Late Night Consoling

As I casually mentioned the other night (along with other things), I bought an Xbox over the holiday. I'm writing up a "second opinion" Xbox diary...not because I think Richard has bad taste or anything, but simply because it started as a Shackreview of Halo and ballooned into a general review of the system. I plan on renting a few games this weekend to put some non-Halo stuff in the article...look for it sometime next week.

• So after conflicting stories about Square's PlayOnline network, it looks like you will have to pay to play Final Fantasy XI and TetraMaster online. Chat and e-mail will be free, however.
• CoreMagazine has translated a Q&A with Sonic Team's Yuji Naka from Weekly Famitsu, where he comments on whether or not we'll ever see sequels to NiGHTS and Burning Rangers. It sounds like they may happen at some point, and he even talks about the planned NiGHTS sequel that never was.
• No real shockers here: the GBA and PS2 were the bestsellers of the holiday season (the fact that they were easily obtainable obviously was a factor here).
• Anyone remember Link: Faces of Evil for the CD-I? I certainly didn't. This article's quite old, but it was linked from The GIA, and I was surprised to see that it doesn't require an insider membership to read (I'd tried to read it before, and it did).
• Here are a few interesting rumors...according to PS2.IGN, SNK is re-opening their US offices with the plans of creating multiplatform titles, Capcom is working on Marvel vs. Capcom 3 (knowing Capcom, that's pretty likely), and that oddball Mosquito game Ka may be released in the US (this comes over, but not Vib Ribbon? Where's the logic in that?).
• Also at PS2.IGN is a hands-on preview of Maximo: Ghosts to Glory, which has been getting nothing but praise from every place that gets their hands on a copy.
• Eidos has announced that Commandos 2 and Blood Omen 2 will both be released for the Xbox in March.
• The GIA has posted 48 screenshots from the mini-games in Arc the Lad III, one of four complete games in Working Designs' amazing Arc the Lad collection that should be out in the not-too-distant-future.
• GameSpot has a preview of Star Wars: Jedi Starfighter online, taking a look at the sequel to the original Starfighter for the PS2.
• Reviews: Hoshigami: Ruining Blue Earth is reviewed at GameSpot (7.1) and Blood Wake at Xbox.IGN (8.4), while The GIA has their staff favorites for 2001 list online.