Gaming News Archive
February 2004

28/2/04

Sega and Capcom collaborate
Sega and Capcom are creating a game called Steel Fang, for the PC. The game, which will be playable online, is being developed by the same team behind Resident Evil, though the game has nothing to with survival-horror, instead its a sci-fi game where you control cyborgs.
Handheld gaming graphics to be boosted
Toshiba claims to have developed technology capable of rendering hi-resolution polygons (with texture mapping etc.) for handheld gamings systems and mobile phones.
The technology will be utilised in mobile phones in Japan shortly... but with such small screens surely all that detail (and processing power) would go to waste?
Playstation Portable delayed
Sony have delayed the release of the Playstion Portable (PSP) in the west until more games are available for the platform. Currently set for release in Japan at the end of 2004, the PSP won't reach the US until Spring 2005 and Europe will have to wait even longer, until Summer 2005.
BAFTA 2004 Game Awards
The British Academy for Film and Television Awards has announced the winners of the 2004 Game Awards. The results are as follows:
Best GameCube game: Metroid Prime
Best Game Boy Advance game: Advanced Wars 2: Black Hole Rising
Best Strategy game: Advanced Wars 2: Black Hole Rising
Best animation or intro: Soul Calibur 2
Best adventure game: Zelda: The Wind Waker
Best music: Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets
Tokyo Game Show 2004
This years Tokyo Game Show will be held from the 24th to the 26th September at Tokyo's Makuhari Messe Convention Center. The 24th Sept. will be for industry members only, whilst the 25th and 26th Sept. will be for the public. Tickets cost 1,000 Yen (approx. $9.11 or Ł5) if ordered before the event, but will cost 1,200 Yen (approx. $10.94 or Ł6) if bought on the day.
With 111 exhibitors having attended last year, it is hoped that atleast 120 exhibitors will attend this years event which will attract an expected 150,000 visitors throughout the 3 days.

26/2/04

Sammy President becomes Chairman at Sega
Hajime Satomi, President of Sammy, has recently been appointed chairman of Sega of Japan. Since Sammy bought 22% in Sega there has been unrest within the Japanese developer.
Now that Satomi-san is chairman, will he steer Sega in a good direction or will key game producers leave the company in anger over recent events?
PS2 as a videophone
Sony is working on using the Playstation 2 and EyeToy as a videophone via the internet. A videphone is where you chat to someone as normal, but you can also see an image of them too.
Its only at the prototype stage at the moment, but it shouldn't be a problem for Sony to get it up and running since Sega's Dreameye used with their Dreamcast did exactly that 4 years ago, in Japan.
Electronic Arts to revive classics
Electronic Arts is currently working on new versions of the 'Strike' (Desert, Jungle, Urban , Soviet and Nuclear Strike) and Syndicate franchises. Lets hope they are as good as the originals, if not better.
Far Cry movie!
Director Uwe Boll, who is responsible for the House Of The Dead movie, has just snapped up the rights to make a film based on Ubi Soft's Far Cry game.
He also has the rights to make films based on Dungeon Siege, Bloodrayne, Alone In The Dark, Fear Affect and Hunter: The Reckoning Redeemer.
Gran Turismo 4 delayed
Sony's Gran Turismo 4, due out Summer 2004, has been pushed back to autumn.

18/2/04

Electronic Arts to make further Bond games
Despite rumours that Electronic Arts are to make a game based on Goldeneye, it is unclear what they are doing. They will, however, "exploit past, present and future Bond properties across a range of platforms".
PS4 in the planning!
Despite Sony's revolutionary Cell processor (which is to power the PS3) having not gone in to production yet, they are already working on the central processor for the Playstation 4!
Sega snap up PC football game
Sega has acquired the rights to publish the new PC football management simulation game from Sports Interactive, who recently parted company with Eidos.
EA buys NuFX
Electronic Arts has bought NuFX, creators of NBA Street. The studio's staff will remain unchanged and will continue working at the Hoffman Estates, Illinois, based studio's.
Hiroshi Yamauchi speaks (ex-Nintendo President)
Ex-Nintendo President, and grandson of the founder of Nintendo, Hiroshi Yamauchi has said that "if the DS succeeds, we will rise to heaven, but if it fails we will sink to hell".
Yamauchi-san believes that the games industry is showing signs of being "in a crisis" and that the DS is Nintendo's effort to re-energize the industry.
Crash heading for N-Gage
Crash Bandicoot was a game that was made popular on Sony's Playstation back in 1996. There have been several sequels and even a racing game Crash Nitro Kart which has been on several systems including Nintendo's Game Boy Advance. Its now heading to Nokia's N-Gage, though most likely a direct port of the GBA game, however.
Super Mario Bros. sells better than EyeToy
Nintendo has re-released several old Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) games on to the Game Boy Advance, in Japan. Despite Super Mario Bros. being 19 years old, having its original simple graphics and bleepy sound, it has managed to sell more than 60,000 units, which makes it more popular than Sony's EyeToy for the Playstation 2!
Psyvarier 2
Psyvarier 2, originally a NAOMI arcade game, is being released on the Dreamcast in Japan this month. So Dreamcast fans might want to snap this up, I have already ordered mine ;)

