Late Night Consoling

EBGames.com has just announced its package deals for the upcoming Xbox 360. Preorders for the system will only be accepted in the form of these bundles, which are priced at and $599.93 and $699.92. The less expensive bundle includes the Xbox 360 Core System package as well as a memory card and an extra wired controller. The more expensive bundle includes the Xbox 360 Premium System with an extra wireless controller, a battery pack for the controller, and a charge kit for the controller. Both bundles include four games: Perfect Dark Zero Limited Edition, Kameo: Elements of Power, Project Gotham Racing 3, and Dead or Alive 4. However, the page also notes that EB "[reserves] the right to substitute or remove a game or accessory that will not be available at launch", with the option to cancel the preorder if that occurs.

My calls to the EBGames.com offices and various EB brick-and-mortar stores revealed that as of now these "deals" are exclusive to EBGames.com. It has not yet been decided whether or not the physical stores will also require customers to buy this sort of bundle, but if they do they would likely end up being different based on the availability of consoles and games.

Toshiba has quit negotiations with Sony regarding the possibility of a unified media disc format. Toshiba is at the head of the group of companies backing HD-DVD, whereas Sony is leading the Blu-ray charge. Consumers have been apprehensive about the upcoming format war, since it will provide two new formats to consider at a time when most people are getting comfortable with standard DVD.

Many speculate that Microsoft is considering adding HD-DVD to their Xbox 360 at some point in the future. Sony's PS3 is, of course, shipping with Blu-ray support at launch and is a major part of the company's Blu-ray strategy. HD-DVD discs are less expensive to produce, but Blu-ray discs have a higher total storage capacity.

Sony's PSP team has been considering quite a few possible improvements for the PSP, according to a developer interview with a Japanese web site. Some of the possible upgrades include: Javascript and Flash support for the web browser, web page caching on the Memory Stick, a USB keyboard and mouse, a USB GPS device, support for certain standard audio and video file formats, and downloadable games.

Many of the hypothetical improvements are quite appealing, though it's worth noting that they are all merely considerations. Izumi Kawanishi, Sony's platform development chief who took part in the interview, seemed mainly to be throwing out ideas that are within the realms of possibility.

There was no mention of when the US 2.00 update would be made available.

In other PSP news, Sony announced that the Japanese PSP action/RPG Gate of Heaven and Earth is coming to North America as well, under the title Kingdom of Paradise. According to the 1UP news report, the game casts the player as "a young warrior outcast named Shinbu in a vast, living world, developing sword fighting skills and exploring active environments in a crusade to defeat an evil clan." The release date is given as November of this year, but it is unclear whether that is Japan-only or a simultaneous release.

In an interview in the most recent issue of EDGE Magazine, Beyond Good & Evil (PS2, Xbox, GCN, PC) creator Michel Ancel stated cautiously that he would like to do another BG&E game. "I wrote the story to be longer, so it would be good to finish it," he explains. However, as previously indicated, publisher Ubisoft has "no plans" to go ahead with another game in the series. Beyond Good & Evil was originally planned as the first game in a possible trilogy, but despite critical acclaim the game failed to perform adequately in retail and Ubisoft canned any further installments.

With the recent press Ancel has been getting as head of the adaptation of Peter Jackson's King Kong, it would seem reasonable for the designer to receive more control over his projects in the future.

Sega's mysterious Project J, which has been kept tightly under wraps for quite some time, has finally been given a name: Ryu ga Gotoku. A general Winter release date in Japan was also announced, as were some basic plot elements of the game. The player controls a yakuza by the name of Kazuma Kiryu, who encounters "a series of unexplainable incidents", a girl, old foes out for revenge, and the like. The gameplay seems open-ended in a Shenmue-meets-GTA fashion, with Kiryu able to accept various side missions while exploring the city, talking to locals, shopping, eating, and of course fighting. Sega notes that the game is targeted towards mature audiences.

The Nintendo DS game Daigasso! Band Brothers (set for eventual North American release as Jam With the Band) will be getting an expansion pack. The interesting part is that the pack comes in the form of a GBA cartridge, which is to be used in the console simultaneously with the DS cartridge. What with Nintendo's recent announcement of the Metroid Prime Pinball rumble pack, which is also a GBA cartridge, it seems that extra content or hardware features may be something not uncommon in DS games.

Kazunori Yamauchi, head of Gran Turismo studio Polyphony Digital, stated that he wants Gran Turismo 5 to be "100 times more detailed than GT4," though he did not specify what areas are being improved beyond, obviously, graphics. He also indicated that he hopes the PS3 game will be able to ship in 2007 in order to drive sales of the console.

Eurogamer chats with Hideki Konno, the man behind Nintendogs (DS).

IGN talks to writer Randall Jahnson, currently working on the script for Neversoft's Gun (PS2, Xbox, GCN, X360, PC).

GameSpot's latest of an apparently unlimited series of Designer Diary #1s: Krome Studios CEO Robert Walsh, currently working on Ty the Tasmanian Tiger: Night of the Quinkan (PS2, Xbox, GCN, GBA).