Late Night Consoling
I've already mentioned my impressions of the Ninja Gaiden demo that came with the latest issue of the Official Xbox Magazine, but what I keep forgetting to talk about is the demo of Top Spin that's also on that disc. I know many of you have been screaming about this game since it came out, but I had never actually played it before, and I must say...that is one seriously fun little game there. Even at the newly reduced price of $30 I'm still in no rush to pick this up (more for the sheer number of games I still have to play than the money), but the promise of Xbox Live support is quite tempting. If you've never played the game and happen to have that demo disc lying around (and you're tired of playing the Ninja Gaiden demo over and over again) give Top Spin a whirl. It's definitely a hoot to play.
| Movie Playback on the DS? According to the latest Game Over column over at CNN/Money, Nintendo has demonstrated (privately, of course) a two-hour movie running on their upcoming DS system using a 128Mb flash cart. Whether they'll actually offer this as a feature of the system remains to be seen, but the article also says Nintendo will release the system with a low price and about a dozen games, each selling for between $20 and $30. Regarding movie playback, it seems to me that two screens is more of a nuisance than anything else in this regard, as one screen would almost certainly need to be disabled in order to watch a movie comfortably (as movies are in a horizontal, not vertical aspect ratio). |
| 2.6 Million PS2 Network Adapters Sold in US Alone Sony announced some pretty startling figures today: they have sold over 25 million PlayStation 2 systems here in the US, and over 2.6 million network adapters, meaning over 10% of the install base is online. While only a fraction of those people are actually online at any given time, that figure is pretty startling, and should be proof enough for some developers to consider online functionality in their PS2 titles (and sadly, may hurt the chances of EA eventually supporting Xbox Live, as there is already a larger online audience on the PS2). |
| Fable Multiplayer Mode Canceled No shockers here...1UP is reporting that according to the latest update to the official Fable FAQ, the planned multiplayer component of this upcoming RPG has been dropped. As with so many other features from various games over the years, this is being done due to time constraints. |
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| Tron 2.0: Killer App Announced Buena Vista Interactive has announced Tron 2.0: Killer App, an Xbox-exclusive port o Monolith's Tron 2.0. Aside from the Steve Jobs-inspired subtitle (one can only wonder if the game will come with its own reality distortion field), the port will contain Xbox Live-enhanced multiplayer. |
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| The Shield Muscles in on PS2, Xbox On top of the other titles announced yesterday, Sammy Studios used its Gamers Day event to announce an upcoming third person action game based on the critically-acclaimed series The Shield. The developers at Point of View are "working closely" with the series creators, and actor Michael Chiklis will be reprising his role from the series. More details can be found in GameSpot and IGN's respective impressions of the gameplay clips they were shown. |
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| MechAssault 2 Interview IGN is the latest site to interview TJ Wagner of Day 1 about their upcoming title MechAssault 2. While the interview is pretty brief, TJ talks about how this game is an improvement over the original, and hints at Xbox Live features that will be revealed later in the year. |
| Final Fantasy Concert Tickets on Sale Friday Those of you planning on attending the gala Final Fantasy orchestral concert in Los Angeles in May will be eager to learn that tickets will go on sale on this Friday, March 5th. On a related note, Square has launched an English-language version of the official Nobuo Uematsu site, complete with his regularly updated diary. |
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| Panic Maker Announced According to Computer and Video Games, the latest issue of the Japanese magazine Famitsu has the news that the next title from Hiroyuki Kobayashi, the creator of Viewtiful Joe, will be a PS2-exclusive titled Panic Maker. While no real details are available yet, it's said to be, "a humorous action-adventure that focuses on an invasion of the Earth by a bunch of loathsome extra-terrestrial types." I hate those extra-terrestrial types. |
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| Ask Itagaki The latest IntervYou over at Team Xbox is with none other than Tomonobu Itagaki, the always entertaining head of Team Ninja and the creator of Ninja Gaiden and Dead or Alive. As with all of these, this allows you to submit questions for the upcoming interview with him that will run in an issue of the Official Xbox Magazine. |
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| Randy Savage Snaps into SHOWDOWN...Oh YEAH!!!! "Macho Man" Randy Savage is the latest wrestler to join the cast of the upcoming title SHOWDOWN: Legends of Wrestling. I usually skip this sort of story, but I really wanted to use that headline. |
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| New Metroid Metal Track Released MetroidMetal.com has been updated with another heavy metal re-imagining of a classic song from Metroid. I've only mentioned a couple of stories like this before, but nirv was so enthusiastic about this that I had to give it a plug (I haven't listened to them myself yet). |
| Misc. Media/Previews | |
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| GameSpot has posted a writeup of Spy Fiction based on what they saw at Sammy's Gamer's Day event and new footage from Destruction Derby Arenas, IGN has new impressions of Guilty Gear Isuka and Seven Samurai 20XX, GameSpy previews Syphon Filter: The Omega Strain and Firefighter F.D. 18, CVG has posted the intro movie from Onimusha 3 and The Magic Box has new shots from Crimson Tears. |
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| A hands-on look at Iron Phoenix is up at IGN. |
| New shots from Mega Man Zero 3 are up at The Magic Box. |
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| Both IGN and GameSpot have new impressions of Darkwatch: Curse of the West (PS2, Xbox) from Sammy's Gamer's Day, IGN has new media of their own from Darkwatch (PS2, Xbox)GameSpy has a collection of items from Midway's recent Gamer's Day and GameInformer has a writeup from Sammy's Gamer's Day. |
