thesp writes "We're all waiting for the releases of the next great games (naming no names) which have been mentioned over and over again here on Slashdot. No doubt they will look gorgeous and even be playable on not-too-unreasonable hardware. But there are some games that have an inherent capability to expand to take advantage of higher resolutions and improved rendering as the technology progressed. Would Slashdot like to suggest other titles that, although consigned to multipacks and bargain bins, have aged well and are even more beautiful in their old age, on modern systems, than they ever could be at the time of their release?" This may be subtly different to titles with "Olympian system requirements" at time of release, a category that definitely includes Ultima IX.

Thanks to Gamesindustry.biz for covering the news that Sega has announced Shenmue Online, a PC MMORPG, "being co-developed and co-published by Sega and Korean firm JC Entertainment", as part of "its new plans to enter the Chinese online gaming market." JC Entertainment are the Korean-based makers of Rush Online (formerly Priest) and the popular-in-Asia Redmoon, and the press release on Shenmue-Online.com states the game, part of the sometimes adored Dreamcast/Xbox franchise, will be a "MMO Action RPG in which tens of thousands of players will participate in the virtual world of Shenmue staged in China including Hong Kong in 1980's. Players, acting as militants, will use mysterious powers, kung-fu, Chinese weapons and Qigong in real-time fight-action."

StrikerObi writes "Over at Planet GameCube, we've posted an expanded list of Japanese-announced Nintendo DS titles currently in development for their new dual-screened handheld system. Highlights include a new 'Mana' game from Square-Enix and a new RPG from Game Arts, the makers of the Grandia series." GameSpot's Japanese correspondent provides the full list of games, including the games "previously announced at E3", and also comments: "Among the more interesting developments, Konami Japan will release a Boktai game, while Konami Tokyo will release a Castlevania game for the DS."

An anonymous reader writes "The No Mutants Allowed website has gotten hold of some screenshots of a post-apocalyptic RPG that was in development at Troika Games - the news story claims: 'Due to recent developments, [the prototype has] currently been put on hold.' Did the recent acquisition of the Fallout license by Bethesda kill chances of a Fallout 3 made by the game's original development team?" A recent messageboard post at the Troika-based Terra Arcanum fansite also suggests: "According to several unconfirmed rumors... Troika were also in the bidding for the license. In the end though... Troika were simply out-gunned."

Thanks to GameGossip for its story discussing Korea-originating MMO firm NCSoft's financial results for the first half of 2004. Along with an "operating profit [of] $23 million", specific sales/subscription numbers were announced, a rarity in the MMO world, as the company "reported that Lineage II and City Of Heroes are both doing well, with sales as of the end of June at 86,000 units (Lineage II) and 190,000 units (City Of Heroes) respectively. Meanwhile, as far as active players are concerned, NCsoft reported that Lineage II and [the soon to be cape-friendly] City Of Heroes have 76,000 and 170,000 active players respectively." However, delays to NCSoft's forthcoming titles were also announced, since "Guild Wars has been pushed from Q4 2004 to the first-half of 2005. Meanwhile, [recently re-organized Richard Garriott title] Tabula Rasa has fallen back from Q4 2004 to the second-half of 2005."

packratshow writes "Lost Levels has put up a story about the infamous NES prototype of classic RPG Earthbound. It includes an interview with Nintendo localization producer Phil Sandhop in which he verifies certain details about the alleged cartridges, sometimes considered to be fakes, and squashes most myths about its origin, explaining: 'EarthBound was not cancelled, it was just not produced... Sometimes these things sit for years before the studio feels its right. Nintendo had that luxury with games, especially NES games.'" We've previously mentioned the fanaticism of Earthbound fans.

Thanks to 1UP.com for its feature documenting what the writers consider to be the most boring videogames ever. The intro explains the criteria: "These ten games weren't necessarily bad or good -- they were just really, really dull", before pointing to titles like Donkey Kong 64 ("a mediocre platformer bogged down by forty hours of useless doodad-hunting"), King's Field ("It's kind of like an RPG, and it's kind of like an FPS, but mostly it's like falling asleep"), and Aquanaut's Holiday ("...doesn't really have a point -- it's a blocky, dithered simulation of what it's presumably like to go deep sea diving.") What would your pick be?

xCepheus writes "IGN has posted a new trailer for Xbox/PC RPG Knights Of The Old Republic 2: The Sith Lords. An interesting tidbit from the trailer notes that, as your character sways towards the light or dark side, so do the rest of the characters in your party." The original was my fav non Final Fantasy RPG in recent memory, so I can't wait for this one.

