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e-mail to: Evan Morris

Twothousandthree

I read something that makes me nervous: there are plans for a follow up to Panzer Dragoon Saga. But, they rest on the performance of Orta. Now, this is a revelation that can only bring tears to the eyes of fans who've waited nearly five years for a sequel. Basing this on whether or not a certain Xbox rail shooter is a blockbuster success certainly means that it'll never see the light of a laser. The fault lies with whatever genius thought the Xbox would be a good platform for the continuation of this much revered series. If Orta was released on the PS2, we would be getting a Saga follow up: it's as simple as that. Orta would have, at least, had a chance of success as the installed user base of Microsoft's American muscle car of the next gen console cold war just isn't large enough to conceivably house that small niche of the hardcore Saturn devotees that can appretiate a rail shooter. One word: Rez.

Microsoft buys a controlling share of Rare! I could feel the collective yawn. The Xbox rep tried his hardest to appear excited about Kameo. Whatever they paid for Rare was too much, and whatever they offered for Square was too little.

My halo oil burner is sputtering a cinnamon cloud: a vision. Somewhere behind the scenes Microsoft is trying to get Xbox exclusive rights to Doom 3. Allow me to give them a tip: give id a blank check and promise not to control them. If the Bungie acquisition was a great business move, picking up id would be nothing short of a coup.

The Xbox rep boasted of surprising and staggering news...but, he couldn't tell me anything 'til after E3. I think I've heard that somewhere before. He also got all bent out of shape when I asked about the relationship between Microsoft and Sega, considering the fact that they are "obviously in bed with each other."

I recently played through Skies of Arcadia on the Dreamcast and am stunned at how Overworks managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory: the ship battle system is inexcusably awful. I can only hope they fixed that problem in the GameCube version, but I bet not.

Have a nice end of the world.

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