Atlus
are teaming up with Ace Team (creators of Zeno clash) and are
working on Rock of Ages. The game is meant to be a
Tower Defense game with a twist.
More
Check out the trailer
below
Blue Roses: The Fairy and Blue Eyed Warriors will have two
different versions of the same game, depending on who you start the
game with. There will be multiple endings, which means that
playing the game through more than once will worth the trouble.
More
Check out the trailer
below
Ghostlight, publishers of Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil
Saga and Record of Agarest War, would like to know which games would
you like to see localised next in Europe. If you send a email to
their contest, you will also be eligible to win something as well.
More
Irem's
next game will be a fusion of strategy and trading. Hototogisu
Tairan takes place in a warring state and borrows
elements from trading card games.
More
In
Japan, if you own PixelJunk Racers, you can buy PixelJunk
Racers 2nd Lap for 100 yen ($1.15). That's what I call a
bargain.
More
Dengeki has mentioned that Record of Agarest War 2 will feature
some mini games. One of the mini games is a massage mini-game,
which boosts the status of the heroines in the game after you give them an
oil massage.
More
Blue Roses: The Fairy and Blue Eyed Warriors
Rock Of Ages trailer
The first Last Story trailer
Browser Game Pick: Freq Fire (Griffle)
A video game has just entirely baffled me. Before
you read on, go and play Griffle's
Freq
Fire. It's a musical shmup. Just go and play.
Done? Now you may understand my confusion, or you may be dying to dive
into the comments section and berate me for my ignorance. Either way, this
is how it goes - the player types a band into the box and then hits go. A
fairly simple shooter follows, but with the music of your choice playing
over it. This then gradually fades into another song by the same band,
then into a song from another band, but usually of the same genre.
Ten tracks are played in total, spiralling through similar genres of music
until reaching the original band again. My initial confusion sprung from
wondering where exactly the music was being pulled from - my first thought
was Spotify, but then I noticed the Amazon page for each track is linked
at the end - indeed, the game must be grabbing Amazon's preview snippets
for each track.
Then I wondered what exactly the game is for. I mean, it's an average
shmup to say the least, but the idea of a sort of music discovery
experience through gaming is intriguing - I can listen to snippets of
bands I may like while blasting away, then look into them at the end of
the game if I so wish.
I still feel like I'm missing something, though, and there's little detail
on
Griffle's site
to suggest exactly what the purpose of the game is. Can anyone provide
enlightenment?
Indie Game Pick: Delve Deeper (Lunar Giant Studios)
Delve Deeper is a great single and multiplayer strategy game featuring
dwarfs, mines and evil creatures. Over a number of turns, your task is to
dig deep into the mountain, setting your team of dwarfs to work digging
precious minerals and collecting ancient relics.
Each turn starts with the player placing a mine piece, connecting their
caverns to deeper openings. Then your group of five dwarfs must be given
tasks, be it mining gems for your cause, grabbing treasure or fighting
nasties from the deep. After every player has had their turn, the monsters
then have their go, honing in on the nearest player and trying to knock
them unconscious.
There are lots of different tactics and strategies involved - for example,
rather than placing a cavern piece to expand your territory, you can place
it in another player's area, connecting their guys to a horde of baddies.
You can even connect your place to another player's, enter their mines and
battle other dwarfs for territory. The winner is the player who has
collected the most gems and treasures by the end of the game.
Up to four players can battle on a single computer, hotseat style, or a
single player can battle AI-controlled opponents. It's seriously good fun
and quite unique - I certainly haven't seen anything like it before.
Definitely worth checking out, especially for the $5 price tag.
Download it here, or
grab the demo.
According to Bloomberg, Microsoft's online Xbox Live
service has turned over more than one billion dollars last year.
Matt Rosoff said, “Xbox Live has helped sell a lot of consoles and created
a lot of loyalty.”
More
7th of July 2010
Today will be an eventful day, as Germany take on
Spain. I hope the it is as eventful as the Holland v Uruguay match
was yesterday.
