Let’s delve a bit deeper into the patents in question.  As Washington Post reports, Hillcrest’s patented technological specificity is that, unlike other systems, it allows users browse the Web, control their cable box or in general interact with content not by pressing a button on a controller, but by moving a device left-right, up and down in front of a television or computer screen.

Meanwhile, Wii video game system allows players move a remote or a controller left and right to play its different games. That is to say, the technological principles of functioning those two systems are similar.

As Washington Post reports, a Hillcrest Labs’ representative made the statement, “While Hillcrest Labs has a great deal of respect for Nintendo and the Wii, Hillcrest Labs believes that Nintendo is in clear violation of its patents and has taken this action to protect its intellectual property rights,” They also added that there would not be further comments.

Nintendo officials, so far, have no comments regarding the suit. They still seem to be in the dark about it. wii.Qj.net quoted Nintendo spokesman Yasuhiro Minagawa saying, ”[We] haven’t received any notice of the lawsuit and therefore are not in a position to comment at this time.”

This is not the first lawsuit that has been brought up against Nintendo, another company tried to reap some of the lucrative harvest that the Wii has been raking it.  They tried, and succeeded- a few months ago, Nintendo lost a case to Anascape Ltd and was forced to pay $21 million (US).

In the previous situation, Nintendo did not lose much, $21 million is a drop in the bucket for this money-making giant.  The current lawsuit however, carries with it a big threat. If Hillcrest Labs wins, sales of the Nintendo Wii will be totally banned in the US. This, if it comes to fruition, will be devastating to Nintendo. However, according to expert estimates, possibilities of such situation are very small, even if Hillcrest’s claims are valid. So, will David beat Goliath? Only time, and a team of expensive lawyers, can tell.

Photo: © danguyen

Nintendo codemasters revealed they are working on a new and exclusive adventure for the Wii, stemming from the popular game Overlord. The three new titles are: ‘Overlord Dark Legend’, ‘Overlord Minions’ and ‘Overlord Raising Hell’. In these games, you have two choices for your character, evil…or extra evil. Let the debauchery begin!

At wii.qj.net codemasters describe the concept in the following way: the “trainee tyrant” will “be able to take his growing pains out on the local fairy tale inhabitants as he protects his castle and lands.”

Although the new Overlord will be a derivative of the original version of the game, it will be entirely reworked: story, characters, game-play - all are newly developed and redesigned. Of course, the principle remains the same: you’re the tyrant and you let your protégés do the dirty work for you. It’s all for the preservation of your kingdom, after all.

This new game, according to codemaster Dean Scott is  a: “…part fairy tale, part classic fantasy, and all hilarious. Obviously, we’ve twisted the fairy tale stuff around, because it wouldn’t be an Overlord game without a load of black humor. So instead of helping Little Red Riding Hood find her grandma, you’d be helping the wolf shop for granny-friendly sauces. That’s not actually in the game, but you get the idea.”

Each game will be unique. Not lost, however, is the dark humor from the original Overlord.  As a bonus you get bigger and badder minions at your beck and call. What more can a dark lord ask for?

The authors also hint at a new notion - that there “have been a series of Overlords throughout time.” Does that mean that we should expect more ports from them in the future? That will be revealed in due time. For now, however, we can look forward to leading our new army of minions before the year’s end…muahahahaha <– evil laugh.

An overwhelming majority of the parents are concerned by the amount of violence in these games, which are sure to leave negative consequences on their childrens’ psyche. Moreover, these parents are not simply worried by the ferocity of these video games but other major annoyances are the amount of sexuality and distortion of reality that these “childish games” contain.

In 2005, in California, a law was passed forbidding children under 18 to buy or rent violent video games, which was unfortunately a failure, as game producers managed to put a stop to that, and such video games are still available to everyone. On the other hand, parents and educators do not want to retreat and are doing their best to overthrow these game producers.

Prof. Melanie Killen, of the College of Education at the University of Maryland advises all the anxious parents to be vigilant about limiting the time their kids spend with these games and to screen all their games for the content.

“Parents need to open their eyes and watch the games that their children are playing,” Killen says. “They should examine the content of the games, and what’s involved. Many of the games involve horrific violence; repeated exposure to this content has short-term and long-term negative consequences.”

Many specialists strongly recommend everyone to limit their time spent on video games. For children it is recommended that they don’t exceed 30 minutes per day and for adolescents not more than 1 hour. This alone cab greatly help avoid permanent negative consequences.

However, whatever measures parents undertake, whatever advice specialists give, and whatever steps governmental bodies take, it is important to make our children realize the negative side effects themselves. Once they truly understand how much damage video games can do, they will be more likely to limit their time spent on them.

Photo: © www.sciencenewsforkids.org

So, the award for the best horror game for Nintendo Wii is still unclaimed, but the situation might change with the upcoming survival-horror called Sadness. This adventure horror game with survival elements has many things going for it to impress us.

Unlike many other horror games, Sadness is not going to shock you with monsters jumping out on you from every corner. Instead, everything is much deeper. Developers focused on creating an atmosphere which is frightening even without any monsters. To add even more fear into the mix, they are making it in black and white.

As far as I know this element will be used in games for the first time which might set Sadness apart from others. Here’s what The Elderly Gamer reports.

Billed as a game for adults only, with strong nerves, you’ll be using the power of your wii-mote in pretty innovative ways, driving away swarms of rats, using a rope to lassoo and climb a wall, slashing a persecutor with a jagged piece of glass.

QJ.NET reports some interesting details as well.

