Late Night Consoling
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Age of Empires DS Official
[ds]Majesco officially announced today that it will bring the Age of Empires series onto the Nintendo DS with Age of Empires: The Age of Kings. This entry into the series will stray from the norm and be a turn-based strategy game. The timeline spans the Dark Ages to the Middle Ages and will feature five races: the Britons, Franks, Mongols, Saracens, and the Japanese. Special heroes such as Richard the Lionheart, Robin Hood, Joan of Arc and Genghis Khan will be playable. It's set for release sometime by the end of the year.
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Mistwalker's Games Revealed
[xbox]Mistwalker's two Xbox 360 games have been officially revealed by the head honcho himself, Hironobu Sakaguchi, at the Japanese Xbox 360 showcase. First is the title we know a little about, Blue Dragon. The story revolves around a boy and his friends on a quest to prevent a long-forgotten magic from being resurrected. In the game, everyone is casting a shadow that follows them, such as the main character Shu and his blue dragon shadow. Shadows are used like equipment (200 in all) and are highly customizable. An interesting fact is that while Mistwalker has developed the concept, Blinx series developer Artoons is handling the development.
The second title was Lost Odyssey. The story follows a character named Kaim, a man sentenced to live 1,000 years. The story follows him throughout different generations (with an emphasis on falling in and out of love and family) and takes places place in a setting of "mystical industrial revolution." The story comes from the mind of Kiyoshi Shigematsu, an award-winning Japanese author, who ensured those in attendance that the game will evoke powerful emotions and will make us cry. This game will also be developed by an outside studio, Feel Plus, which was founded to make Lost Odyssey and comprises of ex-Square Enix employees. Both Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey will feature musical scores from legendary game composer Nobou Uematsu.
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Nintendo Offers First Details on Revolution
[nintendo]Nintendo, not wanting to be forgotten, made official a few of the details surrounding their next-gen console, codenamed Revolution. They touched upon the size, stating it's no taller than a stack of three DVD cases and only slightly longer. Like the PS2 and Xbox 360, it can be placed horizontally or vertically. They reconfirmed backwards compatibility with the GameCube and said it will make use of dual-layer DVDs. The system will also have DVD playback functionality. While more will be revealed at E3, the truly "revolutionary" aspect may not come out for quite some time.
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Midnight Club 3, SOCOM 3 Coming to PSP
[psp]Rockstar announced today a PSP version of Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition. They tout the portable port as a complete version of its console siblings, saying it contains "all the cars, parts and cities found on the console versions." More will be unveiled at E3 but for now, here are some screenshots. Also announced today was SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs Fireteam Bravo from Sony. Both the PS2 and PSP titles can sync up, but developer Zipper Interactive isn't revealing how yet. There will be both ad hoc and infrastructure WiFi multiplayer.
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Sega's Xbox 360 Racer
[xbox]Sega unveiled their latest Xbox 360 title with Full Auto. The game appears to be a blend of Burnout's intense crash sequences, Twisted Metal's weaponary, and Prince of Persia's control of time. Made a bad turn that caused your destruction? Quickly rewind time and get it right. A Sega rep said, "In Full Auto, you'll never see the same explosive sequence twice and, with our proprietary physics technology, gamers will quite literally see and experience destructive uniqueness every time they play it."
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Turok Rises from the Dead
You thought you had seen the last of Turok? Think again! Buena Vista Games, a subsidiary of Disney, acquired the video game rights to the franchise. Buena Vista is planning to release console and portable games, including some on next-gen hardware. Upon hearing this news, Maarten said, "Instead of killing dinosaurs, you can talk and sing with them." I bet he isn't far from the truth.
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Namco's First Xbox 360 Project
[xbox]A flood of Xbox 360 information! Namco announced their first game for Microsoft's next console, Frame City. Set in the future in a fictional city, people across the world have embraced a new device called the Visual Frame which allows people to put anything into a visual form. Terrorists have also embraced this tech and are using it to kill people by shocking them to death. As a special forces officer, it's your job to assasinate the terrorist leader. Melee combat appears to be a significant part of the game. It will be using the Unreal Engine 3.
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The Xbox 360 Lineup
[xbox]EuroGamer does a nice job of rounding up a list of all the announced and heavily rumored Xbox 360 titles. A couple under-the-table titles are Ninety-Nine Nights by Q Entertainment (of Lumines fame) and Dimitri by Peter Molyneux's Lionhead Studios. "It's a game about... You," Molyneux recently said. "It allows anyone who plays the game to relive their life, their entire individual life. That's a pretty ambitious concept."
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Misc. Q&As/Features
[ps2] [xbox]WorthPlaying chats with the devs behind Far Cry Instincts. GameSpot interviews the designer of Blitz: The League.
Misc. Media/Previews
PS2
We have both screenshots and a movie for Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga 2. We also have images for Magna Carta: Tears of Blood. GameSpot goes hands-on with Soul Calibur III. IGN previews SOCOM 3.
Xbox
At FileShack we have the first trailer for Test Drive Unlimited for the Xbox 360 and a video showing off Neon, the Xbox 360 light synthesiser. IGN goes hands-on with Condemned (X360) and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. 1UP has the first details regarding Perfect Dark Zero (X360).
GameCube
New details of Mario Baseball are at IGN.
Portable
A trailer for Infected (PSP) can be downloaded from FileShack. IGN posts images for Snowboard Kids DS, GoldenEye: Rogue Agent (DS), and Trauma Center (DS). They also look at the Japanese RPG PoPoLoCrois (PSP) that's coming stateside.
Multi
At FileShack is a trailer for 25 to Life (PS2, Xbox). GameSpot goes hands-on with L.A. Rush (PS2, Xbox), Blitz: The League (PS2, Xbox), and Midway Arcade Treasures 3 (PS2, Xbox, GCN). TeamXbox has a trailer for Hitman: Blood Money (PS2, Xbox). GameSpot has an official movie for Dead to Rights: Reckoning (PSP). IGN posts shots of Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects (PS2, Xbox, GCN), goes hands-on with Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks (PS2, Xbox) and Gauntlet: Seven Sorrows (PS2, Xbox), and posts details of Batman Begins (PS2, Xbox, GCN). They also lay out all the details on the new Superstar Mode for Madden NFL 2006 (PS2, Xbox, GCN).
Console Game Of The Evening [Submit Yours!]
Wonder Boy III: The Dragons Trap for the Sega Master System. "Wonderboy III was one of the most enjoyable experiences I have ever had in playing a game and that I had the pleasure of beating." (submitted by seanisdabomb).
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lol, Alec is the third wheel and didn't get invited to the game.
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