Late Night Consoling

Following up on last year's .hack//G.U. Vol.1: Rebirth, publisher Namco Bandai Games has announced that it will be delivering the second game in the trilogy, .hack//G.U. Vol. 2: Reminisce, to North America. Again developed by CyberConnect2, the game will return to the MMO-like environment of The World as protagonist Haseo attempts to make it back to reality. The game features a revamped battle system with additional styles, as well as a new collectible card game that can be played against NPCs.

"The second chapter of the .hack series continues the story of Haseo and expands upon the unique action-RPG elements that made the first game so popular," said Namco Bandai localization VP Naruo Uchida. "A compelling story, as well as an upgraded battle system will have players delving deeper into 'The World,' where many questions will be answered."

Namco Bandai plans to ship .hack//G.U. Vol. 2: Reminisce this summer. Screenshots are available here.

Atari today revealed that it will be giving legendary monster Godzilla his debut on three current systems with Godzilla: Unleashed. Coming to Wii, Nintendo DS, and PSP from developer Pipeworks Software, Godzilla: Unleashed is a "fighting game on a giant scale," putting players in the role of the famous beast up against his infamous adversaries as he attempts to become King of the Monsters. The game will feature destructible environments, a motion-sensing control system for the Wii version, and, oddly, a non-linear branching story.

Pipeworks' Godzilla: Unleashed is set to ship this this fall.

Publisher Majesco announced today that it will be bringing more than a thousand crossword puzzles to Nintendo DS in Budcat Creations' The New York Times Crosswords. The game will allow players to fill in letters either with a touch screen virtual keyboard, or through handwriting recognition with the system's stylus. Several special modes are featured, including Puzzle Week, which seems to be similar to the daily difficulty progression used by the New York Times itself; a timed Challenge mode; and a local two-player wireless mode with both cooperative and competive components.

"The challenging fun of The New York Times crossword puzzles combined with the stylus-based functionality of the Nintendo DS is a perfect pairing from our perspective," said Majesco marketing VP Ken Gold. "The New York Times Crosswords really is the ultimate game for passionate crossword puzzle lovers."

Majesco plans to ship The New York Times Crosswords this spring.

Those anticipating Red Storm and Ubisoft Paris' upcoming Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 can now get a taste of the Xbox 360 version's single-player component. The 625MB file is curently available for free download on the Xbox Live Marketplace--but only for Xbox Live Gold members at the moment.

Activision sent word today that the official website for Treyarch's upcoming Spider-Man 3 (PS2, PS3, X360, Wii, NDS, PSP, GBA, PC) has gone live. In addition to a trailer and the first entry of a development blog, it features a contest whose winner will be able to take a trip to Activision's Santa Monica headquarters to play the game before its release. Spider-Man 3 is expected to ship this May, in close proximity to Sam Raimi's film of the same name.