Today Square Enix opened up applications for the upcoming Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn beta test. Anyone wanting to try and sign-up for the beta can do so at Square-Enix.com by their region of either Europeor North America. Beta members can apply to either choose to try the PlayStation 3 beta, the Windows beta or both at the same time.
Alongside this news of the beta sign-ups, Square Enix also released another video which is actually eight minutes long this time and it works as a continuation from the previous End of an Era video by showing everything in the previous video and three minutes of extra content.
BulkyPix and cTools Studio announced the release of their newest game Little Amazon will see a release on January 10th, 2013. Little Amazon is an infinite running platformer where players will take control of Lily to defeat Gruul and his mionions who are bent on absorbing the forest after the forests protector fell into a deep sleep. Lily has a host of super powers that will help her on her journeys as she conquers mini quests, rescues forest animals, and collects coins.
Little Amazon supports all Retina displays including the new iPhone 5 widescreen and can be played on AppleTV in 720p. The game will be free to play on the iTunes App Store. Check out the trailer and screenshots below.
Today some of the first screenshots for Atelier Meruru Plus: The Apprentice of Arland were revealed and alongside these first screenshots were a number of details courtesy of Famitsu’sonline preview. Similar to Atelier Totori Plus, Meruru Plus will feature additional costumes for Meruru to wear, including a Totori and Rorona outfit and multiple costumes that bring out Meruru’s charms.
Alongside this there will be new events that were not available in the PlayStation 3 version of the game, a number of new bosses to fight against, bonus costumes and enhanced weapons for Totori if you have a save file for Atelier Totori Plus on your Vita and of course, all of the downloadable content released for the PS3 version of the game will be instantly available for Atelier Meruru Plus, including the “Makina Domain” area and the extra party members Hanna, Rufus and Pamela.
The screenshots can be seen below and if you want to see this title head overseas, you should probably let Tecmo Koei know since it appearsthey will be taking control of the Atelier franchise moving forward.
Remember how last week, Nintendo beganteasingthat they would have “big” Pokemon news to announce sometime on January 8th? Well we now know roughly when to expect that news because today it was revealed that Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata will be hosting a “Pokemon Direct” broadcast tomorrow in Japan.
The broadcast is going to be ten minutes long and is set to start at 8:00 PM Japanese time, which makes it 6AM North America EST. As for what the news could be, many have rumored it to be either the next generation of Pokemon game for the Nintendo 3DS or perhaps yet another remake/spin-off for the company’s latest handheld.
Today the official website for the next Steins;Gate game, Steins;Gate: Senkei Kousoku no Phenogram, was updated to provide everyone with a clear release date in Japan. The title will be available for purchase on April 25th on both he Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.
Currently it is unknown exactly what the storyline for Steins;Gate: Senkei Kousoku no Phenogram will entail, though at the time of the game’s announcement back in November, part of the announcement read “There are as many stories as laboratory members.”
Also, gamers will have a chance to pick up a limited edition version of 5pb.’s next game which will come with a replica of Rintaro Okabe’s cell phone which will play the Japanese voices of the main cast.
Today the PlayStation Blog decided to let PlayStation Plus subscribers know what they should be expecting when the PSN updates tomorrow. First of all, the “Mega Man 9 and 10 Combo Pack” will be given away for free to all subscribers while the NCAA Football 13 Recent Winners Pack will also be available for free.
Subscribers will also be able to access the God of War: Ascension multiplayer beta where they can try out the Favor of the Gods and Team Favor of the Gods modes. Also for those looking for a minor game discount, Eufloria has been put on sale for 50% off of it’s original $5 price, making it only $2.50.
In recent years it has become the nature of the beast to scoff at anything that isn’t tied to the basic controller, whether it be touch, motion or voice commands. However when done right, these extra control methods usually make gameplay a better experience.
As such, many people are still unsure of how Dead Space 3 will handle the various voice commands that players will be using, and as such EA and Visceral have released the below trailer showing off a number of commands the player can give the Kinect, including a number of co-op specific voice commands. Obviously Kinect support is only for the 360 version of the game, and will not be usable on the PC and PS3 platforms.
