Late Night Consoling

Tokyo Games Show is now actually getting underway, and with it come more game announcements. Here they are, grouped by platform and sorted alphabetically by title. Descriptions will be brief and in many cases nonexistent:

Though the Revolution-revealing keynote by Nintendo's Satoru Iwata has been the biggest news of TGS thus far, Microsoft's Robbie Bach also delivered his own address before Iwata's. Microsoft seems to be sticking to its guns with its HD Era pitch, with the keynote title being "The Dawn of a New Era" (you know, the HD one). Another main point was the dovetailing between Windows PCs and Xbox 360s, which will work together in order to form the centerpiece of consumers' digital lifestyle.

That good old CliffyB, who seems to be rapidly becoming Microsoft's favorite Xbox 360 poster boy, also came to the stage to give his schtick on Epic's upcoming Gears of War (X360).

Bach also explained the workings of Xbox Live, though the information all seemed like details that have already been outlined. He also paid his compliments to Nintendogs (DS), something that even portable Nintendo challenger Sony has acknowledged positively, as being a good example of customizability in video games. The Xbox 360 apparently also aims to deliver customers with a customizable experience.

As far as the PS3, Bach claimed that the system will be roughly comparable to Xbox 360 in terms of power, but that Xbox 360 will deliver a better personalized and online experience, making it the superior console. He also claims that Xbox 360 will be more than just a game system. This is a claim that has also been made by Sony regarding most of their gaming products; Nintendo has rarely if ever made similar statements regarding their systems.

Of course, Bach was also sure to reiterate his company's devotion to the Japanese market, claiming that while Microsoft did not see much success there in the last generation he expects a very different situation starting with Xbox 360's release.

IGN reports that amongst all the trailers and announcements, there are not actually any playable PS3 consoles at Tokyo Games Show. When questioned regarding the prospects of the system itself being on display in the near future, Sony provided no response. So, we'll see. The system won't be out for a while, though, so there's plenty of time.

Everyone's favorite wacky attorney Jack Thompson has slammed Rockstar Games for a fictional website set up by the company. The suggestively-abbreviated Citizens United Negating Technology website is linked from Rockstar's GTA: Liberty City Stories website. The GTA:LCS site also includes an email from "JT@CitizensUnitingNegatingTechnology", explaining that "Only last week, I was using the Internet to look up some information for my 15 year old niece, who is a keen water skier and state wide sailor. Trust me when I say this - searching under the subject matter "Teenage girls water sports" is not for the faint hearted." It also notes that "the Internet is an unambiguous evil," and "the only things worse than the Internet are computer games and liberals."

Thompson in response:

"Take-Two/Rockstar has created and paid for an actual Internet website for the purpose of furthering the notion that its most abiding and most effective critic, Jack Thompson, is himself a sexual pervert. When you click on the fake email, you will find that JT (Jack Thompson) likes to surf the Internet for pictures depicting deviant sex acts by teenage girls. Additionally, there is at the site an audio ad featuring a man whose name is "Jack" who is found naked by a mother in her son's room. Bisexual paedophile Jack Thompson is the combined message."

The other combined message is "extremely annoying and hilarious Jack Thompson."

Frontier Developments, the studio behind the RollerCoaster Tycoon franchise and Dog's Life (PS2) (which was actually pretty fun), is developing a new action thriller for next-gen systems, most likely PS2 and Xbox 360. The announcement was not made at Tokyo Games Show. The game will be politically-oriented and will apparently strive to give players a wide range of choices in their actions.

A more detailed description is here, in which David Braben, chairman of the independent studio, claims that the game will be one of a new breed of games going beyond effects-driven action titles.

Eurogamer talks to Nintendo's Jim Merrick about the recently-unveiled Revolution controller.

GamesIndustry.biz interviews Marko Hein, head of Nintendo's European Developer Business.

Game Informer chats with two members of the Castlevania team: Koji Igarashi, producer of Dawn of Sorrow (DS) and Curse of Darkness (PS2, Xbox), as well as composer Michiru Yamane.

IGN gets the full packaging of GBA Micro, detailing just what comes in the unusually-shaped box.