Late Night Consoling

UK development studio Kuju Entertainment revealed an in-progress PS3 first person shooter, according to translated reports of Famitsu information. Kuju creative director Tancred Dyke-Wells presented a trailer and initial information about the game at Tokyo's recent Play UK 2006 event. The game is entitled Redwood Falls (not to be confused with Redwood Shores, home of Electronic Arts), and features enemies whose skin and organs can be blasted away then regenerated in what seems to be gruesome detail, judging from the screenshots. The game does not yet have a publisher nor a projected release date.

Kuju has some FPS experience, as the dev house behind games such as Conspiracy: Weapons of Mass Destruction (PS2, Xbox, PC) and the Warhammer 40,000 licensed title Fire Warrior (PS2, PC). Currently, the studio is probably best known for its work on the well received Battalion Wars (GCN). In interviews following Battalion Wars' release, Dyke-Wells hinted strongly that the game may be receiving a Revolution sequel.

Square Enix announced today the primary voice cast for the company's hugely anticipated Square/Disney crossover RPG sequel Kingdom Hearts II (PS2). Haley Joel Osment returns in the lead role of Sora, with original Disney film voice actors such as Ming-Na (Mulan), James Woods (Hades), and Zach Braff (Chicken Little) playing their characters' video game counterparts. There are also a whole lot of names with which I am not familiar, though I did recognize Christopher Lee, who will be playing the part of Diz. Japanese pop star Utada Hikaru will sing the game's main theme, "Sanctuary."

The press release also confirmed the long-delayed game to be shipping for PS2 on March 28, 2006.

Press release

In the March issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly, Nintendo's Reggie Fils-Aime spoke a bit about the company's upcoming Revolution console, offering no concrete new information but hinting at what might be coming. For example, he noted that camera and microphone attachments for the Revolution controller are "fair game," responding to the interviewer's prompt that Nintendo design head Shigeru Miyamoto has expressed his appreciation for Sony's EyeToy USB camera for PS2. Beyond that, he echoed prior statements from company president Satoru Iwata as well as Miyamoto that the system has additional capabilities to be revealed at a later date.

He also suggested that the Revolution's online service will be tailored for each game, indicating perhaps something in between the ultra-unified Xbox Live and the open system Sony used for PS2's online service. In regards to the possibility of classic Virtual Console games being retrofitted to make use of the Revolution controller's unique properties, Fils-Aime seemed to consider that a fairly unlikely proposition, at least in the short term.

When asked about The Legend of Zelda: The Twilight Princess (GCN), Fils-Aime seemed to add weight to prior rumors that the game will make extra use of the Revolution controller when played with the system's backwards compatibility. "The trick will be what makes it special to play on Revolution, and to the extent that we could create something like that, boy, wouldn't that be fantastic?" said Fils-Aime. "Certainly one of the things that I would love to see is something that makes Zelda, when it's played on Revolution, do something magical."

Lionhead's 2005 Sims-meets-machinima PC title The Movies was originally slated for an eventual launch on PS2, Xbox, and GameCube. Then, during Activision's quarterly financial report earlier this week, it was revealed that the publisher had cancelled the console versions due to lower than expected performance on PC. However, in a discussion thread about the cancellation on Lionhead's official forums, a Lionhead staffer indicated that though Activision has no part in any further versions of the game, Lionhead might continue with the ports independently:

Activision will not be publishing the console version of The Movies but that does not mean the project is dead.

The team member also mentioned a PC expansion pack that will be formally announced soon.

Activision sent out word today that the Unrated Extended Edition DVD release of the Doom film features a demo of the Xbox version of id Software's Doom 3 (Xbox, PC). It will consist of two single-player levels, playable cooperatively over Xbox Live, and two multiplayer levels, with Live-enabled deathmatch. So, if you for some reason haven't played Doom 3 and yet have seen the movie and plan to buy it, you're in luck.

Forbes speaks with Nintendo of America's Perrin Kaplan on Nintendo's next-gen strategy.

GameSpot has a contender diary on EA Chicago's Fight Night Round 3 (PS2, Xbox, PS3, X360, PSP) and a developer interview on EA's The Godfather (PS2, Xbox, X360, PSP, PC).