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October 29, 1999 Nintendo is spending $2.9 billion to manufacture chips for its Dolphin system in conjunction with NEC. Next month, construction will begin on the facility that will manufacture the chips. The plant is expected to open in August of 2000 with a production capacity of 10,000 wafers per month (which equals much less than 10,000 working chips produced per month). So let me get this straight: Production begins in August 2000 with a production capacity of well under 10,000 chips per month, and it's supposed to be released before the end of 2000? As long as Nintendo continues to insult the intelligence of gamers across the world with their ridiculous claims, I'm losing a little bit more respect for them every day. A recent NBC news report interviewed a child psychologist about Pokemon. The psychologist said that pretty much any kind of toy a child could want can be found in Pokemon form. He said it's brainwashing because Nintendo intentionally set out to make products that children would obsess over, and he claimed that kids are becoming obsessed with Pokemon and unable to concentrate on their school work or anything else in their lives. The news camera showed someone at a school confiscating a Game Boy Color from a kid. Like any kid who gets something confiscated from him or her at school, this one claimed that he didn't know Pokemon had been banned in the school. Enix's 2D PlayStation RPG Dragon Quest 7 is (supposedly) going to be released in Japan on December 29, and it's only two and a half years late! The game was originally supposed to be direct competition for Final Fantasy 7, but that didn't work out because Square ended up releasing Final Fantasy 8 almost a full year before Dragon Quest 7. In order to bring Dragon Quest 7 and other games to the US, Enix is setting up its own studio in Seattle, Washington. Enix previously opened up a US division in 1989, but shut it down in 1995 due to poor sales of their games in the US. Ascii has announced that they are bringing their two-year-old PlayStation game RPG Maker over to the US in early 2000. As anyone who owns a Dreamcast but not a Dreamcast keyboard will tell you, entering in text with an on-screen keyboard is a pain in the ass. Can you imagine how long it would have taken Square to make Final Fantasy 8 if they had to enter in all the text through an on-screen keyboard? Maybe that is what's taking Enix so long with Dragon Quest 7... The Japanese publication Famistu Weekly recently unveiled a slew of screen shots from Resident Evil: Code Veronica featuring Resident Evil 1's Chris Redfield. Capcom will not officially confirm that Chris is in the game, despite the existence of screen shots which clearly show he's in the game. There is still no sign of Barry Burton in any upcoming Resident Evil game, although Capcom did tell Master Gamer in an interview a while back that we should probably expect to see Barry back at some point in the future. Resident Evil: Code Veronica is due out for the Dreamcast in March, although that release date may be pushed back again given that it's not due out in Japan until February. Syphon Filter has been the number one selling PlayStation game overall for the past eight months. While the game has only ever been at the top of the charts briefly, the cumulative sales for February through September show that Syphon Filter out-sold every other PlayStation game. At this rate, Syphon Filter could end up being 1999's best-selling PlayStation game. Last year's best-selling PlayStation game was Gran Turismo, and the year before that it was Final Fantasy 7. A new video game league, appropriately titled the Video Gamers League, has been formed to hold massive competitions for a variety of games for the Dreamcast, PlayStation, and Nintendo 64. The only problem is that you have to fly or drive to Dallas, Texas to participate. The league's official web site (www.videogamersleague.com) says that you can save $10 by signing up before November 1; the same web site says VGL membership is free... An Extreme Championship Wrestling official recently confirmed that Acclaim and ECW have signed a video game deal. In addition, Acclaim recently purchased the domain name hardcorerevolution.com (a name that could easily be mistaken for a porn site), and it is believed that Acclaim's first ECW game will be based on the same engine as WWF War Zone and WWF Attitude. The Pro Wrestling Torch newsletter reports that the first ECW games from Acclaim could be released as early as February. The world's first online game rental store is now up at webgamezone.com. The online store charges $5 per rental and lets you keep each game for 10 days after you receive it. The store's main content partner is a little- known web site called Master Gamer... wait a minute, that's my site! Seriously, Web Game Zone will be posting selected Master Gamer reviews on their site in the future, as well as linking to many other Master Gamer reviews. Namco has responded to claims of Soul Calibur technical problems. Some gamers were claiming that they would save their game in Soul Calibur, only to come back later and find that it wasn't there anymore or it wouldn't load. Namco says that there shouldn't be any problems with the official VMU from Sega, and that the people who are experiencing these problems are more than likely using un-licensed, third-party memory cards. Apparently fearing that 400 cars wasn't enough, Polyphony Digital has announced that Gran Turismo 2 is now going to feature 500 cars from 36 different companies. Also, the game's soundtrack will feature Beck, Stone Temple Pilots, Filter, Gearwhore, Soul