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I wince just writing this, but there has been some heavy speculation that Sony will soar to new heights with a $499 pricetag on its Playstation 3.

Sony has been pretty quiet on the topic, stating only that "it will be expensive" and not even directing that comment to the general public, but given what we know about the technology Sony intends to include and how much that technology costs, the previous assumption of something around the 360's $399 seems naive. For instance, Sony has been widely touting BluRay DVD technology, and will obviously be using it to read discs. A recently debuted BluRay DVD player was priced at $1,800.

Are they doing us just to scare us, so the $399 that they've been intending all along seems like a real bargain compared to the numbers we've been imagining? I guess they'll have to tell us sooner or later.

Source: cnn.com

Courtesy of an interview with EuroGamer.net, Dragon Quest (or, for those who care little about the continuity of titles, Dragon Warrior) producer Yuji Horii, like many other series heads before him - including Konami's Metal Gear mastermind Hideo Kojima - made it evident at an event held in London last week to commemorate the launch of Square-Enix's largely successful Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King that his reaction toward the prototype controller for Nintendo's up-and-coming Revolution console could be summarized as something more than slightly thrilled, as described by the site's attending journalists.

When prompted by a question regarding the Revolution's controller, Yuji Horii divulged quite a bit of eagerness in response: "I loved the fact that it was interactive, that you do something and you get feedback." According to Horii, a novel concept behind the greatest video game would involve complete interactivity and dictate that consequences are received from the player's every action. Because of the Revolution controller's function, the interactivity isn't limited simply to the gameplay, but extends to the hardware itself. "You do something, and it reacts to you," he stated. "It's human nature that to have some feedback from your actions is rewarding."

So what does all this toying with the idea really amount to? Frankly, the details are too few to draw a solid conclusion, but not too vague to speculate. Oddly enough, the question "Are there any plans to release this title (Dragon Quest VIII) on different platforms or game consoles?" that sprung up on the event's press notes was met with a curious "TBA" (To Be Announced) printed next to it, although nothing yet is confirmed.

The highest selling series in Japan, the very last major Dragon Quest title to be released on a Nintendo console was in 1995, and it's been even less recent for gamers outside its country of origin. But whether or not it's by a gambler's chance, an emergence of the Dragon Quest series on the Revolution may very well have its potential.

Sources: CVG
EuroGamer

Yesterday, the 2006 International Cosumer Electronics Show began its weekend-long run of exhibits of all of the latest and upcoming consumer electronics that will make noise in 2006. As all of the show-goers expected, Sony had a fairly extensive PS3 presentation, including both black and silver console designs and blu-ray technology demonstrations.

However, noticeably missing in the display was the PS3's controller (shown here). The absence of what was originally thought to be a finished product of the controller strongly suggests that Sony took it back to the drawing board. The PS3's controller was widely criticized for a probable lack of comfort and its bizarre shape (often mockingly referred to as a "batarang"), particularly when the PS2's DualShock 2 controllers were so widely popular and successful.

This move is surprising for anyone that made the reasonable assumption of thinking that the batarang was the final build of the PS3 controller. All of the negative criticism of said batarang and the widespread praise of the XBox 360 controller (shown here) appeared to cause Sony to panic somewhat and begin work anew on the controller for the enigmatic PS3.

The PS3 is scheduled for a 2006 release, but the second-quarter release date seems even more unlikely now, with rumors of buggy development kits and this new supposed redesigning of the controller.

Sources
Punch Jump, via digg.com

With the stack of holidays all but out of mind and the New Year's hangovers now long forgotten, it's once again that mystical time when one's forced to get things back in gear. And what better way for me to kick off the new year than with the latest details on every PC addict's revered fixation and second reality, often called EverQuest?

To be more specific, Sony Online Entertainment contemporarily stated that expansions for EverQuest and EverQuest II were soon on the way. The two new add-oners, Prophecy of Ro and Kingdom of Sky, are both expected to come out this February. However, this time around players will be exposed to more depth in the online RPG as they locate and make use of - or simply break apart for the sake of fun - various destructible items. There are dozens of extra zones and multiple new dungeons to explore, as well as over 30 additional missions to keep fans occupied, plus even more!

The story behind EverQuest II: Kingdom of Sky in particular, involves an area above the world of Norrath; a place among a series of floating islands together known as the Overrealm. Along with the ten brand new zones, higher level caps, and the umpteen creatures incorporated within the land are the tantalizing Good and Evil deathmatches held between characters - a feature made possible due to the expansion's "Player versus Player" functionality.

Kingdom of Sky will be out on the 11th of February. As for Prophecy of Ro, it will turn up in retail stores and online come the 21st, just shy of two weeks later.

Source: RPGFan

With Microsoft's XBox 360 priced at a record high of $399 (or $299 if you don't want to be able to save or play old games) and the Playstation 3 widely expected to follow suit with a pricetag in the same neighborhood, is next generation gaming out of reach for the underfunded? Not if Nintendo has its say.

Company president Satoru Iwata confirmed in an interview with Yahoo! Japan that the Nintendo Revolution will debut for less than the $299 price tag of the bare bones Xbox system. This also puts the new Nintendo console below the price range of the PS2's launch, and seems to indicate that the Revolution will be priced on par with the Game Cube, which initially sold for $199. Perhaps unfortunately, it's almost certain that this comparative discount comes at the cost of power and graphics technology that Sony and Microsoft fans can expect.

Personally, graphics aren't everything to me--especially when we're talking a difference of at least a hundred smackeroos between the Revolution and the PS3. Given that I'm underfunded and probably won't be able to afford more than one next-gen system (and I can buy the one thanks to the housing allowance on my scholarship), price is important to me. Besides, if the rumors are true, Nintendo is more than making up for their lagging in the graphics department with other innovative features, like the controller and the announced ability to download and play old Nintendo games.

Source: IGN

Like sequels to comic book-based movies, the new server rotation at CoN never seems to end. Maybe if we were turning a profit, we'd get there. But anyway, if you're seeing this, it means the new server is working for you. There may still be some oddness - we had some serious issues in getting the site databases in line with this move.

But if you're reading this at all, you're better off than you were before. The forums are now open. Please come back. We missed you.