Allan Milligan

The observant ones in the audience may notice that this is a day late. Why, you ask? Because I screwed up and totally forgot about it, the feature which was my idea in the first place. I have been severely reprimanded, in an indisclosed manner that involves a scythe, a gram of cumin spice, and three boiled chickens. Not fun, says I.

SUNDAY & MONDAY

The week started on a sad note, with the announcement that Craveyard, the LA-based development wing of Crave Entertainment Inc., was to be folded, only a day after the release of their first game, Shadow Madness. Not a bright day for US gaming.

We also posted our review of Lunar: Silver Star Story, along with the obligatory media. In short, it scored a four out of five, an excellent score by our scale.

Lastly, we previewed Arc the Lad III, the latest in the PSX RPG series developed by G-Craft and Sony of Japan. Arc I and II didn't see US release due to the then-prevalent "no 2D games" rule that was imposed on SCEA at the time. Arc III may have better luck, since that ridiculous rule has long since been tossed out the window and shot with air rifles.

TUESDAY

Guest columnist David Weaver wrote a spiffy Vault entry for Tetris Attack, an oft-overlooked SNES puzzle title that's every bit as fun as the Vault indicates.

Sketch Artist was updated that day with two full galleries of artwork, my favorite of which was the gorgeous Dragon's Prayer, in Gallery #1. Gorgeous, gorgeous stuff.

We also posted a preview of Lunar: Eternal Blue for PSX, some character renders from Legacy of Kain 2: Soul Reaver, and news of Project Ares, an upcoming Dreamcast RPG from the developers of Phantasy Star 2-4. It's about exploring an unknown continent, but beyond that, details are sketchy. There's the usual "it's based on the theme of [insert abstract concept here]" hyperbole, but hell, Brainlord was based on the theme of "hope." We'll have to wait to get actual information about Project Ares.

Lastly, we posted a review of Shadow Madness, the first and last RPG by the Craveyard team. Reviewer Andrew Vestal pretty much ripped it apart, and managed to offend his own mother with the closing paragraph. Ouch.

WEDNESDAY

A slow news day. We posted more photos from E3. This, for the record, is the last E3 story we'll be posting up until next year. Can we say "overkill"?

THURSDAY

A slightly heavier news day. We posted more character art, and anime shots from the upcoming RPG Wild Arms 2. News was relayed about Nintendo's potential plans to open a Pokemon theme park, which managed to make my faith in humanity's continued right to live degenerate further. Which is saying something.

More interestingly, Final Fantasy IX was confirmed for PSX by Digicube, Square's main distributor in Japan. Square has said they've made no announcement yet, and asked sites to take that story down. They do this a lot.

The preview of Persona 2 was updated, with a whole slew of new media. Over in Japan, Sega delayed the release of She Mue, but promised that there'd be a big media campaign for it. Personally, I'd kinda prefer a kick-ass game to a kick-ass commercial, but that's me.

Lastly, again in Japan, Masaya gave early details of their upcoming title, Langrisser Millenium, which leads into the following day...

FRIDAY

And lo, we posted a full preview of Langrisser Millenium. Dreamcast owners, salivate at your leisure. In other DC news, we posted pictures of assorted Evolution merchandise, including phone cards, and a lot of other crap that'll never see the light of day in the US.

Sketch Artist brought us a slew of Final Fantasy VII-related artwork. To the dismay of Brian Glick, there were no drawings of Cloud clad only in speedos, but the significant presence of Sephiroth art cheered him some.

Lastly, we received further screenshots from Un Jammer Lammy, the upcoming, and extremely cool, rhythm game for PSX.

SATURDAY

Aside from Drew Cosner's typically excellent Double Agent update, we didn't post up anything on Saturday. I, however, did receive a flame from a regular reader of the American Guardian, an openly fascist online news magazine, as retribution for mocking the AG in Friday's Double Agent column. As you can tell, it raised my opinion of the magazine in a big way.

SUNDAY

Last but not least, on Sunday, we actually got off our butts and did something. We posted two ads for Pokemon Stadium 2, which will see the US later this year as Pokemon Stadium. Next up were six more screenshots from Shen Mue, a game which I'm starting to believe is just an elaborate practical joke on the part of Sega. Next up were gameplay screens from Silicon Knights' upcoming adventure/RPG, Too Human, plus two movies from the same game.

Lastly, we posted a Vault entry for Suikoden by Tami, bringing the Vault thing back to the staff realm.