As I ran across one of those excellent bargains I tend to stumble across online from time to time, I ordered Ikaruga (for GameCube, of course) and it arrived the other night and I eagerly tore into it. My initial impressions are quite positive. I do suck, of course, but I'm starting to get the hang of it. Switching the "fire"command to the A button made a big difference, and I'm starting to get used to the whole switching polarities thing. So far I haven't been able to get past the boss at the end of the second level, and the highest grade I've been able to get is a whopping C+ on the first level, but it's a start, and considering that I haven't played a pure shmup like this in at least four years (probably more) I think I'm adapting fairly well. Any advice from experienced players is much appreciated.

	Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Update First, the important news: thanks to Korean site Ruliweb and Czech site Doupe.cz (who have it mirrored there), we've got the Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children trailer from the Tokyo Game Show here at FileShack. Still here? Okay, while you're waiting for that to download (or if that's too much for you, here are some stills care of GameInformer), GameSpot has some new details on the movie, including a rundown of the cast (as expected, Tetsuya Nomura, the FFVII character designer and director of Kingdom Hearts is directing it). Advent Children is set for release in Japan in the summer of 2004.
	Nintendo Posts Loss Ouch, that's gotta hoit...Nintendo announced today that they will be posting their first ever loss for a fiscal half-year since the company went public in 1962 (Nintendo is actually much older than that, although obviously they didn't enter the gaming industry until the mid-80's).
	GameCube Sales Way Up, Price Drops in Europe It wasn't all bad news for Nintendo, however. Yesterday they announced that GameCube sales have quadrupled in North America since the GameCube's price drop to $99. Today they followed that up with actual numbers: in the week following the price cut, they sold some 61,000 GameCubes, versus a scant 15,000 on average when the price was at $149. In other price drop news, they also announced that the GameCube price is dropping to £79 in the UK and 99 Euros elsewhere in Europe.
	PSX Unveiling Next Week In one of those announcement-of-an-announcement-announcements that I love so much, Sony announced today that they will be officially unveiling their PSX ubersystem next week. The PSX, you may recall, throws basically everything you can possibly think of into one box, including a PS2-compatible game system, TiVo-like television timeshifting, a DVD burner, photo and music storage, Internet access and about twelve other things I'm probably forgetting.
	Winning Eleven on Xbox Live? Sit back down there sports fans...it ain't happening...yet. Computer and Video Games cornered the producer of Pro Evolution Soccer/Winning Eleven at Microsoft's recent X03 event, and got him to go on record saying the following, "...the team has not started on the Xbox version yet, however the team is very interested in Xbox Live in terms of the technology and the infrastructure Microsoft has, but that's about all we can say today."
	Donkey Konga Revealed The first details and screenshots from Namco's upcoming rhythm-based title Donkey Konga are up at GameSpot tonight. The game will support up to four players simultaneously, and the game will ship on December 12th in Japan, with one controller for about $61, and additional controllers for a fairly affordable $27. On a related note, IGN has a picture of the controller, which was scanned from the Japanese magazine Famitsu.
	Rare Interview They didn't manage to locate anyone who actually works at Rare, but nonetheless Computer and Video Games has posted a Rareware-focused interview, talking with Microsoft studio manager Ken Lobb about their superstar console development house. While I'm surprised he didn't laugh 'till he passed out when asked, "Can you not get Rare to hurry things up a bit?", the interview's still pretty interesting for fans of the studio, as it's revealed that Rare's GameCube racing title was never actually a game, but just a trailer shown by Nintendo, and some various in-development Rare games are discussed.
	Kingdom Hearts Details I know it seems like there's another one of these every day, but I swear, this will probably be the last one for a while...new details from the upcoming Kingdom Hearts games are up at GameSpot tonight, along with new shots from the GBA and PS2 games.
	Viewtiful Joe Interview The game will finally be out in this country next week, and to celebrate IGN has posted an interview with Atsushi Inaba, the creator of the insane action title Viewtiful Joe.
	Shake That Thang Sony Europe has released the track listing from their upcoming title EyeToy: Groove, which is a rhythm title that uses the EyeToy camera to watch you making a fool out of yourself track your movements.
	Defender of the Crown Q&A GameInformer has conducted a Q&A with John Chowanec of Cinemaware, talking with the producer about their nearly-released PS2 and Xbox title Robin Hood: Defender of the Crown.
	Misc. Media/Previews GameSpot has new previews of SOCOM II (PS2) and DroneZ (Xbox), as well as new media from Backyard Wrestling: Don't Try This at Home (PS2, Xbox), Wade Hixton's Sucker Punch (GBA), Whiplash (PS2, Xbox), Kumauta (PS2), Legacy of Kain: Defiance (PS2, Xbox)and StarCraft: Ghost (GC, PS2, Xbox) and a first look at Sim City 2000 (GBA). Over at IGN they have new previews of Growlanser Generations (PS2),.hack://QUARANTINE (PS2), Legacy of Kain: Defiance (PS2, Xbox) and Onimusha Tactics (GBA), import playtests of Siren and Cy Girls (both PS2), new media from Final Fantasy X-2 International + Last Mission (PS2), Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga (GBA), the Grand Theft Auto two pack (Xbox), Otogi 2 (Xbox), Rogue Ops (GC, PS2, Xbox), Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six 3 (Xbox), The Lion King 1 1/2 (GBA), Disney's Magical Quest 2 (GBA) and Champions of Norrath: Realms of EverQuest (PS2). Also at IGN is a developer's diary for Sudeki (Xbox). Elsewhere online, GameSpy has new previews of SOCOM II (PS2) and Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (GBA), The Magic Box has shots from Shinseiki Evangelion 2 (PS2), Sonic Heroes (GC, PS2, Xbox) and Naruto: Gekitou Ninja Taisen 2 (GC), CVG looks at Tony Hawk's Underground (GC, PS2, Xbox), GameInformer has hands-on looks at SOCOM II (PS2) and Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge (Xbox), HomeLAN has new previews of Top Spin (Xbox) and Batman: Rise of Sin Tzu (GC, PS2, Xbox) and the official sites for Mission: Impossible: Operation Surma and I-Ninja (both GC, PS2, Xbox) have gone live.