2/28/00

News Roundup February

Crazy Uncle Brad scours the gaming sites for newsworthy bits so you don’t have to!!!

Story: Virtual On: Oratorio Tangram finally gets picked up for an American release! It looks like Activision will be publishing this bad boy later this year.

Source: videogames.com

Brad Sez: Anybody who has played it will tell you that VOOT is the real deal. This mamma-jamma has graphics and speed that will blow you away. It’s also the fastest-running online game ever made. Unfortunately, if released before this fall, online capability will probably be removed. That’s bad. What’s worse is that you really need those monster twin-sticks in order to get the most out of the game. The stock DC controller just doesn’t cut it here. VOOT would still be better than 99% of the stuff out there regardless, but it would be nice to play it as it was meant to be played. We’ll see…

Story: Rainbow Six DC delayed. Again. The new "release date" is March 21.

Source: gamestop.com

Brad Sez: A delay? For Rainbow Six??? The world no longer makes sense.

Story: Speaking of delays, it seems that Capcom’s website now has Resident Evil: Code Veronica listed for April 15th. Babbage’s and EB still have it listed as March 30, however.

Source: segadojo.com

Brad Sez: I figured that a U.S. release of Veronica within a month of the Japanese launch was wishful thinking. Still, if true, it would really suck. Well, at least we all have an excuse to pick up Carrier now. Silver lining, people, silver lining…

Story: Whilst on a roll of Dreamcast news, it now seems that Half-Life will not incorporate online deathmatch. Supposedly, they want to push it out around May or June, and it looks like (surprise) the DC network will not be up by then.

Source: segadreamcast.net

Brad Sez: I personally didn’t care for the online parts of Half-Life, so I’m not too pissed here. Due to the great plot, it really shines as a one-player game, although there will be a four-player split screen option on-hand. However, this does not bode well for the DC network. If they release Quake III without Net support, it’s all over.

Story: Apparently, the Microsoft X-Box does exist, in some form or another. Microsoft recently registered the URL "xbox.com", and reports are starting to leak out about specs. Supposedly, it is now going to use the Gigapixel chipset with a CPU by Athlon. However, no specifics were given about speed, RAM, etc. However, it has been speculated that the X-Box will be six to eight times more powerful than the Playstation2, and be up to $100 cheaper.

Source: gamefan.com

Brad Sez: It looks like Microsoft has been reading the Nintendo Book ‘o’ Hyperbole™. I mean, the PS2 may not be the be-all, end-all of gaming, as many would have us believe, but it is pretty freakin’ awesome. If the X-Box is going that powerful, at that price, we’re not going to see this thing for a LONG time. To be honest, I don’t really care, anyway. It’s just supposed to be a dumbed-down computer that plays, you guessed it, computer games. The thing is, games will have to be programmed specially to run on X-Box, so the ten zillion computer games already released more-then-likely won’t run on it. I know that Microsoft is all-powerful, but they may be in over their heads here.

Story: The sequel to Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver has been announced for Playstation, Dreamcast, and PC. Notably absent was any mention of a Playstation2 version. It is slated to release this fall.

Source: videogames.com

Brad Sez: This first one was great (especially on Dreamcast), so I am looking forward to the sequel. Now, could we bother you developers to put in an ending this time?

Story: It seems that Sony stands to lose $180 for every Playstation2 that it sells.

Source: segadreamcast.net

Brad Sez: Ouch! Still, bleeding-edge tech at $400 can’t be easy to produce. Sega was losing $20 per system sold at one point, and that number is now down to about $2. Sony can and will lose millions of dollars during this year. They plan to make it up on software sales, but you’d have to sell a lot of games to make up that deficit, and the early release schedule is pretty slim. Still, there’s no chance in Hades that the PS2 will fail, so Sony’s probably in good shape.

Story: In related news, Sony plans to have 47, count ‘em, 47 titles ready for the U.S. launch of the Playstation2.

Source: The friendly-neighborhood Sony guy

Brad Sez: Sweet mother jahoosefat!!! If even half of those titles make it for launch, it’s gonna be a happy, albeit expensive, day. While the Japanese launch is looking relatively crappy, with only Ridge Racer V worth getting, the American launch could be another story altogether. Sure bets are R5, Tekken Tag, Gran Turismo 2000, and hopefully Ninja Gaiden and Armored Core. Oh, baby! Oh, by the way, it seems that Sony people aren’t allowed to talk about the PS2 until after E3, so we didn’t hear it from him (wink, wink).

Story: After piecing together various accounts, it looks as if Dead or Alive 2, the oh-so-voluptuous fighting title from Tecmo, will be jumping through all kinds of hoops on its way to your home. Apparently, due to the slow sales of Dreamcast in Japan, DOA2 will only be released for the American DC (now, that’s something you don’t see every day). Also, in accordance with some exclusivity agreement with Sega, the game will only be released for the PS2 in Japan. Kooky.

Source: Everybody seems to have a different take on this one.

Brad Sez: The thing about slow DC sales in Japan kinda makes sense (although sales are not THAT slow), but the U.S. PS2 thing boggles me. That really all depends on the nature of the agreement with Sega, though. Many have speculated that it would only be a Sega exclusive for six months, but that wouldn’t make much sense. After all, it’s not like the Playstation or Nintendo 64 could handle this game. And, six months would run out just when the PS2 is due to release. Anyway, in Japan, at least, the PS2 version of DOA2 is supposed to be the "Millennium Edition", which has some extra costumes and whatnot, but is otherwise the same, including graphically. My advice? Do yourself a favor and pick up the DC version the minute it hits the streets – you won’t be sorry. I personally can’t see waiting six months (at least) for this game of jiggly joy.

Story: Sony has recently announced that the Playstation2 will support the double-layered DVD format. As a reference, a Playstation CD holds 650 Megs, a DC disc holds 1.2 Gigs, and a normal DVD holds about 5 Gigs. In contrast, a double-layered DVD would hold 8.5 Gigs, and 17 Gigs if it’s double-sided!

Source: dailyradar.com

Brad Sez: 17 Megs?!? That’s equivalent to a good-size hard drive! Mercy me, that’s a lotta storage space. Of course, we’ll all be dead in the cold, cold ground before a game actually makes use of that much space, but the prospects are intriguing, are they not?

Story: Nintendo shocked the world by announcing that both the Dolphin and the Gameboy Advance would not see the light of day until Fall 2001, at the earliest.

Source: gamefan.com

Brad Sez: I am both stunned and amazed by this announcement. If anyone needs me, I’ll be at Sparrow Hospital experiencing a heart attack from the shock of it all.

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