Is Wii the real name of Nintendo's new console?
With all the rumors going around about Nintendo possibly using the name Wii just to draw some press attention, I'd just like to point out that the official Nintendo website still refers to the console as the Revolution on the front page navigation bars. With something as easy to change as that, you'd have to wonder why it wasn't done to reflect the new name. Of course, speculation that Nintendo isn't going to name the console Wii is generating just as much press, so anything is possible at this point. We can speculate until the sun goes down and beyond, but I think the truth will only be known when Nintendo formally introduces the console at E3.
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Possible Gamecube price drop?
Gamespot is reporting that an EB Games employee has informed them their store has received promotional material for the May 3rd - May 23rd marketing period advertising a "New Low Price" for the Nintendo Gamecube. While the area the new price would be reflected in is blank, it's certainly a good indicator that EB is at least considering a drop in the price on the 'Cube. The employee did point out that the note included with the signage stated it was being sent out so stores could be prepared if Nintendo drops the price of the Gamecube, so there is a possibility that nothing will change. It should also be noted that the same employee told Gamespot that stores received the same type of kit just before the Playstation 2 price drop announcement.

So what does it all mean? My guess is with the 360 already on the market, and the Playstation 3 and Wii just around the corner, Nintendo may be looking to give the Gamecube a final push or Gamestop/EB may be deciding it's time to start clearing out their inventory of Gamecube consoles. Ultimately, my guess is we'll see the Gamecube drop to a retail price of $79.99 come E3.

New Rise of Legends demo available
Second Rise of Legends demo now available!

Good as their word, Big Huge has released a second demo of their upcoming RTS game Rise of Legends. I'm still in the download queue over at Fileplanet, so I haven't seen if it runs a bit smoother than the early beta demo. Hopefully they've added the ability to zoom out a little further than you could in the last demo.
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4/29/06
I just finished my first game with the new build of the demo. While the zoom out maximum is pretty much the same, the demo has a much tighter feel to it and moved along at a much faster pace. Definitely an improvement from demo #1.

4/30/06
The more I play this new demo, the more I'm liking Rise of Legends. The "Battle for the Core" map allows a much better zoom out than the previous maps, and the sheer variety of unique units makes it appear that every map is going to need it's own strategy. Bottom line? while I'd like to see the game handle huge numbers of units better and the AI still seems a bit "off" when your units are defending an area on their own, Rise of Legends is starting to look like a worthy successor to Rise of Nations once again.

BIZARRE CREATIONS ANNOUNCES PGR3 LEADERBOARDS TO BE RESET
Bizarre Creations announced that because of the changes made to the ranking system in the "World Tournament" patch, they have reset all Project Gotham Racing 3 online leaderboards as of this morning. From things I had read recently, it had seemed a lot of people had stopped racing competitively in PGR3 for fear of losing their standing because of the way rank is now calculated. According to Bizarre it should only take a few races for people to wind up back in their correct skill classes.
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Now I wasn't big on racing in PGR3 online against strangers, so this really doesn't affect me much, but I'd like to hear news from people who do race on Live often and how wiping the leaderboards has affected them and if it's done anything to rectify the problem created by the Tournament patch where no one was willing to enter ranked races.

Major Nelson tells readers how to make their own 360 Dashboard blade backgrounds
In his daily blog, Xbox Live's Major Nelson told readers how to make their own background images for the blades in their Xbox 360 dashboards. While regular users are limited to only having the same image for all blades, it still is pretty neat. From MN's blog.

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"I just loaded one of the water ballon pictures as my Xbox 360 dashboard background, and it looks pretty good, so I thought I'd go through the steps of you can to do it:

All you need to do is download the hi rez version of this photo, then put it on a USB memory stick. Pop it into your Xbox 360, and sign in with your profile. Once you sign in, go to the Media Blade, then to Pictures. Go to Portable Device (this is your USB memory stick) scroll to find the photo (you'll see a thumbnail) and when you have the photo highlighted, press X. That will make the photo your background on all blades as seen below. (You can not make a different image for each blade, only developers can do that with themes.) " - Major Nelson
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Pretty nifty indeed. I haven't tried to add one yet, but rest assured, once I finish tonight's site updates, I'll be trying to find one that suits my style just right.

