Late Night Consoling

Francis Ford Coppola, the famed director of The Godfather trilogy, had a few disparaging remarks regarding EA's videogame adaptation of the films. "I knew nothing about it. They never asked me if I thought it was a good idea. They use the characters everyone knows, and then for the next hour they shoot and kill each other. I had absolutely nothing to do with the game, and I disapprove," he said.

IGN learned through game retail sources that Activision is currently developing at least three titles for the next-gen Xbox that will be sequels to successful series. A port of Quake IV, the third Tony Hawk's Underground, and a new Spider-Man game will be hitting the console. They did not indicate if they were launch titles. Hopefully they'll be on display at the upcoming E3.

If you weren't sure when one of your anticipated Namco titles was scheduled to be released, there's good news for you! They updated their release calendar and it can be found here. Notable titles are Dead to Rights II this month, Arc the Lad in June, and Soul Calibur 3 is still a fall 2005 title.

The developer of State of Emergency and Evil Dead recently experienced massive layoffs and closures. VIS Entertainment, which had two studios open, closed down their Dundee branch and laid off a few employees in Edinburgh, dropping from 96 employees to 42. They're currently evaluating the situation, trying to shore up money to finish a few projects.