RandomNPC – Video Game RPG Reviews, Editorials, and Features

The news never stops, which in that respect is very much like Skyrim. But I digress. The Spike VGAs have given us plenty of material, and thus tonight’s topics include:

• The nominees, broken down: Skyrim wins GOTY, Dragon Age 2 somehow got on a ‘best of’ list for RPGs, Witcher 2 is looking mighty snubbed…
• …although the train of unneeded celebrities, lackluster announcements, and literal on-stage teabagging did a fine job distracting from the awards themselves.  And we wonder why gaming is still seen as immature.
• Meanwhile, with the VGAs posing as E3 Lite, speculation abounds that the actual E3 could come to an end (as we know it).
• A team of students at George Washington University use Kinect for other than its intended purpose, netting a $100,000 scholarship.  And they complain about the kids today!
• Shiggy scares everybody with a Wired interview, saying he’s stepping down, prompting a panic until he can finish the sentence with “to smaller projects.”
• GSC Game World closes its doors, signalling an end to the eccentric yet beloved S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series.  Let’s drink to them once more.
• Namco-Bandai wins their suit re: Witcher 2 distribution in Europe, the 3DS sells 3 million units in Japan, Square Enix moves FFXIV to a paid subscription, and more!

Continue reading ‘What Happened This Week – Such is Life in the Industry’ »

The Harvest Moon franchise has been running for fifteen years and the key to its continuing popularity is its ability to tweak its formula with each new addition to the series. While Tale of Two Towns shares most of its game engine and graphics with last year’s DS iteration, Grand Bazaar, it adds a new twist to the series by forcing the player to choose to focus on either growing crops or raising animals.

Continue reading ‘Harvest Moon: Tale of Two Towns — Staff Review’ »

During the week of its release, The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword sold close to 200,000 copies in Japan; 194,978 according to market research firm Media Create.  For that same week the nearest competitor was 7th Dragon 2020 at 122,498, followed by Saint Seiya Senki at 66,557.

Source: Andriasang

For those hankering for more Dragon Quest X information, a few additional details have come to light:

• While chatting with another player, one can use preset lines or edit their own.  These can also be paired with racial- and gender-specific gestures.  Naturally, free text entry with a USB keyboard is also an option.
• The monk job has been explained as a physical attacker with relatively low strength, but high skill at recovery magic.  Their weapons can also drain MP from enemies.
• Your job can be changed at any time by visiting the branch office of Dharma’s Shrine.  Skills that aren’t job-specific will carry over into other jobs.

Source: Andriasang

A recent deal between Square Enix and Ubisoft has led to a rather unexpected tie-in for the upcoming Final Fantasy XIII-2.  Protagonist Noel Kreiss will have access to Ezio Auditore’s outfit as it appears in Assassin’s Creed: Revelations.  The costume will be available via DLC, though no price has been set.

Source: 1UP

The weekend ain’t over just yet! Although I’ll be glad when it is, and I can leave the stench of disappointing football behind me. Why, Cutler, why did you have to leave us when you were finally doing good?! Giants, why did you have to let Green Bay win again?! It just ain’t fair, man.

Oh right, I should probably talk about the news. In today’s episode:

• Nintendo finally deigns to release Xenosaga on this side of the pond.  Next up: The Last Story and Pandora’s Tower, AKA “That third one I keep forgetting.”
• Gamestop reveals the price of Vita memory cards, prompting an outcry.  Sony tries to reassure people by restating that they’ve learned little from the PSP’s launch.
• Electronic Arts plans to put action-horror game Dead Space into an FPS, a space shooter, and an Uncharted-a-like.  Also in the works: collectable card game, rhythm game, and multiplayer.  And speaking of multiplayer…
• …rumor has it that Dragon Age 3 may join Mass Effect 3 in that regard, likely some kind of battle arena.  My question: how many hats are involved?
• Tetris on iOS will feature a subscription service.  Is any comment really necessary on this?  God, I hope not.
• GamePro dies and goes down the tubes.  We shall forever remember its sage advice – its tips, if you were – given from the pros themselves.
• AMD gets out of the PC processor market to focus on mobiles, I turned 30 this week, and more!

Continue reading ‘What Happened This Week – Endless Gouging Phenomenon’ »

With the game still less than a month old, Skyrim continues to see ongoing patching efforts.  The next update, scheduled to hit the PC first followed by the consoles, aims to address issues like improper magic resistance calculation and the (somewhat more spectacular) backwards-flying dragons.  Along with this, Bethesda announced plans to release the game’s creation kit: world-building tools similar to those for Fallout 3 and New Vegas.  The Steam Workshop will be integrated with the kit, allowing Skyrim mods to be uploaded and distributed through Valve’s software.

The Creation Kit will be available starting in January.  So sayeth the mighty official blog.

Topping the list of things I didn’t think I’d see today, Obsidian Entertainment announced that they’re working to develop an RPG based on South Park.  The game is planned as a “full scale RPG” for PC, 360, and PS3, with series creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone writing the dialogue and voicing their characters.  Few details have been given, though it is known you’ll play a new kid in town as opposed to a member of the cast.

Source: 1UP

Square Enix is seeking developers for an as-yet-unnamed action RPG using the Unreal engine 3, with the positions listed on the company’s Japanese website.  Little is known about the title, although the positions include network programmers, suggesting some element of internet or multiplayer connectivity.

