Capcom have announced that they are to close down the online infrastructure for Monster Hunter Tri on the Wii on April 30th. This is to make way for the imminent release of Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate which launches in March.

In this Behind the Scenes video for the upcoming Wii, XBox 360 and PlayStation 3 title "Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two", Warren Spector and other members of the development staff talk you through the various abilities that Mickey and Oswald will have at their disposal.

Enjoy!



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You don't really need much more than the headline I guess. A press release has revealed that Epic Mickey 2 is in the works, due for the end of the year for PS3, 360 and Wii.

I'm surprised there isn't a WiiU version announced, perhaps that's on the cards. And good news for fans of the original, Warren Spector is still involved

It's been a long time coming, but I've finally completed Rage

Steam reckons I've played it for 22 hours, I'd guess about 13, which is a pretty decent length for an fps nowadays, especially as there's still a few side missions I haven't touched.

I've got to say once the game started working properly I really enjoyed it. The shooting is near peerless, which really hit me towards the end when I was using the more powerful weapons liberally. It does tension too, I've talked about it before but playing through the mutant areas wearing headphones was as tense as I've been playing a game for a while.

One criticism that I've heard and would agree with is that the end, while I knew it was about to arrive, it isn't exactly a climax. There's no boss, which is arguably commendable, but what's there was fairly easy and then you get a 10 second cutscene. Great game though, I hope id are allowed to make a sequel.

Elsewhere, and a completely different tone, I've started The Legend of Zelda Skyward Sword (that's going to be annoying to type). I'd heard it starts slow and it certainly does. I don't really blame Nintendo for it though, they need to roll out the plot without trialising it, and teach you new controls, it was never going to be done quickly.

I think I'm at the point where the game really starts, it certainly seems like more is being expected of me in combat. I've not really got the hang of it, but you can see that you need to attack a certain way depending on how the enemies are holding their sword. Also the game looks great, both thanks to its filter and my tv doing a bit of work. I don't mind Wii games not looking up to much, I've put up with it for years, but it's nice that my new tv can help smooth some of the rough edges

For those of you who are a sucker for punishment, Ubisoft have released the original Prince of Persia on the online stores for both Nintendo's 3DS and Wii.



Prince of Persia costs £4.50 on the Nintendo 3DS eShop and 800 Points on the Wii Virtual Console.

Nintendo have uploaded a trailer for the Wii Mistwalker RPG The Last Story, which just happens to be one of the games that has become a part of the "Operation Rainfall" in the US due to its lack of announced date for release on the other side of the pond.

As for over here, you can pick it up on February 24th.



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I don't think it's a massive surprise to anyone that the long announced Dragon Quest X is not the same game we saw very briefly all those years ago. Back then it was pretty much going to be more of the same on the Wii, of course with Wii sales dropping off, and the impending release of the WiiU, the weekends Dragon Quest Conference was bound to announce at least a change of platform.

But that's not all, yes Dragon Quest X will now be on the WiiU as well as the Wii (with improved graphics for the former), but rather than just a retreading of a familiar framework this 10 is going to be a Dragon Quest MMO.

There's a video below but it's difficult to pull any detail from it, and so far all we know is that it's due next year, both versions will be compatible with each other, there may be a subscription fee, and Square are toying with the idea of some sort of 3DS functionality.

Cant say it's what I wanted from the series but it'll be interesting to see how this turns out, and what effect it has on WiiU sales

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I suspect you'll be able to find the Wii cheaper than its new r.r.p of £129.99 (with either Mario Kart and wheel, or Wii Sports and Wii Sports Resort) if you shop around online, but it's getting down to the point where it's cheap enough to pick up as an impulse.

Still I'd guess just about everyone who was going to get a Wii will have one by now, so of more interest is the new Nintendo Selects budget range.

The initial batch of Selects games are Wii Sports (oddly), WarioWare: Smooth Moves, Mario Strikers Charged Football and Animal Crossing: Let's Go to the City.

If I can make a request of Nintendo, can you please release Metroid Prime Trilogy next

I've been saying for a while that what the world needs is another Shining Force. A proper one though, not an action rpg, just a new take on the old strategy rpg style.

Well I can't promise that, but Shining Force is returning, with more details to be released soon.

SEGA's Tsuyoshi Sawada told 1up

"Currently, we're preparing a title that sums up the whole series and should provide an answer to users' curiosity. I can't give details yet, but I'd like to reveal it before we go too far into the future."

"We redeveloped and resurrected the name as SEGA shifted from hardware to software, and the goal for the games I've worked on is to target a large swathe of the userbase and do something that hasn't been done before with the series. That's still the direction I take today."