In an interview, Itagaki also confirmed that his next Xbox 360 release will be Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball 2 (DOAXBV2), the sequel to the risqué 2003 sports game. Itagaki said Team Ninja is already working on the opening and ending scenes for the game, and he is currently implementing some new ideas to the original design. Itagaki avoided commenting on a release period.

After DOAXBV2, Itagaki say he will release an “action game.” However, he hinted that the title in question won’t be a sequel to Ninja Gaiden, which means it will either be Project Progressive, Dead or Alive Code: Cronus, or another title. He says the keyword for the game will be “interactivity,” which will also go for the next Ninja Gaiden. He did not elaborate.

Itagaki also mentioned Dead or Alive 4 (DOA4) updates…
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One of the first Japanese publishers that announced Xbox 360 support was Capcom. Producer Keiji Inafune, best known as the creator of Mega Man, is currently working on Dead Rising for the Xbox 360. He revealed to Famitsu Xbox 360 that the project’s development has entered its final stages and that his staff is currently fine-tuning the game. Inafune also commented that the basic components have been completed for Capcom’s second Xbox 360 title, Lost Planet: Extreme Condition. Both games are scheduled for release during 2006 in Japan, and Dead Rising is set to hit the US in May.

When asked about Resident Evil 5, Inafune revealed that development on the game still hasn’t begun in earnest. He explained that his developers are working on the game’s graphics and going through a lot of trial and error to come up with ideas to make it play as an all-new game. Inafune hinted that RE5 wouldn’t be coming out anytime soon, commenting that Capcom has no plans to release it until it’s satisfied.
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If the latest word from the Official US PlayStation Magazine is to be believed. Despite past assurances that Sony would leave multiplayer matchmaking to game developers and in the remit of individual titles, it now seems like a centralised Xbox Live-style service is almost certainly in the works.

PSM reports that Sony wants much, much more than a simple matchmaking and ranking lists service, and developers in possession of the PS3 dev kits will have to meet with Sony’s online compliance team to make sure their titles will work with the projected PlayStation Network.
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Far Cry, a first-person shooter released for the PC in 2004, was one of Ubi-Soft’s (the game’s publisher) biggest games, and was hailed by critics garnering many awards. Knowing when they had hit on something good, Ubi went on to release a version of the game on the Xbox, and it’s soon coming to the Xbox 360 as well. Within months however, Ubi’s main rival, US-based behemoth Electronics Arts (which has a very large share in Ubi-Soft, one in which the French government actually stepped in to ward off a potential hostile takeover of the company) used it’s power of the force to lure Far Cry’s German developer, Crytek, into signing a development deal with EA, wherein Crytek would create a brand new franchise for the PC based on an original intellectual property.

And yesterday the game was finally announced. It’s called Crysis, and it’s a first-person shooter for the PC.
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Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King is the latest game in the Dragon Quest series, which is one of the most popular RPG’s in Japan (the series originated on the NES, with this newest release on the PS2). The game was so popular that the Japanese government actually made sure the developer’s couldn’t release the game on a weekday, as too many school kids and adult workers were ignoring their civil duties to go buy the game, placing strain on the market. While that certainly sounds insane (and it is), the games have never reached any where near that level of popularity outside of Japan.

Formerly called Dragon Warrior in the US, Square Enix worked hard on the development of the US version of Dragon Quest VIII to make it one of their biggest titles and making it more appealing to US audiences by adding a bunch of new stuff for the US version in hopes that the game would come to be just as popular as Square’s Final Fantasy series is stateside.
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One of Nintendo’s best new franchises is little known outside the US, and that’s cause, until now, it hadn’t had a release date for anywhere outside of Japan. Called the “Brain Training” series in Japan, these two titles charge you with doing mathematics, analysis, and memorization, as well as the ever-popular (in Japan) sudoku puzzles, and they are based on the works of neuroscientist Professor Ryuta Kawashima and use the abilities of the DS to full effect.

The games have been extremely popular in Japan, matter a fact, they were among the top-selling titles of 2005 in Japan across all platforms. They will now be heading to the US with new names: Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes A Da and Big Brain Academy. The first title will be released on April 17 and the latter on May 30th.

So look forward to giving that unused muscle of yours quite the workout via your game system in a couple months!

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Nintendo has revealed its European line-up of games for Game Boy Advance, GameCube and DS for this spring. A lot of these games are already out in the USA, will soon come out there, or will be out a few months before Europe. Fun to mention is that Brain Training/Brain Age will come with popular Sudoku puzzles included.

DS:
* Prof. Kawashima’s Brain Training: How Old Is Your Brain? (spring)
* Game Fortune Bag (spring)
* Megaman Battle Network 5 Double Team DS (13 April)
* Electroplankton (21 April)
* Tetris DS (21 April)
* Pokémon Link! (28 April)
* Trauma Centre: Under The Knife (28 April)
* Harvest Moon DS (spring)
* Metroid Prime Hunters (5 May)
* Super Princess Peach (26 May)
* Metroid Prime Pinball (June)
* Puzzloop (June)
* New Super Mario Bros (spring)
* Big Brain Academy (spring)
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Polyphony Studio, of Gran Turismo fame, have not just been working on their next racing car simulator. No, this time they’ve come out with a racing bikes sim called Tourist Trophy: The Real Riding Simulator.

Realism (obviously) and physics are once again the core parts of the experience, as is the expansive garage. At 80-strong, the bike line-up might not be as overwhelming as its four-wheeled counterpart, but it does include the biggest brands, including BMW, Ducati, Honda and more.
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After skipping Europe for its first two PlayStation instalments, Konami’s Suikoden series is now a regular player in the European RPG scene. Later this year you’ll get even more from the series when the Suikoden V comes to PlayStation 2.

The story, is that of most Japanese RPGs. With this time the world of Farlena in turmoil, it’s up to you to find a fabled stone called the Sun Rune, which will help restore order to the land. Suikoden V will be out only for PlayStation 2 this autumn in Europe and set for release in America February 1st.

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Final Fantasy XI for Xbox 360 is the first game in the series to land on a Microsoft console. As such, it’s being watched closely, to see whether success will lead to more support from both the Japanese and Japanese developers - both of whom have been iffy on the console.

Square Enix has worked hard to get all the versions of the game working together, meaning Xbox 360 owners will be playing in the same world as the 500,000 people who have signed up for the PC and PlayStation 2 versions over the past 4 years.

The Xbox 360 version, which is in stores on 20 April, comes with both the expansion packs (Rise of the Zilart and Chains of Promethia) already out on PC and brings the upcoming third one, Treasures of Aht Urhgan, as well.
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