Late Night Consoling

January 21, 2003 8:30 PM

According to this press release, the Infinium Phantom is a new "console" in the works, which will be the "most robust gaming console, with "state of the art design and architecture," and feature "up to 50,000 games to choose from." This dream machine will be the first system to ship with a wireless controller, have online compatibility with PC games, and will use the Internet as its sole means of game distribution. Are you laughing yet? It gets better...there's "seamless upgrades and patch management," and "a multi tiered subscription service that meets the needs of casual, moderate and hard-core game players." Hoo boy. I'm waiting for the part where it says it runs on Linux. Here's a Q&A with more facts about this thing. I hate to belittle someone's hard work, but this is so ridiculous a notion that I'm having a hard time containing myself. So I make this pledge: if this is for real, in the sense that it's a legitimate gaming console, which stands a chance at surviving for more than a year after launch, I will be the first in line to buy one. Prove me wrong guys, and I'll happily humiliate myself by admitting I was wrong.

	Jeff Minter on GameCube! The latest issue of the UK magazine EDGE apparently confirms that Jeff Minter, the insane genius behind Tempest 2000 and the Virtual Light Machine (among other insane projects), is working on a new GameCube game with funding from Lionhead Studios. Here are some details, and here's a post from the Llama-master himself.
	Xenosaga English Voices As part of their unusually late update tonight, PS2.IGN has posted some clips from the English version of Xenosaga, offering the first chance to hear the English language voice actors.
	Halo Action Figure Prototype Last night I posted that Ertl was working on Halo action figures...well tonight a look at one of them has hit the web. Over at Bungie's official fan site, there's a prototype shot of the Cortana figure. Pretty cool, but let's see what the Master Chief looks like!
	Activision Signs with Dreamworks Activision has signed a multiyear deal with Dreamworks to develop games based on several upcoming movies from the studio. This could be kinda cool if it included things like The Ring, but it sounds like it's only their animated movies, which will probably mean we'll see lots of mediocre kids games.
	Godzilla on Xbox Atari announced today that Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee will be released for the Xbox sometime this spring. The Xbox port will feature support for ripped soundtracks streamed from the Xbox hard drive. The first person to make a suitable "Godzilla-sized console" joke wins a no-prize.
	Contra Paper Cut-Outs Having already posted that cool Contra comic, the Japanese Contra: Shattered Soldiers site has been updated with paper cut-outs of one of the characters. Sadly, extra outfits are not included.
	The Getaway Reviews GameSpot's review of The Getaway is online, and sadly, it's not overly complementary, saying "the game just isn't fun." IGN's doesn't fare a whole lot better, giving it a 5.5 for gameplay (although there's a 9.0 for presentation). If you're interested in what other Shack readers have to say, the game will be added to the database this weekend.
	Tomb Raider Delayed Eidos announced their financial status today, reporting good sales for both TimeSplitters 2 and Hitman 2 (proof that solid games make for solid sales -- Acclaim should be listening), and announcing that Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness has been bumped again to the spring. Anyone else remember when this was going to be an episodic title?
	Misc. Media GameSpot has posted new shots from Army Men: Sarge's War and RTX: Red Rock for GameCube, along with new shots from Brute Force for Xbox.

Console Game of the Evening: Vid Grid for the Jaguar CD. This game really was quite lame, but I must admit, I played it more than a few times. Maybe I just wanted something else to use with my JagCD besides the VLM's trip-o-tron?

jason bergman

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benson

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January 21, 2003 8:30 PM

video games are a lifestyle choice...