Late Night Consoling

August 26, 2003 8:00 PM

As an increasingly vocal number of people have pointed out, the Misc Media/Previews section at the bottom of this post has gotten to be a bit unruly, and it's only going to get worse as we inch closer to the hectic holiday season. I mentioned before that I was going to fiddle around with a few possibilities -- and I have -- but unfortunately I wasn't able to come up with anything that worked. So, as I've done before when I've been stumped, I'm opening up the floor for submissions. Throw something together and either post a link in the comments or e-mail/shackmessage it to me, and I promise to take a look at all of them. And if there are enough acceptable entries I'll open up voting and we can all pick a new one. But, and this is the tricky part, there are some ground rules which will make this pretty challenging: it has to be entirely self-contained, meaning no links to separate pages (once I open that floodgate anyone who doesn't like console games will be nagging me to make the whole thing on a separate page, which I ain't doing), and it can't be split into multiple sections (so no Misc PS2 Previews, Misc GC Previews, etc.). Actually, I'm not totally adverse to that second one, but the problem there is that it adds a bit more work than I'd like to spend on that section and adds as many as four or five additional sub-posts where there was only one. So if you really want to see that section modified, let's see what you can come up with. The entire look and feel of this nightly news section comes from reader suggestions, so I'm always willing to look at ways to improve it.

	Lik-Sang Settles Suit with Sony gamesindustry.biz is reporting that Lik-Sang, which had landed itself in hot butter over sales of mod chips, has settled out of court with Sony. The terms of the settlement will prevent Lik-Sang from selling any "circumvention devices" for Sony platforms. Thanks snoozy for the tip.
	PS3 Tech in "Many devices" According to The Magic Box, Sony's Ken Kutaragi was interviewed by CNET (presumably CNET Japan), and he mentioned that the PlayStation 3 will not be a "pure game machine" and PS3 technology will be used in "many digital devices." Then again, they said the same thing about the PS2 at one point, and have you ever bought a TV with a built-in PlayStation? Didn't think so.
	Forgotten Realms Footage IGN has posted the first footage to be released from Stormfront Studios' upcoming Forgotten Realms title. The movie is in the less-than-ideal Windows Media format, but nonetheless it does show a mix of concept art, pre-rendered CGI and gameplay footage.
	Prince of Persia Interview A new interview with Yannis Mallat, the producer of Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time is up at IGN tonight, talking about the game's core technology (which shares some, but not all of its features with Splinter Cell), the challenges of making a third person title that doesn't suck and more.
	kill.switch Q&A In other third person interview news (that's third person games, not third person -- oh, never mind) a new kill.switch Q&A can be found at HomeLAN, talking with associate producer Alvin Muolic about this PS2 and Xbox title from Namco.
	Those Wacky Japanese Love the Football A news item on gamesindustry.biz has the news that Konami's Winning Eleven 7 has already sold a million copies, just three weeks after its debut over there. The game is set for release in Europe as Pro Evolution Soccer 3 later this year, but a North American release is still unknown.
	Driver 3 Interview UGO has conducted a new interview with Martin Edmondson of Reflections, talking with the development director about their upcoming title Driver 3. Among the many topics bandied about here is a brief discussion on how the Driver series differs from Grand Theft Auto.
	True Crime Interview Yes, there's yet another interview here tonight (I promise, this is the last one). Computer and Video Games' True Crime: Streets of L.A. interview talks with Chris Archer, the executive producer of this game from Activision. On a semi-related note, GameSpot has posted new hands-on impressions of the game.
	Street Racing Syndicate Lives Namco recently announced that they have acquired the rights to Street Racing Syndicate from 3DO's auction, and before you know what's going on, they've released new shots from the game. This new SRS will be released for all three platforms late next year.
	New Releases This Week Some big-name titles are the highlights this week...first the big cross platform games: Soul Calibur II and Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Chaos Bleeds are both available for all three platforms. For GameCube there's F-Zero GX, PS2 has Bombastic, NFL GameDay 2004, NCAA GameBreaker 2004, Disgea: Hour of Darkness, Mark Davis Pro Bass Challenge and Deer Hunter 2004, the GBA's got Freekstyle, Rescue Heroes: Billy Blazes, Pokemon Pinball: Ruby & Sapphire and Mortal Kombat: Tournament Edition and shipping for Xbox are Otogi: Myth of Demons, NFL Fever 2004, Pro Cast Sports Fishing, Scooby-Doo! Night of 100 Frights, Deer Hunter 2004 and the Xbox Live Communicator, which is now available separately.
	Misc. Media/Previews GameSpot has new impressions of Disney's Extreme Skate Adventure (GC, PS2, Xbox), a report from Acclaim's press event, complete with shots from Legends of Wrestling III (PS2), the Xbox and PS2 versions of Alias, All-Star Baseball 2005 (PS2) and NBA Jam 2004 (GC, PS2, Xbox), as well as new shots and details from OutRun 2 (Xbox/Arcade), Lethal Skies II (PS2), ESPN NHL Hockey (PS2, Xbox), a new preview of RoadKill (GC, PS2, Xbox) and new shots from Rayman 3 and Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell for N-Gage. IGN has new shots from R: Racing Evolution (GC, PS2, Xbox), new shots n' stuff from Final Fantasy X-2 (PS2), a new preview of Final Fantasy Tactics Advance and new shots from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (both GBA). Elsewhere online, The Magic Box has new shots from Mobile Suit Gundam: Megurial Sora and CvG has new shots from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (GC, PS2, Xbox).

Console Game of the Evening: Maniac Mansion for the NES. "Multiple endings dependent upon the characters you choose and the path you take, excellent puzzles and an awesome story. It remains a true classic." (submitted by gyvoji).

jason bergman

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