1P Start

New Year, same old rumors. According to Xbox Family, Metal Gear Solid 4 is in development for the Xbox 360, and will be released twelve to fourteen months after the PlayStation 3 release.

This RUMOR was given new life after the posting of an anonymous letter from a “Konami distribution rep’s mouth”. As for the 12-14 month timeline? I can only assume that is speculation on the author’s part, as that timeframe is not given in the actual letter posted, which you can read after the break.

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Expreview, a site I’ve never heard of before now (I don’t get around, I’m sorry) is reporting that nVidia’s newest graphics card, the nVidia GeForce 9800 GX2, will be released on February 19th, 2008.

We can not learn much of the card, Only knows it will be a dual GPU card and communicate with built-in SLI. It also have a SLI connector so it will become the another card supporting Quad SLI like its predecessor 7950 GX2. The power module of the card is somehow different, it have one 6pin and one 8pin power connector.

The previously rumored release date for the high-end 9800 GX2 was sometime in March. While the above refers to the GeForce 7950 GX2 as the immediate predecessor to the upcoming 9800 GX2, the new card will be using dual G92 chips as the 8800 GX2 does. It will be very interesting to see how this new card performs, though my rational side has a hard time believing that nVidia would already want to trump it’s 8800 series.

…I get the distinct feeling all our console readers saw was “crap, blah, blah, techno crap, more crap, blah, even more techno crap, blah, blah”. I assure you, console faithful – this all makes perfect sense.

If it’s true, of course.

nVidia, GeForce, 9800 GX2

It certainly appears two new consoles are coming to the Wii Virtual Console. Go Nintendo, who originally posted the image above showing the consoles available on the WVC, was writing about how Nintendo was redesigning the Japanese Virtual Console page. However, when you look at the list you can see two spots reserved for new consoles.

So what consoles could they be? Kotaku theorizes (or rather “wishes”) that the Sega Master System is one of them. Not a bad choice, but I would personally love to see the Sega Dreamcast and the… wait for it… the TurboGrafx-16.

We’ll find out soon enough, in any case.

Nintendo, Wii, Virtual Console

I’m going to get a bit technical on you for a moment. I hope you can forgive me if you get lost… who am I kidding, I got lost, too. Here’s the story: Once Sony released the new PSP update 3.80, some hackers got into the coding and found some interesting little things that could hint that Sony is gearing up for yet another SKU of the PSP hardware.

Yes, that’s right: Another PSP.

“While working on the future 3.80M33, we found a VERY interesting string in the IPL’s playload: “/kd/pspbtcnf_03g.bin”

For those who do not understand here is a bit of history:

since 2.71 and especially in 2.80, we could see a string refering to pspbtcnf_02g which suggested the support of a new hardware or at least of a new operative mode. Later with the slim release we found out that the slim’s codename was this infamous 02g (proably standing for second generation) and that it used the _02g modules as well as pspbtcnf_02g
.bin. It means that they worked on slim firmware/kernel for months before the actual hardware was announced/released.

We believe it is the same with the 3rd generation hardware which they are now preparing for sure. Will it be yet another lighter (and pandora proof) psp or will it be the new psp phone? Time will tell”

My bet is on the PSPhone that everyone has been clammering about. While it’s possible Sony may be working on yet… another… PSP handheld, I have a hard time believing they’d be in development of one SO soon after the Slim’s release. But alas, only time will tell.

[lan.st forums]

Sony, PSP, PSPhone

With the PlayStation 2 finally approaching it’s death bed, Sony has found out that they could add a little bit of life back into the old hag by porting games from the PSP to the PS2. Two seperate Grand Theft Auto games have made the leap, and now rumors of two more high-profiled PSP games making the jump are running rampant across all the internets, as both Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters and Silent Hill Origins are rumored to be making the jump from the handheld to the console.

The R&C rumor is based on a listing on GameStop’s website showing that Size Matters is indeed listed for the PlayStation 2, with a ship date of February 12th, 2008. If that wasn’t enough for people to go “hmmm” over, the ESRB’s website has Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters listed as both a PSP and PS2 title.

Silent Hill Origins, on the other hand, appears to be pure speculation at the moment. An anonymous tipster passed along an alleged fact sheet to Kotaku that showed that Climax, SHO’s developer, would be responsible for the PS2 port.

If either one of these turns out to be true, it’ll just go to show that the PS2 is still the single best bet on the market today. Good Lord, if you can’t find a PS2 game you like…

Sony, PlayStation 2, Konami, Climax, Silent Hill Origins, Ratchet & Clank, Size Matters, PSP

GameSpot has been around for long enough now where people view them as one of the larger sources for video game news/reviews/etc, up there with the likes of 1up and IGN. Though this doesn’t make them good, we can all admit they are one of the bigger names out there.

