Sony goes half and half

Just how much does the PlayStation Portable (aka PSP) mean to Sony? A lot. The Q’s informants have caught word that the company has split its development resources straight down the middle—half is going to consoles and half to PSP. That’s some serious bidness, friends. Of course, there’s also the rumor that half of Sony’s console development group has left the world of PS2 behind and is already hard at work on the first batch of PS3 titles.

Perfect dark waits for halo

We may be waitin’ a little while for a good look at Rare’s prequel/sequel/ whatchamacallit to its Nintendo 64 first-person shooter Perfect Dark. Yours truly hears that Microsoft is waiting for Halo 2 hype to pass before unleashing Perfect Dark Zero on an unsuspecting public. But those who’ve seen it say it’s absolutely awesome. Do I believe them? Hmm...well, I did like PD on the 64....

EA Sports closer to Live than ever before?

While EA has been slow to hop on the Xbox Live wagon train, there’s more than a sporting chance that the company will soon change its tune, beginning with the its [insert sport here] 2005 games.

Square Enix prepares onslaught

The drought of Square Enix releases is about to come to an end. The Q’s well-placed spies in the land of the rising sun have learned that fewer than 20 but more than 18 titles are in the pipeline for U.S. translation work, including the few that we know about (like Final Fantasy XI and Sword of Mana).

Online Star Wars heads for PS2

The Q’s Jedi mind tricks have yielded this tasty nugget of info from deep in Marin County, California. Seems that LucasArts is working on a new online title for PS2, set in the Star Wars universe, that will play similar to the PC hit Battlefield 1942 (i.e., lots of troops, vehicles, all “real” people playing online). Online gaming and Star Wars...wow, you know, I never thought of it before, but that’s, like, a perfect combination.

KOTOR sequel online

What? Knights of the Old Republic...2? And I’m not even halfway through the first Star Wars–filled funfest! Guess I better get crackin’. While the sequel is still reportedly a ways off, there is one detail being bandied about that just might interest you: It may include co-op online play. Now that’s usin’ your Force powers for good....

Digital Dustbin

In 1985, the 8-bit Nintendo Entertainment System shipped with its very own Robotic Operating Buddy (aka R.O.B., as seen in a track background of GameCube’s F-Zero GX). After receiving several commands, R.O.B. would take his sweet mechanical time, lethargically dropping spinning gyros on the second controller’s buttons to open color-coded doors in Gyromite, or helping solve rudimentary puzzles in Stack-Up. Nanoseconds out of the box, however, R.O.B. became obsolete as non-glue-sniffing kids everywhere figured out that pushing the buttons themselves was exponentially quicker.

Stealthy Freebie

To ensure complete infiltration this fall, Ubi Soft is gonna bribe people to pre-order the squad-based shooter Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six 3 (Xbox, November 2003). Starting September 22, gamers who plop down cash in advance for R63 will receive a bonus Xbox disc containing a bunch of exclusive stealthy content. To whet your appetite for destruction, here’s a look at what the disc offers:

Four standalone demos (Rainbow Six 3, Ghost Recon: Island Thunder, Ghost Recon, and Splinter Cell)

Three new Splinter Cell missions (Kola Cell, which is available now via Xbox Live download, and two new ones: Vselka and Vselka Infiltration)

Four new Island Thunder maps

Playing Splinter Cell and Island Thunder content will require the original games. Both will eventually be available for free download over Live, though not until after Rainbow Six 3 is released (to encourage you to pre-order the game and get this disc earlier, natch). And if you’re a Clancy fan who doesn’t have Live, this is your only course of action.

Copyright © 2003 Ziff Davis Media Inc. All Rights Reserved. Originally appearing in Electronic Gaming Monthly.