Grand Knight’s History producer Yoshifumi Hashimoto offered a few tidbits about the upcoming PSP game. The game will feature both offline and online play, with server time running constantly; presumably this means a persistent world of some kind, though this was not explicitly stated. Additionally, the battle system is titled to reference the curved combat area – an English translation comes to something like “Spheral Battle” – but it’s not known to what extent the fighting plane will affect gameplay, if at all.
History is set for a summer release in Japan, with no US release currently on the books.
Source: Andriasang
By way of press release, Square Enix has confirmed that a Wii collection of the first three Dragon Quest games is in development. Specifically, the bundle will include both Famicom and Super Famicom versions of all three, and they appear to be straight ports of their original releases. The collection is scheduled to release this year in Japan, though the date is not known and no US release was announced.
Source: Andriasang
While Noora to Toki no Koubou was not explicitly stated to have a battle system, the safe money was on “of course it does.” Sure enough, producer Shigeo Komori has seen fit to say so on the game’s official blog, where he briefly explained his role in testing battle balance. However, no actual details of the system were given.
Source and translation: Andriasang
At a press event in Dubai, Namco Bandai revealed that the PS3 version of Tales of Graces F will see a European release in 2012. Europe will also get the 3DS remake of Tales of the Abyss, though no date was given at the time.
The company’s North American website for Graces F also shows a 2012 date, effectively confirming its release in both markets.
Source: Joystiq
Toshiro Tsuchida, Front Mission creator and FFXIII battle director, announced this week why he parted with Square Enix back in February. According to Famitsu, he explained he is now working as executive director at the mobile social gaming firm GREE.
Source: Andriasang
With FY 2010 ending back on March 31, Square Enix has sent out a revised forecast of its performance. As of February, the company had been holding onto a ¥1 billion profit, but by the end of the fiscal year that had fallen to a ¥12 billion loss. At an investor’s briefing, CEO Yoichi Wada explained that about ¥4.5 billion stem from ongoing Final Fantasy XIV maintenance and title cancellations.
As part of a recovery effort, Wada stated that he aims to increase the push for social networking games and phone apps, and to double the company’s major brands to ten or so over time.
Source: Andriasang
Dark Souls, From Software’s spiritual follow-up to Demon’s Souls, now has an official site located hereabouts. A recently released trailer confirms the launch timeframe as October 2011 for both 360 and PS3, though an exact date is not yet known.
The Harvest Moon series boasts of a long history that hardly requires introduction. While detractors will likely only groan at yet another DS iteration, fans of the series will be tickled by the tweaks to the Harvest Moon formula that make Grand Bazaar a fresh experience.
Continue reading ‘Harvest Moon: Grand Bazaar – Staff Review’ »
A veritable sea of callbacks and references, Dissidia 012[duodecim] Final Fantasy is about what is expected from a massive crossover game. Whether this is a good thing or not depends a great deal on what your personal feelings are towards the Final Fantasy series, but thankfully, the underlying mechanics are solid enough that even those who find the constant self-reference tiresome should find something to enjoy. Dissidia Duodecim is a game with a steep learning curve, omnipresent loading times, and a rather disjointed plot, but it also presents a wonderfully deep combat system and a pool of content so huge that it borders on the absurd. But given how heavily the game relies on its combat system, how much a player will enjoy Dissidia Duodecim depends a lot on how eager they are for a fast paced battle. Continue reading ‘Dissidia 012[duodecim] Final Fantasy – Staff Review #2’ »
“Mass” in the sense of “more than one,” anyway. Speaking of mass, we finally got screens of a certain conclusion to an epic sci-fi RPG you have heard of. And some other colorful stuff too, check it out: Mass Effect 3, Atelier Meruru, and Earth Seeker. Continue reading ‘Mass Media 05/09/11’ »
Atlus has launched an official Japanese website for Noora to Toki no Koubou, an upcoming DS title from the team behind the Atelier and Etrian Odyssey series. The story appears to center around Noora, a craftswoman by trade, who employs a secret art of time manipulation to construct items. This ability causes her to be confused with a witch of local folklore, and thus she sets out to clear her name in the usual RPG fashion: help the locals and deal with monsters. Noora will have multiple endings, presumably based on your actions over the game’s three-year time period, but further details are not yet known.
The game is set for a July 21 release in Japan. A US release has not been announced at this time.
Source and translation: Andriasang
In case you missed it on What Happened This Week, Too Human – intended to be a trilogy of techno-Norse mythology – is still on Silicon Knights’ to-do list. Since its launch, Too Human has been the subject of ongoing litigation between the developer and Epic Games, who licensed the Unreal engine upon which the game is based. However, a recent interview with SK president Denis Dyack confirmed that they plan to finish the series, though no further comment was given at the time.
