QuickJump QuickPeek 36: Of Go!PSP pleasures, fish tank jokes, and a next-gen Nintendo 64 Kid redux

(Editor’s Note: Achtung, baby! It’s Spring Break season!)

Crank up that GDC lever and let’s go full throttle. Our weekly Franken-update of sorts is complete with a hodge podge of proverbial limbs, tissue, and… fishies. There’s some corporate politicking on the side, with more brew-waggling releases for consoles. Game length seemed to matter much for God of War‘s Kratos and GTA4‘s Niko Bellic, because as some of you might consider, size does matter – no, not that kind of size. Time for another wild ride!

(Editor’s Note: Well. Well. Well. It’s Spring Break season! Well, maybe for some people at least – and depending on where you study. Regardless, let’s drop our books for a while – hey, we all deserve a quick break from time to time too! – and check out what’s been going on for the past week. Achtung, baby! Time to spoil ourselves, ja? You more than deserve this, folks: QuickJump QuickPeek 36, specially drizzled with seven days’ worth of video game industry sauce. Mmm, gravy!)

Crank up that GDC lever and wind that electric coil to full throttle. Issue 36 of QuickPeek has us putting up a Franken-update of sorts, complete with bolts at its neck to keep things together. It’s a hodge podge of proverbial limbs, tissue, and… fishies (whaaaaat?). Yeah, you heard us. Fishies. You’ll find out why below.

New trends and developments are popping up like white on rice. From RPG homebrew to more waggling advances in console brew – the pace has gone quicker and antes have been notched up. There’s also some corporate politicking going on, see you might want to keep your hats on for a while.

It’s another wild ride through a week in gaming news, so without further ado, let’s get some love in this club.

It’s a well-rounded week for PSP this time around. It’s not just your usual “big week of homebrew updates,” but now we some some big news from the commercial side of things too.

We start off by giving a shout out to our cousins across the Atlantic. Europe, them lucky lads, just had Go! Messenger go live for their PSP handhelds. It’s SCEE’s service for communication between PSPs under any of the 2,500 BT Openzones.

Kinda working like Skype – which we’re sure some of you love to pieces – the Go! Messenger service offers audio, video, and instant messaging connections between users. With this, we imagine Go! Cam sales to shoot up – using that attachment, after all, will allow you guys to make video calls.

Thanks to tipsters jas21 and bmxadan for the tip about Go!Messenger going live!

Link: SCEE’s PSP Skype alternative: Go!Messenger for Europe
Link: Go! Messenger now available for download in Europe

We couldn’t put it any better than what QJ.NET’s Victor B. wittingly said: If we were to insert a joke here about Kratos, it would be something along the lines of him being really short where it’s supposed to count.

With that, of course, we refer to playing time… D’oh! No, not that kind of “playing time,” silly! Now shush! Because indeed, Kratos’ latest video game God of War: Chains of Olympus might only take you five hours to complete.

Which isn’t altogether that bad once you weigh other factors in and think about it. Besides, other games (heck, even the other GoW titles themselves) would take about the same time to finish.

Link: God of War: Chains of Olympus is a five-hour game

Now, on to brew news. PSPTube has been updated this week (again). The FLV-playing application that allows you to run videos on your PSP without having to convert them out of the FLV format is now on 20080301.

Link: PSPTube 20080301 released

Remember Auraomega’s Project4 XMB GUI? Well, we previously heard that development on it would be cancelled. Which is a hard thing for a developer to announce, we’re sure. But lo and behold, this week, Auraomega crept in with a new release: Open Beta 3 is now here.

The developer said that the cancellation announcement was made so as not to keep people’s hopes up. The developer himself stated that he wasn’t even sure if Open Beta 3 would be possible, due to losing all the source codes, but now, it’s here, and it’s far from anything… well, queer. It’s the real deal!

