TGS: Resonance of Fate Trailer

After Infinite Undiscovery and Star Ocean 4, Resonance of Fate (also known as End of Eternity in Japan) is the third of recent RPGs by developer tri-Ace. It goes for a much more Western feel and look with more adult character, guns and trench coats.

The game offers some promise as its helmed by Takayuki Suguro who directed Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria and also worked Final Fantasy Tactics and Vagrant Story while at Squaresoft. But so far I’m not completely sold, we still haven’t any gameplay, the color tones feels bland and the mouth animation appears to be completely off.

We’ll have to see more before the end of year release to make a proper judgment though.

AVP Marine Trailer!

Do SO Want! NOW!

Alan Wake PC Rests on MicroSoft’s Shoulders

A few months ago it was announced that the long delayed Alan Wake would only be coming to consoles. Fans of Remedy, whose games like Max Payne had always started on the PC were pretty annoyed and forums started heating up.

In a recent statement though the developer said that they would “love to see a PC version” and that “plans are open” but it apparently falls to MicroSoft to make the decision. Which mean it may not be coming for a little while since MS likes to give it’s 360 some time to grab a few dollars before releasing games in the piracy-prone PC.

In any case we’ll see how it develops and how the console version feels when it finally comes out.

Here’s the full statement:

“It is accurate that we are currently working exclusively on the Xbox 360 version of Alan Wake,” the statement reads. “PC plans are currently open, and therefore it’s safe to say that at least a simultaneous launch with the Xbox version will not happen at this late stage. Remedy has a deep heritage in PC gaming and would love to see a PC version available to its PC followers, ultimately however this decision lies with our publisher.”

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!

inFAMOUS Vs. [Prototype] With Bras!

If there’s one thing that the Internet has given us the opportunity it is to voice our opinions easily. It also allowed budding journalist (or people just wanting to rant) the opportunity to make video game reviews for the masses.

Most are forgettable but there are a few that stand out in there own right. One such man is Yahtzee, a crazy Brit (dare I say Rostbeef!) who lives in Australia and makes review in a very original way.
The appropriately called Zero Punctuation reviews are delivered at a rapid pace with no pauses whatsoever. They are also accompanied by some very nice simple animations to animate the video.

But I digress, we all know the big debate about which is the best game. inFAMOUS and [Prototype] came out very close to each other and both feature a sprawling open-box city with a hero who suddenly gains powers and must seek answers. There are obviously some differences but the similarities are also numerous and so it has spawned numerous debates, battles, wars…

Yahtzee reviewed both games and after his second reviews decided that the best game would be decided by getting a picture of the opposite team’s hero in a bra (drawn by the developers). Obviously this was a joke and no one expected much but Sucker Punch and Radical obliged, much to their credit.

Here are the results. Personally I prefer the inFAMOUS one made by Radical, it is more risky and really gives a good Drag Queen vibe. But Ben decided he prefered the other one, and to each his own obvisouly, so Sucker Punch won the contest and inFAMOUS was declared the better game!

Congratulations to Ben for his fun reviews and props to both developers for getting in on the joke and proving they are good sports.

Necessary Force Could Be the New Max Payne

While Max Payne 3 is being developed we are, as best as I can put it, cautiously hopeful. The game looks very different and developed by a new company so there is worry. But we shall wait until we actually play the game to pass final judgment.

If all else fails there is one game that could carry the torch. Necessary Force looks to be this game. I just discovered the debut trailer and it looks very promising.
The setting is very noir, looks to be set in a New York type town, featuring a gritty detective and even the music sounds very similar. It looks great and I will keep an eye on this one.

The issue being that is is developed by Newcastle, a Midway UK branch, who may go under soon…. Let us pray people.

Max Payne Voice Actor to Change

The Max Payne series was known for a few things. The Bullet Time, the dark gritty New York ambiance and Max’s voice…among other things.

