– For all three of you (including myself and Matt) who played PlayStation 2’s Way of the Samurai, you’ll have a reason to be thankful this summer: the game’s previously Japan-only sequel will be coming to the United States around summertime of this year. The story of this “Choose-Your-Own-Adventure” reminiscent title will play out over ten days of game time, as opposed to the original title’s two, and will be set in a war-torn town during the end of Feudal Japan’s Edo period. As I doubt anyone reading this actually cares about this title, I’m going to stop writing this news bit now.
– “The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to five years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000.” I bet you’ve seen that before. You may not have read it; you may have been using that time to peruse your bathroom or open up a bag of popcorn, but it’s there, at the beginning of every movie. And now it’ll be there at the beginning of every video game! Supposedly it’s going to be at the beginning of every CD too, but I’m not really sure how that’d work, unless they had someone speaking it as every CD’s first track, and I bet that’d get extremely annoying. As with most things, though, only time will tell.
– Of all the things to build a bomb out of, why would some dumb kid choose a Game Boy? Doesn’t the video game industry get bad enough of a rap when it concerns violence? Aren’t there already people all over the nation saying that guns don’t kill people, Grand Theft Auto kills people? In any event, this Houston, Texas high school student hollowed out the inside of a Game Boy (whether it be GBO, GBP, GBC, GBA, or GBA-SP has yet to be released) and filled it with gun powder, with the apparent intention of blowing his school to smithereens. Thankfully, he was apprehended before doing so. That’s about it.
– In the biggest crossover since The Jetsons met the Flintstones (okay, so really it isn’t even the biggest crossover since WCW invaded the WWE. Leave me alone.), Vivendi Universal will be doing some neato stuff with Crash Bandicoot and Spyro the Dragon that pits the two characters in each others games. The idea is cool enough, but it would have been way more interesting back in 1999 when the two characters actually meant something, and weren’t both riddled with numerous lackluster sequels. It’s a great idea as a money-maker, but the time has passed where this would have done so in spades. Or maybe I’m just bitter that Sting wasn’t included in WCW’s invasion.
– Besides anything involving Super Mario, what Nintendo 64 game stands out most to you as being one of the best there ever was for that system? If you’re like most gamers, you’ll probably name Goldeneye 007 (if not on your first try, then at least after a few guesses). Since that game was made, many other titles have been released bearing the name of James Bond, none of which reached anywhere near the success of Goldeneye. So it only makes sense that the current holders of the Bond license, Electronic Arts, would think to make another Goldeneye title. That’s right, gamefans — Goldeneye 2. Unlike the original, Goldeneye 2 will let you take control of a “bad guy” in the Bond universe; though whether it will be a “bad guy” from the original Goldeneye, following the story of the original Goldeneye, remains to be seen.
– In an announcement that comes as a shock to absolutely no one (except maybe for some angry Haitians), Rockstar Games has let us know that Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas will be hitting the PlayStation 2 later this year. That’s pretty much all that’s known, except that the game will sell like hotcakes, which, as I have been told, sell rather well.
– In an announcement that is a slightly bigger shock than that of Goldeneye 2 (though I totally called this one; just ask Matt), Midway has told us that they plan on releasing a new Gauntlet title. With the sudden influx of action-RPGs (such as Dungeons and Dragons: Heroes, Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles, Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance 2, and Champions of Norrath: Realms of Everquest, just to name a few), it should shock no one that the game that almost single-handedly invented the genre should make a come back. Hopefully it won’t be another Gauntlet: Dark Legacy, which was just a Gauntlet Legends remix with a few other levels thrown in.
