Archive for March, 2007

As many of you might know, I currently reside in Tokyo, Japan. Filled with anime, Otakus, maids, and of course hot Japanese women. Very hot. So anyways, I’d like to have us sit down and chat for a while about what exactly is going on…

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Sonic Team developed NiGHTS has been confirmed by both Sega and Nintendo this morning. Rumors reached its peek this past week as pictures published on Nintendo’s official periodical Official Nintendo Magazine circulated throughout the web illustrating what seemed to be the acrobatic protagonist of NiGHTS formed by stars laid out on a pitch black sky with two white bold-lettered words “World Exclusive”. Both parties involved with the NiGHTS project have both stated that this won’t be a port of Sega Saturn’s 1996 title for the Nintendo Wii’s Virtual Console; Instead the untitled game will amplify the franchise making it it’s official sequel. Fans of the now original NiGHTS game shouldn’t dismiss the probability of seeing our jester attired friend from appearing in 32-bit format as part of Nintend Wii’s Virtual Console marketplace. LiveNintendo

It looks as though Microsoft is updating the Xbox 360, inside and out!

The first HDMI-enabled Xbox360 will probably be a Black ‘Elite’ limited edition that will also come with a 120GB HD and will retail for $479 in April 2007. Some blogs/sites claim Microsoft will announce it this week. The 120GB HDD addon and Black accessories will probably also come out in April.
And according to our sources close to Microsoft, the normal Pro and Core Xbox360 SKUs will also get a HDMI port in ~June 2007.
http://www.xbox360fanboy.com, http://www.xbox-scene.com

Back in January I post about some predictions in next gen gaming. While I didn’t list DMC4 as one of my predicted titles, I DID say that MANY other titles will be ported for developers to recoupe costs. Today it was announced that Devil May Cry 4 will indeed be coming out for Xbox 360 and PC. Here’s the story: Read the rest of this entry »

A year ago I would have said this was completely impossible.

Devil May Cry 4 is coming to the XBox 360.

Some time ago, IGN promised they had insider news that MS’ latest console would see unprecedented JP developer love. I wrote it off as the usual hopeful crap, to be later shown as yet another episode of Operation Sabotage. It seems that, just possibly, such cynicism might have been wrong. While this can’t exactly be good news for the PS3 owners out there, from a larger perspective it’s a good thing.

Here’s hoping the game itself is something other than tripe and treacle. Though that might be stretching it.

IGN reports today that the remake of Final Fantasy Tactics for the PSP will come with a multiplayer option. Personally I would have prefered to have an online play feature, but still is almost as good. Unfortunately, they still haven’t said if they will release this game in America or not.

Yep, God Of War has spawned a new wave of medieval hack and slash games. CTB is no slouch! Check out this gore filled trailer!

Wow! I can honestly say that the lack of online play and shitty controls kept me away from this game on PS2. Now that it’s online, I can learn to like the controls. They may have done some cool stuff with the control scheme for the 360 version though. The game looks tight! It’s blazingly fast which is a huge improvement from it’s previous versions. Add next gen graphics to the mix and I think we have a winner here. Armored Core fans UNITE! Oh wait, X360 gamers can’t play against PS3 gamers online. That right there is reason enough to have a unified online system. Oh well.

Capcom is pleased to announce that Monster Hunter Freedom 2 for the PSP® (PlayStation® Portable) system (referred to below as the PSP® system) has shipped more than 1 million units in Japan. The second installment has managed to outperform even the popular first game, to reach one million shortly after release. With the release of the Best Edition of the first Monster Hunter Freedom, the first game is also expected to exceed one million in the near future. Combined, these two titles make the Monster Hunter Freedom series the strongest game series on the PSP® system in Japan as of March 6th, 2007.

The popular Monster Hunter series of action games puts the player in the role of a fearless hunter roaming the great outdoors tracking down gigantic beasts. Players can tackle the adventure alone or join friends over a network for team cooperative action. Since the first Monster Hunter’s console release in March 2004, it cumulatively shipped over 3.7 million copies around the world as of March 6th, 2007, and has been honored with numerous awards, securing a place as one of Capcom’s premier titles.

This is quite possibly the greatest news for PSP owners since the announcement of the new Castlevania remake of Rondo’s Blood and it’s inclusion of Symphony of the Night. If you managed to check out God of War 2, you’ll find the advertisement on the back of the instruction manual. However, there is no specific date. The ad simply says ‘Coming 2007′. Well, at least we know we won’t be waiting too long.

I feel bad for cribbing content from Kotaku, but this is important enough people need to see it regardless of source.

Microsoft is downplaying Backwards Compatibility again.

Fact: we as system owners were promised 100% BC. Eventually, to be sure, but 100% means one hundred percent. Not “we’ll do it till we think we can get away with quitting, then spin it as what players wanted.” There are reams and reams of quality XBox games still sitting on shelves, dying on the vine. MS really shouldn’t have pulled support for the XBox as soon as they did; one way to make up for that is to make sure its legacy survives. And that means Backwards Compatibility.

People, this is where the rubber hits the road. Communicate. E-mail MS, post on their forums, do whatever, but get your voices heard. The success of any console-maker in this industry depends on popular support. Let them know this is bullshit, and that we won’t take it quietly.

This f/x demo is incredible. Crysis should set the standard for next gen gaming when it’s released. There is so much attention to detail you could easily get lost in a game like this. Immersion is everything and if you can’t put the player into the game, what’s the point? Push your keyboard forward so as to not drool on it!

Oh me oh my! I’m getting very excited about this game. Check out Andy Serkis in this facial demo for Heavenly Sword.

Weither it’s good or bad remains to be determined. First up: Killzone will finally show it’s face at E3 this year. At the conference, Phil Harrison revealed some long awaited in-game footage of Killzone, with the title ‘E3′ appearing at the end. However, Harrison’s words of warning before showing the clip seems to suggest this wasn’t run from a PS3:

“Please remember that we’re showing you this footage as an example of our technology.”
“Keep that in mind when looking at it and don’t think of it as looking at the game directly.”

The ‘technology’ that’s mentioned is “PlayStation Edge” a new graphics tool used to help make developing for the PS3 easier. In my mind, this means the footage was run off of a PC emulating PS3 tech, rather than on an actual PS3. Is it cheating? Maybe, but it’s better than nothing. Like any other avid gamer, I wish I could have seen the footage. For now, all I can do is report the news and hope the best come July. With the buzz slowed down to a crawl on this game, it’s good to see it still has some life.

Next up is Sony’s Home. From what I can tell, it’s like an MMO-Myspace. Users get their own character to customize and represent them in this virtual world. You can decorate your ‘Apartment space’ with furniture, pictures, movies, or even websites and invite friends over to check it out. There’s even a ‘Hall of Fame’, in which game accomplishments can be displayed as 3D trophies and video. With a high level of customization, this could be the unique feature that the PS3 has been missing.

For more in-depth information, see IGN’s full 3 page article here: http://ps3.ign.com/articles/770/770998p1.html

Microsoft is proud to announce today that more than 6 million gamers worldwide are connected to Xbox LIVE, a milestone that was reached 4 months ahead of schedule. Xbox LIVE, the premier online entertainment network, offers the best in online gaming, ubiquitous voice, video and text chatting, Achievements, demos, trailers and more.

And, with Xbox LIVE Video Marketplace, gamers can download thousands of hours of premium entertainment content, from high-def TV shows like “CSI” or “Robot Chicken,” to full-length films such as “Saw III” or “Crank.” And, as announced this past week, Xbox LIVE members can download the first ever HD episode of “South Park,” exclusive to the Xbox 360 and available free starting today, March 6.
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