But this time things are different. Max is old, he’s not in NY but in Sao Paulo, Bullet Time has been done to death…. and we just learned that he had an operation on his vocal cords.
Rockstar announced that the actor who voiced Max to perfection int he first two games, James McCaffrey, will not be returning. The main explanation is that Max is older and so his voice has changed and the actor needs to reflects this.
Now I get the idea but I don’t know about you, my mom’s voice hasn’t changed dramatically in the 29 years I’ve known her… But let’s give them that.

What worries me is that Rockstar’s art director Rob Nelson stated that “All the Max Payne themes will remain intact – manipulation, betrayal, and the stuff that really made Max Payne“. But that’s not it! What Made Max Payne Max Payne was the noir ambiance, the NY setting, the moody soundtrack and of course Max’s thoughts being voiced by James McCaffrey.

I fear Rockstar will not be able to capture the feeling that Remedy gave to the series. But I will wait and hope.

Max Payne 3 First Info

Game Informer once again scores big, after Halo 3: Recon, Uncharted 2, God of War III, BioShock 2, Assassin’s Creed II and Modern Warfare 2 (Phew!) it’s now time for our favorite gritty cop (sorry Vic Mackey) to take center stage.

Taken from the cover story of their last issue we get the first few details of Rockstar‘s Max Payne 3.

• Max is bald (as we can see)
• He has become addicted to Pain Killers which will affect gameplay in some way
• The game will take place 10 years after The Fall of Max Payne
• It will take place in Sao Paolo with urban battles in the slums
• There will be Bullet-Time but it will be more violent
• There will be a night/day cycle
• You can destroy environments
• The game uses the RAGE engine (GTA IV, Red Dead Redemption)
• There will be a multiplayer mode

The Best of the Rest From E3 2009

In this post I will post everything that impressed me that didn’t come from the Big 3 conferences. So this includes EA, UbiSoft and of course the various booths throughout the floor.

Let’s dive right in!

Star Wars: The Old Republic
OMG!!!!!! As soon as i saw all the Jedi walk in I knew it. But still the trailer blew me away. It is as high quality as a Blizzard trailer would be and that is the biggest praise I can give it. Watch and rewatch it!

The Secret of Monkey Island – Special Edition
Yes Yes Yes!! This looks and sounds amazing!!!!!! I’m a huge LucasArts and adventure games fan so this is just amazing. The instant switch between classic and special edition is truly impressive

Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box
Sweet trailer. I loved the first one and have been expecting this ever since so this is great news!

Final Fantasy IV: The After Years
Sequel to FF IV available through nine episodes on WiiWare

Castlevania: Lord of Shadows
Amazing trailer!! Potentially a great 3D Castlevania at last. Kojima Productions is working on it. It looks really polished and the gameplay looks nice.

Academy of Champions
This trailer caught my eye. I’m not a big sports fan but I like the Harry Potter meets Captain Tsubasa feel of the game.

Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine
Another Warhammer 40,000 another great trailer! And this game is an action-RPG so it’s more up my alley.

E3 2009: Microsoft Press Conference

Today at 10:30am PST E3 officially launched with the Microsoft press conference. It feature several announcements, some big and some small, some exciting, some yawn-inducing. But overall I think it was a good conference.

Mantra: Showing Not Telling.

NB: Keep in my mind that I will add/update links as HD videos pop up on the web.

The big announcement of the conference was Project Natal. The long speculated camera with movement recognition. It turns out it will also feature facial and voice recognition.
They really pushed it with appearances from Steven Spielberg and Peter Molyneux but it was a mixed bag.

The lame painting demo, though somewhat fun gave me the same feeling as Wii Music last year. Completely gimmicky and useless. Not precise enough to be used in games. The Ricochet demo, likewise, was fun in the sense that the girl who did the demo after 5 minutes seemed ready to jump into the shower. So what of hour long sessions…..