Halo 3 video to be shown at E3?
IGN is reporting that Microsoft will be debuting a 2 minute video of Halo 3 at it's Pre E3 news conference on May 9th. Hopefully this time the action will not only be on Earth, but stay on Earth. For more on this story, head on over to IGN.
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Now I don't know about you, but to me, the single player component of Halo 2 was a massive dissapointment. The weapons weren't as much fun, the locations were a lot weaker and many of the elements that made Halo so great were missing entirely. It seemed to me that the entire thing was really just built around the multi-player component (which was done flawlessly) and that they eprhaps let the story carry the game a little too much. I really missed those open area battles with lots of troops on eother side and a nice collection of vehicles.

It probably didn't help that they forced you to play as the Arbiter, when if you're like me, you believe the only good Covenant is a dead Covenant .

Here's to hoping that we get what we were originally promised with Halo 2 - a full scale battle for Earth.

Galactic Civilizations II - The game Master of Orion III should have been
Now then, I picked up GalCiv II after hearing all the good press from places like Penny Arcade, Gamespot and the like, and I've got to say, they hype wasn't far off. GalCiv II is certainly the game Master of Orion III should have been. Beyond some small gripes I have with the gameplay elements and ship construction, the game certainly is a masterpiece.

Another thing that has endeared the game to me is the fact that you don't need to have the disc in the drice to play. Call me the laziest person on earth, but a lot of times I just don't feel like trying to find where I put a specific game disc. Stardock feels that the reputation of their games and the ability for legitimate users to download free content is all the copy protection they need, and I for one thank them for it. It's nice to be treated like a customer instead of a criminal sometimes.

So go fire up Stardock Central, load patch v1.1 and get moving!

Reggie Bush named EA Sports NCAA Football 2007 cover athlete
Hot off naming NFL MVP Shaun Alexander as the cover athlete for Madden 2007, EA today announced that USC running back and Heisman Trophy winner Reggie Bush will be the cover athlete for NCAA Football '07. When asked about the honor, Bush showed a bit of his gamer side;
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“This has been an amazing year for me and being chosen for the cover of NCAA Football 07 is a great way to end my college career, I’ve grown up playing EA SPORTS games and never imagined I would see myself on the cover of one.” - Reggie Bush

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As I was posting this, the Houston Texans announced that they will be taking North Carolina State DE Mario Williams with the first pick in the draft.

Man, why didn't the Jets trade up for the #2 pick earlier in the week, we could have had Bush!

GEARS OF WAR OFFICIAL WEBSITE NOW LIVE
If the rumors are to be believed, Emergence Day is sometime in November so Microsoft can take some thunder away from the Playstation 3 behemoth. With the possibility of a playable demo of Gears of War appearing on Live during E3, the anticipation is beginning to hit a fever pitch. To push you just a bit further over the edge, Epic Games has now launched the official Gears of War website. Head on over to www.gearsofwar.com and check it out!
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The more I see of Gears of War, the more Emergence Day seems just too far away, even without a tentative date. Join with me in hoping that a playable demo is premiered at E3 and that it quickly finds it's way to the Live Marketplace.

Datel releases Max Media Player for Nintendo DS
Well, it looks like Datel is at it again. As I posted in an earlier news bit, recently Datel has been coming out with some truly innovative products. The latest to down the pipeline is the MAX Media Player for the Nintendo DS. Simply put, it's a 4 gigabyte hard drive and software package that will allow you to listen to MP3's, watch videos, view pictures on your DS and uhm... run executable files. It's a bit expensive at a suggested retail of $189.99, but if you want a device with those features, such is the price you'll pay. How well does it work? That I couldn't tell you, but I'd be interested in hearing from anyone who's picked one up.
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So, do you think that for the price it's worth picking up? If you've purchased one, how well does it work? Inquiring minds want to know!