Late Night Consoling
So today's big Microsoft announcement was really more exciting on the PC side (as PC gamers will get a better experience across multiple games) than for console gamers. If you missed it, here it is, Microsoft's announcement of XNA, a new suite of development tools designed to facilitate development for PC and next-generation Xbox titles. While the rumors of footage from Xbox 2 games fell flat, the XNA demos that were shown could easily have been labeled as demo footage from Microsoft's next-gen Xbox. If you haven't seen those, we've got 'em up at FileShack, and they are very impressive to watch. They don't show any gameplay, or anything even remotely resembling gameplay, but the Crash demo in particular is really cool, and shows some post-Doom 3 level graphics (that's my take anyway...the CGI geeks out there can feel free to shoot that down). Still no word about the next-generation Unreal engine that's being shown at GDC...I'm really itching to see what that's like, so hopefully we'll see that soon.
| Xbox 2 Announcement This Summer? Okay, so there wasn't any Xbox 2/Xenon/Ybox/Josephine announcement today. It happens. So when will there be an Xbox 2 announcement? According to rumors relayed on Eurogamer.net, it might be this summer. |
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| Bug Found in Pandora Tomorrow GameSpot is reporting that a bug has surfaced in the shipping version of Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow. Apparently the game will lock up after the player selects "Optimatch" from the Xbox Live menu. Ubisoft is quoted in GameSpot's story as being aware of the problem, and they have said they intend to "address it quickly." It's the sort of thing that can probably be fixed via a downloadable patch, so if you have to download an update the next time you log in with the game, that's why. |
| LucasArts Dropping GameCube Support? A story on gamesindustry.biz reports that LucasArts, who has previously supported the platform with games like the two Rogue Squadron titles and Star Wars: The Clone Wars, has no GameCube titles on their internal schedules. That same report mentions that Codemasters has dropped all GameCube support, and points out that Ubisoft has no officially announced titles for the platform on their schedule, although a representative says "a number" of them will be announced at E3. |
| Zelda on DS During his talk, "The Evolution of a Franchise: The Legend of Zelda" at GDC, Eiji Aonuma of Nintendo dropped hints on a couple of new additions to the series. He made a reference to Wind Waker 2 which had a release date listed as "20XX" (does this mean Link will appear in the Seven Samurai game from that same year? Inquiring minds want to know!), and also said "a new development in the Zelda franchise" would be released for their upcoming DS system. Which shouldn't be much of a surprise, given that a Zelda has appeared on every other Nintendo platform to date. |
| Ace Combat 5 Details It's not nearly as much as I had hoped for, but the first details from Ace Combat 5 have finally been released. The game will officially be known as Ace Combat 5: Unsung War, and while it won't have any online support (contrary to what Sony suggested some time ago), the game will have "twice as much" single player content than its predecessor, and contain more than 50 fighter jets. Now all we need is actual media from the game. |
| EA on Next-Gen Development John Schappert of EA Canada gave a talk at GDC today, and GameSpot has posted a write up. It sounds like it was an interesting speech, as Schappert cautions against rushing games out to make a console's launch (I doubt most will follow that advice, but it's certainly nice to hear), and also mentions that there is still lots of money to be made on the previous generation, pointing out that three EA titles (Madden 2004, FIFA 2004 and NASCAR 2004) all broke the million mark on the PSOne. He even advises publishers to court hardcore gamers, saying that,"They are discerning and very vocal, and they'll buy long into the cycle." |
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| Online Console Games Make $$$ According to NPD Group, retail sales from online-enabled games broke $1 billion last year, a jump of over 180% from the previous year. This is largely because of online modes in major sports titles (like Madden, the industry's biggest seller), but for those curious, the breakdown was 69% sports games, 22% shooters, 15% racers and 5% RPGs. |
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| FFXI Interviews Square's massively multiplayer RPG has shipped in North America, and to celebrate, new interviews are up at PS2.IGN and 1UP tonight. Both talk with Yasu Kurosawa and Keiki Usui, the producer and online service manager respectively, and were conducted at a big launch event on Monday evening in San Francisco. |
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| No Tomb Raider at E3 Eurogamer.net is reporting that the next Tomb Raider game, which is currently scheduled for release in mid-2005, will not be shown in any capacity at E3 in May. Hopefully we'll at least find out for certain if those Warren Spector rumors are true... |
| N-Gage 2 Details 1UP has posted some new details from Nokia's next N-Gage model, which rumors currently suggest will be unveiled at E3 in May. According to 1UP's report, Kirsi Kotilainen from Nokia told attendees at GDC that the next model will ditch the much-reviled side talkin' feature, and will let gamers swap games without going through the embarrassingly complex process of removing the battery first. |
| New Releases This Week Yeah, I forgot this last night...anyway, there are some big releases this week: for GameCube are Mission: Impossible: Operation Surma and Pokemon Colosseum, for PS2 are Backyard Baseball, Cy Girls, Final Fantasy XI (w/HDD), Onimusha Blade Warriors and Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six 3, for Xbox are All-Star Baseball 2005, Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow and Yu-Gi-Oh! Dawn of Destiny, for GBA is Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow, and for multiple platforms, Samurai Jack: The Shadow of Aku is out for GC and PS2. |
| Misc. Media/Previews | |
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| IGN has posted new movies from Mobile Suit Gundam: Senshitachi no Kiseki. |
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| IGN has a hands-on look at Katamari Damashii, a new preview of EyeToy: Groove and a GDC write up of MojibRibbon, The Magic Box has new shots from the Xenosaga Freaks bonus disc and CVG has new shots from The Getaway 2. |
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| Fresh from GDC is new media at GameSpot from Sudeki, Jade Empire, Rallisport Challenge 2, Fable and Unreal Championship 2: The Liandri Conflict. |
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| New shots from Mortal Kombat: Deception (PS2, Xbox) are up at IGN. |
