Late Night Consoling

I had hoped it really was just an April Fool's gag, but apparently The GIA really is closing down for good. They've been one of my favorite sites for years now, a perennial regular here at LNC, and one of the few sites whose reviews I always try and read, they will indeed be missed. GameForms promises to rise out of the ashes of The GIA, with several of that site's staff members moving over there, but if their teaser is any indication, they'll be a bit more pretentious than The GIA, who never took themselves too seriously. Good bye, GIA. You will indeed be missed.

• XenGamers has posted some quotes from Square's Koichi Ishii and Hiromichi Tanaka, who talk about Final Fantasy XI, commenting on the drastic change it represents for the series.
• The first details have been released from Dragonkind, an Xbox and PS2 RPG that's in development at newbie studio TriLunar. Take a look at the description of the game and that concept artwork...some of it's very impressive looking, but there's no denying that it's all terribly derivative of existing console RPGs.
• GameSpot has posted separate text and video previews of Kingdom Hearts, Square's weirdest RPG to date.
• Also at GameSpot tonight is a Q&A with Justin Lees, a production assistant (jeez, why not just interview the office intern?) on Bruce Lee: Quest of the Dragon at Universal Interactive.
• Capcom has announced an August 27th North American release date for Onimusha 2: Samurai's Destiny.
• The Lynx version of Aliens vs. Predator may have never surfaced, but Ubi Soft has announced that they will at long last be bringing the franchise to a handheld system. While specifics on the gameplay aren't available, it's said that the GBA game will allow gamers to play as each of the three races from the other games.
• In other notable portable news, THQ has announced GT Advance 2, the sequel to the impressive, but frustrating handheld racing game that launched alongside the GBA last year. Thankfully the sequel will have a battery save instead of those moronic passwords from the first one.
• Okay everyone, let's hear it for Sega! Virtua Fighter 4 ousted Grand Theft Auto 3 the week of March 23rd to become the best selling PS2 game in America. It's about time the Virtua Fighter series sold as well here as it should have been all along.