Late Night Consoling

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Interesting mix of news; one company on the rise, the other spiraling to its death. New accessories on the horizon, others being phased out. I just thought it was funny. Anywho, good luck to Swingin' Ape as they work on finishing StarCraft: Ghost, giving it the classic Blizzard polish that makes their titles stand out. It's refreshing to see a company stand up for quality instead of pushing out an unsatisfactory product to cash in on the holiday season.

PS2 Xbox GCN StarCraft: Ghost Resurfaces Blizzard announced tonight that the developer Swingin' Ape has taken over the creative duties of the console tactical shooter StarCraft: Ghost. "The team at Swingin' Ape Studios is a very talented group of developers with a proven ability to deliver extraordinary games," stated Mike Morhaime, Blizzard Entertainment president and co-founder. "We're confident that this partnership will result in titles that achieve the level of quality that players have come to expect from Blizzard products." No other specifics were revealed. Swingin' Ape was the crew behind last year's Metal Arms: Glitch in the System.
PS2 Xbox GCN Acclaim Loses MLB/Turok Licenses In a 10-K report filed to the US Securities and Exchange Commission, game developer and publisher Acclaim listed that, due to late payments on royalties, they have lost their licenses with Major League Baseball (MLB) and Classic Media, Inc., the owners of the intellectual property Turok. In the 10-K, Acclaim said they were in discussions with both companies "...in an effort to resolve this matter amicably." Personally, I don't see the problem with losing the latter license.
GCN Mario GCN Controller Argh, the Japanese get all the cool stuff. The latest is a GameCube controller with a Mario theme. With a top half that's red and the bottom-half blue, the controller also sports the signature "M" that is on Mario's famous cap. It's being offered exclusively through the "Club Nintendo" program. Can't wait to see how much it goes for on eBay.
GBA GBA Video Phone Here's another Japanese product we'll probably never see: a video phone for the Game Boy Advance! Manufactured by Campho, the device allows users to transfer voice and video over typically phone lines for super fun communication purposes. The device sends an image of 110,000 pixels at a whopping five frames per second. Included in the package is a headset and the set retails overall for about $180 USD.
PSX Sony Ends Production of PSone LCDs The missing component of a poor man's PSP, the LCD screen for the PSone will no longer see production by the end of this summer. Sony will fulfill one last order for Japan and then it's done. The device had been manufactured for two years with not much success.
PS2 Xbox Far Cry Instincts Delayed Ubisoft revealed that the console version of their PC success story, Far Cry Instincts, has been pushed back to Q1 2005. The game has been getting a bad rap since E3, so the move is to guarantee it is as fun and entertaining as its PC daddy.
PS2 Xbox GCN Misc. Q&As/Interviews GameSpot speaks with David Doak, producer on Second Sight, being developed by Free Radical.
  Misc. Media/Previews
PS2 GamerFeed previews the Nippon Ichi RPG Phantom Brave. 1up takes a look at God of War. Games Domain previews Forgotten Realms: Demon Stone (did you guys know R.A. Salvatore is the writer on this?). GameSpy has a single new screen and the cover art for Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.
Xbox The Bungie website updates with a new 3D screenshot for Halo 2. TeamXbox previews Kameo: Elements of Power. Ya know, I have a feeling these guys have a console bias.
GCN IGN previews for us the GameCube-debut of Fire Emblem and has a minute-long clip of Leon battling villagers in Resident Evil 4.
GBA GameSpy has screens from a few of the Famicom Mini Vol. 3 titles: Metroid, Zelda II, Super Mario Bros. 2, and Kid Icarus.
PS2 Xbox GCN Game Informer gives us the low down on Terminator 3: The Redemption (PS2, Xbox, GCN) with a hands-on impression and movies. GameSpot has new screens of Godzilla: Save The Earth (PS2, Xbox). GamerFeed keeps the gridiron action going with a preview of Madden NFL 2005 (PS2, Xbox, GCN). IGN has a hands-on look at the movie-based Catwoman (PS2, Xbox, GCN) game. TeamXbox takes a stab at previewing NCAA Football 2005 (PS2, Xbox, GCN). GameSpot has new footage of the same game here.
Console Game of the Evening: Sonic The Hedgehog for the Sega Master System. "I waited for a great platformer for the Master system for a long time, and finally this came out!" (submitted by freshview).

From The Chatty
  • reply
    July 7, 2004 8:01 PM

    Oooh we need a titanium metroid controller stat.

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