Misc Gaming Thread

[passerby]

The Banpresto/From software collaboration ACE opens its official site. Nice, though small pics. http://www.ace-game.jp

 

[passerby]

Sony will finally reveal 2 titles - 'Genji' and 'Nico', oh... 4 hours from now. I'll be there.

 

[passerby]

Not Nico, as most expected.
http://www.playstation.jp/scej/title/wanda/
http://www.playstation.jp/scej/title/genji/

'Wanda and the Giant Statue' - art looks quite Ico-like. By SCEI, official page launched on the 24th September, with presentation at TGS on the same day. Slated for 2005 release.

'Genji' - with reference to historical events in ancient Japan, speaks of a 'stone to change fate/destiny'. Slated for 2005 release, by Game Republic and and SCEJ.

 

[rabidrabbit]

That "Wanda" does look like the rumoured "Nico" pics that we saw some time ago.
Is Wanda by the same developers as Ico?

 

[London Geezer]

Yes, Wanda is most certainly what Nico was supposed to be. And i can't freaking wait to get my hands on it.

 

[passerby]

That "Wanda" does look like the rumoured "Nico" pics that we saw some time ago.
Is Wanda by the same developers as Ico?

http://www.famitsu.com/game/news/2004/09/10/103,1094788445,30588,0,0.html
According to famitsu, 'Wanda & the Giant Statue' is indeed a project by team Ico. And in case anyone is wondering, there is no mistake in translation. OK, that is an exact direct translation. You can maybe call it 'Wanda & the Stone Giant', but the translation is no longer exact.

Did some poking around regarding Game Republic, who is collaboarting with SCEJ on 'Genji'. It is led by former Capcom executive Yoshiki Okamoto. Quoting from gamespot: "involved in the development of games as old as SonSon. Okamoto produced and directed a number of Capcom's hit titles such as Street fighter II and the Resident Evil series. He is also the president of Flagship, the company best known as the scenario developer for the Resident Evil series.".

 

[passerby]

There's a bit of a gaming overload all of a sudden. Just right after SCE unveiled 'Wanda & the Stone Giant' (sounds nicer ) and 'Genji' both scheduled for 2005, Square-Enix opened the official site for 'Radiata Stories' at http://www.square-enix.co.jp/games/ps2/radiata/. That's slated for a spring 2005 release. Then you need to factor in 'FF12' and 'KH2', also next year. Don't forget Capcom's 'Okami' and 'DMC3', or Konami's 'MGS3', or 'DQ8'. Closer to now, Atlus' 'StellaDeus' and Sega's 'Shining Tears' are timed for October and November respectively. And there's still a whole lot of announced titles popping up as we near TGS. And I'm haven't started counting games from US and Europe yet...

The PS2 may be exiting the main stage soon - but it's going off with a few tonnes of fireworks, and probably stick around a few years more even as its successor takes to the limelight.

This also elaborates on the importance of backward-compatibility. The new console gets serious support from this mind-boggling library - which is still increasing in size right up to, and after the new console debuts. I'm impressed.

I also get the feeling that Japanese devs are very slowly, getting up from a 'creative slump'. Late compared to their counterparts in US and Europe, but better late than never.

And BTW, for those waiting for Xenosaga Ep2, get ready to be disappointed. I'm now 80% into the game, and find the gameplay... wanting. This is also very obviously a project that ran out of funding and datelines. This is so obvious that it is akin to having a flashing neon sign saying 'we ran out of budget and time'. It is very obvious - you'll know it when it happens. This does not mean that the game is buggy, or have broken graphics or some such. It isn't. It is bug-free, and nothing is broken. Just 'we ran out of budget and time'. You'll know it when you play.

 

[Evil_Cloud]

Wanda and the stone giants is the translation. Your goal is to battle different stone giants on foot or on horseback.

 

[Deepak]

Anyone seen new MGS3 trailer?

 

[Deepak]

From magicbox:

"Namco announced a new PS2 racing adventure game called Rune Chaser. The game is mission based, you can travel freely in the entire city, not limited to a particular course. Missions begin automatically when your vehicle arrives to specific locations, such as pursuing hunting, escort rival vehicles, destroy other vehicles, and so on. The game will have action and RPG elements as well, you can earn money and tune the parts."

GTA clone??

"Sega announced The Typing of the Dead: Zombie Panic for PlayStation 2, a port of the popular Naomi arcade typing game. The game will include all the levels from the arcade and PC versions, plus 10 new mini games....."

 

[Lazy8s]

Located from Joe on Gaming-Age Forums:
More mech action by From Software, this time Metal Wolf Chaos for Xbox with Xbox Live functionality:

Video and other screenshots here:
http://www.xboxyde.com/news_1034.html

Official site, also with the new TGS 2004 trailer showing insane action and graphics:
http://www.fromsoftware.jp/main/soft/mwc/

 

[passerby]

Thought I'll interrupt the hardware madness once in a while. 1 title that may be interested to some people, another one that I myself am interested in.

The first is OZ by Konami, developed by members from the Suikoden and Castlevania teams, set for 2005 release. Trailer here. http://www.feel-oz.jp/TGS2004_web/OZ_TGS2004.wmv. Good thing is, besides being a nice movie, you can actually tell a lot about the gameplay you can expect. So it's definitely worth taking a look at.