Konami
has finally given Castlevania: Harmony Of Despair Set a release
date and it will be August the 4th. The price of DLC wasn't
mentioned but should be soon.
More
Siliconera spoke to Feargus Urquhart, CEO of Obsidian, about Square
Enix's games and which game he would have liked to have worked on.
It turns out that the game he would have loved to have worked on or do
a remake was and is Chrono Trigger.
He
replied, “It’s tough because a lot of the Japanese RPGs have very
specific functions for everything. There is very specific item
progression, very specific class progression, very specific
everything. I think… I don’t know I’d have to think about it.”
More
In
what is slowly becoming the norm in Japan, another game series has an
energy drink based on it. This time it is the Dragon Quest
series. Suntory and Square Enix has teamed up to offer different
slime shaped bottles.
More
Thanks
to Famitsu, we now know that Vanquish will be released in Japan
on October the 21st.
More
Fate/Extra’s battle system in action
Trailer Overload
Lots of lovely trailers to watch - let's begin with
The Oil Blue. We previewed it last month, and it's rather ace.
The game is now available for purchase, has bagged itself some great
reviews, and has
a demo
for those keen on checking it out before putting money down. You should
definitely give it a try.
Indie Game Pick: Arvoesine (Alastair John Jack)
Arvoesine is a tough NES-style platformer
in which you play a Roman soldier, throwing spears and swiping your sword
at the enemy.
The protagonist can throw spears in an arc at oncoming enemies, and make
them eat his blade if they get too close. For baddies which fire
projectiles, his trusty shield comes into play. Don't be fooled by how
easy it looks in the above video - that's just Tim being stupidly good at
games. It's actually pretty difficult, as games arguably were in the age
of the NES.
The enemies are pretty abstract - I swear that blue running baddie is a
Squirtle - although the boss battles fit
the scene, with mythological gods raining lightning bolts down on the
player. It's got a soundtrack produced by Mr. Ben "Pgil" Pettengill, too.
The demo features the short level you see in the video above, while the
full five levels will set you back $5. Download demo or buy
here.
Limbo Out This July 21st
The release dates for this year's XBLA
Summer of Arcade line-up has been
revealed - Playdead's award-winning
Limbo will be available to purchase
starting July 21st, 2010. It will be priced at 1200 Microsoft Points ($15)
at launch.
Freeware Game Pick: Shoot First (Beau Blyth)
Shoot First is an action game with
rogue-like elements, featuring procedurally generated levels, an automap
system, two-player co-op mode, an online high score table, and even
AI-controlled companions to help you out during heated gunfights with
denizens of the dungeon. Your character can only carry one weapon at a
time, and three other equipment that you acquire during your adventure.
Weapons are upgraded automatically after a prolonged period of use, but
the bonuses don't carry over when you switch to another gun.
Like any rogue-like, your objective here is to descend the staircase that
leads to the next level. Sometimes the staircase is blocked by a locked
door, so you must first find the yellow key hidden somewhere in the
dungeon before proceeding to the exit.
Red potions can be quaffed to restore a tiny bit of health, and rescuing
damsels in distress also have the same effect on your hero. There's no
button to drop an item in your inventory, but you can swap them out when
the inventory slots are full by picking up an object on the ground.
(Windows, 3.23MB)
5th of July 2010
Digital Manga Publishing has announced a range of new digital Manga
that will be released this year and next year. Here are few of them: Demon
City Shinjuku, Countdown 7 Days, Houou Gakuen Misoragumi
and Border.
More
Bobby
Kotick, CEO of Activision believes that PC compatible televisions will
in the future be a competitor to consoles and may be a viable
alternative, according to an interview with the Financial Times.
More
Sony
Computer Entertainment America are hoping to release a demo of
Patapon 3 tomorrow.
More
JAST
USA has licensed Kikouyoku Senki Tenkuu no Yumina for release
in North America. The game is a dungeon-crawling, sci-fi
role-playing game crossed with a dating-sim.
