Late Night Consoling
So did everyone have a console-filled holiday break? I certainly did. I was off for four days, and on every one of those, I think I must have spent at least three hours in front of my Xbox or PS2. I covered a lot of ground, playing Manhunt, Counter-Strike, Morrowind: GOTY, Star Wars: The Clone Wars and even The Simpsons: Hit & Run. I'll hold off on really detailed impressions of Hit & Run for a later point in the future, but after spending a couple of hours with the game, I'm inclined to declare it a dud. The game just has too many problems, like its over reliance on timed-missions (ugh) the extreme linearity of it (despite the fact that it suggests otherwise) and its synthesized music (what is this, a NES game?) that no number of clever Simpsons references can fix. But I've only spent a few hours with it, and I do intend to give it another go after I'm done with some other games. And of course, if I ever actually finish the game (and hopefully I will) I'll post a full review, but not until then. In the meantime, if you're thinking of picking this one up, rent it first.
| Virtua Fighter Cyber Generation Announced Shenmue fans may have to hold back tears as they look at this, but regardless, Sega took the wraps off the game previously known as Virtua Fighter Quest today. The game's official name is Virtua Fighter Cyber Generation: Ambition of the Judgment Six, and it's an action-RPG that takes place in a futuristic sci-fi world. Essentially your character goes through the game collecting "Virtua Souls" that contain bits of fighting styles from long dead warriors, and it's these that tie the game into the other Virtua Fighter games in the series. VFCG sports an anime-influenced look that has much more in common than the first Xenosaga than any other Virtua Fighter game to date, which would suggest that Sega has stuck to their original statement that this would be a more youth-oriented product. The game is currently said to be on track for a summer 2004 release for both GameCube and PS2 in Japan. |
| PSX Specs Lowered It looks like Sony's ubersystem has come back down to earth slightly. In order to make its release in Japan in less than two weeks, Sony has announced that some of the specs have been taken down a notch on the PSX. Instead of the promised 24x DVD burner (which would have been the fastest available anywhere) it's now a much more reasonable 12x, although it is no longer compatible with either CD-R or DVD+RW formats ("playable" that is -- presumably you can burn to CD-R media). Also removed were compatibility with TIFF and GIF image formats, the Cybershot movie format and MP3 playback (!). It's also no longer compatible with PS2 networked games, which seems like a pretty big omission to me. As it was made with upgrading in mind, many of these features will be put back in future software updates. |
| Star Wars: Battlefield 1942? GameSpot is reporting that LucasArts is working on a game known as Star Wars: Battlefront, a Battlefield: 1942-style online-action game set in the Star Wars universe. The game is being developed for PS2 and Xbox (and PC) and while no specifics are available, one mission that's been confirmed is the battle on Hoth, which jeez...would be like, totally awesome if done right. |
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| PS3 Concept Image? Here's tonight's bit of anti-news...this image has been floating around the web today, with some claiming it's a concept image for Sony's PlayStation 3. It's pretty safe to assume that it's not. If nothing else, the rounded edges would mark a radical departure from Sony's aesthetic sensibility, and if there's one thing Sony does well, it's industrial design (especially when it comes to consoles, as a non-sexy console just won't do). |
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| Grand Theft Auto Meets The Terminator? According to Cinescape, the recently announced Terminator: Redemption is going to be like "Grand Theft Auto in the Terminator universe." Yowza. I guess since we've already seen Jak & Daxter-meets-GTA and The Simpsons-meets-GTA, Terminator-meets-GTA wouldn't be any more absurd. |
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| Oddworld Q&A There's not a whole lot of concrete information here, but nonetheless, the official Oddworld site has been updated with a new Q&A with Lorne Lanning, the founder of the company and the voice of most of the characters in their games. If nothing else, he confirms that their next game, which stars a character known as "The Stranger" is not part of the Oddworld Quintology, of which there have technically only been two games so far. |
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| Astro Boy: Now With Realistic Physics? Sega unveiled their Astro Boy game for PS2 today, and the most surprising thing about it is that it utilizes the Havok physics engine, which has been showcased in games like Max Payne 2 and Half-Life 2. The first details and screenshots are up at GameSpot and IGN. |
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| Black Friday Meets "Modest" Expectations The preliminary reports from last Friday (known as "Black Friday" in the retailing industry) have come in, and it looks like the industry met the "modest" expectations set by analysts. The biggest winners seem to have been all from EA, with Madden, SSX, Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King and Need for Speed: Underground all doing particularly well. Rockstar's Manhunt is said to have fizzled, failing to break the top ten, as it is a "niche" product. |
| New N-Gage Titles Announced Nokia has announced a handful of new games for their N-Gage phone/game system. Due next year are Ashen, Operation Shadow, Requiem of Hell, Sega Rally Championship, Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Jungle Storm, Worms, and WWE, and third party developer Playlogic announced that Xyanide, which is also in development for Xbox and GBA, will also be released for the N-Gage. |
| Sonic x2 in '04 THQ announced today that they will publish two new Sonic games for GBA next year. In January we'll see Sonic Battle, with Sonic Advance 3 following later in the first half of the year. |
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| Wave 'em Around Like You Just Don't Care Sony has solicited for ideas for their follow-up to the uber-successful EyeToy: Play. If you've got an idea for a game that takes advantage of the wacky EyeToy peripheral, head over to the official PlayStation UK site and submit your game design. |
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| DDR Record Broken From the "good lord, man!" pile comes this story care of Games Are Fun and DDR Freak about a 17 year old who set the world record for Dance Dance Revolution by playing for a mind-numbing (literally) 37 1/2 hours straight. But hey, it was for charity, so give the kid a pat on the back. |
| Misc. Media/Previews | |
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| GameSpot has a new trailer from Onimusha 3, new impressions of Onimusha Blade Warriors and Kumauta, new details and images from Sakura Taisen Monogatari: Mysterious Paris and new shots from MVP Baseball 2004. Over at IGN they have impressions of Wild Arms: Alter Code F and Onimusha Blade Warriors and CVG has new footage from Resident Evil: Outbreak. |
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| GameSpy has a new preview of Sega GT Online, CVG has new footage from Armed & Dangerous and Games Are Fun links to a new Japanese commercial for Ninja Gaiden. |
| New shots from Metal Slug 5 and King of Fighters 2003 can be found at The Magic Box tonight. |
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| HomeLAN goes hands-on with Mission: Impossible: Operation Surma (GC, PS2, Xbox) and GameInformer has a new trailer for Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance II (PS2, Xbox). |
