Late Night Consoling

The new issue of Next-Generation has a preview of Dead or Alive 3 that's so complimentary, it may just convince me not to cancel that Xbox I've pre-ordered...the preview makes it sound like DoA3 is (unlike its predecessors) a serious fighting game, and not just a hardware demo or Virtua Fighter clone.

• Shenmue II is out in Japan, and so there are hands-on previews up at GameSpot and Dreamcast.IGN. Both previews confirm that you can use your data from the first game in the sequel (I'm so glad I saved mine).
• Peter Molyneux has certainly been in the news a lot today...GameSpot has posted details on Black & White Next-Generation, the planned Xbox and PS2 version of Black & White.
• Here's an interesting rumor...PS2.IGN is reporting that Interplay is currently considering making a third person action-based Fallout title for the Playstation 2.
• New media showing off the damage models in the Xbox racing title Project Gotham can be found at Xbox.IGN.
• This will probably be disappointing news for you die-hard Soul Calibur fans...according to CoreMagazine, Soul Calibur 2 is only 30% complete. Also at Core are some shots of the Tekken 4 arcade kit, which runs on a modified PS2.
• Details on the cross-platform compatibility between the Dreamcast and GameCube versions of Phantasy Star Online Version 2 are up at N-Sider.
• Thinking of pre-ordering a GameCube at Toys "R" Us? Be prepared to buy one of those bundles if you do.
• And for those pre-ordering an Xbox, a great pre-order guide is up at Xbox.IGN, with info on all the major chains and online stores you can get one from.