Some sad news about the inner workings of the company behind the site has come out all starting with a reviewer named Jeff Gerstmann doing nothing more than what he was paid to do, review Kane & Lynch: Dead Men, which he overall found very poor and received a 6.0 (Click here for full review). He was terminated with no specific reason given as of yet. So here are some conclusions that are being reached as more information is uncovered.

VallyWag has an undisclosed editor still working at GameSpot who left some pretty detailed information on how the review process works. Reviews are passed between all the editors before they go live to ensure that the review represents a certain standard they try to set, so with Gerstmann’s 10+ year career with the company coming to a close by being locked out of his office and told to leave, the insider editor leaves a sense that those still employed should basically fear that anyone can be fired at any time. GameSpot over the last year has been allowing advertising teams to have a voice in the editorial process. If a game is not receiving a high score, the publishers are able to step in and not allow the review to hit the site until the game is already out on the shelves. Executive editor Josh Larson said in a meeting after this firing, on the big name games getting reviewed implied, “that they should get higher scores, especially since those titles are usually more highly advertised on our site.”

GameSpot has had a background ’skin’ for Kane & Lynch that was running all through the site (more on that advertising trick from Josh Larson here). After this information about the reviews and Gerstmann’s firing has gone public, all of that advertising has since been pulled, is this coincidence? Also noteworthy is the video review of the game by Gerstmann was pulled from GameSpot, but already backed up on YouTube.

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Website High Def Digest may have just let a wonderful nugget of information slip while talking about the third chapter in the disgraceful Resident Evil film franchise. According to their article, which talks about DVD/Blu-Ray extras for the home release of Resident Evil: Extinction, the standard-def DVD will include two video game demos. What are those demos for?

Devil May Cry 4, and Resident Evil 5.

From the article:

Additional supplements shared with the standard-def DVD version of the film (which is debuting day-and-date with the Blu-ray) include an audio commentary with director Paul W.S. Anderson and producer Jeremy Bolt, four making-of featurettes, eleven deleted scenes, and two video game demos (for “Devil May Cry 4″ and “Resident Evil 5″).

If this is true, it may be what is needed to get us die hard Resident Evil fanatics to swollow the vomit in our mouths and pick up this movie. Resident Evil Extinction goes on sale on January 2nd, 2008.

[High Def Digest]

Resident Evil Extinction, Resident Evil 5, Devil May Cry 4

On the heels of the success of The Simpsons Game, it appears that 20th Century Fox may be returning to the games industry. If you ask some of the industry’s top executives.

Over in the UK, the United Kingdom’s Department of Trade “Playing for Keeps” report states that, after surveying fifteen UK-based developers and publishers, a “significant number” of them believe that 20th Century Fox will reestablish their games division, Fox Interactive.

Now, let us remember that Fox Interactive wasn’t particularly, how you say… good. In fact, outside of No One Lives Forever, and the original Die Hard Trilogy, Fox Interactive was downright horrible. Independence Day, Croc, The Pagemaster, ANYTHING with “Fox Sports” on it, every Simpsons game, The Tick… if Fox Interactive came back, it would push the industry back ten years.

[MVC]

Fox, 20th Century Fox, Fox Interactive

Let’s get one thing straight right now — I CAN’T READ NEWS TIPS IN FOREIGN LANGUAGES! This is an ENGLISH-typing website, and therefore would like source material written in said English. With that said, it appears German-typing website Xbox-Archiv.de has learned that Capcom is currently developing the sequel to Lost Planet, entitled Lost Planet Colonies.

According to the listing on the German equivelent of the ESRB, the USK, the sequel to Lost Planet is an Xbox 360 exclusive (for now, of course), and the game is being published by CEG Interactive Entertainment. They’re owned by Capcom, by the way.

Now, I was probably the only person on the planet who wasn’t impressed with Lost Planet. However, you all loved it to bits so a sequel wouldn’t particularly shock me.

[Xbox-Archiv]
[Xbox 360 Fanboy] (for you English-speakin’ folk)

Microsoft, Xbox 360, Capcom, Lost Planet, Colonies

You may not have heard, but Bethesda Softworks recently created a new MMORPG studio, entitled ZeniMax Online. You know what else is shocking? This MMORPG studio founded under my nose by my #2 favorite developer of all time has already come up with $300 million worth of funding for its MMO venture. Hell, Bethesda (through ZeniMax) even owns the URL for “elderscrollsonline.com”.

So, the URL address means that there WILL be an Elder Scrolls MMO, right? According to Peter Hines in a statement to Gamespot, not really.

We are tired of people squatting on domains related to our games or simply not being able to get them if we needed them and decided a while back we’d get these to keep it from happening again… People are grabbing domains like these and trying to extract money from us for them, or using them for some other purpose.

