Late Night Consoling
While I'm certainly not going to be picking up any games for a while (not because I've sworn them off, but simply because I'm much too backed up already), I must say I'm very tempted by the promise of Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes. While every review I've read hasn't been overwhelmingly positive, pointing out that it's basically just the same thing as the original with only minor changes, that's fine with me, as I never actually finished Metal Gear Solid. At the time I was a starving college student, and this was before I made my own personal rule of never to start another game before finishing the one I'm currently playing (although there are exceptions, as I recently showed with Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time), and I just didn't have the patience for the game. Of course in retrospect this was quite silly, as I've played plenty of games that require far more patience than MGS since then, but at the time, it just wasn't my bag (for the record, I didn't finish Final Fantasy VII the first time around either, although that's primarily because I hadn't learned how to properly complete a Final Fantasy yet). So anyway, as everyone seems to think the original hasn't aged well (call me crazy, but it still looks fine to me), this seems like a good excuse to finally finish it. But again, I'm not going to be doing that for a while. I've got plenty of games still to play for the time being.
| Are the Next-Generation Console Wars Over Already? This story at the BBC reports that a report from the Informa Media Group claims that Sony will sell more than 30 million PlayStation 3 systems in Europe by 2010, with Microsoft in a distant second at 10 million systems and Nintendo pulling up the rear with 5 million. That's an awfully bold prediction, given the shakiness of this industry. If I were a betting man I'd probably put my money on Sony, but at the same time, it's hard to ignore the looming threat of Microsoft in the next round. The industry has changed from the 8 and 16 bit days, no question about it, and these next-generation systems are going to be hugely powerful, and require enormous amounts of money to produce, so the days of someone coming out of nowhere with a new system are long gone. But all the same, it's silly to declare someone the winner before any of the players has announced their plans. |
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| Doom 3 Co-Op in Xbox Version Only Shackers were all up in arms today over the news that the Xbox version of Doom 3 will ship with a co-op mode, something that will not be featured in the PC original. The source for this is an interview over at GamePro, where Karthik Bala of Vicarious Visions says, " Our biggest addition for the Xbox is the ability to play the single player game with a friend in co-op mode." Which doesn't leave a whole lot of room for misinterpretation. |
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| New KOTOR, Links Downloads The first extra content for Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic has been released, and is available for download over Xbox Live. The free download adds a new area, a new NPC race, an item store with powerful weapons and more. Also, Aristotle sends word that the "Ocean Mill Director's Cut" has been released, and is available as a free download for Links 2004. As the previous updates were pay-only, it's nice to see a free course released, although be warned, it's said to be the "toughest course yet." |
| Growlanser Generations Deluxe Announced Just when you thought Working Designs was going to release a game without all kinds of extra crap, the company has announced the Growlanser Generations Deluxe Pack, a special release of this game that includes Growlanser II and III just like the regular release, but also contains a soundtrack CD, a customized deck of playing cards, a ring, chain and storage pouch, and even a Growlanser watch (!). No price is known yet, but according to 1UP, WD president Vic Ireland has said it will sell for somewhere between $79 and $89 (which doesn't leave a whole lot of room for variation, so just assume it'll be $84). |
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| Ninja Gaiden Censored in Europe According to Games Are Fun (who got it from Jeux-France), the European release of Ninja Gaiden will be modified from its North American release. While the game will keep the blood (and red, nonetheless), apparently the ability to decapitate your opponents is being removed. |
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| Viewtiful Joe for PS2 Confirmed? It's not quite an official confirmation, but 1UP is reporting that the official Capcom "online street team" has a notice on their site that "Viewtiful Joe will soon be released for PS2" and asks for "what super cool sites you visit for PS2." Of course, we all know what super cool site you visit for all your console news (*cough*). |
| Tales of America Hey, go fig...Namco confirmed today that Tales of Symphonia will be heading to America later this year. No exact release date is known yet, but it's expected some time this summer. The first screenshots from the English-language version of the game are up at IGN tonight. |
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| The PS2 That Never Ends Gizmodo pointed me towards this wild PS2 modding project, in which the creator dissected his PlayStation 2 and rebuilt it in a spherical shape. Hey, at least nobody's claiming this is a PS3 design. |
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| Naughty Dog Interview GameSpot has conducted an interview with Jason Rubin of Naughty Dog, talking with the co-creator of Jak & Daxter about his thought-provoking speech at last week's D.I.C.E. summit in Las Vegas, in which he suggested that developers start to take more credit for their hard work, and stop giving publishers all the power. |
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| MechAssault Interview Also at GameSpot tonight is yet another interview with TJ Wagner of Day 1 Studios, talking with him about (what else?) MechAssault 2. While I'm as excited for this game as much as the next guy, there are only so many of these interviews I can read before my eyes glaze over at the same answers. |
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| New Releases This Week New in stores this week for GameCube is Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes for PS2 are Firefighter F.D. 18 and Naval Ops: Commander for Xbox are Mafia and Tenchu: Return from Darkness and for multiple systems are MVP Baseball 2004 (GC, PS2, Xbox), The Suffering (PS2, Xbox) and Worms 3D (GC, PS2). |
| Misc. Media/Previews | |
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| IGN has posted a wacky Japanese commercial for The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords+. |
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| GameSpot has posted new media from Katamari Damashii and The X-Files: Resist or Serve, The Magic Box has new shots from Dragon Quest VIII, Xenosaga Episode II: Jenseits von Gut und Bose and the Sega Ages remakes of After Burner II and Fist of the North Star and MTV.com has posted a video showing off Sly Cooper 2 (thanks GameInformer.com). |
| GameSpot has a new preview of Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow and IGN has new media from Pandora Tomorrow and Sonic Advance 3. |
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| New media from DRIV3R and Red Ninja: End of Honor (both PS2, Xbox) can be found at GameSpot, IGN has a hands-on look at Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (GC, PS2, Xbox) and a new trailer from Van Helsing (PS2, Xbox), GameInformer goes hands-on with Samurai Jack: The Shadow of Aku (GC, PS2, Xbox), |
