Remember when we mentioned that when Yakuza 4 comes out in Europe and other PAL regions that it would be released with a special edition called the Kuro or Shiro Edition (black and white respectively)? Well there was also news that United States residents would not be able to pick up these special editions which game with a bunch of DLC and a steel game case.
Sega revealed today that, although there won’t be a steel case, those who buy the game new will also get a bunch of codes for the DLC which is available in the special edition; including survival mode, underground car racing, fighting arena, and even the extra outfits for the main characters. Now also if you are able to reserve the game at your local GameStop there will be a PS3 dynamic theme to show off the ten hostesses that will be in Yakuza 4. Yep, the hostess dating part of the game will be available in Western releases of the game as you can see in the trailer below. Fans of the series will remember that the Japanese version of Yakuza 3 included the hostess dating part of the game, while Western versions had this entire section removed.
Eager to see what character classes will be returning in Dragon Age II? Then you are in luck because the latest trailer released by EA and Bioware shows off the fighting skills and abilities of the three classes which you will be able to choose between in Dragon Age II when it hits shelves on March 8th.
The classes that return are the Warrior class which looks to use huge swords (of course) and his shield to his advantage, while the mage class definitely makes magic use look like it will kick major darkspawn butt this time around, even tearing an enemy apart with his mind. Though personally I am going to go for the rogue class, because I’ve always been a fan of using two weapons at the same time. What will your Hawke fight as?
Hey guys we finally have managed to get a hold of a bunch of different screenshots that show some early footage of the game’s characters and monsters. These screenshots show off a bunch of different environments that players will be traversing, including what looks like a character about to get some venison for himself. Also we see a few monsters that players will most likely encounter and a barmaid that shows just how much better the character designs are going to look this time around.
You can check out all of the screenshots below and get yourself excited about The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim which comes out on 11/11/11. But don’t get too excited…. we wouldn’t want this to happen to you.
The Xbox Live Arcade House Party has been finally given a starting date, and they have also detailed all of the games that will be coming out during it. Releasing in one week intervals starting on February 16th Xbox Live will be pushing the Arcade games like they did last year. Each of the games has finally been given a price tag as well, with three games being placed in the 800 MSP category and two in the 1200 MSP.
As you can see below the HD remake of Beyond Good & Evil will be only a parsley 800 MSP considering the amount of fan base it has. Bejeweled Blitz and Full House Poker will also be going for 800 too. Torchlight will be costing 1200 MSP along with Hard Corps: Uprising. I’m just going to take a shot in the dark and say that Torchlight and Beyond Good & Evil are going to be the top sellers when all is said and done.
February 16 – Hard Corps: Uprising – 1200 Microsoft Points
February 23 – Bejeweled Blitz – 800 Microsoft Points
March 2 – Beyond Good & Evil HD – 800 Microsoft Points
March 9 – Torchlight – 1200 Microsoft Points
March 16 – Full House Poker – 800 Microsoft Points
Today everyone seems to be talking about a new article that recently went up on Fox News’ website, and for gamers out there, this is just another case of video games getting a bad rap from uneducated “journalists”. If you have not seen the article as of yet, it has some claims that a bit enraging to the community in general and yet another insulting piece on how “VIDEO GAMES ARE RUINING OUR CHILDREN!” If you have been keeping up in recent years, you know the drill by now.
Here are some of the excerpts from the write-up that stand out:
“Violent video games like Bulletstorm have the potential to send the message that violence and insults with sexual innuendos are the way to handle disputes and problems,” Weichman said.
Carol Lieberman, a psychologist and book author, told FoxNews.com that sexual situations and acts in video games — highlighted so well in Bulletstorm — have led to real-world sexual violence.
“The increase in rapes can be attributed in large part to the playing out of [sexual] scenes in video games,” she said.
I should now throw in the part where Carol Lieberman is known for writing books about sex, with classic titles such as “Bad Girls: Why Men Love Them & How Good Girls Can Learn Their Secrets”, so the pot is calling the kettle black here. I haven’t read her books, but I highly doubt she is out of the plastic surgeons office long enough to even have time for a round of UNO, little alone a game like Bulletstorm so her opinion is about as valuable as a copy of Madden 2002.
