RandomNPC – Video Game RPG Reviews, Editorials, and Features

The much-talked-about Extended Cut DLC for Mass Effect 3 is finally upon us, free and waiting only for you to update your copy. If you’re one of the three people that hasn’t notice this yet, stop reading this and go find out if the rumors about it de-suckifying the ending are true.

Source: Joystiq

Never watch Stephen King’s The Mist before bed.

Continue reading ‘Mass Media 06/25/12’ »

Or so we’re supposed to think, I guess. Hey, everybody! We’re on time this week! Let’s not dawdle, here’s what’s going on:

• Microsoft unveils the Surface, a powerful new tablet with a keyboard cover that may cost $800-$1000 we’ll discuss price later
• Nintendo shows off a new, bigger 3DS with a longer battery life, possibly at the expense of the whole ‘portable’ thing.
• Persona 4: The Golden gives Vita sales a shot in the arm.  Good game Sony, now you just need, oh, another couple dozen of those.
• A week after EA’s Origin pointman says they won’t be offering “going out of business” deep discounts, Origin offers deep discounts.  EA GOING OUT OF BUSINESS FULL STORY AT 11
• Squenix might bring Final Fantasy VII to Steam, if only they could get it to work.  Meanwhile, Final Fantasy XI continues to print money.
• Sega launches a browser-based card game for Valkyria Chronicles, to be depicted in the TBS miniseries, “How to Ruin Everything Beautiful in This World.”
• Blizzard suspends digital Diablo III sales briefly to combat goldfarmers, another Capcom fighting game veteran leaves for greener pastures, and more!

Continue reading ‘What Happened This Week – Tablet Plus Keyboard Equals Innovation’ »

With their heart set on breaking mine, Sega has announced the next installment in the Valkyria Chronicles series is coming to PC… as a browser-based card game. Valkyria Chronicles Duel, as it’s called, centers around building up your army via card collection and deploying said cards to take enemy territories. Battles, apparently, are depicted in 3D using the series’ signature visual style.

Duel is free-to-play with the standard item transactions. A user test is running through to June 25, and the game’s official site is located here. For the curious, there is also an official trailer this-a-way.

Sega, I hope you can see this because I’m doing it as hard as I can.

Square Enix has announced the composer for Bravely Default: Flying Fairy. Revo, of Sound Horizon, is helming the game’s soundtrack, and has additionally started up a side project based off music from the game.

Source: Andriasang

Among the many, many things I didn’t see coming is a Windows Phone adaptation of Final Fantasy, as in the very first one. Out now for $6.99, the app supports English, French, Chinese, and Japanese languages.

Source: Joystiq

Gamearts and Gung Ho have announced that Ragnarok Odyssey, their PSVita multiplayer action-RPG, will see a third expansion geared around epic weapons. Specifically, the content adds said weapons, an “updated weapon system,” and 17 new quests. The content goes live starting June 21.

Source: Andriasang

There are weeks, even single days, that make me want to crawl into a bunker with as much food, games, and quality booze as I can manage, seal that sucker up, and hide there for, I dunno, a year or so. But then I tell myself, “I know life sometimes seems bad, but at least you didn’t sign over the Running Man to MC Hammer.”

Shame, too. It was the freshest move I’d ever seen. But enough of that, let’s get to the news.

• Yet more insanity is added to the fifty-car pileup that is 38 Studios: RBS Citizen’s Bank is suing Curt Schilling directly, and an anonymous wife of a 38S employee speaks out.
• Oh, and Rhode Island state police have launched a criminal investigation into 38S.  So has the Massachusetts Attorney General.  And the FBI.
• ICANN prepares for bidding wars on more top-level domains: .xbox, .sony, .apple, and countless others sure to bring back those timeless dotcom jokes from the late 90s.
• Sony is still trying to convince people the Vita is doing fine, though salary cuts and returned benefits suggest at least someone is taking this doom thing seriously.
• EA openly admits it would rather have a higher-price game not sell than sell more copies on discount.  Counterpoint: Syndicate is $59.99 on Origin, and $20 plus S&H on Amazon.
• Eurogamer interviews Yoshinori Ono, the man behind Street Fighter 4, whom Capcom almost literally worked to death.  Read the whole thing if you’ve got time, it’s… sobering.
• Dead Space 3 has to sell five million copies, Dragon’s Dogma sells just over half a million, I analyze what these stories have in common (read: the AAA push is killing us) and more!

Continue reading ‘What Happened This Week – Burnout Gives HR Stuff to Do’ »

Moving this thing to Monday would solve so many problems. Of course, getting a new job would solve even more problems, and I’ve been having trouble with that, too. Yes, yet another week where I have to push WHTW back a day. Sorry folks, though in my defense I was slightly preoccupied with Father’s Day. And, okay, maybe I had a couple margaritas and fell asleep in the sun. It was a nice day out! Hope you got outside too, was a good day for it.

