Late Night Consoling

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  • Enemy Territory: Quake Wars to be fought on consoles

    [ps3] [xbox360]

    Id Software today announced via publisher Activision that Splash Damage's upcoming team-based multiplayer shooter Enemy Territory: Quake Wars is in development for both PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 as well as PC. Nerve Software, the Mesquite, Texas-based developer of Doom 3: Resurrection of Evil (Xbox, PC) and the multiplayer component of Return to Castle Wolfenstein, will be handling the Xbox 360 version of the game; Activision studio Z-Axis, developer of X-Men: The Official Game (PS2, Xbox, GCN, X360, NDS, GBA, PC) and the Dave Mirra BMX franchise, will handle the PS3 version. All of the games will continue to be supervised by id Software.

    According to today's press release, the console ports will be essentially the same game as the PC version, with largely identical features and game types. However, the console games appear to be limited to 16 simultaneous players, whereas the PC game is intended for 24 players. There was no mention of cross-platform multiplayer, but it is almost certainly not planned. Shacknews has sent further inquiries to Activision on the matter.

    Enemy Territory: Quake Wars currently has a "when it's done" release status, but is planned to ship some time this year.

  • Fight Night likely to spar on Wii

    [wii]

    EA Sports' Fight Night franchise saw one release on a Nintendo home console with EA Canada's Fight Night Round 2, released for GameCube in 2005, but the followup Fight Night Round 3 developed by EA Chicago stuck to Sony and Microsoft platforms. With the Wii's motion-sensing two-part controller and the inclusion of boxing in Wii Sports, many have noted that the system would make a good target for future iterations of the series.

    Speaking to boxing coverage site Doghouse Boxing in a recent interview, EA Sports producer Michael Blank was asked about the possibility of seeing Fight Night on Wii. Blank indicated that EA is currently considering such a project, and it seems likely. "We definitely feel there are some exciting things we can do with the Fight Night franchise and the Wii," he responded. "We are looking at it right now and I am sure you will something some time in the future on the Wii."

    In an interview last year, Shacknews spoke with EA Chicago GM Kudo Tsunoda about the possibility of his studio coming to Nintendo's current platform. "For sure. The Wii is a great system," he answered. "All different hardware all has their own cool thing that we can use as a launching point."

  • On Wii, Everybody Votes for...stuff

    [wii]

    If your Wii disc drive is pulsing blue, it's probably because, with no advance warning, a rather odd new channel has been added to the Wii user interface. Announced via a message from Nintendo to Wii consoles, the new feature is activated upon performing a system update. Entitled the Everybody Votes Channel, it is a channel which everybody, indeed, votes. As it has to do more with opinions rather than actual plans, however, it might have been better called Everybody Expresses a Preference Channel.

    "We're happy to announced the surprise launch of the Everybody Votes Channel!" reads the official message. "With the Everybody Votes Channel, you can answer popular questions like the one above and voice your opinion in national and worldwide polls!" The question cited is "What wish would you ask a genie to grant? Health or Wealth?"

    Other questions are along similar hypothetical and preferential lines, such as "Which is a more romantic Valentine's Gift? Chocolates or Roses?" and "Which century would you prefer to live in? 19th or 22nd?" Questions appear to differ from country to country and perhaps even state to state within the US. Up to six Miis can be registered with the service, allowing different users of the console to state their own preferences.

    It is unclear if Nintendo plans to use the channel in the future for concerns more directly related to practical consumer feedback.

  • EA to slam bands in band-slamming Bandslam

    [ps2] [ps3] [xbox360] [psp]

    Though the contest has been open for a few days now, Electronic Arts today officially announced its second Burnout Bandslam competition, which will see one band each from the United States and Europe have a song included in the soundtrack to "a future Burnout videogame," as well as receive a "demo recording contract" with Virgin Records. The first competition, held in 2005, offered bands the chance to have a song featured in Criterion's Burnout Revenge (PS2, Xbox, X360). The Burnout game corresponding to this contest was not specified. Though series developer Criterion is currently working on both Burnout Dominator (PS2, PSP) and Burnout 5 (PS3, X360), only the former game was explicitly mentioned in today's press release. Henry Juszkiewicz, CEO of sponsor Gibson Guitar, also made reference to Burnout Dominator, suggesting that that is the game in which the winning bands will be featured.

    MySpace users will be able to vote for entrants in the MySpace-hosted contest, though according to the official contest rules, actual decisions are made by a judging panel that appears to be assembled from Electronic Arts and Virgin Records as well as the bands The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus and We Are Scientists. Entries will be accepted until March 14, 2007.

  • Misc. Q&As/Features

    GameSpot chats with Alex Seropian of Wideload Games on his company's recently announced Hail to the Chimp (PS3, X360) being published by the illustrious Gamecock.