Coughing, and Crystal Method. I just hope that while Polyphony is busy signing deals with car manufacturers and acquiring other licenses, they keep their focus on the actual game itself. NEWS BRIEFS Midway is working on bringing Gauntlet Legends to the Dreamcast in mid- 2000. Midway has also acquired the rights to make racing games based on the not-so-lucrative CART license for the next four years. This is just what the world needs! Yet another company making boring CART games that get bad reviews and sell poorly... The developer MGM Interactive is using for its next James Bond game is Eurocom, contrary to previous rumors that Rare would make another Bond game in the neat future. Eurocom will make a Nintendo 64 game based on the new Bond movie The World Is Not Enough (co-starring the lovely Denise Richards). Giants: Citizen Kabuto, the PC game that wowed the crowds at this year's E3 show, has been delayed. It is now scheduled to be released "sometime in 2000." The PC version of Turok: Rage Wars has been cancelled. The Nintendo 64 version of the multi-player-focused game is still due out this fall. Acclaim says that the game was developed with the N64 and its four-player capacity in mind, and so the gameplay wouldn't translate well to the PC. For those of you who are wondering, memory cards for the PlayStation and PlayStation 2 will not be compatible with each other. PlayStation 1 memory cards will only work on PlayStation 1 games, and PlayStation 2 memory cards will only work on PlayStation 2 games. The Professional Gamers League has cancelled its fall season. The reason given for the cancellation was that the games they were going to feature would have been eclipsed by newer games (like Quake 3: Arena). With that kind of logic, why does anyone ever play any game for any system? After all, it's just going to be eclipsed by something else eventually... Tecmo claims that its new Ninja Gaiden game for the PlayStation 2 will be released in the US before the end of next year. Tecmo has also revealed that Dead or Alive 2 will be brought to the Dreamcast and not the PlayStation 2. An executive at Sega of America recently said that there will be two new Sonic games released in late 2000. Hong Kong-based David Console Shop is advertising an adapter that allows PlayStation controllers to be used on Dreamcast games. Check it out by clicking here. The Wall Street Journal reports that Microsoft has decided against partnering with Intel for its upcoming video game system, the X-Box. Instead, Microsoft is thinking about partnering with AMD, whose Athlon CPU out-performs Intel's Pentium 3. Interplay is bringing its hit PC game Baldur's Gate to the PlayStation in early 2000 in addition to the previously announced Dreamcast version. The PlayStation version will come on three CDs, and even on three CDs it may have to be scaled down for it to run smoothly on the PlayStation. SALES CHARTS In the week of October 3-9, the top ten best-selling video games for all systems were: 1. Pokemon Red for Game Boy 2. Pokemon Blue for Game Boy 3. Pokemon Pinball for Game Boy Color 4. Final Fantasy 8 for PlayStation (click on the blue text for Master Gamer's review of the game) 5. NASCAR 2000 for PlayStation 6. Dino Crisis for PlayStation 7. Final Fantasy Anthology for PlayStation 8. Madden NFL 2000 for PlayStation 9. Driver for PlayStation 10.Pokemon Snap for Nintendo 64 On a points basis (with the first-place game earning its system ten points, the second-place game earning its system nine points, and so on), the PlayStation won with 27 points, followed by the Game Boy with 19 points, the Game Boy Color with eight points, and the Nintendo 64 with one point. There were no Dreamcast or PC games on the list, and there was only one N64 game on the list. The following are the top three selling games for each of these systems: Dreamcast: Marvel vs. Capcom, NFL 2K, Sega Bass Fishing Nintendo 64: Pokemon Snap, WCW Mayhem, Gauntlet Legends PC: Age of Empires 2, Rainbow Six: Rogue Spear, Deer Hunter 3 The following are old games that are still among the top ten best-selling games for their respective systems: Gran Turismo, Rainbow Six, Super Smash Bros., Zelda 64, and Goldeneye 007 Sales Drop-Offs WWF Attitude. Not only is it being out-sold by WCW Mayhem, but it's also being out-sold by WCW/NWO Thunder, which is almost a year old. NFL Blitz 2000. Not only is it losing to NFL 2K on the Dreamcast, but also to both GameDay and Madden on the PlayStation. Speaking of Madden, it's the only game that's in the top ten for three different systems right now. It's #4 on the N64, #5 on the PlayStation, and #10 on the PC. Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver. It was only in the PlayStation top ten for a few weeks before disappearing from the charts. Superman. After debuting near the top of the N64 charts, Superman has disappeared from the list now that word has spread that it sucks. The same can be said for Mario Party. Star Wars Episode I games. Neither Racer nor The Phantom Menace are in the PC top ten, Racer is no longer in the N64 top ten, and The Phantom Menace is barely hanging on with the #10 spot on the PlayStation. Drakan: Order of the Flame. After starting out with decent sales, Drakan is now being out-sold by such games as Barbie Super Sports, Tomb Raider 1 and 2, Frogger, Toy Story, Rayman, and 3D Ultra Pinball. Sources for news: Fastest Game News Online, GameSpot, GameFan, Blue's News, GI News, Next Generation, Adrenaline Vault, The Magic Box, Happy Puppy, PSX 2 Online, IGNPSX, IGN 64, Nintendorks, The Sega Zone, Sega Otaku, Gaming Age, The NPD Group, www.hamsterdance.com
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