Snowboarding? Boring. Mountain biking? Boring. Surfing? Boring. All these and more are extremely dull, or at least that’s what Wacky World of Sports would have you believe. Sega thinks we have too many games based on the normal extreme sports, so they’re bringing little known and fictional ones to the Wii in the form of yet another minigame compilation.

As you can see in the trailer the game includes such ‘wacky’ sports as extreme ironing, tuna tossing and cheese wheel rolling. I’m thinking that mud sliding is probably also real, but I very much doubt you jump out of a plane in order to participate in the ’sport’.

I’d like to say that this is a completely original idea for the Wii, but after telling you about extremely long nails in Guinness World Records: The Video Game (which, strangely enough, I now own) it’s not really that surprising. However, if this strangeness is not to your taste then you have Activision’s upcoming Big League Sports: Summer and Nintendo’s Wii Sports Resort to play when the family comes to visit.

The next instalment in the amazing Total War series – Empire: Total War – has been delayed. Originally scheduled for February 6th 2009 the game is now slated for early March. It’s only a delay of a few weeks, but any delay to The Creative Assembly’s popular franchise is sure to frustrate some fans.

Kieran Brigden, Studio Communications manager at the developer, told Kotaku that the day will allow them “to finalise and polish Empire, making it the most accomplished and epic of the Total War series.” Also, a new feature was announced.

“Significantly, the additional time will also allow The Creative Assembly to implement the underlying technology for a much desired feature: a multiplayer campaign mode. An opportunity to participate in the one versus one multiplayer campaign mode beta will be made available to all who purchase Empire: Total War post release.” – Kotaku

Seems like a nice change from your normal skirmish mode!

I’ve always been a big fan of the Total War series, so my anticipation for Empire is through the roof. The battle engine is so historically realistic and packed with tactical options that the BBC’s Time Commanders used the game’s engine to recreate famous historical battles. Empire: Total War is looking a thousand times better (if that’s even possible), with gorgeous graphics that allow you to zoom right down to the heart of a battle. Plus, there’s now naval combat.

You can pick up Rome: Total War for as low as £6.16 if you don’t already have it. I’d also recommend Medieval II: Total War, which further improves on Rome.

If you’ve just picked up Sega’s Football Manager 2009 today then you may find that, upon rushing home and ripping open the case, the game will refuse to authenticate when trying to activate your CD key online.  Since the game requires you to complete this process in order to play then, understandably, people are annoyed. Sega has responded to complaints with an apology and a possible solution:

“SEGA is aware that there have been some problems with the activation of Football Manager 2009 today. This has been due to a combination of issues relating to the printing of keycodes and the huge demand for the game,” reads a SEGA statement.

“A solution is in place and is starting to clear the problem, we are confident that the issue will be solved today. The chances of successful authentication are increasing hourly. At this point consumers still experiencing difficulties are advised to leave a 10 minute gap between authentication attempts.

“SEGA apologises for the disappointment caused by the problems with activating the game and asks for Football Manager fans to remain patient,” - Eurogamer

Technical difficulties and incomplete games seem to be the norm these days, and it’s getting a little worrying. I understand that things can happen which developers didn’t originally foresee but gamers not being able to play the game they paid money for is really unacceptable. Also, has DRM really combated piracy? It seems that piracy on the PC is as strong as ever, which doesn’t look well for the future of PC gaming. Developers/publishers need to come up with something new that doesn’t infuriate (such as Valve with Steam) if the future of PC gaming is to be stable.

Update:

There’s been a somewhat overwhelming response to this article, so I’d like to point out a few things.

I do not have a fix for your Football Manager 2009 problems, nor can I give out CD keys (which is, by the way, illegal). If you are coming here to find a fix then I direct you to the Football Manager 2009 website where you can contact Sega support, or ask in the forums there.

Hope that helps!

Well, take a wild guess. The picture above this isn’t a hint or anything, really!

Well, ok,  I lied. The UK’s favourite video game character has been named as none other than Sonic the Hedgehog in a poll marking the launch of this year’s London Games Festival. The poll only involved 500 people, so while it’s still pretty unrepresentative of the UK population as whole it’s still pretty interesting to see the most liked characters of those who grew up with them.

Sonic gained 24% of the vote while Mario followed in a close second with 21% of the vote. Lara Croft’s boobs propped up third place with 16% while Donkey Kong drooled in fourth place with 11%.

Here’s the full list:

1. Sonic the Hedgehog (24 per cent)
2. Super Mario (21 per cent)
3. Lara Croft (Tomb Raider) (16 per cent)
4. Donkey Kong (11 per cent)
5. Pac Man (10 per cent)
6. Link (The Legend of Zelda) (5 per cent)
7. Max Payne (4 per cent)
8. Pikachu (Pokemon) (3 per cent)
9. Niko Belic (Grand Theft Auto series) (2 per cent)
10. Blanka (Street Fighter) (1 per cent)

Other (3 per cent)

If you feel like playing a game with the nation’s favourite you can always take a look at our range of Sonic titles. In my opinion 90% of them are pretty bad, so maybe it’s for the best if you just stick to the original Sonic games. Then again, there’s always the animated Sonic series if you feel like reliving Saturday mornings when you were 12 years-old (maybe that’s just me).

(Via Kotaku)

You’d be forgiven for being sceptical about Stormrise, after all it’s yet another attempt to bring the RTS (Real Time Strategy)  genre to the console. While there have been a small few RTS games that have worked well on a console (such as Command & Conquer 3 Tiberium: Wars) the genre just doesn’t seem to translate well from a mouse and keyboard to the fiddly console pad. However, developers aren’t giving up yet and games such as Tom Clancy’s Endwar (which makes use of the headset mic to give orders to troops) are coming up with novel ways to make the genre adaptable. Plus, there’s that small fact that Stormrise is being developed by Creative Assembly - the guys behind the amazing and incredibly immersive Total War series.

Stormrise dispenses of the point and click method, a method that is incredibly efficient with a mouse and keyboard but leaves the player - especially those just coming into the RTS genre -   largely frustrated. The new method involves flicks of the analog sticks to select units rather than having to click on them. The game then takes the perspective of what that unit can see which, and if you can see it then you can go there. However, the click and drag interface can still be used to move troops around from another unit’s perspective. It’s supposed to mean less frustration and less error and will hopefully lead to far more fluid battles, if Creative Assembly is to be believed.

The maps will be true 3D rather than your usual overhead view, sort of like Company of Heroes. Units can go up and down buildings, in-between them, over their roofs or, to top it off, underneath them in the caverns below - or all of the above at the same time. This will hopefully lead to the player having far more choices when it comes to making tactical decisions, and should mean that you’ll see some pretty epic battles.

Normally I wouldn’t question the quality of a game that Creative Assembly puts out, but we are talking about a console RTS here. I’m hoping for the best though, and maybe you should to. Post-apocalyptic games have also been done to death, but it’s what’s done with the setting that counts - just like it’s what’s done with the RTS genre that counts. We’ll see if the new control scheme works sometime next year for the Xbox 360, PS3 and PC.