Activision's apparently gotten around to fixing Guitar Hero 3's mono-only sound problems over at Australia. The company has recently sent the region an email detailing when and where its residents can pick up their replacement discs. The Activision memo's available for viewing in the full article.

 

The Game Developer's Association of Australia (GDAA) is announcing that early bird registrations are now open for this year's Game Connect: Asia Pacific 2007 (GCAP 07) conference. The conference - formerly known as the Australian Game Developers Conference - is hoped to be a gathering place for the discussion of best practice, learning, and growth of game development.

In line with these goals, the organizers have invited several well-known gaming industry personalities as guest speakers. Here are among the more notable people that were announced at the GCAP site:

• Paul Holman, Vice President of Euro R&D, Sony Computer Entertainment
• Pete Isensee, Director XNA Development Connection, Microsoft
• Jason Della Rocca, Executive Director, International Game Developers Association
• Careen Yapp, Vice President of Licensing and Business Development, Konami Digital Entertainment, Inc.
• Tony Albrecht, Senior Engine Programmer, Pandemic Studios
• Susan O'Connor, Writer, Susan O’Connor Writing Studio
  

We're also informing the readers that nominations are now open for the GCAP's upcoming GDAA and Independent Games Awards. The GDAA Awards is Australia and New Zealand's award for game developed by studios in their home territories. The Independent Games Award covers winners for both Best Unsigned Game (Professional), and Best Unsigned Game (Indie) categories.

Nominations for for the GDAA Awards 2007 will end October 31, while nominations for the Independent Games Awards will end October 26. Votes for both will be done so by the GCAP delegates from November 16 to 17, with the conference scheduled to run from November 15 to 17.

This year's GCAP event is expected to take place at the Melbourne Convention Centre, in Melbourne, Australia. Those interested can read up on the finer event details at the GCAP official site via the provided read link.

 He's not David Beckham, but in EA Sports' upcoming premiere soccer sim, FIFA 08, Melbourne Victory striker Archie Thompson will be the flag bearer for the A-League as it joins the FIFA series as one of the official playable competitions in the game.

Small compared to its other European counterparts, the A-League will finally get a chance at the limelight as it joins 29 other international leagues in this long-standing football sports franchise.

Also joining the roster of new leagues are Gambrinus liga of Czech Republic and FAI Premiere Division of Ireland. Archie Thompson will be carrying the name of Australia and New Zealand as their official ambassador for the game.

Thompson, perhaps most known for breaking the world record of most number of goals scored in a soccer game, was excited with the A-League's inclusion in FIFA 08. He had this to say:

I know that plenty of the boys at Melbourne Victory enjoy playing video games so it’s fantastic that we can now play as our favourite Hyundai A-League club either in a league or against other international Clubs.

Expect the release of EA Sports' FIFA 08 by September. It will be released on multiple platforms, namely the PC, PS2, PS3, Xbox 360, DS, PSP, and Wii.

Continuing a long-running industry tradition, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment has announced a video game tie-in for next year's Speed Racer movie. Speed Racer will be released for Nintendo's Wii and DS video game systems once the movie hits theaters next year.

The Wii version of the game will reportedly be developed by New Zealand-based Sidhe Entertainment. It will let gamers play as one of the characters in the movie for some combative racing behind each character's signature vehicle. Details for the game's DS version have yet to be revealed.

"Speed Racer is an exceptionally creative property and teamed with the Wachowski brothers' vision it makes for action-packed racing gameplay," said Samantha Ryan, Senior Vice President, Development and Production, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. "The game will capture the intensity of the racing in the film to give gamers and movie fans a chance to take the wheel after they experience the film."

Vivendi Games Mobile, a division of Vivendi Games, is giving European mobile phone subscribers a chance to win a Nintendo Wii video game system in exchange for their "worst ever date" stories.

"Terrible dates are something that everyone experiences but few ever really talk about, so this is a chance to celebrate Larryness and engage in some collective laughter therapy courtesy of Nintendo and MySpace," said Paul Maglione, president of Vivendi Games Mobile.

This contest is part of Vivendi's campaign to drum up support for the recently-launched mobile game Leisure Suit Larry: Love for Sail. The game is now available on wireless networks throughout Australia, New Zealand, and across Europe. Leisure Suit Larry: Love for Sail will soon be launching on carriers in North America as well.

Those interested have until August 8 to post their worst date story to the Leisure Suit Larry: Love for Sail Myspace web page and add Larry as their "top friend." You can click on the Read link to head there. There will be five winners in all - one each from the UK, France, Germany, Italy and Spain.

These days, GameStop has a lot of reasons to celebrate. It's working on an industry that's growing every day, it's posting some serious numbers financially, and has recently opened its 1,000th store outside of the US.

The Texas-based game and console retailer has opened new stores recently in Italy, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and Norway to hit the thousand-store milestone. Prior to that, the company has already branched out to Ireland, Switzerland, Australia, Guam, New Zealand, Puerto Rico, Austria, Denmark, Finland, Germany, and the United Kingdom.

GameStop points to the booming hardware sales led by Kyoto-based Nintendo with its DS handheld and Wii console. Microsoft and Sony are also pitching in with the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3, respectively.

