I wouldn't have bothered posting this but it's got Baten Kaitos in it! Thats right, playabele demo of Baten Kaitos, Jungle Beat and Mario Party 6.

Jungle Beat looks fantastic. The graphics look terrific and the gameplay looks set to be one of the most refreshing experiences in platform history. So close you can taste it! March 17 is the day.

Mario Party 6 is the same old same old, but for me I got excited seeing new mini-games and will pick it up regardless. Nothing else seems new with it, at least you get a microphone with the game.

Baten Kaitos looked absolutely gorgeous. This is the game I've been looking forward to the most (besides Killer 7) this year and boy oh boy am I excited. The demo throws you into a field with enemies already in. Touch one and you go into battle. SadlyI had no idea on how the system worked so i just kept choosing cards as they came out. You can combo the cards to cast 3 spells in a row or use multiple weapons. There were numbers on the cards so I gather they are the cost for casting. There were plenty of special effects and ran at a smooth 60fps. The art style is phenomenal and the cinema's have a distinct style to it. Very colourful. I so can't wait. April 7 is the date. I think I will sleep for a whole month.

Also saw the preview box for RE4 that states it is the "Collectors Edition" with the bonus disc containing movies of REmake, REzero, RE2, RE3 and Code Veronica. Fromt eh looks of it, it'll come in a slip case with room for 2 cases, One for the game (since it's 2 discs) and a separate case for the bonus disc.

Also saw the Jungle Beat box (with bongo's). Looks tasty.

The next month will be great indeed for GC owners. JB, RE4, Baten Kaitos, Timesplitters 3, Viewtiful Joe 2 and the other DS and GBA games. YAAAH! And if you own a PS2 there's a whole caboodle of games for that too.

-Stompy

Jungle Beat with bongo's?! I'm sold (I'll finally have two sets of bongo's).

Thanks for the info Stompy, I'll see if I can get to a store, although Jungle Beat comes out pretty soon anyway :) .

I have heard about the special RE4 case, i.e. the bonus disc is actually in a separate case :D , I suppose this explains the slightly higher RRP.

Actually, preview cases tend to be larger cardboard boxes(about the size of 2 DVD cases ;) ) so I don't think the discs will have a seperate cases.

We still have a 1080 preview box at work, and that could easily fit 2 DVD cases in it. :)

Well from what I have heard from my "sources", the bonus disc will come in a separate case. I havent seen the RE4 display case, but it could indicate that there will be 2 cases, and not just be a simply bigger version of the standard case. :)

I'm probably not too interested in the RE4 bonus disc, as it sounds a bit crap. Anyways, thanks for the heads up on the demo disc, stomp bro, as I've been wanting to see Baten Kaitos in full motion. And Timesplitters 3 in March? Cool, hopefully they fix all the crap from Timesplitters 2.

Actually, now that I think about, you're probably right.
I was thinking that the bonus disc would just go in an insert flippy thingo in a normal case, but I forgot that RE4 has 2 discs.

I withdraw my previous statement, I now think it will come in a second case. :)

Or a flimsy piece of carboard

Where was this demo disk?

Well my EB had it running, but it was just on a TV, and there was no controller.

Forgot to mention that the Bonus Disc also contains a making of RE4 featurette.

Also on the demo disc is playable Mario Power Tennis, a DS movie and the usual Players Choice range propaganda.

Mario Party 6 is dated as "coming soon" but can't be that far considering it's on this demo disc.

As for Timesplitters 3. Take my date with a grain of salt. I'm not too sure with that but the last time I checked dates it's set for the 20th of March. It's under EA now so there shouldn't be massive delays from previous ditributor Gamenation/Atari.

-Stompy

I think your after the 24th Stompy cause the 20th is a monday.

I presume there are bongos set up with this new demo disc? How else can you try Jungle Beat?

Jungle Beat can also be played with a standard cube controller. Albeit it becomes boring and loses a lot of character and the premise of the game will be lost.

As for Timesplitters 3 I have no idea on when that will release now. It's 20th March release has dissapeared.

-Stompy

It seems that Timesplitters Future Perfect will not get a release in Australia (the GCN version anyway), quite disapointing, since one would assume an EA distribution would actually be better than Atari. Going by online stores this seems to be the situation, since the PS2 and Xbox versions have a date. It looks like EA Australia is starting to really shaft the cube, with no release of NBA Street V3 despite the apperance of Mario. The game is being released in PAL though, so expect online stores like DVDCrave to get stock in.

With Resident Evil 4 being on 2 discs, a third bonus disc in a separate case seems more likely, (Estapol thanks for realising :) ), the bonus disc contains footage of the 'cut' version of Resident Evil 4, i.e. the version shown at E3 2003. Reports of this footage indicate that the old version of the game, looked to be well under development and probably close to a release, which makes it quite amazing that Capcom actually started from scratch so late in the development of the old game, looks like it was a great decision though. It seems that the disc is quite similar to what we're seeing from other special making of DVDs with games like Halo 2, this disc is however not a DVD per se, you need to play it on your GCN.
This bonus disc will be released with the launch copies of Resident Evil 4, there is no choice to buy either the limited edition or standard versions, if you're buying the game at launch you will get the bonus disc, similar to the Zelda Wind Waker disc.

The demo disc in stores may be connected to bongos in selected EB stores, however in the usual 'kiosk' the standard controller is likely to be there. A bit unfortante for Jungle Beat, thankfully the game comes out very soon, so we wont have to worry about demos anyway.