I’m off to a Swiss mountain chalet for a well earned break tomorrow. Expect normal blogging to resume here a week from now.

You probably won’t know this one. Planet Harriers was a 3D sequel to Space Harrier that looked loads of fun but saw limited arcade release and the promised Dreamcast sequel never surfaced. I may never get to play it either:

According to a survey conducted by Video Arcade Preservation Society of approximately 800 collectors and their nearly 20,000 games, there are no known instances of this game owned by a known collector.

So says Coin-Op Museum. They’re not even sticking it in the Space Harrier Complete Collection. The Not-Quite-Complete Collection then.

Besides a certain controller not much from TGS has impressed me this year. Monkey Ball DS? Sure, looks fun enough. Looks great in motion but it’s crying out for a tilt control peripheral.

Ninteny Nine Nights, despite the Mizuguchi name attachment, sounds like it might actually be a bit disappointing. What is it with some early Xbox 360 games (Kameo being another) throwing hundreds of characters at the screen as the only way to use the full power of the console? Cheaper and quicker I guess but I hope it doesn’t become a lazy trend.

The Metal Gear Solid 4 trailer? Yeah, alright, that was probably a highlight especially since it seems to be real time. Project Gotham Racing 3 is still looking superb though I do hope they manage to get it to sixty FPS purely for that extra touch of smoothness. Fingers crossed eh?

Very polished. Certainly nicer than the dull Valve ones. There’s even one for Action Half-Life which made me very happy. Yes.

They’re taking another stab at this despite the apparent utter failure of the current Gizmondo. Widescreen and “more powerful than the PSP”. I’ll believe it when I see it. Just where are these guys getting all their money from?

This still feels like the only thing the internet is talking about right now, and probably rightly so. Here are a few opinions:

Kieron Gillen - It’s reinvented the format war in an actual meaningful way again, rather than just brand loyalty. Either you want more polygons or you want the Future.
Brinstar - I am floored. Leave it to Nintendo to do something different.
Cathode Tan - A motion detection one handed controller isn’t going to make anyone feint, but it’s not a bad step forward.

I think the most telling thing is that most gamers no longer seem to consider the “Revolution” name overblown and uneccessary, even if it is still a codename (though I have a feeling this one will stick). My opinion? Like any good revolution, this is seriously going to change things.

I remember hearing a quote along the lines of “the next Elite will not be set in space”. Maybe this is it. It’s called The Outsider:

The game radically enriches the player’s experience by abandoning the traditional, prescriptive, mostly linear story of current generation games, and replaces it by simulating characters’ motivations and aims. This gives the player genuine freedom to change the story outcomes in a way that has not been seen before - each player will get a truly unique, sophisticated, visceral experience rather than simply switching between ‘good’ or ‘evil’.

Freedom to direct the story and grey area choices beyond good and evil? Fabulous. This must be the game Frontier has been saving their cash (earned on licensed games like the latest Rollercoaster Tycoon) to make exactly how they want it. Read the whole page, it already sounds utterly intruiging.

Sweet mercy. Apparently in-game and stone me does it look fantastic.

I’m pretty sure Microsoft will show some stunning stuff too at their proper unveiling at X05, but there’s no doubt the PS3 is going to churn out some sweet sights while offering new game design possibilities just like every new generation does. Of course, it appears the Revolution has everyone trumped when it comes to new possibilities, but I’ll be buying them all regardless.

The secret is out and I think it looks great. Strange at first, but when you see how it’s used you’ll love it too.

As rumoured it offers telescopic control via the remote-like side which can also have all sorts of controllers plugged into it, not just the analogue stick thing you see here on the left - drums, dance mats, presumably even PS2-style pads to make ports easier. The remote can also be turned on its side to act as a NES pad. Very clever stuff indeed.

As Nintendo promised, I think this kind of hugely intuitive control will bring in all kinds of new gamers. Their approach of innovating (in the truest sense of the word) rather than primarily beefing up the graphics power (something they’ve admited they can’t afford to do) is a brilliant way to continue competing with Microsoft and Sony.

Update: As is her way, demon-typist Alice has a massive writeup of the Iwata speech.

I remember reading some comments along the lines of “Kameo for the Xbox doesn’t look too next gen to me”. Compare this to this - I’d say that’s a fair jump myself. (spotted on this here Shack thread)

Damn, Sega is really splashing about the cash this year. They’ve signed Bizarre to work on a next gen franchise. Bizarre of course make the Project Gotham Racing series but also made the brilliant MSR on Dreamcast as well as the underated Fur Fighters.

Something tells me whatever they’re working on won’t be a racing game, these talented guys have more strings to their bow than that.

No more gunk and dust under your keys! It’s primarily intended for use in hospitals though I can see it catching on elsewhere if it isn’t too ugly.