3/11/00

News Roundup: March

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

Story: Microsoft officially announces the worst kept secret in the industry, the X-Box. Final specs include an Intel 600Mhz processor, nVidia chipset, 64Meg of RAM, and, supposedly, an 8Gig hard drive. The industry in general seems enthusiastic, with Namco, Konami, Koei, Enix, Capcom, and EA, among others, all pledging support for the new platform. The X-Box is due for release in Fall 2000.

Source: gamefan.com

Brad Sez: Well, the word is that the X-Box outperforms the PS2 in every way, and it is interesting that most major console developers have already jumped on board. Maybe this won’t turn out to be just a dumbed-down PC, after all. With killer hardware and a decent supply of games, Microsoft may just pull it off. Still, the industry has never had to support four consoles at the same time before, so somebody might get knocked off. Who, you ask? Well, with Sega and Sony having over a year to get installed bases by Fall 2001, it could turn out to be a battle between Microsoft and Nintendo. Nintendo’s hardware is still an unknown, but Microsoft has serious clout, as well as all the major players on board. Nintendo still doesn’t have much support for its Dolphin, and if it’s supposed to come out next fall, they had better get cracking. Nintendo has historically had the kiddie market, but, and I hate to say it, my money is on Microsoft.

Story: Sony of America denies that there is a recall of PS2 memory cards in Japan, even though Sony of Japan has officially announced one. In related news, the replacement cards, for the recall that doesn’t exist, mind you, are now said to not be available until late March or early April.

Source: gamefan.com

Brad Sez: Have the executives at Sony all been replaced with Pod People, or something? Sony has just been acting plain weird lately. I mean, when Gran Turismo 2 shipped with more bugs than my last apartment, Sony of America fessed up and offered free replacement discs. The way Sony has been panicking over the last week or so has me wondering just what is going on. Hopefully, they’ll get their crap together soon.

Story: With production apparently way ahead of schedule, it sounds as if the release of the Final Fantasy movie may be moved up considerably, possibly as soon as Christmas 2000!

Source: dailyradar.com

Brad Sez: Oh, baby! I must have been a good little boy this year!

Story: LAN upgrade announced for Dreamcast.

Source: segadojo.com

Brad Sez: Yippee. Well, I don’t really care about this one, but I know that those PC folks enjoy their "LAN parties", so this upgrade might go over pretty well. In case you’re wondering, this would basically be a glorified link cable, and would allow you to hook up several Dreamcasts and TV’s together at once. It could be cool.

Story: Sony announces that the PS2 will be able to access the Internet via cell phone.

Source: dailyradar.com

Brad Sez: Why?

Story: Rainbow Six for Dreamcast delayed. Again. This time the date is set at April 10.

Source: gamestop.com

Brad Sez: Yup.

Story: Sega of America announces that the Zip drive/Ethernet combo should be available Q4 2000.

Source: dailyradar.com

Brad Sez: Finally, an add-on that might be worth getting. The Zip drive could mean the end of memory cards, and you will finally be able to download updates and whatnot from the ‘Net without filling up your VMU. The Ethernet card will allow cable modem use for the Dreamcast, thereby eliminating that nasty lag. Very nice.

Story: Nintendo settles a lawsuit out of court, which results in NOA committing to purchase "game gloves" for all owners of Mario Party. Apparently, 8 children injured their hands whilst playing the button-masher, and their parents went nuts.

Source: dailyradar.com

Brad Sez: Man, this country frightens me sometimes.

Story: In a another case of weirdness, NBC News went crazy over talk of a game called "Valkyrie Wilde", in which the buxom heroine runs around the game completely naked. Of course, no sane person would believe such a story, and it turns out that it was merely an April Fool’s joke in next month’s issue of PSM. In the meantime, NBC was airing stories about how "your children could soon be playing pornographic video games". The editor-in-chief of PSM, Chris Slate, expressed the same incredularity in his response that I am feeling right now.

Source: dailyradar.com

Brad Sez: Has the entire world gone insane? Again, sometimes this country frightens me.

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