At the Game Developers Conference, Nintendo has confirmed that the upcoming Wii release Pokemon Battle Revolution will count among its numerous features the ability to be played over Nintendo’s Wi-Fi Connection, making the game the first Wii title that is playable online. In addition, the game will also be the first to allow connectivity between the Wii and the Nintendo DS, and the first that can be controlled using Nintendo DS

When Wii and Nintendo DS are linked, players can use their Nintendo DS handhelds as controllers or import characters from the upcoming Nintendo DS games Pokemon Diamond or Pokemon Pearl. Pokemon Battle Revolution launches on June 25.

“With strong third-party support, Wii and Nintendo DS have games on the way for both casual and veteran gamers,” says Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime. “Our new ways to play have attracted millions of players around the world. This lineup demonstrates our commitment to leading the industry with the future of video gaming.”

While today, the third day of the 2007 Game Developer’s Conference, was filled with presentations with epic speeches and personalities, perhaps few stood out as much as Mark Rein and Epic Game’s demonstration of the ever popular Unreal Engine III and its associated projects. While the team demonstrated Unreal Tournament III for the PlayStation 3 (“It hasn’t come very far since we last showed it because we were working on that little game for the Xbox 360”), one of the stand out quotes from the event came following the Q&A session when everyone was exchanging business cards and talking to Rein is a more casual sense.

When asked about the possibility of bringing Gears of War to the PC, Rein laughed, but then offered matter of factly that that bringing the third person shooter to the PC would not pose much of a problem for Epic. He even went so far as to say that it will “probably eventually happen,” adding “and I can guarantee that it will not require Vista.”

As one of the key points in Sony’s Phil Harrison’s keynote speech today at GDC 2007, the executive invited development upstart Media Molecule up on stage to demonstrate their new PlayStation 3 project, a seemingly innocuous title called LittleBigPlanet. However, benign as it may seem on the surface, the demonstration proved that the developers, whose previous claim to fame was the physics-driven Rag Doll Kung Fu, are primed to break the mold for what we expect from user created content.

In the most simple terms, LittleBigPlanet plays out like a natural evolution of other content driven titles such as Line Rider, only here up to four players collaborate to not only create the levels that populate the game, but also adventure through either their own levels, other those created by others and shared over the PlayStation Network.

The game begins with players learning about their character’s powers to interact physically with the environment. There are obstacles to explore, bits and pieces to collect and puzzles to solve – requiring a combination of brains and collaborative teamwork. As players begin to explore, their creative skills will grow and they will be ready to start creating and modifying their surroundings – the first step to sharing them with the whole community. The more they play, the more that can be shared.

The demonstration showed a pair of characters creating trees, flowers, and blocked through what appeared to a be a fairly intuitive menu system. Eventually, however, the demo moved onto a completed level, with four characters cooperating and using the game’s emphasis on physics to manipulate the environment in order to get to the end.

It’s unclear if there will be more to the game, or if this idea of creating and sharing levels is in fact the core impetus. Truthfully, it could be enough, as even from my seat some 40 feet from the screen, I could not help but be enticed. LittleBigPlanet is easy on the eyes, and given that it seems to afford players such unprecedented creativity makes me hearken to the endless hours spent in front of the Bard’s Tale Construction Set or other mod tools making my own games – if only for my own amusement. Only here, there is no level editor. The game is the level editor. You can even edit the level as you play, to what end is anyone’s guess.

A fully-featured sample version of LittleBigPlanet is expected on the PlayStation Network this fall, with a full version expected to be made available in early 2008 for retail.

Speaking during a presentation titled “Game 3.0: Developing and Creating for the 3rd Age of Videogames,” Sony’s Phil Harrison delivered one of GDC’s hotly anticipated keynotes this morning, and as expected it delivered more than a few punches. Unlike the company’s lukewarm presentation from the most recent E3 event, this keynote featured enough to get even the most jaded enthusiast at least a little excited about Sony’s plans for the PlayStation 3, particularly with regards to its online prospects care of what has been coined simply “Home.”

Touting the potential of what Harrison called Game 3.0, the executive spoke enthusiastically about Home, which will enable users to create their own avatar and explore a real-time virtual community, as if they are playing a PlayStation 3 game. The service, which bears more than a passing resemblance to The Sims 2 or virtual community Second Life, will become available globally beginning in fall 2007 as a free download from the PlayStation Store.

Just as each room and avatar will be able to be customized with free content, premium content will also be able to be purchased. Also, games will also come with game-specific content as well, so purchasing a game will allow players to introduce game related items to their virtual surroundings.

In a nutshell, Home essentially affords users the ability to meet and interact both via text and voice, in a wide open environment, or in a more private setting such as a user’s own customizable apartment. The service will allow players to stream audio to other players, as well as video content such as game and movie trailers.

Harrison offered the example of inviting your clan over to your virtual apartment to discuss tactics or just to hang out. In addition, Harrison also spoke about the ease of development of game-specific Home rooms, with developers being able to craft rooms dedicated to their games using a single unified SDK.

Finally, Harrison also demonstrated Home’s take on Microsoft’s Achievements system via the service’s “Hall of Fame.” Here players will be able to show off their various PlayStation 3 achievements in a customizable trophy room, as well as compare or browse other achievements earned by friends or other users. The service will also offer a look at trophies from games a user has not yet purchased. Home will go into a closed beta test this spring with a full launch targeted for later this year.