More
The Flying Hamster beta preview code
Stage 1
Stage 2
Solarobo footage
IndieDB Spotlight: June 2010
Hope you guys remembered to submit your game to
IndieDB last month, because those who did might have had their game
featured in the IndieDB Spotlight video seen above.
At
IndieDB,
indie developers can sign up and create a profile for their game, add
screenshots, videos, updates and downloads to spread the word about their
projects. As long as your game is featured on the front page of IndieDB,
then it will automatically be in the running for inclusion in next month's
IndieDB Spotlight video - it's that simple.
Links to all of the games highlighted in this month's video can be found
here.
Trailer: Toribash Wii (Nabi Studios)
The long-awaited release date for
Toribash Wii has been announced, with the
game set to be available for purchase from the European WiiWare channel
starting this
9th of July, 2010. The game will be sold
at 1000 Wii Points, and comes with features like online multiplayer
challenge modes (via the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection), a replay editor to
watch or share your fights with other players, plus full support for
inputting moves using Wii Remote motion controls.
Browser Game Pick: Treasure Tower (David Newton)
Treasure Tower is a WarioWare-style 2D
platformer in which you have thirty-six seconds on the clock to climb to
the top of a tower and acquire a rare treasure. This means going from room
to room as quickly as you can, grabbing gems and food that'll add an extra
few seconds to the clock.
The game features plenty of additional gameplay modes to unlock, with each
of them presenting a different challenge for you to overcome. Some require
collecting a number of gems in the allocated time, while others demand
beating a specific set of rooms before time runs out.
There is also an online high score submission feature included, although
this option is limited to just the survival and time attack modes.
Browser Game Pick: Coma (Thomas Brush)
In the puzzle platformer
Coma you play as Pete, a friendly little
creature who is on a search for his missing sister. During your adventure
you'll meet other inhabitants of the outside world, some of them requiring
your help before returning the favor with an item or a piece of advice.
Nearly everything is controlled using the arrow keys, and the only time
you'll have to switch to the mouse is when picking a response during a
conversation. Occasionally it can be hard to tell whether certain
platforms are tangible or not, and a couple of interactive objects can be
tough to spot, but even if you had difficulties with a puzzle or two it
still won't take you more than half an hour to beat the entire game.
You can download five tracks from ilomilo for
free and check out the trailer below while you at it.
More
3rd of July 2010
$4.5
billion dollars was spent last month on on-line enabled games,
according to the NPD Group (which is the American tracking service for
games and hardware). NPD analyst Anita Frazier, revealed that
“for May year-to-date, 43% of total software units sold were online
capable, as compared to 37% for the same time frame last year.”
More
A new
trailer for Fire Emblem: New Mystery Of The Emblem opens with
character creation.
Check out the
trailer below
Idea
Factory's new game for the Xbox 360 is called My Wife. In
bedtime mode (lifts eyebrow) she asks to hold your hand there is also
a mode where you dine together.
More
Check out the
trailer below
Otomedius Excellent is as Gradius style game but where 'Vic
Viper' has been replaced with cute women.
More
Check out the
trailer below
Square
Enix has plans for the Tactics Ogre series. The company
has trademarked a few names but Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together
was trademarked and that includes the subtitle as well.
More
Shinji
Mikami and Platinum Games said that Vanquish was partly inspire
by a Japanese movie called Casshern, which is a super hero type
movie. He said, “I do think the visuals lean more towards a
Western style, but the original inspiration was from Casshern, a
Japanese animated show, and a lot of the game’s taste comes from
that.”
More
Fire Emblem: New Mystery Of The Emblem trailer
My Wife trailer
Otomedius Excellent trailer
Freeware Game Pick: Illuminator (Logan Ames)
Illuminator is a 2D action game which
tells the story of a boy who has to rescue his kidnapped sister, captured
by ghouls that travel from house to house by tearing through the fabric of
space. Your objective here is to find the hole in each house, then kill
enough monsters to weaken the stitches on the portal that prevent you from
using it to travel to the next house.
