News

A Nintendo official at the NSider forums has reported that Nintendo will answer any Wi-Fi Connection questions when its Wi-Fi site launches soon. The site will explain the DS's wireless functions work and where U.S. hotspots are, as well as many more things.

Nintendo's Wi-Fi site will launch next Monday, November 7.

Source: Games Are Fun

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Good news for everyone who, like me, is getting incredibly worked up about the Wi-Fi. I've seen a few of the things detailing how the Wi-Fi works, but i'm really hoping the rest of my questions get answered.

Perhaps hoping to spur holiday sales of its handheld system, Sony will be making available a new PSP package this month. The $299 "PSP Giga Pack" will bundle the PSP system with several extras, including an upgraded memory stick, a USB cable, and the new PSP stand, in addition to the peripherals already included in the $249 "PSP Value Pack." Sony also confirmed that the Value Pack will continue to be made available, and that the new 1 GB memory stick will be sold separately later this year.

With this winter being the PSP's first holiday season, a package containing everything a PSP owner needs to get started (except for games and movies, of course) is expected, by some, to sell well. But will a lack of variety and underabundance of games hinder Christmas sales? Die-hard fans of the system may already own one, rendering this new package already obsolete for them, while many interested gamers may be waiting on games instead of peripheral upgrades.

More information about the PSP and its accessories' hardware capabilities can be found at Gaming Age.

Tales of Phantasia, the start to the Namco's Tales series of RPGs, will have it's 2003 Game Boy Advance port hit Europe in the first quarter of 2006, according to Nintendo of Europe. There is no word on a possible future release in the US, but rumors are circulating that a 2006 release is probable, but details are fuzzy thus far.

ToP was first released on the SNES in 1995, then ported to the Playstation in 1998, and most recently ported to the GBA in 2003, all only in Japan. This new release is likely in large part thanks to the popularity of the most recent Tales game, the publicly and critically acclaimed Tales of Symphonia. The Tales series has enjoyed only a small cult following outside of Japan previous to Tales of Symphonia's success with the Playstation games Tales of Destiny and Tales of Destiny II (the latter is known as Tales of Eternia in Japan; this is extremely confusing because a direct sequel to Tales of Destiny was made for the PS2 in 2002, also called Tales of Destiny 2) and widespread emulation of Tales of Phantasia thanks to DeJap Translations' 2000 translation patch. Now the rest of the world (hopefully including the US at some point) can legally enjoy one of Namco and Wolf Team's masterpieces.

Sources: RPGamer.com (news source)
Wikipedia (Tales series background info)

The world certainly is full of oddities. Gackt, a very popular singer in Japan, recently reached an agreement with Square-Enix concerning the game Final Fantasy VII: Dirge of Cerberus. More specifically, the deal entails the following:

• Gackt will provide music for the game, including two songs entitled 'Redemption' and 'Longing'.
• He'll be reserved a place in the game itself as an "important character". Instead of using a CG likeness, Gackt will be filmed by a camera and then entered among the computer generated scenes.
• Gackt will receive a custom clothing design by illustrator Tetsuya Nomura, and he'll be able to wear the same outfit on his next concert tour.

This won't be the first time Gackt has had a major part in a video game title; he starred in the main role in the beat-em-up Bujingai: The Forsaken City last year and has served as the physical inspiration behind a number of other characters. It's currently unknown just what significance Gackt's presence will have in the game, especially with Dirge of Cerberus only three months away from its January 26th launch date.

Source: Games Are Fun

The latest issue of Shonen Jump magazine shined a bit of light on some more details surrounding Konami's newest PlayStation 2 addition to their beloved RPG series, Suikoden V.

To kick things off, the traditional six member parties will make a triumphant return, having been downsized to four in Suikoden IV. The battle formations, although a little more free in structure than in previous titles, will also make a comeback. Among the different formations possible is a six-character arc and a setup of three rows consisting of one, two, and three party members.

As fans of the series are aware, Konami has always made a point to include characters from past Suikoden titles within the worlds of newer games. Following suit, it's been confirmed that Georg Prime (Suikoden II) will make an appearance in Suikoden V, leading to the conclusion that the game takes place within a timeframe similar to that of the first three installments.

Confirmations regarding new characters have popped up left and right as well. There's the Knight Captain Felid, who's married to the queen, Alshtat. Limsleia is his daughter; she's also the sister of the hero. Party members mentioned are Miakis, Galeon, Kyle, and Fuwala-fuwalu, yet no details on the latter four beyond their names have been provided. A highly gifted mage named Zerase will additionally become part of the entourage through the 108 Stars of Destiny, and the group's strategist, a woman known as Lucredia, will be assisted by Shius, a soldier, and Lelei, Shius' partner.

Japan is expected to receive Suikoden V in stores on February 23, 2006. Konami has announced a North American release for the game, but no date has been revealed.

Source: RPGamer

If you frequent the news forum or the front page of the site, you no doubt noticed our call for newsposters to help Silverfork with her duties of, well, posting news. We had a great response with a surprising number of auditions, and thank you to all who sent us an email to apply. Having read through them, we offered spots to three of your fellow CoN members; I'm happy to say that all three gladly accepted our offer!

So, please give your congratulations to our three new newsposters, Laszlow, Karasuman, and Zero_Hawk. They all sent in great auditions and you can look forward to getting good news from them for some time to come. We're in the process of getting them settled in now, so be ready to read!