234w ago - WipEout HD is hard. If you've played the game, you probably know that and, if the newest patch is anything to go by, the developers at Studio Liverpool have also realized this.

The new WipEout HD patch v1.20 reportedly makes gaming life a whole lot easier. The patch allows you to change the difficulty setting within campaign mode to novice, skilled or elite just like in other modes. In turn, this changes the medal requirements which makes completing things a much easier task.

To quote: Updating the game to version 1.20, which will happen as soon as you start the game, will make getting medals in campaign mode a lot easier. You can now change the difficulty setting within campaign mode to novice, skilled or elite, just like in other modes. This changes the medal requirements, making completing the game a much simpler experience.

It also means the difficulty ramp for the game is far less steep, as you can blitz through on novice, then change up to skilled and then, eventually elite. The medals look different for each difficulty, so you can clearly see on which mode you've completed each task.

This doesn't help with the most difficult trophies, but at least completing the game is actually possible for normal humans. So, if you haven't played WipEout HD for a while, give it another...

247w ago - Curious what ex-Team Ninja head Tomonobu Itagaki has been up to since leaving Tecmo back in June? Our own James Mielke journeyed all the way to Tokyo to score this exclusive post-Tecmo interview with the father of Ninja Gaiden, and boy is it a doozy.

Always quick with plenty to say that can stir things up, this beefy chat with the admittedly drunk Itagaki is overflowing with gems. For example, Itagaki likens the decline of Japanese game development -- and most other things -- to aerial dogfights:

"For instance, look back to World War II. You had aerial dogfight battles with 600 planes on each side. And then, as we got into, say, the Korean War, it was maybe 50 or 60 per side. And in modern times, with modern jet planes, you only need one or two to fight a battle. So you certainly see a progression like that, but I look at it as someone who likes fighter planes and thinks they're really cool. The fact that fighter planes themselves have dwindled in number is certainly somewhat regrettable. But I still like fighter planes, and I think they're the coolest type of plane there is.

If that takes things a little too abstract for your tastes, the former Dead or Alive designer also dispels the notion that the PS3 is too difficult to develop for:

"One more thing I would add is...

255w ago - Teknecal has released his Homebrew Browser application. This neat little app allows you to grab the latest homebrew applications and games all through your Wii. No longer will you have to take your SD card out to load the files or transfer the files from your computer to the Wii or even use your computer. Once you install a homebrew application and you no longer want it on your SD card, you can delete it as simple as that!

Download: Wii Homebrew Browser v0.1.1

No more dead links, no more extracting files, no more finding out if there is an icon.png and meta.xml in the homebrew application/game!

Note: Not all applications/games are included yet. They will be added over time.

Here is a rather dodgy YouTube video of it in action. Now all we need is an app to install the homebrew browser app....