Link: Project4 lives on; Open Beta 3 available for download

Speaking of development woes (or the lack thereof), here’s something that won’t throw you in a fit of woe. Quite the opposite, actually. More like… Whoa.

Now as Isaac C. mentioned, it seems as if the new trend in PSP homebrew seems to be RPG development. And what recently caught our eyes (and some of yours, we’re sure) is Quinta Essentia.

Developer by a team of five people, t’s an RPG coded in C++, and was already in development since 2007. What’s cool about it is that from the deets and screens alone, we can already see how ambitious this project is. Original graphics and sprites?! Original music score?! Whoa. Whoa, indeed.

Link: PSP Homebrew RPG in development: Quinta Essentia

What a great way to end the week, huh? If you guys want a little extra, we snuck in that bit about a follow up on the “Overheated PSP burns through kid’s pocket” story we had earlier this month, under the Odds-and-Ends section.

– QJ.NET’s PSPUpdates team

While some of you might think that GDC was fairly tame, Sony had something up its sleeve this week with the retailers-only Destination PlayStation event. Gosh… We don’t even know where to start. Let’s see…

Oh. Right. Phil Harrison stepped down from his post… [gasp] Say what?! Yeah. In case you’ve been living under a rock, SCEI‘s very own Harrison has resigned from his position as CEO of SCE Worldwide Studios. In his place, Kazuo Hirai (Riiiiidge Raaaceeeer!), SCEI president and group CEO, will be taking his place.

Link: Phil Harrison resigns from SCEI

Metal Gear Solid 4 may not have been in the GDC, but made quite a spectacle over at Sony’s retailer-only event. Firstly, the eagle has finally landed. Well… Not technically. But we finally know when the eagle will be landing. MGS4: Sons of the Patriots now has a confirmed worldwide release date. Yeah! It’s red marker time on your calendars!

Moving on, there’s also a new bundle for the PS3 – one which includes a copy of MGS4. And on the other side of the radar, Metal Gear Online is now confirmed to have a multiplayer beta test soon. Fine, no demo for MGS4, but we’re sure that beta would be enough to go by with.

Link: Metal Gear Solid 4: release date, 80 GB PS3 bundle revealed
Link: Metal Gear Solid 4: Podcast confirms worldwide release date and other details
Link: Metal Gear Online will have multiplayer beta test in April

The DualShock 3 also now has a confirmed released date for North America: April 15. What’s more is that it’s right before Gran Turismo 5: Prologue will roll out too. If you plan on getting one of these babies, they go for US$ 54.99 each.

Link: DualShock 3 controller gets release date for US

Meanwhile, BBC reporter revealed quite a lot of interesting details for PS3 owners. For one, there’s that projected release of MotorStorm 2. We just might get to race on more muddy tracks come holidays of this year. Aside from this sequel, there’s also this supposed secret game in the works. One which the ubiquitous Surfer Girl believes is Heavy Rain.

It’s not all that surprising if Surfer Girl was accurate about this. Ever since Heavy Rain was introduced way back when, we could already tell that it was a game that it’s “the brink of a step change in what games consoles are capable of in terms of story-telling and immersion.”

Link: PlayStation 3 to regain footing in 2008, Motorstorm 2, secret game in the works
Link: Surfer Girl: mystery PS3 title which impressed BBC is Heavy Rain

Those itching for PlayStation Home get a whole slew of updates this week too. Barring the countdown website that’s got FAKE written all over it, here’s something concrete you guys can latch on to. In line with integrating PS3 games with PlayStation Home, two new titles have been added to the list: Resistance: Fall of Man and Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune will be getting some bonus content.

In other news, the lucky few who are in Home beta might probably already know that it’s currently on version 0.8.3. It’s rolled in a new marketplace where you can go shopping… for free! Oh if only real life were like a beta test.

Thanks to Caspre12 for the tip about the rumored countdown!

