Nintendo has today revealed that there will be no fix for the Virtual Console release of Mario Kart 64. “Due to unavoidable technical reasons unfortunately it is not possible to save ghost data from Mario Kart 64’s Time Trials in the Virtual Console version of the game,” read the statement issued to Pro-G.

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Konami, perhaps best known for it’s Metal Gear Solid franchise, is rumored to be making an announcement of “a bunch of Wii games” this week. Up until now, the company has released one Wii title in Elebits. This rumor, if true, would be big news for Nintendo fans. And that’s especially considering their support for the Gamecube was meager at best.

So far, it is known that they have one untitled RPG and two untitled action adventure titles in development, so it’s plausible that their announcement could be the unveiling of the aforementioned titles.  At the moment, my fingers are crossed for a new Mystical Ninja title, preferrably one that will see US shores at some point.

Source: Game|Life

As many of you know Vista has been released and with it many people who own nforce motherboards have been met with frustration. Anyone who owns nforce 1/2/3 boards Nvidia now will not be supported with drivers on Vista…or will they? Nvidia just released drivers for all the nforce platforms that they said they would not support - 1, 2, 3. However Nvidia has yet to release nforce 4, 5, or 6 drivers to the Vista community; keep in mind Vista has been out to the press and Business community for over a month now so there is no excuse, especially when Vista is now out to the public.

This issue has started a literal flame-war on their own forum. Many people have stated that they will never use another Nvidia product ever again due to this situation. Most however have just been flaming Nvidia constantly asking for drivers for the past month. This issue has spun off into countless threads of anger and hate directed towards Nvidia…oh yeah, examples -

mscrivo: “Does anyone else find it strange that nvidia has not released a single set of nForce drivers (3,4,5 or 6 series) for Vista RTM? The last real full package was issued for Beta 2 which was nearly a year ago. What gives? Almost all other manufactures have at least beta drivers out, but not even a peep from nvidia.”

Followed by -

NaterGator: “I’m an nForce3 user with a dual-core AMD processor and ATI X800 card. If this is how nVidia is going to treat their customers this is the last nVidia product I will own.”

Followed by -

Cheesy: “So it’s less than 24 hours until Vista RTM releases and I won’t be able to install it on my computer because you still haven’t released any drivers for my PATA-RAID. I mean, I always was happy with nvidia products. The last 4 Graphic cards and the last 3 Mainboards were from Nvidia, but if I don’t get support for a new OS (which is delayed for more than half a year) my next hardware won’t be from your company.” (Keep in mind its now 2 days after he posted that)

You can see the whole thread here but the response to this can be seen from those three. I have been affected by this issue myself as well since I have an nforce 4 motherboard and now Vista is almost useless. This issue would not be that big of a deal as long as Nvidia kept the community updated on when the drivers were coming but no, they have not said anything at all. Instead I sit here with baited breath waiting on some hope that drivers will eventually come out, but after this being the 2nd time I have been personally screwed by Nvidia I can say I will not be buying another product of their’s again as well.

Way to pee all over your customers Nvidia!

Digg It

We’re trying to figure out why that’s an insult.

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It’s now coming on PC as well. Release Date: Feb 23, 2007

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MAXCONSOLE - XBOX 360 - Crackdown Breaks Records:

That’s right, beating out top downloads like Lost Planet and Fight Night among others, Microsoft’s Crackdown demo, released on January 23, kicked everyone else’s asses. Microsoft told IGN that this week the Crackdown playable demo was the most downloaded demo for a 24-hour period and the most downloaded demo during a seven day (week-long) period. All this and the Halo 3 Beta wasn’t even included. Slight jest there, but it’s true. Perhaps gamers are finding they like Realtime Worlds’ game more than they initially did? Perhaps word of mouth was the key? Perhaps co-op gaming was smartly realized in Crackdown (you could play the demo online with two players)? There are probably many reasons and all of these assuredly pertain.

MAXCONSOLE - Playstation 3 - Sony: Don’t expect PS3 Price drop until 2-3 years:

The company expects to stop taking losses on PS3 hardware in the next term, Sony CFO (chief financial officer) Nobuyuki Oneda announced at the financial briefing. One means of doing this will be through smaller chip sizes. The company has already started manufacturing CELL chips using a 65 nanometer process, Japan’s IT Media reports. Even with a turn in fortunes on Sony’s hardware losses, don’t expect a price drop any time soon. Oneda said that Sony is not consdering a price drop right now, although something could be possible in 2 or 3 years.

BK + Xbox = King’s ransom - Xbox 360 News at GameSpot:

Burger-slinging restaurant chain says sales of 3.2 million BK-themed games helped spur a whopper of traffic and a 40 percent rise in quarterly profits.

Vista Breaking Online Casual Games? news from 1UP.com:

Microsoft is always under intense scrutiny for their operating system security measures, but online gaming network WildTangent says the company has gone too far with Windows Vista, according to a Yahoo! News report. WildTangent says Vista “blocks or disables play” for games featured on Microsoft’s own MSN service, Yahoo, America Online and RealArcade.

1600 Marketplace Points With Halo 3 Pre-Order news from 1UP.com:

Face it, you know you’re going to buy Halo 3 if you own an Xbox 360, so why not get rewarded for pre-ordering the game. In what can be seen as an attempt to drive sales, Best Buy is currently featuring a deal where if you pre-order Halo 3 you get 1600 Xbox Live Marketplace points for just $4.99 (1600 points normally cost $19.99).

Lost Planet Producer Respects, Fears Western Studios news from 1UP.com:

We’ve already heard about how Western development helped influence Lost Planet, but the game’s producer, Jun Takeuchi, expressed a combined respect and fear over the rising dominance of Western videogames worldwide. Speaking to Capcom’s official Lost Planet blogger Brian Dunn, Takeuchi expresses disappointment over Japanese studios “giving up” on producing games with worldwide appeal. “So this trend, this ‘game development isolationism,’ I think is very troubling. I’m concerned about what will happen to the industry in Japan,” he explained. “I think western developers borrowed and learned from Japanese developers all those years when Japan was ahead. They built on that and just blazed ahead on their own. There’s so many new, creative, inventive games coming out in the west. Games like Gears (of War) and Halo built on the past but just take everything to the next level.”

www.GamersReports.com - PS3 Price Cut Drags Down Sony Profits Considerably:

When Sony cut the price of their new PS3 console in Japan, many gamers took the opportunity to purchase the still-high-priced unit. Unfortunately, this did not ad dup to financial success for Sony. The electronics giant’s net profit fell 5.3%, and SCE, the Sony division responsible for the Playstation in all its forms, was the only main Sony division to register a loss for the quarter.

www.GamersReports.com - MS Reveals Next 10 XBL Arcade Games:

MS has revealed the next 10 upcoming XBLA titles, and there are some hot ones folks. Castlevania: SOTN, Worms, Paperboy, Alien Hominid HD and more are on the way. Great news! Click read more for the full official info.

MAXCONSOLE - Playstation 3 - Analyst: PS3 price cut within a year:

“The PS3 can command £425 from the hardcore and I think you’ll see price cuts a year from now, probably to £300.” He was also confident that PS3 would be a complete sell-out, and deliver the kind of next-generation power that Sony has promised. “I think that games like Gears of War on the 360 look every bit as good, but given that PS3 game development was rushed, I fully expect next year’s games to look better on the PS3.”

Xboxic » Gears nominated for 10 awards:

We all know by now that Gears has done really well; it has sold millions, and continually is the most played game on Xbox Live week in, week out. So it should come as no surprise to see Gears of War being nominated for ten different awards from the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences.