Dante’s Inferno New Trailer on GTTV

For some reason my DVR didn’t record the last episode of GTTV so I had missed it until now. a real shame too because it’s feature was Dante’s Inferno, a game I wanted to get more info on and am now eagerly awaiting!

The game is being developed by Visceral Games, the guys who brought us Dead Space last year, so you can expect good things.
The game looks truly amazing and if you’re interested I suggest you check out the full GTTV episode. But just to wet you appetite I’m posting the new trailer which plain rocks!

Now go to Hell!

E3 2009: Sony Press Conference

Damn it is nice to end on a good note! Sony’s press conference once again delivers. Bear in mind I’m no fanboy, I love my PSX and PS2 like anyone else and I think the PS3 is a good console picking up steam. I also own an Xbox and a 360 and a Wii and a GameCube and a DS. I’m a gamer and that’s it.

But now that I’ve seen all of the Big 3 conferences I come out with the same feeling I did last year: Sony tops the show, but not by much. What makes Sony’s conferences so nice is that there are very stylish, they are pro without being pompous or boring (see the Hannah Montana announcements) and they have games. MicroSoft is always close being with usually a bit more games but in terms of the conference itself they fall just a little short. And then, of course, there’s Nintendo, our beloved Nintendo, which has given us cringe-worthy conferences back to back.

But this is about Sony who reminded us nicely that the PlayStation came out 15 years ago… I know right?

Mantra: One Vision

One of the big ‘news’ today that was not software related was the PSP Go! which as Jack Tretton put it is “the worst kept secret of E3“. As a result nothing really new was said on the technical side. It will have 16G of flash memory with possible extension, built-in WiFi and Bluetooth.
Jack made a point to say that the all-digital console would not replace current PSPs and that all games will be available digitally as well as in UMD format.
They also unveiled Media Go which is an app allowing you to access the PS Store directly from your PC. The PS Store will have new content partners including Showtime and Manga Entertainment.
The PSP Go1 will be available on October 1st for $249.99. No price drop of previous versions was announced.

The other big news was Sony’s motion controller. It was unveiled by Richard Marx, creator of the Eye Toy and is in essence a WiiMote but with a twist or two. First of all it seems to be color-coded so for instance if you waggle the controller while it’s red it will throw a fireball, if it were blue it would be an ice ball. Second and most important it looked very VERY precise during the demo, precise enough to actually write smoothly with.
It’s important to keep in mind that, like Natal, this is still a project in development (this is set to launch in 2010) so neither the design nor the technology is final. both technologies are very impressive and promising but for now Sony’s seem more game-ready.
It will certainly be exciting to see where this goes in the future.

Now let’s move on to the games. Sony had prepared 2 videos featuring all the upcoming games for PSP and PS3 and they also announced 50 PlayStation games coming to the PS Store this year starting with Final Fantasy VII available today! But they also had some more in-depth trailers and demos for several games.

• Uncharted 2: Among Thieves. Sweet gameplay demo with lots of destruction and flying objects everywhere. Awesome dialogue as well.
• MAG. Live demo of a game session involving 256 players at once! seemed very complex but interesting. There appeared to be a very slight lag in the gameplay though.
• Gran Turismo PSP. it will be in full 60FPSas shown in the trailer and will feature 800 cars and 35 tracks with 60 variations. You can play with 4 players and will be able to trade cars with others.
• Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker. Ah now that’s a trailer! Unlike yesterday’s lackluster Rising trailer this one was great. This a “true sequel of the franchise” not a spin-off and the MGS4 team is developing, Kojima will write the script and produce. The game will take place in the 70s, ten years after MGS3. It is due in 2010.
• Resident Evil Portable. Not much was revealed except that it will be a complete new game.
• Agent. A new Rockstar property that will be exclusive to the PlayStation 3 and will be set in the late 1970s.
• Assassin’s Creed II. Awesome demo and great trailer! you will not start out as an assassin but will become with the help of people like Leonardo da Vinci! You will have more diversity and more options available to you. Double Headed Blade! The game will be out the Holiday season along with Bloodlines for the PSP. Out November 17.
• Final Fantasy XIII. A new great trailer but with so-so dubbing, not bad but not great either. i’m still on my knees for Japanese VO.
• Final Fantasy XIV. Wow now that was unexpected. The trailer reveals that it’s actually an MMO and so a spiritual sequel to FF XI. The game will be exclusive to PS3.
• Mod Nation Racers. The new game in the Play, Create, Share line. It is a fun kart game with more adult graphics. The very impressive demo showed the track creation tools which offer tons of options and can be tried instantly.
• The Last Guardian. Otherwise known as Project Trico. The trailer was a gorgeous graphical update of the one we saw a few weeks ago, though a few scenes were added at the end.
• Gran Turismo 5. A decent trailer shows WRC and Nascar but not much else was revealed as usual.
• God of War III. An amazing demo!! Brutal ,bloody, gorgeous. The game is the final chapter of the trilogy. Coming March 2010.

Lunar: The Silver Star Remake for PSP

Game Arts has announced they are developing Lunar: The Silver Star Harmony, a remake of  the original Lunar which was released in 1992 on the Sega CD and later remade for the Saturn and PlayStation.

The information was revealed in a Famitsu article and picked up by 1UP.com.

The remake is supposed to feature an updated soundtrack and bigger story. No release dates has been confirmed as of yet for the game which will be published by Gungho but an official website we’ll be up this coming Friday so stay tuned for more info.

First E3 Game List Announced (Updated 05-05-09)

Thanks to the IGN peeps who have compiled a list of game to be shown at this year’s E3. The show will be back in full blast at L.A. Convention Center on June 2-4.

2K Sports

• The Bigs 2 (X360)

Activision

• Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2 (DS, PS2, PS3, PSP, Wii, X360)

Disney Interactive Studios

• Hannah Montana: Rock Out the Show (PSP)
• Spectrobes: Origins (Wii)
• Split/Second (PS3, X360)
• Toy Story Mania (Wii)
• Wizards of Waverly Place (DS)

Electronic Arts

• Army of Two: The 40th Day (PS3, PSP, X360)
• Battlefield: Bad Company 2 (PC, PS3, X360)
• Brütal Legend (PS3, X360)
• Grand Slam Tennis (Wii)
• Madden NFL 10 (PS3, PSP, Wii, X360)
• Mass Effect 2 (PC, X360)
• NCAA Football 10 (PS3, PSP, Wii, X360)
• Need for Speed Nitro (Wii)
• Need for Speed Shift (PC, PS3, X360)
• Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 (PS3, PSP, Wii, X360)

Ignition Entertainment

• Muramasa: The Demon Blade (Wii)
• Nostalgia (DS)
• The King of Fighters XII (PS3, X360)

Koei

• Monster Racers (DS)
• Warriors Orochi 2 (PSP)

Konami

• Kojima Productions Project [untitled] (tba)

Namco Bandai_

• Soulcalibur: Broken Destiny (PSP)

Perfect World Entertainment

• Ether Saga Online (PC)
• Perfect World (PC)

Sega

• Alpha Protocol (PC, PS3, X360)
• Bayonetta (PS3, X360)
• Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games (DS, Wii)
• Planet 51 (DS, PS3, Wii, X360)
• The Conduit (Wii)
• Vancouver 2010: The Official Videogame of the Winter Olympic Games (PC, PS3, X360)

Sony Computer Entertainment

• Fat Princess (PS3)
• God of War III (PS3)
• Heavy Rain (PS3)
• Infamous (PS3)
• Jak and Daxter: The Lost Frontier (PS2, PSP)
• MAG (PS3)
• MotorStorm: Arctic Edge (PS2, PSP)
• Pain! Sore Spots (PS3)
• PixelJunk 1-4 (PS3)
• PixelJunk Monsters Deluxe (PSP)
• Ratchet and Clank Future: A Crack in Time (PS3)
• SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs Fireteam Bravo 3 (PSP)
• Singstar: Queen (PS2, PS3)
• Uncharted 2: Among Thieves (PS3)
• White Knight Chronicles (PS3)

Sony Online Entertainment

• DC Universe Online (PC>, PS3)
• Free Realms (PC)
• Kung Fu Hustle (PC)
• Legends of Norrath (PC)
• PoxNora (PC)
• The Agency (PC>, PS3)

THQ

• Darksiders: Wrath of War (PS3, X360)
• Red Faction: Guerrilla (PC, PS3, X360)
• UFC 2009 Undisputed (PS3. X360)

New PSP Go! Coming This Fall

According to the guys at 1Up some info is starting to come out on the new PSP-4000. Of course Sony “does not comment on rumors or speculations” but that’s regular procedure so let’s get to it.

A major overhaul of the Sony portable system has been rumored for quite a while and with the recent release of the DSi it would make sense for them to counter the momentum. To that end they have stated that they will unveil the new PSP at E3.

First the name. Several came out such as the PSP Slide, PSP Flip and PSP Go! but it would seem the latter is more probable. Sony has recently announced a series of add-ons including the Go!Cam and the Go!View, so it’s fairly safe to assume that the new portable will be the PSP Go!

The PSP Go! is rumored to have several new features (or lack thereof) and a pretty intense remodeling.
The biggest (and worst for me) is the loss of UMD-Drive. It seems the new PSP will be entirely download based with internal flash memory. Sony will have 100 original PSP titles available at launch. Let’s hope people who already own the UMD version won’t have to pay twice for games at least.
Personally I like to buy my games and have them displayed nicely on a shelf so I really don’t like this trend. Does it mean there will be no more UMDs in stores??

Aside from this the console seems to have the screen slide to reveal the controls (kind of like the Sidekick). Speaking of controls it will feature the classic digital controls and face buttons as well as one analog ’stick’. a lot of people are complaining for the lack of a second analog controller on the console but hopefully Sony will add it before launch.

The portable console is set to release in September in Japan and sometime between September and November in the U.S.. It will come in two versions, one with 8GB of flash memory and the other with 16GB.

See you at E3 for more info.

Note: This image is a mock-up

Persona PSP New Trailer

For those who missed it here’s the new trailer for the Persona remake on the PSP. Enjoy.

Ys VII goes Multiplatform

The next Nihon Falcom RPG released in the Ys series will come out for the PSP in September in Japan. The game will feature companions for the first time, you will go through the game with 2 AI-controlled friends to look for the 5 Dragons of Altago.

Nihon Falcom has said that Ys VII will be the biggest game in the series. Skills will be attached to weapons and on top of that each character will have a unique EX skill, which is basically a more powerful ability.

It was announced that the game will be released on several different platforms although we have no details on which these would be just yet. The company has stated though that the other versions will not be simple ports of the PSP version but will take full advantage of each console’s unique features.

Wednesday October 22, 2008

E3 Overhaul Confirmed

As I posted yesterday, this year E3 will become bigger and hopefully better. It seems G4 was right and Newsweek was wrong since the show will take place Tuesday June 2 through Thursday June 4 and will not be open to public. However audience invites will be more numerous and hopefully will include us bloggers/journalists
Booth size will also be bigger, doing away with the 20×20 feet space limit.

PSP-3000 Woes

The portable console just came out in Japan and apparently people are already complaining.  The problem apparently is coming from the scanlines which are supposed to improve contrast and rendering.
The screens speak for themselves and apparently since the problem is from the new screen there can be no software update. Which means if you don’t like you can re-buy the old one…or wait for a new version.

Gears of War 2 Banned in Germany and Possibly Japan

This trend is really starting to annoy me (and I’m mincing words). You would think that democracies would be smart but this is no different than Book Burning or the Church censorship of the Middle Ages.
These countries don’t shy away from releasing every other porn movie (especially Japan which borders on the underage sex cult) and violent movie out there so what stops them from putting an ‘Adult’ label on the cover and give it a rest???
I guess Germans will have to buy their games on Amazon.uk……ooooohhh maybe the police is going to knock on their door for contraband importation…..
Whatever.

TGS 2008 Highlights

OK well I have to admit I was a bit underwhelmed this year.
It wasn’t abysmal by any means but nothing really thrilled me. We got some nice and lengthy trailers but not many games stood out on there own…And frankly I love RPGs but I can only take so many new DS titles. And it begs the question as to why there are billions of new RPGs for the handheld but barely any on the Wii.

Either way I am going to post the trailers I liked most throughout the show. Enjoy!

• Street Fighter IV – In my mind THE trailer of the show. Simply amazing and I need to grab this remix of Ryu’s theme!!
• Resident Evil 5 – With already seen a lot from the game at E3 and GC but just seeing Albert Wesker makes it all worthwhile.
• Muramasa: The Demon Blade – One of the great surprises of TGS. The game comes from the developers of Odin Sphere and bares a similar gameplay. Plus it simply looks gorgeous.
• Bayonetta - Devil May Cry meets Otaku fan service….and why not! Warning though: this trailer was made by guys, for guys.
• Halo 3: Recon – You know Bungie can put out a great trailer and this is another one.
• Otomedius Gorgeous – Ok this may look like another fan service game (this is TGS after all) but this actually looks like a very decent Shoot’em Up.
• Nikuni: The Another World – Aside from the translation straight from 1986 this game combines Level 5 and what seems to be Studio Ghibli so one has to pay attention!
• Gensou Suikoden Tierkreis – Finally a trailer for the new Suikoden! The game looks a bit different but still awesome.
• Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia – Same basic formula, still as enjoyable.
• Tales of Hearts – If there is one thing the Tales of have mastered it’s kick ass trailers! and this is… a kick ass trailer. By the way if you wanted the crap CG version, well… too bad.

So ther you have it, what my brains has retained from this year’s TGS.

Friday September 5, 2008

Tales of Hearts Screens

The next Tales of, set to come out on the Nintendo DS, will be released on December 11 in Japan. An interesting aspect of the game is that it will be available in two different versions. One will have CG cinematics like many RPGs since Final Fantasy VII came out, the other will stay true to the series and feature anime cutscenes.

Tecmo Blows Square-Enix Off, Tangos with Koei

Last week Square-Enix made a $200M bid for Tecmo (Ninja Gaiden, Dead or Alive…) with a September 4 deadline. Yesterday Tecmo rejected the RPG giant’s offer and announced it was in talks with Koei (Dinasty Warriors, Kessen…).
No financial details of the potential merger were published yet.

Far Cry 2 Collector Details

The very nice edition will feature a ‘making of’ DVD, an art book, a map of the game world and a limited edition T-shirt. all this wrapped up in a nice wooden box.
The game is coming out on October 21 in North America and October 24 in Europe.

Dead Space Ban Trifecta

The upcoming Electronic Arts space shooter has been banned in Germany, China and Japan according to EA community manager Ben Swanson. While China is expected and Germany has had some recent mayhem surrounding video game ratings, Japan is outright suprising and not understandable.
Why the country that has created Resident Evil, Fatal Frame and Silent Hill is banning an FPS is beyond me.

Disgaea Spin-Off on PSP

Set for release on November 20 in Japan Prinny: Ore ga Shyujinkou de Iinsuka will be a side-scrolling platformer based in the famous world of the Nippon Ichi franchise. In it you will play as one of the famous penguins from the series which will be on a quest for Etna’s sweets which have been stolen, lest he faces her wrath!
Let’s hope this sees an American release. Check out the trailer here.

Dates, Dates and Dates

• Call of Duty: World at War confirmed November 11
• Sacred 2: Fallen Angel PC version was postponed to coincide with console launch on November 7
• White Knight Story (still alive!) as been confirmed by Famitsu for December 11 in Japan
• Dead Space console release moved forward to October 14, PC version still set for October 20