The whole Lionhead demo is also bittersweet. On the one hand the demo itself is sad! Following on the whole new stuff for Live, now you don’t need to press a button with Natal voice recognition, you don’t need to see your friends because you have Facebook and Twitter everywhere and with Milo you don’t even need a friend! Sad really.
But on the other hand if you look past the presentation itself. What it offers in terms of new technology, when harnessed, could be amazing in games. Imaging being in Resident Evil 5 and instead of having to go through ammo inventory management hell, you would just say “give my shotgun ammo” and ..voila! Truly an amazing potential that has yet to be developed.
It is after all still a ‘project’ so let us give them the benefit of the doubt.

In other none-straight-game-related stuff, Microsoft announced new partnerships:

• Last.fm which will allow access to the famous music site. In addition people with gold subscriptions will have access to it all for free. This feels like this year’s Netflix deal.
• Facebook. This a a pretty big thing if it’s exclusive but all in all it allows you to do what you already do on your PC and Blackberry from your 360. YAY lazy.
• Twitter. Same as Facebook, nothing to add.
• Sky TV in the UK which will allow you to watch live TV.
• All videos will now be available instantly in 1080p. Nice but I’ll believe it when I see it.

The announcements most of the people who may read my blog (however few) are interested in are the games. On that front I thought Microsoft did pretty well so let’s dive in.

• The Beatles Rock Band. Paul, Ringo and Yoko! Pretty big PR. Check out the amazing game intro. All You Need Is Love is a 360 exclusive and I am so getting this game! I don’t own it yet and the Beatles guitars look awesome. Out 09-09-09!
• Modern Warfare 2. They showed the long trailer that came out last week but they also had a gameplay demo in the snow with blizzard weather and snowmobile that was awesome!
• Final Fantasy XIII. It was basically the Japanese demo of the English version with English voices. I’m still praying for VO in the game though. They unveiled Odin which was cool. It’s set to release in Spring 2010.
• Splinter Cell: Conviction. They showed a very nice demo and trailer. The game looks darker and features some new stuff like an EMP grenade and ‘Mark and Execute’ which allows you to sort of set a sequence and get it going for a fast kill.
• Left 4 Dead 2. Featured a great trailer and a release date for October of this year.
• Halo 3: ODST. Another sweet trailer, Bukcle up and prepare to drop! Some gameplay footage in New Mombasa as the Rookie. The game will have a flashback systema nd you will play several ODSTs to build up the plot.
• Halo: Reach. Unveiling of the game. Set around the time of the novel ‘Fall of Reach’ which was a prequel to the game. No surprise another nice trailer. Set to release in 2010 and there will be a beta access with ODST.
• Alan Wake. At last!!!! A very nice footage of the game. Walking around at night with a tryst flashlight. It reminded my a lot of Alone in the Dark on the DC. You seem to be facing ghost which are neutralized with a sort of EMP weapon. The game is coming out Spring 2010.
• Forza Motorsport 3. A short trailer and a live demo showing the different views with the head vision going left and right. A new very deep costumization and video editing system for Live. Release date set for October.
• Metal Gear Solid: Rising. and HERE. WE. GO. After Devil May Cry and Final Fantasy Sony lost the Metal Gear exclusive. Aside from this the whole thign was fairly poor. Same trailer we’ve been teased with for weeks (and the countdown hadn’t even reached zero!). Even though it’s called Metal Gear SOLID it Kojima made a point to say it doesn’t feature Solid Snake but Raiden as we knew.
• Shadow Complex. New Epic Game for XBLA. was unveiled through massive sound problem so we didn’t hear a bunch of stuff. The animation looks a lot like Bionic Commando Rearmed and the map is reminiscent of Metroid/Castlevania.
• Crackdown 2. Featured a nice trailer but that’s about it.
• Brutal Legend. Tim Schaeffer detailed some of the voice work and characters in the game with a  fun trailer. Included are Ozzy Osbourne, Motorhead’s Lemmy Killmeister, Lita Ford and more. Still coming out Rocktober!
• Tony Hawk Ride. unveiled the final design for the skate peripheral as well as a basic trailer. nothing thrilling.
• Joy Ride. A sort of Mario Kart with your Avatars in the cars. But it’s free so there’s really nothing to complain about. Could be fun.