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At E3 2010, Nintendo’s press conference included a slew of long-awaited titles for the Wii, including the likes of Donkey Kong Country Returns and Epic Mickey. Kirby’s Epic Yarn joined that list, and with its release, it is clear that Nintendo carefully stitched together a modern-day masterful performance. Side-scrolling gameplay is back, and Kirby is here to prove it!
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When Gabe Newell announced at Sony’s E3 press conference that Portal 2 would be bringing Steam over to the PS3, gamers familiar with the service knew something special was going to happen. We just didn’t know which features were being carried over. Today, Valve released a press release detailing exactly which ones: cross-platform multiplayer among PS3, PC, and Mac users; cross-platform chat and game invites; PS3 saves stored on the Steam cloud server; and linking your PSN and Steam accounts will allow you to play your copy on PC and Mac as well, via Steam Play.
This is a major step forward for cross-platform gaming, the first notable development since Epic Games released Unreal Tournament III on the PS3 and PC with cross-platform multiplayer back in 2007. Personally, I want to see a lot of games in the Steam store available for purchase on PS3. If they allow keyboard & mouse support, I’d be all over playing Counter-Strike source in surround sound on my HDTV.
UPDATE: Square Enix has pulled the trailer, but it’ll be officially unveiled on January 20th.
After it’s reveal early this morning in Tokyo, Square Enix has officially announced Final Fantasy XIII-2 for North America and Europe as well.
Coming to the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 “next winter” (presumably sometime early in 2012), the game’s official website is now live and it includes a single screenshot of Lightning with a very big sword.
Further details are pretty hard to come by, but Square Enix did promise that the game will feature a brand new story and an “evolved” battle system. They’ve also revealed that the game’s first trailer will be available at the official website on the 20th, but it’s already been posted to YouTube, and you can check it out after the break.
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UPDATE: Square Enix has pulled the trailer from YouTube. The publisher has promised to post an official version on January 27, which you can see right here.
Many gamers in RPG circles have been calling Final Fantasy Versus XIII “our last hope.” We’re banking it all on this game, that it’ll be what Final Fantasy XIII should’ve been: the mind-blowing cinematic JRPG that defines a generation. I really don’t want to jinx this, but it’s looking like Versus XIII will be that game. In this trailer revealed at the Square Enix 1st Production Department Premier (I love typing that), Tetsuya Nomura and crew lay it all on the line, showing exploration, combat, and beautifully-rendered cut scenes that look substantially better than the original trailer from 2006. It seems to be a real-time action RPG; the combat plays like a third person shooter when controlling party members with guns; you can get into turrets and even mechs to fight enemies; players will fight hordes of monsters at a time in massive, open environments; and Noctis can be seen fighting enemies on platforms flying through a city as terrifying velocities. This last scene seems to corroborate that there will be a lot of interactive set pieces to get the blood pumping – another scene shows the protagonist running from a Behemoth vomiting fireballs apparently in-game, and the windows crash in suddenly at a party, catching everyone off guard.
The end also confirms that the game will still be PlayStation 3 exclusive, and it shows from just how stunning the graphics are in the cutscenes. The only tragedy in this whole matter is that no release date has been pinned down. Many of the aspects of the game appear to be finalized, though, so hopefully we can get our hands on it soon.
I’m not sure who came up with the name for this event, but Square Enix is delivering the goods on their biggest titles today at their 1st Production Department Premier event. Happening this morning (or night) in Tokyo, the event has come with goodies like an incredible new Final Fantasy Versus XIII trailer, and the announcement of, yep, Final Fantasy XIII-2 (which is coming to the PS3 and Xbox 360). Japanese game blog Andriasang liveblogged the event and has all the details on those games as well as Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance and Final Fantasy Type-0 (the PSP game formerly known as Final Fantasy Agito XIII).
This is going to be a powerhouse news day for fans of JRPGs and Japanese games in general, so be sure to stay tuned.
Today’s the day you’ve been waiting for, as the Amazon All Video Games Gold Box Event has begun!
First things first, the all-day Amazon Deal of the Day is Epic Mickey. The Wii platformer has been priced at $29.99, a 40% discount off of its regular $49.99 price. And Amazon is also offering a “Buy 2, Get 1 Free” promotion on almost 400 games spread across the PS3, Wii, Xbox 360, PSP, DS and PS2.
For the rest of the event, Amazon has 12 limited-time deals planned to go live throughout the day. The clues make some of the titles (or audio accessories) pretty obvious, so here they are (along with our guess and their start times):
The rest of the Daily Scoop will be dished out later this morning by Nicole Kline, Warp Zoned’s scoopmaster.
Activision and developer Treyarch have released the first trailer for First Strike, the first downloadable map pack for Call of Duty: Black Ops. The pack will be available to download from Xbox Live on February 1 for 1200 Microsoft Points ($15) with a PC and PS3 release coming later (the Modern Warfare 2 maps typically took five to six weeks to reach the PC/PS3).
Treyarch used this DLC pack to respond to some fan complaints, citing more verticality and more sniper opportunities in the five maps:
Kowloon: Inspired by the Kowloon level from the single-player campaign. Features zip lines to quickly get from point A to point B.
Discovery: An Antarctic research station divided by a deep chasm.
Berlin Wall: The largest map, set in and around Checkpoint Charlie on both sides of Germany.
Stadium: Set inside a hockey arena in the US, the map features close quarters fighting and gives off strong vibes of Lake Placid and the Olympic battle for Cold War supremacy that was fought there (“Do you believe in miracles? YES!”).
Ascension: First Strike’s Zombie Mode map was sadly absent from this trailer.
When it was released back in 2008, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed was met with stinging jabs from the critical community. Some of the game’s oft-mentioned flaws included repetitive combat, a poor camera, lame boss fights and a nearly broken targeting system. I did not share my compatriot’s problems with the game and actually found The Force Unleashed to be one of the better action-adventures of 2008.
But here we go again with Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II.
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