Greetings once again, and welcome to 411MAX: News News Revolution. It’s the Maximum way 411 Revolutionizes the News! Or not! Maybe I’m just making this shit up as I go along!
Yeah, that’s probably it.
Anyway, this is going to end up being a small column, considering (A) There’s not much news coming down the pike, and (B) Mega Man: Anniversary Collection and Ape Escape 2 pretty much own me right now.
Yeah, stop laughing. You got addicted to stupid sounding games too at least once in your lifetime. Admit it.
So, lets just jump into the news-related stuff right now, and see where we go from there. Sound good to you? No? Well tough luck. ON WITH THE NEWS!
Capcom: Producer of Street Fighter Leaves?!?!?
In an interesting bit of news, Street Fighter producer Noritaki Funamizu has left Capcom to start his own development company: Craft and Meister. Coming with him is fellow Capcom producer Katsuhiro Sudo. So far, the company’s plans aren’t known, but we can bet the first order of business is to…FIND MORE PEOPLE! As it stands, Craft and Meister is only six employees strong at current.
So what’s going to happen to the Street Fighter series now that Funamizu is gone? My guess is they’ll release Street Fighter II about three more times in various incarnations before fully figuring it out.
(Credit goes to Games Are Fun)
Rockstar: GTA San Andreas To Be Offline. SUCKERS!
Dan Houser of Rockstar recently announced that Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas would NOT feature any online components. Apparently, they’ve been too busy slightly changing the GTA 3 code again to make it look like Los Angeles that they haven’t been able to START writing actual NEW programming code for online play!
No, seriously, the GTA development team decided that while online play is intriguing and fun, they wanted to concentrate on a refined single-player game. By devoting their time to that, and not to working on multi-player aspects, they hope to accomplish greater than GTA 3 or Vice City.
Actually, I’ve got to give these guys props for this decision. Not going the online route may do wonders for the single-player game. I say this because Syphoon Filter: The Omega Strain tried to incorporate both at once, and ended up completely marring the original gameplay. Perhaps Rockstar can make a better GTA this way, but I’m not holding my breath, either.
(Credit goes to Gaming Age)
Tecmo: Ninja Gaiden 1.5?
Get ready for one of the LARGEST downloads you’ll ever have to…um…download on X-Box Live. Tecmo announced a massive download package for Ninja Gaiden that will be available come early August. The download will include MASSIVE adjustments to the gameplay, including an updated camera system, as well as improved enemy A.I. that will present “new challenges” for even the experienced players.
Of course, when they say “new challenges,” Tecmo probably means they’re making the game harder.
No word if the download includes a gun so you can blow your brains out during the harder scenes, but 411 is always looking into these matters, so stay tuned!
(Credit goes to Gamespot)
Nintendo: DS Gets Super Monkey Ball?
Despite the recent developments regarding Nintendo and their handheld hardware plans, this hasn’t stopped the prospect of new titles being developed for it. In a recent interview, Yuji Naka was asked to do a version of Chu Chu Rocket for the DS, along with Project Rub, which has already been officially announced. The creator of Super Monkey Ball, Toshiro Nagoshi, also said he’d love to bring Super Monkey Ball to the DS.
Also on the list is Konami, who expressed interest in adapting Castlevania: Aria Of Sorrow to the DS, including some DS specific features. Also, a Silent Hill game might be a possibility, considering they redesign the gameplay to suit the two-screened handheld.
Granted these games have NOT been officially announced, rather they’re all tentative projects. However, I’d sure like to see some of these in the DS section of my local Gamestop. How about you guys?
(Credit goes to Spong.com)
Wow, that’s all I got. Either its a slow news week, or I’m just pathetic. And no, you can’t offer your opinion to that.
Well, as long as I’m here I might as well share some…
Commentary: Random Thoughts *Gimmick Copyrighted By Cory Laflin*
Hey, if Cory can share random thoughts with us every week, then I should be able to do it every so often! Why should HE hog the gimmick, huh?
—Mega Man Anniversary Collection reminded me how much Mega Man 1 ruled and how much Mega Man 8 kinda stunk within a 15-minute period. THAT, my friend, is an awesome collection.
–Was I the only one who flipped out when I pressed R1 during Mega Man 1 and found I could switch weapons on the fly? Who else was ecstatic that this could finally be done, yet a bit sad that the game was made slightly easier?
–If I had a dreamhouse built completely out of video game consoles, my living room would be a GameCube in order to entertain friends and family. My bedroom would be an X-Box, considering its so spacious. My basement would be a PS2, as its out of site, yet I spend a lot of time in it. My bathroom would be an N-Gage for obvious reasons.
—Syphoon Filter: The Omega Strain was incredibly disappointing. I mean, I bought the other three Syphoon Filter games the same day, and played them one after the other. The story was awesome, and I loved the action sequences. Then I popped The Omega Strain in. I could only carry five weapons at a time, I HAD to play online to unlock everything, the controls were reworked to “unusable”…man. Long story short, I traded in The Omega Strain, and kept the first three. Those are the games that are worth keeping.
–I’m up to 716 AAAs in DDR now. Who cares if they’re all on home versions, minus about 4 or 5? The point is that my game is constantly improving!
–So, the Sony PSP is now being rumored to retail at $250. Truth be told, it’s STILL a rip-off. No handheld should ever go past the $150 mark, ever. This goes for the Nintendo DS as well. And its NOT just because I just put down $150 on it and considered it paid off. Nope. Not that at all. *cough*
–When George W. Bush mispronounces Abu Ghraib, you KNOW that’s the first thing on his agenda to take care of. (Ugh)
–Wow, that was RANDOM…not even video game related!
–Do you get the feeling that this is looking a heckuvalot like filler?
–Is “heckuvalot” even a word?
PLUGS & SHILLS THAT PAY THE BILLS
Just to clarify something: Matt Yeager DID have a column last week, when I actually said he was “returning” from an absence. So I offer my apologies this week…except that this week Matt REALLY took a break! So, next week, when I say “Matt Yeager Returns!”, I’m gonna be RIGHT for a change!
And currently, something is going weird with my computer. It’s being REALLY slow for some reason, and not allowing me to access each report individually. (Geez, I’m not being cut ANY breaks for this report, am I?) So, I’ll simply be linking
PARTING THOUGHTS
Sheesh, last week I come back, and I’m already phoning in the news reports. I blame summer vacation.
Next week will be longer. No, really! (I should stop making these promises.)
Alex Williams, The Norwegian Athlete