Just a reminder to all you friendly folks in the U.S. -- Amazon is having crazy DS deals today.
The retailer kicked off its Gold Box sales awesomely, offering Advance Wars: Days of Ruin for $16.99. If we don't say so ourselves, that is damn sweet. You have until 12am Pacific time to bite on this, but we recommend getting it sooner rather than later because we doubt supplies will last.
As for the lightning deals, we've listed them here (with our guesses for ones that haven't been confirmed yet). Keep in mind, these are in Pacific time, and each deal lasts for four hours (assuming they don't go out of stock):
We suppose that with such an awesome "Deal of the Day," we can forgive Amazon for everything else being subpar. Keep in mind, though, that these are just our guesses. We'll update the post as other sales are confirmed.
[Update 1:Master of Illusion was confirmed as the second lightning deal and was added to the post.]
[Update 2: Transformers: Autobots is the third lightning deal. And, would you look at that -- Master of Illusion sold out. Who would have thought?]
Fans of Dementium (see: uh, DS Fanboy), you should pay attention. The game is headed to Japan in a few months, as it will see a release to the region on June 26th. It will retail for a price of 5,040 Yen. Other than that, Japanese gamers should pretty much know what they're in for.
The game was, in our eyes, an under-appreciated gem and a very competent FPS on a system lacking them. We can't wait to see what Renegade Kid has in store for us with their next game.
Here's a rumor straight out of left field for you: gun-totin', cigar-chewin', misogynistic idiot Duke Nukem could be about to get his own DS (and PSP) game, with a release allegedly scheduled for later this year.
That's according to one Dutch retailer, which claims that "Duke Nukem DS" is coming out at some point during Q3. Naturally, you'll all know about the great, big internet joke that is Duke Nukem Forever (a game that almost makes the existence of Sadness look plausible), so you can probably appreciate where we stand on this. In short: "do not believe." And "do not want" also, now that we think about it.
You all know we dug Dementiunm. It was a fine title and a decent FPS on a handheld that is seriously lacking in that department. Now, Renegade Kid is preparing their second FPS for Nintendo's handheld in Moon. What should we expect?
Well, Renegade Kid's owner and creative director, Jools Watsham, spoke with Joystiq about the new project and reassured us it's going to be something we'll want to play. It's a pretty interesting read, if we may say so. Head on over and check it out already!
Promotional Consideration is a weekly feature about the Nintendo DS advertisements you usually flip past, change the channel on, or just tune out.
Though Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare has sold exceptionally well in North America, topping the software charts for its PC and console releases, Activision is smart enough to know that marketing the title in Japan, where the DS is king and first-person shooter sales is an oxymoron, requires a different strategy.
The result? Activision actually produced a 30-second spot specifically for the DS version of the multiplatform game ...
That is, if you have the proper equipment to support homebrew on your DS. And, on top of that, the port of Quake II on the DS runs less than optimally. So, there will need to be a few sacrifices on your end if you so desire to enjoy the FPS on your DS.
First of all, there's no multiplayer at this time. Sucks, we know. Second, some of the code can get a bit funky. Because the game demands so much from the DS hardware, some of the levels don't really run that well. And, on top of that, some of the textures are misaligned. We're sure there are some other spots that need to be ironed out, as well.
It may not be a perfect release, but we're glad to see the homebrew community trying projects like this. The DS may not have been designed with PC games in mind, but seeing the homebrew community work toward solid releases for these games is something we very much appreciate.
Gaming sites are inundated with holiday gift guides at the end of the year, listing the best and most popular games that everyone pretty much already has (or knows about). Well, we're not going in for that this year. Our gift guide will help you find the best gifts in categories the other sites won't cover -- because we just made them up.
Nintendo's indifference towards PAL regions is infamous, but there's arguably less room for complaining when it comes to the DS. See, the DS is (and we do not use this phrase lightly) an importer's dream. It doesn't faff around with region-specific software, there's a huge library of diverse and interesting NTSC-only titles, and the games themselves are cheap. As in, cheaper than they'll be when they arrive in the UK/Europe/Australia six months from now. Frankly, we can't think of a good reason for you not to import.
Which brings us to our latest anti-guide, featuring the five DS-related gifts that PAL regions won't be seeing until 2008 at the earliest -- if ever. All deserve to be imported without hesitation, so read on fellow PAL folk, and prep that credit card!
If there's one thing Dementium: The Ward delivers on, it's atmosphere. From the audio -- which is truly something special in the DS library -- to the overall mystery of the story of Redmoor Hospital, Dementium provides exactly what it promises: a survival horror/FPS fusion that you can take with you.
What it's not is perfect. Of course, no game is, but Dementium is peppered with a few looming frustrations that bring down the game experience. It is developer Renegade Kid's first effort, and at times it shows, and it's a somewhat clichéd game from a genre built on the power of cliché. The good news is that none of those frustrations are terribly huge. The bad news, however, is that some of those flaws may be just the sort that keep certain types of gamers away.