It is easy to tell what these “buy my new book!” “psychologists” are saying, but if you think about it, most sex scenes in video games are mainly PG-13ish if that, such as Mass Effect or Fable. I really don’t have to go on about how wrong these two quacks are about the subject, but it just angers me to see something misjudged by “experts” who are judging a field they clearly know nothing about, and in such an extreme matter at that. Fox News need to work on posting up something is out of their usual “fear mongering” to the uninformed, as with all this promotion, they have now told the gaming community that Bulletstorm is going to be a sight to see and probably caught the interest of gamers who were not even looking into it before. Don’t forget to pick up your violent and insult packed copy of Bulletstorm when it hits stores February 22nd.
This evening an exclusive event took place in Sydney for the launch of Nintendo’s 3DS. The event was quite similar to Nintendo’s European Event that took place on the 20th of January. Tonight’s event also explained to everyone in attendance the Nintendo 3DS features and functionality along with announcing an official release date of Thursday the 31st of March 2011 with a SRP of $349.95 (AU). Of course everyone present was able to sample and play some of the release titles that will be making their way to the 3DS on launch day.
The even kicked off with a 20 min presentation with two guest speakers from Nintendo : Mr Yuji Bando Managing Director of Nintendo Australia and Greg Arthurton Nintendo Head of Marketing. Greg Arthurton ran us through everything you need to know about the 3DS and along with announcing the official release date and price. The presentation also announced the official launch titles that will be making their appearance on release day (listed below the presentation video)
The 3DS device is feature packed and utilises new networking technologies to create a new dimension in gaming. The new technologies vary from screensizes and 3D utilisation to new ways to Network your device and share data between hotspots. This technology is what separates the 3DS from it’s rivals and even from its own predecessor, the DS.
The presentation covered the following :
Slide Pad – The slide pad offers three-dimensional movement throughout games, similar to a gamepad analogue stick, only it’s a tablet that slides.
Top Screen – The screen on the top half of the device will be larger than the top-screen on the DsiXL.
Backwards Compatibility – The 3DS is fully backwards compatible with both DS and Dsi titles. Gameboy, Gameboy Advanced and Gameboy Colour games were previewed to be available from the 3DS E-Store. Purchases from the DSi E-Store may be fully transferrable.
Cameras – The 3DS has 3D cameras built onto the device. There was also something about a game where you can use pictures of faces to play some kind of space shooter.
3D – NO Glasses needed.
Motion Sensing – The 3DS comes fully equipped with Gyroscopes and other methods to detect any movement the player may be making. It seems weird to have in a device that is designed to played in a specific location for the 3D to work. But, by removing the actual 3D and replacing it with movement, is that not a different third kind of dimension?
SpotPass – SpotPass is a new innovation by Nintendo where your 3DS leeches off wifi hotspots in order to update content. The LED power indicator illuminates while this happens. Works through sleep-mode.
StreetPass – A kind of LAN that automatically connects to nearby 3DS devices to share data or play some type of game, it works in sleep mode as well. In some cases a game may not even have to be inserted for this to occur.
Wifi Connection – Similar to the one the Wii and DS uses.
Adhoc LAN – Basic 3DS to 3DS Local Area Connection.
Configuration – Allows you to configure the 3DS’ features and connection sharing modes.
3D Slider – The 3D depth slider allows you to control the level of 3D for maximum comfort or battery consumption.
Colours – At launch both a blue and a Black model are expected to be released.
Layout – The 3DS’ layout is similar to the DS with the exception of a slidepad at the top-left corner, the power button being located to the bottom right just outside the lower touch screen and ‘Start’, ‘Select’ and ‘Home’ buttons being against the lower touchscreen.
Mii’s – Using the Mii maker tool, you can either use a photo of yourself as a reference for the software and then edit your Mii, or make one from scratch.
3DS augmented reality feature ( a very big hit with the people in attendance)
Over the course of the night there were many games being previewed and showcased. The list below is what you can expect on launch.
