– Last time I was playing PlayStation 2′s Way of the Samurai, I got myself thinking… “well, this is nice and all, but wouldn’t Way of the Samurai be just a bit more rockin’ if it featured less samurai’s?”. Apparently, I’m not the only one who’s following that line of thinking, as the next game in this series is to be set in the Old West. Tentatively referred to as “Samurai Western“, Spike‘s upcoming free-roaming adventure title will take place in the 19th century’s American west, and will follow the story of a young samurai traveling to the States in search of his older brother. The game is currently scheduled to be released in Japan this winter, but no American release date has yet been assigned.
– The real world hasn’t been the only one mourning the recent lost of Christopher Reeve — an in-game memorial was held for the fallen actor in City of Heroes, the MMORPG with a superhero twist. In full hero garb, players of the PC title gathered and saluted the champion of spinal cord research, taking several moments of their time to remember the man who played Superman. It’s a shame that stories like this get much less publicity than the dozens upon dozens of parents who blame Grand Theft Auto for their kids’ being violent dunderheads.
– If you loved Legend of the Mystical Ninja on Super Nintendo, and are at all thinking about purchasing Nintendo’s upcoming Dual Screen system, take note — in 2005, Konami will be putting forth a double visioned installment to the beloved series. The new title, currently labeled as “Ganbare Goemon“, will seemingly be much like the SNES classic, instead of the N64 musical dancing robots 3D thing. Of course, I’m only making this assumption based on 1) that the game will feature a tobacco pipe as a weapon, and 2) that it’ll be for a portable system, which lends itself more to awesome side-scrollers than bizarre platformers. Technically, I don’t even know if the title will be seeing stateside release at all (or that Goemon didn’t have a pipe in the N64 version, for that matter), but keep your fingers crossed, okay?
– Instead of wasting your money on that new Grand Theft Auto title, how about you use it to make a hospitalized kid happy? Famed online comic Penny Arcade has recently announced the start of their second annual charity event, “Child’s Play“, which aims to garner toys and video games for children’s hospitals. If you’re interested in bringing a smile to someone who could really use it this holiday season, head on over to http://www.childsplaycharity.org/ and do some hardcore donating.
– It wouldn’t be a “Carbonated News” without me mentioning a terrible, terrible idea that someone in the video game industry has come up with, and I’m not about to fail you yet. The offer expired just a few days ago, but the absolute ridiculousness of this “deal” makes it worth mentioning: for a limited time that has already ended, you could have traded in your PlayStation 2 and five non-sports titles to EB Games, and gotten in return…. a slimmer version of the PlayStation 2. That’s right! For the price of only a near half-dozen PS2 titles, and the console itself, you could get a version of the console whose main feature is that it takes up less space. Well, that and that it doesn’t support the PS2 hard drive. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to unload this t-shirt and five pairs of underwear so I can get the same t-shirt in a smaller size.
