I think I should just get into the habit of starting off each wrap with a big congrats to the news team, because it seems every week they're running more stories than the week before. I'll admit we dropped off for a little while, but with a cool 70 stories run this week, I think you'd be hard pressed to claim we weren't once again the gaming news source. So, once again, kudos to the news team.

The one story that really caught my eye this week was Sony's announcement that they intend on spending 1.14 billion dollars on the manufacturing of their Cell technology. The Cell chip is planned to go into all kinds of Sony electronics and other household items, including (most likely) the PS3. That's billion, by the way. That's over 11 times more than 100 million dollars. I don't care how big your corporation is, you can't just throw away that kind of money idly. Sony better hope they can overcome the "two-generation curse" and see their PS3 become an overwhelming success. Then again, MS has dropped almost 2 billion to assure a foothold in the gaming industry, so perhaps Sony won't need success as much as I anticipate.

Game releases are finally starting to pick back up, after the post-Christmas lull. R-Type Final, Mafia, AquaX, and Air Force Delta Strike were all released this week. Although that list is most likely yawn-inducing for casual gamers, the more hardcore set has probably either already rushed out and purchased R-Type, or they're going to when their next paycheck comes in. 2D shooters have been experiencing a revival as of late, and R-Type is arguably the king of the genre. Retailing for a cool $30, R-Type Final finally gives gamers the chance to take down the Bydo empire once and for all; gamers can choose from over 100 craft with which to lay their swath of destruction. For only $30, R-Type Final should seriously be considered for purchase by anyone reading this, whether they think they like shooters or not.

When looking over the week's news, the trend seemed to be all about release dates. It's that time of year when everyone starts releasing their financial reports and outlining their plans for the year to come, so lots of juicy bits frequently get buried within these boring press releases. Valve finally set a release date of "summer" for Half-Life 2. Lionhead studios announced an extremely helpful release date of "this year" for their hotly-anticipated open-ended RPG Fable. Ubisoft revealed that their upcoming Splinter Cell sequel would be delayed for PS2 and GCN; so it looks like once again the franchise will see a timed exclusivity on the Xbox.. The biggest release story of them all was Nintendo revealing pretty much their entire lineup for 2004. Although Nintendo obviously isn't willing to spill all their beans just now, it does give a good indication of how their year is going to shape up. The list reveals that Pikmin 2 has once again received another sizeable delay, this time into August. The title seemed extremely solid and complete when I played it at E3, so anything less than a potential Game of the Year finished product will be somewhat of a letdown, for me.

A couple weeks ago I devoted most of my wrap to news that was simply cool instead of news that was important, per se. Although too much important stuff happened this week to allow me to do that again, I still can't just ignore all the cool stories. First off was Ubisoft's announcement that a Prince of Persia sequel was in the works even though the first didn't sell quite as well as they had hoped. Next was Nintendo's news that they plan on releasing 20 mini CDs of music from their classic NES titles. The discs (which are slightly smaller than GCN discs) will retail for only $3. Last was Acclaim's announcement that their upcoming Worms 3D would support Xbox Live. The titles have always been about insane multiplayer matches on the PC, and it's good to see that console gamers will now be able to get in on the act.

On the PC gaming front, Intel released their new line of 'Prescott' P4s. The chips are only reaching 3.2GHz right now, but Intel plans on the chips hitting 4GHz by the end of the year. Majorem and Sanctum Entertainment announced that their upcoming massively multiplayer RTS title Ballerium's beta test was finally launched, and is set to run several months. One bit of bad news for PC gamers was a report from NPD stating that PC software sales declined 4%, when most other sectors saw growth. With so many high-profile titles scheduled for a 2004 release, I would be amazed if this year was marked with a decline as well, when all is said and done.

We're beginning to get into the "pre-E3" time of year, with the trade show just three short months away. The holidays are over and it's time for gaming companies to once again start up the hype machine until it all comes to a head this May. I would be extremely surprised if a week went by between now and then without a big story breaking, so be sure to keep it here, folks.