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Dragon's Dogma: The Kotaku Review Mistwalker, home of The Gooch, Artoon, who Mistwalker worked with on Blue Dragon and Naoto Ohshima, creator of Sonic the Hedgehog, have announced they’re teaming up for a DS dungeon-crawler called Away. The game centres around a village whose inhabitants have been kidnapped, and are being held underground in vast dungeons. And you, well, you’ve got to get them out. Sounds boring. There a catch, a twist, a new take on anything? Seems there is! Every few seconds parts of the dungeon will reorient themselves and move around in real-time, and will crush you if you get caught. Also, any villagers you free return to the surface; the more you rescue, the bigger the village gets, causing “new events to unfold”. Famitsu are saying the game’s about 85% done, and should be out in Japan in February.
Mistwalker, Artoon Unveil New Project: Away [Famitsu, via 1UP][Image]
Last week, Professor Layton and his mystery solving skills stole Wii Fit‘s thunder, forcing it to settle for a number two debut. This week, however, Wii Fit reigns supreme atop its bloody Japanese throne, gazing down upon Professor Layton and Pandora’s Box, Lost Odyssey and a trio of Mario games. While Mistwalker’s latest latest RPG didn’t have a first week showing on par with Blue Dragon, it did pretty well. Unfortunately for Suda 51 and the rest of the gang at Grasshopper Manufacture, seems sales of No More Heroes were, indeed, rather piss poor, as the game failed to crack the top thirty.
There’s no question Ready at Dawn have been one of the PSP’s most decorated champions. First Daxter, now God of War…they’re good kids. But after so many years spent toiling on Sony’s portable, it seems their “other” job (ie porting Okami to the Wii) has given the studio a taste for home consoles. A taste they’re finding sweet, and irresistible. RaD’s wonderfully-named Ru Weerasuriya: This team is ready to move onto something pretty big, and we’ve be planning it for quite a while, and this team needs to show what they’re capable of doing on next-gen or current-gen, which ever word you want to call it.
Ru, we like to call it current-gen, but whatever works for you, works for you.
To: Luke From: McWhertor Re: G.T.T. (Gone To Texas)
Luke! Obviously, you know that Ashcraft is either in the air or packing his Paul Smith scarves for a trip to Texas to hang with the family for a festive holiday. And Crecente, well, I think he’s already three sheets to the wind as I’ve received a few text messages while he’s at the Funde Razer. They read “As West” and “Fuck Sa weet” so I think he’s in his cups. That just leaves you and me. We can hang out in Campfire all night and talk about He-Man, music that has guitars in it and sneakers.
Or I can go hang out with my girlfriend and eat Thai food. You’ll know when I’ve made my decision. Here’s some stuff you didn’t miss, as you have eyes like a hawk, but other folks might’ve.
MotorStorm Update Addresses Loading, Demands For Music PR Firms Sues Star Trek Online Developers Yahtzee Licks Balls, Reviews Guitar Hero III Speaking of Guitar Hero III…. >:( Oh, And Poison Has A Penis (In Japan)
Is Nintendo’s roller-coaster ride into the commercial stratosphere reaching its apex? Some people are beginning to think so. Nintendo shares have been on the up for years now, but in recent months have stalled, prompting investors to wonder whether their current market domination is as good as its going to get. Fund manager Yoshihisa Okamoto: People’s perception of the PS3 is improving from an underdog to something better, and part of the money that used to flow into Nintendo shares is now going to the Sony stock.
In other words, since the PS3 is now starting to win the punters over, the Wii won’t ever (least in the short-term) be in as dominant a position as it is now. What say you, raving-mad Nintendo fans? Is he right? Or will Christmas sales and Wii Fit keep Nintendo investors laughing madly at their bank balances right through 2008?
Nintendo shares stall after bull-run, Xmas eyed [Reuters][Image]
The Kotaku calendar indicates that we should be up to our eyeballs in “Best of 2007″ lists by the start of next week. Fortunately, instead of focusing on the top ten games of the year based on some vague merit—that’s typically just a list of the year’s most hyped, biggest name titles—Next-Gen opted to focus on innovation. Don’t worry, some of the bigger software is included, such as Mass Effect and Call of Duty 4, but a few titles that wouldn’t normally make the cut are included.
Hoo-boy. Activision, this just isn’t your day. Not content with pissing a whole bunch of people off over the PS3 version of Rock Band, it’s now being reported that the company is being sued over their bungling of Guitar Hero III’s sound output on the Wii. A class-action suit filed in San Diego “seeks actual damages, individual restitution, equitable relief, civil penalties, costs and expenses of litigation, including attorney’s fees, and all further relief available” over the game’s mono-only output, citing the fact the game box promises Dolby Pro Logic II support, which it doesn’t deliver. That’s one long and expensive Christmas wish list for law firm KamberEdelson, LLC. They also claim that Activision is “continuing to engage in deceptive practices” by leaving the game on the shelf when they know full well what’s promised on the box isn’t what’s inside it.
Activision Sued For Guitar Hero Sound Problems [Game|Life]
Fulfilling your life long dream of playing Pac-Man on the Game Boy Advance using nothing but your feet is within your grasp. Thanks to the folks at Instructables, who provide a step-by-step tutorial on how to hack together such a contraption, fat kids everywhere will be able to combine their two favourite things: eating (dots) and shedding pounds by frantic shuffling. They call this a “win-win”.
How to modify your DDR pad to play with your Gameboy Advance [Instructables via Wonderland]
Penny Arcade’s Tycho writes in today’s update that last night’s Child’s Play Charity Dinner Auction raked in a cool $US 225,000 worth of donations. That impressive figure can be added to the $US 600,000 already contributed through previous contributions, making the one million dollar benchmark from the previous year’s haul that much closer in sight. He writes that both Bungie and Valve brought their charitable A-games, with the Halo developer adding a “a USNC issue ordnance bag that contained literally every piece of Halo 3 merchandise ever created” to the auction pot. Also given to a lucky bidder, a set of Recon Armor from the game, items reserved for Bungie’s inner circle.
Valve staffers made sure they weren’t one-upped by Bungie, adding a tour of the Valve offices to the already sweet list of auctionable items. Way to give away money, diners. You did good.
The Dinner [Penny-Arcade]
Warhawk’s upcoming expansion pack, Operation Omega Dawn, is just about good to go, Sony announcing that it’ll be available in both the North American and European PS Stores next Thursday. Which is December 20. Americans can expect to pay $US 8 for the five new maps and new vehicle (KT-424 dropship), Brits will be paying £4 and while not part of the announcement, Europeans are probably looking at around €6.
Warhawk expansion dated [Eurogamer]
