archives 2004-07-08 2004-07-02 2004-06-14 2004-06-11 2004-06-09 2004-06-08 2004-06-07 2004-06-03 2004-05-28 2004-05-20 2004-05-04 2004-04-27 2004-04-21 2004-04-20 2004-04-19 2004-04-13 2004-04-12 2004-04-09 2004-04-06 2004-04-05

Do they have voice acting in WWE Day of Reckoning?

Matt responds: Actually, no. According to THQ rep, the folks at Yuke's simply didn't have enough development time to include real voice samples for all of the wrestlers and characters in the game. It's a likely addition for next year's game, according to the spokesperson.

I'm getting very confused. A while back, Gamestop/EB Games reported the release date for Resident Evil 4 was moved to 2005. That died down as rumors were squashed. Now we see the IGN Store has moved the date to 2005 as well. What gives? Please tell me the tea leaves aren't pointing towards a delay? Is it really official?

Matt responds: Tell me about it. I feel your pain. I tried to get to the bottom of it today with no luck. A Capcom rep had this to say on the subject: "Capcom has officially always stated winter and this has not changed. No specific release date has ever been announced."

Actually, though, Capcom has been slightly more specific than that in the past. The company initially announced that Resident Evil 4 would ship in the US and Japan in "winter 2004." Not much better, but at least we had a '2004' in there. The game has always been slated to come out at this time in the US and Japan. Europeans will have to wait until 2005.

The posted date changes could mean that retailers are simply jumping the gun and providing false dates or it could mean that Capcom never planned to release RE4 in 2004, only "winter."

Sadly, I still don't know. For now, I'm going to assume the company will at least try to bring Resident Evil 4 out this year in time for a holiday launch. To fail that would be incredibly shortsighted. The publisher would be throwing away the chance to grab the biggest amount of sales by sliding past the holiday shopping season, which traditionally houses the most popular games each year.

I just read your interview for WWE DoR, Great Stuff! I did have one question. In the question you asked about story mode it said that you had to create a character and take him through the story. Can you play the story mode with an existing WWE Susperstar? Thanks.

Matt responds: No. In Story Mode you start out in the amateur leagues and it's up to you to work your way up to the pros, where you will be able to compete against the superstars. That's the whole point of it. You start out as a nobody and become somebody. You can either select from a pre-made wrestler complete with attributes or you can build your own future superstar from scratch using the create-a-wrestler option, which by the way is incredibly deep. I'll post a feature detailing it soon.

I heard that Madden 2005 is going to be online for Gamecube but im not sure. Pleazzz, I need the truth?

Matt responds: Sorry, no online mode for GameCube.

Will there be different controller setups in Prime 2? The only substantial complaint I had with Metroid Prime was the controls. They were terrible in my opinion and would cause my hand to ache.

Matt responds: The control setup remains the same. At least, it was the same at the Electronics Entertainment Expo 2004, where the game was last publicly playable. That said, the guys at Retro Studios recently stated that they have not ruled out the idea of putting in a dual-analog control configuration, which would give the game a very first-person shooter-like feel. It could be interesting. It'd be nice if the option was included, even if some gamers would prefer the original setup.

When is Super Monkey Ball 3 coming? Is it coming?

Matt responds: Yepper, it's coming all right, but I'm not sure when. Amusement Vision's Toshihiro Nagoshi, who created Super Monkey Ball, recently stated that the next installment in the series was being worked on, but he offered no specifics in regard to how far along it is or what we can ultimately expect from the sequel.