Late Night Consoling
I briefly mentioned yesterday that I'd started Final Fantasy X-2, and while I'm still not sure what the heck I think of some parts of the game, I've gotten a bit farther in it, and I think I like it. It's a bit overwhelming at first. I'm glad I didn't play this immediately after finishing FFX, as let's face it, this game may have some of the same characters and locations as FFX, but it is a totally different experience. But what's here isn't half bad, or at least, it isn't so far. I'm hoping the story gets a bit more interesting, because at the moment, it's sort of a bore. And it most certainly is cheesy, no question about it. Every time the words "garment grid" or "dressphere" appears on the screen I cringe a little. But I'm willing to go with the flow for a while, in the hopes that the story picks up, so we'll see what I think of it a little further down the line.
| Extent of Xbox 2 "Sneak Peak" at GDC in Doubt A story at gamesindustry.biz today reports that just how much Microsoft will be revealing about their next Xbox system at the Game Developer's Conference at the end of this month is currently up in the air. Apparently Microsoft may want to hold off until Sony locks in their system specs, with such important features as the amount of RAM (currently rumored to be 256 MB) and whether or not to include an internal hard drive (although other recent rumors suggest this is already out of the picture). Personally, I'll be happy just to have a name for this damn thing. I'm going to start calling it Josephine if they don't give me a name and a logo at GDC. |
| ESPN Closing Down User-Created PS2 Leagues ESPN Videogames announced today that they will be closing down the user-created leagues for their online titles at the end of the month, citing the fact that the feature, "just wasn't that popular." This only affects ESPN College Hoops, ESPN NBA Basketball, and ESPN NFL Football, as their hockey title didn't support leagues. This doesn't mean the feature's gone forever, of course, as GameSpot has confirmed that they intend to "start over from scratch" with the next iterations of these games. |
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| Mortal Kombat: Deception Mini-Games Revealed Five new screenshots from Mortal Kombat: Deception are up at IGN tonight, and while there are a few showing the in-game action, there are two shots that are of particular note. One shows some kind of Mortal Kombat strategy game, while another showcases Puzzle Kombat, a Tetris (or hopefully Puzzle Fighter) style puzzle game. |
| Warp Pipe 0.3.5 Released The Warp Pipe Project announced today that version 0.3.5 of their cross-platform tunneling software for LAN-enabled GameCube games is now available for download. New in this version is a brand new uniform GUI, automatic port-forwarding, and wireless network support among other changes. Thanks Planet GameCube, who have posted the press release from Warp Pipe Technologies (the newly formed parent company of the WPP), in which the development team suggests that this may be a cost-effective way for publishers to add online support to their titles without having to worry about investing in an online infrastructure. |
| Nintendo's Seizure Suits Roll On A suit against Nintendo of America filed in Louisiana moved forward last week after ten days of testimony was wrapped up on Thursday. The suit charges Nintendo with failing to comply with consumer protection laws, which requires companies to report on the potential dangers of their products. The suit suggests that Nintendo is aware of "defects" that present a "substantial hazard" as certain games create create patterns of light that could cause seizures in sensitive children. The personal injury suit was dismissed after the parties reached a settlement out of court, but this suit is purely about how much Nintendo knew about the problem. Thanks Slashdot Games for the tip. |
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| Nintendo Sequels at E3? Computer and Video Games is reporting on the latest Nintendo-related rumors, which suggest that sequels to Animal Crossing, The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker and Metroid Prime will all be shown at E3 in May, while the eagerly-anticipated Mario 128 will not. As with any rumors, trust nothing until an official announcement is made, or at the very least, we have something resembling confirmation. All of these games are known to be in development, so the question is merely when they'll be shown to the public. |
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| Four Swords Minus in America? The Nintendo-news keeps on coming tonight, as GameInformer is reporting that the version of The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords+ that appears in this country will be different from the one recently released in Japan. Specifically, their sources say, the version released in North America will ditch the Navi's Trackers part of the game entirely, while the Hyrule Adventure portion will be significantly larger than the Japanese original. |
| Scientific Atlanta Moving into Consoles? Set-top box manufacturer Scientific Atlanta has announced plans to incorporate some sort of interactive gaming into their cable boxes. What form exactly this will take is unknown, but no doubt this is yet another feature that cable companies will jump all over if given the chance. How good the games will be is a whole other issue entirely. |
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| MGS: TTS Interview A brief interview with Hans-Joachim Amann, the senior marketing manager at Konami on Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes is up at Computer and Video Games. This is a very brief interview, and this is a marketing guy, not a developer, so don't look for much depth here. |
| Misc. Media/Previews | |
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| GameSpot has posted new movies from Custom Robo, Planet GameCube has new shots from Wario Ware, Inc: Mega Party Game$ and IGN has a Custom Robo playtest. |
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| The Magic Box has new shots from the Dragon Quest V remake, 1UP previews Vib Ripple and IGN has new movies from MLB 2005 and new previews of Red Ninja: End of Honor, Sole Predator and the delightfully wacky Ribbit King. |
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| New shots from Tenchu: Return from Darkness are up at GameSpot, GameSpy has a new preview of Shadow Ops: Red Mercury and Team Xbox has some new shots from the next batch of Halo toys. |
| The first new shots from Mario vs. Donkey Kong to come out in ages are up at IGN tonight. |
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| IGN has posted new media from Fight Night 2004 (PS2, Xbox), 1UP has a hands-on look at NARC (PS2, Xbox) and GameSpot has a new Fight Night developer's diary. |
