Late Night Consoling
So I heard from Rockstar Games today, and it looks like I'm going to get to swing by their swanky SoHo office on Friday to get a hands-on look at Manhunt. Barring any unforeseen problems, that means my preview should be ready to roll here on Monday. I'm going to be cutting it really close with that of course, since the game comes out next week, but hopefully that'll be time enough for those of you who haven't already pre-ordered the game. I'm also hoping to get a look at the new GBA Max Payne while I'm there, although they haven't gotten back to me on that yet, so that's still up in the air. Hopefully I will get a chance to see that, as I'm horribly curious to see how bullet time has survived the porting process to Nintendo's handheld. On a totally different note, you may notice that the New Releases This Week list down there is in a different format than usual. This is only because of the larger-than-usual number of games that came out this week. I tried it the normal way, and it was pretty much the same as my old, dreaded Misc. Previews, so I've adapted a similar format to the revamp of that section. I expect to do this at least a few more times before Christmas arrives, but I'll only be doing it when there are enough games to warrant it. Next week, which has a slew of big releases, including Final Fantasy X-2, Mario Kart: Double Dash , Need for Speed Underground and the aforementionedManhunt among many, many others, will certainly require a similar layout.
| N-Gage Hacked This story on Slashdot Games this afternoon broke the news that enterprising hackers have managed to bypass the copy protection on the N-Gage's MMC cards. That's pretty humiliating for Nokia, but what's far, far worse, is that people have actually managed to get N-Gage games to run on other Symbian OS phones. Ouch. (Note that any comments regarding specifics about warezing N-Gage games will be nuked). |
| Rockstar Asking to Dismiss GTA Lawsuit GameSpot is reporting that Rockstar Games has asked a federal judge to dismiss the $246 million lawsuit that has been brought against them. The suit, you may recall, is being brought by the families of the victims of a shooting by two teenagers, which left one person dead and another seriously injured. The two supposedly were influenced by Grand Theft Auto III, although as far as I know, the game doesn't come with a loaded rifle (at least, my copy didn't, anyway). |
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| Microsoft Drops Xbox Price in Japan It's been rumored for a while now, but today Microsoft made it official: the price of the Xbox in Japan is now a mere 16,800 yen (about $154). A bundle containing two months of Xbox Live service, two controllers, the DVD playback kit, Halo and Project Gotham Racing 2 will go for 19800 yen (around $180). A North American price drop has not been announced, and there have been no murmurs of late that one will be forthcoming. |
| PS* Sales Up Anyone holding out for a PS2 price drop this year will probably be disappointed in this news...Sony announced today that in the last couple of weeks sales of the PS2 system have climbed a whopping 40%, while sales of the PSOne are up 31% in the last month alone. These sales are being attributed to an early holiday sales rush and this will probably be all the proof Sony needs to show that a price drop is unnecessary this year. |
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| The Art of Halo Announced DKo5 posted a comment this afternoon pointing me towards this update over at Halo.Bungie.org that reports Del Ray is producing a book to be known as The Art of Halo, which will show how Bungie "created the characters, the environment, the action, and the brilliant graphics for the award-winning game." |
| Marilyn Manson, 50 Cent, Eminem, Dr. Dre Jump into Gaming Here are two stories today about major artists getting involved with games...the first is this item announcing that a song from Marilyn Manson's album The Golden Age of Grotesque will be featured in Namco's upcoming Spawn: Armageddon. Getting a little more hands-on are rappers 50 Cent, Eminem and Dr. Dre, who are working on some kind of Grand Theft Auto-style game (although rumors that Rockstar Games is involved are still unconfirmed). |
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| Armed & Dangerous Interview Game Domain has conducted an interview with Aaron Loeb, the producer at Planet Moon Studios on the LucasArts published title Armed & Dangerous (he's also my old editor from Next-Generation Online and one of the nicest guys in the industry). Aaron talks about the game's development, Planet Moon's oddball sense of humor and more, and the interview is accompanied by a new cut-scene from the game. |
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| Broken Sword, Jedi Academy Interviews Two new interviews are up at Team Xbox tonight. The first is with Tim Stellmach of Vicarious Visions, who talks about Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy, while the second is with Charles Cecil, the director at Revolution Software on Broken Sword: The Sleeping Dragon. (Note that the PS2 icon is there because Broken Sword will be released for PS2 in Europe, although it was rejected by Sony for release in North America). |
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| Goblin Commander Q&A Gamehelper's Goblin Commander Q&A talks with Ron Millar, the industry veteran and lead designer on Goblin Commander: Unleash the Horde. Among other things, Ron talks about the challenges in designing an RTS specifically for console systems. |
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| Mario Runs for President (Ugh) Yes, if you thought Nintendo couldn't get any lamer than their faux announcement that Mario wouldn't be running for governor of California, you're going to love this...the company issued a cornball press release today announcing that Mario is running for president of the United States under the "Mario Party" which believes in "All fun, no politics." Yeesh. |
| New Releases this Week | |
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| For GameCube there's Batman: Rise of Sin Tzu and Mario Party 5, |
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| For PS2 is Beyond Good & Evil, Bloody Roar 4, NCAA Final Four 2004 and Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando. |
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| For Xbox there's Arx Fatalis, Group S Challenge, Links 2004, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time and Robin Hood: Defender of the Crown. |
| And for GBA is Disney's Magical Quest 2, Justice League: Chronicles, Onimusha Tactics, Sim City 2000 and SSX 3. |
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| On the multi-platform front this week you'll find Crash Nitro Kart (GC, PS2, Xbox, GBA), ESPN College Hoops (PS2, Xbox), Goblin Commander: Unleash the Horde (GC, PS2, Xbox), Legacy of Kain: Defiance, Medal of Honor: Rising Sun (GC, PS2, Xbox), Sphinx and the Cursed Mummy (GC, PS2, Xbox), Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (PS2, Xbox), The Hobbit (GC, PS2, Xbox, GBA) |
| Misc. Media/Previews | |
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| GameSpot has new impressions of Pac-Man Vs, new shots from Mobile Suit Gundam: Senshitachi no Kiseki are up at The Magic Box and GameInformer has new shots from The Nightmare Before Christmas. |
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| GameSpot has a new preview of Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly and new shots from Sega's Nightshade, GameSpy has a new preview of Manhunt, The Magic Box has new shots from the zany anime-tennis sim Prince of Tennis Smash Hit! 2, |
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| New shots from Namco's Breakdown are up at CVG, along with new footage from Project Gotham Racing 2, and GameInformer has new impressions and media from Armed & Dangerous. |
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| The first shots from the GBA version of Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance can be found at IGN tonight, along with new movies from Astro Boy, and The Magic Box has new shots from Mario & Luigi. |
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| HomeLAN has posted impressions of Masters of the Universe (GC, PS2, Xbox). |
