Late Night Consoling

July 25, 2003 8:00 PM

This news item over at Gamers.com has what at long last appears to be concrete details on Manhunt, Rockstar North's eagerly anticipated follow-up to Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (note that the two games are not connected in any way). According to a report in the Official UK Playstation Magazine, the game is said to be "a wholly realistic survival horror game" in which the player assumes the role of an inmate on death row whose lethal injection is faked, and suddenly finds himself in the middle of a violent urban warfare game arranged for the amusement of its wealthy creator. Your goal is to escape the city, and as it's populated by roving armed gangs, you'll have to utilize stealth, and it's said to have a sound meter to aid in the process. Gamers.com says, "Rockstar wants to disturb players with this game" and that sounds like a damn good time to me. I've been dying to know more about this game ever since the first hints of it floated my way many moons ago, and now that I know the concept, I want to see it up close and in person. Hopefully we'll see some screenshots, or even better a trailer in the near future, as this sounds like it could be very cool indeed. Gamers.com points to this page which they say is a teaser for the game, and for more teases, feel free to look at this one from back at E3, which has pretty much nothing to look at besides a cool drawn-in logo.

	Sony Profits Down, Xbox GBA Sales Up As noted in this BBC News story, Sony's profits were down a whopping 98% over the same period for 2002, a large part of which is being blamed on slowing sales of the PS2. While these stories aren't necessarily related, Microsoft recently reported a strong increase in Xbox sales and Nintendo announced today that the GBA is outselling the PS2 in North America, making it the best-selling console in this territory.
	Paid Content in EA Sports Titles The latest Game Over column on CNN/Money reports that Electronic Arts is moving ahead with plans to charge for online gaming in their hugely popular EA Sports titles, however it's not going to be mandatory. Instead, EA is going to be offering pay-to-play tournaments for NBA Live 2004 and paid downloadable content for other, unspecified titles. Note that this only affects PS2 players, as the Xbox and GameCube versions do not support online gaming.
	DOA3 in Dead or Alive Online? According to Electronic Gaming Monthly (via their web presence on Gamers.com), Dead or Alive Online may be bumped into 2004, and there is apparently the possibility of this extra time being made to include Dead or Alive 3 along with the online versions of the first two games.
	Banjo Pilot == Diddy Kong Pilot? Computer and Video Games is reporting that Rare has filed for a trademark on Banjo Pilot, leading many to believe that Rare has decided to re-brand their GBA game Diddy Kong Pilot with their own internal franchise and move ahead with its release. This would mark the first GBA title from the now Microsoft-owned studio.
	Tenchu: Return from Darkness Announced Activision has announced Tenchu: Return from Darkness, the Xbox enhanced port of Tenchu: Wrath of Heaven. Among the various additions to the game is support for Xbox Live, and there will be six multiplayer maps that can be used online.
	KOTOR Sells Like Crazy During Microsoft's financial analyst meeting, Xbox chief Robbie Bach apparently mentioned that Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic has set a new sales record for the platform, selling some 250,000 copies in four days.
	"Stolen" Revealed (Sorta) Not content with merely posting vague news about Sony's Killzone, Computer and Video Games has uncovered another top secret title in the works at Sony Europe. Titled Stolen, the game is supposedly a third person action-adventure game that's around 18 months from completion (which is a really, really long time, so this game is very early in its development cycle).
	Everything or Nothing Q&A Also at CvG tonight is something a bit more tangible...a Q&A with Kevin Chorney, the product manager at EA on 007: Everything or Nothing.
	Samurai Spirits Zero Details GameSpot has posted new details from Samurai Spirits Zero, the new Samurai Shodown game in the works at SNK Playmore. This title has some surprising changes over the previous games in the series, including a new bullet-time-like "enlightenment mode", which sounds like it could either work really well or downright horribly.
	Misc. Media/Previews As we've got two night's worth of media, this is going to be a big one...GameSpot has updated impressions of Wrath Unleashed (PS2, Xbox), new shots from DDRMAX2 and Castlevania: Lament of Innocence (both PS2), the first glimpse at River City Ransom EX and Double Dragon EX for GBA, new hands-on impressions of F-Zero GX and Rogue Squadron III: Rebel Strike for GameCube and Dungeons & Dragons Heroes for Xbox, and new shots from X-Files: Resist or Serve (PS2, Xbox), The Fast and the Furious (PS2, Xbox), Battlestar Galactica (PS2, Xbox), Mojo! (PS2), Robocop (Xbox), Ninja Gaiden (Xbox), a new trailer from Buffy: Chaos Bleeds (GC, PS2, Xbox) and the first information on Super Farm, which is said to be a "farmyard combat party game" for PS2. Over at IGN they have a hands-on look at F-Zero GX (which is loaded with new media), new media from Rogue Squadron III: Rebel Strike and a preview of Conflict Desert Storm II (all GC), as well as their own hands-on look at Wrath Unleashed, a new preview of Romance of the Three Kingdoms VIII, a trailer from Conan: The Dark Axe and an ESPN NFL Football update (all at PS2.IGN). Elsewhere online, GamePro.com has new screenshots from the single player half of Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles (GC), the first screenshots from Metal Slug 5 have showed up at the official SNK USA site (NeoGeo/Arcade -- thanks Games Are Fun), The Magic Box has character images from SNK vs. Capcom: SVC Chaos (also NeoGeo/Arcade) and Sonic Team has posted the E3 2003 trailer from Phantasy Star Online Episode III: C.A.R.D. Revolution (GC -- thanks GamerFeed). Speaking of PSO Ep. III, Gamers.com has a look at an actual deck of playing cards that Sonic Team is offering based on the game, to go along with its card-based nature.

Console Game of the Evening: Tempest 2000 for the Atari Jaguar. "I mean, its Tempest.... with better graphics, well somewhat, great gameplay, triangles that kill, and awesome techno music that's still cool today! BOYAKASHA TEMPEST!" (submitted by Grinspork).

jason bergman

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