Thanks to Insert Credit for its brief news that Enterbrain's "RPG Maker XP has been released [for Japanese PC users]. Lots of features added, lots taken away. You can download the [Japanese-language] demo, or check what's new on Zepy's page, since he went into a bit of detail about it." An in-game screenshot and several example pages show a complex 2D RPG creation utilty, and Zepy elaborates: "This time you can finally have high resolution/full colour graphics! And Ogg sound! No limit to character and map chip sizes! You can directly program your own scripts... with the triple map layers, you can have cloud or fog overlays!" Although the console RPG Maker series has been released in the West by Agetec, the PC version has yet to be officially translated and released.

Thanks to IGN PS2 for its first look at the unlikely double-licensed Lego Star Wars videogame, which is, as it sounds, "a Star Wars game based on the LEGO license." Apparently, the Traveller's Tales-developed multi-platform title, due out in 2005, "recounts the events of the first three episodes in the Star Wars trilogy -- The Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones, and of course, Revenge of the Sith" with Lego-based visuals, and 1UP.com has a few more details on the game, which "mixes and matches characters and vehicles from all three movies in the ongoing prequel trilogy -- Obi-Wan Kenobi and Qui-Gon Jinn from Episode I are the main characters, but it's possible to unlock many more characters from either side of the force and drop them into free-flowing action sequences." IGN PS2 also has hands-on Comic-Con impressions of X-Men Legends, the Raven-created squad-based console RPG with "4-player co-op... [and a] mixture of classic beat 'em up controls and RPG ideals."

Thanks to 1UP for its 'Freeloading' article discussing Falcom's freely downloadable PC tactical RPG Vantage Master Online. According to the author, the title "surprising balance and depth of play", even though it "took rather a while to make, and by the time things were nearing completion it was showing its age pretty badly and was practically unmarketable. The usual course of action in that situation is to just ditch the project and cut one's losses. In Falcom's case, they wrapped it up, put it up for free download at their own expense, and even went so far as to make an English (sort of) translation."

Thanks to 1UP for its feature discussing the still-declining state of the Japanese videogame industry, despite recent figures showing a small increase in sales for the first half of 2004. Nevertheless, it seems that "Japanese hardware and software revenues [were] down 11% in 2003 and nearly 40% since the peak of the PlayStation generation in 1997". The piece muses on reasons for the decline: "Complex, lengthy, story-driven [Japanese] games demand an awful lot of care and feeding these days, and often offer paradoxically little replay value... [whereas Western developer] DMA Design hit on a formula with Grand Theft Auto III that... offers activities suited to both long stretches of gameplay and short sittings of cruising or random action." In a similar vein, a OPM-reprinted column from Andrew Vestal suggests a solution: "One possible catalyst [for design change] is the upcoming Final Fantasy XII. In an interview, character designer Akihiko Yoshida readily admits that 'many team members are huge fans of non-Japanese games,' and... the game disposes of large parts of console-RPG design expectations." He concludes: "It's possible the game will act as a Trojan horse, introducing Western design philosophies to a wide swath of Japanese gamers and designers."

MilenCent writes "Oh rapturous jubilation! Some saintly homebrew Dreamcast programmer has ported Rogue, that wonderful, magnificent, beautifully malevolent progenitor of PC RPGs with randomly generated game content, to Sega's undead console. The history of Rogue is long and storied, and the genre of Roguelikes (which includes a certain game you may have heard of) has found a new platform to settle on."

Thanks to QuarterToThree for its article discussing the cultural relevance of forthcoming PS2 RPG Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne, being released later this year in the States by creators Atlus. The author notes: "As some movies and novels are undoubtedly based around the various subcultures which spring up in these popular cities, MegaTen's soul is firmly based in Tokyo and some of the subcultures therein", and continues with regard to the mature plots of the series: "MegaTen games [which include U.S.-released side-story Persona 2], but more specifically the main series in Shin Megami Tensei, are concerned with weighty, thematic, thick, convoluted moral themes. It organizes modern and old religions and mythologies into areas where people insecure in their beliefs might be uncomfortable." In a related article, 1UP has an interview with MegaTen series composer Shoji Meguro, including samples of his work for Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne.