You know, I have to believe Hines on that one. It makes perfect sense from a business standpoint. After all, if you were to develop an Elder Scrolls MMO down the road, you’d want “Elder Scrolls Online” as the URL. It just makes financial sense.

But let me throw another theory out there for the rumor mill: Bethesda is working on the Star Trek MMO. Allow me to explain.

It was recently reported by our main man in the online land at Gaming MMO that Perpetual Entertainment, who has been tasked with developing Star Trek Online, has put their other MMORPG, Gods & Heroes: Rome Rising on hold. Most would think the logical thing and assume that this was so they could focus all their energy on the game 40 years in the making. However, I’ll argue for the sake of argument that this delay is a sign that Perpetual Entertainment may be in a bad spot financially. If they closed down, Bethesda (who owns all other Star Trek licensing) would naturally be the choice to turn to.

Not saying that is the case. Not at all… but anything is possible, right?

Bethesda Softworks, The Elder Scrolls, ZeniMax Online, Star Trek, Star Trek Online, Prepetual Entertainment

Since February, Xbox360rally has had one post that has received more replies over a longer period of time than any other post on the internet, the post that would never die was known as “KotOR 3 in Development? *Schwing!*“. Just last night, user “Miguel” has given us a link that has not completely confirmed Knights of the Old Republic 3, but very much helped fan those Star Wars fanboys fires in a very very big way. I will say, after reading the short press release, I am leaning toward the fanboy side of this all, by reading carefully and noticing no mention of “New IP/New Franchise,” which nearly always means it is a continuation of something they have done.

On top of the press release, there is also a forum set up on Bioware.com specifically discussing this, it came as a shock to me that the first reply didn’t mention KoToR3, however, it was alluded to, so I guess that should count. Check the full press release after the break:
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From what I can make out from the badly-translated article from Xbox 360 Only (only?), it appears that top Cow kinda, sorta accidentally let slip that Starbreeze was working on a sequel to the game based off of the excellent comic series.

The error apparently came from someone at top Cow Comics, who let slip in an e-mail (and I apologize for AltaVista):

And yes, The Darkness game will property a sequel. It may be late 2008 or 2009!

…if my interpretation of English is anywhere NEAR where I hope, I think what this employee said was that we can expect The Darkness 2, a direct sequel to the original, in late ‘08/early ‘09… I think. The site that broke this story is in Dutch, so I’m doing what I can here.

Either way, if true, I am psyched. When I heard about the first Darkness game, I was very happy. It’s not often you see lesser-known comic licenses get turned into games or films (exception being ‘A History of Violence’), and I hope it’s something more studios think about in the future.

[Xbox 360 Only] (It’s in Dutch)

Starbreeze Studios, The Darkness

I recall when JW had posted the leaked fall dashboard update and a good deal of fuss I had read across the net was about a “Clan Blade,” which is cool in theory, but we all know, as seen in Halo 2, it ends up just being a second friends list. The Xvid/Divx support, I still await and just hope to see if that happens. The IPTV, now I wouldn’t exactly call this solid proof it will be in the next update, but it is a fact that it will be implemented (Flash video proof from MicrosoftMediaRoom.com). According to a recent post over at Xbox360Fanboy , a reader has pictures of new spot showing in the blades set up for just this purpose as well as this has been on the Official Xbox Forums months ago, with all this information out already, I can’t see why the next update wouldn’t have this feature.

Unfortunately for the majority out there who have just the 20gb hdd, you will definitely not be able to truly appreciate what a real DVR can offer, but it is nice knowing that an option to not use the cable company DVR or Tivo service if you wish to upgrade to the 120gb hdd is available, which I would consider if it didn’t mean leaving my 360 on for many many hours on end. For now, all we have is those leaked pictures to show how close we are to what the 360 will be able to offer as seen in the video after the break:
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CNBC’s Jim Goldman is reporting that his sources inside Microsoft are suggesting that the company could soon announce a new Xbox 360 SKU, specifically the long-rumored model with built-in HD-DVD.

For those of you who aren’t yet aware, the rumors of a new 360 with HD-DVD built in began when “Smarthouse”, an Australian website, began running a story in which they claimed to have gotten word from one of the top brass at Toshiba regarding the project. Now, however, Toshiba denies that they are working on any such project.

I’ve said time and again that the 360 should have built-in HD-DVD. If you don’t have a HD TV it wouldn’t affect you in any way, so really this is a no-lose move by Microsoft. IF they’re doing it.

[CNBC]

Microsoft, Xbox 360, HD-DVD, Toshiba

Not enough rumors for you lately?! Okay, here comes another to add to the pile. MaxConsole has reported that according to an Italian web site GameStar, there is a Pokemon RPG title coming to the Wii, hit the break for a rough translation:
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