Late Night Consoling
| More ATI/Microsoft Details We reported here yesterday about the ATI/Microsoft deal for future Xbox consoles, but more details have come to light...in one story at Gamers.com hints are dropped that ATI is indeed working on GPUs for both Microsoft and Nintendo (although the two teams are separate), and a second story has some hints from the Wall Street Journal article on the deal, which says that the next Xbox will feature DVD playback without an extra purchase, and that it will feature new ways to connect to PCs. One question that still remains is who will be providing the audio hardware for this next system, as NVIDIA utilized their nForce technology, and ATI has not announced any audio hardware (so far, that is). |
| Microsoft, Namco Buy 3DO Rights As noted in this Reuters story, Microsoft has purchased the High Heat Baseball franchise from 3DO, and will most likely replace their own Inside Pitch franchise with this one. Also, a second story notes that Namco has bought the rights to Street Racing Syndicate, and Ubi Soft has bought the Might and Magic franchise, which while primarily PC based, has spawned a few console games over the years. |
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| Buy a GBA, Get an e-Reader Nintendo has announced that beginning in October, gamers who purchase a "classic" GBA will receive a few GBA e-Reader and a Donkey Kong Jr. e-Reader card. This is obviously a way for them to clear out inventory of the original GBA hardware, and if you're willing to live without the screen illumination, it might be a good deal (me, I'd never do it in a million years -- the light makes a huge, huge difference). |
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| New Brute Force Multiplayer Maps Soon Microsoft has posted details on three new multiplayer maps for Brute Force that will be posted on Xbox Live sometime in the near future. Brute Force does not support online multiplayer, so these are offline-only multiplayer maps. |
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| Battlestar Galactica Cast Announced VU Games has released the cast list for their upcoming Battlestar Galactica game, and while the new SciFi series will likely annoy fans, this should be a pleasant surprise, as original cast members Dirk Benedict and Richard Hatch have added their voices to the game, along with Dwight Schultz (that'd be Murdock from The A-Team) and Kristanna Loken (the Terminatrix from Terminator 3). |
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| Sega 3D Ages Footage Gamers.com has posted links to new footage from the first five games in Sega's 3D Ages line of budget-priced PS2 remakes. Specifically there's the first decent footage here from Phantasy Star: Generation 1, Monaco GP, Fantasy Zone, Golden Axe and Space Harrier. Fans of old Sega games, be sure to check this out. |
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| Need for Speed Underground Q&A GameSpot has conducted a Q&A with Chuck Osieja, the executive producer at EA on Need for Speed Underground, the impressive latest installment in this venerable racing series. |
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| GameCube Successor in 2006? Gamers.com quotes a recent article in a Japanese business magazine that suggests Nintendo's next home console won't be out until 2006. Apparently the 2005 date was said when they were sure Sony and Microsoft's next platforms were due that year, and now that that's no longer certain, they aren't totally set on releasing in 2005 either. |
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| D4XL, Project Gotham 2 in November Koei has announced that Dynasty Warriors 4 Xtreme Legends will be coming out in North America on November 4th. D4XL, like the one released for Dynasty Warriors 3, is a stand alone expansion pack. Also due in November is Project Gotham Racing 2, Microsoft's sequel to the original Xbox launch title. |
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| Silent Hill 3 Guide You'll need to sign up for their free membership service to access it, but GameSpot has posted their complete guide to Silent Hill 3. If that's too much trouble for you, there are a bunch of guides up at GameFAQs, including one that claims to be spoiler-free. |
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| Mario Not Running for Governor (groan) Yes, Nintendo actually issued a press release yesterday saying that Mario will not be running in the upcoming gubernatorial recall election in California. Instead, he "plans to focus on furthering the development of the Mario Party", which is said to be "a well-established, alternative grassroots movement for people who want to see real action from their candidates." Oy. |
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| Nintendo Entering China In an attempt to increase their market share, Nintendo has announced plans to release their products in China. They haven't decided which products to release there, as it will require a very different marketing campaign, but no doubt the sheer number of people in that country has the suits salivating. |
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| Misc. Media/Previews |
Console Game of the Evening: Rez for the Dreamcast. "Nearly impossible to classify. It's not just a shooter, it's not just a rhythm game, but it somehow manages to fall gracefully somewhere in between. If you haven't played it, you don't know what you're missing." (submitted by sputnik_1).
