Wednesday, August 6, 2008
Watch Pokemon Movie, Get Free Stuff, Japanese Kiddos!
11:40PM Brian Ashcraft | To: Crecente From: Ashcraft RE: Eye of the Storm Mrs. Bashcraft took the kid to see this summer’s Pokémon movie, Giratina to Sora no Hanataba: Sheimi. Every summer, a new one is churned out like clockwork. Last year, we all went to go see Dialga VS Palkia VS Darkrai, which actually made Mini-Bash cry. While watching a particularly moving scene in Sheimi, my wife said she started to hand Mini-Bash a tissue. To which he replied: “This is really sad, but I’m not crying”. Check out the loot he got for going to the movie: Stickers, a card and a puck for the Pokémon kiddy arcade game. What you missed last night You Will Never, Ever Game On A Rig This Expensive Soulcalibur IV, Over 2 Million Copies Sold Worldwide Loads Of New Square Enix Screens (FFXIII, Kingdom Hearts, etc) Microsoft Clarifies Final Fantasy XIII Asia Version “Announcement” Braid Priced High To Prevent “The Space Giraffe Problem” Konami Pulls In $US 655 Million In Q1 With A Little Help From Snake Kratos, Nariko Come To LittleBigPlanet Pre-orderers
Chrono Trigger DS Doesn’t Hit Europe Until, Yes, 2009
11:20PM Luke Plunkett | Come on Europe. You had to know it was too good to be true. You finally get news that Chrono Trigger is coming back, you get your hopes up you’ll soon be able to play it, and then…Square Enix go and announce that it won’t be available in PAL territories (so that’s you too, Australia) until “early 2009″. Yes, we know, it’s easy to import, and many of you will do just that, but come on, it’s the principle of the thing. Square have had 13 years to translate this game. Further delays are only rubbing salt in the wound. More »
Warhammer Online Launch Dated
11:00PM Brian Ashcraft | Three years in development later, and EA has finally announced that Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning will launch worldwide on September 18th. Says Mythic Entertainment founder Mark Jackobs: The countdown has officially begun. Mark your calendars! September 18th is the Day of Reckoning. For the last three years, the entire team at Mythic has poured their hearts into making Warhammer Online the next great MMORPG. We are so excited to open up this world and share it with the fans that will live in it, quest in it, go to war in it and make it come alive. The game will launch its North American, European and Oceanic servers simultaneously, a MMORPG first. Subscription options include: US$US 14.99 for a month subscription, $US 41.97 for a three-month subscription and $US 77.94 for a six-month subscription. More »
News
Famitsu Doesn’t Like ‘Beijing Olympics 2008′ At All
10:40PM Brian Ashcraft | The Olympics are starting soon! And if you are a game developer working on an Olympics game, you must get your game out on time. No matter what! That could be why SEGA’s Beijing Olympics 2008 is apparently so, well, crummy. Japanese game magazine Famitsu scored the game 3,4,4,3 for the PS3 version and 4,5,4,3 for the Xbox 360 version. Ouch. Comments include things like “Sports, as a collection of mini games, isn’t enough” or “We like the game patched”. Apparently the PS3 online rankings weren’t even working correctly, so. That’s a shame. Well, guess that means we’ll have to watch the real Beijing Olympics then. PS3「北京オリンピック 2008」がファミ通レビューで次世代ハード最低点を記録 [裏はちま起稿] More »
Behold, Your Tales of Vesperia Collectors Edition
10:20PM Luke Plunkett | In Japan, Tales of Vesperia is kinda a big deal for Microsoft. So they’re going all out. Jamzy’s been yammering on about the game for weeks now, there’s been fairly prominent marketing for the title and there’s even a snappy 360 hardware bundle. That bundle includes neat stuff like a faceplate and a copy of the games script. What do Americans get? Well, no hardware bundle for starters. It’s not really a big deal in the US. Instead, on offer is a regular old metal-box collectors edition, that features the game and…a CD. Which has 25 tracks pulled from the entirety of the Tales series. Kind of a shame they skimped on this game, because people would have gone bananas for a smoking dog figurine. That’s the CD above, full bundle’s after the jump if you’re at all interested. More »
Is This The First Transvestite Game Protagonist?
10:00PM Brian Ashcraft | Really, we just don’t know. DS visual novel Ikamono no Jiken: IKATAN (”The Squid Events”) features a main character who cross-dresses in order to collection information and new evidence as well as gain new personalities. As game site Insert Credit explains: The hero becomes a member of scenario group “Prawn Productions”. As a number of mysterious event unfold, the protagonist must dress as a woman to unravel the story in a series of timed investigations. Breaking new ground — that’s what the DS does, you know. 『いかもの探偵-IKATAN-』凶悪犯罪が一切起こらない推理アドベンチャーゲーム [Famitsu via Insert Credit] More »
You Will Never, Ever Game On A Rig This Expensive
9:30PM Luke Plunkett | One of our readers – who would prefer to remain nameless – installs PC rigs for a living. He helped install this one, in a government office, then proceeded to do what anyone confronted by twenty-seven 67″ HD monitors would do – he played a tonne of BioShock and WoW on it. For reference, 27 panels equates to a display that’s 40 feet wide and 15 feet high, with a desktop resolution of, oh, 12600 x 3150. More »
Bungie Says Halo Could Learn From Call of Duty 4
9:00PM Brian Ashcraft | Call of Duty 4 is great. We like it, you like it and Bungie sure as shit likes it. Doesn’t matter if Bungie’s Halo 3 and Infinity Ward’s CoD4 duke it out over most played XBLA title, Bungie looks at the game as a possible source of inspiration. As Bungie’s Lead AI Programmer Damian Isla (pictured, compressed) points out: We have a lot to learn from their success too, they did some very innovative things to keep people going and their experience-rewards system was something that we paid a lot of attention to… I think it’s a great game and single player obviously is fantastic… They did a hell of a job with their set pieces, of scripting certain moments that they were really sure the player was going to actually see and experience first hand. The way that they use those moments to craft the player experience… Halo has a lot to learn from. Always nice to see developer take another’s work, incorporate it and hopefully improve what they do. Warm fuzzy feelings all around! Bungie: We’ve got a lot to learn from Call of Duty 4 [Games Industry] [Pic] More »
Pretty Girl? Now SEGA’s New Arcade Image Character Is A Pretty Boy
8:00PM Brian Ashcraft | The new SEGA arcade “image character” has begun his SEGA arcade image character duties! Aren’t you excited? I’m excited. (You should be excited.) To review, previous image characters include MEGUMI, Yuko Ogura (twice!) and Satomi Ishihara. The new SEGA arcade image character is Jpop boy band singer Haruma Miura (pictured), breaking the string of females before him. As SEGA’s image character, his face will be plastered all over SEGA’s domestic arcades, perhaps enticing more females to venture inside. Says Miura: Being photographed while gaming is a first for me. Initially, I was nervous, but gradually I relaxed and forgot all about that and just enjoyed the game. This isn’t just work, it’s also play… I don’t really know what’s best for me to do, but personally, I want everyone to know how much I enjoy game centres so they can see the appeal — especially now [in this heat], game centres are refreshingly cool. Seems like a nice enough kid, even if he’s misguided in his choice of coats. Hit the jump for another shot of Miura. More »
