QuickJump QuickPeek 45: Of the Crisis Core crisis on infinite Earths, Grand Theft Auto 4 week, and Sonic 2 running the high-def race

(Editor’s Note: GTA4 has landed! And so have blue turtle shells!)

You’ve probably cut all your lines to the greater world since you got your copy of GTA4 or Mario Kart Wii, so chances are, you got quite a huge load of backlog to catch up on. Just to name a few… the possibility of MGS being playable in MGS4, Scarlet Witch playing a role in Crisis Core‘s story, and Derek Zoolander playing casual games. Wait… what?! Time to head to the nearest safe-house!

(Editor’s Note: GTA4 has landed! And so far, how many of them pesky flying rats have you gotten? What about the Heart of the City – have you seen it? We’re sure you guys are having fun in Liberty City, but it’s time to go to your nearest safe-house and take a breather.)

If you’re pretty much done ZOMG-ing over every single thing in Grand Theft Auto 4, most of you would probably want to catch up with some gaming news. Going MIA for a whole week in the gaming industry will net you a whole trunk full of goodies that may have passed you by.

This ain’t much of a GTA4 mobile phone hub, but we’ll make do with QuickPeek 45 to keep you guys updated. From some post-release details on Crisis Core‘s story, to more Wii Fit calorie counting (not to mention Liberty City freezing over in some cases)… it’s another mixed bag for everyone this week.

And whoa. Take a load of this. Seems like we just sprung a leak and let the news overflow in this edition of QuickPeek. To say that’s there’s been a heavy gush of news this week may be an understatement, so without further delay, let’s just get down and dirty (and very much wet), shall we?

First up: peripherals! We got some screens of what Japan’s PSP Slim Cradle looks like. We know that there are a lot of cradles and docks out there in the market – and that’s not limited to PSPs only; iPod docks are very hot items too.

This PSP Slim Cradle includes a remote that allows you to access the XMB from a distance – a plus for some, we’re sure. There’s also the AV Out and D-Terminal cables that were released so that users could hook their PSPs with to further enhance their viewing pleasure.

A new PSP headset was also announced by Sony Japan. It’s going to be compatible with Skype, of course, and include a remote control for music and video playback.

Link: Images of Sony’s PSP Slim Cradle accessory revealed
Link: SCEI announces new PSP headset with remote

So. You live in Canada? Well, listen up. Notice anything different with the PlayStation Store prices lately? Sony’s announced that they had to implement some adjustments in Canada’s PlayStation Store. Grace Chen of Sony explains that this is due to “the strengthening Canadian dollar versus the US dollar.” Echochrome, anyone?

Link: Canada gets adjusted PlayStation Store prices on May 1

Speaking of Echochrome, some clarifications were made this week about the differences in the various versions of the game across different regions. Over at Europe, they’ll be getting the game on UMD too – just like in Japan. What’s more is that their version will pack a total of 228 levels, whereas Japan only got 132.

Meanwhile, Europe will be getting a special event come May 6: PlayStation Day. Big wigs like David Reeves and even Kaz Hirai himself will be there, and if you want some gaming fix, they’ll be showcasing Crisis Core, Secret Agent Clank, and other PS3 games as well.

Link: More Echochrome version differences: Europe gets UMD and more puzzles
Link: Call it PlayStation Day: SCEE unveils games and keynote speakers for May 6 event

Now Crisis Core might be released in Europe come June, but for others, their adventure with Zack Fair may have already ended. It was a fun experience, yes? Well, if some of you guys are nit-picky with story details, we hear from the Crisis Core producer that the game serves as a cornerstone to fix the flow of the Final Fantasy 7 story arc – mainly because of viewer feedback on the Last Order anime movie and it’s not-so-canonical Nibelheim incident.

Looks like Square Enix is taking a page from Marvel’s ret-conning Scarlet Witch, ya? Or maybe from the DC’s Crisis story arc too. Well, we still love the story, so who’s complaining?

