Late Night Consoling
So here we are, my last week here at Shacknews (sniff). I wish I could say with some certainty that we'll have this job filled by Sunday when I leave, but it depends on whether or not Steve manages to find someone that's right for the job between now and then. I do know that he's going through applications, and so hopefully phone interviews will start any day now. Ideally, my replacement would handle a standard LNC update on Thursday while I'm off, but that seems unlikely. Worst case scenario, Maarten can fill in until we hire someone, but he's overworked enough as it is without having to do this every night. Stay tuned.
| Satoru Iwata Interview GameSpy has posted a new interview with Satoru Iwata, the president of Nintendo. The interview is quite interesting, as Iwata discusses the future of the company, and mentions some things we haven't heard before. The gist: he reiterates his belief that Nintendo's next system (which he refers to as "GCnext") will need more than pure power to move the industry forward, and he even says that next-generation will be "so incremental that most consumers will hardly notice the difference" (or that's GameSpy's summary of what he said, anyway...there's no exact quote). He also mentions the possibility of some day having a handheld GameCube/GBA combo device. |
| Yet Another Xbox Rumor Okay, here's another one from the completely unsubstantiated rumor department...gadget blog Gizmodo ran an e-mail from a reader this morning, who recounts the story of how he met the bands Linkin Park and Story of the Year, and how members of the band talked about how they love their Xbox. Here's the interesting part "they told me about a 'smaller' version of the Xbox which they had played Halo on when a MICROSOFT EMPLOYEE came to show them some new Xbox stuff. It was a compact version of the Xbox, much smaller than the original. Not as small as the Gamecube, but small. " There have been rumors about a slimmed-down Xbox for some time now, so there might be some truth here, but the source is questionable at best. |
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| $5,000 Project Gotham 2 Tournament Microsoft has announced a new $5,000 Project Gotham Racing 2 tournament. The challenge is to race through the Princes Street East track and record your best time. The top two gamers from the US, two from Canada and three from Europe will all be flown to Charlotte, N.C., where the finals will be held. The grand price is $5,000, a year of Xbox Live (which one would think you could afford with that money), and the chance to play against the band Autopilot Off. |
| Xenosaga Freaks Pre-Order Details GameInformer has posted details on the bonus disc that's being sent to Japanese gamers who pre-order the Xenosaga Freaks disc (which is itself a bonus disc for Xenosaga). The disc will feature four songs, commentary by the artists, a special making of video, screensavers, wallpapers and more. |
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| Still More DS Mockups Gadget blog Gizmodo has posted still more mockups of Nintendo's DS system. The site, you may recall, is offering a bounty for the first confirmed images of the thing, and while I doubt they'll actually turn anything up, it's certainly nice to see the latest artists guesses at the system. |
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| Alias Q&A It's so thin I wouldn't blow my nose with it, but nonetheless, 1UP has a Q&A with Alias star Jennifer Garner, who fields some typical questions about the recently released game based on her television series. |
| Misc. Media/Previews | |
| IGN has new stuff from WWE Day of Reckoning. |
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| GameSpot has new shots from King of Fighters: Maximum Impact, IGN has the first screens and details from Tales of Rebirth, Magic Pengel 2 and the PS2 port of Tales of Symphonia and a new video from Gran Turismo 4 and new shots and info from Suikoden IV can be found at The Magic Box. |
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| A new preview of Sudeki is up at GameSpot tonight. |
| Square has launched their teaser site for Final Fantasy 1 & 2 Advance, which offers the first images of the game(s) and IGN has the first shots from Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. |
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| IGN Cars has shots from Street Racing Syndicate (GC, PS2, Xbox) and HomeLAN has a hands-on look at Psi-Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy (PS2, Xbox). |
