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Late Night Consoling

by Alec Matias, Dec 13, 2004 8:00pm PST
Related Topics – Sega, Ubisoft, Tecmo, Electronic Arts, Capcom, Sony, Nintendo DS, Games: Console, Pandemic

Howdy! I tried twice to get out something coherent, but I failed miserably. To surmise my previous attempts; a.) here come the handheld wars! and b.) blame the NFL, not Electronic Arts. Since you have plenty of reading to do below, I don't feel too guilty.

PSP PSP Launches in Japan Over the weekend, Japan saw the release of Sony's PSP. With only 200,000 available for its launch, eager Japanese gamers did what they do best: form giant orderly lines. The system has been basically sold out, with "official" numbers teetering between 166,000 and 172,000 sold out of the ~193,000 shipped. 1up found around a thousand gamers lined up in front of one store, compared to the paltry 150 a couple weeks ago for the Nintendo DS. With demand high, sales on online auction sites are staggering; $500+ for a unit with a game, some even as high as $800. Sony is trying hard to accommodate the demand by releasing 300,000 units by the end of year.
PSP Hard Numbers for the PSP Battery Many sites out there are feverishly putting the PSP through its paces and at the same time monitoring its battery life. IGN set up a journal and the final results were four and a half hours playing five different games and one of the hours used to listen to MP3s (varying brightness and volume levels). A live correspondent for Lik-Sang.com found a store that broke street date and had a ball playing multiplayer Ridge Racers with others. With half brightness and sound, just a hair over six hours. Finally, GameSpot chimes in with their numbers of 90 minutes to three hours while playing Ridge Racers, although they don't divulge what settings they were using.
PSP PSPs Shipping with Defects? No launch ever appears to go completely smoothly and the PSP launch is no different. One of the early reported problems are dead pixels. Like any device with its kind of screen, this is an issue and only affects a small group of people. However, GamesAreFun has been cataloging the defects being reported on from around the web and are finding issues with the UMD drive unexpectedly popping open and the analog stick not working or even falling off.
PS2 Xbox Midway Still Making a Football Game Despite losing their NFL license due to the NFL's disdain for the Blitz series and EA's new exclusivity contract, Midway is hard at work on a football-related title. Called Blitz: Playmakers, the game revolves around the same setting that was used for ESPN's original series Playmakers. Midway has hired a writer of the show to help with the project and it'll feature all the hard-hitting drama that the show had; drugs, spousal abuse, and sexual situations. A Midway spokesperson told IGN, "Enough of the 'No Fun League' ... it's now time to talk about and prepare for the game the NFL wouldn't let anyone make ... Blitz the way it should be played."
PS2 Xbox RE: Outbreak File #2, GunGriffon Dated If next month's release of Resident Evil 4 isn't enough for you, Resident Evil Outbreak File #2 is set to arrive in North America on April 15th, according to Capcom's official site. At the same time, Tecmo confirmed once and for all that GunGriffon: Allied Strike will ship... tomorrow! Yes, tomorrow. They made the revelation back on Friday; thanks for the heads-up, Tecmo!
Xbox 32 Players for Battlefront Matches An update for Star Wars Battlefront is coming soon from Pandemic Studios that allow gamers to host 32-player games. However, to do so, the host must have a connection capable of 1.5 megabit up and down. Along with the update comes a new map, the same that was recently released for the PC version. It takes place at Jabba's Palace on Tatooine.
Xbox Ghost Recon 2 Auto-Update Coming Soon Ubisoft and Red Storm Entertainment are hard at work on an auto-update for the recently released Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon 2. The update will fix problems many people seem to be dealing with such as the Observer crash and respawn kill glitch. No timeframe was offered.
PS2 GTA Scares Off House Burglars Sandy Wilson was watching over her three grandsons when her home was broken into by four burglars. While holding the kids at gunpoint, the burglars suddenly heard "This is the police! You're surrounded!" Realizing their dilemma, the group fled out of the house. Oddly enough, there were no police on the outside. In fact, what they had heard came from the television that the boys were using... as they played Grand Theft Auto. The four men were later arrested and two are serving multiple years in prison, another was placed on probation, and one remains awaiting trial.
PS2 Xbox GCN XBN and GMR Magazines Close Shop Ziff-Davis has ceased operations for two of its prominent gaming magazines; Xbox Nation (XBN) and GMR. Sources from within have been breaking the story on message boards across the Internet. Subscribers will be able to switch their subscription to another Ziff-Davis publication, such as Electronic Gaming Monthly, Computer Gaming World, or Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine. Interestingly, GMR staffers were suggesting that subscribers switch to Xbox Nation, but it appears they are as out of the loop as they could get. GMR's final issue will be the February 2005 issue where it had the exclusive review of Resident Evil 4, giving it a perfect score.
Xbox Microsoft MechAssault 2 Contest Tired of playing the original MechAssault but can't pony up the cash for the sequel? Well, if you grunt it out just twenty hours more, you can win a copy of the MechAssault 2: Lone Wolf Limited Edition! That's the deal Microsoft is offering; log 20 hours a week playing the original over Xbox Live, win the sequel. Act fast, the contest last only two weeks and it starts today.
PSP Misc. Q&As/Features GameSpot posts up their own little FAQ about the PSP, answering the questions gamers are asking most frequently (duh!).
  Misc. Media/Previews
PS2 GameSpot sticks up new screens for Kessen 3 and a video preview of The Getaway: Black Monday. GamesAreFun posts five images of the Sega Classics Collection. IGN has some adult content footage for Shadow of Rome and impressions of Suikoden IV. GameSpy sneaks in some shots of Cold Winter.
Xbox GameSpot has a new hands-on with Jade Empire. IGN has their impressions here.
GCN IGN has Japanese magazine scans of the new Pokemon RPG. You can't really gleam any information from the shots, but it does give the appearance of a more robust title than the Colosseum games.
PSP N-Gage Three new trailers for Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children are at the official site. Multiplayer impressions of Vampire Chronicle (PSP) are at GameSpot. They also have plenty of footage for Hot Shots Golf (PSP), Fired Up (PSP), X-Men Legends (NG), and One (NG). The Magic Box has new shots of Metal Gear Acid (PSP).
PS2 Xbox GCN TeamXbox takes a stab at previewing 25 to Life (PS2, Xbox). IGN gets mean with these videos of The Punisher (PS2, Xbox).
Console Game of the Evening: Tetris Attack for the Super Nintendo. "My favorite puzzler of all time. The music was exceptional as well. I still pick up and play this on a regular occurance." (submitted by dmiller).


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Comments

22 Threads | 68 Comments*
  • #5
    Refresh Thread
    By: SolrFlare x
    Reply
    On the PSP lines:

    One thing a lot of sites(and Sony of course) keep forgetting to mention is that because of limited supply, very few stores in Japan allow a lot, if any pre-orders. Resulting in people having to get in lines to get the system.

    For the DS, however, a lot of stores in Japan did take pre-orders, so most people were able to just get in and out throughout the day.

    Now, this says nothing on the demand for the PSP, but then again its also hard to measure demand when there are only 200k systems out there too O.o

    But, it does explain why the lines were very much different between the two systems, yet Nintendo went through their initial 200k just about as fast as the PSP.

    PSP has a lot of hype, and certainly a lot of demand, so does the DS. Just be looking close at a lot of spin from both sides in the weeks and months to come on the numbers.
    Dec 13, 2004 8:10pm PST