Late Night Consoling
So have you voted for the Shack Game of the Year awards yet? I have, although I must say, I'm surprised at how unqualified I am for most of these categories. I'm never really comfortable voting for any sports categories, but I haven't played a single nominated PS2 RPG, I've only played one of the nominated GameCube action games, I've played none of the GameCube RPG/Adventure games (except I guess my five minutes with The Wind Waker), and don't even start with me on the racing titles for every system. I mean, either I didn't play as many games this year as I usually do, or I just played the wrong games. Actually, what I think happened is that I tended to play older games this year. While everyone ranted about how good Splinter Cell was (for Xbox) last year, I didn't get to try it until I got it as a present for my birthday back in May. Just flipping through the games I've reviewed in the past year, most of them tend to be older titles. And that's not including Ys Book I & II and Snatcher, both of which I reviewed off-site, as our database doesn't go that far back. Am I the only one with this problem? I mean, I pride myself on playing a lot of games (as any LNC reader should notice) so I was taken aback by how few games on the GOTY list I've actually played.
| Sammy Buys Massive Chunk of Sega There were lots of spit-takes being done today (I swear, I plotzed -- true story), as Sammy, who had previously been rejected in their merger bid with Sega, increased their holding in the company from a mere 100,000 to over 39 million shares. In all this gives them a 22% majority stake in the company, and there are hints that they might be picking up more in the near future. The implications of this are still unknown, particularly if Sammy goes back for a double helping of Sega. |
| New PSP Info, More RAM? PSP Insider dug up a new presentation on the PSP over the weekend that contains some interesting new PSP-related images. Much of it we've already seen, but there's also a shot of a PSP development program and emulator, and a slide showcasing the tessellation the PSP is capable of. It's in PDF format, but PSP Insider has the new images mirrored if that's all you want. On a related note, gamesindustry.biz is reporting that Sony is considering increasing the 8 MB of RAM that was originally announced for the platform. This is supposedly because of complaints from developers (to which the 2600 development community sneers and waves their canes in disgust). |
| The Lost Castlevania Revealed Fan page The Castlevania Dungeon has posted five movies (mostly in QuickTime format, although there's one MPEG) showing off Castlevania: Resurrection, the long-lost Dreamcast Castlevania game. Among the movies here is the complete intro-movie, as well as a preview clip that originally ran on IGN. Note that because this is a GameSpyGN site, you'll need to use FilePlanet to download the files. Thanks insert credit for the tip. |
| Konami Publishing Ys VI Worldwide Some pretty cool news for fans of the classic Ys games...Konami announced today that they have acquired the rights to publish the console version of Ys VI: The Ark of Napishtm worldwide. That's right, for the first time since Ys III waaaaaaaaaaay back when on the TurboCD, there's actually going to be an Ys released outside of Japan. No platforms have been named specifically yet, but the smart money's on the PS2. Oh, and for the fans: Ys VI is in full 3D and puts you back in the shoes of Adol. |
|
| More Splinter Cell Levels Available Ubisoft announced today that two more missions for Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell are available for download over Xbox Live. The new levels are said to be Vselka Infiltration and Vselka Submarine, but it's not clear if that includes the Vselka missions that were already available or not. At the very least there's one new one available. |
| Mana Retrospective The first edition of the Classics Column over at 1UP takes a look back at the history of the Secret of Mana series, of which the latest is the recently released Sword of Mana, which is actually a remake of the first game, which was released in this country as Final Fantasy Adventure. As you can see, it's a complicated history. Go read if you want to attempt to make some sense out of it all. |
|
| Galleon Q&A, Exclusive to Xbox Remember Galleon? Well, if you've forgotten (which is a serious possibility considering how long it's been since we last heard about it), it was a cross-platform title that's being spearheaded by the creator of Tomb Raider. The news came out today that the game has been acquired by SCi, and will now be released as an Xbox-only title next year. Development lead Toby Gard talks about this news and other related topics over at Computer and Video Games. |
| The GBA Phone that Never Was An interesting letter has been posted over at The Register, where a developer talks about a project that was in development and was pitched to both Nintendo and various cell phone companies for a project that would have allowed the GBA to be used as a full mobile phone, and could be used for networked games. As much of an interesting trifle as this seems to be, I imagine it as being sort of like a GBA version of the VisorPhone, which Handspring swore everyone would want, and let's face it -- was a horrible, horrible idea. Ever try and talk into a PDA? Believe it or not, it was worse than side talkin', and I imagine this would have been too. |
|
| Seamus Blackley Interview The second half of the Seamus Blackley interview at GameSpot is online tonight. There's very little game-related information here, as Blackley talks about Hollywood in general and his role at CAA. |
|
| New Tenchu: Return from Darkness Info New details from Tenchu: Return from Darkness were released by Activision today. Among the new tidbits is that this Xbox port of Tenchu: Wrath of Heaven will feature more intelligent enemy AI than its PS2 counterpart, and that six of the single player missions will be playable over Xbox Live in either co-op or deathmatch modes. |
|
| Yuji Naka on G4 Yuji Naka, the creator of Sonic, NiGHTS and many more classic Sega icons will be profiled this Thursday on G4's Icons show. The show airs at 10:00 PM and again at 1:00 AM, and IGN has posted a teaser for the show. |
|
| SSX 3 Post Mortem GameSpot has posted an SSX 3 post-mortem, talking with co-producer Dave Elto about their snowboarding title which has been pretty well received. |
|
| R: Racing Evolution Interview The second half of the R: Racing Evolution interview at CVG is online tonight. In this portion, various members of the development team at Namco talk about the physics engine, the lack of online play and more. |
|
| iQue Review Dextrose.com has posted a full hands-on review of Nintendo's iQue, their miniature system that was developed exclusively for China, and features N64 and SNES technology. The author purchased his from import retailer Lik-Sang, and it's a pretty in-depth look at the thing. Thanks Slashdot Games for the tip. |
| Misc. Media/Previews | |
|
| Cube.IGN has a hands-on look at Monolith Soft's Baten Kaitos and The Magic Box has some new shots from Mobile Suit Gundam: Senshitachi no Kiseki. |
|
| GameSpot has new shots from Samurai Warriors and Maximo vs. The Army of Zin and IGN has new shots from Bonk's Adventure and a new preview of Gran Turismo 4 Prologue. |
|
| The Magic Box has some new images from Dead or Alive Online and IGN has new shots from Tenchu: Return from Darkness and goes hands-on with Rallisport Challenge 2. |
|
| GameSpot has new shots from King of Fighters EX2: Howling Blood and Max Payne. |
|
| New hands-on looks at Sonic Heroes (GC, PS2, Xbox) are up at IGN and GameInformer and 1UP has new shots from DRIV3R (PS2, Xbox). |
