Gaming News (477)
Dead Rising 2: CASE ZERO will be available exclusively on Xbox Live on August 31, almost a month before the release of Dead Rising 2. The game is a prologue to Dead Rising 2, featuring the same main character and gameplay mechanics. Interesting part about this release is that whatever players earn, such as combos, alternate outfits, and player levels will be carried over to the main game. Instead of playing a demo that will only hype them up, players will be giving themselves a head start for the game’s later release. Interesting concept by Capcom, and it would be great to see this more in the future. Press release after the jump.
Dengeki PlayStation Online reported on Wednesday that they had received a mysterious postcard from Nippon Ichi Software. The art resembles Disgaea's character designer, Takehito Harada's style which you can view inside this post. We had previously reported a new Disgaea title was in the works for the PlayStation 3 which was revealed at NIS America's press event, and more information would be available at the Tokyo Game Show.
Lolicon rejoice! Arcana Heart 3, the fighting game series known for having loads of underage girls, is coming to both Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 in Japan courtesy of Arc System Works. Gameplay-wise, the series’ trademark is the ability to choose Arcana for every character, allowing almost countless ways to customize characters. No word on an American release, but considering Aksys Games’ close relationship with Arc System Works, it’s definitely a possibility. Hopefully this isn’t the only thing that Arc System Works was alluding to in their upcoming announcement in two days.
[Source: Siliconera]
Microsoft has just announced that the Kinect will retail for $149.99, as retailers have been speculating for months now. For that price, consumers will get both the Kinect hardware and Kinect Adventures, which seems to be a series of games that showcase what the Kinect is capable of. While the source does not list an official release date, Amazon is listing a November release date. Most of the time, retailers are about right, give or take a month. The timing is certainly right for the holidays. Anybody who wants to dance around in front of their TVs should start saving up now, it seems.
[Source: Major Nelson Blog]
For those who have a PC and Steam, Alien Swarm, previously a mod on the Unreal Tournament 2004 engine, has just been released for free. Alien Swarm is a top down shooter that can be played cooperatively with up to four players. Sadly, it’s not available for Mac users at the moment. Apparently, the same team behind this project also worked on Left 4 Dead and the Portal series, both of which are oozing with quality. Did we mention it’s free? We like free and we’re sure you do, too.
[Source: 1UP.com]
Game publisher NIS America threw a press event in San Francisco on Thursday. The event itself was more of a party, with journalists and friends mingling with the staff and each other, sharing food and drinks together. 3 Games were specifically announced, Z.H.P., Cladun, and Ar tonelico Qoga.
Special guest Souhei Niikawa, President of Nippon Ichi Software, was also in attendance and discussed about limiting the number of games his company would be releasing and mentioned a near future release of a new Disgaea title for the Playstation 3. His full statement can be found inside.
We asked about Atelier Totori, Prinny 2, and Neptune; PR Manager Nao Zook told they were hoping they would be able to bring those games over in the near future. We will have to wait for NIS America’s next press event.
Capcom has just announced a new Megaman game, called Megaman Universe. Currently, there are no details except for a stop motion teaser trailer without any gameplay whatsoever. All that we know at the moment is that it will be available on both the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3.However, the trailer features other Capcom characters like Ryu from Street Fighter and Arthur from Super Ghouls ‘n Ghosts. Perhaps it was inspired by the recent fan-made Super Mario Crossover? Capcom will likely reveal more at Comic-Con, along with the freebies they’ll be handing out like Megaman Universe Mega Busters. For more information, visit Capcom’s blog here. Press release after the jump.
Cladun: This is an RPG, originally titled Classic Dungeon in Japan, was one of the few games whose release was announced at NIS America press event. However, contrary to the expectation, the game was not actually great, but rather quite disappointing. At least, that is the impression I had from playing it for about half an hour.
For fans who liked Disgaea, they will be happy to know there is going to be a similar game called Zettai Hero Kaizou Keikaku (it will be localized in the US being called Z.H.P. ~Unlosing Ranger VS Darkdeath Evilman~) coming out between Fall or Winter 2010. It will be available in UMD format for the PlayStation Portable (PSP) as well as for download on the PlayStation Network. From the initial trailer and gamplay, it looks like the gameplay will be very similar to Disgaea's; however, the protagonist will have no party members. Supposedly there are “40 million ways to play” the game, though leveling up may or may not be as repetitive as in Disgaea. The promised countless combinations seem very appealing due to each combination having its own specific feature. This may be a hit-or-miss feature, as seen in other games that have tried it in the past.
NIS America announced on Thursday at their press event that Ar tonelico III: The Girl's Song that Pulls the Trigger of World's Demise will be localized in the United States as Ar tonelico Qoga ~Knell of Ar Ciel~ . The game has been estimated to be released in Spring 2011. Although the game was not present for play testing and no video footage was shown, we did get to sit down with the game’s localization manager, Ryuta Sato to address some of the questions and concerns some of our readers had.
More...
NIS America's press event is kicking off tonight at 6PM PST tonight in San Francisco. Apart from Ar tonelico 3 which will most likely be announced, we're also expecting a possible dungeon game for the PSP and a special guest from Nippon Ichi Software Japan to be in attendance... We'll be there providing you live updates, photos, and coverage on our twitter feed, so be sure to keep an eye there!
If you have any particular questions or concerns you would like us to address during event, feel free to post in the comments.
[An embargo was placed on the contents of the press asset CD until 12PM on 7/16/2010, which we honored. There was no mention of an embargo on the event itself.]
While it was only a cult favorite, Hotel Dusk: Room 215 has a sequel dated in Europe for September 17. Titled Last Window: The Secret of Cape West, it stars Kyle Hyde one year after Hotel Dusk and features the same noir style graphics. Fans of visual novels should enjoy this story driven series that makes good use of the stylus controls. Sadly, the original developer, CING, is bankrupt. The title is being published by Nintendo, but no word yet on an American release. If it does well enough in Europe, perhaps we will see it come over to American shores, a possible revival of CING, and maybe even a third game...?
[Source: Joystiq]
Japanese history lovers can rejoice! Sengoku BASARA: Samurai Heroes will come to North America on October 12. It will be available for both the Wii and Playstation 3 - odd choice of consoles, considering the performance differences. Based on the description of the game and gameplay videos we've seen, it looks like a hack and slasher. It will be interesting to see it compete with the current king of hack and slashers, Tecmo Koei, and its titles coming out later this year - Samurai Warriors on the Wii and Fist of the North Star: Ken's Rage on the PS3 and Xbox 360. Official description from Capcom following the jump.
A quick visit to Arc System Works' homepage will reveal a countdown timer, which will hit zero on July 23. Most of the time, these countdowns lead to a new game announcement. Considering that BlazBlue: Continuum Shift just hit Japanese consoles earlier this month and will come to American shores on July 27, it’s unlikely that a new one would be announced so soon. On the other hand, Guilty Gear has been on hiatus for a while now and Daisuke Ishiwatari has stated that a title is in the works. We can only wait ten more days and see.
[Source: Arc System Works via Flowerpoop]