Last week Dynasty Warriors 8 was released in Japan and today 4Gamer chose to release a nice twelve minute long gameplay video which shows off everything that the PlayStation 3 title has to offer in the way of improvements over Dynasty Warriors 7.
You can check out the video of the currently PlayStation 3 exclusive below. It is unknown whether Tecmo Koei will release Dynasty Warriors 8 overseas or if they will make it multi-platform when they do so. It is worth noting that while the main game, Dynasty Warriors 7 was given an English dub and released on both the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, both Dynasty Warriors 7: Xtreme Legends and Dynasty Warriors 7: Empires were released with only a Japanese voice track and exclusively for the PS3.
Last week Senran Kagura: Shinovi Versus was released in Japan and in only five days it has sold over 120,000 copies. Marvelous AQL have announced, as revealed by 4Gamer, that these sales include both physical sales as well as downloadable sales. Interestingly enough, Senran Kagura: Shinovi Versus is the fastest selling title in the franchise’s history as the best selling game in the series, the 3DS exclusive Senran Kagura Burst only sold 69,084 units in that same time frame.
Senran Kagura: Shinovi Versus actually is the third highest selling title for the Vita in Japan, only surpassed by Persona 4 Golden with 137,076 and Hatsune Miku Project Diva F with 159,592. Now it is worth noting that there are numerous reasons for Senran Kagura: Shinovi Versus doing well, such as the fact that the game’s fan-service element is glorious, the fact that there is currently a Senran Kagura airing in Japan and probably more than anything else, Shinovi Versus was released in Japan the same week the Vita received a Japan-only price cut.
It is worth noting that there has been no news of Senran Kagura: Shinovi Versus heading overseas, despite these impressive sales figures, however the Vita is region free so Shinovi Versus is very import friendly.
You may recall a certain game called Project Happiness which was teased by Harvest Moon creator Yasuhiro Wada during last year’s E3. If not then you shouldn’t worry too much, since little was actually revealed for the game at the time thanks to travel issues Wada experienced.
However today it has been revealed that the game is now called HomeTown Story and is roughly 50-60% finished. To go along with this announcement, the company released the below English narrated trailer and a number of details were revealed to Famitsu.
In HomeTown Story, players will be running a shop, but the title will involve more than simply increasing your sales and making your shop larger. Instead players can meet new friends and encounter new stories as the shop grows. Natsume has already stated that they will release this 3DS title in North America though no release window has been provided.
Today it was revealed that Gears of War: Judgment will have a special mini-campaign that will be unlocked once players have finished Gears of War: Judgment’s main storyline. This second campaign is called Aftermath and it focuses on Baird, Cole and Clayton Carmine’s mission to track down reinforcements before the invasion of Azura during Gears of war 3.
The reason for Aftermath’s inclusion says Epic Games’ Alan Van Slyke is two fold. To be a bit more specific he stated that “Aftermath is two things. One, for the Gears 3 fans who wanted more traditional Gears 3 content, it’s there to satisfy them. Two, I think it gives us a chance to bookend the trilogy, so we have Cole and Baird leaving to go get reinforcements at the end of Gears 3 and we’re able to build upon that. So it gives Judgment this nice additional content to be able to bookend the trilogy with something that happened right after Emergence Day prior to Gears 1, and also plays off of the traditional Gears 3 content.”
Whether this will excite the seemingly complacent fan-base for Gears has currently gone unseen, but we’ll find out for sure once the game is released on March 19th.
EA released the new trailer for Mass Effect 3’s up coming DLC, Citadel. We are introduced to the latest bunch of people trying to escort Commander Sheppard to an early grave. Sheppard is attacked while on shore leave by a mysterious group of gun toting assassins. The whole crew is back for one last adventure as they unveil the mastermind behind the latest attack.
Mass Effect 3: Citadel will be the game’s final DLC. It will be released on March 5th, 2013 for PC, PlayStation3, and Xbox 360 for the price of $15.00 or 1200 Microsoft Points. Check out the Mass Effect 3: Citadel official FAQ here. Warning, FAQ contains some spoilers.
Have you pre-ordered Dead Island Riptide or maybe are waiting until you find out about what bonuses the pre-orders will actually be coming with? Either way today’s the lucky day as Deep Silver has announced the pre-order DLCs for those looking to ensure they have their copy reserved.
