Got a few hundred free hours this March? That’s good, because you’re gonna need all of them. As any good RPG fan knows, Square Enix’s Final Fantasy XIII will be launching March 9. Role-playing game fans see this long awaited epic as poised to either reinvigorate the JRPG with its graphics and battle system or ruin it with its seemingly “on-rails” linearity. But either way, we know FFXIII is going to sell a lot of copies this March.
However unlike a certain shooter which released last fall and forced most of its competition to move their games into 2010, FFXIII seems to be attracting its competition like moths to a flame. Now Sega has announced that their own RPG, Resonance of Fate, will join the already RPG-packed month of March, launching on March 16.
We’ve all seen some cosplay horror stories in our time, but there’s a difference between “costuming on a budget” and “not even trying” and Dead Rising 2‘s Chuck Greene falls squarely into the later category. I mean, this is your idea of a Wolverine costume? A yellow and black leather jacket and knives duct-taped to boxing gloves? Really, bub?
Wait… what? Huh? You… you mean Dead Rising 2 isn’t about a lone comic geek stranded at a George Romero convention, fighting his way to freedom?
Sega’s first two entries in the Yakuza series (Ryu ga Gotoku it its native land) were praised by fans and garnered pretty decent reviews from critics as well when they came across the Pacific and landed on PlayStation 2; the first even having a fairly large localization budget spent on it by hiring top Hollywood voice talent for the characters. However, they flopped fairly hard commercially. Promotion for Yakuza 2, in particular, was almost non-existent – so much so that many fans weren’t even aware it had been released.
Talk swirled around earlier this year that Sega had no plans to bring Yakuza 3 for PS3 overseas, seeing the title as too risky. But when the fall came, rumors floated up that a localization was in the works. Well, it looks like your good faith was rewarded, niche gamers. Let’s try to not screw it up this time, shall we?
Early in the upcoming year gamers will have an unprecedented amount of solid titles on which to spend their Christmas cash. There hasn’t been a year in recent memory that has been so front-loaded with quality games. Bayonetta, Mass Effect 2, God of War III and Final Fantasy XIII are only a few examples of AAA releases that are coming out before April. To play them all will be next to impossible for most of us. Konami and Kojima Productions seem to understand our quandary, at least, and have announced that Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker won’t be hitting shelves until late May.
Fans of the under-represented western-action genre get good news yesterday. Rockstar Games has announced an April 27, 2010 release date for Red Dead Redemption,the sequel to 2004′s Red Dead Revolver.
While this trailer certainly peaked my interest for the game, it sure looks a lot like Grand Theft Horseys 4 . Take a look for yourselves and be sure to chime in using the comments section below.
Yes, be you a lowly plumber or a nobleman’s son-turned-assassin, this is your time to shine, sons of Italy! But there’s a lot more than just New Super Mario Bros. Wii and Assassin’s Creed II coming out this week, if you’re looking for fare with no connections to the Big Boot.
For example, you have the remastered, repackaged God of War Collection coming out for PS3… no, wait – Greece is just a hop across the Ionian Sea from Italy. Nevermind. Umm… how about Left 4 Dead 2? Well, I mean, I suppose in theory some of the zombies could possibly be of Italian heritage. Man, this is harder than I thought.
How about this – just hit the jump and see for yourself what grabs your interest this week. That sounds like a safe bet for all of us.
After five years of waiting for Remedy’s Xbox 360 action/horror/mystery game, Alan Wake, those of you who are getting a little impatient can take heart. UK site MCV has reportedly learned from “a source close to the game” that Microsoft is planning a worldwide release for Alan Wake in May.
Last week Square Enix released a brainteaser that promised to reveal important information concerning their much-anticipated RPG epic, Final Fantasy XIII. The answer to the puzzle, which was the anagram “A Henchmen Inventor Tent Unto”, was announced, as promised, this past Monday – “Announcement Nov Thirteenth”. But, of course, clever Square fans had already figured it out. Just like they had already figured out that the announcement would be the long awaited North American release date.
As expected, yesterday, Friday the 13th (spooky!), Square released a new trailer on their Final Fantasy XIII website and PlayStation Home. The trailer (which you can see for yourself below) features some gameplay clips, as well as interview segments with some of the games creators, including Producer Yoshinori Kitase. The big news came at the end when the North American and European release date was revealed: March 9, 2010.
So be sure to mark your calendars; the chocobos are back this Spring.
UK site MCV has managed to get ahold of some new info on Microsoft’s controller-free gaming peripheral, Project Natal, including a possible release window and price point.
Recently, Microsoft has been trying to encourage more development support for Natal and has been conducting a “behind closed doors” tour for UK publishers to demo the device and outline their 2010 plans. Not surprisingly, the details of those plans did not stay secret for long.
Normally, if there was an island infested with ”ferocious brain-eating zombies, carnivorous Were-Skags and more” I would be the last person to advocate actually visiting it. I mean, if they’re already isolated to a single island, why not just leave the zombies alone? Why even take the risk of exposing the general population to possible infection? But I’m not even going to bother trying to talk you out of it. I know you won’t listen to me anyway. Not when there’s sweet loot for your Borderlands character to be had.
D3′s Puzzle Quest was addicting as all hell; slapping a lite-RPG skin over Bejeweled had to be a stroke of genius on the level of the first person to mix chocolate and peanut butter or hookers and blow. How do you top a formula that neared perfection on its first try?
You hand it over to Square Enix and PopCap. And have them add a dash of Pokemon to the mix.
We gamers love to play Square Enix games; but this time the Japanese developer is playing games with us. Oh, how the tables have turned. Square has posted a brief message on theFinal Fantasy XIII website which simply says:
“A puzzle for FINAL FANTASY XIII fans!
Solve this anagram to find out what lies ahead:
A Henchmen Inventor Tent Unto.
Check back on Monday for the answer!”
Not surprisingly, FFXIII fans have gone right to work on the riddle and have turned up at least one seemingly possible solution. “Announcement Nov Thirteenth”. Could this mean that a long awaited release date for FFXIII could be announced this coming Friday? I guess we’ll have to see on Monday.
Square would never tease us by announcing that there is an upcoming announcement… would they?
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