Xanadu next - For N-gage!

[FM-77AV]

Apparently, Falcom is making a new Xanadu game - Xanadu next, for the Nokia N-gage! Boy was this a surprise? Take a look at some screenshots!

www.gamespot.com/ngage/rpg/xanadunext/screenindex.html



Also, here's an article:

Xanadu Next Hands-On Impressions


Xanadu Next, an upcoming action role-playing N-Gage game from Japanese developer Falcom, hasn’t received much press of any variety in the short time since its announcement--mostly because the game is only about half finished. The very incomplete version we had a chance to play in Nokia’s N-Gage booth offered only a small taste of the final product, allowing play on a single level with just one type of enemy to fight, but the experience was still interesting enough to warrant mention with other soon-to-be released N-Gage games.

The booth build of Xanadu Next featured your sword-swinging hero in a fully 3D texture-mapped castle courtyard. Gameplay consisted of maneuvering the swordsman through a series of mazelike areas and vanquishing the occasional enemy, all from a beautiful isometric viewpoint. A simple overhead map updated dynamically from the corner of the screen as you progressed through the game. Although the only functionality enabled for the test build was moving, attacking, and rotating the camera around your character, the graphics were silky smooth and updated at a very appreciable frame rate. Conceptually, the gameplay seemed like a combination of Gauntlet and the N64 Zelda titles. Although no other attack methods were included in this prerelease version, a Nokia representative assured us that Xanadu Next's protagonist will eventually have access to a wide range of weapons and magic spells.

The release version of Xanadu Next will also feature two-player Bluetooth matches when it hits stores in Q4 2004.

[dracula]

Oh my, this sounds like a huge mistake. Of course I think the n gage is the worst system in the world. I have only played it once, Of course, I dont like portable systems at all. I didnt even think they made n gage games anymore?

[Adol.Christin]

they even updated the N-gage now, the N-gage QD, whitch is worse than the normal N-gage why don't they bring it out on GBA, that would be a big succes

[FM-77AV]

N-gage QD is worse? Absolutely not! They fixed almost all the problems on that one. Now, it's almost good! (In my opinion, of course).

[catharton]

dracula said:

Oh my, this sounds like a huge mistake. Of course I think the n gage is the worst system in the world. I have only played it once, Of course, I dont like portable systems at all. I didnt even think they made n gage games anymore?

Which game did you play? The launch titles were pretty poor, but most of them were just ports from other systems. Of course they make N-gage games, they're releasing more than ever! There are about eight releases this month alone!

Most of the games now are either n-gage exclusives (like Pocket Kingdom) or re-written specially for the 'Gage (like SSX: out of bounds) so they look and play much much better.

N-gage is actually just getting going, it took a while for developers to get to know the system but now they're starting to release some really good games like:

Ghost Recon (which has been getting scores in the 80s from sites like GameSpy that used to hate n-gage)
Asphalt Urban GT
Colin McRae (which features internet shadow racing so you can compete against anyone in the world)
Worms World Party (featuring live online play over the internet, IGN said it's the first impressive Worms not on a PC)
Elder Scrolls: Shadowkey (an exclusive ES game which won best mobile RPG at E3)
and lots more.

They're also about to launch another N-gage exclusive title: the world's first portable Massively Multiplayer Online game, called Pocket Kingdom:

www.pocket-kingdom.com/

It was in development for 2 years by Sega, and Nokia bought it from them along with the SNAP online game network.

Every preview I've ever seen loves PK (GameSpy loves it, IGN loves it etc), and it gets released in 2 weeks time! Yes.

[Adol.Christin]

Seldane said:

N-gage QD is worse? Absolutely not! They fixed almost all the problems on that one. Now, it's almost good! (In my opinion, of course).

they removed the mp3 player, that is bad!

[catharton]

Adol said:

they removed the mp3 player, that is bad!

You can install your own one, that is good!

All Symbian phones can run MP3s, you just have to install some MP3 software (the original N-gage just came with a Nokia player pre-installed). The Nokia MP3 software one was a bit limited anyway because you could only listen to 255 tracks (a 1 gigabyte memory card can hold over 500 tracks if you record them in the AAC format).

There are loads of Symbian MP3 players, for example:

www.my-symbian.com/7650/applications/applications.php?fldAuto=746&faq=2

www.my-symbian.com/7650/applications/applications.php?fldAuto=60&faq=2

[ParanoiaDragon]

Too little, too late.

