Special edition Soul Calibur IV

If you like fighting game like Soul Calibur series, you should know that Soul Calibur IV is already at your favorite game shop but may be you dont know yet, it s that there will have a colector edition. You can find inside the kit : t-shirt XL, the game, a comic book, a tournament kit. Depending of your console, the t-shirt will have a different color. For Xbox, it s white and for PS3, it s black.

Star wars, the force unleashed

This new game in the Star Wars tradition will bring us to play a jedi and in some moment the player will be able to play Darth Vader. The action is occuring between Star Wars 3 and Star Wars 4 you will have to play an apprendice jedi of Darth Vader on which his mission is to track and to kill all good jedis. This game will use new graphic technologies and a new IA.

Mortal Kombat: Armageddon Review

Game Spot has a great article about the upcoming video game Mortal Kombat: Armageddon. They tell you all about the game and you can see some pictures and read the preview.

Mortal Kombat should be out this fall for Xbox and Playstation 2.

Dragon Quest VIII: A “Must-Buy” for Role-Players

Dragon Quest, one of the longest-running franchises in the world of role-playing games, is still going strong after 14 years.

The Journey of the Cursed King, its latest offering, sold a whopping 4 million copies upon being released in Japan. It also got high ratings from BBC reviewer Seth Goolnik (who played it on PlayStation 2):

Graphics: 10
Sound: 9
Gameplay: 8
Enduring appeal: 9
Overall: 9

Goolnik calls the graphics “very stunning” and says that this, coupled with “great voice acting,” makes playing the game feel “like an interactive anime movie.”

Also, this game is seriously long, featuring over 100 hours of gameplay. (It took the reviewer 6 hours just to finish the first dungeon.)

“With gorgeous graphics, luscious longevity and marvellous mechanics, Dragon Quest is a must-buy for any role-playing game fan.”

Phoenix Wright Retails In America

“Courtroom drama”: this is how Gamespot qualified Capcom’s Phoenix Wright. Until now, the game wasn’t available in the USA before, but soon this won’t be a problem anymore: Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney now retails for $29.99 on PS 2.

According to a previous review written about it, the game is pretty much heavily text-driven, but this isn’t a problem in my eyes, as long as it remains interesting to play it, which it seems to do. Actually, this simple paragraph from the review is what caught my interest:

The game has you controlling Phoenix Wright, a lawyer fresh off the bar who is, initially, more than a little nervous. The first case you take on, a murder trial in defense of Phoenix’s dopey best friend, Larry Butz, serves as a tutorial in which law firm chief Mia Fey guides you through the ins and outs of courtroom procedure. Each of the game’s five cases begins in the same way, as you’re treated to a brief cinematic that shows the events of the murder, during which you’ll usually get to view the killer. In Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, discovering the killer is not the surprise; instead, it’s the way in which you bring him or her to justice. The events surrounding the murder always end up leading to the false accusations of innocent witnesses, and as a defense attorney, it’s Phoenix’s job to get a verdict of “not guilty,” despite the lying witnesses, shady prosecutors, and a judge who sometimes forgets the letter of the law.

Intriguing? I have to say that it sure looks worth a try.

Final Fantasy: A Look Back

I love the role-playing video game genre. The Final Fantasy games are as much a staple of the role-playing genre as good old fashioned Dungeons and Dragons. Some of the FF games are much better than others. I think the most beloved of all the Final Fantasy games is Final Fantasy III (or FF VI in Japan). Other great FF games are VII, VIII, and X. Here is how I rate them:

1.) Final Fantasy III- The most engaging storyline, the most memorable characters, and the most excellent gameplay of all the Final Fantasy games. Just imagine if this one had graphics that were worth a bean. One of my most favorite things about this game is that there are 15 playable characters, and it seems like most of them have a pretty neat story as well as cool abilities. This video game would make a pretty fantastic movie (when I make my millions, that is my first order of business, to make this into a story).

