News

Play! A Video Game Symphony, the established, aptly named game-based concert series which made its live debut this past April, will continue its world tour as scheduled by stopping off in Toronto at the end of the month, marking the tour's first visit to Canada. The concert will be held at the Hummingbird Centre for the Performing Arts on Saturday, the 30th of September at 8:00 PM.

"The Canadian debut of the Play! concert series is highly anticipated in Toronto by video game fans and serious symphony-goers alike. The Hummingbird Centre, located in the heart of downtown Toronto, is the perfect venue to host this concert series which pulses to the beat of modern life," stated the show's producer, Jason Michael Paul, the head of JMP Productions. As the individual most accountable for conceiving the two American concert tours inspired by Final Fantasy, the Dear Friends and the extended More Friends series, he has certainly transfered into sight to fans of music and RPGs.

Play! A Video Game Symphony shall produce about two hours worth of musical pieces from a wide variety of today's (and some of yesterday's) most popular video game titles that span several genres: Anything from Super Mario Bros. to The Legend of Zelda; across Sonic the Hedgehog and beyond World of Warcraft; through Halo and back to Final Fantasy. As each performance trails on, detailed in-game scenes and other relevant visuals highlight the massive projection screens as the themes play on.

"Many of today's most thrilling musical scores are being produced by composers working in the video game genre," Arnie Roth, a highly acclaimed conductor, says. "This spectacular concert series speaks to the artistic sophistication of this form of entertainment. It sends a clear message that video game culture has crossed into the mainstream and is capable of attracting the attention - not only of gamers - but of aficionados of orchestral music."

Check out Ticketmaster for regular and VIP tickets; both are still available at the present moment. Although it's priced at a rather hefty sum, VIP access grants fans the fortuity to personally meet Jeremy Soule, Arnie Roth, Nobou Uematsu, and Takenobu Mitsuyoshi.

Source: GameDaily

It's probably old news for a lot of you by now, but if you want a PS3 anytime soon you're probably in a world of hurt. And yes, that goes for everyone, everywhere reading this. If you're an American, you're going to be fighting everyone else for only four hundred thousand launch consoles on 17 November. If you're Japanese, then, MAWAII - but you're going to be diving into a pool that only has one hundred thousand on their 11 November launch.

If you're anywhere else, I am sincerely sorry. You're not getting anything at all until March 2007, and there's no word yet whether Sony will be able to catch up with their projected two million units shipped by that time. Obviously the odds aren't looking that great, but you never know.

Wonder why this is the case? You'll be shocked. Sony's having problems with Blu-Ray production! Factory production issues are slowing the production of working drives for the units, and it seems that shipping of the console can't really ramp up until the lone optical media device on the box actually works.

Microsoft, of course, finds this hilarious - Neil Thompson, head of the Xbox group in the UK, had this to say: "We know how challenging it is to pull off a global launch, so it's not surprising that Sony has backed away from their previously announced launch plan, due to the unproven technology they are trying to pack in to their console." Someone might want to let Neil know that it's not as if his parent company has ever launched anything but Xbox on time, though, don't you think?

Sources: HEXUS.gaming

Xbox Today Canada

Sony may have taken a hit in the handheld market with their overpriced and under-purchased UMDs, but they show no signs of giving up their attempt to turn the PSP into the ultimate multi-functional gaming device. Two new peripherals announced in Japan expand the PSP's potential uses for around $50 a pop. For 5000 and 6000 yen, respectively, Japanese gamers can be the proud owners of the Chotto Shot and GPS Receiver.

The Chotto Shot is a camera that will also ship with software for editing images and video and will go on sale November 2 in Japan. The GPS receiver will function as a GPS device, but its capabilities will also be incorporated into future PSP game releases. The GPS Receiver will be available December 7.

Both peripherals will have their debut starting September 22 at the Tokyo Game Show. So far, no release dates or prices for regions outside of Japan have been discussed.

Source: GameSpot

With more and more previously existing role-playing games undergoing the portable treatment nowadays, it's not too astonishing to find Disgaea series developer Nippon Ichi Software making it's fervor to remake the PlayStation 2 strategy RPG, Makai Senki Disgaea (Disgaea: Hour of Darkness), for release on the PlayStation Portable crystal clear. The company has planned to launch the handheld RPG into the palms of Japanese gamers on the 30th of November - naturally, in two separate forms: A first print limited edition priced at around 6,800 yen (roughly $58.42 US), and the standard version available for 4,800 yen ($41.24 US). As is typical this early on, no scheduled domestic launch has yet been spoken of.

Apart from the sparsely decorated Makai Senki Disgaea Portable teaser site, very little in the way of enlightenment on the highly acclaimed title's PSP incarnation has been revealed. Fortunately, the game's fully functioning official website, as well as its included illustrative content, is expected to appear online August 30th.

Source: RPGFan

Namco Bandai, in an interview examining the history and future of the Xenosaga RPG series, revealed that the third installment, due out near the end of the month, is intended to be a mixed bag incorporating the many requests of fans and the creator's own ideas, ultimately ensuing in what the company perceives as the perfect handling of the game's mechanics and storyline.

Like past installments, Xenosaga Episode III: Also Sprach Zarathustra is said to feature a large volume of cutscenes; noticably more than Episode II, but quite a bit less than the visually overloaded Episode I. According to Namco Bandai, this "middle ground" helps to produce the best pacing to balance the story and gameplay.

It's been additionally confirmed once again that Xenosaga Episode III indeed marks the end of main character Shion Uzuki's story arc, yet no word was given on whether the upcoming game will introduce a new one. Interestingly enough, although the company previously announced that the newest title may also be the final chapter of the series itself, very little was declared in regards to that prospect during the interview.

The Xenosaga series was at one time expected to last up to six installments, but because of lackluster sales of the first two games the length was shortened down to three. Fortunately, Namco Bandai currently appears to be on the side of fans by seemingly allowing the series one more shot at success - an outcome that should be determined by the overall sales of Episode III. As the company recently beamed, "if reactions are good - who knows!"

Aside from the main series, the company remains undecided on whether any of the three Japanese-exclusive titles - Xenosaga Freaks, Xenosaga: Pied Piper, and Xenosaga I & II DS - will ever make their way to the West. However, the company has divulged plans to put together an English rendering of a movie on the Japanese Xenosaga website as a means to further illustrate the events which took place during the single year between Episode II and Episode III.

Xenosaga Episode III: Also Sprach Zarathustra is set to launch in North America on August 29th.

Source: RPGamer

Thanks to some short-lived and mildly frustrating work, we've gotten our third site up under the CoN domain. We've added a second site dedicated to the internal workings of our favorite games, this time from our happy staffer Djibriel. His old site was pretty ad-ridden, so it was the least we could do to get him set up with something a bit nicer.

So, have fun at the Collapse of Heaven and Earth: http://tenchinohoukai.cavesofnarshe.com/

Thanks, Dji!