Late Night Consoling
So if you haven't read it yet, take a look at our announcement earlier today, that states that I am indeed leaving the Shack in three weeks. We are actively looking for a replacement, and it is my hope that these LNC posts will continue unaffected. If you are interested (and please, only if you are interested), contact Steve using the information on our contact page. I received a bunch of inquiries directly, and while I've passed on many of them, it's probably a good idea to send them to Steve yourself just to be on the safe side. But I am involved in this process, and have been pulling together a document that we'll use for writing samples from would-be applicants as well as a quiz of your console knowledge (although the former is much more important than the latter). I can certainly answer any questions you might have (ex: knowledge of HTML and prior experience with online gaming news are both plusses) but again, be sure to send your resumes/inquires/dead fish to Steve directly and he'll share them with me in turn.
| Xbox Price Drop Official As was rumored, Microsoft announced today that effective tomorrow, the Xbox will retail for $149 in North America. Along with this announcement came word that Project Gotham Racing 2, Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge and Counter-Strike will all drop down to $29.99, while Voodoo Vince and Grabbed by the Ghoulies will fall to $19.99. A few other territories dropped their prices today as well: in Australia, the system drops down to $249 AU, in Canada it's down to $199 CND and in Mexico it's 1,999 pesos (a drop of 500). |
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| XSN Skipping 2004 Season Quietly confirmed today among the flurry of news related to this price drop is that Microsoft will be skipping the 2004 - 2005 season with three of their XSN line of games. Specifically NFL Fever, NBA Inside Drive and NHL Rivals will not be updated for two years, in an attempt to beef up the quality to better compete with EA Sports. The rest of the XSN line will be unaffected by this decision. |
| Castlevania on GameCube? IGN is reporting a rather interesting rumor...last week the news hit the web that Kuju Entertainment, the developers of the PS2 title Fire Warrior had signed a deal with Nintendo to produce an unspecified GameCube title. Well tonight, IGN is reporting that they believe that game to be a new, GameCube-exclusive Castlevania title. Their reasoning is solid, citing a deal Kuju signed last May with Konami as well as a slip from a QA manager at the company, who posted in a message board that they were looking for new QA testers, and signed off by writing, "Thanks again guys. Happy Gaming! PS: Castlevania for Cube!!!!!" |
| KoF: Maximum Impact Announced SNK NeoGeo USA has announced King of Fighters: Maximum Impact, the first 3D game in the series, will be released for PS2 in North America this fall. While it doesn't sound like there's going to be any online support (in stark contrast to SNK USA's big support for Xbox Live in this country), there will be 24 SNK characters, including fourteen returning KoF favorites, four bonus characters and six all-new ones. The first media from the game can be found at GameSpot, so if you're a fan, take a look and judge for yourself. |
| Rez 2 Confirmed (Sorta) While attending the Game Developer's Conference, GameSpot cornered Tetsuya Mizuguchi, and asked him a few questions about his work and the industry in general. What's of particular interest for some of you is that when asked about Rez 2, he says that his next game will be Rez 2 -- in his mind. Confused? He continues, saying "I won't use the Rez name because that belongs to Sega." As for a platform, he says the game will be for either the PSP or Nintendo DS. While I'm not too thrilled with the possibilities of a two-screen system in general, I must admit the idea of a dual-head Rez is weird enough to even get me excited. |
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| NEC Sells off Game Division Well that didn't last long...after only a few notable releases (including the well-received Culdcept) NEC has announced that they are selling off their publishing division to an Internet services company. So much for the grand revival of the TurboGrafx (not that anyone really expected that, but still, it's a little sad). |
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| The History of Zelda IGN has posted a full transcript of the talk Eiji Aonuma gave last week at the Game Developer's Conference, in which the director of The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker talked in-depth about the history of the franchise. This is a complete transcript, so it's quite long, but well worth a read. |
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| Ubisoft Addressing Pandora Tomorrow Issues This was already sort of reported last week, but nonetheless, Ubisoft sent out an official announcement today, reassuring gamers that they are working to fix the issues people have had with Xbox Live in Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow. As the issue causes the game to freeze if you wait more than ten seconds when selecting an Optimatch game, they are advising gamers to "take care while using Optimatch" and telling people to "either don't use it at all" or if you must, "don't stay more than 12 to 15 seconds in the results page." |
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| Free Player's Choice Game w/GameCube in Australia More good news for Australian gamers...not only do you get a long-overdue Xbox price drop, but Nintendo has announced that until the end of April, when you purchase a new GameCube, you can choose a free game from a handful of Player's Choice titles, including Metroid Prime, Super Mario Sunshine and Super Smash Bros. Melee. Plus you get the Zelda bonus disc that comes packed-in with every new system. |
| Llamasoft History Part Two The second part of Jeff Minter's complete history of Llamasoft is up at Way of the Rat (thanks Slashdot Games). This portion still is still early in Minter's career, but if you're a fan (and let's face it...what self-respecting fan of trip-tastic gaming isn't?) it's an entertaining read. |
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| Oddworld in Limbo? Oddworld Inhabitants, the makers of the wildly original (if lately somewhat disappointing) Oddworld series of games, is currently without a publisher for their next title, currently known only as Stranger. The game was originally going to be released by Microsoft (and indeed it was even featured in that television documentary on Xbox development), but Microsoft has since passed on it. Regardless, development continues on the project, and they expect to complete it by year's end. |
| Ridiculous Game Plots A highly entertaining article is up at TotalGames.net, looking at some of the more bizarre game plotlines from over the years (thanks Slashdot Games). It's missing a few that I'd have included (ever read the "storyline" for the Nintendo version of Tetris? And how can you do one of these without mentioning Jumping Flash?) it's still a fun tongue-in-cheek read. |
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| Transformers Interview Computer and Video Games has conducted an interview with Andrew Carter, the executive producer of the upcoming PS2 title Transformers. Among other things, Andrew talks about some of the playable characters (which sounds like a fanboy's dream come true). |
| Misc. Media/Previews | |
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| Planet GameCube has new impressions of Mobile Suit Gundam: Pilots' Locus and The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures and IGN has new details and shots from Pikmin 2 and some more nonsensical screenshots from Killer 7. |
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| GameSpot has a hands-on look at Astro Boy and new shots from Front Mission 4, PS2.IGN goes hands-on with the Dragon Quest V remake and has new media and details from Cowboy Bebop, GameInformer goes hands-on with World Tour Soccer 2005 and 1UP has new media from Dragon Quest VIII (which is probably the same as what IGN ran on Friday, but this is in a different format). |
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| New looks and media from Jade Empire are up at GameSpy, HomeLAN and Team Xbox, Team Xbox also has a new preview of Sudeki and Xbox.IGN has new shots from Galleon. |
| A new trailer from Mario Golf: Advance Tour is up at GameSpot, along with new shots from River City Ransom EX. |
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| GameSpot has new shots from Fight Night 2004 (PS2, Xbox) and IGN has new footage from Serious Sam: Next Encounter (GC, PS2). |
