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Late Night Consoling

by Alec Matias, Aug 09, 2004 8:00pm PDT
Related Topics – Square Enix, Games: Console

It appears plenty of places aren't taking tomorrow's launch of Madden NFL 2005 lightly. As I was making calls this morning trying to find a place selling it today, both my local EBgames and GameStop informed me they're opening early tomorrow to accommodate demand. Also, in tonight's Evening Reading, Shacker emocore explained he tried to pick up a copy only to find a 120+ person line being moderated by police. I've stood in long lines for hardware, but wow, it looks like Madden will be going platinum very quickly. If NCAA's sales numbers have doubled during the same time span as last year, I can't imagine what amount of sales Madden is going to pull. On a side note, as a Steelers fan, I do hope the Madden curse is true.

Xbox Xbox 2 Possibly Unveiling at CES 2005 Gamesindustry.biz is reporting tonight that senior industry sources have told them over the weekend that there is a high probability that Bill Gates, during his keynote address at CES 2005 on January 5th, will take the opportunity to reveal the successor to the Xbox, currently code-named Xenon. Gates had previously used CES, in 2001, to announce Microsoft's entry into the console business.
PS2 Square Enix Trademarks New Title Square Enix has filed for a new trademark in the United States for a project called Dawn of Souls. What is particularly interesting is that this simply isn't a trademark for a video game title, but also DVDs, books, music, comics, magazines, and other tidbits like mouse pads and pens. Either Square Enix is trying hard to cover their bases or we see a whole new franchise in the works.
GBA Tune Your Car with a GBA An American company has found an interesting use for Nintendo's Game Boy Advance; they've been able to turn it into an automotive performance tool. Now, I know nothing about cars and their 'parts,' but according to 1up's David Smith, TurboXS' DTEC peripheral can turn the GBA "into a data logging computer and tuning interface for sports cars, recording telemetry data and even serving as an interface to remap fuel management and boost settings."
Xbox Ninja Gaiden Hurricane Pack Now Available The expansion pack for Ninja Gaiden, Hurricane Pack Vol. 1, is now available for free download over Xbox Live. GameSpot described the update as containing, "...a brand-new weapon, the boujutsu, and a menagerie of new enemies, including killer catwomen. The game will also introduce an updated gameplay mechanic and a new camera engine that will let players change their perspectives vis-a-vis their enemies."
PS2 Xbox GCN Misc. Q&As/Features GameSpot has some choice quotes from Hironobu Sakaguchi, president of Square Enix and the founder of Mist Walker, a new company working on two all-new RPGs.
  Misc. Media/Previews
PS2 GameSpot updates their preview of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (with new shots) and tosses in a handful of images of Legend of Kay for good measure. GameSpy goes hands on with Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal. Magic Box gives us new images of Dragon Quest VIII and Armored Core: Nine Breaker. IGN goes hands-on with WWE SmackDown! vs Raw. Also, coming to us from the future, Australian site Gamebiz previews GTA:SA.
Xbox EuroGamer is the latest site to offer their impressions of Blinx 2: Masters of Time & Space. GameSpot updates their preview for Forza Motorsport. IGN pimps new images of Conker: Live and Reloaded.
GCN GameSpy offers an updated look at Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door. They also have six screens of Pikmin 2.
GBA N-Gage Three pieces of gameplay footage of Advance Guardian Heroes (GBA) and TRON 2.0: Killer App (GBA) are at GameSpot. GamesAreFun takes a quick look at Pathway to Glory (NG). IGN gives us the first details and screens of WWE Survivor Series (GBA).
PS2 Xbox GCN Game Informer does their thing with Street Fighter Anniversary Collection (PS2, Xbox, GCN). Some gameplay footage of Second Sight (PS2, Xbox, GCN) and Burnout 3: Takedown (PS2, Xbox) is at GameSpot tonight. There are also official trailers of The URBZ: Sims in the City (PS2, Xbox, GCN) and Test Drive: Eve of Destruction (PS2, Xbox) as well as screens of Bad Boys: Miami Takedown (PS2, Xbox, GCN). IGN gives off new details of Mercenaries (PS2, Xbox) and new media of Mega Man X Command Mission (PS2, GCN). Finally, GamerFeed previews Rocky Legends (PS2, Xbox).
Console Game of the Evening: Shadowgate for the NES. "Only the coolest NES graphical text adventure in the universe!" (submitted by BryanGT).


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Comments

18 Threads | 47 Comments
  • #33
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    By: Force[FED] x
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    Neat to see the discussion of TurboXS' inclusion of the GBA SP into their tuning repertoire.

    But, the article is a little misleading. You STILL need to have the UTEC engine management (which costs a grand) to do any tuning on the WRX/STi platform. The GBA is more or less a display option, which is awesome, but it doesn't do any of the actual "tuning". That is all done in the UTEC piggyback. The UTEC is completely plug-n-play though, with NO cutting of wires (unlike most car engine managements).

    So the GBA SP will allow you to display some of the info that the UTEC already sees, but in a nice little GUI. The UTEC also does logging, so the data is already there to see, it's just in tables and such. Sounds like eventually you can tweak the UTEC parameters with the GBA also (but I imagine it will still be TONS easier with an old laptop using hyperterminal since the keyboard is kind of important).

    I know a little about this stuff because my last car was a 2002 WRX, which I eventually took to Stage 4+. I used the UTEC, and it was an awesome tuning tool. My WRX was making ~350chp after tuning the UTEC on a dyno.

    Still was cool to see this mentioned on the Shack (you go Alec!)
    Aug 10, 2004 4:51am PDT

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