Late Night Consoling

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The firehouse sale on Beyond Good & Evil definitely has me considering picking the game up and breaking my nearly four-month moratorium on game purchases. I originally said I was going to wait until at least 1/1/04, so I've fulfilled that obligation and can freely pick up anything I like, but the fact is that I still have a huge stack of unplayed games, so I don't really need to get anything. Still, I wandered into a GameStop today, and if they had been selling BG&E for $20 I probably would have gotten it. But they weren't, so I skipped it for now. Still, GameStop.com is now selling the game at the same price as everyone else (this wasn't the case this morning), so this weekend I might stop by and sell back some older games in order to get this. What's the general consensus on the game? Is it spectacular or merely an enjoyable experience?
PS2 Xbox Price Drop(s) Soon? As part of their positive earnings announcement today, the CEO of Electronics Boutique mentioned that he expects a price drop in "late calendar Q1 or early Q2 2004". This was later backed up by an analyst, who said that this prediction, "sounds like inside information" and continued, by saying that "Sony will be first at $149. I still think in February."
PS2 Xbox GTA: Sin City Debunked This update over at Multi Theft Auto has word from Rockstar that the pre-order page at Amazon.co.uk for Grand Theft Auto IV: Sin City is a load of bunk, and furthermore, the game will not be titled Sin City at all (it's currently under the codename GTA5, although that's subject to change). Thanks Blue's News for the tip.
PS2 Silent Hill 4 Revealed I still haven't found anyplace with a formal announcement of the game, but nonetheless, the first screenshots from Silent Hill 4 have popped up over at The Magic Box. These were obviously scanned from a Japanese print magazine, so they're a bit blurry, but they do show that this game continues the series' tradition of atmosphere and grotesquery.
GameCube Resident Evil 4 Still GameCube Exclusive In other survival horror news, IGN has confirmed that contrary to rumors, Resident Evil 4 will remain "wholly exclusive" to GameCube. So you can forget about that PS2 port.
Xbox Premium Links Content on the Way It looks like more and more games are getting premium Xbox Live content...Microsoft will post later this week the first in what may be a series of for-pay new courses for Links 2004. If you want to play on it, you'll have to shell out $4.99 in order to download it.
Xbox Steel Battalion: Line of Contact Release Details Computer and Video Games has confirmed with Capcom that there will indeed be two releases of Steel Battalion: Line of Contact, one with the uber-controller and one standalone release of just the game. Of course, this game will require that superfreaky controller, so don't even consider picking up the standalone version if you don't already own the controller. There's also a confirmation that the limited-release problems from last year's release of the original game won't be an issue this year, but I would still pre-order it if you know you're going to want it.
GameCube GameBoy Advance New Releases This Week We're still a bit close to the holidays, so there's not a whole lot this week. Out for GameCube are Conflict: Desert Storm II and Sonic Heroes, while CT Special Forces and Sonic Battle are both out for GBA. And that's it for new releases, although there are plenty of post-holiday bargains out there for those looking for them.
  Misc. Media/Previews
GameCube CVG has some new shots from Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes and 1UP has a new preview of Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles (plus links to ones from magazines).
PS2 GameSpot has a look at two new characters from Samurai Warriors and a new preview of Capcom vs. SNK: SVC Chaos, IGN has new shots from Xenosaga Episode II: Jenseits von Gut un Bose, CVG has new shots and a link to a trailer for Maximo vs. the Army of Zin and insert credit has an import review of Hyper Street Fighter II: Anniversary Edition,
GameCube PS2 Xbox IGN has new shots from the remake of Adventure Island (GC, PS2), CVG has a new trailer for 007: Everything or Nothing (GC, PS2, Xbox) and HomeLAN has new hands-on previews of Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel and The Suffering (both PS2, Xbox).
Console Game of the Evening: Romance of the Three Kingdoms 2 for the Super Nintendo. "Hours and hours of controller-swapping strategy action, building up massive armies, making/breaking alliances and general mayhem all to dominating ancient China...one of the deepest and most entertaining strategy games of the era." (submitted by fufux).

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