Thanks to Corpnews.com for its discussion of the history of the Ultima MMO franchise in the content of the recent cancellation of MMO title Ultima X: Odyssey. The author argues of the cancellation: "This isn't a surprise. No, really. More fundamentally, all this points to the fact that somebody in EA's headcheese department is scared stiff of potentially sapping subscribers from the only truly successful title [Ultima Online] to come out of the company's development sweatshops." He claims: "Furthermore, all this comes at a time when the amount of 'surefire bets' in the industry seems to be dropping exponentially. Miniscule subscription bases for former hot-ticket games like Horizons and Shadowbane, coupled with disappointing numbers for Star Wars Galaxies - at last count, the game widely predicted to crack the MMO industry open and bring in a new rush of players... make it easier than ever for suits to pull the plug on projects which require millions of dollars to even hit the shallow waters of beta." Where does EA go from here with the online Ultima franchise, given that this is the second cancelled online Ultima title?

Thanks to NTSC-UK for its interview with scriptwriter Paul Rose regarding Zed Two's tactical RPG Future Tactics, as he discusses some of the issues with current game scriptwriting ("You may think there's nothing wrong with them, but to someone like myself who makes a living out of writing scripts and stories, they set my teeth on edge. Especially when you get developers, or publishers, going on about their Hollywood-style scripts"), as well as the sad demise of Zed Two (then a part of Warthog) just before the game's release ("A big, big shame, given that Zed Two's ethos was to produce genuinely innovative and interesting games.") Elsewhere, Gamecritics.com has a thoughtful review of the PS2/Xbox/GC game, "saddled with poor cover art and positioned as a budget release", but considered "a breath of fresh air" by the reviewer, though NTSC-UK's review is a little more ambivalent, arguing: "It can only be hoped that [the developers'] inventiveness is met with the time and budget to do their creativity justice [in the future]."

eToychest writes "According to a post by David Yeeon on the front page of the official EA site, PC MMO title Ultima X: Odyssey has been cancelled. The post reads: 'As of today, development on Ultima X: Odyssey has ended. We feel that Ultima Online is where we need to focus our online efforts and most of my team will be moving to the UO expansion pack, the UO live team, and an unannounced Ultima Online project.' It's too bad, but perhaps it was for the best." GameSpot sketches out the background, explaining: "The [August 2003-announced] game went through an evolution when its design and development staff were recently moved from EA's Austin, TX studio to the company's main Redwood Shores campus... UXO was to have picked up where the Ultima IX storyline left off", and GameSpy adds that the new Ultima Online expansion pack "will be officially revealed later this month at an EA press event."

Thanks to Evil Avatar for pointing to a CivFanatics news post discussing new information about Civilization IV from this year's Game Developer's Conference in San Jose, recently released online as a PowerPoint slideshow. Apparently, the in-development Firaxis PC strategy sequel, not yet officially revealed, features "Continuous, immersive 3D world (what-you-see-is-what-you-get)... Drop unfun legacy (pollution, rioting, maintenance, corruption/waste)... New killer features (religion, civics)... RPG elements (unit upgrades/experience)... Coding from scratch (multiplayer, mod-friendly)", with the important note from lead designer Soren Johnson: "Can still take over the world!" There are also a host of other GDC slides/lecture notes now available on the official site, including "Winning the Race Against Pirates And Crackers: Next Generation Copy Protection" by Erik Simon (PDF), and "Managing the Hydra: Successfully Running Multiple Projects in a Videogame Studio" by Dr. Greg Zeschuk of BioWare (DOC, PPT including some fascinating graphs.)

TheAlchemist writes "Tree Wave, a two piece band from Texas that makes pop songs using obsolete computer and video game equipment as instruments, has released their first music CD, Cabana EP+. Paul Slocum, creator of the Atari 2600 Synthcart, Testcart, and upcoming Homestar Runner RPG, codes the music primarily on an Atari 2600, Commodore 64, Compaq 286, and Epson dot matrix printer, and Lauren Gray adds lush vocals. You can listen to two of the Cabana EP+ tracks, and visit the Tree Wave web site to learn more about the band."

Thanks to eToychest for its round-up of the favorite console strategy RPGs of all time. The piece argues: "a strategy RPG is (generally) a console game in which battles take place over a grid", and highlights include Vandal Hearts ("This is where everyone interested in the genre should start"), the Tactics Ogre series ("the replay value here is unmatched, due to multiple endings in each game"), and Disgaea/La Pucelle Tactics both on the top spot ("If you don't know why these two titles are sharing number 1, go play them.")