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Late Night Consoling

by Chris Remo, Jun 21, 2006 8:00pm PDT
Related Topics – Sega, Retro Studios, Pandemic, Games: Console, Nintendo DS, LucasArts, 3D Realms, Konami, Atlus, Square Enix, Ubisoft, Namco, MLG

I'm finally playing through God of War (PS2), and I just have to ask who ever thought it was fun to have to smash the same button as quickly as possible continuously for several seconds? I didn't enjoy it in Resident Evil 4 (PS2, GCN), I didn't enjoy it in Indigo Prophecy/Fahrenheit (PS2, Xbox, PC), and though I don't have very clear memories of it I probably didn't enjoy it in Track & Field. There must be people who find it hilariously entertaining to contort their hands and accelerate the onset of RSI, otherwise designers wouldn't keep sticking it in there, but I'm not one of them. Stop with the button mashing already!

  • Initial Wii Launch Titles Confirmed

    [nintendo]
    Earlier this year, Nintendo of America VP George Harrison stated that Wii will likely launch with about twenty games, a third or so of which will be first party offerings. The latest issue of Nintendo Power has confirmation of six of the system's launch titles, and in line with Harrison's estimated proportions, a third of them are Nintendo-published. There are also two games from Ubisoft, one from Sega, and one from Square Enix: - Dragon Quest Swords: The Masked Queen and the Tower of Mirrors (Square Enix, Square Enix) - The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (Nintendo EAD, Nintendo) - Metroid Prime 3 (Retro Studios, Nintendo) - Rayman Raving Rabbids (Ubisoft Montpellier, Ubisoft) - Red Steel (Ubisoft Paris, Ubisoft) - Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz (Sega, Sega) Various other publishers have also stated that they expect to ship Wii launch titles, though only these six were confirmed by Nintendo Power.

  • Chopin Plays the Xbox 360

    [xbox360]
    Namco Bandai has unveiled the first details of an upcoming Xbox 360 RPG entitled Trusty Bell: Chopin's Dream. The game features, of all people, timeless Romantic composer Frederic Chopin. Like all the best composers of the Romantic era, Chopin died fairly young, at the age of 39, in fact. In the world of Trusty Bell, Chopin had a dream in the last hours of his life, about a world where people with terminal illnesses--such as he--have special powers. That dream world is the setting of the RPG, which follows a girl named Polka, a young thief named Alegretto, as well as Chopin himself. The game has a colorful cell-shaded, heavily anime-oriented, visual style that seems to come closer to replicating the look of 2D animation more convincingly than most prior attempts. The game's Chopin piano music will be performed by noted Russian pianist Stanislav Bunin. Development is being handled by tri-Crescendo, a studio that split off from Star Ocean developer tri-Ace. Note to developers: somebody please, please, please take this graphical approach and make a game that looks like classical Western animation. PLEASE.

  • Contact 2 Confirmed

    [nintendo] [ds]
    Grasshopper Manufacture's RPG Contact (NDS) was recently shipped in Japan, but is still some months away from Atlus' September release of the game in North America. Still, that hasn't stopped notorious studio head Goichi Suda from commenting that a sequel is already been planned. Speaking to Nintendo Power, Suda stated, "We'll be making a Contact 2 for...um, a Nintendo platform to be announced." Realistically, the game is likely in development for either Nintendo DS or Wii, seeing as GameCube is on the way out and Grasshopper noted one reason for developing Contact on DS over GBA as the increased exposure the game would receive. The odd wording of Suda's response also seems to imply that the sequel may not be on DS, which would otherwise have been the obvious choice. So is Contact 2 coming to Wii? Wii'll have to wait and see.

  • No Prey Demo on Xbox Live Tonight

    [xbox360]
    At time of posting, there's less than an hour left until the PC demo of Human Head's Prey (X360, PC) is released, but a news item on the 3D Realms website reveals that the Xbox 360 version of the demo won't be available via Xbox Live tonight. "We do not want 360 people waiting up for the demo or having false expectations. The 360 demo will not appear on Marketplace tonight," explained company president George Broussard. "I'm still waiting for specifcs, but I'm being told that it's still in testing at Microsoft." 3D Realms is hopeful that the demo will surface on Xbox Live within the next few days.

  • MLG Pays Out Big Bucks to Halo 2 Team

    [xbox]
    Major League Gaming (MLG) today announced that it has finalized two lucrative exclusivity contracts, one with a four-man Halo 2 (Xbox) team and one with an individual Halo 2 player, stipulating that the players in question will compete only in MLG events. Player Tsquared will receive $250,000 and team Final Boss will receive $1M as per the agreement. The announcement did not specify a duration for the multi-year contracts, which it claims are the largest exclusive signings to date for professional gamers. "Having a true professional league requires that you be able to identify, scout and sign the best players in the world," said MLG co-founder Sundance DiGiovanni. "We're constantly on the lookout for the next big stars. Our Pro Circuit competitions give millions of gamers a chance to qualify to compete for their opportunity to make big money and gain recognition on the world stage as a pro gamer." This fall, MLG will televise its upcoming season of Halo 2 and Super Smash Bros. (GCN) on USA Network.

  • Misc. Q&As/Features

    LucasArts sends over a vehicles and creatures preview on Traveller's Tales' upcoming LEGO Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy (PS2, Xbox, GCN, X360, NDS, PSP, GBA, PC) - Screenshots. GameSpot has a translated summary of an ID Media +D Games interview with Konami's Elebits (Wii) producer Shingo Mukaitouge, speaking on the planned launch title. GameSpot also has a translated summary of a Sega internal interview with Toshifumi Nabeshima, a From Softawre producer on Chromehounds (X360). Pro-G chats with Pandemic about the upcoming Destroy All Humans! 2 (PS2, Xbox).

Misc. Media/Previews

XBOX/X360
IGN previews Digital Eclipse's Frogger (X360). 1UP takes a look at Fluent Entertainment's Crusty Demons Freestyle Moto-X (Xbox). GameSpy checks out Taito's Over G Fighters (X360).
PORTABLE
IGN checks out Nintendo's Touch Panic (NDS). GameSpy previews SCEJ's Loco Roco (PSP). Screenshots: Panzer Tactics DS (NDS).
MULTI
Screenshots: LEGO Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy (PS2, Xbox, GCN, X360, NDS, PSP, GBA, PC). Madden NFL 07 (PS3, X360, PC, also PS2, Xbox, GCN, Wii, NDS, PSP, GBA). Virtua Tennis 3 (PS3, X360).

Console Game Of The Evening [Submit Yours!]

Bubsy for the Super Nintendo. "Take a mario game, replace mario with a cat. Throw in some yarn balls and trampolines and you get a decent platformer." (submitted by fadetofunk)


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