16/2/04

Apologies....
Sorry for not having updated the news sooner, but I have been very busy lately. Now to get you up to speed....
Mario 128
Shigeru Miyamoto, Nintendo's genius behind Zelda and Donkey Kong amongst others, has spoken out about Mario 128. He says that he has radical new ideas for the game, which he expects to be imitated in future games.
Sega and handhelds...
Sega continue to support the N-Gage with Aliens Front Online (previously a Dreamcast game) and Virtua Cop. They also say they will support both the Playstation Portable (PSP) and Nintendo DS.
Nintendo DS rumours...
Recent rumours suggest that one (or more) of the screens for Nintendo's new handheld could be touch sensitive. This means that developers can add as many buttons (if any) as needed to play their games.
F-Zero cartoon
Nintendo has let another of their most famous franchises be turned in to a cartoon. F-Zero: Falcon mainly follows erm.... Falco and his various adventures.
Sega knock off Electronic Arts!
Sega's first game of 2004 has knocked off Electronic Arts from the top spot. Electronic Arts has spent 15 weeks with their games at the number 1 spot, but after Sega's release of Sonic Heroes on the Playstation 2, XBox and GameCube last week they have been knocked off!
Kill Switch bonus disc
Kill Switch for the Playstation 2, released 20th February in the UK, will come with a free bonus disc. The disc contains movie footage of Syphon Filter: The Omega Strain (though hopefully not a rip-off of the sci-fi book with the same title) and a playable demo of SOCOM 2: US Navy Seals.
GBA most successful Nintendo handheld
Nintendo is calling the Game Boy Advance its most successful handheld to date after having sold 20 million in the US alone, many more than the original Game Boy at the same point in its life (2.4 million).

9/2/04

Sega profits up
Sega's profits for the last 9 months are up 92% to 7.66 billion Yen (Ł39 million).
However, Sega did have a loss of 2.3 billion Yen (Ł11 million) for its console game sales, up on last years loss of 5.8 billion Yen (Ł30 million).

7/2/04

Fear Effect film
Eidos has agreed to let Uwe Boll, behind House Of The Dead and Alone In the Dark movies, create a Fear Effect film.
DC re-released?
Rumours have been flying across the 'net that Sega are re-releasing the Dreamcast in Japan. However, this is not true. Sega simply found a stockpile of DC's that were "hidden away" (another words forgotten about) and has decided to sell them.
Sega will definately not be re-releasing the Dreamcast, as Sammy has expressed that they wish Sega to concentrate on the arcade division for now. If Sega doesn't follow Sammy's advice, then they have explicitly said they would consider buying more Sega shares to become a legal majority shareholder (you only need to own 33% of a company in Japan to have a say in major decisions) regardless of cost.
Crytek under investigation
Crytek, the developer behind Far Cry -a first-person shooter for the PC, has been invaded by police after a tip-off from an ex-employee. Police are checking the authenticity of their development tools.
Ubi Soft, publisher of Far Cry, has stated that the games March release wo't be affected.
Tamagotchi's are back!
Bandai are re-releasing their Tamagotchi toy. Tamagotchi Plus will have a better screen resolution, 5 times more memory and can communicate with other Tamagotchi's via wireless communication technology. Due out in Japan next month, they won't arrive in the UK until the summer.

4/2/04

Record profits for EA
Electronic Arts has enjoyed record profits from the 3rd quarter of this financial year of Ł808 million ($1.475 billion), with 11 titles selling over a million copies each.
Handheld news
Electronic Arts will support Sony's Playstation Portable (PSP) handheld, but is currently evaluating te Nintendo DS handheld (due to be fully unveiled at E3 in May). Konami and Namco are fully behind Nintendo's new handheld.
Gametrac, part of Tiger Electronics, are planning on releasing a new handheld in the increasingly flooded market within the next few months, in the UK. No games have been unveiled yet, though the machine looks a bit like the erm.. the Romulan (or perhaps Klingon - its been years since I have seen anything of Star Trek) space ships from Star Trek.
New Nintendo studio
Nintendo has set up a new development studio in Japan which consists of 60 members of staff. Nearly all the staff are ex-members of Sega, Capcom, Square-Enix, Namco and Konami.
N-Gage going down
GameStop, one of the largest gaming retailers in the US, has announced that its removing Nokia's N-Gage handheld/mobile phone (aka cell phone) from its 450 stores. Nokia has admitted to making mistakes with the N-Gage and is already getting ready to unveil a remodelled version.
Games can harm you....
A 13 year old Liverpudlian boy contracted deep vein thrombosis after a 4 hour gaming session. During the session he got pins and needles in his legs and didn't change his sitting position. It wasn't until the following day during playing football (aka soccer) that he noticed his legs were swollen, almost twice their size.
XBox 2 stats
Whilst rumours fly from one end of the 'net to the other, here are the official details about Microsoft's 2nd games console.
It will be powered by 3 IBM 64 Bit processors, with an ATI graphics chip (more powerful than the R400 series for PC's) and will not be backwardly compatible with XBox games. In a bid to combat piracy, it is highly unlikely to have a hard-drive.
Black Isle no more
Black Isle Studios, creators of Baldurs Gate 2, have gone under due to Interplay losing the PC license for Baldur's Gate 3. Baldurs Gate will continue on, but will be developed by a different team (BG3 was 9 months away from completion when Black Isle Studios closed).

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Gaming News ArchiveFebruary 2004

28/2/04

26/2/04

18/2/04

16/2/04

9/2/04

7/2/04

4/2/04

Gaming News Archive
February 2004