Wii Gaming News

As 2009 draws to a close, the videogame industry finds itself in even more of a state of flux than usual. Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft all arrived at a crossroads as their consoles entered their third and fourth years on the market, and they acted accordingly. The payoff won’t become apparent until next year, but this was the year each company set their foundation for the rest of the generation.

In the meantime, we were reminded daily that the industry was not as “recession proof” as it once seemed. Studios and publishers closed their doors or cut back, and many moved their games into 2010 to avoid a bleak looking holiday season. Wii sales finally began trending downward after years of outsized success, and losses were reported by company’s great and small.

But in the face of all the dire news, there were more outstanding games than ever before, with the likes of Uncharted 2 and Batman: Arkham Aslyum leading the pack. Nice to know some things never change. Here’s some of the top news from a difficult, but nevertheless bountiful, year of transition for videogames.

2009 had its fair share of big releases and announcements, but we saw quite a few cancellations as well. The economy seemed to make publishers nervous and pull back on just about anything but the surest successes. So, as another part of our ongoing retrospective, we’re going to take a look at the games you might have been playing or looking forward to right now… if the plug hadn’t been pulled.

The most publicized canceled game this year wasn’t actually canceled at all, though we all thought it was. Duke Nukem Forever suffered a setback when 3D Realms shut its doors, and this was seen as the death knell for the longest-lasting vaporware in the industry. Reasons behind the move were plentiful, but it didn’t take long for 3D Realms to show itself again, pointing out that the studio as a whole wasn’t shut down, and it retained the rights to Duke Nukem Forever. The team working on Duke was let go, but we recently heard CEO Scott Miller state that it “doesn’t correlate to the demise of the project.” So Duke Nukem Forever isn’t dead, but it may well be in a deep coma.

Other canceled projects were only discovered in the aftermath of shuttered studios. When GRIN closed late in the year, it teased an “unreleased masterpiece that we were not allowed to finish.” Less than a week later, sources confirmed that the unfinished game was actually a western-developed Final Fantasy game being worked on with Square Enix. There was plenty of concept artwork to go around (above), but rumors spread that Square hadn’t paid GRIN for the work, instead arranging a deal to pay when the project was finished. That lack of funds may have helped lead to the studio’s closure.

The previously announced Paul McCartney DLC isn’t all that’s in store for Rock Band fans next week. Harmonix also has downloads lined up from blink-182 and The Ramones, as well as some tracks by The Psychedelic Furs that just scream 1980s.

Paul McCartney’s live track pack will go for $5.49 (440 Microsoft points), as will the three-pack of blink-182 songs. Single tracks will be available for the regular $1.99 (160 Microsoft points; 200 Wii Points) each.

The following DLC should hit the Xbox Live Marketplace and the Wii’s in-game music store next Tuesday, January 5. PlayStation 3 owners will find them that Thursday, January 7.

• “Band on the Run (Live)” by Paul McCartney *
• “Jet (Live)” by Paul McCartney *
• “Sing the Changes (Live)” by Paul McCartney *
• “Adam’s Song” by blink-182
• “First Date” by blink-182 *
• “I Miss You” by blink-182
• “Love My Way” by The Psychedelic Furs *
• “Sister Europe” by The Psychedelic Furs
• “Rock ‘n’ Roll High School” by The Ramones *

Dragon Age: Origins‘ next DLC, “Return to Ostagar,” isn’t too far off now. BioWare has announced a January 5 release date for the PC and Xbox 360 versions of the upcoming add-on, which will set you back $4.99 (400 Microsoft points; 400 BioWare points). A PlayStation 3 release will follow later that month.

What’s the skinny on this DLC? Mild spoilers from Dragon Age’s main quest follow, so consider yourself warned. The add-on sends players back to Ostagar, the final resting place of the betrayed King Cailan — not to mention a whole mess of also-dead Grey Wardens. From there you’ll be able to investigate the fallen king’s secret political agenda, and maybe even reclaim some of his fancy weapons and armor along the way.

No word as of yet on what we can expect from future DLC for Dragon Age, but BioWare has gone on record that they’re planning on up to two years of additional content for the game. So if this “Return to Ostagar” business doesn’t float your boat, then you’re probably safe waiting for something that does.

As games get more cinematic, the trailers are only going to get more elaborate. This year brought us great efforts from the likes of Bungie, Rockstar and Valve, with trailers featuring everything from live action sequences to the voice talents of Patrick Stewart. Here are some of our favorites.

Nobody could have guessed that Nintendo and Team Ninja would team up to make a new Metroid game. The unlikely pair managed to get off to a good start though, kicking off the hype with one of the most talked about trailers of E3.

2009 had its ups and downs – lots of downs – and more than a few times the gaming community flexed its considerable muscle to tell the industry it was mad as hell and not going to take it anymore. At least, that was the theory. In practice, most of the rage this year fizzled for one reason or another. They say time heals all wounds, and that’s true; but good PR certainly helps.

No where was this more evident than the Left 4 Dead 2 boycott. What started as a grass-roots movement in Valve’s own community grew to encompass over 30,000 members. Valve defended the game, but ultimately found there was no solution as effective as mollifying the leadership. The heads of the boycott were flown to try the game for themselves, and soon after the protest was declared over. The game is selling well, and while some boycotters are still staying away, others have decided to take part in the zombie-killing festivities.

Speaking of online petitions, the burgeoning Starcraft II community had a flare-up of their own. After Blizzard announced the game won’t include LAN play, angry gamers started a petition insisting that it be included. It now stands at over 244,000; now try to guess how many of those are actually unique, individual people. This is one reason why developers don’t take these kinds of petitions seriously.