ON APRIL 22, TWO NEW POKÉMON JEWELS WILL HAVE PEOPLE TALKING
Wireless and Chat Abilities of Pokémon Diamond and Pokémon Pearl Act Like a Cell Phone for Kids
REDMOND, Wash., March 15, 2007 - For a decade, fans of Pokémon® video games have been entertained by exciting adventures, dramatic battles and hundreds of new Pokémon. Now the record-setting franchise is evolving with Pokémon® Diamond Version and Pokémon® Pearl Version, two new games available April 22 for the top-selling Nintendo DS™. The in-depth games feature enhanced graphics that make Pokémon jump off the screen like never before. In addition to the 380 Pokémon available in previous versions, players can collect, train and battle more than 100 new Pokémon. After completing certain objectives, they can also import Pokémon from their Game Boy® Advance games. Starting March 18, fans who pre-order a copy of either game will receive one of two collectible Pokémon styluses (retailer may require pre-order deposit).
But the game’s wireless abilities are what will have everyone talking - literally. Using a local wireless connection, up to eight trainers can connect and play. Both Pokémon Diamond and Pokémon Pearl are fully Wi-Fi compatible, meaning players can log onto Nintendo® Wi-Fi Connection, Nintendo’s wireless gaming service, and compete with players all around the world. The microphone built into the Nintendo DS even lets players talk with friends before, during and after battles. Only players who have entered one another’s Friend Codes can communicate using this Voice over Internet Protocol, or VoIP, feature so players can control with whom they communicate. For kids, it’s like having a cell phone that can only connect with their friends. The Nintendo DS Headset, sold separately, makes these conversations a breeze.
“The amazing wireless and voice chat features of Pokémon Diamond and Pokémon Pearl offer gamers something completely new,” says George Harrison, Nintendo of America’s senior vice president of marketing and corporate communications. “We make games for everybody, and these Pokémon titles are sure to be a hit with new and returning players.”
Players can trade Pokémon or battle with players anywhere in the world, even without voice communication. The Global Trade Station allows players to post Pokémon they want to trade on a board and browse through Pokémon other players have posted. The Battle Tower allows players to battle with seven Trainers who have registered their player data in the Wi-Fi Battle Dome. After the battle, players can upload their data so other Trainers can battle them virtually. The more games a player wins, the higher his or her ranking.
Pokémon Diamond and Pokémon Pearl feature the ability for players to control their Pokédex using the touch screen controls of Nintendo DS. As time passes in the real world, the look of the games changes. The Pokémon characters that appear change, and the evolution of some Pokémon is affected.
More than 155 million Pokémon games have been sold worldwide. When Pokémon Diamond and Pokémon Pearl were released in Japan, they became the fastest-selling Pokémon games ever, with 5 million units shipped to retailers in their first three months of availability. For more information about these games, visit http://www.Pokemon.com.
The worldwide innovator in the creation of interactive entertainment, Nintendo Co., Ltd., of Kyoto, Japan, manufactures and markets hardware and software for its Wii™, Nintendo DS™, Game Boy® Advance and Nintendo GameCube™ systems. Since 1983, Nintendo has sold nearly 2.2 billion video games and more than 387 million hardware units globally, and has created industry icons like Mario™, Donkey Kong®, Metroid®, Zelda™ and Pokémon®. A wholly owned subsidiary, Nintendo of America Inc., based in Redmond, Wash., serves as headquarters for Nintendo’s operations in the Western Hemisphere. For more information about Nintendo, visit the company’s Web site at http://www.nintendo.com.
Pokémon USA, Inc., a subsidiary of The Pokémon Company in Japan, manages the property outside of Asia which includes licensing, marketing, the Pokémon Trading Card Game, an animated TV series, home entertainment, the official Pokémon Web site and an online retail center http://www.pokemoncenter.com. Just coming off its 10th worldwide anniversary in 2006, Pokémon was launched in Japan in 1996 for play on Nintendo’s Game Boy® and has since evolved into a global cultural phenomenon. Pokémon was introduced in North America in September 1998 and today is one of the most popular toy and entertainment properties in the world. For more information, visit http://www.pokemon.com.
-----------------------------
Finally. So, in-game voice chat on DS. Now we need in-game voice chat on Wii (BATTALION WARS 2!!!!!!!!!!). I might actually pick up one of these for DS, anyone else?
