Monthly Archives: July 2009

Leaked scans from Japanese publication Weekly Jump have spoiled Square Enix’s teaser site surprise.

Turns out, the game is Four Warriors of Light: Final Fantasy Gaiden and is a DS RPG where you are a 14-year old boy who must save the princess who has been kidnapped by a witch.

Parties in your group will be made up of characters you meet along the way. The battle system lacks MP but has been replaced by “charge” next to your standard fight and item commands.

The game hits Japan this fall, and presuming Square isn’t bummed out by the leak and says to hell with it, two more characters should be popping up on the back of the dragon in the next few days.

IGN has the full thing, along with more information on game mechanics.

Hideo Kojima has reiterated that his production company is playing more of a supervisory role than anything else with Castlevania: Lords of Shadow.

He said this already when it was announced at E3, but apparently, he wants to make sure everyone knows it. It’s really Konami Europe’s Dave Cox and Mercury Steam’s baby.

“Kojima Productions is playing more of a support role,” Kojima told to Famitsu. “Castlevania is one of Konami’s most important brands, one that’s seen many releases since the original, and they’ve all been received warmly, but there’s never been a Castlevania created to really satisfy Western gamers. People like Dave were influenced by Castlevania to become game designers, and now they’re making titles like God of War.

“This has become a big project, one with the idea that we needed to make a Castlevania which had that same kind of feverish Western support, and that’s why Kojima Productions came in to help. I think it’s safe to look forward to this title both as a Castlevania game and as an action game.

“It’s got great gameplay and great action, and the graphics are good even to Japanese eyes,” he added.

Kojima’s role so far, he says, is “having them fix things based on my objective viewpoint”, like reworking the hero’s face, which Kojima felt needed to be more “heroic”.

More over on 1UP.

Konami’s released a new set of screens for the XBLA and PSN version of Vandal Hearts, to release this winter. Get them after the break.

It’s cute strategy over 20 maps. There’s are new gameplay details in the press release below.

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Here we go! Dave Perry’s released a long video of his Cloud gaming app Gaikai in action, showing World of Warcraft, EVE Online, Mario Kart 64, Spore and others playing in a normal Firefox browser with apparently no plug-ins or downloads necessary.

Watch it after the break, and stay with it right to the end. Perry opens up Photoshop saying he didn’t have to spend “$700″.

The developer’s going to be speaking about Gaikai at Develop in Brighton next month. We’ll be there!

Hit this for a ton more information.

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Tecmo’s dated Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 in Japan. The game will release on October 1, priced ¥7,800.

The PS3 upgrade includes online co-op, and the like. There’s no specific date for the West as yet other than “autumn”.

More from Kotaku.

Goodbye, MC average. Edge has given High Voltage’s The Conduit a wince-worthy 4/10. You can get all the latest scores from the mag in this EG forum post.

Or you could just look below. Thanks, evilashchris.

• Prototype – 8
• Arma 2 – 7
• Monster Hunter Freedom Unite – 7
• The Conduit – 4
• Battlefield 1943: Pacific – 9
• Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings – 3
• Overlord 2 – 6
• Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood – 7
• Fight Night: Round 4 – 8
• Red Faction: Guerrilla – 7
• Killing Floor – 6
• Prinny: Can I Really Be The Hero? – 4
• Another Code R – 4
• Bonsai Barber – 7

Raven’s Wolfenstein update just got system requirements, courtesy of an id poster on the game’s boards.

And here they are. We’re still waiting for a solid date, but you should be playing this next month at the latest.

SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS:

Microsoft(R) Windows(R) XP or Windows Vista(R) (Windows 95/98/ME/2000 are unsupported)
Microsoft DirectX(R) 9.0c (included & required for Windows XP & Vista)

HARDWARE REQUIREMENTS:

CPU: Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 3.2 GHz or AMD Athlon(TM) 64 3400+ processor
RAM: 1GB RAM
Video Card: 256MB NVIDIA(R) Geforce(R) 6800 GT or ATI Radeon(TM) X800
Sound Card: 100% DirectX 9.0c compatible sound card
HDD Space: 8GB (Plus an additional 800MB for Windows swap file)
Media: 100% Microsoft Windows compatible DVD-ROM drive
Internet: Broadband connection and service required for multiplayer

The Maloof Money Cup is coming to Skate 2 via DLC, EA said today.

The tournament will be available for $3/240 MSP on July 9.

It’ll feature online and off-line modes, as well as an extra 250GS for 360 players.