Anyhow, new episode up tomorrow night. See you then!

Details continue to surface about Tales of Xillia 2. Regarding characters, you’ll be able to switch from main character Rudger to other party members in battle, as is common in Tales games. Less common is that Elle, the female lead, does not take part in battle, being only eight years old. The pair are only a journey to the land of Kanan, where supposedly one can have a wish fulfilled; Elle’s wish is to help her father.

Storywise, the game starts in the city of Trigaf, the home of both Rudger and the large corporation known as Klanspia Company. At the game’s opening, Rudger is trying to find work with them. Gameplay systems reportedly tie into the broader theme of “Are you prepared to destroy the world?” though how, exactly, is unclear.

Source: Andriasang

Nintendo and Square Enix will be offering a Wii hardware bundle for Dragon Quest X. While a price has not been set, the package will include a copy of the game, a black Wii and matching Classic Controller Pro, a Wii USB Memory card, and a ¥1000 Nintendo Prepaid card.

Source: Andriasang

Square Enix has confirmed that a PSP redux of Final Fantasy III is in development. Based on the DS remake, this version also includes some additions from the iOS version. FFIII hits digital and retail stores starting September 20, priced at ¥3,990 on UMD and ¥3,300 for download.

Source: Andriasang

In a largely unprecedented move, Zeboyd Games announced that Penny Arcade’s On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness 3, originally set for a July 10 launch on Steam and XBLIG, will instead be coming out early on June 25. First-week purchases on Steam will also include a free copy of Cthulhu Saves the World.

Source: Joystiq

Over on the game’s official Twitter feed, Blizzard announced that Diablo III‘s real money auction house is now online. As previously noted, all participants are required to use an authenticator with their Battle.net account.

Well, E3 has come and gone, the convention center’s been cleared out, and it’s all over but the shouting. Who were the winners? Staggeringly few, it would seem. Who were the losers? All of us. Behold:

• Microsoft: You kids like Kinect, right?  I hope so, because we don’t have a single new idea on stage today, so here’s a bunch of stuff you already knew was coming…
• …and also the SmartGlass, designed for people who can’t wait until after the show or game to look up supplementary trivia.
• Sony: Don’t worry guys, we’ll save E3!  Look, David Cage is making another movie!  And we’ve got Tomb Raider, Assassin’s Creed 3 DLC, and The Last of Us!
• The Vita?  What’s that?  Oh… ohhhh, right, we were supposed to market that!  Oh god, we totally forgot!  Quick, throw some Black Ops on there, they won’t know the difference!
• Nintendo: Pfft, amateurs.  Here’s how you save E3: Pikmin, Mario, more Mario, the balance board, karaoke, and minigames!  Bam, done!  Just hand us your money as you walk out.
• What do you mean, “Where was the Zelda?”  Look, uh… we’re, um, still working on that.  Maybe there’s a Fire Emblem for the 3DS or something, I really don’t know.  No more questions!
• Ubisoft: In spite of our utterly unlikeable hosts, we are the only company with a halfway decent gaming roster to show this year.  This, ladies and gents, is the face of despair.
• My liver will never forgive me for all the drinking I put it through.

Continue reading ‘What Happened This Week – Weird Acts of Corporate Theater: 2012’ »

The conspiracy theorist in me suspects that Windows has built-in functions that detect whenever you’re about to say something bad about Microsoft, and crashes accordingly. How else could one explain that happening right as I’m writing up the podcast, thus losing a large chunk of progress? Other than more reasonable explanations and simple coincidence, I mean.

So yeah, had to rewrite most of the script and I now save compulsively as a result. E3 2012 episode will be up tomorrow. Sorry, folks ;_;

Pardon me, I have nothing to say.

Continue reading ‘Mass Media 06/09/12’ »

Square Enix announced the release date of its mecha-themed racing RPG, Chousoku Henkei Gyrozetter, and confirmed a 3DS adaptation of same. The arcade version – which, I might add, partly transforms as you shift Transformers-style between car and robot forms – is set for a June 21 release, while the 3DS version will hit shelves sometime in Spring of 2013.

Source: Andriasang

Not content with one portable oddity, Square Enix also uploaded the official site of Final Fantasy Dimensions. Little else is known apart from being an iOS title scheduled for a summer release.

Bethesda has announced a beta program for its upcoming Dawnguard DLC for the 360 version of Skyrim. Interested Dragonborn should direct themselves to the official site for registration, with applicants to be chosen sometime next week. The content itself is planned to launch this summer for 1600 MS funbucks (about $20).