Merry Chistmas, Micro-Transactions for All!

As you may have noticed in the past, I am not a massive fan of micro-transaction. I feel that many micro-transactions rip gamers off unless they add a good bit of content to a game. Examples of this are the Horse Armour for Oblivion and the Viva Pinata Accessory Packs, both of which have come under heavy critism for costing money while adding very little to the game.

Thankfully, a few developers have gotten into the Christmas spirit and have released free downloadable content for games on the 360. The first of these is a festive pack for GTA clone, Saint’s Row. It includes skins and clothes.

The second is slightly better, since it adds a decent bit of content to ELIV: Oblivion. Bethesda are making the Mehrunes’ Razor plug-in free from today until December 31st. The pack contains an additional dungeon, a decent number of new items and an opportunity to find Mehrunes’ Razor which is easily one of the best weapons in the game.  Unfortunately, this is only available on the 360 and doesn’t apply to the PC version.

For those of you without 360s, Firaxis has made additional Christmas content available for Sid Meier’s RailRoads! including two new quests, a new engine, seasonal goods and a new environment type. It can be downloaded here.

Blogging With Opera for Wii

I am writing this entry using Opera for Wii. I’m also hoping that I’m the first person to do so. Mainly so that I beat Joystiq to it, but also for the sheer novelty of it.

Opera for Wii isn’t a massive download. It took me less then a minute to download it on an 8mbit connection.
It’s quite nippy as a browser as well, easily equalling the performance of Firefox 2.

It’s layout is very simple. Along the bottom of the screen is a bar with the Back, Forwards, Refresh/stop, Favorites and Start buttons. When you start up the Opera Channel you are presented with the Start Screen witch gives you the option to enter a URL or go to a favorite page or the help screen.

All text is input using the Wii-mote and the on-screen keyboard. This feels very natural, however it is very time consuming. There is predictive text, but I’ve only been using it to check my spelling. It also has a few bugs in it, for example, it doesn’t let you write a word in capitals using the shift key.

Web-pages are hard to see on default zoom, [At this point, the on-screen keyboard refused to let me input further text and I resorted to my trusty MacBook]

Web-pages are hard to see on default zoom, but you can zoom in with the + and – buttons. Unfortunately this means that on many web-pages you will have to scroll from side to side as well as up and down. Scrolling is done using the B-button and pointing the Wii-mote up or down. It feels a bit awkward, but is certainly usable.

I cannot see Opera for Wii becoming a replacement to a computer based browser. On a standard sized CRT, it just doesn’t do the job well enough. The limit on text input is also annoying and limiting. Time will tell however, since this is the trial version and I will hold off my final verdict until I see Opera’s final launch version and it’s performance on a 720i television.

UK Government Plans New Games Policy

There’s been a lot of talk about gaming regulations in Europe recently. First of all the came the attempted German crack down on violent games, which could lead to many games being banned within Germany, followed by the European Commission muttering about regulating games development.

Now the British Government are getting involved, but unlike most incidents where games and politics combine, they seem to have a fairly sensible idea. Basically, the Labour MP Keith Vaz wants to set up a group to examine what should be done to educate parents about game ratings.

I see this as a largely positive move. One of the major problems when it comes to the negative backlash against games and gamers is the fact that many people (especially parents) don’t understand gaming or the attraction of it. It’s too much to hope that one minor Government initiative will change that, but there is a ratings system on games in the EU at present and a lot of people don’t seem to realise this.

At least for now we can remain happy that our city councils don’t mind the Grand Theft Auto game series being publically advertised and that Edinburgh City Council often use Rock Star North as evidence of the city’s booming electronics industry.

[Via MCV UK]

EU Virtual Console Releases

One of the best things about Xbox Live Arcade is the fact that it’s launches are mostly global. It makes them very easy to report on and to find out about upcoming ones.

Unfortunately, the Wii VC release are regional, so while you might have seen a lot of announcements saying that Super Mario Brothers will be yours on Christmas Day, it’s incorrect (if your resident in the EU).

Nintendo have posted the EU VC release list for Christmas at Nintendo Europe, and we are catching up with the US and Japan. Coming this week are Toejam & Early (said to be one of the best MegaDrive games) and Donkey Kong Junior.

The full list includes:

NES:
Donkey Kong Jr.
Soccer
Tennis

SEGA Mega Drive:
ToeJam & Earl
Space Harrier II

TurboGrafx:
Military Madness

Hopefully, SMB will come to the EU sometime in the New Year.