The flashlight in your possession can be used to dispel the ghouls, but
only when you turn it off for a second or two to charge up the special
attack. Press the C key when the yellow gauge at the top left corner of
the screen starts to flash, and any enemies hit by the light will start to
burn and dissipate. You can also pick up light fixtures and plug them into
wall sockets to illuminate a room or corridor. Any ghouls that walk past
them will cast a shadow, hence notifying you of their approach before it
is too late to react.
Occasionally you will find energy drinks that increase your health by a
little, or keys from dispatched enemies which are useful for opening
doors. This version is still missing key features like a game menu and a
continue option, but all eight levels included inside are playable from
start to end. Players can skip to any of the levels by pressing the by
pressing any of the numeral keys from 1 to 8. Download Illuminator
here. (Windows, 4.54MB)
Freeware Game Pick: Rocket Jockey (Ben Pettengill)
Rocket Jockey is a remake of an Action 52
game with the same name, where you play as a cow herder who owns a space
ship in his backyard. One night all of his cattles were abducted while
under his watch, so he sets off into space to retrieve them and exact
revenge on the kidnappers who committed the crime in the first place.
Your only weapon is a lasso that can be used to round up bovines or
capture the enemies that you encounter in space. You can also grab barrels
and throw them at certain adversaries, knocking them off course or hurting
them in the process.
There are three levels to play in total. To download Rocket Jockey, click
here. (Windows, 1.84MB)
Cool picture of Kirby
I just liked this picture as well
2nd of July 2010
Faceless creature known as Twisted have taken control of New York in
The 3rd Birthday. Aya, our female protagonist has to stop
them. Siliconera has some screenshots on the game.
More
Not
satisfied with just having a cute puppy in Okamiden, Capcom have
decided to release a plush toy based on Chibiterasu and will will be
available around a month after the games release. It will cost
5,040 yen ($57) and will be 45 cm (approximately 18 in) long.
More
Siliconera spoke to Koichi Sakamoto, who worked on the Front
Mission series and asked him if the series will ever go back to
its strategy roots. He said, " “We are aware there are plenty of
Front Mission fans out there that like simulation games. There is
definitely a possibility that the series will return to a tactical
game in the future..."
More
Sega
has opened up a web site for the makers of Yakuza's new Project.
If you interested I have a direct link but be warned, it is in
Japanese.
More
If you
go to this years Anime Expo in America, you will be able to play
Natsume’s E3 line-up. The following games will be there:
Harvest Moon: Grand Bazaar, Gabrielle’s Ghostly Groove,
Lufia: Curse of the Sinistrals and Rune Factory 3.
More
Freeware Game Pick: Wonderful World (ainefill)
Wonderful World is a freeware versus
fighting game created with Enterbrain's 2D Fighter Maker engine, featuring
thirteen playable characters to choose from, an array of basic and
advanced special moves that are distinct to each fighter, and a combo
system which expert players can use to chain a series of attacks on their
opponents.
The assortment of moves available to you is displayed at the character
selection screen, but you can find control instructions for every
character in the html manual included with the game zip file as well. Note
that you'll need to configure the keys first before starting the game,
unless you wouldn't mind guessing what the default key configuration
settings are.
You can switch between full screen and windowed mode by using the left Alt
and Enter key, while the button configuration option is accessible via the
menu bar. The latest version of Wonderful World can be acquired by
clicking on the green-coloured 'Download Now' button at this page.
(Windows, 149MB)
E3 Video: Gemini Rue Designer Interview
Neo-noir sci-fi title
Gemini Rue (formerly Boryokudan Rue) for
the PC first attracted attention among enthusiasts of point-and-click
adventure games when it was given the top prize at the 2010 Independent
Game Festival's Student Showcase. The dark, story-driven tale features
art, writing and programming by
Joshua Nuernberger, with an atmospheric
music score by composer
Nathan Allen Pinard.
