Nintendo Wii successor coming in 2012

New York: The successor to Nintendo's hit Wii console will arrive next year. In disclosing its plans Monday, Nintendo Co. didn't say what the new system will do. The Japanese company plans to show a playable model of the new console at the Electronic Entertainment Expo, which runs June 7-9 in Los Angeles.

Nintendo has dominated sales of video game consoles and sold 86 million Wiis since launching it in 2006. The Wii caused a splash with its innovative motion-sensing controller. Sports-style games such as baseball and boxing let players move their arms to simulate the pitching of a ball or the throwing of a punch. Nintendo also makes a step-board accessory, the Wii Fit, that allows players to try dance steps or yoga.



The Wii setup has been copied and elaborated on by the other major console makers since then.

But the Wii is showing its age. Even when it launched, it was behind the other consoles of the era, Sony Corp.'s PlayStation 3 and Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox 360, in not offering a high-definition image.

The modest hardware of the Wii has also meant that while Sony and Microsoft have been able to update their consoles with new capabilities, the Wii has seen only relatively minor updates, such as addition of the optional Wii Fit and the ability to play Netflix movies.

Microsoft launched its Kinect game-control system last fall. Using a 3-D camera, depth sensors and voice-recognition software, it recognizes your face, voice and gestures as you move around and talk, without requiring you to hold a controller or wear a headset. Sony, meanwhile, began selling a Move controller that is essentially a higher-tech version of the Wii remote.

Nintendo announced plans for the Wii successor as part of its financial results Monday. Nintendo said its annual earnings dropped for the second straight year as sales declined. It's expecting sales to increase again in the fiscal year that just started, thanks to its new handheld 3DS device, which launched last month.

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Nintendo's new 3DS: Gaming is just the beginning...

Nintendo 3DS, a glasses-free 3-D handheld video game system, arrives March 27 for $249.99.

Nintendo hopes it will make the strongest case yet for 3-D special effects affordability and relevance. But calling it a gaming console may be the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American public.

Gaming, it turns out, might be among the least of the system's capabilities.

The device will also deliver an array of other fully-connected entertainment experiences, according to Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime at the 2011 Game Developers Conference.



From 3-D movies to TV shows, digital music to augmented reality applications, the company is clearly assigning tremendous importance to non-gaming applications.

Though they won't say it directly, Nintendo clearly plans to make the system a Trojan horse for the larger world of 3-D multimedia. This should scare the competition. It's an infinitely more practical, and reasonably priced, 3-D argument than a $1500+ HDTV that tethers you to your couch.

If Nintendo can make this portable device as common and trusted for 3-D entertainment as smartphones are for e-mail or Web surfing, it may single-handedly deliver the breakthrough that carries this technology to mainstream prominence.

Yes, the system will play 3-D versions of premium game franchises like "Street Fighter" and "The Legend of Zelda," says Fils-Aime. Yes, in the wake of increasing pressure from tens of thousands of readily available free and 99-cent apps, it will redouble efforts to justify $39.99 average software prices by offering "premium experiences you can't get anywhere else."

But with free AT&T WiFi hotspot availability, Netflix movie streaming and the ability to create, download and physically interact with 3-D content among its arsenal of tricks, the company may have yet to play its trump card.

The system lacks 3G/4G high-speed connectivity, and Nintendo is known for ardently policing material licensed for sale or distribution -- virtually or otherwise -- for its consoles.

But by letting users view, download and generate a variety of 3-D material, the system could prove to be the most cost-effective and practical on-demand 3-D content portal on the market.

Should Nintendo decide to enable sharing of user-generated content or enable the three-camera device for high-speed cellular connectivity and casual videoconferencing, the scope of this potential power play becomes even larger.

While a dedicated stand-alone gaming system such as the Nintendo 3DS can't rival smartphones or tablet PCs for sheer ubiquity, consider this:

If 3-D technology takes off the way manufacturers hope, Nintendo's new device may give them an instant entrée into entirely new areas of entertainment, a leg up in the race to legitimize 3-D content and a secret weapon in the war to reclaim the territory recently ceded to Apple and its growing gaming focus.

Softendo Cradle of Persia...

We tend to find puzzle games addicting, and Softendo Cradle of Persia is no exception. There's nothing particularly remarkable about this game, but it's lots of fun.



The program's interface is plain and attractive. The object of the game is to collect money, materials, and food to build a new city. In practice, this simply means solving a series of increasingly difficult puzzles. Cradle of Persia is another variation of the ever-popular tile puzzle; in this instance you drag your mouse over at least three matching tiles to make them disappear, and to advance to the next level, you must clear the board of certain "marble plaque" tiles.

As the game advances there are various additional challenges and rewards, but the premise remains the same. As far as we could tell, the city-building aspect of Cradle of Persia is incidental and just a way to build some narrative around what is otherwise a pretty run-of-the-mill puzzle game.

Still, the game is enjoyable, and we appreciated the fact that it came with basic instructions and the option to turn the music off and on. It was very similar to many other games we've reviewed, but that's not necessarily a bad thing; like its brethren, Cradle of Persia kept us enthralled way longer than we had intended.

Downloads

Experience the original sights, sounds, and gameplay that made these games classics in the arcade. Every roar and flash is identical to the original. Arcade Classic Arcade Pack includes nine games: Asteroids, PacMan, Frogger, Hexxagon, Pong, Snake, Space Invaders, Tetris, and Tic Tac Toe. The software includes online score-keeping capabilities so you can compete against players worldwide. Arcade Classic Arcade Pack is not supported by advertising, nor does it require registration, and no information is collected from or about users. It is very small and addictive and comes complete with full install and uninstall wizards.

Version 5.0 fixes bugs in Asteroids game, features (M)ute and (P)ause hotkeys, and adds new games--Frogger, Hexxagon, and Tic Tac Toe.

Reduced: 67% of original size [ 762 x 566 ] - Click to view full image

Download Arcade Classic Arcade Pack 5.10

Just a quick reminder about Openwares the previous developer of this software;

Openwares.org is just a a new type of scam site. This site REPACKAGES free and open source software projects and bundles them with malware such as spyware and dialers. Worse still, the owners of Openwares.org have been purposely filling CNET's download.com with fake versions of software, including many P2P file-sharing apps and security / user protection applications such as PeerGuardian and ProtoWall.

Live for Speed - Online Racing Simulator...

Live for Speed is a small development team dedicated to making the best online racing simulation. Our current release is S2 with which we attempt to recreate the thrill and fun of real racing, by simulating all aspects important to racing. Varying racing environments and cars which can be setup by an abundance of options - all on your home pc.



So what will you find in LFS S2? The DEMO allows you access to 3 cars and one racing environment that has both a road and a rallycross course. The cars available are a front wheel drive hatchback, one rear wheel driven road car and the Formula BMW, a single seater. These three cars make for a good all round impression.

The FULL version adds five more racing environments, a big test area and 17 additional cars. The test area contains many configurations: a skid pad, a drag strip and an autocross area, plus an editor to create your own autocross tracks.



There is a lot of community activity. Our forum has become the centre of communication and is a huge resource of information, help and additional downloads for the game. But it doesn't stop at our forum - localised communities have sprung up all over the world.
Leagues are being run on nearly every continent, varying from sprint to endurance races. All your actions online are recorded and made available to you at LFS World where we also have the hotlap charts for the offline side.

Online Game Link : Click Here