If you’ve been concerned that Telltale’s venture into The Walking Dead franchise hasn’t been well received by the public, then perhaps this news will help you relax a little bit. Telltale’s CEO Dan Connors, while speaking with the Wall Street Journal, has stated that gamers have purchased more than 8.5 million episodes of The Walking Dead across every platform since it started being released.
As the WSJ points out, this totals more than $40 million in sales and around 25% of those sales happened on the iOS. Telltale states that November and December were the companies best selling months, which can be attributed to the fact that the final episode was released during this time and that the game series was given countless Game of the Year awards. With the company looking to creating a second season sometime in the future, this obviously bodes well for fans.
A new handheld gaming system will be joining the fray, with tech giants Nvidia CES announcement of their first ever handheld console. Their console will run on Android-based technology and be titled The Shield.
The console has a flip-up touch screen with the lower half of the console simply being the controller portion. The controller half of the console is oddly reminiscent of the Xbox 360 controller which should make it easy for gamers to adapt to. The Shield’s battery can last 5-10 hours on one charge. The screen has 720p capabilities in addition to it’s touch features.
No price or release date has been confirmed for Nvidia’s Shield console as of yet. We will be sure to keep you up to date as news comes to light on this device.
What do you think of The Shield? Let us know in the comments section below.
Every year for the holidays, I find a place to put my dogs up for a few days and I pack my bags. In those bags, I always pack at least one of my video game consoles. You see, every year I fly home to be with my family. It’s been that way since I moved hundreds of miles from them.
I always have to go through the rigmarole of airport security. I hate airport security. They always stop me because I keep a handheld console in my carry-on luggage. When I land at my destination, my checked luggage has always been randomly checked. Amazing. I am randomly selected every single time I fly.
This year was different. This year my brother moved near me, so the rest of my family decided to come spend the holidays with us. Something was different this year beyond that, though. Not only did I not have to pack a console to take home, but I had a new console to debut to my family this year: the Nintendo Wii U.
Things were different when the Wii launched back in 2006. I was a poor college student with a job as a resident assistant. It didn’t afford me much, but it covered the cost of my housing and gave me some extra spending money over the semester. I had heard about all the new consoles coming out, but given the budget I was on, I knew I was going to opt for Nintendo’s offering. I’d preordered and picked it up with a couple of launch titles, then I was able to head home to experience it with my family.
In 2006, motion controls were all the rage. It had never really been done very successfully before. The most amazing thing was that Nintendo nailed it. Not only did they get the motion controls down, but they included the best examples of it with the system in the form of Wii Sports.
Everyone in the family was excited to try Wii Sports out. My dad wanted to play baseball with me. My mom was excited about bowling. My grandfather was even interested in getting in on the action. The Wii was a smash success with my family all around. The problem is that beyond that, it just collected dust.
Now we flash forward to Christmas of 2012. The Wii has been around for over half a decade without much love for the core gamer. It got a few excellent twilight offerings in The Last Story and Xenoblade Chronicles, but it has been otherwise stagnant. It’s now that Nintendo has chosen to release the successor to the Wii: the Wii U.
With family in for the holidays, I had a chance to see how it would hold up compared to its predecessor years ago. I wasn’t really surprised, but I think the result was interesting anyway. No one was really that intrigued in the Wii U. Mom went about her business without even asking what we were playing. My dad was interested in using it to watch movies on the Gamepad while we played Xbox. Otherwise, the only use it got was some New Super Mario Bros. U with my siblings. Interesting, considering that my parents were also excited for the PlayStation Move and Xbox Kinect.
I think this speaks volumes to how Nintendo is focusing their business in this upcoming generation. There’s obviously a focus shift back to the core gamer. Games like Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor’s Edge, Batman Arkham City, Assassin’s Creed 3, and Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 attest to that. While that is good for the core gamers like myself, this seems like it could hurt Nintendo’s bottom line.
Either way, it’s interesting to see history change.
What do you think? Are you a fan of the Wii U? Did you like the Wii and its library? What about friends and family? Let us know in the forums!
