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Posted by Bob Muir on Sep 12, 2012 in Videogames 
Level-5 generally treats its non-Japanese fans well. Its big titles may not always get localized quickly, but the ones that people care about will eventually get a release. The future of Guild01 is a bit more uncertain. It’s a compilation of games by Suda51 (No More Heroes), Yoshiyuki Hirai (a Japanese comedian), Yoot Saito (Seaman), and Yasumi Matsuno (Final Fantasy Tactics) for 3DS. There’s some indication that the game may be making its way across the pond, but possibly not in the same form. Read more…
Tags: 3DS, Level-5
Posted by Bob Muir on Sep 11, 2012 in Tech, Videogames 
As a videogame input device, Kinect leaves a lot to be desired. Part of that are the concessions made to produce an affordable device, and part of that is conceptual (though that’s a discussion for another time). But as a piece of tech to be hacked and used in non-videogame applications? Kinect is pretty awesome! Hell, with some creativity, it can even be used to help those with stroke complications to communicate. Read more…
Tags: Hack, Kinect, Microsoft
Posted by Bob Muir on Sep 11, 2012 in Videogames 
Namco Bandai has dissolved their Namco Tales Studio as a separate studio, but that doesn’t mean those same people aren’t working on a new Tales game! Tales of Xillia 2 is a direct sequel to the game that the rest of the world is still waiting for a translation of sometime in 2013. Xillia 2 takes place one year after the original and is being released only a year and a few months after the original game in Japan on November 1, 2012. That’s soon, and so Namco Bandai is already advertising the game. Read more…
Tags: Namco Bandai, PS3, RPG
Posted by Ben Huber on Sep 9, 2012 in Fandom, Videogames 
Source Filmmaker is one of the best things Valve has released. Already, countless fan films have been made using it, some of them rivaling Valve’s own work. Nailbiter (aka Randall Glass) took SFM and combined it with Maya, the Source SDK, and a helping of Team Fortress 2 and Left 4 Dead, resulting in a fantastic short that I sure hope lands him a job. It features a Team Fortress character, the Scout, meeting up with a few zombies from Left 4 Dead – and maybe it doesn’t go quite how he hoped. Check it out after the break. Read more…
Tags: left 4 dead, Team Fortress
Posted by Ben Huber on Sep 7, 2012 in Videogames 
Gamestop making a tablet, you ask? Yes, it’s true, but not very attractive-looking. Let’s be honest, a weird partnership between Sony, Nvidia, and Gamestop resulting in a large game holster for a probably-too-pricy tablet will not result in a big market splash for the red-and-black company. Still, it’s fascinating to watch them test the waters. After undergoing many changes and a long history, this is an odd spot the Wikipad has landed. It’ll run $499 exclusively at Gamestop on October 31st, pushing a 1.4GHz Nvidia Tegra processor and 1GB of ram with a 1280 x 800 IPS LCD screen. Nice specs, but will consumers take the plunge? I’m not so sure. Read more…
Tags: gamestop
Posted by Bob Muir on Sep 6, 2012 in Videogames 
Were you hoping to get into the closed beta for StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm, the upcoming sequel/expansion to StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty? Then consider this a PSA, for you might want to check your Battle.Net account. Anyone who wants to participate needs to make sure that they have opted in for the possibility of receiving a beta invite. Read more…
Tags: beta, StarCraft 2
Posted by Bob Muir on Sep 5, 2012 in Videogames 
It’s been a while since the last official numbered sequel to Capcom’s courtroom drama game, Ace Attorney. Though the third game, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Trials and Tribulations, was released on DS in 2007, it was originally released only in Japan on GBA in 2004. Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney hit America in 2008, and since then, there have been some additional rereleases and two spin-offs that served as interquels. Now, the time has come for the next Ace Attorney game, or Gyakuten Saiban 5 in Japan. Read more…
Tags: 3DS, Ace Attorney, Capcom
Posted by Bob Muir on Sep 5, 2012 in Videogames 
After the cliffhanger ending of Final Fantasy XIII-2, everyone expected another installment in what Square Enix has come to call the “Lightning Saga.” Of course, Square Enix seems to have a thing for convoluted names lately, which means that instead of calling it Final Fantasy XIII-3, they’re going with Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII. Oh well, there’s a lot of interesting stuff going on with the game, and Famitsu has just revealed a lot of it. Read more…
Tags: Final Fantasy, RPG, square enix
Posted by Bob Muir on Sep 4, 2012 in Videogames 
Imageepoch is the Japanese studio behind niche yet well-regarded games such as Luminous Arc, Arc Rise Fantasia, Fate/Extra, and Black Rock Shooter. One of the studio’s major releases for 2012 is Sol Trigger, which some gamers hope may be a stand-out JRPG in a time of uninspired genre rehashes. The game will be released on PSP in Japan on October 4, but on September 6, a demo will be released on PSN. To help promote the demo, Imageepoch has revealed the opening movie, a fully animated sequence by J.C. Staff (Bakuman, A Certain Magical Index). Read more…
Tags: PSP, RPG
Posted by Ben Huber on Sep 3, 2012 in Videogames 
Black Mesa Source has been around long enough to become a bit of a joke in the gaming community. The long-awaited fan-made remake of Half-Life has languished in development hell for years, leading many to give up hope or simply laugh. But now, at long last, will something actually appear? The modders’ site has updated with a countdown to the 14th this month, and they posted on their forums with full details: most of the game is coming out. The mod will contain everything up to the Lambda Core, which is roughly four fifths of the game. Pretty exciting! The rest will follow at a later date. I’m just surprised it really is finally coming out (unless…).
