Late Night Consoling

January 15, 2003 8:30 PM

115

At long last, Namco has formally announced the GameCube, PS2 and Xbox versions of Soul Calibur II. Each version will have a different bonus character: the GameCube version has the previously revealed Link (woo!), the PS2 version gets Heihachi from Tekken (not bad) and the Xbox version has Todd McFarlane's Spawn (meh). All three will also feature a new character designed by McFarlane, along with an unspecified number of other hidden characters. The game will ship in Japan in March, but will take until August to arrive here. Shots of the GameCube, PS2 and Xbox versions are all up at GameSpot, and a link to a promo movie is up over at Games Are Fun, although I haven't been able to get it to work myself. So the real question tonight, is which version will you be getting? It's a tough call. I want Link, but that GameCube controller just isn't ideal for fighting games, so I'm torn (and I suspect I'm not the only one).

	GameCube's 2003 Lineup Nintendo today released a list of GameCube titles for 2003. Nothing terribly surprising here, although F-Zero is listed as a June release, and Ikaruga is listed, so those worried that the North American release has been cancelled can breathe a sigh of relief.
	The Sims on GameCube? Also on that list is The Sims, which EA has yet to confirm as being anything but a PS2 title. A GameCube and Xbox version keep showing up on retailers' lists, but a representative for Maxis told IGN, "We are not confirming anything official yet," which is as good a non-confirmation confirmation as you're going to get.
	Nintendo's GBA Lineup Nintendo also released a short list of GBA games they'll be publishing this year, which lists Wario Ware, Inc. as a May release and Advance Wars 2 and Donkey Kong Country for June.
	Game Boy Player, Controller Not willing to stop there, Nintendo also confirmed the release date for the GameCube Game Boy Advance player: it will be out on March 21st in Japan, and May 26th here. And to go along with that, Hori has announced plans to release special SNES-style GameCube controllers alongside the GBA player. These look like the perfect accessory for all of those retro-games for GBA.
	Die Hard: Vendetta PS2-bound Bits Studios and NDA Productions announced today that they are working on a PlayStation 2 port of Die Hard: Vendetta which will be released later this year. The game is currently available exclusively for GameCube.
	Burnout 2 for GameCube, Xbox Acclaim, who are still up and running despite taking an absolute beating on Wall Street, has announced plans to release Burnout 2 for both the GameCube and Xbox this spring.
	Misc. Media New screenshots and a gameplay movie from Amplitude are up at GameSpot tonight, while Computer and Video Games offers a look at Brute Force, and Xbox.IGN has some new media from Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball, which is slated for release next week.

Console Game of the Evening: Chopper Command for the Atari 2600. Another Activision take-off of an Atari hit, this was the poor man's Defender. Still, like Freeway, it was a decent knock-off and a decent game in its own right.