Total sales posted by the retailer last year amounted to US$ 5.32 billion and is expected to grow even more this year as hot demand continues for pole platforms. The first quarter of fiscal 2007 saw GameStop with its best quarterly performance ever with US$ 24.7 million in profits while gross sales were at an all-time high of US$ 1.279 billion.

 

USK is Germany's software rating organization, much like the ESRB in the U.S. and Australia and New Zealand's OFLC. Over at the group's official online site, two retro titles have just been rated anew to be included in the Virtual Console's library of video games. The titles are Dragon Spirit and Devil Crash.

Namco's Dragon Spirit first appeared back in 1987 on Namco System 1 hardware but was later ported to other platforms. Personally, I played the NES version called Dragon Spirit: The New Legend from not so way back. The game is a vertical scroller where players control the blue dragon Amul to save the Kingdom of Mitgult's princess, Alicia.

Devil Crash, meanwhile, is more popularly known as Devil's Crush in North America. It was released back in 1990 on the TurboGrafx-16. There's nothing much to say about this game really because it's basically a pinball simulation game. Probably the game's most notable feature is its rather eerie theme with the tables oftentimes covered with demons and ghouls.

There's still no mention as to when the two titles will be available for download. And lastly, in case you really want to know, Germany's USK stands for Unterhaltungssoftware Selbstkontrolle.

To prevent the sale of of Manhunt 2 and Grand Theft Auto IV, Jack Thompson is suing Take-Two Interactive on the week of March 19. He previously tried to stop previous games such as Bully from being released. His reasons for contesting the release of the two games are consistent with his previous cases.

He is doing this to "prevent the sale of two hyperviolent video games set to be released this year and sold to anyone under 17 years of age." Now, from what we've seen, all of the games which Mr. Thompson has been complaining about has been given a rating of at least M for Mature by the ESRB. This rating means that the game is not to be sold to anyone under 17 years of age.

Now, Mr. Thompson does have a point: it is wrong to sell these games to children under 17. The ESRB set the rating there for a reason. However, the problem might stem from the findings of The United States Federal Trade Commission which stated that despite the 'Mature' rating on video games, they are still sold 42% of the time to kids under 17.

While we feel that it is necessary to lower that number, it is important to realize that the ESRB has no legal backing and is simply a voluntary system set up by retailers. It should also be noted that major retailers such as Best Buy, GameStop, Walmart, and others have agreed not to sell M games to children below 17.

It was also said that "Take-Two aggressively markets its games to children" by posting its ads "in video game publications purchased by hundreds of thousands of kids under 17" and "on public transport in major US metropolitan areas." While this may be the case, video game magazines also cater to gamers who are of legal age. In addition, buses are also used by people who do play games and are old enough to play these games.

From all indications, it looks as though Mr. Thompson has his sights set on the target. More news on this as we get more information.

Well, what do we have here? Nothing much...only an utterly comprehensive list of what you Aussie gamers can expect to come out for your favored next-gen consoles and handheld platforms. Thanks to PALGN's update and to the publishers Activision, EA, THQ, and Ubisoft for generously providing the list of their launch titles, you can now sift through it and mark that day red on your calendars.

The list, as it is comprehensive, is really long, so you would definitely want to be patient going through the whole thing. However, while the dates are official, the prices for the games have not been confirmed yet, so you better keep it posted here for more updates on that. But we don't think it's gonna go way above current retail levels, so no need to fret right there.

Here's the list:

Xbox 360

October
12: Import Tuner Challenge
13: LMA Manager 2007


Wii

December
7: Call of Duty 3, Marvel Ultimate Alliance, Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam, Blazing Angels: Squadrons of WWII, and Wii Console + Wii Sports


PSP

October
12: B Boy, Capcom Puzzle World, and NBA Live 2007
19: Ape Academy 2, Big Bobble Evolution, and Ridge Racer


Nintendo DS

October
19: Disney's Little Mermaid Ariel's Undersea Adventureand Disneys American Dragon: Jake Long, Brick em All
26: Clubhouse Games, Mario Hoops 3 on 3, and Horsez

See the full list after the jump!

In a recent announcement made by Nintendo, the price and date that the Wii will be available in New Zealand has finally been revealed. So, for you Kiwis out there, the date to remember would be December 7th of this year, and the price to save up for will be NZ$499, or the equivalent of US$331.

The Nintendo Wii is one the much-awaited next-gen consoles that is set for release later this year. Its philosophy lies in trying to immerse the player in the game even further by making the player go through the actual motions required by the game, thus raising the interactive factor. It also aims to be as user-friendly as possible to enjoin casual and non-gamers to play more. The Wii also carries a line of games, which supports up to four players in order to promote group play, hence, placing a balance on the "Wii" and the "I". To further their cause in getting everyone playing, a Wii console has recently been awarded to Ben Underwood, future inventor, actor, writer, and game designer who is blind. Despite his visual disability, he is still able to play a game on this console.

The Wii plans to integrate itself into everyone's everyday life, with their feature, the Wii Channels. These channels allow the Wii to not just be a household's entertainment tool, but an information and news hub as well since people can get news, weather updates, and music on the Wii. On top of the games and the channels, the Wii also has a picture editor.