Late Night Consoling

The previously rumored Xbox Live auto-update for Xbox 360 did in fact go live today. While it doesn't seem quite as feature-packed as earlier estimates suggested, it's a little hard to tell what exactly some of its features entail, as they are rather vague. The official announcement notes that the update contains:

* Improvements to the Xbox Guide.
* Option to retain your saved games when you delete a profile.
* Increased accuracy of "last time played."
* Network configuration improvements for Xbox Live members in the Netherlands.
* More detailed messaging for unreadable disk or region errors.

Perhaps slightly underwhelming, but at least it's free. Though it was of course not officially announced, several reports have surfaced around the internet suggesting that one of the purposes of the patch was to remedy minor flaws that allowed Xbox 360 owners to run burned versions of a demo kiosk disc. Some hackers were hoping to exploit the opening for the purpose of running homebrew code on the console.

Nintendo finally sent out an official announcement today regarding the North American release date of its big-in-Japan IQ exercising software Brain Training. Unfortunately renamed the slightly less catchy Brain Age (DS), the game will launch April 17. It features a collection of brief mental challenges, which is uses to determine the player's "brain age" (younger is smarter, apparently, which makes me more wary of babies than I used to be). Brain Age also includes Sudoku, the suddenly explosively popular logic game. The second title, Big Brain Academy--called Brain Flex in Japan--will launch May 30. It features a series of short tests which can be taken by up to eight players using one cartridge.

The Brain Training series has been the major driving force behind the DS, along with Nintendogs, in Japan. It has become renowned for introducing gaming to demographics who would previously never have purchased a game console. Nintendo's press release seems hopeful that it will do similar things in North America, suggesting that the games are well suited to Baby Boomers who wish to keep their mental acuity sharp. The series will likely have a slightly tougher time than it's been having in its home country, however; while salarymen with Game Boys has long been a common sight in Japan, it's not exactly a way of life in the US.

If you're a PSP owner and you like racing games, you probably feel pretty well taken care of. Just in case, though, Namco Bandai is bringing the World Rally Championship series to Sony's portable console. The WRC franchise of games has spanned four titles on PS2 developed by the UK-based Evolution Studios, though only the first of those four was released in North America. The portable version is being handled by Traveller's Tales, the developer best known for LEGO Star Wars (PS2, Xbox, GCN, GBA, PC).

WRC PSP will feature 30 licensed rally cars with tracks spread over 16 countries. It also supports local wireless multiplayer. The game ships this March.

The Golden Raspberry Award Foundation has announced the nominees for the 26th Annual RAZZIES, which celebrate the "Worst Achievements in Film." Video game films actually made out not too badly, lacking any actual Worst Picture nominations, possibly because it seems mainstream Hollywood was working overtime to ensure healthy competition for its game-adapted counterparts. Tara Reid got a Worst Actress nomination for her role as the "genius anthropologist" in Alone in the Dark, The Rock was nominated for Worst Actor in Doom, and--of course--the good Dr. Boll received a Worst Director nod for Alone in the Dark. For the rest of this year's nominations, check out the official site, but be warned--one of the randomly selected banner ads contains a loud and fittingly obnoxious looping noise.

Ubisoft sends word that the company will be holding an IRC chat session about the Xbox 360 multiplayer features of Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter. It will take place on irc.ubisoft.com, on February 2, 11:00AM Shacktime. For the full details check here.

EGM interviews Rare's Duncan Botwood regarding Perfect Dark Zero (X360).

The San Jose Mercury News has a story on the possibilities offered to a quadriplegic gamer by the Nintendo Revolution.

GamesIndustry.biz's Rob Fahey explains why the DS Lite is a good idea.

GameSpot has a designer diary for Reflections' Driver: Parallel Lines (PS2, Xbox) and Ubisoft's Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter (PS2, Xbox, X360, PC).