Source and translation: Andriasang

The will-they/won’t-they about Xenoblade Chronicles coming to North America has finally been answered, and for once positively so.  Nintendo has just announced that the game will see a release in the US and Canada through select retailers.  An exact date is not known, though a trailer on Nintendo’s website indicates an April release month.

While you can’t stop the signal, you can certainly delay it an awful lot by having a wonky, uncooperative internet connection which can be fixed at the 192.168.1.1 login page. Yes, at long last that issue’s been resolved and I can get back to updating in a timely fashion, which means more news for you and more chances to posit that Deus Ex is our true Lord and savior. But in the meantime, let’s play catch-up and discuss what happened the past couple weeks:

• H.R. 3261, the Kill the Internet Stop Online Piracy Act, gains a surprising amount of steam with a who’s who of big-name supporters.  I’m not normally one to pray for Congressional gridlock, but these are hardly normal circumstances.
• In a related story, I Am Alive‘s creative director cancels the PC version, blaming piracy and accusing PC gamers of bitching…
• …as Valve, Steam, and Croteam make compelling counterarguments in the form of “make your games less of a hassle to buy and play” and “stop making people hate you.”
• Bethesda’s probably-not-serious “name your kid Dovahkiin” proposal from a while ago has at last found a taker.  World, meet Dovahkiin Tom Kellermeyer, born 11/11/11.
• Zynga’s CBO steps down, forfeiting a large chunk of stock while staying on the board in an advisory capacity.  Meanwhile, tech stocks take another brutal dive on Mr. Keynes’ Wild Ride.
• Meanwhile, Skyrim sets sales records by being awesome.
• BioWare’s new property might be well outside their comfort zone, Namco-Bandai brings the Tales studio back into the fold, and NPR introduces us all to the mad genius behind Cow Clicker.  Read the whole story if you can, it’s a doozy.

Continue reading ‘What Happened This Week – Push Button, Receive Social Commentary’ »

Just in case you had the urge to mess with the heroine’s costume in Beyond the Labyrinth, tri-Ace has you covered. The game will include various tools to recolor, edit, and accessorize Labyrinth‘s signature character, even apparently down to her hair color. Naturally this is strictly cosmetic and will not impact the gameplay.

I know, I was also looking forward to stopping enemies with laughably bad fashion sense, but the heart must move on.

Source: Andriasang

In a recent interview, 7th Dragon producer Rieko Kodama and director Kazuya Niinou revealed some of the planning behind the series’ shift from fantasy to a future setting. As part of the jump from DS to PSP, the team felt rebuilding the game from scratch would work better with the new hardware.

More importantly, 7th Dragon was to be a multi-part installment from the beginning. Niinou indicated the original plan was for five installments, with four set in the fantasy environment and the fifth to be more of a side story set in near-future Tokyo. The transition to PSP saw the team shift gears and work on 2020 before developing the other titles.

Source: Andriasang

Nippon Ichi has launched a teaser website for Legasista, an upcoming PS3 action-RPG developed with System Prisma. Naturally, little is known about the title at this time, though the full site is expected to roll out on the 30th. In the meantime, the teaser can be found here.

Source: Andriasang

Moving about 65,000 copies in its first week, the PS3 version of Ni No Kuni has reportedly sold only about 40% of launch retail stock. By way of comparison, first week numbers for One Piece Gigant Battle 2 ran around 120,000 copies, and subwoofer testing phenomenon Modern Warfare 3 hit 179,000. On the PS3. In Japan.

Go and read that sentence again. Let it sink in. Embrace the madness.

Source: Andriasang

While little is known about the game itself, the PSP-bound Suikoden – officially titled as Genso Suikoden Tsumugareshi Hyakunen no Toki – will be released February 9 in Japan. Standard retail copies come priced at ¥5,980, while fans can purchase a variety of special editions via Konami’s online shop, such as the following:

• The “Special Version” includes a soundtrack, drama CD, and art book. ¥12,000.
• A second untitled bundle combines that with a Genso Suikoden encyclopedia. ¥19,500.
• A third set just includes the soundtrack and drama CD with the game. ¥9,580.

Konami also launched the official site for the game, located here.

Source: Andriasang

Hello again! How’s everybody doing this fine evening? Hope you all had a lovely Thanksgiving, and were able to spend this Sunday doing things you enjoy. Me? I spent it watching the Bears embarass themselves and, more annoyingly, struggling with connection issues finally traced to a (possibly) faulty router. Waiting on replacement gear from my ISP, but in the meantime WHTW will have to wait until tomorrow at the earliest.

Sorry folks, but this is long overdue; this may actually be the root cause of my original connection issues. I’ll get back to a regular updating schedule as soon as I can.

I am in love with the girl with pink hair.

Continue reading ‘Mass Media 11/26/11’ »

Dead Island is Borderlands meets Left 4 Dead set in Far Cry with the melee of Condemned. I wanted something less abrupt to start with, but this game is a Normandy beach landing away from hitting the FPS singularity (not to be confused with the FPS titled Singularity). No doubt the story of how a design team brainstormed their way to this is one for the history books. The combination might sound impractical and unwise, like wiring up a crowbar with a car battery, but you can’t argue with results. It’s messy, cumbersome, strange, and fun as hell.

Continue reading ‘Dead Island – Staff Review’ »

In a recent announcement, Namco Bandai revealed that its Namco Tales Studio, a subsidiary for the Tales games, will be dissolved and folded back into the broader company. The board is expected to approve the measure on November 29, with the transfer officially taking place on January 1.

No other details were provided and the reason for the move was not stated.

Source: Andriasang