Late Night Consoling

The latest issue of EGM is hitting newsstands and it has information on the next titles for three of Sony's hottest franchises. First, Ratchet: Deadlocked, will have a reimagined Ratchet participating in a galaxy-wide reality show. He now dons a combat suit and squad-based gameplay is being incorporated. The article made no mention of Clank. Jak X will be a racing game, as Naughty Dog has completed the trilogy they set out for Jak. The characters will be racing for an antidote due to a mass poisoning by Krew. It appears to be a mix of Twisted Metal and Grand Theft Auto. Finally, Sly returns in Sly 3 and won't change that much unlike Jak and Ratchet. New features are the ability to play as other characters and a multiplayer mode was hinted at by Sony.

In an internal interview posted on the official Soul Calibur 3 website, producer Hiroaki Yotoriyama confirmed a few details regarding its upcoming fighter that's exclusive to the PS2. Most importantly, he said there will be no online play. There will be no guest characters (like Link or Spawn). It is being planned only for the PS2; no arcade release. Finally, it will release in North America and Europe before Japan. Thanks Sevogajre.

Sony has seen a setback in their lawsuit with Immersion Corp., who is suing the game-giant for patent infringment of its vibration technology used in the Dual Shock controllers. A federal judge ordered Sony to halt the sales and importation of PS2 consoles and to pay close to $91 million in damages to Immersion. The judge then immediately put a hold on her order to allow the appeal process to take place. An analyst at Wedbush Morgan said "Clearly if Sony loses the appeal they will pay the judgment and enter into a royalty agreement."

Nintendo updated its release calendar, giving us some hard dates for its upcoming titles. June 13 (day after my b-day!) will see the release of Kirby: Canvas Curse (DS), Yoshi: Topsy-Turvy (GBA), and Nintendo Pennant Chase Baseball (GCN). Then on the 27th of June, Meteos hits the DS, which is developed by Q? Entertainment, the same group behind Lumines for the PSP. Also, Geist lands on the GameCube.

Technophiles have been hard at work trying to crack the PSP and one such hacker, who goes by the nickname roto, detailed his experience on discovering a web browser through WipEout Pure. Plenty of screenshots and details included. Shacker Rotten Deadite does a quick summary on how to do it yourself here.

Four more concert dates have been revealed for the North American tour of Dear Friends: Music from Final Fantasy. On May 20, it'll hit up The Bushnell in Hartford, CT. June 24 and 25 it'll take place at Symphony Hall in Atlanta, GA. July 14 it stops in San Diego, CA at Embarcadero Marina Park South. Finally, Orchestra Hall in Detroit, MI plays host on July 23 and 24.