The first pre-order DLC is a little lackluster and only for those pre-ordering in the North American region. The Fashion Victim DLC is a simple skin pack to give all the playable characters, even the new fifth character, a few changes of clothes.
The second pre-order DLC and clearly superior is The Survivor Pack, which comes with th exclusive “BBQ Blade” weapon, XP/stats booster, digital strategy map, and a special shop. The BBQ Blade is a weapon that combines the dismemberment of a blade and the warmth of burning fuel. The XP/stats booster and digital strategy map are pretty straight forward, but should prove invaluable for those that utilize them. The shop allows players get in-game discounts on weapons and items. The Survivor Pack DLC is for all those that pre-order before release in any region that includes the pack.
Even though they serve as pre-order DLC, those that are still interested in purchasing these two DLCs will be able to do so day one with Fashion Victim available for 160 MS Points for Xbox 360 or $1.99 for either PS3 or Steam and The Survivor Pack for 400 MS Points for Xbox 360 or $4.99 for either PS3 or Steam.
Dead Island Riptide will be released in North America April 23rd, 2013 for Xbox 360, PS3, and PC.
It looks like Shenmue hasn’t quite disappeared form the mind of the original creator of the series, as he has just provided some hope for fans of the series. In an interview with French reporter Sebastien-Adbelhamid, Yu Suzuki stated that he could entertain the thought of crowd-funding Shenmue III in some way or even making a manga or anime series sometime in the future.
It is worth noting that the budget for the first two Shenmue titles was somewhere in the ballpark of $70 million so if he did end up Kickstarting Shenmue III, it would need to pull in a record breaking number of donations to be realized, but a huge showing of fan interest could spark Sega to acknowledge they still own the right’s to the series.
No big surprise here, but today Aniplex of America has revealed that they have acquired the license for the second season of Oreimo, also known as Ore no Imōto ga Konnani Kawaii Wake ga Nai. The company is currently planning on releasing the series in some highly priced form at a later time but for now they have revealed that the second season will be streamed on Crunchyroll beginning on April 6th.
This marks the first anime licensed for the Spring 2013 anime season and for those who don’t know, this second season of Oreimo is meant to follow the story of the light novels all the way to the final conclusion. Currently it is unknown whether the second season will run only thirteen episodes or twenty six, though fans have noted that cramming the rest of the story into thirteen episodes would create an extremely rushed story.
The ninth ever British Academy Game Awards is upon us, with the event taking place tomorrow, March 5th, at the Hilton in London. The best of 2012’s games will be announced at the ceremony, which is to be presented by lifelong gaming fan Dara O Briain. The awards will be handed out by, among others, Jonathan Ross, Russell Kane and Tinchy Strider.
The nominations for the awards this year cover 53 different games, and for the first time ever the awards will include the new category of Best ‘British Game’ to celebrate the home grown talent from the UK. This category is a mix of different games, with Need For Speed: Most Wanted, and Forza Horizon both vying for the award against lesser known games such as Dear Esther and The Room; Lego: Lord of the Rings and Super Hexagon make up the rest of the category.
Journey is nominated the most out of any game, picking up eight nominations. As well as this, The Walking Dead picks up five nominations and Far Cry 3 racks up six. All 3 of these are nominated for best game along with FIFA 13, Dishonored and Mass Effect 3. A full list of all the nominations can be found here.
Today a large number of screenshots were released for Gust’s Atelier Meruru Plus. This latest set shows off how the costumes and weapons from Atelier Totori Plus will transfer over to Meruru if the game detects a save file from Totori on the Vita as well as costumes that will be available for Meruru to wear when gamers buy first run copies of Atelier Meruru Plus.
These outfits are being called “Mushroom Princess Swimsuit” and “Mini Straw Hat” both of which can be a little risque. Currently this enhanced port is set to be released in Japan on March 20th exclusively for the Vita. If these screenshots aren’t enough to interest you in the title, the company also released a trailer which you can check out below.
As far as a Western release goes, fans of the Atelier series can take note that Atelier Totori Plus has been rated in Australia (albeit with a ridiculously high R18+ rating), so Western releases for both Plus titles is highly likely at this point.