2.) Final Fantasy X- This game has a great magic system, which is much like Final Fantasy III (probably why it is so great). It has a great story and memorable characters. Although, I felt like the ending was disappointing. It had excellent side quests. The final bosses were not too challenging (that may have been a tribute to my time spent leveling up, but I wasn’t too impressed, regardless). Overall, though, I had a blast throughout the entire game.

3.) Final Fantasy VII- This game had pretty decent graphics (if you look past the outrageous polygon-pop). The story is quite good. The magic system is pretty interesting (though a little tough to learn at first). The characters are lovable and enduring.

4.) Final Fantasy VIII- This game had great graphics, and neat movie sequences. However, it had a very confusing story. It was difficult to identify with the characters, and the magic system absolutely stunk. Since the magic system stunk and the Aeons were so powerful, I would give up on my magic attacks and regular attacks and just use my Aeons over and over again (it would take forever to watch the little Aeon video clips, so after awhile it would get quite tiresome). If you have the opportunity to buy this game, don’t; rent a movie instead. The only redeeming feature of this game is its cool graphics and beautiful movie scenes.

New Gundam Seed “Versus” Game for PS2

Bandai plans to bring the latest arcade “versus” Gundam game to the PS2, reports IGN.com today:

Federation vs. Z.A.F.T. takes the versus series to the Seed universe for the first time. For the home version in addition to all the pilots and Mobile Suits of the arcade game, Bandai will be including Force Impluse Gundam and Shin Asuka from Gundam Seed Destiny as playable characters.

While the arcade version was the fifth entry in the versus series, Capcom actually made a number of changes to the gameplay systems in order to make the series compatible with the Seed universe. This is reflected primarily in the inclusion of air-based battles. Previously, the series has separated ground battles from space battles, but this time the flight-based battles are mixed in with the ground battles. The developers hope that, with the game coming to the home now, they’ll be able to expand the series’ audience further than before.

Gundam Seed: Federation vs. Z.A.F.T. should be released in Japan on November 17th.

Resident Evil 4 on PS2: Spot on Ada Wong

Scheduled for release in the US on October 25th, Resident Evil 4 for PS 2 is going to be a remake, rather than a simple copy of the original game for GameCube, and the hero is not the expected one.

According to Japanese magazine Famitsu, the PS2 version of RE4 will do some departing of its own by slightly deviating from the GameCube version, presenting some new features.

The biggest addition to the game will be a new scenario, which roughly translates to “The Other Order” in English. Gamers expecting to take on a whole new slew of enemies with Leon will be thrown for a curve, as Leon won’t even be featured in the new gameplay. That role belongs to Ada Wong, the sultry siren who made her return to the series in the GameCube version of RE4 after she was thought to have met her maker in Resident Evil 2.

This version of the game will also feature a new gun model.

(Source: GameSpot)

Suikoden Tactics Preview

Here’s something that got me hyped and enthusiastic. No, really. Contrary to my habit of not being too thrilled about tactical games, I’ve however always been a huge fan of Final Fantasy Tactics, from a few years ago, when I was running amok trying to find a PSX imported from the USA because the only version of the game I had found was the US one, to fondly getting my CD out again from time to time nowadays. So what did I think when I saw this article at Gamespy featuring a preview of Suikoden Tactics? Well, I thought: “Me must have! Mine! Mine!”

*coughs* Alright, I need to calm down. Nevertheless, a FF Tactics-style game would be something I’d really like to get my hands on once it goes live by November of this year (I’m also quite fond of the Suikoden series, that is).

The gameplay, again, will be largely familiar to fans of tactics games. Character turns are taken based on stats; Suikoden Tactics is not a “you go then they go” type of game. Turn progression for player characters and enemies is individually determined. Physical attacks, of course, require you to be in range of the enemy; here’s one place where the game’s new system of “balloons” (think speech bubbles from a comic book) helps out the player: if an enemy is in range to attack you on its next turn, a sword icon will appear in a bubble over it; whereas if you’re in range to attack it on your current turn, a teardrop (a typical Japanese signifier of anxiety as seen in anime, manga, and games) will appear over it. This saves you from having to manually check movement range, as in other tactical games. These balloons can also show status ailments (poison, etc.). Characters who are hurting bad will call for healing in their balloons, too. The system is designed so that the player can easily see what needs to be done in any given gameplay situation.

