Late Night Consoling
Although the tradition around these parts is to have no LNC updates here on Thursday evenings, I'm pleased to announce that this Thursday we'll have a very special treat...thanks to Marcus Yam (who we have on loan from Firing Squad) we'll have hands-on impressions of the final version of Ninja Gaiden. Which is good, because it was confirmed today that the game really will ship next Tuesday. Seriously. They mean it this time. So look for that on Thursday, at the usual time. Anyway, my copy of the Official Xbox Magazine (with the demo disc intact, as thankfully nobody stole it in transit) has arrived, so I'm off to go decapitate a few drones in the demo version.
| Jak, Ratchet & Sly All Return This Year The rumors are true...SCEA announced today that this fall will see the release of sequels to Jak II, Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando and Sly Cooper and the Thievus Raccoonus. Here's the official announcement of the Jak and Ratchet sequels and here's IGN's write-up of Sly 2 along with the first screenshots from Ratchet 3 and Jak III. |
| Second Sight Revealed Free Radical, the developer best known for their TimeSplitters titles, has announced Second Sight, a third person action title that contains a focus on the supernatural (or that's my guess from the screenshots anyway). This game will be released for all three platforms, and good news for Nintendo fans: the developer confirmed that their other project, the third TimeSplitters game, will be released for GameCube as well. |
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| FFVII Rumors Baffle Square Representative Not content to merely publish every rumor that comes across their desk, Computer and Video Games followed up with Square Enix regarding last night's rumors about a Devil May Cry-style game starring Cloud from Final Fantasy VII. As you can probably guess from the headline, they knew nothing about any such project. Now of course, it's not totally unheard of for the UK or North American arms of a company not to know of every title in development in Japan, but this just screams fanboy fabrication, so it's probably just that. |
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| EA Nabs Samurai Warriors Electronic Arts announced today that they have acquired the rights to distribute Koei's Samurai Warriors in North America. This game is Dynasty Warriors set in the Sengoku-era, and looks quite impressive from the screenshots and previews I've read so far. Look for it to land here in May. |
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| DOA Pillow DOA? Citing "some stories written by overseas press with misconceptions", the future of the life-sized pillow featuring Dead or Alive character Kasumi that was planned as a bonus with a limited Xbox release in Japan, is now in question. I realize these things are looked upon differently in Japan than they are here, but I don't think anyone really has any "misconceptions" about the product...we all know what it is. |
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| Warthog in Negotiation for Two New Film Licenses According to gamesindustry.biz, developer Warthog is in negotiations for two new film licenses. Although the developer is based in the UK, both games will be developed at their Texas studio. Previous games from Warthog include Starlancer, Mace Griffin Bounty Hunter and the recently released Battlestar Galactica. |
| Capcom TV Games Announced JAKKS Pacific, makers of those retro-cool direct-to-television game systems like the already-available Namco and Atari ones, and the just-announced Midway model, have announced yet another one, this time featuring classic Capcom titles (thanks radjago). Here's a funny quote from the press release: "CAPCOM TV Games will feature five top-selling CAPCOM arcade classic games, including 1942, Ghosts 'N Goblins, Mega Man, Gun Smoke and Side Arms." Including? |
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| AOU Reports Some reports from the recent Amusement Machine Operator's Union Show (AOM) from Japan have popped up around the web...GameSpot and insert credit both have good general write-ups of all the various games on display, while IGN has a brief news item about Quest of D, a new title from Sega-AM2 (they also have some footage from the game, but it's for subscribers only). |
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| New Games This Week There's not much this week...just Carve (Xbox), Romance of the Three Kingdoms IX (PS2), and Steel Battalion: Line of Contact and the re-release of Steel Battalion (both for Xbox). |
| Misc. Media/Previews | |
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| IGN has posted a new preview of Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life. |
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| GameSpot and IGN both go hands-on with Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six 3, GameSpot has new media from Spy Fiction and The X-Files: Resist or Serve, IGN goes hands-on with Final Fantasy X-2 International + Final Mission, The Magic Box has new shots from Digital Devil Saga: Avatar Tuner and we've got a trio of new shots from Red Dead Revolver for you here at Shacknews. |
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| New shots from Red Ninja are up at GameSpot, Team Xbox has a new preview of ToCA Race Driver 2: The Ultimate Racing Simulator and HomeLAN goes hands-on with Rallisport Challenge 2. |
| GameSpot has new shots from Sonic Advance 3, GameInformer has new shots from Crash Purple and Spyro Orange and The Magic Box has new shots from Fullmetal Alchemist and Kirby: Great Labyrinth of the Mirror. |
