Late Night Consoling
Hopefully by now you've all had a chance to read through my Holiday Buying Guide, which went live this afternoon. As I said last night, it's a big one, with over 150 gift ideas (it actually got a bit larger after my LNC went up last night), and there should be something in there for every geek on your list. When it comes to the console games in there, I tried to include pretty much every game I think people will like this year, and I used my own experience and comments I've heard from others to make those decisions. I've had a couple of people ask about the absence of Beyond Good & Evil, and that's not in there because I have never played it (I didn't get a review copy, I missed it at E3 and I've never even played a demo) and, well...nobody seems to be talking about it very much. So while I am intrigued by its non-violent concept, I can't recommend it sight unseen without at least a few people telling me really good things about it. Nobody's even reviewed either the PC or PS2 versions that are in the ShackReviews database (the GameCube and Xbox ones will go in this weekend). So anyway, if you've got any suggestions for games I missed, post them in the comments. I can't possibly include everything in there, so I leave the rest up to you guys.
| Sammy Pushes for Arcade Strategy at Sega Just days after their surprise purchase of a huge amount of Sega stock (giving them a controlling stake in the company), Sammy is already starting to make their presence known. In an interview at Bloomberg Japan (relayed here via GameSpot), Sammy president Hajime Satomi vows to push Sega to focus more of their strategy on the arcade business, which while virtually nonexistent in the U.S, is still a profitable business in Japan. As arcade revenue played a large part in Sega's most recent positive quarterly report, this does seem to be sound advice, however home games have more legs in the long run, particularly outside of Japan. |
| Inside the Metal Gear Factory A great article is up at 1UP tonight, chronicling their recent trip to Konami of Japan, where they met with Hideo Kojima and other members of the Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater and Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes teams. There are some new details here, as well as glimpses into the creative process at Konami, but most encouraging is a suggestion that after these games Kojima might return to science-fiction (well, real sci-fi, not the melange of genres that is MGS), with the author speculating that this could be a new Policenauts title (although personally I'd settle for a North American release of the PSOne version of that game). |
| Retailers Start Carding In one of those moves that does nothing but piss me off, the Interactive Entertainment Merchants Association has announced that all merchants belonging to their organization will begin enforcing age limits on M-rated games, and not sell them to kids under 17. Since most game retailers (including EB, Blockbuster, KB Toys and many others) are members of the IEMA, this means the policy will be pretty widespread. Of course, what they seem to be forgetting is that most gamers are over 18 (the average age is 28), and even then, most games are bought by parents, not kids (who tend to have less disposable income). I swear, if I ever get carded trying to buy an M-rated game, I'm going to storm out of there, walk across the street and come back with a giant bottle of tequila, a carton of cigarettes and a big stack of porn before showing them any proof of my age. |
|
| AMD in Xbox2? A new column up over at Team Xbox speculates that despite the announced participation of IBM in the Xbox2 development process, Microsoft's next console may have an Athlon64. Just to be clear, this is pure speculation, and there hasn't been anything suggested publicly from Microsoft to suggest that their next system will use anything besides a PowerPC-derived CPU from IBM. Thanks AMDZone for the tip. |
|
| Xenosaga Freaks Announced Namco of Japan announced today Xenosaga Freaks, a special bonus disc for fans of Xenosaga. The disc will contain two mini-games, a playable demo of Xenosaga Episode II: Jenseits von Gut und Bose and a database (which is likely similar to the in-game one featured in the first game in the series). There's no word on a U.S. release, however given the recent trend to ship similar discs as pre-order bonuses, one would hope it will make it over here. |
|
| AOL Announces PS2 Ladders America Online has announced a partnership with the venerable site Case's Ladders to provide PS2 ladders and tournaments for AOL subscribers. There are ladders for Madden 2004, SOCOM II, Tony Hawk's Underground and lots more, although since these aren't official, or even integrated into the game, they require a lot more work than say, Microsoft's XSN system. |
|
| $25,000 XSN Championship Announced Speaking of Microsoft's XSN line, Microsoft has announced a new tournament that will have gamers competing in six games for a grand prize of $25,000 and a trip to Los Angeles to attend the finals. |
|
| True Crime 2 Confirmed GameSpy Daily is reporting that at the UBS Media Week Conference in New York, Activision CEO Bobby Kotick confirmed that a sequel to True Crime: Streets of L.A. is in the works. While no details were released, he apparently hinted that the game will feature other cities. Being the staunch New Yorker that I am, I'd love to see my beloved city represented in something other than Cruisin' USA. |
| More on the PSP RAM Fight Pocket.IGN has a news story up about the debate going on between Sony and its potential PSP developers over the amount of RAM in their upcoming handheld system. There's not much more than we already know (it currently has 8 MB, but developers want more), but this article does have some new quotes from anonymous developers, who explain how more memory can only bring good things. One can only hope that if there is more memory added, it doesn't raise the price of the system, which is already in serious jeopardy of costing as much as a PS2. |
|
| BC Q&A A new Q&A with Joe Rider of the BC development team at Intrepid Computer Entertainment is up at Computer and Video Games tonight, talking with him about their upcoming game of a stone age family. |
|
| Yuji Naka Q&A Also at CVG tonight is a brief Q&A with Yuji Naka and Takashi Lizuka of Sonic Team, talking with them about their upcoming cross-platform title Sonic Heroes. |
| The Lost Final Fantasy Lost Levels has posted a new spotlight article, looking at the English translation of the original NES Final Fantasy II which was abandoned. It's a great little bit of gaming history here, and it's cool to read about how close we came to seeing it released way back in 1991 (it's since been available as part of the Final Fantasy Origins collection). Thanks Slashdot Games for the tip. |
| Misc. Media/Previews | |
|
| GameSpot has a look at the online functionality in the PS2 version of The Sims Bustin' Out and a new trailer from Ys VI: The Ark of Napishtim (which isn't officially a PS2 title, but everyone assumes it will be), IGN has new impressions of MX Unleashed and new images from Wild Arms Alter Code: F, 1UP has a new preview of Gran Turismo 4 (based on the Prologue version that's out in Japan), and IGN continues to milk their own copy of GT4 Prologue for more content. |
|
| The Magic Box has some new shots from Otogi: Hyakki Toubatsu Emaki, the sequel to Otogi: Myth of Demons, and CVG and GameInformer compete to see who can post the largest number of pointless Full Spectrum Warrior screenshots (someone want to tell these people that nobody bothers looking at more than ten screenshots?). |
|
| CVG has some new shots from DRIV3R (PS2, Xbox) and GameInformer has a new preview of Al Star Baseball 2005 (PS2, Xbox). |
