Late Night Consoling

While it may yet be a while before we see a list of launch titles for PS3, confirmed games are trickling out every once in a while. Japanese publication Famitsu reports that publisher Success has confirmed that it is currently working on two PS3 titles, both slated for release in Japan some time in 2006. Previously, the games' release dates were listed as "TBA." One is an as yet untitled RPG, and the other is a simulation called Sheep Village. According to GameSpot, this brings the number of games to hit PS3 in 2006 (in Japan) to eight including the following:

Koei's Fatal Inertia (spring 2006)
Koei's Ni-Oh (summer 2006)
Koei's Mahjong Taikai (spring 2006)
Idea Factory's Shin Ten Makai VI (summer 2006)
AQ Interactive's Vampire's Rain (winter 2006)
Sonic Team's Sonic the Hedgehog (2006)

As for the PS3 itself, Sony has given no further information as to its release date, though the company seems to be sticking firm to its Japanese projection of spring 2006.

Majesco sent along the official announcement today of Arc System Works' Guilty Gear Dust Strikers (DS, get it!?) and Guilty Gear Judgment (PSP). Majesco is no stranger to the 2D fighting franchise, having published Guilty Gear X2 #Reload (Xbox) in 2004.

Dust Strikers features wireless four-player fighting as well as a story and arcade mode. The duel screens are used to depict multiple levels within the arenas, and are used in some way for a variety of included minigames. There is also some kind of move customization utility. Dust Strikers features 21 characters from the Guilty Gear series.

Judgment includes a port of X2 #Reload, and a new side-scrolling component. It contains 20 characters who can face off in wireless two-player battles. Despite the Live component seen in X2 #Reload, it does not appear that either Dust Strikers or Judgment will connect to Nintendo's online service.

Both games are expected in early spring.

HardOCP reports that the Xbox 360 Dashboard update Xboxic confirmed yesterday is "imminent." It was scheduled for release today but various issues have postponed it to Monday. There will apparently be a Call of Duty 2 fix on Tuesday, which will hopefully negate the need for that complicated workaround also revealed yesterday.

Square Enix has announced that its previously revealed PS2 Dragon Quest spinoff project will be hitting Japanese shelves April 20. Dragon Quest: Shounen Yangus to Fushigi no Dungeon (PS2), or Dragon Quest: Young Yangus and the Mysterious Dungeon, will tell the story of the young life of Dragon Quest's Yangus (surprise!). The gameplay and graphical style appears to be fairly similar to the recently released Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King (PS2).

No plans for release outside Japan have been announced.

Most of the big Xbox Live announcements recently have been 360-related, what with all of the Live Arcade madness. However, regular Xbox Live for Xbox is still getting new content. LucasArts just announced details of a downloadable expansion pack for the Xbox version of Pandemic's Star Wars Battlefront II (PS2, Xbox, PSP, PC). It will be available January 31 for the standard Live content price of $4.99, and includes remakes of four maps from the original Battlefront, as well as two new heroes. The maps are Bespin: Cloud City (with Conquest and CTF versions), Rhen Var: Citadel, Rhen Var: Harbor, and Yavin 4: Arena. The new heroes are Kit Fisto and Asajj Ventress.

Cabel Sasser of Cabel's Blog Lol (and proprietor of fine official Katamari shirts) has hypothesized a bit on the ridiculously huge success of Nintendo's Brain Training (DS) software. Will it reach the same success in North America? Probably not. But who knows?

Game Daily predicts what we'll see from the big three at E3. There's nothing too surprising in there, but if you're looking for a list of things to continue getting excited about, there you go.

We Love Keita Takahashi. Well, I do, anyway. And you should too.

Maarten linked this earlier but I'm linking it here because I say Psychonauts (PS2, Xbox, PC) is a console game. Take that, Maarten! Anyway, Computer and Video games interviews Double Fine's Tim Schafer of Psychonauts, Grim Fandango, Full Throttle, etc., fame. Some of the ground has been covered before but the latter two thirds of the interview or so have some really interesting stuff.

GameSpot has a designer diary on Streamline Studios' HoopWorld by lead designer Aubrey Hesselgren.