Late Night Consoling
Over the weekend I finally got around to watching the Final Fantasy X: Eternal Calm movie that's on this month's Official PlayStation Magazine demo CD. It's not half-bad, and it was worth the price of the magazine, but I do wish they hadn't captured the movie they way they did. Eternal Calm was of course originally the epilogue from the International Edition of FFX that was released in Japan, and so it originally ran in-engine and not as a pre-rendered cut-scene. But for this CD release, the decision was made to capture it instead of bothering to make a limited version of the game that could only run this non-interactive movie. I understand the reasoning, but unfortunately the process has left the movie looking rather murky, and there are compression artifacts (which always drive me nuts). But it's not the end of the world, and the voice cast is the same here as it is in the localized version of FFX, which means it's no better and no worse than that game was. What I found to be really odd when watching this movie is that when it was created, there wasn't any definitive plan in place to make the game that became FFX-2. Because of that, I was sort of expecting a self-contained story, but instead Eternal Calm is more like the first five minutes of FFX-2. I can't fathom how it could stand on its own without FFX-2 eventually being made to resolve the lingering threads that are started here. Likewise, I'm not sure how FFX-2 is going to recap what takes place here. Watching this has actually gotten me more excited about FFX-2 (even if I'm not going to be getting it until next year thanks to my pledge not to buy any games until then), and while I'm still not sure if I like the massive changes in the game, this has at least got me thinking about where the storyline goes from here.
| IBM Providing Xbox 2 Processor Well here was a bit of shocking news...Microsoft announced today that IBM has been chosen to provide the CPU for their next-generation Xbox console. In a later story this afternoon, EE Times was able to dig up that this processor will in fact be based on the chip IBM utilized for Apple's G5 line of PowerPC computers (which in turn is based on the Power4 architecture). This is surprising, because this is not an x86 processor, although the general opinion of everyone I spoke with (off the record) is that Microsoft will most certainly be keeping backward compatibility regardless of the processor technology, so it's possible that the system will utilize an emulator of some sort for current Xbox titles. Thanks to Slashdot Games for the second link. |
| Sony's Big Restructuring Plan Reports out of Japan surfaced over the weekend that Sony is planning a huge reorganization of the entire company. If this plan goes into effect, in 2006 the entire Sony empire will be split into three entities: hardware, content and financial. This would mean that the PlayStation hardware would be lumped in with the rest of Sony's consumer electronics companies, while their development studio would be side-by-side with their film, television and music properties. |
| Nintendo's Anarchy in the UK Showing that they can be just as punk as Microsoft, Nintendo's fired another shot across the bow of the UK market by announcing a £99 GameCube bundle that includes both Mario Kart: Double Dash and the excellent Zelda bonus disc that we'll be seeing soon in the US. You may recall that just last week Nintendo had slid in the sales charts following the release of Microsoft's new Halo/Midtown Madness 3/Xbox Live £139.99 bundle, making this a bold response indeed. |
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| Jade Empire Q&A A new interview with Ray Muzyka, Greg Zeschuk and Jim Bishop of BioWare is up at HomeLAN tonight, talking with the two CEOs and producer about their upcoming Xbox-exclusive RPG Jade Empire. |
| Zodiac Shipping Tapwave announced today that they have begun shipping their Zodiac PDAs to people who pre-ordered them through their online store. If you missed it, here's my preview of the Zodiac, and look for a full review to follow as soon as my final hardware arrives. |
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| Everything, Nothing and Online Co-Op PS2.IGN's latest Off the Record column reports that EA's upcoming title James Bond 007: Everything or Nothing will support online co-op gameplay on the PS2. If their report is correct, the game will feature full online co-op and deathmatch, along with support for the PS2's USB headset. Note that since EA doesn't support Xbox Live, it's safe to assume that only the PS2 version will feature this. |
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| Guilty Gear on Xbox Live? GamerFeed is reporting that Sammy Studios has posted a job opening online for someone with, "strong Xbox and online testing experience." That would seem to suggest that Sammy's got some Xbox Live support a brewin', although nothing has been announced as of yet. |
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| Rising Sun Interview The first in a series of Medal of Honor: Rising Sun interviews is up at IGN tonight. In this initial installment they interview Tarrnie Williams, the senior producer of this shooter that will be arriving in stores next week. |
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| Xlink to Support GameCube According to Planet GameCube, the next major release of Xlink Messenger, a utility for tunneling Xbox games over an external internet connection, will support GameCube LAN-enabled games. Also of note is that Mac and Linux versions of the software are planned. |
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| Mario Kart Interview A new Mario Kart: Double Dash interview is up at Computer and Video Games tonight, talking with a trio of Nintendo execs about their imminent racing game. |
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| Console Exclusives in Intellivision Compilation According to 1UP, there will be console-specific games in the upcoming Intellivision Lives! compilation. The PS2 version will feature Hardhat, Brickout, and Deep Pockets, while Xbox gamers will get Empire, Space Cadet, and Number Jumble. |
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| Resonance Q&A HomeLAN has conducted a Q&A with Francis Lahaie, the lead designer of Resonance at developer Neocell Factory. Francis talks about the origins of the project, the game's storyline and more. |
| Misc. Media/Previews | |
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| IGN has posted new commercials from Mario Kart: Double Dash and a hands-on preview of Mario Party 5, |
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| GameSpot has a new preview of Dragon Ball Z: Budokai 2, while IGN has their own preview of DBZ: Budokai 2, as well as a disappointing import playtest of Transformers, a hands-on look at Karaoke Revolution and new media from Campfire: Become Your Nightmare. Elsewhere, The Magic Box has new shots from Syphon Filter: Omega Strain and CVG has new footage from Manhunt. |
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| Team Xbox has posted an in-game cut scene from Armed & Dangerous and 1UP has an image of one of the new Xbox "booth babe" costumes that will be in Dead or Alive Online. Also, we've got a trailer from the Xbox version of Grand theft Auto: Vice City up at FileShack. |
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| IGN has new shots from Shining Soul II and King of Fighters EX2: Howling Blood. |
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| GameInformer has hands-on impressions and media from Medal of Honor: Rising Sun and new shots from Sonic Heroes (both GC, PS2, Xbox) and Eidos has updated their official site for Legacy of Kain: Defiance (PS2, Xbox) with new goodies. |
