Late Night Consoling

According to various tech sites including DigiTimes, Chinese language news sources Apple Daily and Commercial Times have reported that PlayStation 3 production has begun, suggesting that the company plans to have as many units as possible for its upcoming launch. Taiwanese manufacturer ASUSTeK Computer has apparently been producing PS3 units in small quantities since earlier this month, with a total planned initial shipment of four million units. Approximately 200,000 sets of components reached ASUSTeK this month, and that number will be ramped up to one million by October in order to meet the goal of four million total units. Following ASUSTeK's shipment, Foxconn Electronics will take over to further satisfy demand.

Sony announced this May that PlayStation 3 will ship on November 11, 2006 in Japan and on November 17 across Europe, North America, and Australia, with a New Zealand release following on November 23.

San Diego-based independent developer The Behemoth is well known for the against-all-odds success of its self funded old school 2D shooter Alien Hominid (PS2, Xbox, GCN), based on a Flash game originally posted on company founder Tom Fulp's popular Flash repository Newgrounds. During last year's Comic-Con in San Diego, the studio unveiled its next game, at the time going only by the appropriate moniker "The Behemoth's Next Game." Today, the company launched the official website for the game, which now goes by the name Castle Crashers. It will be on display at Comic-Con this week.

Castle Crashers is a 2D cooperative beat-em-up game in the vein of classics such as Double Dragon, set in a stylized medieval world. It was not stated which systems The Behemoth is targeting for development. Over at the official site there's a trailer, and we have a screenshot gallery up. (Thanks pixel addiction!)

Japanese publication Famitsu revealed in its latest issue a new strategy roleplaying game for PSP from Level 5, the developer behind the Dark Cloud games and, more recently, Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King (PS2). Entitled Jeanne d'Arc, the game unsurprisingly focuses on the historical figure Joan of Arc, though the game is largely fictional. As in legend, the heroine sees visions that compel her to save France from the English. Her battles play out in turn-based strategy RPG fashion. For more translated details, check out IGN's story.

Jeanne d'Arc is produced by Level 5 president Akihiro Hino, who also produced the Dark Cloud series, and directed by Ken Honmura. Sony Computer Entertainment plans to publish the game in Japan this winter. No North American release plans were announced.

Several weeks ago, Nintendo unveiled a new rhythm game entitled Rhythm Tengoku, from the development team behind the insane WarioWare series. This week, the publisher launched the game's official site, which contains a gameplay video. Fans of the team's prior efforts will immediately recognize the deliberately crude visual aesthetic and mini-game-based structure, hallmarks of the WarioWare games.

Rhythm Tengoku is set to ship August 3 in Japan for Game Boy Advance. No North American release plans were announced.

Though EA Sports' NCAA 07 has been out only for a day or so, it appears that quite a few users have encountered what may be a serious bug in the PSP version of the game. Gamers have reported a serious problem with the running game on various forums, including the EA Sports boards. One frustrated user explains: "Basically what happens is when you run the ball, the ball is spotted at the point of FIRST CONTACT and not where momentum carries your player. IE, if you have a first and ten on your own 20, and you run for 8 yards, you may only get credited for 4 yards, if that's where the defensive player first touches you (this case the 24 yard line). This is completely unacceptable. " EA has responded by saying that the game is working as intended, though users note that such behavior is contrary to official NCAA and NFL regulations. (Thanks Jeff!)

Various forums, including the official Sega boards, have seen complaints from gamers that From Software's recently released Chromehounds (X360) may be afflicted by some serious bugs. Users describe frequent lockups and crashes, and some users describe being unable to play any games or DVDs in their Xbox 360 consoles after the Chromehounds disc has been in the drive. A Sega moderator has acknowledged the complaints but noted that the company has been unable to consistently reproduce the problem and hypothesizes that in some cases it may be the consoles themselves at fault rather than the game.