Late Night Consoling

Various sources are reporting on a story in the latest issue of Europe's NGC Magazine, which states that Nintendo's upcoming The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (GCN) will have enhanced features when used with the next-gen Revolution console. Note that the game is still on track for a GameCube release. This merely indicates that, at least for this particular game, Revolution will go beyond its standard GameCube backwards compatibility and allow the game to make use of the unique motion-based controller. Revolution also has four GameCube controller ports and will support a GameCube controller-like "shell" into which the standard Revolution controller can be fitted for more traditional control. Nintendo has not yet offered official word on what kind of extra functionality will be made possible, assuming the report is in fact accurate. Most speculation has been that the "freehand" controller will allow the player to control Link's targeting and sword slashes, while the "nunchaku" attachment will be used for movement.

The NGC article predicts a November release for the Revolution console in Europe. Given Nintendo's recent stated hope to launch the system worldwide within a window of a few months, this would suggest an overall Fall release assuming Europe is among the last to receive new hardware, which is typical in the game industry (sorry, guys!). As far as we know, Twilight Princess itself is still on track for Nintendo's most recent Spring 2006 release estimate.

Since E3, it's been suspected that Epic would be bringing its next main entry in the Unreal Tournament series, Unreal Tournament 2007, to PlayStation 3, and recent comments by Epic's Cliff Bleszinski corroborated that suspicion. According to the January issue of PlayStation Magazine, not only is the game coming to PS3, it will be a launch title. The console is still set for a vague "Spring 2006" release, though that probably refers to the Japanese launch; traditionally, Sony consoles take several months to reach territories such as North America and Europe. This time around, Sony may try and tighten up the schedule since Microsoft pulled off a semi-worldwide simultaneous Xbox 360 release and Nintendo wants to do the same with Revolution, but with the no doubt enormous volume of units Sony is going to want to produce don't expect it to actually be "simultaneous."

With this move, Sony may be trying to court the hardcore shooter segment of the market, which last generation largely sided with Microsoft's Xbox due to its high number of action titles and well-received Live online service. Sony has indicated in the past that gamers will be able to hook up a mouse and keyboard to PS3 for gaming use via USB. UT2007 is of course also set for release on PC, and likely on Xbox 360 as well.

In a recent Famitsu interview, Metal Gear overlord Hideo Kojima has hinted at the eventually possibility of a full Metal Gear Online game, though he did not identify a specific type of gameplay or platform. Apparently, designers at Kojima Productions have been working on online features for quite some time now, and the team eventually decided to just stick some of them into Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence (PS2), which comes out next March. Subsistence will feature the first online gameplay of any kind for the series, and Kojima hopes to guage fan reactions to it before proceeding with more complex ideas. As for a complete Metal Gear Online game, Kojima said, "Years from now, we'd like to realize this on the PlayStation 3, on the Xbox 360, or maybe on the PC." Stay tuned.

Clover Studio's upcoming Okami (PS2), the stunningly gorgeous action/adventure tale of a Japanese sun god who takes the form of a wolf, has received a release date. The game will hit Japan on April 20, 2006, and will follow in North America the next month. And you will play it.

Microsoft has launched a somewhat odd promotion for Xbox Live subscribers. If you register your Live account and fill out some demographic information, Microsoft will send you an Xbox Live Diamond Card in 6-8 weeks. It doesn't seem as though an Xbox 360 is required, as Live subscriptions carry over between Xbox and Xbox 360. The card offers deals at retail locations such as Hollywood Video, SamGoody, and Carl's Jr. And there you have it. Play games online, get a discount on a sandwich. Whatever works, I guess.

Longtime peripheral manufacturer Mad Catz announced that it has signed a deal with Microsoft allowing the company to publish software for Microsoft's Xbox. The games in question will make use of Mad Catz' custom gaming accessories, though no details of what this entails were revealed.

Gamasutra's latest Question of the Week asks if HD is important to the future of video games. Plenty of responses were received with a broad range of answers, some saying HD is an important step, and some saying there are far more important advancements to sort out first.

GameSpot speaks about the guns featured in Criterion's Black (PS2, Xbox) with producer Jeremy Chubb.