And I really don’t care if the graphics looka bit goofy.

Demon Stone On PS2

Some information about Stormfront Studios’ Forgotten Realms: Demon Stone, their third-person action RPG bound for PS2. GamePro.com gets hands-on on it for a little review:

One part D&D (saving throws, familiar spells and bestiary), one part button-mashing action (X button is your friend), Demon Stone adds another twist to the action adventure genre–switching between characters. At any time in the game, players can switch between the three characters: Rannek, a frontline-tank fighter, Illius, a sorcerer, and Zhai, a quick-tongued Half-Drow (Drow’s are dark elves, for non-D&D geeks) rogue. Hitting the directional button instantly puts players in the shoes of a different character, enabling you to play to the individual strengths of each character for every level. As the typical bruiser, Rannek specializes in taking on multiple enemies at close range. Zhai with her short swords favors hiding in shadows, backstabbing and slitting opponent’s necks. Illius is the best ranged character, shooting bolts of lightning, magic missiles, and acid arrows. Despite having different strengths, each have the same mechanics–all have three-hit melee combos, ranged attacks, evasion moves, and special attacks–meaning players don’t need to memorize three different control sets.

More details in the article itself. I’m not a total D&D-styled games fan, but this one can be quite interesting to peruse further.

Say Hello To My Little Over-hyped Movie Port

This fall Scarface (no, not the autobiography of Tina Fey, but the mafia movie) is coming to the PS2 and Xbox. Rent it for the false hope that you’re as cool as every D-list celebrity tard on MTV’s “Cribs”, buy it for the racist Cuban-American stereotypes:

Al Pacino will be lending his likeness, but not his voice, for “Scarface: The World is Yours,” which is based on his 1983 hit film “Scarface.” Although Pacino will be the only original actor seen in the game, “Scarface” cast members Steven Bauer (Manny Ray) and Robert Loggia (Frank Lopez) are lending their voices to new characters. Other actors signed on for roles are James Woods, Jay Mohr, Cheech Marin, Michael Rapaport, Michael York, Miguel Sandoval and Robert Davi.

Call us crazy but with a line-up like that, we’d like to see some really original and innovative advertising to get the word out. Something like, oh I don’t know…posters? Posters that could hang on the walls of college dorm rooms and frat houses across the country!!! Nah, you’re right, it’d never work.

Al Pacino in ‘Scarface’ video game [Canoe Wham!]

GameFAQs 101, Lesson 2

Want to add that subtle hint of rage to an already angry GameFAQs review? Start it off in Yiddish:

Oy…what a game this turned out to be. I, thankfully, rented this game because I wanted to have something to pass the time for a few nights. Too bad that I will never see that 7.25 again. Seriously folks, this game is flawed beyond all belief. What makes me most upset is that it had potential.

Red Ninja: End of Honor [GameFAQs]

NARC: F’d Over Down Under

When a country founded by convicted rapists and murderers bans a game, you know it’s gotta be good. [GamesIndustry.biz]

Area 51 [CLASSIFIED] Goes Gold

Just when we thought the only alien on Earth was growing inside Britney’s uterus comes Midway’s Area 51 for the Xbox and PS2, due to hit the shelves on April 25. [GameSpot]

Live In Your World, Freebase In Ours

Hey kids! Your PS2 makes for a great gaming console, but an even better drug mule, according to a story out of Rutland, VT:

Police said when they entered the room to execute a search warrant, Straker and Delain were playing a PlayStation video game. Police said they found crack cocaine in Straker’s pants pocket, as well as powder cocaine and crack cocaine hidden inside the PlayStation video game machine.

