The Smash Bros. Brawl website seems to have been given a nice, yet quiet, update.

The homepage of the ever-famous game has a new look as well as some interesting new content. No new characters have yet been announced (at least from the ones we know of), but there is a placeholder for a "Characters" category on the left, giving us hope that they will be revealing them as it draws closer for the game's release.

One very nice post on the site shows off various composers that are creating the musical ambiance for the game (many of which a few of you can probably pick out as notable). They even gave a very nice demo of the Smash Bros. theme song that we all have memorized willingly or not:

It also seems that the core game mechanics have not changed: the game is still about increasing the damage percentile on your opponent(s) until it becomes easier to knock them off of the stage, ending their gaming careers prematurely. A few updates have taken place, though, beyond just a beautification of the characters and environments: for example, the damage/player icons now feature the player's name and a portrait of their character as well as the classical damage meter and character-related symbol (such as the Triforce for Link or Mushroom for Mario).

Here are a few very nice pictures showing off the gameplay I am sure you are familiar with:

The level that the two are battling on is also quite (in)famous to many Smash Bros. players: Battlefield. This level is known for being quite barren, only having a large basic land-mass and three platforms. This time around, though, instead of having a bare environment, too, the level looks quite stunning with the natural feel added in.

I just hope that in the next few days, they begin to announce new/additional characters, as the game is to come out before Christmas at some point. 

StarCraft 2 was announced during the South Korea WWI (Blizzard's "WorldWide Invitational" Event).

No current release date has been stated, but it seems all of South Korea is very excited for it.

The interface for the game is said to resemble the layout of StarCraft 1 (why fix what isn't necessarily broken?). The graphics and lighting, of course, are heavily upgraded and optimized, so the game looks similar to StarCraft 1, but adds a greater level of detail.

New units, of course, have also been announced such as a Protoss mothership that can create black holes and airships that can fire lasers.

Below is a nice screenshot (provided by IGN) of a Zergling Rush (kekeke):

The logo for StarCraft 2 also pays an obvious homage to its predecessor: it's simply the same logo with two bars behind it (signifying "II" or "2" in roman numerals for those who do not know).

Below is the trailer shown at WWI (videotaped, of course); enjoy:

Near the release of Internet Explorer 7, the Mozilla team likewise has released FireFox 2.0. This new release includes a much more fresh visual interface, a reorganized preferences/settings panel, anti-phishing capabilites, spell checking for forms, session saving/restoration, RSS feeds support and much much more! A definate download for any web developer or people wanting to break away from Microsoft's always broken Internet Explorer.

Recently, Nintendo has spilled the beans on the Wii: it will be released on November 19th, 2006 for $250. Included in the package will be Wii Sports for free. The following is the layout of various prices for various Wii items:

Hardware:
Wii - $250
Wiimote (Remote) - $40 (The Remote also functions as a memory card, it seems)
Nunchuck Wiimote Attachment - $20
Classical Controller - $20

Wii Operating System (WiiOS?):
Picture Gallery (Editor, Video player, etc.)
Opera Browser (Must be bought - expected $10-$20)
Weather
News Articles
Chatting Message Boards ("Mii")
"Wiipoints" Currency (2000 Wiipoints = $20 USA, $24 Canadian, 2000 Yen)

Virtual Console:
NES Games - $5 (500 Yen)
SNES Games - $8 (800 Yen)
Nintendo 64 Games - $10 (1000 Yen) 

Games:
Manylaunch titles (too many to list!)
Metroid Prime 3 is delayed until 2007
Pokémon will be one of the first online games for the Wii.
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess will be available on launch day for the Wii. The GameCube verison will follow on December 11th.

 Also, The Official Wii Website has been updated to showcase most of the features of the Wii! There are a great number of videos and exciting things to see.

Nintendo's upcoming console, dubbed "Wii", is to take a new direction by having a new unique controller. This controller's design is to simplify the button scheme and decrease the complication of the controller. Recent news from an interview between USA Today and Nintendo's Reggie Fils-Aime (you might recognize him as the main speaker from Nintendo's E3 Announcement) has clarified that the online service for the Nintendo Wii wil be free of charge. This, not to be confused with the Virtual Console which will have its games costing a small fee, will surely be new area for Nintendo, only following their Nintendo DS's free online gameplay, and it seems they are doing it right so far. Rumors around the Wii have also produced the idea that the console might have a voice-to-text system that will adjust the font-size and color based on how the user speaks. Definately something very interesting; I just hope we don't see people advertising by screaming their website's address at their Wii constantly.

Finally, I've updated the website! After months of redoing the site and making it XHTML compliant, we're ready to rock once more! As you can see, the page is cleaner and much more slim!

If you happen to find any problems with the site, please feel free to contact any of the staff and it will be fixed as soon as possible.

A new, rather large, feature has also been added to the website. A review system has been created so that you may review anything you can think of - ranging from anime and computer hardware to books and music, so go out there and start posting your opinions!

Along with the update to the website, the Quantum Raiders Shop has also been updated with all new apparel! 

As you can see, the new Quantum Raiders Apparel is very nifty and very much inexpensive so be sure to snag a few!