Console Game Of The Evening [Submit Yours!]

Friday the 13th for the NES. "All was fine until day turned into night and Jason came for you. 8 bit horror was terrifying for a little kid." (submitted by RevRaven)

From The Chatty
  • reply
    February 13, 2007 8:07 PM

    I'm probably gonna have to get ET:QW on the 360 since I can't afford to build a system that will do it justice at the moment. That kinda sucks.

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      February 13, 2007 8:16 PM

      Isn't that good?
      You can still play the game even though you can't afford to build a new rig.

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        February 13, 2007 8:32 PM

        [deleted]

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        February 13, 2007 8:41 PM

        It's good in that respect but honestly with a game like this I'd just skip it rather than play it on a console. I just know that I'd get tired of the controls used in a game made for the PC, and combined with the shitty Xbox Live community I'd get tired of it really quickly and regret spending $60. It's happened to me before!

        • reply
          February 13, 2007 9:34 PM

          You know, Remo. I agree with you. I would definitely prefer to play this game on a PC, but I might get a console version if 1) The PC version was somehow canceled and 2) They could prove that the console version isn't dumbed down like many of the games in the past. I've had just bad experiences when I've played both versions of games like the Soldier of Fortune 2, Return to Castle Wolfenstein, and Deus Ex 2.

          I actually recently got XBL again when I finally got an XBox 360 and while there are some cool players, a large number of the player base is definitely stupid. I got reminded that when I played some GRAW and GoW, when some kids with high-pitched voices started trash talking at me.

          • reply
            February 13, 2007 9:44 PM

            I think these are some of the worst examples of PC to console ports. (or best examples of bad ports, if that is how you want to look at it). I doubt the port will be that subpar. But yeah, I think a wait 'n see approach is good.

            I've lately found myself playing mostly 360. Am I abandoning my PC gaming roots? I hope not.

        • tcs legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
          reply
          February 14, 2007 2:28 AM

          I don't get the complaint about the Xbox Live community. Playing on pubs always sucked. That was true 7 years ago with Quake 3 and is true now on Live. If you want to play team oriented games, play with friends!

          • reply
            February 14, 2007 2:52 AM

            If you play tons of online games, you probably aren't overloaded in the friends category. Everyone at work plays bf2142 so it's great, but I don't know anyone besides the people I've met on xbl that play the 360.

            • tcs legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
              reply
              February 14, 2007 2:59 AM

              Well, let's count random people you meet on the Shack as friends, problem solved

          • reply
            February 14, 2007 6:32 AM

            Pubs always sucked, but it's worse when you ship microphones to all the retards so they can call you the n-word.

        • reply
          February 14, 2007 4:27 AM

          You don't play in enough Shackbattles. You should have joined us for R6.

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          February 14, 2007 6:16 AM

          I play Battlefield on the 360 and it plays fine. Tons of fun. Your hate for xbox live is blind.

          • DM7 legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
            reply
            February 14, 2007 6:29 AM

            fps's for consoles are for the blind. ;)

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            February 14, 2007 9:58 AM

            No it's not. I played Halo 2 online nonstop for at least a year.

      • reply
        February 13, 2007 8:59 PM

        I don't really have a problem with controllers on FPS games, but not for that type of shooter.

        • reply
          February 14, 2007 12:12 AM

          I think for a game like Quake Wars you would. Simply put, I couldn't imagine playing Battlefield 2 on a console because it has some many different things going on that it would be a pain in the ass dealing with unless I had a mouse and keyboard. Even more so for a game like Quake wars.

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        February 14, 2007 12:12 AM

        Its gonna be what BF:Modern Combat was to BF2. 1 Franchise name, 2 different games.

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      February 13, 2007 9:03 PM

      [deleted]

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      February 13, 2007 11:57 PM

      I kind of feel the same way, but I think I'll go PC. it's just how it is, a FUCKTON more money to play a very small amount of games. but I want to play them in all their glory :(

      • reply
        February 14, 2007 12:14 AM

        Agreed, better to play them in all their glory with a near limitless amount of control over wtf is going on in the game, whereas the online options of most console games are pathetic to their brethren on a PC.

        Just a question of what game do you want to build a new system for... I keep putting off my next rig. Do I wait for Crysis and the inevitable Vista, or just pump up for SC? Or wait even longer for Alan Wake and to tide myself over just get my ram upped to 2gb...

        • reply
          February 14, 2007 8:11 AM

          Simple, upgrade to play SC/QW, forget Crysis. Do you see yourself spending a lot of time playing Crysis? It'll most likely be like FarCry in that it's a "wow" game to show your friends, but when it's time to play you'll be loading up QW.

          So if you can play SC decently now, wait for QW to come out and buy a new card then. If you can't, buy something like the 8800gts 320mb ($299, free shipping @ zipzoomfly) right now.

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