Link: PlayStation Home Countdown page spotted, beta coming late March?
Link: Sony adds Home integration for Uncharted and Resistance
Link: PlayStation Home Beta 0.8.3: details, screenshots, and videos

Now here’s something totally genius! As if The Eye of Judgment weren’t cool enough, we finally get to see some other applications and, more than that, the expansion of PlayStation Eye’s capabilities.

The first is Tank War, which we saw towards the tail end of last week with a GDC demo (didn’t make the drafting of the previous QuickPeek though). The game mechanics are fairly simple, it works like the classic Battle City, but of course takes it a step further by allowing you to create your own tank – using a clear sheet of paper an a marker! Whoa.

And the people demonstrating the game try to make a rather sly pun. In creating their tank, they drew a fish. Which makes it… a fish-TANK! Harhar! Get it? Fish… Tank? A tank of fi – oh just watch the videos.

Link: PlayStation Eye Video: going to war with a fish tank
Link: Because fish tanks rock: another Tank War demo video

That’s not where the PlayStation Eye developments end though. The head tracking system that was popularized by Johnny Chung Lee for the Nintendo Wii is making some headway, so to speak, onto the PlayStation 3 via the PS Eye.

In another GDC demo, Sony themselves demo a head tracking system running on a PS Triple. But in their set up (which also shows the same red targets as what Lee demoed), they did away with the Minority Report infrared gloves and just used the PS Eye, and nothing else.

Link: Sony demos new head tracking system for PS3 at GDC 2008

What with all these updates, we could hardly fit in all the GTA4 news. So with that, we’re handing you guys over to the Xbox 360 team now. Oh and drop by the Sci-Tech section below too! We got some PS3 FW news for you guys. Have fun on your Spring Break! See ya guys in seven days!

– QJ.NET’s PlayStation 3 team

Niko Bellic’s causing quite a stir in the industry again – and he’s not even out on store shelves yet! Read ’em and weep ’em: GTA4 won’t be getting a demo. Or at least, that’s what Rockstar seems to be implying. Though the release of the game is already drawing near, Rockstar has stated that they’ve got no plans of releasing a demo (XBL or PSN).

On to other news, if Kratos has a 5-hour journey on Chains of Olympus, we now know that Niko Bellic’s is longer than that. Again, stop it with the undertones, please. Ha!

Grand Theft Auto 4 could take you about 100 hours to finish. That’s probably enough information right there to assume how rich and jam-packed this game really is. From side-quests to main missions, Rockstar promises to deliver big chunks of them.

Link: Rockstar on Grand Theft Auto 4: don’t count on a demo
Link: Grand Theft Auto IV can take 100 hours to finish

Up in arms, boys. The Call of Duty 4 patch went live this week. The cool thing about the patch is that it doesn’t disband groups if the host of the match quits the game (that’s host migration for you – woot!). There’s also the expanded Kill Cam and better accuracy for rifles and ACOG scopes.

Link: CoD4: Modern Warfare patch arrives for Xbox 360

Here’s some pleasant news. BioShock fans – or maybe at least audiophiles – will be interested to know that 2K Games’ recent top-selling title hooked eight awards in the Game Audio Awards. From Audio of the Year, Music of the Year, Sound Design of the Year… The list goes on! Garry Schyman must be grinning like crazy.

Link: Bioshock sweeps Game Audio Awards, wins eight awards

You might see this as either good or bad. Good because you get one heck of a deal out of it. Bad because… well, it won’t get you far into the future, given the status of the format war (huh? what format war?)

Anyways, echoing previous rumors, Microsoft has finally confirmed that they are indeed slashing the price of their HD-DVD add on for the Xbox 360. From a US$ 120 price tag, the peripheral now costs a whopping 70 bucks cheaper!

Link: Confirmed: Microsoft cuts price on Xbox 360 HD-DVD Drive to US$ 49

Leisurely reading for the weekend down at the Odds-and-Ends section! This week, we hear of some Xbox 360 woes over losing a historical imprint and an unfortunate kid who got punk’d by his parents during Christmas.

