Nintendo Wii Fanboy

Veterans Day this year will be marked by silences, parades, and a bunch of people buying the latest Call of Duty game. Previous speculation that Call of Duty: World at War would launch in November has now been confirmed -- World at War will appear on November 11th, hopefully giving Wii owners an accomplished shooter to play before The Conduit arrives on the scene.

For some time, Activision has promised us that the (Zapper-compatible) Wii title will be "comparable" to versions on other consoles, based as it is on the Call of Duty 4 engine. We'll see how robustly such claims hold up a couple of months from now.

For those of you looking to get your hands (or your Zapper) dirty in the Pacific theater, know that the Treyarch-developed Call of Duty: World at War will be hitting shelves this November, according to OnlytheGames. They're claiming an Activision PR rep divulged this info to them and we're inclined to believe it. November seems to be a good month to release games.

Joystiq managed to pry a statement from Activision: "we haven't made any announcement about date other than fall of 2008." Oddly enough, November falls right into that timeframe.

[Via Joystiq]

During Nintendo's E3 keynote today, the promotional reel of third-party titles showed us something different about Call of Duty: World at War for the Wii. It will utilize the Wii Zapper!

Aside from a brief clip of a young gentleman having the time of his life with the game, Wii Zapper clutched firmly in his hands, we've nothing else to report on the matter. But, then again, what else more would you need? It supports the Zapper.

[Updated: Now with JC talking about things!]

With so many highlights from this year's Nintendo E3 keynote, we're finding our live chat wasn't enough to cover our thoughts and opinions on what was shown. So, below, you'll find some impressions akin to what we did last year. Enjoy.

Call of Duty: World at War has hit the intertrons! The official COD domain has always been a general-purpose website, but the latest information for the upcoming shooter has been granted its own dedicated section with a whole range of groin-grabbing goodies.

The whole point of the site is the get involved with everything Call of Duty. You'll sign up and create your profile, and from there you can complete a variety of "missions" to earn points and level up. This include posting in the forums and taking part in polls, but you'll unlock more missions the further you progress within the site.

Why does this sound like a video game? It's a website -- but a pretty good one at that. The Intel and Reconnaissance (that is, news and media) sections should be updated regularly, and a developer blog is up and running. Off you go, then!

[Via press release]

While many of you are wondering how Call of Duty 5 ... uh, won't suck on the Wii, check out Joystiq's interview with Treyarch's Mark Lamia. He talks about the Wii version, how it will include online play and also has its own team dedicated to the Wii version of the game. It's a pretty interesting interview that covers some of the concerns Wii gamers have for the title, so head on over and check it out.

Even though it was revealed earlier, a recent press release has confirmed co-op gameplay in the upcoming Call of Duty: World at War. While the other versions boast four-player online killfests, the Wii will have its own gimped "unique co-op mode for two players."

It's not all downgrades for the Wii's World at War. Senior producer Noah Heller is confident in its capabilities, claiming "It's going to look better than any Wii game I've ever seen on the market." Also, despite the online and co-op changes, developer Treyarch says "For all intents and purposes it's the same game." Top stuff, because Call of Duty 3 wasn't entirely up to scratch.

Hit that big play button up there to check out the debut trailer for World at War. Officially it's footage from the 360 and PS3 version, but since it's "the same game," the Wii shouldn't miss out on too many of the heart-beating battles in the above video.

[Via press release]

Call of Duty is one of the biggest names in gaming today, and the hard-fightin' adventures of World War II soldiers just keep coming, ready for twitchy trigger-fingers to blast some baddies. The Wii had a taste of the action with Call of Duty 3, even though it couldn't match the super-fine graphics featured on the other consoles.

In development at Treyarch, Call of Duty 5: World at War is coming to all three consoles -- but this time, the Wii gets a bit more TLC. It's being developed by a separate team, although the graphics will be much more comparable between the different versions -- apparently running the COD4 engine on the Wii. That's no slouch, folks, as the COD4 engine was stunning.

We can expect vehicle and squad-based additions to the multiplayer, along with ZOMG! a full co-op mode. That's pretty hardcore, because this isn't your church-picnic Call of Duty. Apparently, the setting will be far "grittier" than anything we've seen in the series thus far, which means plenty of grizzled soldiers standing around looking badass with cigarettes, simultaneously getting their violent on. This all goes down in the Pacific theatre of WWII, where hectic battles were commonplace.

We want great games to be commonplace on the Wii, and COD5 is shaping up nicely. Stay tuned for more details as they arrive!

Wii owners can expect some new Activision games to hit their consoles in the not-so-distant future. To state the obvious first, a new Guitar Hero game (possibly two) will find its way to the Wii and other consoles by the end of Activision's next fiscal year (which ends in April 2009).

You may be even more excited to know, however, that the next Call of Duty installment will also end up on the Wii (among other platforms). This is good news, since Call of Duty 4 skipped over the little white console. Don't get too excited, though -- this doesn't necessarily mean that the next game will be Call of Duty 5.

We also wouldn't be surprised if Activision's other two sequels (one for Tony Hawk and one for Marvel: Ultimate Alliance) hit Wiis. The company promises innovation with it's next Tony Hawk game, which piques our interest for the title a bit. Does this mean the game will make use of the Wii Balance Board, or does Activision have another trick up its sleeve?

Every Tuesday, Mike Sylvester brings you REVOLUTIONARY, a look at the wide world of Wii possibilities.

Metroid Prime 3 has proven indeed that a Wii Remote and Nunchuk is the next best thing to a keyboard and mouse for first person shooting and action. Although we have few FPS titles being developed and released on the Wii (relative to party games and family-friendly content, or the main attraction of a certain other platform), the genre is among the most popular in the scripting community. This is naturally so with FPS being a favored genre among hardcore PC gamers and hardware enthusiasts.

With the recent release of the demo version of Call of Duty 4 and its imminent final release, I felt it was time to pick up arms and serve you a script for this spectacular shooter.