Tags: Half-Life, Mod
Posted by Ben Huber on Sep 2, 2012 in Videogames 
For a while, several indie developers have complained that it’s been difficult to get their games on Valve’s Steam service. Given that it’s the most popular online games store, that can be a bit of a problem. Steam is now addressing this with Steam Greenlight, a new section in which indie developers can submit their games and the community can vote up what looks good. You game doesn’t have to be finished – you can use Greenlight to gauge interest in your concept as well. I hope this works out for people who want to get their stuff on Steam!
Tags: Steam, Valve
Posted by Ben Huber on Sep 2, 2012 in Videogames 
Looking for a little more Lightning in your life? Rather than a XIII-3, Square Enix has announced Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII, a brand new installment in the series, set for a 2013 release. It’s set hundreds of years after XIII-2, and features a 13-day doomsday clock, a little reminiscent of Majora’s Mask. The player can complete objectives that will decrease or increase the time left in their attempts to save the world. Read more…
Tags: Final Fantasy, Lightning Returns, square enix
Posted by Ben Huber on Sep 1, 2012 in Videogames 
Given that Gearbox’s latest, Borderlands 2, is coming out in a few short weeks, their marketing campaign is kicking into gear… box. No no, that was poor. Ignore that. What you should pay attention to is that they’ve made an excellent promo trailer with Sir Hammerlock narrating all the new features of the game – and there are a lot. I have to say, the art style looks much improved from the first game, just in levels of readability. The fact that you can get way more guns and abilities is great, too – now I need to make my group of friends to tackle everything! Read more…
Tags: Borderlands
Posted by Ben Huber on Sep 1, 2012 in Videogames 
One of the most-requested features in Skyrim was being able to customize your house. Luckily, Bethesda has been doing an excellent job with making interesting DLC for the game, as well as listening to fan requests, so here’s Hearthfire! This update will allow you to buy tracts of land and then build your own house with material you collect. You can also adopt children to become part of your family with your spouse in the newly-built house, which I’m pretty sure was on the bottom of the list of “highly requested features.” Hearthfire will be out on Xbox Live September 4th and on PC sometime this year. Read more…
Tags: Elder Scrolls, Skyrim
Posted by Ben Huber on Aug 31, 2012 in Videogames 
The other day Konami held a press conference dedicated to Metal Gear Solid to celebrate its 25th Anniversary – and of course, to announce new stuff. Two big items of news? The Metal Gear Solid movie is, according to Hideo Kojima, on its way. Avi Arad showed up to announce that he is producing the whole affair, but given that he’s been producing lots of game-based films that are currently going nowhere, let’s just keep this one in “maybe someday” folder. The real news is a new game, Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes, a supposedly open-world stealth game in the Fox Engine. Read more…
Tags: Konami, Metal Gear Solid
Posted by Bob Muir on Aug 30, 2012 in Anime, Videogames 
I’ve mostly outgrown my affection for the typical shonen genre exemplified by franchises like Bleach and Naruto. However, there is no way I can abandon One Piece, be it for the inventive action, energetic characters, and boundless enthusiasm on show. I think at this point I’m enough of a fan to even consider playing a videogame based on a series I’ve so far avoided. Part of that is how accurately One Piece: Pirate Warriors for PS3 depicts famous fights from the story. Read more…
Tags: Anime, One Piece, Videogames
Posted by Bob Muir on Aug 30, 2012 in Videogames 
When companies talk about putting ads in games, there’s generally much gnawing of teeth as gamers envision a future where games are filled with pop-up ads. But what about getting to play high-def games in your browser for free with the support of interrupting ads? That’s Core Online, a new service from Square Enix, and it sounds pretty awesome. Read more…
