Did you miss out on The Witcher last year? It won RPG of the Year at a few outlets. The PC game has been tweaked and re-released with some nice updated (both in your face and behind the scenes). We’ll have a review for you soon, but in the meantime, check out the trailer.
If you ever needed a sign of Armageddon I think this might just be it, yes ladies and gentleman the Xbox 360 has outsold the Nintendo Wii in Japan! During the month of September the Xbox 360 put on a show and beat out the PS3 and Wii.
The 360 sold 28,681 units from September 8 to September 14, beating out the Wii’s 27,057 sales and trouncing the PS3’s 8,050. To further put this success into context, the 360 only shifted a dismal 845 units the previous week.
It is no doubt in correlation to the drastic price drop of the Xbox 360 in combination with new JRPGs hitting the market. Tales of Vesperia alone is a console mover as it is geared perfectly for the Japanese audience and is a very solid game that the Western RPG fan can enjoy as well. Also throw in the mix the new Square Enix RPG Infinite Undiscovery, which I am not a huge fan of, but has the Square Enix name on it that is sure to bring Japanese fans in.
So in conclusion, head toward your bomb shelters now and lock yourself up because the winds are shifting!
I have to admit that Tales of Vesperia was a new title for me and it really was not on my radar screen with some of the bigger titles over shadowing its release, but I am glad I picked this one up and gave it a go. Tales of Vesperia is a classic Japanese style Role Playing Game with stunning graphics and visuals and a very deep story. Many are hailing this as the first truly successful JRPG for the Xbox 360 and it has assisted in selling many consoles in the East.
Tales of Vesperia looks good from the start with its cel-shaded characters and switches from battles to anime cut scenes very well. The voice acting during the game’s cut scenes and even battle sequences is done very well and it is hard to tell that it was dubbed over. At times you feel like you are watching an anime movie because of the great quality in the voices and images.
Infinite Undiscovery is a real time RPG from the makers of Valkyrie Profile and is looking pretty tight. I have my eyes set on picking this up and after watching the video it reminds me a bit of Phantasy Star mixed in with Too Human. I am a sucker for this style of game and will have to get my hand son this one and provide you all a full review. Check out some cuts of the gameplay and you be the judge, what do you think?
Square Enix just announced that Final Fantasy XIII will be coming to the Xbox 360 and the Microsoft camp. The Microsoft big wig was the first to also add that this is one of the many Sony PlayStation franchises that have transitioned to the Xbox 360, from Guitar Hero to Grand Theft Auto and now Final Fantasy. Final Fantasy fans and Xbox fans can now rejoice as they join forces, everyone tries to forget about FFXI and that poor excuse for an MMORPG.
::UPDATE:: Let me add that this is quite a kick in the shins to Sony. A lot of questions do come to mind though that Square is not ready to answer. How many discs will the Xbox 360 version ship with? Will there be any exclusive DLC on the PS3 BluRay version or 360? For now both versions of the game are identical.
We do know that FFXIII will drop in Japan first and then come to Europe and North America. An Xbox 360 version for Japan does not seem to be in the cards at this time, looks like they will depend on Sony to handle their sales in Japan. Final Fantasy Versus XIII is still a PlayStation 3 exclusive.
The classic Chrono Trigger is making a grand return for a DS only game. This is one of the best RPG’s form the past and should make quite a splash on the DS, Nintendo continues to make the DS a strong handheld with a huge number of titles. I wonder what kind of money hat Nintendo had to give Square Enix to keep this as an exclusive? Sorry to all the PSP owners out there, but you will have to fork over some cash and grab a DS now to play this.
This is a bit of sad news, looks like Too Human is a 10 hour long game! All of that juicy gameplay that has been popping up all over and it is limited to 10 hours of gameplay?!
According to the folks over at Wired this is all you get from start to finish with little replay value and for an RPG 10 hours is next to nothing. When you break this down it comes out to $6 an hour for Too Human, not the best of buys.
Quite a shame really since this was a big title that many gamers were watching for the summer.
Watch some Too Human gameplay after the jump, but cry as you realise that it is all too short. Read More »
Penny Arcade: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness launches this Wednesday on the XBLA, PC, Linux, and Mac. Aside from a long and fairly odd title, this game is boasting a very unique take on RPG gameplay, think dungeon master style dice rolling action. This is a labor of love for these two guys that has been brewing now for 2 years, so look for more Gabe and Tycho and characters from their universe. Only thing that has me apprehensive is the price tag of it, 1600 points or $20, can be kind of steep. The Penny Arcade guys explain that this isn’t your normal XBLA title but more of an immersive game that will take at least 10 hours to finish. This is also the first installment of a total of 4 titles.
Discover the mysteries of New Arcadia with Gabe and Tycho in “Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness, Episode One,” available on Xbox LIVE Arcade this Wednesday, May 21, 2008 at 9:00 a.m. GMT (1:00 a.m. PDT). Read More »
A recent Bethesda podcast confirmed some new details on their upcoming RPG. The game will have over 200 different endings and will be twice as big as previously thought. Wow. Thats a big deal. Talk about replayability. I’m sure the endings won’t be drastically different, but thats still impressive. There are plenty of other details listed and they can be found here; a recap of their recent podcast.
Star Wars is a super epic movie that anyone with a pulse can easily recognise, so of course it made sense to have it grace video game consoles. Pretty much slapping a Star Wars logo on about anything will make it sell, just look at Soul Calibur putting in Darth Vader and Yoda, not necessary at all but people will buy the game just to use these characters.
Great to see how the Star Wars franchise developed from it’s original roots on the original consoles and developed into Lego inspired games, RPG’s like Knights of the Old Republic and classic fighter games like Rebel Assault. Star Wars is one of those franchises that provides so much story and so much content that the possibilities of games is almost endless.
I am thinking the only thing we are missing is Star Wars Sims, build Chewbaca a hut and make him a vital part of society.
We're like Spaceballs... we're making Loot Ninja everything. Coming soon we'll have hats, shirts, hoodies, possibly banana hammocks if one Editor has his way...
Check out the shirt prototypes here and the hats here