Link: Crisis Core fixes FFVII canon says Square Enix

It’s homebrew time! Dark AleX hasn’t popped up for quite some time now, but hey, at least we got some updates from Mathieulh. The events leading towards Math’s statement caused quite a stir in the homebrew community, to say the least.

See, it all started with an anoymous homebrew developer’s release of a Custom Firmware 3.93. With it brought the feature of being able to run recovery from the XMB and another function to hide the MAC address, among others.

Speculations as to who the coder of this CFW 3.93 was rose to the point wherein Math had to step in and flat out confirm that they (Team M33) did not release it. With that, he went on in talking about their plans: mainly that they’re still waiting for new features rolling out in future firmwares.

Thanks to Moose Island and Seven Points for the CFW 3.93 tip, and to transce080 for pointing us to Math’s statement!

Link: Custom Firmware 3.93 – comes with in-XMB recovery
Link: Mathieulh talks about CFW 3.93, 4.0 M33

Got some time for downloads? Ah. Sure. Here are two brews that you might find useful: the first is a prx module that allows you to run your own music while playing a game (suhweeet!), while the second one is FuSa, an application that allows you to play your PSP games on your TV via composite cable. Bliss.

Link: Music prx plugin for CFW 3.90 M33
Link: FuSa 1.0 Beta: play PSP games on TV via composite cable, Speed Booster, more

That’s it from us this week! Oh and just in case you guys missed the PSN Update we posted earlier this week, just scroll down a bit to the PS3 section!

– QJ.NET’s PSPUpdates team

Ladies and gentlemen, Niko Bellic has just arrived in the building! But wait! We’ll take a tour around the PS3 team’s desks first and check out some news clippings for some recon work. So, first up! PSN Thursday!

It doesn’t get any more black-and-white than this: on May 1, Echochrome was finally released. Also, free demo of the week brings us some glaive action in the form of Dark Sector. There’s some content for Rock Band and American Idol Encore too, so try to vocalize first before diving in.

Link: NA PS Store May 1 update: Dark Sector demo, echochrome, Rock Band content

With the PSN goodies out of the way, let’s take on the big boss. Metal Gear Solid 4 is inching ever so closer now, and still, news about the game just keeps on marching by. Aside from hearing about Japan getting three more PS3-MGS4 bundles, headlining this week’s MGS4 news is that bit about Hideo Kojima talking about future projects.

In an interview, he reiterated once again how much he wanted to do so much more with MGS4 but couldn’t have because of limitations and resources. Also, he clued us in on his answer to a very interesting question…

Anyways, if you guys feel like having something to watch over the weekend, we got one crazy video for MGS4. Wait… Is it MGS4? It almost seems as if we’re taken back to… Whoa whoa. Slow down, boy.

See, in a video that follows the same thread of the “Metal Creed: Assassins of the Patriots” clip from last month, Kojima Productions seems to be teasing us once again with another burning question about MGS4‘s potential unlockables: is it possible to replay Metal Gear Solid?! What’s cool is that they also seemed to have used the same ending clip of Kojima asking the audience whether they liked it or not.

Could this be an ongoing thing? First, April 1, and now on May 1. Could they be releasing teaser gameplay vids on the first day of every month? Ah. We’ll see ’bout that come June!

Link: Hideo Kojima: on his last Metal Gear, projects after MGS4, more
Link: Video: MGS 4: Guns of the Patriots Revival trailer
Link: Japan to get three more Metal Gear Solid 4 PS3 bundles

In related news, after the fracas last week over server downtimes and registration problems, the beta phase of Metal Gear Online is moving smoothly. Not only that but there’s already been a beta patch update!

The update upgrades your beta with new maps and a new gameplay mode that brings Snake into the fray. Meanwhile, you can check out videos for MGO‘s Deathmatch and Sneaking Mission modes. Woot!