– QJ.NET’s Xbox 360 team

It’s all about the brew, baby! Whether that’s brew via hacking or commercial brew, we’re pretty excited. Wait – commercial brew, did you hear that right? Yes. Dude, that’s what the WiiWare is for! We can smell it already… do you? But before that…

Fire up your Wi-Fi! It’s system firmware update time. Nintendo Wii FW 3.2 is now available for download. From what the official changelog says, it’s mostly just some supposed “behind the scenes” tweaks made.

Link: Wii Firmware 3.2 now live

There’s also that new Wii Pay and Play service announced by Nintendo earlier this week. Acting like some extension of the Wii Shop Channel, this new service will be “collecting fees for some services [that] allow us to adapt flexibly.” As obscure as that might sound, rest assured Nintendo will be keeping us in the know soon.

Link: GDC 08: Nintendo announces Wii Pay and Play

Now, on to WiiWare. Nintendo seems to have caught the eyes of a lot of gamers with their Everyone’s Pokemon Ranch. Yep, it’s what we all knew before as Pokemon Farm. What’s new now though are a couple of details regarding the gameplay.

Guess what? Not only will you be able to see over a thousand Pokemons, but you’ll actually be able to use your Mii avatars.

Link: Mii and my Pokemon: details of Everyone’s Pokemon Ranch revealed

Square Enix also has their own impressive title in the form of Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King. The game is to be released in a few months already, in May, to be exact. But with regard to actual WiiWare development, this game was not without some obstacles that the devs had to tackle – one of which was that the memory they could work with was limited.

Due to all the challenges, they decided to release a non-Square Enix title, actually. As lead programmer Shiraishi mentioned: “I didn’t plan to make a Square Enix game but we ended up with a game that’s unmistakably Square Enix.”

Link: GDC 08: Square talks on challenges of FFCC: My Life as a King
Link: FFCC: My Life as a King North American release date, price revealed

Ah. Now we get to the part of homebrew! Team Twiizers has placed their footmark on Nintendo Wii homebrew history, and now, we see so many more devs starting to pop up all over the place. From proof-of-concepts, to applications, and even an emulator!

Link: Wii Homebrew: WriteELF v1.0, for use with Twilight Hack
Link: Wii Mode MP3 Player via Zelda Twilight Princess exploit
Link: Wii-Linux Proof of Concept v0.1
Link: Snes9xGx.wii 0.01b with source code

Now. Super Smash Bros. Brawl updates? Why, the game is coming out in just a few more weeks! There’s a whole ton of news from the Dojo, as usual. And we’re sure, you guys all know how to find our full coverage of it!

– QJ.NET’s Nintendo Wii team

Corporate culture. Well, you can’t help there to be some squabbles from time to time. Especially if you’re talking about taking over one company or other.

This seems to be the theme this week, initiated by EA’s John Riccitiello, who expressed his wanting to acquire and merge Take-Two Interactive. Of course, Take-Two turned down the proposal kindly, in which Riccitiello responded to by upping the ante. In light of this event, Riccitiello’s already given a reason: EA wants Take-Two’s studios and intellectual properties.

Thanks to inetif for the tip of the first news item!

Link: EA attempts to take over Take-Two Interactive
Link: EA CEO John Riccitiello: We want Take Two’s studios, IPs
Link: Riccitiello on acquiring Take-Two: EA needs more M-rated content
Link: No go on EA merger: Take-Two looking at other offers

With this news, other CEOs of other companies, analysts, developers, and what not have aired their sentiments on the matter. Check it out.

Ubisoft seems to be somewhat threatened, and they’re now pushed to expand and grow faster. Michael Pachter believes that, if this merger does happen, the GTA franchise would still not fail. Activision’s CEO and 2K Boston’s creative director even gave their own input of the whole matter.

