As I casually mentioned the other night (along with other things), I bought
an Xbox over the holiday. I'm writing up a "second opinion" Xbox diary...not
because I think Richard has bad taste or anything, but simply because it started
as a Shackreview of
Halo and ballooned into a general review of the system.
I plan on renting a few games this weekend to put some non-
Halo stuff
in the article...look for it sometime next week.
- So after conflicting stories about Square's
PlayOnline network, it
looks like you will have to pay to play Final Fantasy XI and
TetraMaster online. Chat and e-mail will be free, however.
- CoreMagazine has translated a
Q&A with Sonic Team's Yuji Naka from Weekly Famitsu, where he comments
on whether or not we'll ever see sequels to NiGHTS and Burning Rangers.
It sounds like they may happen at some point, and he even talks about the
planned NiGHTS sequel that never was.
- No real shockers here: the
GBA and PS2 were the bestsellers of the holiday season (the fact that
they were easily obtainable obviously was a factor here).
- Anyone remember Link:
Faces of Evil
for the CD-I? I certainly didn't. This article's quite old, but it was
linked from The GIA, and I was surprised to see that it doesn't require an
insider membership to read (I'd tried to read it before, and it did).
- Here are a few interesting rumors...according
to PS2.IGN, SNK is re-opening their US offices with the plans of creating
multiplatform titles, Capcom is working on Marvel vs. Capcom 3 (knowing
Capcom, that's pretty likely), and that oddball Mosquito game Ka may
be released in the US (this comes over, but not Vib Ribbon? Where's
the logic in that?).
- Also at PS2.IGN is a
hands-on preview of Maximo: Ghosts to Glory, which has been getting
nothing but praise from every place that gets their hands on a copy.
- Eidos
has announced that Commandos 2 and Blood Omen 2 will both
be released for the Xbox in March.
- The GIA has posted 48
screenshots from the mini-games in Arc the Lad III, one of four
complete games in Working Designs' amazing Arc the Lad collection that
should be out in the not-too-distant-future.
- GameSpot has a
preview of Star Wars: Jedi Starfighter online, taking a look at
the sequel to the original Starfighter for the PS2.
- Reviews: Hoshigami: Ruining Blue Earth
is reviewed at GameSpot
(7.1) and Blood Wake at Xbox.IGN
(8.4), while The GIA has their
staff favorites for 2001 list online.
Console Game of the Evening:
Daytona USA for the Sega Saturn and Sega
Dreamcast. Great arcade-style racing. I've even got the NetLink version for
the Saturn.