Late Night Consoling
| New PSP Details -- WiFi! At a press conference in Japan today, Sony unveiled new details on their upcoming PSP handheld system. Here are write ups on GamePro and IGN, but to save you the trouble, here's the exciting bit: Sony announced today that the PSP will ship with full 802.11b (AKA WiFi) support right out of the box, no add-on needed. Apparently this was done in response to developer demand, and they haven't provided details on how this will be utilized. Obviously it'll be used for local gameplay between PSP systems, but this opens up the possibility of accessing a shared internet connection over WiFi for full online gaming. |
| PSX Details, FFXII Soon At that same press conference, Sony also talked a bit about their upcoming PSX uber-system, and confirmed that its hard drive (which will be primarily used for its TiVo-like PVR functionality) will be fully compatible with the PS2 HDD unit, and that it will be priced "dramatically". No, I don't know what that means either. There was also a little tidbit about Final Fantasy XII at the event, and Yasumi Matsuno, the game's producer was quoted as saying, "We'd like to make something so fresh that fans find themselves feeling 'Is this the Final Fantasy series?". The game will be formally unveiled this fall. |
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| Dynasty Warriors Japan Announced Here's one more product announcement from that Sony press conference today...Koei announced Sengoku Musou, a new entry in their Dynasty Warriors series that takes place in feudal Japan instead of China like the previous games in the series. Here's a Japanese teaser site for the game, which is due out in Japan in the spring (and will likely arrive here not too long after that). |
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| Manhunt Shots TotalVideoGames has posted what appear to be scanned (but uncredited) screenshots from Rockstar's upcoming Vice City follow-up Manhunt. I don't like linking to scanned images (especially when they're uncredited) but these offer the first glimpse at actual gameplay images from the title. |
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| Helix == Zodiac Tapwave, who first unveiled their PDA/gaming system that was code-named Helix back at E3, announced today that the system's final name is Zodiac, and it will be shipping later this year in two versions: a 32 MB model for $299 and a 128 MB model for $399. At E3 I was impressed with the system, but remain skeptical as to whether or not it will find an audience, particularly when they'll have to compete with both Nintendo and Sony (and Nokia I guess, but that won't last long). Here are some more details at CNN/Money. |
| Ghost Recon: Island Thunder Goes Gold Ubi Soft has announced that Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Island Thunder has gone gold, and will ship next week. island Thunder is a standalone add-on for Ghost Recon that features a new campaign and multiplayer features. Note that at $40, the game is priced pretty high for a product like this. |
| F-Zero Import Workaround PlanetGameCube has posted some codes which can be used with the GameCube Action Replay to remove any problems ordinarily encountered when running it on non-Japanese consoles. Unfortunately there still is no workaround for the Freeloader boot disc. |
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| Battlestar Galactica Q&A A new Q&A with Haydn Dalton of Warthog is up at Computer and Video Games tonight, talking with the lead designer about their upcoming space shooter Battlestar Galactica. One of the topics covered is how this fits into the series, and fans will be pleased to hear that this ties in to the original show, and not the upcoming SciFi channel remake (which is supposedly quite different). |
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| Microsoft Layoffs As noted in this story at CNET, Microsoft has laid off 34 workers from their gaming division, which includes the Xbox unit. This is 3% of their total work force, and is considered to be a minor round of layoffs, done to further streamline the division. |
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| Capcom announces Auto Modellista, Disney's Hide & Seek The headline says it all...Capcom announced today two North American GameCube releases: Disney's Hide & Seek will be released this winter, and the GameCube port of Auto Modellista will be released in November. |
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| Camp Hyrule Registration Open Nintendo has opened up registration for "Camp Hyrule" their week-long online event made up of chats, message boards and other online hyjinks. Registration runs through the 31st, and the event itself is the week of August 11th. Thanks PlanetGameCube for the tip. |
| Madden Featured in the NFL Hall of Fame Starting today, you can check out Madden NFL 2004 in the NFL Hall of Fame (thanks HomeLAN). No word on which platform they're showing, but chances are that it's the PS2 one, since that's the best selling of the lot. |
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| New Games this Week Shipping this week for GameCube is Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour and Rally Championship, while Aliens vs. Predator: Extinction ships for PS2, Robocop and Syberia for Xbox and Shrek: Reekin' Havoc for GBA. |
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| Misc. Media/Previews |
Console Game of the Evening: Snake Rattle And Roll for the NES. "Fun little game, but VERY difficult. Kind of like for snake what Marble Madness did for marbles, complete with isometric "3D" view." (submitted by Swivel Master).
