Late Night Consoling

Every console RPG tends to have what I call "WAYPTA" moments. That is, moments when you find yourself looking at the screen and wondering, "what are you people talking about?!?" Needless to say, Xenosaga is loaded with these. If you can imagine a scale of one to ten, with Metal Gear Solid 2 at the top and the early, new age philosophy-free console RPGs at the bottom, Xenosaga ranks somewhere in the 9 range. I'm liking the game, but good lord is it a convoluted story. You would think with six games, they'd manage to keep things from getting too ludicrous at the beginning, but after 15 hours, it's definitely marched firmly into WAYPTA territory. It's probably at the same level as the second disc of Xenogears, which pretty much means this game will definitely only be for the most dedicated of gamers. But so far, I think Xenogears was a more satisfying experience. Where that game took a really long time to get going with the really crazy WAYPTA moments, this one jumps into them pretty quickly. Fortunately the gameplay's not tedious, or I would never have the patience for it.

	Get a GBA SP Now! While the thing doesn't officially go on sale until Sunday, some places apparently started selling the GBA SP today, meaning if you go to your local Toys 'R Us, GameStop or Electronics Boutique, you may be able to snag one before the rest of the world.
	Zelda Reviewed Both GameSpot and IGN have posted their reviews of The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, and as expected, they're quite positive. Sadly, IGN's is currently for subscribers only, although it's likely to be available to the general public sometime this weekend.
	Tales of Phantasia Announced Namco has announced Tales of Phantasia, a Game Boy Advance port of this SNES classic, which marked the first installment in the Phantasia series. This version will have the voices from the enhanced PlayStation port from a while back.
	Sega's Lineup Revealed? The source is a little funky, but reports have hit the web that Altered Beast, Puyo Pop, Initial D, Sega Rally 3, Headhunter 2 and Sonic Hero are all set to be released by Sega this fall for various platforms. It's safe to assume that we'll know for sure soon.
	N-Gage Preview Computer and Video Games has posted a hands-on look at Nokia's upcoming N-Gage handheld system/mobile phone. A few different games are mentioned, including Sonic-N, Tomb Raider and Super Monkey Ball.
	Syphon Filter Omega Strain Details A slew of new details from Syphon Filter Omega Strain are up at IGN tonight, looking at this upcoming online sequel, which is apparently planned as the final game in the series.
	Misc. GameSpot Previews GameSpot has posted a look at the online mode in the Xbox port of Star Wars: The Clone Wars, along with hands-on looks at Virtua Fighter 4 Evolution, Wallace & Gromit and the Xbox port of State of Emergency.
	Nintendo's New Card Company The company that started as a card company has come full circle...Nintendo has announced the formation of a new company to market, sell and distribute the new Pokemon-e trading cards.
	Amped 2 Interview Xbox.IGN has conducted an interview with Brenner Adams, the product planner for Amped 2, the Xbox Live-enabled snowboarding game that will be out later this year.
	King of Fighters EX2 in April Acclaim, of all companies, has announced that they will be releasing King of Fighters EX2 for GBA here in North America in April.
	Misc. Media IGN has posted new shots from Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles for GameCube and Red Faction II for Xbox, along with the first look at GP Advance, an impressive 3D racing game for GBA. And over at GameSpot they have a new gameplay movie from Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell for GBA.