Tokyo time tomorrow, this year’s TGS kicks off. Microsoft is already hyping its close proximity to the Square Enix booth as a “cooperative” effort for both companies. Xbox Japan marketing exec Jyoji Sakaguchi explains the game plan:
The latest bricks-and-mortar PC sales charts are in. They cover the week of September 21-27. As you expect, the words EA, Maxis and Blizzard feature prominently. But then so do the words Crytek, Firaxis and Traveller’s Tales, so please, enjoy the variety.
Well, here’s something to file under interesting, but likely impractical. If you’ve been dying to get a second monitor for your PC and you’ve a little low on cash, fear not. Meet PSPdisp, a new homebrew mod created by Jochen Schleu that allows you to use your PSP as a second monitor. The idea is pretty nifty except I’m wondering how well you can actually see anything on that PSP screen. The site does claim you can get 960×544 worth of screen space on it.
Tetsuya Mizuguchi is best known for Rez, Space Channel 5 and Lumines. He’s made lots of Lumines spin-offs like Lumines Live! and Lumines II. Key words: Lumines. We haven’t seen a new game from Mizuguchi for a while, but he confirmed to Kotaku that, yes, he’s working on a new IP. Says Mizuguchi:
Sure, nothing can top a Japanese guy with a gi-normous Afro faux slicing up undead ninja, but it was still pretty cool to watch someone playing Wii Ski and Snowboard using the balance board, remote and nunchuk.
Like we said, we popped in for tea and biscuits at Namco Bandai HQ today. What’d we see? A ton of stuff. What’d we do? Well, I played the best game Namco Bandai had on show. And it wasn’t a Tales game. Wasn’t a Dragonball game, either. It was this. I love my cute, stuffed panda. But I love National Geographic Panda. Picture Nintendogs. But with giant pandas. Giant pandas whose bellies you can rub. Giant pandas you can dress up. In viking helmets.
Sometimes, things read better on paper than they do said out loud. That’s especially true when the script your emcee is working with sounds like it had been written by the “funniest” top-level Namco Bandai executive, the one who’s always quick with the puns. Josh Keller, who performed his duties admirably and annunciated with panache, delivered a few duds in between presentations. To be fair, some were delivered by PowerPoint slides.
Confirming what we heard last year, several sources tell us that eagerly awaited (and purdy fighter) The King of Fighters XII will be coming to Xbox 360, PS3 and PC. Hope to hear more about the game come later this week when the Tokyo Game Show gets fully underway.
Naruto? Not really our “thing.” Chalk it up to ignorance, the daunting back story and the unwillingness to do the work involved to become interested. But the games tend to look spectacular, with Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm for the PlayStation 3 no exception. We can only imagine how intensely 10-year old version of us would have been blown away by seeing a cartoon so accurately portrayed in video game form.
The Lego Universe MMO is shaping up nicely, with what the developers told us would be “really core LEGO play” – building stuff, in other words.
