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Week in Review: SSB Brawl Tourney, KOTOR III Announced, Mad Catz HDMI Converter, and more!

Week in Review: SSB Brawl Tourney, KOTOR III Announced, Mad Catz HDMI Converter, and more!

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As usual, Nintendo got us off on the right foot with a solid pair of Virtual Console releases. Harvest Moon and Lords of Thunder are both rated “E” for Everyone and they’ll set you back only 800 Wii points.

Nintendo also announced that they will be hosting three panels during GDC 2008. The special guests include Takao Sawano, Takashi Aoyama, and Masahiro Sakurai.  They will speak to GDC concerning Wii Fit, the Wii Dashboard and Channels, and Super Smash Bros. Brawl.

Additionally, Nintendo has partnered with Best Buy to host four Super Smash Bros. Brawl tournaments in NY, MA, and two location in CA.

Microsoft also announced that Discs of Tron would be available for download from the XBLA on February 15, 2008. The game has been completely overhauled by Disney Interactive Studios to be crisp and brilliant in HD.

Ubisoft made virtual assassins everywhere happy with their announcement that Assassin’s Creed will release for the PC in March of this year. Moreover, the PC edition will treat gamers to additional exclusive content. It will still be rated “M” for Mature and will retail for $49.99.

The Ubisoft camp also revealed that My Weight Loss Coach will come out for the Nintendo DS. There is no word whether it will also release for the Wii or when exactly it is slated to hit retail stores. My Weight Loss Coach joins games like My Word Coach and My Spanish Coach to help casual gamers with lifestyle choices.

The Madden franchise tightened its stranglehold on interactive football gaming by extending its exclusive NFL rights contract until 2012. EA SPORTS, the NFL, and NFL PLAYERS firmed up the deal mid-week which gives the gaming juggernaut exclusive rights to develop, publish, and distribute interactive games of NFL teams, stadiums, and players.

EA really rocked the collective gaming boat this week by announcing to investors that KOTOR III, a new Burnout, a new Lord of the Rings title, and an MMO are all in the works! Rumors surrounding the KOTOR III title included a theory that the Knights title would actually be an MMO. However, according to the company’s statement it looks as if they will actually be separate entities.

Additionally, military strategists should be happy with the announcement from EA that Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 will release on the 360, PS3, and PC. There is no official release date information as of yet, but a fully cooperative campaign is promised.

Devil May Cry 4 looks to be on the right track. According to Microsoft, on Saturday the 9th the demo of the game reached the 1 Million download mark. It was the first game to do so this year and one of the fastest to do so in the history of Xbox LIVE.

2K Games announced its intention to take the gaming world by storm with a deal with Epic to use their Unreal Engine 3 for a spate of as of yet unannounced future titles. The Unreal Engine is typically used for FPS and heavily detailed action adventure titles. It also creates games that are easily ported between consoles and PCs.

Mass Effect is not only releasing DLC for the Xbox, but it will also be coming out for the PC. The best RPG of 2007 is set to launch in May of 2008 with a few additional PC-specific features.

Rumors and fear were put to rest by a spokesperson for Rockstar who stated that GTA IV would in fact have multiplayer online support for both the Xbox 360 and PS3. The statement came on the heels of a rumor that was started by a misinterpreted statement from Microsoft’s Major Nelson. He stated that certain multiplayer support features would be “unique to 360.” Bloggers interpreted that nugget of information to possibly mean that there would be no support at all for the PS3 version.

Mad Catz is looking to help early 360 adopters out by offering a new HDMI converter that will change analog audio and video output from your Xbox 360 to a digital signal that is carried via HDMI cables. It supports full HD at 1080p, is compatible with the HDMI 1.3 standard and will retail for $89.99.

On Friday three games were announced or dated that should get your juices flowing. Activision announced the development of Guitar Hero: Aerosmith, Naruto: Ninja Destiny will hit shelves on February 26, and April 22 nd marks the release of Square Enix’s The World Ends with You.

Finally, the folks at Blizzard have scheduled a tournament for the World of Warcraft. The tourney will cost you $20 to enter and will allow participants to instantly battle 3-on-3 with epic level characters. The winners of each region will then advance to the final in Paris in June and play for the chance to win $75,000.

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