Month: April 2006

I’ve said before that rumors of Saturn Bomberman hitting Xbox Live Arcade was the best news ever. Boy was I wrong. Xbox 360 Fanboy has just posted the Best. News. Ever. That’s right boys and girls, Phantasy Star Universe will be coming to 360 this fall. I was a complete Phantasy Star Online addict on the Dreamcast. I can’t begin to tell you the amount of time I put into that game, cheering my victories and lamenting the loss of  great weapons to cheaters. Oh man. I can’t wait. I cannot effing wait.

The Malaysian government has seized 1.5 million pirated games and movies so far in 2006. Nearly half of these discs were intended for export. The Business Software Group—from America—estimates that the majority of all software in Malaysia is pirated. The estimated value of the confiscated goods approaches US $14 million. While many people are concerned with digital software piracy, things like this prove that bootlegging is still a problem.

—via the always excellent Gamasutra. Thanks for the pic Pirate Photo!

UPDATE 4/26/06: Okay, I’ve gotten a lot of traffic through this story and I noticed a lot of people don’t seem to be getting to the site that is actually hosting these comparison shots. Please click on this link to find them, or click “comparison shots” below.

Kotaku has posted some comparison shots of the NES and DS versions of Final Fantasy 3. It looks like Square has squeezed some pretty impressive graphics out of the DS. I’m not a huge Final Fantasy buff, but this game looks pretty good. Also reported recently, the game will support Nintendo WiFi in some form.

—from Ruliweb (via Kotaku)

1-up has posted new info on the MMO FPS Huxley. I’ve been waiting for this game for some time. Of interest is that there will be marked differences between the 360 and PC versions. Namely, each version will have a different hub city exclusive to one platform. These hubs act as the neutral zones outside of battle, much like the lobbies in Phantasy Star Online or the towns in Diablo. Other tidbits include:

• The 360 version will have a traditional single player campaign
• Graphically, the PC and 360 versions should be “roughly equivalent”
• Online play will be cross-platform, allowing PC and 360 players to share the same game space
• Huxley will feature a quest system. Main quests and side quests can be obtained from NPCs

Exciting news for sure. Check out 1-up for more screens.

Condemned gets progressively messed up as you play. Enemies get more and more atavistic—to the point that you’re being attacked by puddles of bubbling goo. Not really, but the mummy/burn victim freaks will cave in your psyche and your skull. The psychic flashes of moments past and things supernatural increase in the later levels. The frequency of these events will have you questioning your own sanity at times. Annie swears that things move and change when you’re not looking. I still refute this claim, but I don’t blame her for making it. I’ll try and write a proper feature when I finish the game.

In other news, I picked up the original Silent Hill over the weekend. I haven’t played it in a long time and I never got the “good” ending. I’m working up the courage to start it up soon. The movie’s release inches closer. I can’t wait.

So, I walked into my apartment yesterday. What did I spy? An Easter basket, replete with plastic grass, candy, and disgusting Cadbury Eggs? No, no that’s not what was there. You know what was there? A brand new copy of Tomb Raider: Legend, snugly wrapped in lovely cellophane. I love my fiance (Annie). I haven’t received an Easter gift this cool since my Mom got me a stuffed rabbit that turned into an Easter egg, and, let me assure you, that thing kicked ass.

Amidst recent–and quickly debunked—rumors that PS3 will be “hella” expensive, Kotaku is reporting that PS3’s innards are much too big for its…um…outerds. To wit:

“…currently, the innards of a Playstation 3 are too large to functionally fit in the case. Although fat people can suck in their massive guts or cram fists fulls of cellulite down into a slimming girdle, no such option exists for the PS3, meaning that either the sleek and empty cases they’ve been showing off will have to grow larger to accommodate the electronic bulk or the components themselves will have to shrink… and soon.”

There’s a rumor floating around on Kotaku that SEGA may introduce a new handheld. The image at right is purportedly a design for the device—code named Hedgehog *shudder*. It would support many connectivity features and a touchscreen as well. Supposedly it will be compatible with the entire SEGA library from the Master System all the way up to the Dreamcast. While I certainly hope this is true, it’s almost certainly bunk. It’s nice to dream though.

–via Game Politics. Image from Kotaku.

UPDATE: Consider the dream officially debunked. Richard am cry :(