Police arrest 2 as drug runners [Rutland Herald]

And we thought when they reported that “Coke” would start appearing in games, they were talking about the soda — how shamefully naive of us! Related: $ell U$ $tuff, Plea$e!!!

Welcome Back Potter

Think your job sucks? Harry Potter has to save the world from evil at least once a year by sticking a bloody broomstick between his legs — what are you bitching about? Elitestv.com (whoever they are) is reporting that indeed J.K. Rowling’s spectacled dweeb is returning, taint splinters and all, to theaters and consoles (Xbox, GC, PS2) on the same day this November in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. We can hardly wait to skip both.

Harry Potter Video Game Will Be Released With Movie [Elites TV]

Never Go Against The Family

Before turning The Godfather into a video game for the PS2/PC/Xbox, EA neglected to make the movie’s director Francis Ford Coppola an offer he couldn’t refuse — good thing, too, because refusing it is exactly what Coppola would have done.

They never asked me if I thought it was a good idea, the Detroit native said. “I went and I took a look at what it was … What they do is they use the characters everyone knows and they hire those actors to be there and only to introduce very minor characters. And then for the next hour they shoot and kill each other. I had absolutely nothing to do with the game and I disapprove,” he said. “I think it’s a misuse of film.”

We smell a horse head or two coming to the offices of EA very soon.

‘Godfather’ creator not happy with game [BigNewsNetwork]

Not So Final Phantasy

Can the best 8-bit RPG continue to be the best in, um, er, whatever-bit-the-PS2-is form? Today, Sega announced Phantasy Star Universe, and — like a true professional — released GIANT .BMP screenshots on its FTP site. And yes, geeks, it’ll be playable online [GameIndustry.biz]

You Can’t Give It, You Can’t Even Buy It, And You Just Don’t Get It… (Until Fall, That Is)

Aeon Flux was recurrently dying in her cartoon before South Park’s Kenny was a sperm in his dad’s sack. Now the Liquid Television graduate has a movie deal (she’s played by Charlize Theron), and an upcoming video game for the PS2 and Xbox published by Majesco:

While it will feature the likeness and voice of Theron (pictured), the Aeon Flux game “ties together” the series and the film, according to Majesco. In the film, the now much-more clothed Flux is part of a rebellion against the world’s last surviving city-state, Bregna. The rebellion’s leader (McDormand), known only as “The Handler,” dispatches Flux to infiltrate Bregna and eliminate its leader. However, during the course of her mission, she “uncovers a world of secrets,” according to Paramount.

Aeon Flux slinking onto PS2, Xbox [GameSpot]

Pierce Is Out, Sean Back In As 007

Despite amassing great wealth through his domination of such Celebrity Jeopardy categories as “The Rapists”, “Swords” and “Anal bum cover”, Sean Connery is going back to work as James Bond. The Scotsman will supply the voice and likeness for the skirt chasing (and usually catching) spy for EA’s From Russia With Love (based on MGM’s hit movie from 1963) due out this fall for the Xbox, PS2 and Gamecube. Sexy Hollywood Reporter reports.

He will be joined by other likenesses from the original cast of the film as the game will bring to life such characters as the original Q (Desmond Llewelyn), Donald “Red” Grant (Robert Shaw), Rosa Klebb (Lotte Lenya), Tatiana Romanova (Daniela Bianchi), Kerim Bay (Pedro Armendariz) and Miss Moneypenny (Lois Maxwell). “As an artist, I see this as another way to explore the creative process,” Connery said. “Video games are an extremely popular form of entertainment today, and I am looking forward to seeing how it all fits together.”

Connery back as Bond for EA’s ‘Russia’ [Hollywood Reporter]

Motorcity Madness

It’s always nice when the local paper clowns the hometown team — it’s even nicer when it does so on Opening Day. Some sadistic sports writers at the Detroit Free Press “simulated” the 2005 season on ESPN Major League Baseball only to find the Tigers finishing in last place with a humiliating 60-102 record.