Tags: Hitman, Ninja, square enix
Posted by Bob Muir on Aug 29, 2012 in Videogames 
I’m liking this Nintendo Direct thing that the Big N has been releasing over the past year. It’s shows Nintendo is willing to actually tell gamers about the games it will be releasing, unlike the tight-lipped Nintendo of the past. And even if some of the presentations cater directly to the Japanese market, there’s still usually some interesting stuff for those of us in the US. Last night was one of those Japanese-only editions, but there was still some interesting news, so here’s a quick rundown of what was announced. Read more…
Tags: 3DS, Level-5, Nintendo
Posted by Bob Muir on Aug 28, 2012 in Tech, Videogames 
One of the most intriguing things to come out E3 2012 was Square Enix’s realtime tech demo Agni’s Philosophy. (You may take that as a sign of how comparatively tame E3 was this year, but I’m still legitimately impressed by the footage.) Square Enix has never been a slouch when it comes to graphics; say what you will about Final Fantasy XIII, but it pumped out some really impressive visuals on the PS3, blurring the line between prerendered cutscenes and in-game cutscenes. Now the company is showing off what else the tech running the demo can do. Read more…
Tags: square enix, tech demo
Posted by Ben Huber on Aug 25, 2012 in Videogames 
NeoGAF user Durante was annoyed that the PC version of From Software’s popular Dark Souls wouldn’t run in 1080p, so he modded it to work as desired. The catch? The game just came out. His fix involves an “interception .dll framework” that he developed in a week of preparation for the game’s release. Using this, he then was able to successfully mod the game to run in 1080p (and higher!) in just 23 minutes after its launch. Talk about speed! You can check out the details of the fix in his thread, here. And check out some of those high-res screenshots! Read more…
Tags: Dark Souls
Posted by Bob Muir on Aug 22, 2012 in Videogames 
Weren’t zombie games played out a while ago? At the start of this console generation, the world was experiencing a zombie renaissance, with the previously cult creatures starting to appear all over the place. But a few years back, it seemed like the zombie market was over-saturated. Zombies were just getting tossed in anything, showing up even in unexpected games like Call of Duty and Red Dead Redemption. There have been less zombie games lately, since anyone not experiencing zombie burnout is playing DayZ or The Walking Dead, but that won’t stop Microsoft from tossing another zombie game out there!
Read more…
Tags: Microsoft, Xbox 360, zombies
Posted by Bob Muir on Aug 22, 2012 in Videogames 
One of the earliest US gaming magazines is finally going out of print. Nintendo Power, the official magazine of Nintendo, will no longer be published. Circulation has dropped as much as 10% in the first half of 2012, and with other once-popular game magazines like EGM and GamePro disappearing from newsstands in the past few years, it’s just not a good time to be in print. Read more…
Tags: Nintendo
Posted by Bob Muir on Aug 21, 2012 in Videogames 
In spite of all the problems they have, fans love crossovers, and I’m no different. I conveniently ignore the fact that crossovers often contain cheesy catchphrases, obvious confrontations, and a cliche team-up plot, usually about saving the world — all in the name of making fans giddy with excitement. The stakes might not be that high in Professor Layton vs. Ace Attorney, but that doesn’t make the crossover any less enticing for fans of the two cult DS series. Read more…
Tags: 3DS, Capcom, Level-5, Nintendo
Posted by Bob Muir on Aug 21, 2012 in Videogames 
The Pokémon train keeps rolling, with Nintendo releasing the first numbered sequels in the series this fall, Pokémon Black 2 and Pokémon White 2. However, no matter how diligent fans were at catching them all in the original Black and White, there is no way they actually managed to catch all the Pokémon coded into the games. Why? Because some Pokémon are only distributed at special events, and it’s about time for another one of those! Read more…
Tags: Nintendo, Nintendo DS, Pokémon
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