Factor Five, Microsoft and Ronald McDonald implicated in heresy double dipping. News at 11.
I hate seeing awesome works of art such as Beyond Good & Evil sell horrible, and then watch EA sell the same game year after year *cough* Madden *cough* and sell 10 million copies just because of the name. It sucks. On that note, I'd like to know if there are chances of a Beyond Good & Evil 2? The game didn't sell well, true, but it's made almost every top 20 list of best games in 2004. Can you guys tell me anything about this?
A chance? There is always a chance. Ubisoft has been asked this same question many times, and with good reason, since 99% of the people who bought Beyond Good and Evil loved it. Of course, the total amount of people who bought that action-adventure game totals like 17. They have said no, there will not be a sequel. But like you. I think the game was a beautiful near masterpiece that showed just exactly how a new franchise should look, feel and play. I think that perhaps in the future Ubisoft might change its mind, but for now, officially, there is no sequel.
--Douglass
Remakes
Okay, me, i'm all about remakes. I think they are great. Especially on videogames. One video game i think it would be great to remake is the one and only good Castlevania game- Castlevania 64. I don't know it anyone else liked it, but i thought it was a hell of a game. And i would like to see it come to xbox or some other system. I also think that they sould make a remake to silent hill 1 (instead of make a 5th one this year (because they are running out of ideas)). And i also think they should either make a remake on Perfect Dark or get their sorry asses and make a 2nd one. Thanks for reading this letter and i hope you'll reply.
Konami just announced a remake of Castlevania for PS2; it's called Castlevania: Curse of Darkness, though you seem to have missed the best one in the series, Castlevania Symphony of the Night for PS. As for the others, sure, those sound good. A remake of Silent Hill 1 would be cool, but after having got my hands on Resident Evil 4, I would prefer they redid the whole series entirely. RE4 rocks.
--Douglass
Zoom
After having seen numerous trailers of Oddworld Stranger, I noticed that in the demos and trailers there is a zoom/scope feature. I have already caught between 10 and 15 main bounties and have yet to come across one. Does one even exist?
There is a mosquito-type Live Ammo (I forget the exact name) that acts like a zooming scope; find and use it to snipe enemies.
--Douglass
OMG
I work for microsoft and i wanted to tell u that i have xbox 2 and halo 3. it is fun. i have been playing online. xbox 2 plays playstation 2 and gamecube games. it will also play psp games. i created xbox 2. bye
You are so smart. I love you. I plan on writing this fresh news into the year's biggest scoop. Thanks, you're like Santa on Christmas.
--Douglass
Winning Eleven Not Online
Just a quickie, do you know why this game is not online? It is on xbox live in the U.K., and i assume the rest of europe. So why do you yanks get screwed?
Is it you as a nation don't buy enough "soccer" games? And therefore it's a loss to Konami, or is it something else??
I'm not sure exactly, but it requires an immense amount of programming to get it perfectly right, and the fan-base in the US isn't by any means as big as it is in Japan or Europe. So my guess is that Konami felt it could skip it this year.
--Douglass
Ease
In your last mailbag you said that it is normal for systems to launch with technology just ahead of their time so that these gaming consoles can have a longer shelf life, my question lies on the 3rd party view of these monster machines that boast the next-gen extreme graphics, whatever that open ended statement means but moving on... To my knowledge every time a new generation of consoles rolls out, the game designers seem to have a near mutlipliable harder time programming for them. Is there any movement towards the ultimate goal of turning game creation into easier processes instead of needing increased expertise, console after console? once again, the "to the point" eludes me ... doh!
Third-parties are always struggling to get the kits for development early and to bone up on creating the software and tools to make the best games possible. But yes, new systems are difficult to program for because they're always completely different. On the making games easier bit, Microsoft has this thing called XNA, which is a software tool enabling developers to create games on multiple platforms. According to MS, that tools will make things easier for publishers in the future.
--Douglass
Isn't Factor 5 supposed to be porting over their Rouge Squadron games over to xbox? Or was that just a rumor?
As I understood it, Factor Five was interested in making an Xbox game, but recently acquired information says that they might be making an, eh-hem, next-generation game instead. as far as I know, the "Rouge" Squadron games (it's Rogue Squadron; "rouge" is a color), those games aren't coming over to Xbox.
--Douglass
Bots?
Myself and many others on various forums have been wondering will there be an offline/splitscreen multiplayer component for Project: Snowblind? I know many people don't like the fact that you can see the other person when you have multiple players one screen, however when my girlfriend and friends are hanging out at home nothing beats sitting on the couch and fragging each others. While offline MP may not be for everyone but I believe it adds a little extra something to a game. I fear that the game will not include a splitscreen MP option but please let me know and thank you for your time.
PS Will there be bots on the Snowblind multiplayer game?
According to an Eidos representative, there is no splitscreen option in Project: Snowblind and there will be no bots in MP either.
--Douglass
Marc Ecko
I actually like the title "Marc Ecko's Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure." Yes, it's ludicrously long (then again, games released exclusively in Japan have the longest names ever- "Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo Atsumare! Taikan Bo-bobo" has enough bo's to make me vomit) and has three separate parts, but all three seem to be important to the game. Marc Ecko's name shows that he directly affected the game and gives the game recognition; he seems to be hyping the phrase "Get in, get up, get out" to no end; and "contents under pressure" is a clever pun for a graffiti-laced video game.
Was this letter at all necessary? No. But I thought I'd comment on your Ecko article. I've never worn his clothing, nor have I ever done graffiti (except in "Jet Grind Radio"), but I'm interested in seeing how the game turns out.
Yeah, I too am interested in this game. Could be cool stuff. I wish those guys would show us the game in action. They're being very hush-hush about it.
