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Nokia N8 benchmarked against N97, makes it look old and busted
Nokia's new hotness, the N8, is starting our week off in fine style. Finest Fones, what looks to be a Symbian-only mobile news site, is reporting its own tests done with the handset that show it comfortably outpacing its predecessor. Of course, in these fog of war-obscured times (before proper hardware is dished out), we can't really be sure of the veracity of what we read, but Symbian^3's newfound ability to exploit graphics hardware seems to be paying off relative to the more primordial ways of the S60 5th software on the N97. The intrepid investigators found a 180 percent performance delta between the two phones in Speedy Go! tests, while the N8 ran through a cycle of FPC bench 3D with perfect 60fps scores each and every time. We won't be convinced by the purported 680MHz CPU inside till we test it out for ourselves with a load of widget-heavy homescreens, but early signs seem to be encouraging.
Deca Sporta isn't all about fun in the sun
So far, with the exception of basketball, everything we've seen from Hudson Soft's Deca Sporta is meant to be played outdoors under the glow of the summer sun. That's not all there is to the game, however -- the latest updates have revealed the colder side of the minigame collection. In both a recent Shonen Jump and official shots from the developer, they've revealed curling, figure skating, and snowboard cross, bringing the total of known games up to the magic number: ten! Things are looking good graphically, there's a wide range of games included, and Deca Sporta is set to debut in Japan this December. The only thing left we could ask for is a release date outside Japan -- and we hope to hear about that soon.%Gallery-7109%
Ubisoft 's double standard for awful game titles
Ubisoft's Imagine Babies is part of its Imagine series of presumably budget games for girls ages 6 to 14 years old. And what do little girls like? Cooking, clothes, and taking care of animals and babies, of course! As troublingly insulting as the thinking behind the Imagine series is, the execution of the products is even more so. Take the UK Imagine Babies boxart seen here (and everywhere from Play.com to NeoGAF), complete with iStockphoto watermarks still in place. Could less money or effort have been put into this? Your commitment to young female gamers is apparent, Ubisoft. Also, isn't this one of those cases in which playing with dolls might be better accomplished with actual dolls? After all, we expect there's a reason Nintendo debuted Nintendogs and not Nintenkids, teenage pregnancy rates and the horror of starving babies aside.
DS Daily: If you designed a random sports title ....
So we've seen figure skating and curling, and after GameSpot's recent glut of screenshots, now there's Wiffle Ball for the DS. It's a veritable cavalcade of random sports, from the interesting to the not so much. But everyone's tastes are different, and we're not gonna be the ones to ask what's up with wiffle ball. We'll leave that to you guys.Today's questions stem from these forthcoming sport titles, and there are a few things we'd like to know. How do you feel about offbeat sports making an appearance on the DS? The five people who knew how curling was played expressed interest, but can wiffle ball spark the same reaction? What other sports might you enjoy seeing turned into a portable game?
Probably not coming to the US: Figure Skating DS
Yep, this one's probably not for us, but it's so cute that we couldn't resist. If a DS skating game did see an English language release, it's the sort of thing we might play in the closet, so that no one knows our secret dark obsession with landing that perfect double axel. Also, if it wasn't quite so tee-hee pretty ... it's a little too glittery for our taste, but the concept is solid. Winter sports tend to make for fun gaming forays.[Via GoNintendo]
