Late Night Consoling

Capcom is prepared to announce a sequel to Monster Hunter later this week. With a PSP version already announced, the console sequel is said to be so different from the original, importation of stats will not be possible. New features include a time clock cycle, new weapons and environments, and a better connection with other players in the online world. PSP connectivity will be included as well.

With a console version already in the works, Bandai announced that Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex will find its way onto the PSP sometime this summer. Said Rika Maruya, Co-Producer of Bandai Games Inc, "We naturally wanted to take advantage of the wireless capabilities of the PSP to truly immerse gamers into an edgy, futuristic world of hackers and cybernetic entities."

First, I apologize for the headline. Second, Fonix Speech announced that they have teamed up with Microsoft to make their speech recognition technology part of the Xbox 360 development kit. The same tech has been used in all the Tom Clancy games and a few other military sims such as Delta Force and SWAT. With Fonix part of the development kit, it makes it easier for developers to add voice recognition into their games.

A dream come true for adolescents everywhere, Sony is officially approving sales of pornographic UMDs in Japan. Japanese pornography studio GLAY'z will be releasing five titles that will be explicit in content. Sadly, UMD movies are region coded, but IGN has heard rumors that these releases won't have the restriction. American porn may not be far behind as Playboy is already formatting pictures for use on the system.

Nintendo's official site has an internal interview with Miyamoto and Aonuma about The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. TeamXbox gets nasty with Tomonobu Itagaki of Team Ninja. GameSpot has a developer interview regarding Jak X: Combat Racing. EuroGamer chats with the new director on Metal Gear Solid 4. TwistedMonkey briefly chats with a designer on Final Fight Streetwise.