Sony announces U.S. release dates for FFXI, Siren and others @ Gaming Target

Written by John Scalzo on February 24, 2004

News: Sony has announced their March/April release schedule and it includes some big names like Final Fantasy XI, Siren, the next EyeToy game and two 989 Sports titles.

SCEA has let loose with the March and April release schedule of their games and there are quite a few doozies on this list. Obviously, a concrete release date forаFinal Fantasy XIаis the big news here. But Sony has also changed the release date of Siren, their innovative survival horror title which we at GT are eagerly pursuing, from TBA to April 20. If that's not your idea of a great game, then check out the complete rundown here:

MLB 2005
Release Date: March 16
With MLB 2005 it looks like 989 reached into Sony's new bag of tricks and pushed, pulled and crammed everything into their annual baseball title. New this year will be the inclusion of EyeToy features that will really allow you tocreate yourself when it comes to the Create-A-Player mode. A Career Mode will follow your player from the cramped buses of Rookie League all the way up to the cushy private jets of The Big Show. The game will also feature voice recognition and full online play capabilities.

Final Fantasy XI
Release Date: March 23
Here it is, the long (long!) awaited online edition of the world's favorite RPG series. FFXI will ship bundled with the PS2 Hard Disk Drive and if the reaction to the console edition is anywhere near as good as the reaction to the PC version then we could have a video game evolution right here on our hands.

World Tour Soccer 2005
Release Date: April 13
Soccer is a game that owns the world stage. The only way to describe it's popularity is as BIG and 989 is trying to make World Tour Soccer just as big. The game will include over 900 international, league and historical teams with over 18,700 FIFPro licensed players. That is probably more people than have played Major League Baseball ever. World Tour will include all of the bells and whistles of a sports game, including Career Mode, Season Mode, and Exhibition.

Siren
Release Date: April 20
After all the back and forth over what Siren would be called in America, we finally know. Known as Forbidden Siren in Japan, SonyаComputer EntertainmentаAmerica has gone with the simpler Japanese title of Siren for it's U.S. release and after letting it sit as TBA for several months has finally announced it is coming April 20. No one is looking forward to Siren more than our own Chris Reiter, so here's what he said about Siren in our recent Horror Games of 2004 feature: "Unlike your typical, dumb zombie, the zombies in Forbidden Siren are intelligent. At least they know how to fire a rifle from some far ways away. More like a stealth game, Forbidden Siren will take players through a three-day course of this town as ten playable characters. What's so remarkable about Forbidden Siren is not the fact that neither the village's zombies nor the living cannot die, but that players will get to "sightjack" into seeing what a zombie or the other people in town visualize. Manipulating your ability to do this will allow for guessing recognizable and obscure positions pointed out by others eyes from afar. For, alerting a zombie to your presence in this game with a budgeted limit to ammo for weaponry, and the fact that you can die would be a mistake."

EyeToy: Groove
Release Date: April 20
Also on April 20, Sony has announced they plan to release another edition of their popular EyeToy games. EyeToy: Groove promises to be Dance Dance Revolution without a dance mat as players have to "move their arms, hips and body to the beat of one of the 25 licensed songs from such artists as Madonna, Jamiroquai, and Fatboy Slim."

We at Gaming Target will more on all of these games (especially Siren) as their release dates near.