PR after the break.

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This will never be boring. Square Enix has now added a girl to the back of the dragon on its “new game” teaser site, to sit right behind the boy it stuck on yesterday.

See that big blank space on the right? That’s where Bingo the clown goes. Only 114 hours to go.

Thanks, Kotaku.

Unbelievably, Dino Crisis is ten years old today. Capcom’s lizard horror released in Japan on July 1 1999, and was followed by two sequels and a light-gun spin-off called Dino Stalker.

Feel old now, don’t you? Here’s the Wiki page and there’s a run down of the franchises history on 9Lives.

Microsoft’s Natal and Sony’s new wand motion device could provide a nice revenue bump for first-movers, Sega’s told GI.

“Being the largest third-party publisher on Wii we obviously have good gestural experience so for us I can see an opportunity to get a land grab on some of our competitors by taking our head start in gestural gaming and evolving it,” said Euro MD Gary Dunn.

“I was blown away by it, both systems offer us so many opportunities to do great things with videogames.”

There’s no date on either controller as yet, but “next year” seems a good stab.

There’s a full interview here.

GiantBomb’s posted images of StarCraft II’s tech trees, as you can see here.

Very pretty they are too.

As an aside, Battle.net appears to be down. Watch the mountains.

Thanks, Kotaku.

Microsoft’s to release Kodu, its game creation app, today on Live for $5.

The program will allow you to create games and share them with anyone on your Friends list, and includes a terrain editor, co-op for up to four players and plenty more.

We’ll let you know when it goes up.

Update – Sorry, this is actually live now. There’s a free demo as well.

Digital Foundry’s just posted an off-screen movie of DOOM: Resurrection in action on iPhone.

Mr Leadbetter claims the game is a “graphical showcase that is up there with what we’ve seen from the very best PSP first-person shooters”.

Hit the link and make up your own mind. It’s on the App Store now for £6.

Live GM Christina DeRosa has told Joystiq that the service’s Silver members may be granted limited access to Last.fm for free.

“Silver users will be able access what we’re considering a trial period of three hours a month, which comes with video advertising,” she said.

“Gold users will have unlimited ad-supported access, so they can use it 24 hours a day. There will also be a premium offering on a subscription basis from Last.fm, that will be commercial free and will also have more sophisticated personalization features, like Loved Tracks.”

Last.fm launches on 360 this autumn. Thanks, Destructoid.

IGNs posted a Modern Warfare 2 preview based on trailer footage released before E3 and what looks to be a great deal of gameplay video from the title’s snow-based levels.

There’s a bunch of info in there as well, so it’s worth a catch-up if you were too shellshocked by E3 to wade through the 50 billion previews on the Infinity Ward sequel.

After the break.

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Blue Omega programmer Geoff Rowland has confirmed on his Twitter account that the Damnation team is no more.

“The entire Blue Omega team was laid off today (well, starting Friday),” he said.

Shacknews has dug up some legal docs surrounding Damnation’s development, none of it pretty.

There’s plenty there to pick over, should you be the vulture type.

The latest MAG dev diary – watch after the break – goes into detail on the mass-shooter’s three factions, namely Raven, S.V.E.R., and Valor.

As for differences, Raven’s “high-tech, polished,” Valor has a “traditional military style” and S.V.E.R. is “edgy, aggressive,” according to this US PS Blog post.

Take a look. The PS3 exclusive’s out later this year.

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The Dawn of War II There is Only War update beta will run from 2.00pm PST July 1 to July 13, THQ said last night. That means is starts later today, for the calendar-challenged in the audience.

The test will be handled in Steam’s beta system thing. You can find details on how to participate here.

There is Only War includes a huge amount of new maps and the World Builder level editor. Get full patch notes on Shacknews.

This must have got lost in the fog somewhere. Microsoft announced in Cannes last week that Silverlight ads are to be shown on Xbox Live “within the next year”.

“By extending support to technologies like Silverlight, Xbox Live will offer advertisers and creative designers scale and reach with their campaign creative assets, enabling them to build and deliver interactive, interconnected experiences that are unlike anything else on television, and extend these experiences across multiple screens – the TV, the PC, and Mobile,” said the firm.

That piece specifically says “Xbox Live” – stands to reason that you’re not going to be seeing any ads unless you’re connected to the internet – but there’s no specific about where the creatives are actually going to appear.

And you’re not going to be running a blocker on your 360. Best prepare for adageddon.