P L A Y S T A T I O N   2

- Here are some new images of Rockstar Games' Grand Theft Auto: Vice City for PlayStation 2. This game is not the 4th installment of the series, it is a side story of the series. This time the story takes place in the 80's in the Vice City, a mirror of the 80's Miami, where you play as Tommy Vercetti, who works for the Forelli Brothers. The city will be over twice as large as the one in GTA3, there will be over 100 vehicles, include aircraft and motorcycles; and over 90 classic songs from the 80's in the game. Grand Theft Auto: Vice City is scheduled for release on October 22.

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- Square announced they will release Kingdom Hearts: Final Mix for PlayStation 2 in Japan this winter, the game is based on the English version of Kingdom Hearts, featuring additional characters (such as Sephiroth), English voice, English theme song "Simple & Clean" by Hikaru Utada and Japanese subtitles.

- Capcom will release Breath of Fire V: Dragon Quarter for PS2 in Japan in November.

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- Square mentioned the present user base for Final Fantasy XI and PlayOnline is 120,000 in Japan, they would like to increase the figure to 400,000 by next year.

- PS2 software blooms in Japan, BCN reported that the sales of PlayStation 2 software has increased by 160% comparing to the same time in 2001.

- Namco announced they will release three sets of Xenosaga Drama CDs for PlayStation 2 in Japan. The first volume will be released on November 22, the second volume will follow on December 21, and the final volume will be released on January 24, 2003. Each disc will retail for 2800 yen.

- Square will announce a new game in next week's Japanese magazines, could this be a new installment of Chrono Trigger/Cross?

G A M E C U B E

- Reuters reported that Square's president Youichi Wada is planning to release Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles for GameCube by the end of the current fiscal year, before the end of March 2003. They are also planning to release two GameBoy Advance titles within the current year.

A R C A D E   /   M U L T I

- Eolith has released some new info on The King of Fighters 2002: Challenge to Ultimate Battle. This time the character illustration are still responded by Nona, the illustrator of KOF2001, but the style will be changed. The Super Gauge will be greatly simplified, back to the KOF98 style. The number of character per team has decreased from 4 to 3, the Striker system has been removed. Here is a list of characters from the beta version:

• Kyo, Bernimaru, Goro
• Terry, Andy, Joe
• Ryo, Robert, Takuma
• Leona, Ralf, Clark
• Athena, Sie, Ching
• Mai, Yuri, May Lee
• Kim, Chang, Choi
• Iori, Mature, Vice
• Mary, Billy Yamazaki
• Yashiro, Shermie, Chris (both Normal & Orochi versions are available)
• K', Maxima, Whip
• Vanessa, Ramon, Seth
• Kula, K9999, Angel

- In the beta version of KOF2002, a lot of the classic KOF characters are placed in the background of the stages, such as King, Xiangfei, Bao, Honfu, Lin, GriffonMask, Todo, Cheng Shinzan, USA Team, Boss Team and so on.

• There is a new Custom Combo System which you can cancel special move into another special move, it uses all power stocks
• In single player mode, you go through 5 regular stages, a middle boss stage, the 6th stage and the final boss stage. The middle boss is a random NEST team member: K9999, Kula or Angel; and the last boss is Rugal.

- Capcom's Biohazard producer Mikami has made some strong criticisms toward Sony, Square and general customers in a recent radio program interview in Japan.

1. He mentioned that Sony makes their consoles easy to break to increase their installed base. He said the PS2 is selling so well because many people are buying a second one for replacement.

2. He said he has bought two sets of PlayStation and PlayStation 2 in the past, because the CD lens wore out quickly. When he played Super Robot Taisen on PS, it took one minute to load up each battle, he was so pissed off that he had to get a new PlayStation to play the game.

3. Other than PlayStation, he mentioned the current PC systems, walkman and Docomo cellphones are also easy to break, he said manufacturers purposely make the systems easier to break, so that customers would have to purchase a new one every one or two years. He said that how come no customers have complained about it? It's almost like cheating and committing a crime.... (the radio DJ interrupted the conversation and tried to switch to another topic.)

4. When asked "Do you think the customers are foolish?", he replied "Yes". He expressed that Square's Kingdom Hearts is selling so well because of "Aura Purchase", i.e. people buy this game because his/her friends are playing the same game, or really liked the game; despite whether he/she likes the game or not. He said that Kingdom Hearts does not deserve the 780,000+ unit sales, it doesn't worth the 6800 yen price tag.

5. At last he said "Square please forgive me", because he was so upset that Kingdom Hearts has sold a whole lot more than Biohazard on GameCube (both games released at around the same time), he thinks Biohazard is a much better quality game, although Kingdom Hearts is not a bad game either.

P O R T A B L E S

- Nintendo of Japan announced two new models of GameBoy Advance, the Gold and Silver models will be available on September 27, for 8800 yen each.

- After numerous delays, Bandai will release Namco Super Wars for WonderSwan Color in Japan in October, for 4980 yen. A simulation RPG featuring classic Namco characters such as Legend of Valkyrie, Dragon Spirits, Dragon Buster, Tower of Druaga, Yenpin Kiyoshi and more.

- Capcom has postponed the release date of the GameBoy Advance court simulation game Gyakuten Saiban 2 from October 11 to sometimes in Autumn 2002 in Japan.