Late Night Consoling

Today Sony announced its first-party holiday season lineup for its PSP console, which has taken fire for its lackluster games library since the initial launch. The games, with brief but extremely informative notes, are as follows:

Sony's MediEvil Resurrection ships September 13. Who else played MediEvil back in the PS1 days? I remember renting it one time.

Page 44's Gretzky NHL '06 ships October 4. Apparently, your team can consist entirely of Gretzky. Awesome!(?)

989 Sports' NBA 06 ships October 4. It lets you play "HORSE" too! Not with a team of Gretzky, though.

Think and Feel's The Con. It's a 3D fighting game with some gambling.

Zipper Interactive's SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs Fireteam Bravo ships November 8. It has some kind of connectivity with SOCOM 3 for PS2.

Climax's Kingdom of Paradise ships November 15. It's an action RPG with customizable combos.

Midway today put out a fake press release claiming that the publisher signed a twenty-two year exclusive contract to publish football games based on "The League". The League is the fictional sports entity created by Midway that is featured in their upcoming game, Blitz: The League. Since EA acquired exclusive NFL video game rights, Midway simply decided not to use the NFL.

However, looks like nobody bothered to tell 1UP news editor Jane Pinckard, who slams Midway after failing to understand what the press release is all about, noting that it "makes [her] go 'huh?'" She postulates that the reason EA is the biggest publisher is because they don't send out press releases like this, which makes them "competent, most definitely." The news was widely reported last month by major sites such as GameSpot (and Shacknews). Eyes like the vulture, that Pinckard.

Young Italian developer KyrcStudios is working on Nights of War Song, a fantasy real-time strategy title for Nintendo DS. The game is set in an original world inspired by myths of the Middle Ages. Few details are available at this point, but the game will feature three armies, will use the stylus in the manner of the mouse in PC RTS games, and will feature online multiplayer through Nintendo's upcoming online service. The game is apparently at the demo stage, and the team is still looking for a publisher.

Continuing an apparent trend started last year, Playboy is once again putting out an issue featuring rendered models of female video game characters in the nude. Featured are characters from Blitz: The League, God of War, 50 Cent: Bulletproof, Playboy: The Mansion - Private Party (surprise), Darywatch, and Hellgate: London. Most saddeningly, though, is the inclusion of Carla Valenti, the homicide detective from Quantic Dream's soon-to-be-released Indigo Prophecy (Fahrenheit in Europe). While one can sort of justify nude models of the other characters, since those girls are clearly designed with, ah, particular aspects in mind, it is frustrating that such a marketing move is being made with a game that is clearly attempting to innovate and provide a unique experience, and whose main female character is for once not an overexaggerated half-nude model aimed at arousing dorky teens. Well, until now, anyway. I guess it's still the same old industry.

MTV Films, a subsidiary of Viacom, Inc., announced today that it acquired the film rights to Surreal Software's The Suffering (PS2, Xbox, PC). The game is a survival horror title which puts the player in the role of Torque, a death row inmate who, due to The Suffering being a video game, must kill a lot of demons. The game has an upcoming sequel, The Suffering: Ties that Bind (PS2, Xbox, PC), set for release later this month. Both are published by Midway.

Sumner Redstone, Viacom's CEO, has become an 80% majority owner of Midway, and many have speculated that he plans to reposition the publisher as a Viacom subsidiary. With all the mergers and acquisitions that have been going on lately, who can say? Nobody--unless one were God.

Following yesterday's earnings announcement, publisher Take-Two's share price has dropped 6.3% to $22.64. The drop rippled through the industry, with Activision down $.50/share to $21.70 and Atari and THQ each dropping $.01 to $1.38 and $22.25 respectively. Pacific Crest Securities analyst Evan Wilson, however, noted that "I think you've seen most of the impact from (the hack). Other than that, I don't think the 'Grand Theft Auto' franchise as a whole was hurt by this."

Remember the Legend of Zelda animated series? No? That's probably for the best. For those who do remember and for some reason have been pining for its DVD release, well, here you go. The complete series (all 13 episodes) will be released in a three-disc set and features character sketches, trivia games, downloadable art, and several segments of the Super Mario Bros. Super Show. Remember that one?

The set will retail for $29.98 on October 18, and may transform you into something more powerful than you ever thought you were.