Neil Gaiman is awesome. Dave McKean too... Watch it.
This is Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean's first movie; they've done books, television shows (the fantastic Nevewhere -- that's amazing too!), graphic novels, etc, but not a film... well, until this, which came out in 2005. The story is by Neil Gaiman and the art and direction by Dave McKean, and they did a really good job (like with all of Neil Gaiman's stuff that I've seen/read). Mirrormask follows some of Gaiman's common themes in that it's about an English (British, that is) person drawn into a fantastic world. In this case, the main setting is a strange dream world, which the main character, Helena, a teenage girl whose family runs a circus enters after her life seems to fall apart when her mother gets sick. The art design and CG work (it was made with the Henson company) is very well done and has a unique style. The plot is pretty good too. The environments and situations along the way are what really makes the film, though, not the story. The one weak point, perhaps, is the ending, but this is a British film, not a Hollywood one, and for a British film, the ending is probably actually pretty happy...
Anyway, while perhaps the basic concept -- person drawn into another world -- is conventional, and something Gaiman has done several times before, such as in Neverwhere or Stardust (which seems to be in production as a movie to be released this year; the book has been out for some time, though, and is good.), but each one of those has its own unique spin. Neverwhere is a much darker, scarier work, while this has a stronger fairy-tale feel and less depression, though there is sadness and difficulty of course.
It's hard to talk about something so focused on the plot without saying anything about that plot, isn't it... the ending does not spoil the good qualities of the plot, though, and I really liked the film. Perhaps Neverwhere was better, but that was six TV episodes, not a 100 minuite movie, so it had more space to work with, and had a different focus as I said... I don't know, Mirrormask is good as well. It is less "adult", but this is not a bad thing; on the contrary, the tone the movie sets works very well. Recommended, if you can find a copy to rent somewhere.
Where will you be? Most likely, fodder while I hide in a bunker. They are getting too smart, they can open doors, but I fooled them! My bunker has no doors!
Director: Zack Snyder (Dawn of the Dead 2004)
Writer/Co-Director: Frank Miller (original comic, Sin City comic, helped direct Sin City movie)
*minor spoilers ahead, but if you already know the outcome of the Battle of Thermopylae, then it's not a big deal*
I saw it in the theater last night. I thought it was predictable at times, and a bit repetitive, but it was still watchable. They used a pet peeve of mine - speeding up and slowing down the film during action sequences. I HATE this trend with all my little black heart, because it's run approximately 300 feet into the ground by this point and less realistic than showing a normal frame-rate (then again, who goes to a movie based on a Frank Miller comic and expects realism?). I can see how that can make the fighting scenes more palatable (i.e. slowing down during the important part, when someone actually gets stabbed and killed), but they went a little crazy with it. It sounded cheesy to play rock music during certain sequences, too. And it was a little irritating when they slowed down the film during parts where nothing was really going on, like following the queen in that one shot without knowing her endeavors. What was the point?
It was still awesome how they showed highlights of a Spartan boy growing up, (though the wolf at the end of the sequence looked poorly rendered). I liked the gore from the fighting scenes, and characters' costumers were lush and beautiful. I wish I would have seen more Spartans die in the first few battles (it seemed like little, if any, did) to properly show their sacrifice, instead of most of them dying at the last stand, but oh well.
Overall, I'd give it a C+. Not terribly impressive, but watchable and a decent popcorn flick.
In the interests of at least making the forum less cluttered, you'll have noticed that the layout of the main page has been changed some.
CHANGES:
Movie Reviews merged into Reviews, for consistency's sake. Online Game Trading deleted. It has not ever been used and almost certainly never would be. Twilight Princess Forum merged into Tendo City. It's Nintendo-themed and belongs there, as a sub-forum. All Hidden Forums merged into Forum 5. All threads remain, but having all those unused forum categories was just a waste of space. Forum 5 merged into Save Tendo City! It's never used, but there's too much to just delete.
Re-arranged forum layout in a way that is more streamlined.
PROPOSED CHANGES:
Merge YouTube Videos into Ramble City. I personally don't think it warrants having its own sub-forum or category when Ramble City already has dozens of threads about flash videos. And etoven is the only person who ever makes threads there, anyway.
You know how a lot of message boards these days are using those bizarre "type in these letters below" with some gif image full of stuff that maybe you can kinda understand to register?
Well, we've got spam bots every now and then, we should prevent them but I've seen an even better method.