The starting rotation, a potential weakness entering the season, sank below expectations. Four Tigers starters lost 16 or more games and posted ERAs higher than 6.00. Wil Ledezma lost 19 games, Nate Robertson 18, and Mike Maroth and Jason Johnson 16 each. Staff ace Jeremy Bonderman was the lone respectable starter with a 10-11 record.

FYI, the Tigers bashed the Royals 11 - 2 today. Jeremy Bonderman finished with seven strikeouts in seven innings and gave up one run and six hits while Dmitri Young hit three homers — only the third person ever to do so on Opening Day. One win down, 59 to go! And get a clue, Free Pressers, MVP Baseball is way better.

Video game predicts Tigers last at 60-102 [Detroit Free Press]

Ich Bin Ein Impressed

What’s real journalism? Fuck if we know, but Game Informer seems to. In the lede to a story about EA’s upcoming Burnout Revenge, one of GI’s more intrepid reporters wows us with flashy numbers and, like, slightly tangential information. We’re so jealous:

According to the 2004 Urban Mobility Report by the Texas Transportation Institute, U.S. commuters endured 3.5 billion hours of traffic delays in 2002, at a cost of more than $63.2 billion. It’s hell on the highway and Electronic Arts today announced plans to let gamers live out their wildest commuter fantasies this September with Burnout Revenge.

EA Announces Burnout Revenge for Xbox, PS2

Jaws, Take 2

Once upon a time in 1987, Acclaim and LJN shat in the faces of unsuspecting Nintendo owners everywhere by releasing Jaws — we’re still recovering from the horror of that steaming pile. For whatever reason, 18 years later, Majesco is going to give the toothy fish another try. Game Informer sends us this warning in one menacing, unfollowed-up sentence:

Majesco is bringing Jaws into the video game world this Summer, and we’ve got new shots of the PS2, Xbox, and PC versions.

This summer? Hope we have enough time to dust off our conch-collecting skills — we’re a bit rusty.

New Jaws Unleashed Screenshots [GameInformer]

Breaking: Capcom Is Scary Talented

While we go scrub the stains out of our collective unmentionables, check out the freaky zeaky trailer and pics of Capcom’s upcoming horror-surival game for the PS2, Haunting Ground, that drove us to lose complete bodily control. [Capcom]

Angry GameFAQs Review Of The Day (3/31)

Today’s winner concerns an obscure title by the name of GoDai: Elemental Force for the PS2. More oddly, you might notice, is that the writer — shouting comfortably from his recliner of rage — seems to have a bit of an age-complex. See if you can sniff it out, too, or if we’re just high on angel dust (or all of the above). Bolding is ours:

Back in the old days, kids didn’t need too much of an excuse to play games… times have changed. Don’t get me wrong here. I don’t figure to sound like an old has-been drumming up the way things were. All I’m getting at is that today, we’re lucky, because there’s as many choices in games as there is fruit in Florida. And if a game stinks, it stinks. You don’t sit around for hours on end, whittling away those fleeting seconds of youth, working out the problems of a glitchy game simply because there’s nothing else around… On a good day, I spend three bucks on soda-pop, so what was the risk in throwing down on a game? I forgot that plum bottom rule they always teach you right off: never, but, never judge a book by its cover… The story was basic, but that’s a draw for me. If I want a great work of story telling, I’ll read Moby Dick… [And] the graphics? If the cover art is to be believed, the graphics are dynamite.

Old has-been? You? I mean, how could a such an obvious hipster like yourself, who’s “whittling” and “drinking” “soda pop” down in “Florida”, using cool hip-hop slang like “plum bottom”, “dynamite”, “it stinks” and “never judge a book by its cover” between reads of Amazon.com’s most buzz-worthy novel, “Moby Dick,” ever “figure” to be an “old has-been”? Sheesh, someone’s paranoid…

The Hard Way [GameFAQs]

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