There’s also a bit of clarification on subscription fees (or the lack thereof) when the full game finally gets released. Turns out that the game would be playable for free, right out of the box. Of course, there’s a bit of a disclaimer that future microtransactions are also possible.

Many thanks to spicyhamster for the tip about the beta update!

Link: Metal Gear Online update brings Snake, new map to beta
Link: Metal Gear Online is ‘totally free’
Link: Konami reveals Metal Gear Online videos

Yeap. Time for Niko Bellic to shake his booty! 360 team, take it away! We’ll lend you a link to that PS3-multiplayer bug too!

– QJ.NET’s PlayStation 3 team

Man oh man. We’re not sure how the hell we can fit all of the GTA4 news in here. Because really, on top of the GTA news, we’ve got other Xbox 360 news to report too! Time to get it on… [cue big intake of breath from 360 team]

So Grand Theft Auto 4‘s been released right? Historic moment for the gaming industry: April 29, 2008 was definitely a date to etch into the annals of milestone moments in gaming history. Before that though, some last minute deets dropped in talking about the total cost it took to develop the game, as well as a projection of GTA4‘s success to be of Guinness World Record proportions.

Link: Grand Theft Auto 4 producer: Game took around US$ 100 million to make
Link: Grand Theft Auto 4, a potential Guinness Record-breaker

There’s been some 360-specific GTA4 news on the side too – something that the PS3 users don’t necessarily get. First on the list, Microsoft wants to remind people that the DLC will be coming in Autumn. (Y’know, just in case some people start demanding for ’em NAOW.) So for now, just enjoy the game!

Other 360-specific news come in the form of the Achievements for the game. The rumored list that was leaked online a few weeks back turns out to be the real deal after all. Also, some people have discovered that GTA4 is actually region locked. You might be thinking: so, what’s the big deal? Well, just to clarify things, not all Xbox 360 games are region locked.

Link: Rumored GTA 4 achievements legit, complete list released
Link: GTA IV Xbox 360 is region locked
Link: Microsoft: Grand Theft Auto 4 episodes this autumn

On to some unfortunate news… there have been reports of game freezes and glitches that popped up everywhere when thousands of players started their tour around Liberty City this week. Heck, even the PS3 version had its own debacle with a non-accessible multiplayer mode.

Rockstar is now looking into the problem of course, and is already promising to send out a fix ASAP.

Link: Grand Theft Auto IV suffering from freezing errors
Link: Rockstar support looking into GTA4 freeze issue
Link: Rockstar games working on fix for GTA IV freezing problems
Link: SCEA on GTA4 PS3 freeze: only a ‘limited number’ is affected

With all that out of the way, let’s end this whole slew of GTA4 news on a lighter note. Over at the UK, first-day sales have already reached stellar proportions, and some analysts are even forecasting that the previously forecasted sales figures would be a lot less than the actual turn out in the end.

Meanwhile, if you guys want to get cracking right away, the Social Club hub is now live and is issuing every registered gamer out there with one doozy of a challenge: complete the game in seven days. Well, it may not so much matter now since this challenge started in April 29, so if you wanna catch up, you’ve got a lot of ground to cover!

Link: Social Club portal launches, race to complete GTA4 in 7 days starts now
Link: GTA 4 sales to be higher than expected; EA’s offer on hold
Link: Grand Theft Auto 4 first day sales breaks sales record in U.K.

Hold up! we’re not done yet! A deal between Microsoft and Qmotions was signed this week to allow the latter to acces the Xbox 360 wireless technology and create some controllers for the console. They’ve already got the first producted lined out: “a full size skateboard that operates with the Xbox 360 and is compatible with popular skateboarding games.”

Link: Qmotions, Microsoft to introduce new wireless Xbox 360 peripherals

There’s been some interesting rumors boiling under the surface this week too. Both rumors, one following right after the other, revolve around a supposed Xbox 360 Blu-ray SKU. The grapevine names Pegatron Technology as the manufacturer of this new kind of unit, and some say it could even come out as early as the third quarter of this year!