The JBurger was on hand at this year's E3 IndieCade booth, where Gemini
Rue was playable alongside Puzzle Bots, B.U.T.T.O.N., Miegakure and other
indie titles. In this video interview with Adam Robezzoli of
Attract Mode, filmed by the
Nobuooo
site, the
Adventure Game Studio contributor
provides an introduction to the title's subtly intertwined dual storyline.
The designer also shares his perspectives on the value of organizing
game-related events (such as at E3's headquarters in Los Angeles) and the
role of narrative in interactive media. Gemini Rue is currently planned
for release later this year.
The organisers of the Tokyo Game Show, CESA
(Computer Entertainment Suppliers Association), want to introduce Cosplay
this year. So those who attend will get to see hot women dressed as
their favourite characters.
More
This story is for Commander Tim. Fans of
the A Type-B plane from Cave's shoot-em-up DoDonPachi Dai Ou Jou
will soon be able soon to buy a model of the plane, but at 14,700
Yen(US$166), it won't be cheap.
More
1st of July 2010
Downloadable episodes of Ar Tonelico III will be available on
the Playstation Network. The first episode has been scheduled
for July the 13th.
More
Check out the trailer below
Game
Republic, developers of Dragon Ball Origins and Dragon Ball
Origins 2 said, "Some of the best parts are those kind of
perverted scenes taken from the comic books and animated series. In
the last one Master Roshi flipped up girls’ skirts to show what’s
underneath.” O...K...
More
Nippon
Ichi would like to release the next episode of the Disgaea
series in the present fiscal year, which makes sense. With an
interview with
Haru Akenaga, President of NIS America,
siliconera has learnt that he would like to make a game that has a
world wide appeal.
More
Here's
a suggestion; stop relying on paedophilia! I for one like to
see the perfect form of a woman. One with long legs, a beautiful
body, but I draw the line when I see children or so called adults
dressed up as children. I am aware that the Japanese audience
seems to have a thing for women and young girls dressed up as children
but in the rest of the world, the age of consent is higher and I wish
they would take this into account. I might be talking crap, but
I'm 38 years of age and see the world differently to a 18 year old.
Siliconera has a hands-on guide to Enslaved: Odyssey to the West.
You play as a monkey who traverses a world 150 years in the future,
that has been destroyed. A post apocalyptic world; maybe they
like Fallout 3.
More
Final Fantasy XIV looks like it might meet its release date.
The Final Fantasy XIV Collector’s Edition has been given a
release date of September the 22nd. In Japan it will be free for
a month and then it will cost 1,280 yen ($14) every thirty days.
More
Lord of Arcana looks like it might be Square Enix's version of
Monster Hunter.
More
Check out the trailer
below
In
some weird comment, a member of Siliconera talks about Majin and
the Forsaken Kingdom. It's not quite a review and it's not
really news. Someone has been on the pipe this morning.
More
In
Taiko no Tatsujin: Dororon! The Great Yokai Battle, 'Wada-don',
the walking drum kit (well, that's what it looks like to me) does some
ghost busting in Iga Village, where he talks to the locals. It's
a typical rpg from Japan. I like the walking drum kit though.
More
Dragon Ball 2 - behind the scenes (NDS)
Ar Tonelico III
Lord Of Arcana trailer
Teppoman 2 Playthrough
Here are all of the secret techniques, boss
strategies, banana locations (well, most anyway), and ambush tips that I
remembered to record over several playthroughs of Ikiki's Teppoman 2. I've
yet to figure out what collecting all bananas in the game does (other than
rewarding an extra life for each). Here's an English translation of
their
wiki page for Teppoman 2.
Note that viewing the videos posted here will spoil the game completely.
Don't watch any of them unless you're completely stuck, since half the fun
is trying to figure out the solution to a seemingly impossible challenge.
The Legend of Team Fortress. What if Team
Fortress 2 was an rpg; what would it be like?
More
Is this what we look like when we play Street
Fighter?
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