Daily News Spin — August 16, 2001 (Thursday)

Dungeon Siege slips to 2002

Nothing but great news these days. Microsoft and Gas Powered have decided to slip the release of Dungeon Siege to 2002 we've been told. They want more time to really polish the game.

"Our decision to delay the release of Dungeon Siege is one of the toughest we�ve had to make, but we firmly believe that this is the right choice given that one of the most critical steps in creating an RPG is the tuning and balancing stage," said Chris Taylor, Lead Designer, Gas Powered Games. "We�ve made a promise to build a game that delivers an over-the-top experience, and we�ll do whatever it takes to deliver on that promise."

Titus gains control of Interplay

Titus, another one of those French gaming companies, has now purchased 51% of the stock in Interplay and plans on voting in its own board at the next meeting in September.

No real way of knowing how this will affect Interplay, but Titus has been more focused on console stuff. We'll speculate and assume that Black Isle Studios will be fine, as will Matrix development with Shiny, but everything else may be scrutinzed, including the new multiplayer division of Interplay that's working on an unannounced MMOG.

Thanks Stefan!

Final Fantasy X spikes PS2 sales

Business Day is reporting that the release of FFX just about doubled sales of the PS2 in Thailand.

Sony's game unit, Sony Computer Entertainment, sold more than 150,000 PlayStation 2s in the week of July 15, 60,000 to 70,000 more than the company sold in the period prior to the release of Final Fantasy X, Sony Computer Entertainment spokesman Koichiro Katsurayama said.

NY Times reviews Anachronox, Red Faction

We don't normally link to reviews, but these two games are combined in one review, and it's actually quite a well-done review for a mainstream publication. The reviewer hates the ending in Anachronox:

After 40 brilliant hours of involved storytelling and fascinating game play, the anemic finale was a shock. It was as though Dashiell Hammett had died while writing "The Maltese Falcon" and the mailman had tacked on an ending.

Normally mainstream pubs seem to review a game after about 30 minutes of play and simply regurgitates the hype in the press kit in more even-handed tones. This reviewer seems to have actually played the games extensively.

3am

Er, we'll post some more news later. We just wanted to get the Interplay and Dungeon Siege news up. We'll find some 3am stuff about zombies or space aliens or something so come back. It'll be worth it! Promise!

Ok, some alien crap. This may be the world's biggest crop circle. Probably done by drunken farmers, but if you squint you can imagine you see aliens.

A star system 45 light years away that may have planets like ours probably has aliens. They probably play computer games where evil humans invade and try to steal their green-skinned females.

Micromachines may be a reality. Japanese scientists have used lasers to draw the image of a bull that's the size of a red blood cell. They say this means they can make tiny machines that will fit in our blood vessels. These machines will probably be piloted by aliens. (That's our guess. The scientists are not commenting on this possibility.)

Bullfrogs terrorize Vancouver. They're taking over the ponds and since they are actually American bullfrogs that were imported to start a frog leg industry, they're aliens. They're attacking cats, even. C'mon, pussies, fight back!

Those crazy Russians have grown a penis on a man's arm. No word on whether it's helped him get more dates. What a dick, though!

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