Link: Ubisoft pushed to expand after EA tries to acquire Take-Two
Link: Pachter: GTA may go on under EA even without Rockstar North
Link: Activision CEO: Take-Two doesn’t meet our criteria for acquisition
LInk: 2K’s Ken Levine on BioShock, casual gaming, acquisitions and more

Format wars, huh? Well, it was fun while it lasted – and stressful too, actually. Last week had announcements that basically sealed the coffin shut. After Toshiba’s withdrawal of support, everything suddenly became clear.

This allowed Microsoft to bite the bullet and cease manufacturing of their Xbox 360 HD-DVD add on. Which, as we know already (if you read the updates from QJ.NET’s Xbox 360 team), is getting a staggering price cut.

Link: Microsoft ceases Xbox 360 HD-DVD player manufacturing

As for the other side of the line, Sony’s already promised that the PS3 firmware update that concerns BD Live support will be rolling out as early as May or June. This is going to be released right about the same time that the first BD Live stand alone players will hit the market.

Link: Sony announces BD Live firmware update for PS3 as early as Summer

Time for some slightly off-topic news that some of you gamers might be interested in. It’s the weekend, and of course, we can’t let it pass by without some leisurely reading worth your time.

Remember earlier this month when we heard of that one kid that had his PSP burn right through his pants? Well, indeed, the PSP is one hot item, but it’s gotten quite literal in this case. Based on investigations, it turns out that the overheating was caused by an overcharge of the handheld.

This was caused, apparently, by a third-party charger. The US Consumer Product Safety Commission has taken interest in the matter and says they will look into it. Meanwhile, the third-party manufacturer of the charger nor Sony are also going to investigate what went wrong.

Link: PlayStation Portable burning incident attributed to Pelican charger

A sad tale for a child during Christmas… It’s one thing to find out you’d be getting an Xbox 360 as a present, but it’s quite another when your hopes are dashed to the rocks the minute after.

Quite the opposite of what happened to the Nintendo 64 kid, little Johnathan was pranked by his parents during Christmas when they gave him an Xbox 360… The thing is, upon opening the box, Johnathan found winter clothing stuffed inside.

Some find it funny (SHAME!). Some find it mean. Some have even managed to sneak in social commentaries about parenting. Regardless, we hear that so many people who’ve watched the video – even Microsoft themselves! – want to donate an Xbox 360 console to poor, traumatized Johnathan.

Link: Not so nice: parents play Xbox 360 gift packaging prank

Another unfortunate tale for a gamer. And though we know this is mostly centered on the Xbox 360 console, it still tugs at heart strings for any other gamer.

Now, some of you might have gone through the hassle of customer service. Probably not as bad as one Nathaniel, who shipped his console for repair and after a while, got it back. Would have been a regular story, but what makes this even more interesting is that his console held sentimental value.

See, he’s been lugging around his 360 for two years now, and in his travels, he’s managed to accumulate some memories in the form of historical signatures right on his console’s case. His console was decked with signatures from Bungie Studios, Rooster Teeth, and the Xbox team – it’s even got some Halo fan art scribbled in!

The hitch comes when Nathaniel finally got back his console… and it was wiped clean. This is despite getting the assurance that he’d get back his unit in the same condition as when he sent it.

Link: Sentimental Xbox 360 ruined after being sent in for repairs

In a long and highly debated thread, started by CHUCKINGROCKSATSPACESHIPS no less, a lot of people got in on the discussion to air out their sentiments. And in between moving to and from the office (via train, mind you), Yaz managed to sneak in some good points – even though he was perceived to be a fanboy.

Valid as his arguments might be in this comment, what we do like to point out is that outstanding portion wherein he attempts (quite successfully, actually) to distinguish himself as a non-fanboy but something else entirely…

Link: Digital Extremes: Dark Sector PS3 wasn’t running as well as Xbox 360 build

Article originally posted Mar 01, 2008 at 04:30PM