The Legend of Zelda – Ocarina of Time 3D
Starfox 3DS
Dead or Alive Dimensions
PES 2011
Splinter Cell
Ghost Recon
Mario Kart
Rayman Raving Rabbids 3DS
Lego Starwars
Super Streetfighter IV 3DS
Asphalt Racing
Pilotwings 3DS
Steeldiver
Paper Mario 3DS
Metal Gear Solid
Animal Crossing
Kid Icarus
The Sims 3
Samurai Warriors
Resident Evil: Revelations
Resident Evil: Mercenaries
Nintendogs/Cats
and a few other great looking games.
It is expected that the launch window of the 3DS will have 25 titles appearing within it. Keep an eye out for Resident Evil Revelations, Metal Gear Solid, Super Street Fighter IV 3DS, Splinter Cell, PES, Dead or Alive Dimensions, ohhh .. KEEP AN EYE OUT FOR ALL OF THEM !! They all look amazing !!!
The evening was a great success. Nintendo did a fantastic job at making everyone feel right at home with great food, drinks, and most of all great games on the amazing creative and innovating 3DS !! With only 50 days to go before the 3DS is unleashed upon Australian public, all I can say is start saving your hard earned cash because this is one handheld device have to own. <—- PERIOD !!!
So I just got Trinity: Souls of Zill O’ll and have been playing for about an hour (so you don’t have to sit through the boringness of RPG intros and tutorials). I’m at a point where I feel it’s a good enough time to start streaming to show off the game. For those who don’t know, T:SZO is a mix of hack and slash with adventure RPG. You control one of 3 characters (the other 2 are AI controlled) while you quest through the labyrinthine maps that have become associated with dungeon crawlers. Anyways, enough talk, off to the stream. I’ll have the chat open so feel free to ask questions or what have you there, though I won’t be able to engage too much as I’ll be playing this. Can’t be pausing every 5 seconds but yeah, feel free to join in the chat.
(Give me a minute to set it up. I also suggest you download adblock plus for firefox so you don’t get interrupted by ads during the stream)
2K Games announced today that 2007’s The Darkness is getting a sequel this year. The million unit-selling original fared well with both the public and critics, but after all this time and no news on a sequel, the announcement of The Darkness II comes as a huge surprise. The Darkeness II is scheduled to arrive on Xbox 360, PS3 and PC this fall, so it appears developer Digital Extremes was busy beavering away in secret with a release date so soon despite having only just been announced.
The Darkness II will take players down the brutal path of Jackie Estacado, wielder of The Darkness, as he makes use of his Demon Arms to carry out his ruthless motives. True to its comic book origins, the game will feature a hand-painted noir visual style and with award-winning comic book writer Paul Jenkins on board, it should also have a strong narrative behind the graphics.
While 2K Games aren’t giving much away at this stage, they have released an initial screenshot of the game. For anyone who played the original, the announcement of The Darkness II should have you very excited indeed.
This latest trailer has revealed the final boss of Marvel vs Capcom 3 as being Galactus.
The arcade mode will conclude with a battle against the absurdly large and powerful antagonist from the Fantastic Four Marvel series. As someone who watched the Fantastic Four/Silver Surfer cartoons when I was younger, I have fond memories of Galactus and it is great to see him brought to life in the game.
As you can see from the trailer, Galactus will be ridiculously deadly when you face him, with the ability to send out minions to battle for him, on top of getting his hands dirty and delivering damage himself. Coming up against this planet-munching behemoth looks like a fitting end to the arcade mode, and as we edge closer to the game’s February 18th release date on Xbox 360 and PS3, the game just keeps looking better and better.
Warriors: Legends of Troy, developed by Tecmo-Koei, is a game about warring nations fighting it out over the love of a woman. The game is set over 3000 years ago and features mythological legends, visceral combat and maybe a history lesson or two.
Recently Tecmo-Koei shared a large batch of screenshots with the community and we’re presenting them to you on their behalf.
The rather impressive screenshots can be inspected below in the various galleries, separated as ‘Blood, ‘Characters’ and ‘Conquest’. The characters look rather good and are quite reminiscent of the soldiers from that era (as they should be). The environments seem to be Greek-ish, or Roman-ish. Something ancienty… Enjoy!
