Late Night Consoling
I mentioned last night that of the new releases this month, I'm most considering Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes, but there is one other game I'm looking at with a great deal of curiosity: The X-Files: Resist or Serve. The early buzz on this game was pretty favorable. It's got the full support of all the talent from the show, the graphics look pretty good, and as it's not an FMV title, it has to be an improvement on the first game based on the show. Then came a few things that have caused many to question its quality. For one thing, the game's already selling for $30, and it won't be out for another week, which suggests that VU Games might be dumping it in the marketplace and hoping it'll rack up sales based entirely on the strength of its license and little else. But there are two other things: the rather abrupt cancellation of the Xbox version of the game, and the fact that VU Games hasn't sent advance copies out to any magazines. That last one is a really questionable decision, and it's the equivalent of movie studios not holding critics screenings so the movie can open without any negative reviews (or positive ones, for that matter). So I won't be pre-ordering this one, that's for sure. But I am looking forward to reading the reviews, because I think a really good X-Files game would be really cool.
| Possible Xbox 2 HD Technology Revealed? M-Systems, which recently announced that they had signed a deal with Microsoft to provide flash-based storage technology for the next-generation Xbox, announced today a 2.5 inch, Ultra-ATA solid-state hard drive, that is available in sizes up to 90GB and hits a whopping 100MB per second burst rate. When I first saw this, I immediately figured it must be a precursor to the Xbox 2's storage system, although the Inquirer updated their story with a rather amusing catch -- the cost. These drives are being developed for military use, and the 40GB drive will go for over $14,000, while the 90 GB model will set you back nearly $28,000. While OEM deals would bring down the per-unit cost of any hard drive, it's doubtful Microsoft would be willing to sell the Xbox 2 at launch for $5,000, let alone $10,000 or $15,000. This still might be a hint at what we'll see in the Xbox 2, but it certainly won't be this exactly. |
| DS != "Nitro" The web was all abuzz today with the news that Nintendo's upcoming DS system is being referred to as "Nitro" on Nintendo's developer's site. Indeed, IGN even confirmed that the system is being called that from developers, although MCV has learned that "Nitro" was merely a codename that was used before the current working title was selected. Nitro is pretty lame (not that DS is any better), so hopefully Nintendo will come up with something better before its launch, although let's not forget that "Game Boy Advance" was a codename too at one point, so I wouldn't be at all surprised if Nintendo launched the system under the DS moniker. |
| SOCOM II Update Released Who says you need a hard drive to patch games? 1UP is reporting that Sony has released a mandatory downloadable update for SOCOM II. The patch fixes various bugs and glitches that have shown up since the game's release, and because the PS2 doesn't have a hard drive (yet), the update is saved to a memory card. Apparently this doesn't use any more blocks then the game already does. |
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| Inside Rareware Fan page Rare Extreme has posted an unprecedented look at the inner workings of developer Rareware, based on a recent trip to the studio. While you won't find much in the way of exclusive game details (although some are planned for the future) the article is fun if you've ever wondered what goes on at the super-secret company behind games like Goldeneye, Banjo Kazooie, Killer Instinct, Perfect Dark and more. Thanks Slashdot Games for the tip. |
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| Jason Rubin Leaving Naughty Dog In one of those rare cases where a developer's willing to put his money where his mouth is, Jason Rubin, the co-creator of Jak & Daxter has announced that following the release of Jak III later this year, he will leave Naughty Dog to explore other possibilities within the industry. Just last week Rubin gave a talk at the D.I.C.E. summit in which he lamented the fact that publishers took all the credit for game development, and if he hopes to change this with his post-Naughty Dog plans, then I wish him all the best. |
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| Street Fighter III Announced Because the words "rehash" and "Capcom" are inextricably intertwined, the company has announced plans to release Street Fighter III: Third Strike for PS2. Dreamcast fans will recall that this exact same game was released nearly four years ago for Sega's last system, and featured online play (in Japan, anyway), so hopefully that feature will carry over to this latest re-issue. |
| Dreamcast Importing Guide Speaking of Sega's final console, GamerFeed has posted an article examining the world of Dreamcast importing. While there are still some scattered releases for the system in Japan, this article also mentions some of the really good games you can import, including Fighting Vipers 2 and Cosmic Smash. |
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| Sly 2: Band of Thieves, R&C: Up Your Arsenal Announced Sony has finally announced the full title of the sequel to Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus will be the much more spellcheck-friendly Sly 2: Band of Thieves. First looks at the game can be found at GameInformer and 1UP, as both sites have ties to print magazines that had exclusives on the game. On a somewhat related note, the next Ratchet & Clank will be known as Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal. Seriously. |
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| Front Mission 4 Demo Available A big thanks goes out to Mike "cactrot" Jusenius for pointing out that Square Enix has posted a site where you can sign up to be sent a free demo of Front Mission 4 in the mail. You'll need to go through the registration process, but it's certainly painless enough (and you can opt-out of any future mailings). |
| Final Fantasy Concert Sold Out, Advent Children at E3 Hopefully if you were planning on attending the Final Fantasy concert on May 10th in Los Angeles you've already bought your tickets, as the show is completely sold out, and no amount of Gil will get you into the show. Still, I'm willing to wager that if you camped outside and offered to trade someone a high-level FFXI character in exchange for tickets you'd probably get in. In other miscellaneous Square Enix news, it has been confirmed that Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children will be showcased in some format at E3 that same week. |
| Misc. Interviews Team Xbox has posted a trio of new interviews: a Tenchu: Return from Darkness interview, talking with producer Tad Horie about this just-released game, a Mafia interview, talking with Tomásˇ Hrebícek, the lead animator on the game and an NBA Ballers interview, talking with lead designer George Gomez. While these are all Xbox-specific interviews, Mafia is also available for PS2, and NBA Ballers is a completely cross-platform title, appearing on all three systems. |
| Misc. Media/Previews | |
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| IGN has a look at Galactic Wrestling: Featuring Ultimate Muscle, both IGN and GameSpy have new previews of Onimusha 3: Demo Siege and The Magic Box has new shots from Crimson Tears. |
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| New shots from Dead or Alive Ultimate are up at GameSpot tonight and sister site GameSpy has a new preview of Shadow Ops: Red Mercury. |
| New previews of A Sound of Thunder, and Ice Nine are up at IGN. |
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| GameSpot has posted impressions of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (GC, PS2, Xbox) and IGN has new media from Fight Night 2004 (PS2, Xbox) and a new preview of The Punisher (PS2, Xbox). |
