The Wii60. Its one of the most annoying buzzwords I’ve ever heard this console generation. If you’re a gamer then you should already be familiar with the moniker of  the “Wii60″. If not, then where the hell have you been? But I’ll simplify it for you anyways. It’s a play on words combining the Wii and Xbox 360 together resulting in what we now call “Wii60″. The term rosed with popularity by gamers who own both the Nintendo Wii and the Xbox 360 consoles, acknowledging how each console compliments one another in aesthetic style, ability, and purpose. For those who can afford to buy the two (let alone get their hand on a Wii in the first place) considered it to be the perfect console gaming combination to own, allowing for gamers to safely fall in each into each “good console owner” categories and getting the best value and quality for your money. Thus totally shunning out the much hated Sony PS3 altogether. In forums, those who do own both console would often say they have a Wii60. Hell there’s even a site called Wii60.com! Unfortunately, due to the 360’s widespread famed RROD hitting everywhere, alot of Wii60’s suddenly just became Wii and brick 60s. Personally, I hope it does end because I think the term sounds stupid anyways.

But for gamers who won’t let the dream die, fear not because as reported by Siliconera at CES, the ITC One not only fits both the Wii and the 360 into a giant tower-PC like box, but ”the home theater in a rectangular prism also includes an iPod dock, HD personal video recorder, ICEpower amplifiers and Bryon Digital Surround Processor.” It was created by a company called “Se2 Labs” and asked whether or not the PS3 can fitted in there for a Blu-ray player and the response was no since the PS3 “is not user friendly and it doesn’t have access to a Windows Media Center.” Ahh perfect news for Sony haters then. So whats the price? Only $25,000. Just enough to actually buy 41 separate Wii60s (250 for a Wii and $350 for an Xbox 360 Premium).

So with that said, who’s gonna go camp out in front of Best Buy for this?

Holy shit, this is frickin cool and this guy is a genius (well to someone stupid like me he is). A couple months ago I made a post about his “Minority Report” style finger tracking using the Wii. This fella Johnny Chung Lee, a Phd graduate student from Carnegie Mellon has been doing some really fancy hacks on the Nintendo Wii since then. In this particular hack, he makes VR header tracker using the wii-mote and the result visual effect is cool as hell. He explains in a very easy to understand manner of how realistic visual perspectives can enhance the gaming experience.

If game developers are watching this, they should definitely consider perspective bending like this to be the next evolution of features in future gaming and consoles. Its just way too cool to ignore…not to mention very cost effective to market ($$$).

See his other video of Wii hacks (including another cool whiteboard trick) here at his site.

This bit of news is probably plastered all over the web by now but in-case you missed it, word on the street is that a 3rd party Wii peripheral “Psyclone Wii Recharge Station” can damage your wii-mote permanently if the battery is full and is continued to be charged. The result causes the wii-mote to overheat and melt it’s internal components, thus rendering your waggle waggle contraption useless. It should be noted however that Psyclone’s website does warns users not to leave the batteries charged for an “extended amount of time” or it will be damaged. Not a good sign already when the actual company has warnings about it, heh.

Yes we all agree that the wii-mote can suck the life out of the 2 AA batteries faster than Jenna Jamison in the movie……Yeah anyways, currently there is no official charging station from Nintendo, but for $40 to replace a wii-mote can be a bit much for some people. Personally, I’ll stick to the replaceable batteries myself. You can easily go pick up a pack of 36 Energizer AA batteries from Home Depot for $12.89.

But if you don’t believe in using disposable batteries because you are environmentally-conscious or something and absolutely must use rechargeable batteries, take a look at other available 3rd party Wii charging stations :

•  - NYKO Wii Charge Station
•  - Enforcity Charging Station
• - Intec Wii Dual Charge Station & Turbo Cooler
• - Cables4PC Dual Wii Blue Light Charger and 2 Rechargeable Battery Packs

We have all been waiting patiently for Nintendo to release their own wireless nunchuck but it looks like Nyko has beat them at their own game. Price and release date is said to be unveiled at CES. Until then sit back and look at the pictures in-front of you.

Soon buddy…. soon.

Link: Full Details at IGN

With the influx of light-gun shooter games being released recently, Wii gamers around the world can finally rejoice that we can actually make good use of all these light gun attachments that are available. I stated before that general design of the Wii and the wii-mote itself makes for a very versitile game system, allowing for more immersive and interactive gameplay - especially for light gun shooter games. Now is the time to enhance the experience a little more with bountiful number of attachments that are available.

Among the light gun games available right now include : Resident Evil : Umbrella Chronicles, Link’s Crossbow Training, Ghost Squad, and in an included special mode with Medal of Honors Heroes 2. The granddaddy of arcade light gun shooter, “House of the Dead” has also been reported to be coming to the Wii in the near future. Not to mention that some gamers has even been playing games such as Metroid Prime 3, and Resident Evil 4 with light gun attachments (although I’m not quite sure how).

I have yet to actually try out a light gun attachment myself, but is definitely looking forward to trying one out in the near future. In the mean time, let us examines the ones that are available now.

The Wii Zapper

This is the official light gun wii-mote attachment from Nintendo themselves. Shigeru Miyamoto states that the concept for this attachment was formed when the wii-mote was created. Unfortunately Nintendo couldn’t get it out faster than the other 3rd party peripheral makers. The Wii Zapper is named in reference to Nintendo’s first light gun, the NES Zapper. Original designs in 2006 showed the Wii Zapper to resemble more of a shot-gun type shape attachment, rather than sub-machine design of its finalized state. The setup would require the player to use two hands to hold the Wii Zapper, but since most players are more likely to hold the num-chuck in their dominant hand and the trigger with the other would lead to a very awkward experience.

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I saw this on Joystiq.com earlier today but didn’t get a chance to post it until now. One of the coolest Wii trick I’ve seen in a while, and its quite simple to test out on your own. With this neat trick, you can essentially track movements on the Wii with just your fingers - not that this will replace the Wii-mote anytime soon since it doesn’t take motion sensor into account (at-least not yet).  The cool thing is that you can even track multiple movements as shown in the video, thus potentially performing actions similar to what Tom Cruise does in “Minority Report”.

I can already sense 3rd party peripherals makers seeing green ($$$) and jumping out of their pants to develop something out of this neat concept. Hopefully its not just another “Power Glove” clone. But for others, this could also lead to some interesting ideas for future WiiWare developments.