Late Night Consoling
Thanks to Morph8 for digging up this insane batch of photos of one guy's console collection that were posted to a Spanish-language forum. This is easily the most impressive console collection I've ever seen, and every time I look at it I see something else that I wish I had in my own. Actually, this is one of those things that I'll happily point out to my wife the next time she thinks I'm obsessed with my collection. Of course, every console I own is actually hooked up (which is the way they should be) and not behind glass, so as far as I'm concerned mine is still superior. Still, that's an awfully nice NeoGeo AES he's got there, and I've never even seen a PCFX up close (to say nothing of Nintendo's pocket Star Trek game!).
| First Cell Pre-Production Chips in March It's yet another announcement that really doesn't say a whole lot, but nonetheless Sony and Toshiba announced today that they will be running the first pre-production Cell processors off their new assembly line in March. While that's not too exciting in and of itself, the fact that it's a 65nm chip is. And it also opens up the possibility that we'll see a working PlayStation3 at E3 in May (but I still find it very unlikely we'll see anything more than a pre-rendered CGI "approximation" of PS3 technology). |
| Microsoft Planning Non-Standard Media for Xbox2? A story on The Register today makes the pretty extreme leap in guessing that Microsoft may be planning a non-standard media format for their Xbox2 system. They base this entirely on the fact that Microsoft has posted a job listing in which they're looking for someone to "manage the design and development of the Xbox Game Disc for the next generation Xbox console", and the fact that the listing goes on to talk about anti-piracy measures. Aside from the fact that moving to a non-DVD based format would block backwards compatibility, it would not at all be in Microsoft's best interest to do so, since that would create the kind of production problems Nintendo ran into with third party developers and N64 cartridges. My guess is that it will be a plain old DVD, albeit with a custom copy-protection system (which isn't at all different from the first generation Xbox discs). |
| New Zealand Bans Manhunt If you live in New Zealand and want to play Rockstar's Manhunt, you're out of luck...the Office of Film and Literature Classification has decided that the game, "depicts horror, cruelty, crime and violence in such a manner that its availability was likely to hurt the public good." Call it hypocrisy if you like, as Craven13 was the first to point out that New Zealand is the home place of Peter Jackson's Bad Taste and Dead Alive, which are easily among the goriest films ever made. |
| StarCraft: Ghost Not an Xbox Exclusive It seems like every six months someone feels the need to re-confirm this, but just in case you've forgotten, Cube.IGN has contacted Blizzard and learned that yes, StarCraft: Ghost is still planned for all three console systems. Not only that, but the current plan is still to ship all three at the same time. |
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| EA Sports Fight Night Announced On Thursday EA Sports announced Fight Night 2004, a brand new boxing franchise for PS2 and Xbox that picks up where Knockout Kings left off. This impressive title features a wide variety of boxing champs, including Muhammad Ali, Joe Frazier, and Sugar Ray Leonard among many others. Details and media are up at IGN, and in case it's not obvious by the EA name, the game will only support online multiplayer on the PS2. |
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| Viewtiful Joe Creator's Mystery Project According to 1UP, Viewtiful Joe creator Hideki Kamiya has posted a column on Capcom's Japanese website, in which he mentions that he's working on a new game. No details of any kind are available yet, but he does say that it's in the same spirit as Viewtiful Joe and he hopes to make, " something that blends the possibilities of modern technology with the freshness and originality that marked earlier generations of action games." |
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| Official Xbox 5.1 Speakers Announced A press release posted at Team Xbox has the news that at the Consumer Electronics Show next month, Microsoft will unveil official Xbox 5.1 surround sound speakers. The speakers are being manufactured by Spherex Inc., and the system has four inputs (three digital, one analog) and will of course work with any home theater equipment, not just the Xbox. |
| Pac-Man Retrospective 1UP has posted a look back at Pac-Man, who despite only being a handful of pixels really was my childhood hero (is it any wonder I wound up the way I did?). The author credits The Virtual Pac-Man Museum and Retrogamer for being a source, and if you go to either (or both) you'll find tons more Pac-related goodness. |
| PSX Fails to Impress An AP story at Yahoo News today has the first impressions by some analysts of Sony's new PSX superconsole, and they weren't particularly blown away by the device. It sounds like the interface is quite cool (as well it should be, since it's powered by that PS2 processor), but in every other respect it's just a mediocre melange of things that are available for much less if bought separately. |
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| Phantasy Star Online 1.0 Servers Going Offline This doesn't affect anyone playing Phantasy Star Online in this country, but for anyone in Japan, Sega has announced that the PSO version 1.0 servers will be going offline at the end of March. To keep playing you'll need to trade in their copy for the version 1.1 disc from Sega, but there's still plenty of time to do that. |
| New Kirby Confirmed The first details on Kirby: The Mirror Conundrum (rough translation) are up at Pocket.IGN tonight. Unlike Nightmare in Dreamland, this is an original title, and one of the power-ups will apparently give Kirby wings and a bow and arrow, just like Kid Icarus way back when. |
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| Under GT4's Hood We've got game: Under the hood of Gran Turismo 4 is the name of an article from Motor Trend magazine that goes in-depth on Sony's latest realistic racing game (thanks Slashdot Games). The article details how they're striving for extreme realism in the game, which should be of note for any gearheads out there. |
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| Sabre Wulf Q&A Computer and Video Games has conducted a Q&A with an unnamed representative for Rare, talking with him/her about Sabre Wulf, their upcoming GBA resurrection of their classic Spectrum title. |
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| Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes Q&A Cube.IGN has posted a Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes update. Aside from a bunch of new screenshots, there's a brief Q&A with Denis Dyack of Silicon Knights, who talks about why the game was bumped to '04 among other things. |
| Misc. Media/Previews | |
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| A new hands-on look at Donkey Konga is up at GameSpot tonight, IGN has new media from Baten Kaitos and a look at Geist, GameSpy has a hands-on look at Phantasy Star Online Episode III: C.A.R.D. Revolution and we have a new trailer from Virtua Fighter Cyber Generation at FileShack. |
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| GameSpot has impressions of Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas and Syphon Filter: Omega Strain as well as new footage from Gran Turismo 4 and a new trailer from Dororo, IGN and GameInformer both have hands-on looks at Resident Evil: Outbreak, IGN has a Z Gundam playtest and a first look at Romance of the Three Kingdoms IX, Games Are Fun and The Magic Box have new images from Final Fantasy XII and GameInformer has a new trailer from Samurai Warriors. |
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| GameSpot has a first look at Tenchu: Return from Darkness, new previews of Unreal II: The Awakening and Shadow Ops: Red Mercury and new media from Jade Empire, and IGN has a new preview of Tenchu: Return from Darkness and new shots from True Live Fantasy Online. |
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| A new trailer from Astro Boy can be found at GameSpot tonight. |
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| GameSpot goes hands-on with Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel (PS2, Xbox), Pitfall: The Lost Expedition (GC, PS2, Xbox), All-Star Baseball 2005 (PS2, Xbox) and MTX Mototrax (GC, PS2, Xbox) and has a new trailer from The Suffering (PS2, Xbox), IGN has their own looks at Pitfall: The Lost Expedition and MTX Mototrax and CVG has new shots from Psi-Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy (PS2, Xbox). |
