Late Night Consoling
So happy Halloween everyone! Seeing as how this is the night of horrors, I've got a question for all of you tonight...what's the scariest game you've ever played? I must admit to being quite freaked out at times while playing several of the Resident Evil games, but probably the scariest console game I've ever played is Aliens vs. Predator for the Jaguar. It's fairly primitive by today's standards, but at the time...holy crap did it make me sweat. The game is so unforgiving at times that I literally started running away in terror from enemies that popped out of nowhere. Eternal Darkness had quite a few shocks that made me jump out of my seat (all I'm going to say is "the bathtub"...if you've played the game, you'll know what I mean), but there's really only been one game that scared me so badly that I never finished it, and it's not a console game: that's the classic Thief: The Dark Project. Thief is a game that requires you to lurk in the shadows, and sound is very important...but there's an extended part of the game that requires you to lurk around while avoiding zombies, whose moans can be heard echoing throughout the crypts...and it was just too much for me. I love zombie movies especially because they scare me so badly, and I've been able to play plenty of games that have freaked me out (late night sessions of System Shock 2 were particularly nerve-wracking), but that's the only game I've ever had to stop entirely because it gave me nightmares. One of these days I'm going to fire it up again just to finally complete the game after all these years...but it's going to be a while before I get the guts to do that.
| Final Fantasy XII Pushed Back Since there was never really any formal release date, it's hard to call this a real delay, but nonetheless, as part of their financial forecast, Square Enix confirmed that Final Fantasy XII will not be released in the fiscal year ending on March 31st 2004. What's a bit more troubling is that in their statement Square Enix also hinted that it might be bumped back even further, which would make an English language version unlikely for next year at all. The game is still set to be formally announced next month, but it looks like that may just be a tease for the time being. |
| Nintendo Interview An excellent interview with George Harrison, the senior vice president at Nintendo of America is up at EGM Magazine's site, which is naturally transferred from the print magazine. The interview deals pretty frankly with the GameCube's mistakes, and George also offers his views on the next generation of Nintendo hardware. |
| Microsoft Interview Also at EGM's site this evening is an interview with Microsoft's Ed Fries, who just like the interview above, talks about the past, present and future of his platform (in this case, the Xbox). While it's not quite as in-depth as the Nintendo interview, it's still worth a read. |
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| The Making of Halo Speaking of magazine reprints, gamesradar.com has reprinted an article that ran in the European magazine Edge (arguably the best English-language gaming magazine in the world) that looks back at the development of Bungie's original Halo. The article is really in-depth and is highly recommended. Thanks Slashdot Games for the tip. |
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| True Crime Song List Released The game arrives in stores next week, but for now, here's a glimpse at what you'll be getting...Activision has released the complete song list from True Crime: Streets of L.A. On a somewhat related note, Activision also announced that they signed a promotional deal with Puma, where certain characters will be wearing Puma-brand clothing. |
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| Xenosaga Episode III: God is Dead? I can't say I didn't see this one coming as soon as they started with the whole Nietzsche thing...1UP is reporting (by way of the Japanese site Quiter) that Namco has trademarked the title "Also Sprach Zarathustra" for use in a game title. Thus Spoke Zarathustra is one of Nietzsche's most famous works, and it is an oft-quoted and oft-misunderstood story of god's role in the universe. |
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| Warp Pipe Q&A HomeLAN has a new Q&A with Chad Paulson of the Warp Pipe Project, which you may recall just had their first Windows alpha release this week. The Warp Pipe has the admirable goal of enabling online GameCube multiplayer, and Chad talks about his experience and his thoughts on Nintendo's attitude towards online gaming. |
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| Did someone say PStwo? In other trademark-fueled speculation, Sony apparently has filed for a trademark of the name "PStwo" which would seem to be a PSOne style renaming of their second generation PlayStation. While the PSOne wasn't renamed until the PS2 was released, Sony may be planning something sooner for the PS2, given that the PSthree isn't expected until 2006. |
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| The Suffering Interview Team Xbox has conducted an interview with Richard Rouse III, the lead designer on The Suffering, the survival-horror title from developer Surreal Software and publisher Midway Games. In other Suffering news, GameSpot has a new preview and IGN has some new media from the game. |
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| Magic: The Gathering Interview IGN's Magic: The Gathering Battlegrounds interview talks with Leif Jensen of Secret Level about their upcoming Xbox version of the super popular card game. |
| KoF EX2, Shining Soul II Headed Stateside Atlus announced today that they will be bringing Shining Soul II and King of Fighters EX2: Howling Blood to America. KoF will be out this December, while we'll have to wait until spring for Shining Soul II. |
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| GT4 Prologue in America? In a story that runs contrary to earlier reports this week, GameSpot is reporting that Sony of Japan hasn't ruled out a North American release of Gran Turismo 4 Prologue, the full-featured preview edition of GT4 that's going to be out in Japan before the end of the year. |
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| The Movies that Influenced the Games A cool little feature is up at 1UP tonight, where 12 major game designers, including Yu Suzuki (Shenmue), Shinki Mikami (Resident Evil), Gabe Newell (Half-Life) , Takayuki Kawagoe (Panzer Dragoon Orta) and Warren Spector (Deus Ex) talk about the movies that influenced their games. The only notably absent designer is Hideo Kojima, but then his influences are so obvious that you could argue that he has nothing to tell us that we don't already know. |
| Misc. Media/Previews | |
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| PlanetGameCube links to a new trailer for Capcom's Killer 7 and 1UP has a new preview of Donkey Konga. |
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| IGN has a hands-on look at Rockstar's Manhunt, while GameSpot has new shots from Spy Fiction, Syphon Filter: The Omega Strain and Ghosthunter, The Magic Box has new shots from The Nightmare Before Christmas, and Square Enix has updated their official Final Fantasy X-2 site with new goodies. |
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| IGN has posted a Ninja Gaiden blowout with all kinds of stuff, new footage and screenshots from the Xbox version of the GTA Double Pack are up at GameSpot, along with new shots from Arx Fatalis. GameSpy and IGN have their own looks at the GTA Double Pack, Games Are Fun links to a new trailer for Outrun 2 (Which may or may not be released for the Xbox) and GameInformer has new details and movies from the Xbox port of Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy. |
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| IGN has new media from Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga. |
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| GameSpot has PS2-specific impressions of Legacy of Kain: Defiance (PS2, Xbox) and Spy Hunter 2 (GC, PS2, Xbox), IGN has GameCube-specific media from Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (GC, PS2, Xbox), GameSpy has a new look at Battlestar Galactica (PS2, Xbox), GameInformer has new media from Goblin Commander: Unleash the Horde, Team Xbox has Xbox-specific impressions of Legacy of Kain: Defiance, and we've got the latest LoK: Defiance trailer up at FileShack, which focuses exclusively on Raziel. |
