Late Night Consoling

Electronic Arts has announced the latest in its long running series of World War II-themed first person shooters, Medal of Honor Vanguard for PlayStation 2 and Wii. Today's press release was fairly light on gameplay details, beyond stating that the Wii version of the game will "take full advantage of Wii's one-of-a-kind controllers." It appears that the game should be fairly standard Medal of Honor fare in most respects. Senior producer Matt Sentell commented, "Medal of Honor Vanguard features a strong storyline told in classic MOH fashion." The game puts players into the role of paratrooper Corporal Frank Keegan of the 82nd Airborne Division, who must fight battles throughout Europe behind enemy lines.

Medal of Honor Vanguard is being developed by EA LA. Electronic Arts plans to ship the game for PlayStation 2 and Wii in March 2007.

California-based developer inXile entertainment today announced that it has acquired the enormously popular online Flash game Line Rider, created by Bostjan Cadez. Additionally, inXile and Cadez now plan to bring the game, described by its creator as a "toy," to Nintendo DS and Wii. No concrete details were released as to the specific content of the upcoming console games, but today's announcement indicated that they will feature new features not present in the Flash game.

"I have been around the interactive entertainment industry long enough to have seen similar phenomenon like Tetris and Bejeweled become massive international hits, and Line Rider has all the elements to do the same. Line Rider is like a fully animated Etch-A-Sketch and will be perfect for the Nintendo DS and Wii," said inXile CEO Brian Fargo, known for founding publisher Interplay Entertainment.

inXile plans to ship Line Rider for Nintendo DS and Wii in spring 2007.

Nintendo today announced that a beta version of Opera Software's web browser for Wii will be available this Friday, December 22. It appears that the software will be fully featured, including Flash support, despite its beta disclaimer. After its release, the browser will be offered in the Wii Shop Channel for free until March 2007, at which point the final version will be released. That software will be free as well through June 2007. From July on, it will run 500 Wii Points ($5); users who have already downloaded the browser at that time will not need to purchase it.

In celebration of the upcoming launch, Opera Software sent over this announcement comic featuring a ninja and a kitty.

Following yesterday's report that the Wii Forecast Channel had gone live in Europe and Australia, Wii owners today discovered that it has gone live in North America as well. To enable the Forecast Channel, update the system's software from its options menu.

Microsoft's Xbox Live Arcade Wednesdays program continues this week with the release of Carmageddon developer Stainless Games' new combat driving game Novadrome. Novadrome has the player manning heavily armed buggies to combat alien robots invading Earth. Some 20 vehicles are fifteen arenas are included in the game, which features Career and Arcade single-player modes as well as an eight-player multiplayer mode. This marks the second Xbox Live Arcade release following this year's Crystal Quest, and the company has several additional projects in the works for Microsoft's game download service.

Stainless Games' Novadrome will be available this Wednesday, December 20 at 1:00am PST for 800 Microsoft Points ($10).

Despite being announced last month for an early 2007 release, it seems Virtual Toys' Nintendo DS tennis game Rafa Nadal Tennis will be managing to reach retail shelves in 2006. Publisher Codemasters today announced that the game is slated for release on December 27, 2006.