make-up.  You can do as much or as little as you like and pack it away when you're done.  No muss, no fuss.

Perhaps the most striking thing to emerge from a long-sighted look at the history of Tom Clancy in gaming is that his name, among only a few others, has proven to be a mark of – if not revolution or innovation – then, at the least, remarkably consistent, above-par entertainment.  Take the Ubisoft studios behind the Ghost Recons, the Splinter Cells and the Rainbow Six series: they’re hardly equivalent to the Meiers and the Molyneuxs of the industry, but there’s something to be said for the simple fact that they can be relied on.  Even the very worst of their missteps would have been much improved by a few months longer in the proverbial development oven.  And so, it’s something of a relief to see that 2007 marked Rainbow Six’s first year off for a decade; their first holiday, in fact, since Red Storm Entertainment first conceived of the elite squad that gamers have come to hold so dear.  But where did everyone’s favourite combat operatives go?  Well, I’ll tell you: they went to Vegas...  again.  Kind of.

Few things would give me greater pleasure than to say the time off has done our boys a world of good, but sadly, for the sophomore instalment in the Vegas offshoot of Rainbow Six, Ubisoft Montreal has played it safe.  Throughout the entire experience you can almost smell the shareholders, and quite frankly, their inexorable push for quick sequels stinks.  Let it be said that before culture will openly accept gaming as a valuable form of art or even entertainment, the tug of war between developers and publishers needs to stop, but here once more, hidden with the utmost cunning in plain sight, we see such petty tensions clawing their way through what is otherwise an excellent game.

You can expect a host of new maps, same as the old maps, a levelling system and some supposedly original modes of play that have been ripped wholesale out of Call of Duty 4, plus some bug fixes – long past-due – and as a better, though still imperfect lobby system.  Except for the baffling reduction of players able to duck-and-cover their way through the underwhelming story mode co-operatively, the new features are not at all unwelcome.  Bugs need fixing, and the dedicated Rainbow Six community will be glad Ubisoft took the time to address the majority of them; new maps and modes always provide a refreshing new challenge, and considering the excellent gameplay mechanics of this particular Clancy franchise, a welcome one; but in the end, this isn’t a patch or even DLC, it’s a full-price sequel.  The RPG-lite levelling system, shared now between campaign and multiplayer, offers an involving, if cursory sense of achievement as you unlock new weapons or XP bonuses.  The single-player itself, while it lasts, is a fun, uncomplicated ride, but it lacks the impact of the series’ last instalment.  Call of Duty 4’s short, sharp shock of story mode puts it to shame; even the sheer spectacle of the first Vegas is absent, unaccountably, and much of the fun, however silly it was, has slipped away with it.  The grandiosity of the theatre, certainly the campaign’s highlight, seems a jarring glimpse of past glory; sandwiched between a convention centre textured almost entirely in unabashed advertising and some dreary action out in the Nevada desert, you hardly have time to appreciate the game’s sudden show of strength before Ubisoft squanders it before your very eyes.  Even the narrative, suspect as it was in the first Rainbow Six: Vegas, lacks the graciousness to follow through: this time around, you’re in command of a new squad who fight alongside Logan – a B-team, if you will, in the same vein as the nobodies from the expansion packs that F.E.A.R has coasted on so long.  You are, essentially, the abortive Blade Runner sidequel Soldier’s Kurt Russell next to Harrison Ford’s immortal Deckard.

In all, then, Rainbox Six: Vegas 2 is more than a little disappointing.  That being said, it remains among the leaders of an increasingly crowded pack.  The solid, responsive mechanics of the first instalment are present and correct, environments are credible if not remarkable, online adversarial and co-op play is as satisfying as ever – which is to say immensely, despite the sub-standard new settings – and the AI has been practising.  Surely this game’s greatest pleasure, and the point at which it finally begins to shine, is in terrorist hunt.  Brave realistic difficulty and set the enemies to high density, invite a few friends or hop into a public game over Live, and provided your teammates can communicate as well as shoot, count yourself in for an experience worth every inch of the unquestionable challenge it poses.  You’ll rarely encounter such tight tactical action as this mode showcases, and in the campaign’s finer moments it, too, begins to approach the visceral intensity of terrorist hunt.  Improvements are the exception rather than the rule in Rainbow Six: Vegas 2, but built upon the foundations of an exemplary first outing, even those features left untouched are significantly more fulfilling than the alternatives offered by so many of the genre’s latest cut-and-paste shooters.  What this game does, it does well; it can and has done better before, but even so, it puts the Timeshocks and Turoks of the industry to shame for their shallowness.

If anyone is labouring under the impression that the Clancy franchises sell so well because of the none-too-subtle name-checking on their boxes, prepare for a shock; they are, nearly every one, solid – if rarely spectacular – games.  Where this second adventure in Vegas goes wrong, ultimately, is in its packaging.  As a mid-priced expansion pack, it would be difficult to fault.  More of the same is precisely what gamers have been conditioned to expect from such releases.  As a sequel – as an entity that should not merely continue an experience but expand and enrich it – there are no two ways about it, Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 is not all it could be, nor all it should be.  I say double or nothing.

Ubisoft Montreal say no.

The one thing he hints at is it being a "big adventure game" siting the sales of both The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess and Red Steel. I guess the anticipation of what's to come is the news here. Now we know Ubisoft is making a few games for the Wii that won't be minigame spectacles like the Rayman Raving  Rabbids series and so on. Could they be working on the next Red Steel? Maybe a new and improved Far Cry? Perhaps a Rayman title that doesn't involve minigames? We'll see soon enough I suppose.

Read the full story at dbtechno.com 

The one thing he point hint at is it being a "big adventure game" siting the sales of both The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess and Red Steel. I guess the anticipation of what's to come is the news here. Now we know Ubisoft is making a few games for the Wii that won't be minigame spectacles like the Rayman Raving  Rabbids series and so on. Could they be working on the next Red Steel? Maybe a new and improved Far Cry? Perhaps a Rayman title that doesn't involve minigames? We'll see soon enough I suppose.

Read the full story at dbtechno.com