Source: Industry Gamers
EA’s release calendar has given more up-to-date information about Mass Effect 3. The title is now set for a Q4 release, putting it somewhere between January 1 and March 31 of 2012. Additionally, a handheld and/or mobile version of Mass Effect 3 is planned, indicated by the same calendar, but little else is known at this time.
Source: 1UP
How’s things, everybody? It’s that time again, time to pick back up Valkryia Chronicles 2 and prepare my New Vegas dude for the next batch of DLC. But before we do that, join me as we discuss the news and celebrate my favorite British Let’s Player getting his very own fanart. In this week’s headlines:
- Yeah, more lolSony: SOE goes offline, still more personal data is compromised, and congressional testimony reveals uncomfortable information about Sony’s security.
- Friendly reminder: SOE laid off hundreds back in March, and our poor economy is literally driving people insane. Just saying.
- Too Human is still on the agenda for Silicon Knights, and Dyack still blames the mess on Epic. Technoviking is not convinced.
- Ubisoft is launching a movie/TV studio. That faint screaming you hear is me, as the act of typing that made me remember it.
- The Smithsonian tallies the votes on their Art of Videogames Exhibition. I give my reactions to some of the picks. Check out the whole list here.
- NPD speaks on the mobile games market, 1UP gets picked up by IGN, and I nostalgia like it’s 1993.
Continue reading ‘What Happened This Week – This Belongs in a Museum’ »
Square Enix announced today that, apart from boxed retail copies, both the regular and Augmented Editions of Deus Ex: Human Revolution will be available via Steam. The Augmented Edition includes the usual artbook, making-of videos, soundtrack, graphic novel, and so on, but on top of that is a free download of the original Deus Ex, specifically the Game of the Year Edition.
Preorders on Steam carry a 10% discount for today only: $53.99 for Augmented, $44.99 for standard.
Source: Shacknews
XSEED has just launched the official website for Wizardry: Labyrinth of Lost Souls, the PS3 entry in the long-running classic RPG series. Available solely through PlayStation Network, Wizardry is expecting a Spring 2011 launch.
Further information can be found on the site, located over yonder.
At first glance Din’s Curse gives the impression of a leaner, more efficient take on Diablo or Torchlight. You know the genre by now: you’re the hero, there’s the dungeon, clear quests to get loot, kill the boss, rinse and repeat until game over. Much of that holds true here, but get past that outer layer and you’ll find the devil in the details, and a fiendishly clever one to boot. Where other games sit and wait for you to make your move, Din’s Curse plays back, and aggressively so. Supported by strong and versatile gameplay, the central mechanic turns a by-the-numbers hunt for better gear into a tense, engaging, and meaningful dungeon crawl. Continue reading ‘Din’s Curse: Demon War – Staff Review’ »
Care of Bethesda’s blog comes details about three sets of upcoming Fallout New Vegas DLC, along with release dates. Continue reading ‘Fallout New Vegas DLC Announced and Detailed’ »
If there’s one thing we can all appreciate, it’s the ability of a major news event to bring us all together in a contest to come up with the best one-liners. Personally I’m fond of “Yet another thing started and finished in the time it took to complete Duke Nukem Forever.” Hats off to whoever came up with that first. Anyhow, on with the media: Chaos Rings Omega, Frontier Gate, Grand Knight’s History, Labyrinth no Kanata, Ragnarok: Hikari to Yami no Kouji, and Tales of the Abyss 3DS. Give it a look-see! Continue reading ‘Mass Media 05/02/11’ »
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Greetings and salutations! Time for the news, and what a busy week it’s been for that. You gotta hand it to Sony, when it comes to spectacular failures they’re such hard act to follow. Anyway, let’s see what’s happening:
- Sony’s PSN saga thus far: Network goes down, small problem; company waited a week to warn of compromised personal info, big problem.
- The scope of the hack has hit mainstream news, and both state and federal investigations are being conducted. Sony’s marketing team prepares to make themselves taller.
- What does this mean for Sony’s E3 showing? Probably more than it does for their long-term prospects. The internet never forgets, but it does have a short attention span.
- Kaz Hirai’s press conference: Please overlook password insecurity with this free month of PSN+. The month is also cursed.
- Zynga acquires EA’s chief operating officer and a UK office. It’s like the 90s all over again, only closer to a depressing cyberpunk dystopia!
- Portal 2 making-of feature hints it may be “Valve’s last game with an isolated single-player experience.” That screaming you’re hearing is the Half-Life fanbase.
- Nintendo issues a statement that the Wii 2 will be at E3. Also, getting to 90% of the sales target for the 3DS is considered a flop, apparently.
- Smurfs dancing game screenshots and Love Plus on the 3DS offer definitive proof that our creator has abandoned us.
Continue reading ‘What Happened This Week – It Only Leaks Everything’ »
