Late Night Consoling
That Resident Evil 4 footage that everyone was talking about has finally popped up online (check below for links), and I eagerly downloaded it this afternoon to see what all the hubbub is about. I've mentioned a few times here before that I've been very bored with the survival horror genre and I gotta say...this really does look like the first glimmer of hope I've seen in a long, long while. It looks like they're doing a whole lot of things right this time around. Much better action, wide-open spaces, genuinely scary and intimidating enemies (something Silent Hill has always managed to do better than the Resident Evil series), and less of the sillier aspects of the series (like the clunky aiming mechanism). I find all of this very encouraging, and there's really only two other aspects that I hope have been addressed: the interface (which I understand is much better, but you still walk around in the same manner) and the storyline. That last one really, really needs to be worked on. Some of the Resident Evil games score pretty high on my WAYPTA (that's What Are You People Talking About!? for those who can't recall my previous uses of the term) scale, and it seemed like each game just got sillier and sillier. The whole concept of the Umbrella Corporation felt tacked on from day one, and hopefully they really have done away with it for good. But if you haven't seen it yet, download the video. It may not address everything, but it is very encouraging.
| PS3 to Use Blu-Ray? According to IGN, the Japanese magazine Asahi Personal Computer is reporting to have learned from Sony's Kiyoshi Nishitan that the company has a desire to use the Sony-developed Blu-Ray disc format instead of DVDs in the PlayStation 3. Blu-Ray (that's not a typo, that's really how it's spelled) is a rewritable medium, although it is believed that this would be read-only, and would allow the PS3 to store 25 GB on a single layered disc, and 50 GB on a dual-layer disc. This was rumored some time ago, but was initially dismissed as being too expensive, but if Sony really does keep it as a read-only format, that would bring the cost down somewhat. Producing the discs would still cost more than regular DVDs however. |
| Resident Evil 4 Footage Online At long last, the footage from Resident Evil 4 that we've been hearing so much about recently, has found its way online. It's available for download over at IGN, Computer and Video Games, GameInformer and 1UP, and GameInformer, 1UP and IGN also have the Killer 7 footage that everyone's been so confused by. If anyone can provide a quality copy of this (that isn't stolen from somewhere else), we'll happily post it on FileShack. |
| Microsoft Drops Psychonauts Microsoft (which seems to have gotten pretty conservative recently), has confirmed that they have ended their planned agreement to publish Psychonauts, the first title from Tim Schaefer's Double Fine studios. The game is currently being shopped around, and Microsoft has said that they still believe "in the vision of the title and would like to see the game on Xbox." |
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| Castlevania on GameCube Rumor Debunked Sorry Castlevania fans, Computer and Video Games has confirmed with the British development studio Kuju that last night's rumors that the company was producing a GameCube-exclusive Castelvania title for Konami is pure fiction. Kuju really is working on a game for Konami, but that's something entirely different, and most certainly not a Castelvania game. |
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| Microsoft "Listening" To Controller Feedback Also on Computer and Video Games tonight is a confirmation of, well...nothing, really. They have a bunch of quotes from Microsoft's J Allard, who says that he has heard the complaints about the positioning of the black and white buttons on the Xbox controller, and that they are considering either relocating or removing them with their next-generation system. He also says that they're listening to feedback, which is a nice change from the first generation Xbox controller, when they clearly didn't listen to anyone, or at the very least, listened to the wrong people. |
| No Metal Arms Sequel 1UP is reporting that Swingin' Ape Studios' Scott Goffman has confirmed that Vivendi Universal has passed on a sequel to Metal Arms: Glitch in the System, which is one of the very few games I've played recently that wasn't a severe let-down. The good news is that the studio is hard at work on "several potential projects" and that "they'll definitely have the same level of action and quality that people loved in Metal Arms." We've got a couple of Swingin' Apes out there in the Shack community...care to tell us what the sequel would have been like? |
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| New Courses Available for Amped 2 Three new courses are now available for Amped 2 via Xbox Live: Sky, Pioneer, and Slopestyle 2003. The courses are part of a single free download, and screenshots from them are up at Microsoft's official site. |
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| More PS2 Rumors IGN has posted the third article in their series looking at the biggest PlayStation 2 rumors. Covered in this one are the chances we'll ever see a standalone version of the HDD unit (it's doubtful), the status of Maximo 3, Champions of Norrath 2 and Trigun, the chances of a PS2 port of Ninja Gaiden (it ain't gonna happen) and did someone say something about a Bayou Billy and /or Rush n' Attack remake? |
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| Super Hyper Fighting Street Fighter Announcement EX + Alpha 2 Championship Edition Third Strike!!!!! Great news for Street Fighter fans...CVG is reporting that rather than release them separately, Hyper Street Fighter II and Street Fighter III Third Strike will be released as a single package here in North America. No word on whether or not we'll also get the anime movie thrown in as well, which is being included for the European release of Hyper SF2 (although they have to buy SF3 separately). |
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| Misc. Interviews IGN is the latest site to interview Jamie King, the vice president at Rockstar Games about Red Dead Revolver, the game that Rockstar resurrected from the dead when they turned Angel Studios into Rockstar San Diego. Also, the second half of CVG's interview with Andrew Carter, the director and executive producer on the upcoming PS2 title Transformers is online. |
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| New (PS2) Releases This Week Yep, Sony owns this week...All-Star Baseball 2005, Crimson Sea 2, Destruction Derby Arenas and Resident Evil Outbreak are all out this week, and all are for PS2 only. |
| Misc. Media/Previews | |
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| PS2.IGN has a new trailer from Final Fantasy XII and new media from Front Mission 4 and The Magic Box has more shots from Ace Combat 5: The Unsung War and the first shots from Gundam: Battle Assault 3. |
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| GameSpot goes hands-on with the eternally-in-development title Galleon: Islands of Mystery, GameInformer has a preview of Jade Empire from the Game Developer's Conference, Team Xbox has a preview of Unreal Championship 2: The Liandri Conflict(also from GDC) and IGN has an extensive look at Sudeki. |
| IGN has a hands-on look at River City Ransom EX, a new trailer from Mario Golf: Advance Tour and the first details and screenshots from Van Helsing. |
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| GameSpot has new shots from the GameCube and PS2 versions of Serious Sam: Next Encounter as well as new shots from Silent Hill 4: The Room and Dukes of Hazard: Return of the General Lee (both PS2, Xbox), IGN goes hands-on with Serious Sam: Next Encounter (GC, PS2), 1UP has a weird look at Silent Hill 4: The Room, |