More importantly, they’re planning to pull out all the stops for dramatic effect. In addition to getting voice acting onboard as part of the game’s initiative, they’ll also be working with an orchestra to get the most effect out of the game’s story.

One of the most disappointing things about the game is its release date — Autumn 2009.

The game starts with a mysterious asteroid hitting earth and affecting all living creatures and some plant life, especially mushrooms. As a result, four types of mushrooms emerge — two are bad guys and other two are good. Playing as a warrior mushroom, the player will face challenges from all types of other mushrooms. Each has its own weapons, fighting skills and even clothes.

Here’s what SpawnPoint reports.

In addition to the Mushroom Men, several other plants and animals have been affected similarly by the comet. While initially neutral and independent, they eventually team up with one side or the other.

GoNintendo reports more details.

The Wii version of the game picks up where the DS leaves off. The Spore Wars rage fully across the miniature landscape. The societies have advanced to a point where theology and metaphysical pursuits have developed.

Enjoy the video.

The Conduit is being developed exclusively for Nintendo Wii and promises to impress us with its graphics. Until the first trailer was available it was hard to believe that many companies could overcome the limitations of the Wii hardware, but The Conduit might just yet sport the best graphics available on the console to date.

Here’s what IGN reports.

What is perhaps more intriguing is that High Voltage has built a custom engine designed to really push the Wii hardware’s graphic capabilities. The game-maker’s “Quantum3″ game engine brings polish to The Conduit by way of a “full 16-TEV stage material pipeline using up to eight texture sources and a host of innovative blend operations.”

The Conduit is a first person-shooter like Halo and Medal Of Honor where players explore various different out-door locations and will mostly fight against aliens. Based on the video that demonstrates gameplay it’s obvious that game is full of action. Another interesting thing about The Conduit is that there is no publisher yet.

That VideoGame Blog found out the reason for that during an interview with the game’s developer.

We’re in talks with a number of publishers. We’ve been approached by a lot of publishers. We’re taking it slow. That seems to be a concern on a lot of forums, that this is bad but it’s really not the case. We know there are a lot of publishers who want The Conduit and we want to make sure it’s a great partnership in the true sense of the word partnership, not just motivated by a strictly financial or gameplay thing but a meld of many criteria.

Enjoy the video.

The Nintendo Wii version will allow players to choose from one of four characters who can explore the city and fight enemies before reaching the final target — the Evil Science Fair. Igor is being developed by the Legacy Interactive and Gamasutra reports what the company’s president, Ariella Lehrer, says about the game.

With Igor, we set forth to capture the unique mix of dark, yet playful aspects seen in the movie. It’s a great game that can be enjoyed with both friends and family and will appeal to a younger audience as well.

GameZone reports some details about the DS version.

The Nintendo DS version utilizes the stylus to perform movement combinations, combat enemies and solve puzzles. Players can custom build their own monsters to take on puzzle challenges and battle against other mad scientists.

Call of Duty 5: World at War will be released at the end of this year. The game should also be fully optimized for the Nintendo Wii controllers.

The version is also being developed by a separate team. Here’s what CVG reports.

Senior producer Noah Heller said that the Wii version is being worked on by a dedicated in-house team. “It’s a special team at Treyarch - not some out-sourced team. Not some group living in another country. These guys live, eat and breathe Wii,” he said. No sniggering at the back.

Another feature that the Wii version will have is the ability to use the Wii Zapper — a three-button gun made for shooting. Here’s what QJ.NET reports.

Heller went on to say that the team working on the game’s Wii version are working on a lot of “special technology” to ensure intuitive controls. Considering that the Zapper only gives players three readily-available buttons, controls will be key to the Wii version’s success.

What is special about this game is that compared withe SEGA Superstar Tennis it’s not focused on Miis, but instead offers real courts, realistic gameplay and stars like Roger Federer and Maria Sharapova. Top Spin 3 is perfect for the more mature audience.

Actually Top Spin 3 is one of those games where using motion-sensitive controllers is near total, and it’s fun hitting the ball by moving the controllers in the desired direction.

Another interesting thing is support for up to four players. N4G reports about the game modes.

There are different modes and different controls. Unlike the next generation versions Top Spin 3 features three main options from the main menu; exhibition, road to glory and party games. Exhibition is your standard quick game mode, with road to glory being the main single player mode. The road to glory mode contains several different global challenges, such as the survival mode, which requires players to win 7 wins in a row.

Here’s what MAXCONSOLE thinks about Top Spin 3.

Top Spin 3 on the Wii does feel like a compromised title in comparison to the next generation versions, but if you’re after a deeper tennis game than Wii Sports then Top Spin 3 is the best choice.

Enjoy the trailer.

No one can argue that the Nintendo Wii found tremendous success since the beginning, but everyone also knows that it can’t last forever. As a result, Nintendo is expected to unveil a successor to the Wii around 2010.

Unfortunately, there isn’t much information going aroudn about the next-gen Wii from Nintendo and it’s hard to imagine how it might look. However, the but guys at T3 Magazine tried to find the answer. The system that you see in the picture is the result of their imagination and here is how T3 explains it.

Our awesome artist’s impressions, part of the future tech feature in the new issue of T3 Magazine, showcase a Wii headset accessory that uses brainwaves to control characters and also feature immersive in-ear headphones. Sweet.

We’ve also imagined a streamlined Wii Remote with just the one button. You point and press, your frontal lobes do the rest.

Looks really futuristic and cool, but it’s all very much tongue-in-cheek. Still, food for thought. Literally.