Casual Gamers News Report 07.13.04
Hey yo, I’m back after doing the Eric S. thing and moved. Course I only moved to a different part of the same city (Minneapolis represent!) and not across the country. Still problems with my DSL provider prevented me from being able to contribute for the last couple of weeks. I realized how much I hate moving again, and at this rate will end up slaughtering my upstairs neighbors if they continue to play loud music. When that happens I’ll likely be absent for an even longer time, till then here’s the”¦.
NEWS
The Holy Trilogy Coming to the GBA
Ubisoft announced yesterday that they are developing a game based off of one of the biggest geek franchises ever(and I mean that in a good way), the original Star Wars Trilogy. The game will be called Apprentice to the Force and will follow the storyline of the original movies. Not very many details have been revealed except that there will be some kind of multiplayer options.
While Star Wars games have been much better in the last few years than some of the previous games, I’ve still played far more bad Star Wars games than good one, still I’m a dork for the movies. Keep your eyes peeled for more details on the game, could be interesting.
Splinter Cell 3 gets official name
The game will be called Splinter Cell Chaos Theory. Check out a couple details of the game here.
Jak vs Rachet?
It looks like you’ll be finally able to have SCEA’s platforming mascots compete against each other”¦.in a gold game. Hot Shots Fore! Will include both Jak and Rachet as playable characters with their sidekicks (Daxter and Clank) acting as their caddies.
The game is due to come out in August, so if you’re like me you’ll probably be picking the game up just to tide you over till Jak 3 and Rachet and Clank: Up your Arsenal come out.
GBA Wireless Internet Possibility?
Shigeru Miyamoto has commented that the Nintendo DS might be able to connect to the internet using its Wireless LAN. The Wireless LAN is meant mainly as a way for the handheld systems to communicate to each other, but if someone releases the appropriate software they can use the LAN to connect to the internet. Nintendo has no plans in developing such software however.
Christian’s Crazy Game Releases:
Disclaimer: Some of these games may come out on the release dates listed below. Sometimes they may not. Live with it.
July 11-16
July 12
NCAA Football (GC, P2, XB)
July 13
Athens Summer Olympics 2004 (P2)
Samurai Warriors (XB)
Tales of Symphonia (GC)
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NCAA Football Tournament! The college season is starting to get ready. Get into college mode with the NCAA Football 2005 tournament at GameCrazy! Saturday, July 17th, play your favorite school and bring down the school. It absolutely free, and there’s great prizes from Xbox and Game Crazy! Head to your local Game Crazy and sign up today! Plus, don’t forget, the Ultimate Saturday Series returns on July 31th with a
Super Smash Bros. Melee Tournament. More details soon.
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Christian: The biggie this week has to be NCAA Football. No doubt about that. Tales of Symphonia will do very well, considering the number of good RPG’s on the Cube is fairly lacking. Other big news is the push up of ESPN NFL 2K5. It was pushed up a week to be released on the 20th. And at $19.99, you can’t afford not to buy it.
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Matt: Dynasty Warriors Rehashed is now out for the Xbox, but I’ve been looking forward to Tales of Symphonia for the Gamecube. Crossing my fingers that the game is good.
Cheap, Cheap Sweep
The biggest game deal is at Circuit City. Look under the Video Game section of the site and there is a deal for a couple of games for each system that are only $4.99! The games are all sold out online but the deals should be in store as well.
Best Buy has Chronicles of Riddick for $39.99 which you’ll know if you read Donaghue’s review that it might be the best movie game release this year. That could be debatable with Spiderman 2 though”¦
That’s about it for game deals, but come on, $5 games!
The Corner
I try not to go off of the subject of video games too often in my reports, but this time I’ve just got to, I’ll try to tie it in the best way that I can. Over the weekend I saw Fahrenheit 9-11, and I’ve never walked away from a movie so angry and saddened. Moore did a great job. I have a bias against Moore from Bowling for Columbine over the way he presented his points, but this movie was far more toned down. Sure there are still some camera tricks and other things but most of the facts were things that were either known or previously reported/written about. I’m not saying that’s a bad thing at all, it’s different to see all of the facts presented all at once so visually. So much has gone on the nothing has been done about and know who I blame.
You.
I blame myself as well. How the hell did we all let it get so bad? How can so many people care about what the next friends episode is about, when the next Madden game is coming out, or who will be fighting on Raw more than we care about how our rights get trampled on? Honestly, how could so much have gone on without nothing being done? Count me shocked, disgusted and amazed.
Now back to talking about video games. Just remember that video games and TV are hobbies, not something that should be distracting us to the point that we let our rights be violated by people we are supposed to trust in office. It’s an election year, put down the controller for a second and go out and make a difference.
Quick gaming opinions:
-LOW: Showdown is probably the best wrestling game for the Xbox but that isn’t saying much. The game is okay, but still is behind other wrestling games available. I was still hoping for some of the innovation that they were able to put in the first game but was disappointed.
-Didn’t like Driv3r. It was just bland.
-I’m going to try to write something up on Spiderman 2 for the PS2 (the Xbox review by O’Rielly should be up very soon) but till I do, it’s good and MUCH better than the first game, but it’s still short and is kind of repetitive. Still, swinging through the city streets is just fun.
I’m sort of mailing this in since I’m lacking for time right now (still unpacking) but I’ve been keeping up with the rest of 411games and have liked everything I’ve read, so go read it all.
Zip it up and zip it out folks!