Of course, Microsoft has time and time again stated that they have no plans of creating a Blu-ray player for the 360 (whether as an add-on or built in).

Link: Rumor: Xbox 360 Blu-ray console shipping by Q3 this year?
Link: Pegatron Technology to manufacture Xbox 360 Blu-ray?

Whew. We’re definitely all huffed and puffed out – main man Bellic sure brought the house down alright. We’ll let you guys in on any news come next week once the GTA4 issues have been resolved!

– QJ.NET’s Xbox 360 team

The PS3 and Xbox 360 may be having their GTA4-week, but for the Wii gamers in North America, it’s a week chock full of burned rubber on the asphalt, motorbike madness… and, well, blue turtle shells. Rawr. Mario Kart Wii is racing to many a Wii gamer’s home but let’s now cross the finish line by recapping the big news that happened this week!

To be recognized by the whole world for an achievement is definitely something you’d want to write home about. And by and large, one of the most acclaimed recognitions to be bestowed on a person is to get a spot on Time’s Most Influential Persons for the year. Dunno if some of you guys heard about it, but this week, that recognition was given to none other than Nintendo’s very own Shigeru Miyamoto!

Link: Shigeru Miyamoto as Time’s Most Influential Person for 2008

It’s not Miyamoto who’s only doing the news rounds this week. Satoru Iwata popped into the scene once again with some rather positive news. A lot of Wii users may be disappointed with the fact that the console’s flash memory is rather limited – but could this issue be finally addressed?

Iwata clued in that Nintendo is indeed looking into ways of dispelling users’ woes on a limited memory. As to how or when… we’ve yet to confirm more details with Nintendo.

Link: Satoru Iwata: Nintendo looking into Flash memory Solution

Iwata also addressed the supposed motion-sensing controller that Microsoft is keeping under wraps. If you guys have been following industry news lately, you’d know about this 360 controller rumor that surfaced some two to three weeks ago.

Well, whether or not this becomes a reality for Microsoft’s console, Satoru Iwata isn’t one to be fazed. According to Iwata, the only thing they’re concerned about right now is to “create and offer new surprises one after another.”

Link: Iwata not threatened by rumored Xbox 360 Wiimote clone

Ready! Set! Aaaand ….go fire that blue shell! If you want to get competitive with Mario Kart Wii, Nintendo’s revealed some details about the online tournament happening every few weeks from now on.

There’s a new tourney every week, each time, a new challenge is given. They could be anywhere from coin collecting to good old “get to the finish line as fast as you can” conditions.

Link: Nintendo reveals online Mario Kart Wii tournament details

Take a hairpin turn to next week! We’ll see you guys then!

– QJ.NET’s Nintendo Wii team

An upcoming title has finally been revealed. We’ve heard of some talk about a new Prince of Persia title supposedly being in development since ages past, but now, details have come to light. And kickass screenshots to boot.

What’s more is that the new Prince of Persia has confirmed platform releases already. If you’re an owner of a PS3, Xbox 360, PC, DS, or any combination thereof, then you’d be ecstatic. Just some of the things revealed to us this week are the following: cel-shaded graphics, bosses in Metal Gear Solid proportions, cel-shaded graphics, combat as cinematic as Advent Children in presentation, cel-shaded graphics, a story reminiscent of Okami, and oh, did we mention? The graphics are to be done in cel-shhh…

Oh just look at the screens.

Link: New Prince of Persia confirmed for PS3, 360, PC, DS
Link: Prince of Persia’s new look and initial details revealed

It’s still a couple months away from E3 and already we’re hearing some news about the upcoming game convention. It seems as though Activision (of Call of Duty and Guitar Hero fame) will not be attending the event, stating “business reasons” as the deciding factor for their no-show.