[catharton]

ParanoiaDragon said:

Too little, too late.

What is?

The QD has sold WAY better than the original! The first model took ages to sell 100,000, but after a few months the QD has sold over a million. That sounds like it's just the right formula to me.

[ParanoiaDragon]

It's mainly cuz I don't know anybody that has it, or wants it. Everyone that sells it, laughs at it, cuz they just don't sell(I'm talking about people that work at various game stores). I'm an underdog type person, I even bought the game.com of all things, thankfully, that was for about 15 bucks, with almost everygame made for it, but the N-gage, & I may as well mention it, the DS, are stinkers, based on gimmicks. Oooh, a cell phone that plays games that look almost as good as their PSX counterparts, or ooooooh, I have 2 screens, one of them you can touch! I'm sorry, but both systems need good games to compete, even still, the PSP is going to rock their socks off, that doesn't mean it will outsell the DS, but it looks to be a more focused game system then either. The N-gage, for me, only has Xanadu Next, which might stink, who knows for sure. The DS.......has nothing so far, I have Mario 64 for N64, & I never did like it(though my wife does), Spiderman might be ok. The demo of Metroid Hunters really let me down, & gave me a better view of how the DS is really going to be. I LOVE Metroid games, & Hunters, the only DS game I've played so far I'll admit, doesn't grab me or my wife, it's just, boring, & too dark. And the touch screen, just doesn't add any kind of excitement. Maybe, hopefully they'll be more ingenious somehow, to make the DS more alluring, but, I won't keep my hopes up. The PSP looks to be, like I said earlier, to be a regular down to earth system(with some other things like Mp3 playback, which doesn't concern me). When it comes to Ngage, they should've released the new one, like, maybe 2 years ago, to get more of a jump on the DS & PSP. I just don't see any real future for it, & sadly, I'm almost always right, when it comes to figuring out, what systems are going to make it, & what systems won't, even when it might be one of my favorites(Turbo, Lynx, Saturn, etc). It just looks doomed to fail from a company not experienced in this category, like so many others before them, & I'll get one on clearance.


edit-BTW, online games don't interest or impress me at all, don't know if they ever will, I like to play my games either solo, or with friends at my house, or their house. If the future of games is all online, then, I don't have a future in games, just a past.

[catharton]

ParanoiaDragon said:

It's mainly cuz I don't know anybody that has it, or wants it. Everyone that sells it, laughs at it, cuz they just don't sell(I'm talking about people that work at various game stores).

The old model didn't sell because it had lots of faults, the new QD one (which corrected those faults) does. Nokia has never, ever given out sales figures but they made an exception when the QD went past a million a few months after it was released.

There were 100,000 registered on the official boards when it went past a million, and there's now 200,000 registered so they might well have sold 2 million by now.

I'm an underdog type person, I even bought the game.com of all things, thankfully, that was for about 15 bucks, with almost everygame made for it,

Really? Hey! Check out my game.com message board!

www.catharton.net/electronica/index.php?board=62

but the N-gage, & I may as well mention it, the DS, are stinkers, based on gimmicks.

The DS has sold really really well though. GameStop sold so many they refused to take any more preorders.

I was as suspicious as you were about the DS, especially given the rather poor way they did the GBA-GameCube linkups, but since I saw Metroid on the DS I have to say they might be onto something. What sold me was that the DS isn't using the second screen as a screen, it's using it as a really flexible controller. It's more of a touch screen than a second display. The programmer can define any kind of controls they want, and even alter the controls throughout the game.

Oooh, a cell phone that plays games that look almost as good as their PSX counterparts

It's more than a cell phone, it's a smartphone. That means you can do anything a PC can do (internet, instant messenger, email, IRC, videos, music, you can even emulate old systems like the Genesis/Megadrive, NES, Game Boy etc).

(I actually maintained my website using my n-gage while my PC was broken using an FTP app, a graphics app, a text editor and an HTML browser. It's an amazing device.)

, or ooooooh, I have 2 screens, one of them you can touch!

I SWEAR to you, I was just as sceptical about the DS until I saw how it worked. I'm still not a DS fan, but I think Nintendo have pulled this one off. The touch screen for example seemed a bit awkward to use with a stylus but then they came up with that thumbstrap thing which works brilliantly.

