Late Night Consoling
While I haven't mentioned it in a while, I'm still making my way through Beyond Good & Evil. The game is extremely short, but I've been a bit busy, so I haven't been able to devote much time to it. When I have played the game (and I'm getting back into it now), I've enjoyed it, but the game is very much an average title. The combat is all but useless by design, which is sort of cool, but the stealth you'll use instead is simplistic in the extreme. It's sort of like Metal Gear Solid Lite, and anyone that's played a game like that or Splinter Cell will have no problem at all getting around undetected. But the game is fun in its own way, and the story and characters are really what's kept me with the game. I'm a bit disappointed that it's nothing spectacular, but it's certainly enjoyable enough for $20. Of course, I'm almost at the last chapter, and I still have no clue why on earth they gave this game that title. It just makes absolutely no sense, and fails to convey anything about the game whatsoever. I mean, they could have called it "Jade's Oddysee" (spelling intentional) and it would have made more sense than this silly, Nietzsche reference (which is also the subtitle to the next Xenosaga, although that's using the original German).
| PSP/PS2/PSX Connectivity Confirmed In case there was any doubt, Fumiya Takeno of SCE has confirmed to a Japanese news outlet that Sony is planning on inter-system connectivity between the PSP and the PS2 and/or PSX. It's not entirely what method will be utilized for this connectivity, but considering that the PSP has both Bluetooth and 802.11b networking, either or both could easily be taken advantage of for this purpose. |
| Sammy Announces Guilty Gear Isuka, Iron Phoenix Sammy Studios announced two new titles today: Guilty Gear Isuka, a new 2D installment in the long-running Guilty Gear series for PS2 that offers for the first time the ability for up to four players to play simultaneously, and Iron Phoenix, a Live-enabled fighting game that supports up to 16 players online. A first look at Iron Phoenix can be found exclusively at GameSpot, while IGN scored the exclusive on Guilty Gear Isuka. |
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| True Live Fantasy Online Delayed It's unknown what, if any consequences this will have for the North American release of the game, but Microsoft has announced that the Japanese release of True Live Fantasy Online has been pushed back until winter 2004. The delay is being attributed to the fact that the game is, "in an incomplete state." |
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| New Mortal Kombat: Deception Images As part of an "official collaboration" with PSM Magazine, PS2.IGN has posted some scans of the article in this month's issue of the magazine that has the world exclusive first look at Mortal Kombat: Deception. The article is a whopping ten pages, and while you won't see the whole thing, there are some cool shots of the multi-tiered levels. Also at IGN are some full-size in-game shots, which are larger versions of some of the ones from the magazine. |
| GameCube Supplies Running Thin in US Some good news for Nintendo...GameCube hardware sales have been good enough in this country that they're being forced to bring in supplies from other territories. According to Nintendo's Perrin Kaplan, around 50% of stores in this country have sold out of the console. |
| North America to Get Really Ugly GBA Good news! GameInformer is reporting that gamers in North America will soon be able to get their own really ugly GBA, modeled after Nintendo's original NES system, just as Japan got one based on the Famicom. I kid, but at the same time I consider the NES to be one seriously ugly piece of hardware (not that the Master System was a prom queen or anything, but it's a heck of a lot less garish) and can't say I have any desire to pick up one of these. What is a bit more interesting is word that we may see the release of the Famicom Mini line of NES re-releases for GBA here in the US, although I would hope they're priced a little more reasonably than they are in Japan. |
| Itagaki on Otogi, VF2, Shinobi and More 1UP has posted an unusual interview with Tomonobu Itagaki, the head of Tecmo's Team Ninja and the creator of Ninja Gaiden. Not that there are any boring interviews with the guy, but this one's fun in that the interviewer shows Itagaki images from other games and asks for his thoughts about them. Among the games he talks about are Virtua Fighter 2, Otogi: Myth of Demons, Shinobi and his own Ninja Gaiden (the original, not the new one). |
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| Spikeout @ E3 According to IGN, Sega Amusement Vision's Toshihiro Nagoshi has confirmed to the Japanese magazine Famitsu Xbox that Spikeout will make its debut at E3 in May. Spikeout is said to be an attempt at doing the Streets of Rage-style gameplay in 3D, and I think I speak for all gamers when I hope that it's a heck of a lot better than the last attempt at this (Square's The Bouncer). |
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| Bargain Priced Donkey Konga? IGN is reporting from "sources close to Nintendo" that Donkey Konga, the Namco-developed rhythm game of bongo bonuses, will be released in the US "before the July time period" and sell, with the drum controller for a mere $50. Considering the less-than-stellar sales of games like Samba de Amigo in this country, this is probably a wise decision on Nintendo's part. |
| Eugene Jarvis Interview Salon.com has conducted a lengthy interview with Eugene Jarvis (paid subscription or patience to sit through an advertisement required), the creator of Defender, Robotron and SMASH TV among many, many others. Much of the interview focuses on Jarvis' new project, an anti-terrorism shooter, but he also talks about the industry in general, and his thoughts about Grand Theft Auto among other things. |
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| Burnout 3 Interview The second half of Computer and Video Games' interview with Alex Ward of Criterion Games is online tonight. In this portion, Alex doesn't completely rule out Xbox Live support, and also says, " I'd like to think that there's a great chance that you'll see Burnout on PSP" (but no such project is in the works at the moment). |
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| Sudeki Interview Sudeki Evolution: Code is the name of 1UP's interview with Stewart Lynch, the lead programmer at Climax on their upcoming Xbox-exclusive RPG Sudeki. As the title sort of suggests, this interview talks about the development of the game's engine. |
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| New Releases This Week New in stores this week is Phantasy Star Online Episode III: C.A.R.D. Revolution for GameCube, Drakengard, LifeLine and Worms 3D for PS2, Colin McRae Rally 04, Dead Man's Hand and Ninja Gaiden for Xbox, Mega Man Battle Chip Challenge for GBA and MTX Mototrax for both PS2 and Xbox. |
| Misc. Media/Previews | |
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| IGN has new media from Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life and Pool Paradise. |
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| IGN goes hands-on with Resident Evil: Outbreak and has new media from Transformers, The X-Files: Resist or Serve and World Tour Soccer 2005, both GameSpy and GameInformer have new previews of Onimusha Blade Warriors and The Magic Box has the first shots from both Gacha Mega Stadium and Dragon Ball Z 2 V. |
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| 1UP has a new preview of MechAssault 2, Team Xbox has footage from the Xbox Live portion of Tenchu: Return from Darkness and HomeLAN has a hands-on look at the Xbox version of Judge Dredd: Dredd vs. Death. |
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| New shots from Sonic Advance 3 are up at GameSpot tonight and IGN has a look at the Famicom Mini line of GBA releases. |
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| Gamespot has new shots from ESPN Major League Baseball (PS2, Xbox), Team Xbox has a report from Midway's gamer's day and new media from MVP Baseball 2004 (GC, PS2, Xbox) and IGN has new movies from All-Star Baseball 2005 (PS2, Xbox). |