The second one... well, I'll admit that I was one of the poor suckers that bought Unlimited Saga during its Japanese release. I think this also happens to be one of those chapters in Square's(Square-Enix now) and Saga director Kawazu Akitoshi's history that they wished never happened. Will they redeem themselves with the newly announced remake Romancing Saga: Minstrel's Song?

Allow me to make this disclaimer - with the unhappy memory of USaga, I concede that yes, this new game could be lousy as well. With that in mind - grab the new official trailer at http://www.square-enix.co.jp/games/ps2/romasaga/trailer/index.html. It's the 'Click' at the bottom. I repeat - this game may be as poor as the last one. BUT HECK THE TRAILER IS WORTH WATCHING.

 

[Deepak]

Got Burnout 3, Sly2 and Ghosthunter yesterday. B3 simply blew me away, stunning graphics, no slowdown and amazing sense of speed. But surprise package is Sly2....this one is most underrated platformer on PS2, it is a visual delight...better than Jak/R&C. Played a bit of Ghosthunter, great spc. effects, torch is a la Doom3. I am also into Mark of Kri, another underrated title.

 

[ChryZ]

But surprise package is Sly2....this one is most underrated platformer on PS2

Sly2 is not underrated (GameRankings Avg Ratio: 90%), it's just a little overlooked

 

[passerby]

Surprise, surprise. Managed to save the Romancing Saga trailer using xine with kaffeine. Seems that SE isn't using WMV9 for this trailer. Get the non-streaming full version with bittorrent. http://www.agrreviews.com/bttracker/download.php?id=20&file=romasaga_tgs.wmv.torrent

EDIT:
That tracker is kaput. Use this instead. http://www.lokitorrent.com/download.php?id=34883

 

[Deepak]

Link

 

[Deepak]

Is there a site/link which has details like which game was published which year, which platform, developer, publisher etc etc, some sort of table...?

 

[passerby]

Capcom opens the new Demento site, with two movies.
http://www.capcom.co.jp/demento/

 

[Deepak]

Link

Here are the first day sales of the new game titles released in Japan on October 21.

1. Ace Combat 5: The Unsung War (PS2, Namco) - 116,000 units
2. La Pucelle 2nd Round (PS2, Nippon Ichi) - 12,000 units
3. Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas (PS2, Capcom) - 3,900 units
4. F-Zero Climax (GBA, Nintendo) - 2,900 units
10. Metal Gear Solid 2 Substance (PS2 The Best) (PS2, Konami) - 1,400 units
12. Metal Gear Solid 2 Sons of Liberty (PS2 The Best) (PS2, Konami) - 830 units
13. Tokimeki Memorial Girl's Side (PS2 The Best) (PS2, Konami) - 790 units

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Ubi Soft announced they will release Tom Clancy's Classic Trilogy for Xbox in November, a compilation of 3 classic titles: Ghost Recon, Rainbox Six 3 and Splinter Cell. The price is US$39.99.

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Nintendo announced they will ship 300,000 units of Nintendo DS at launch in Japan on December 2, and further shipments for each week. One million units will be delivered by the end of the year. Nintendo also plans to ship 4 million units worldwide by the end of March 2005.

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Japanese developer GameTech has released the PS2 acceleration tool High Velocity HD in Japan this week, a PS2 utility that installs and run PS2 games on the hard drive, eliminating disc loading time. Unlike other unauthorized products (such as HDLoader), High Velocity HD checks for the game discs before it runs the game on HDD, to prevent illegal copying of games.

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Sony announced they will release a PS2 Racing Bundle Pack in Japan on December 3, for 24990 yen. The bundle will include a GT4 Memory Card, Gran Turismo 4 and a new slim design PlayStation 2 console with black and white colors. The GT4 Memory Card will also be available as a standalone product for 2940 yen.

Sony announced they will reduce the price of the PlayStation 2 Broadband Bundle Pack in Japan on November 3, from 29800 yen to 24800 yen. The bundle includes the PlayStation 2 console (old version), the BB Unit with built-in Ethernet port and 40GB HDD, horizontal stand, dual shock controller and the PSBB Navigator software.

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Gamespot is reporting that Full Spectrum Warrior is going to be released on PS2 now.

 

[Kalin]

Sad news for Cube owners.

Unity has been cancelled, words of Jeff Minter himself:
http://www.yakyak.org/viewtopic.php?t=28896&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

UNITY IS CANCELLED

Lionhead Studios and Jeff Minter have come to a mutual decision to cancel their collaborative project Unity with immediate effect. Unity was always an ambitious and experimental project and as is the case with such endeavours they do not always come to fruition.


Both Lionhead and Jeff are disappointed that it has been necessary to take this step despite significant publisher interest. However, a shared commitment to excellence and originality meant both sides agree that the cancellation of the project was in everyone’s best interests.

Relations between Jeff and Lionhead remain strong and both sides have enjoyed working together over the past two years.


Commenting on the decision to halt work on Unity, Peter Molyneux said, “Everyone at Lionhead has the utmost respect and admiration for Jeff’s unique talents. However, we’ve both been in the industry a long time and it was becoming increasingly apparent to us that we would not be able to finish Unity in an acceptable time frame. On a personal level, I have very much enjoyed working with Jeff.”

Jeff Minter responded, “Everyone at Lionhead has been incredibly supportive and the decision to stop working on Unity has been a difficult one for us. But being realistic, I felt it was better for everyone concerned that we cease work on Unity. I’d like to thank Lionhead for all their help and support over the past two years.”

I was actually looking forward to try this game