I'm sorry, but both systems need good games to compete

For N-gage: Pathway To Glory (it's scored loads of 9s and the rest 8s), Pocket Kingdom (again, loads of 9s), Worms World Party, Colin Mcrae, Elder Scrolls Shadowkey, Asphalt GT etc.

even still, the PSP is going to rock their socks off, that doesn't mean it will outsell the DS, but it looks to be a more focused game system then either.

Well, the PSP is a bit of a mess at the moment. Ridge Racer looks absolutely AMAZING, I was almost drooling when I saw the video, but according to GameSpot the battery life for RR may be as little as 90 minutes:

www.gamespot.com/news/2004/12/12/news_6114909.html

"Ridge Racers seems to last somewhere between 90 minutes and three hours. Playing with the wireless networking switch flipped on will also further reduce your battery life."

The PSP may be able to have PS2 graphics, but it can't use them because it would destroy it as a portable. 90 minutes is the worst battery life of any handheld ever. Even the Game Gear managed 3 hours.

The N-gage, for me, only has Xanadu Next, which might stink, who knows for sure.

I'm not saying YOU should get an N-gage, just that the N-gage's new model the QD isn't as bad as some people make it out to be.

If you're after RPGs on the 'Gage though there's a new Elder Scrolls, Requiem Of Hell (an exclusive 'Gage game, made by a Chinese developers, sort of like Diablo), X-Men Legends and probably best of all Rifts (based on the cult pen and paper RPG). Rifts is a big big project for the n-gage, the producer from Nokia supervising it played the same character in the game for 14 years and it's being overseen by the RPG's creator Kevin Siembieda.

...and what's wrong with Pocket Kingdom? That's sort of an RPG... sort of...

The demo of Metroid Hunters really let me down, & gave me a better view of how the DS is really going to be. I LOVE Metroid games, & Hunters, the only DS game I've played so far I'll admit, doesn't grab me or my wife, it's just, boring, & too dark. And the touch screen, just doesn't add any kind of excitement.

Really? I though it worked quite well... But I think it's not fair to judge a system by its launch titles. It always takes time for developers to get to know it and they usually just put a load of ports on it for the first few months.

The PSP looks to be, like I said earlier, to be a regular down to earth system(with some other things like Mp3 playback, which doesn't concern me).

That's great, go for the PSP then. I'd personally be worried about the battery life but we've yet to see full independent tests. Time will tell.

When it comes to Ngage, they should've released the new one, like, maybe 2 years ago, to get more of a jump on the DS & PSP.

Well, the first 'gage wasn't even released 2 years ago (it was launched in october 2003). I agree, they should have launched with the QD model, but there's nothing that anyone can do about that now.

What I would say is the QD is selling well, much much better than the original, and the latest games are getting much, much better reviews than the launch games. Pocket Kingdom has had much of the internet drooling over it, as has Pathway. I know that's not enough, but it's a start and Nokia have committed themselves to the long haul (just like Microsoft with the Xbox) by doing things like recently buying Sega's SNAP network for running massively multiplayer games like Pocket Kingdom. Every interview their producers have given strongly imply they're really going to go the distance on this.

It just looks doomed to fail from a company not experienced in this category, like so many others before them, & I'll get one on clearance.

But Sony was inexperienced when they launched the PlayStation, and Microsoft was inexperienced when they launched the Xbox. Nokia made many mistakes but they've corrected them and learned from them. If they weren't serious about doing this they'd have written it off instead of developing new models, buying new games networks, developing new franchises and founding a publishing house.

edit-BTW, online games don't interest or impress me at all, don't know if they ever will, I like to play my games either solo, or with friends at my house, or their house. If the future of games is all online, then, I don't have a future in games, just a past.

LOL...

I don't think games will be ALL online, but that all games will have online features, even if it's just message boards or chat rooms for the game's owners to meet in.

I wasn't trying to say "Buy the n-gage, it can go online!", all I meant was that the n-gage isn't automatically the worst handheld because in online terms it's actually the best handheld ever. I just meant it had a trump card that no one else did, but if you don't like online games then you probably won't care about that very much.

Personally, I have a 'gage partly because I know I need to have a phone with me and if I can have a smartphone and a console in the same package, so much the better. If I had a DS or PSP I'd have to carry a phone as well, which is too much for my pocket.