There is really only one game that came up on our radar of releases this week and it's none other than Dementium: The Ward. We like the survival-horror genre as it is, not to mention that this looks like the first engaging FPS game on the DS (not to say that Metroid Prime Hunters wasn't engaging, but the single-player was a bit lacking). We haven't a had a chance to pick the game up yet, but you can bet that we will be doing so immediately.
What about you all? Are you planning on picking up the game or are you playing something else?
We've been talking about it forever, and now you've got a chance to win it -- a copy of Dementium: The Ward, valued at $29.99, will land in the lap of one lucky reader. Want it? All you have to do is leave a comment on this post talking about the scariest moment you've ever had playing a horror game. Did someone happen to slip up behind you while you were sneaking past Bad Things? We want to hear about it. Never been scared? Flex your anti-horror muscles all you want. Just leave a comment -- and remember, you can only enter once per day -- between now and Sunday, November 4, because at 11:59 EST, we'll be closing down the contest. Monday, November 5, we'll toss everyone into the random drawing and choose one winner, who'll receive a spankin' new copy of the game.
There are, of course, a few caveats. Winners must be both U.S. citizens and over the age of 18. You can check out the full official rules here.
In this latest trailer for Dementium: The Ward, the focus is on the sounds of the game. It follows the same theme as the previous trailers, combining live-action segments with in-game footage. As if we could have any more reason to absolutely need this game, we find ourselves at the point where we'd assassinate a foreign diplomat if it meant getting our hands on this title sooner. Harsh, we know, but how great does this game look?!
After Fountainhead's Anna Kang spoke about the "younger audience" the DS commands this week, it's refreshing to see someone taking the opposite position. Jools Watsham, Creative Director at Renegade Kid, the team behind Dementium, has a lot to say about M-rated games on the DS, a system that commands an audience of, well, pretty much everyone. While some companies may be worried about sales numbers before plotting out a game, the good folks at Renegade Kid were more interested in finding ways around those barriers, and Watsham was happy to tell us all about it.
"When I think about it now, there I was trying to convince publishers to pick up our game while putting up every red flag there is. They must have all thought we were crazy! Our hope was that publishers would think our game was good. And thankfully they did. Gamecock didn't want changes or anything watered down. They just told us to go for it," Watsham said, and we're glad to hear about Gamecock's faith in the new developer. With no other titles behind them and without an established franchise to lean on, as with some of the system's other mature fare, Watsham knew they were going to face challenges with Dementium: The Ward.
During an interview with Fountainhead's Anna Kang, Orcs & Elves was the main focus. And, with it leaping from cell phones to the DS, naturally other titles must be looked at as possibly being able to be ported or re-created for Ninytendo's platform. And a game we would like to see brought over is one they're already talking about, apparently: Doom RPG.
"Well, we've been talking about that. We would like to bring it to the DS," Kang said. She further added that there could be some issues with the younger audience that the handheld commands, stating "there's a real significant change that we'd like to make, and the interesting thing is that the DS is a much younger audience gaming platform. And Doom being Doom, we're not sure whether a mature rated game would do well on the DS."
Genuine horror is a bold objective for a handheld game. It's very hard to create an atmosphere when your material is contained entirely in two tiny screens (and proportionately tiny speakers.) In fact, we'd say that it's even harder to make a handheld horror game than it is to make a good FPS on the DS. Renegade Kid seems to be pulling off both tasks with Dementium, however.
This fun, spooky feature from Gamepro outlines some of the scary junk that will jump out at you during the game. It's all screaming this and blood-covered that. We suppose that if you're avoiding spoilers, you may want to skip it, but we think that even if you know something is coming, there's still a good chance it'll give you the jibblies when it does bust through the window.
Just a reminder to all you friendly folks in the U.S. -- Amazon is having crazy DS deals today.
Fans of Dementium (see: uh, 
Here's a rumor straight out of left field for you: gun-totin', cigar-chewin', misogynistic idiot Duke Nukem could be about to get his own DS (and PSP) game, with a release allegedly scheduled for later this year.
During an interview with Fountainhead's Anna Kang, Orcs & Elves was the main focus. And, with it leaping from cell phones to the DS, naturally other titles must be looked at as possibly being able to be ported or re-created for Ninytendo's platform. And a game we would like to see brought over is one they're already talking about, apparently: Doom RPG.
Genuine horror is a bold objective for a handheld game. It's very hard to create an atmosphere when your material is contained entirely in two tiny screens (and proportionately tiny speakers.) In fact, we'd say that it's even harder to make a handheld horror game than it is to make a good FPS on the DS. Renegade Kid seems to be pulling off both tasks with 