More than this though, it turns out that Activision and Vivendi have actually left the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), with some analysts saying they might have done so due to conflict with the ESA board’s president. Meanwhile, other developers have likewise decided to flake from the E3 event, but have still remained under the wing of the association.

In other corporate news, it’s now final: Infogrames has acquired Atari for US$ 11 million. Just the lucky break that Atari might have needed to keep afloat, especially after some reported financial struggles. In the new acquisition, Atari will become an entirely-owned division of Infogrames.

Link: Activision not attending this year’s E3
Link: Activision drops out of ESA, four other publishers to not attend E3 this year
Link: Merger complete: Infogrames acquires Atari for US$ 11 million

More number crunching for us this week. NPD’s results for the month of April might be coming out in the next couple of days, so for now, we settle for weekly results around the world.

Over at Japan, the PSP is going ever so strong in the hardware sales for the week ending April 26 (that’d be last week). It’s sold a little over 92 thousand units and it’s keeping everyone else at bay with a rather large gap – the Wii, which is on second place, clocked at around 48 thousand consoles sold.

Coughing up some software sales in Japan now, Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G was finally dethroned and got replaced by Mario Kart Wii. But over at the UK, Wii Fit is sitting sexy right at the top of the charts with Japan’s topnotcher – Mario Kart – coming in at second place.

Do note that these are the numbers for the week prior to the release of Grand Theft Auto 4.

Link: Japan: PSP still hot and heavy in hardware charts
Link: Media Create Japan: Mario Kart Wii top software title once again
Link: UK Charts: Wii Fit debuts, third largest video game launch ever

Aw, forget the day spa, Zoolander. Here’s something you can unwind with. Depending on what type of colored lenses you’re using, you might see the gaming industry as a controversial one. But despite all these objections being thrown out by every Tom, Dick, and, well, Thompson, other games can actually be healthy.

In comes a new study from East Carolina University, stating that casual games can relieve stress. Using Bejeweled 2 as part of the tests conducted, it was revealed that the game could reduce stress by as much as 54%.

Link: Stressed out? Pick up a casual game, it’s good for your health

Now this story came in right before last week’s QuickPeek was published so it had little to no chance of getting included in issue 44. We’ll excuse it for now though, since we all know that some light news to cap the week is always a welcome “cherry on top.”

With all the hype of things going high-def (Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo HD, anyone?), who wouldn’t want to see other “remakes” as well? And that’s whether or not the original publishers or devs would get a move on it.

For love of the game, a group of homebrew developers, coders, and artists banded together for the S2HD project. That’s short for “Sonic the Hedgehog 2 HD.” They’ve already gathered and produce much content to give everyone a little proof-of-concept sneak peek, and from the way it’s going, they’re really pulling out all the stops on this.

Godspeed, guys! If this project gets enough exposure, who knows? The next time everyone else would see it might be on PSN, XBL, or WiiWare!

Link: Homebrew project: Sonic the Hedgehog 2 in hi-definition

A group of moms (Mothers Against Drunk Driving; MADD for short) are aiming to get Grand Theft Auto 4 re-rated by the ESRB. This is after learning that the game allows you – as Niko Bellic – to get plastered-drunk and then hop into a car and drive. Wait, what?

We know MADD only has good intentions in their goals, and even Rockstar (yes, they’ve already responded to MADD’s outcry) explains that they respect the group’s mission. But regardless of the issue of DUI in the game, we hear from eaglebaize.

What does a 16 year old say when asked about sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll? Well, there are always exceptions. Yes, some of them can get away with saying “*****y” every now and then, but see, not all sixteen year olds turn into drugees. Not all 16 year olds turn into alcoholics. And not all sixteen year olds turn… sexually active even before getting married.

Cheers to the honor students of the world! Our hats off to the National Honor Society members!

Link: Mothers Against Drunk Driving wants ESRB to change GTA 4 rating to Adults Only

Originally posted May 03, 2008 at 04:09PM.