October 2nd, 2008 by Colin Temple
The Japanese magazine Shonen Jump has revealed a new Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles game in the works. Echoes of Time will be released for both the Nintendo Wii and the Nintendo DS.
The game will be essentially the same on the DS and Wii, although control styles will obviously differ. Players will be able to connect their Wii and DS systems to play together while on seperate devices. Reportedly, up to four players can join the same game on different Wii or DS systems, locally or online.
One interesting feature of the game is that you can use your Mii characters on the Nintendo Wii as your in-game character faces. You’ll even be able to send Mii characters to your Nintendo DS system and play as them on the handheld.
No release timeline has been announced yet. More details are sure to follow!
September 2nd, 2008 by Colin Temple
There’s a rumour floating around that Square Enix is looking to charge gamers to play the demo for its upcoming RPG, Final Fantasy XIII.
The game’s PS3 demo was previously expected to be released in a bundle with the Advent Children: Complete Blu-ray disc next launch, but that may not be the case any longer. The demo is said to contain 90 minutes of gameplay. Now, sources in Japan are saying that the game’s demo may not be ready in time, and that Square Enix may look to supplement its sales by charging for it.
On one hand, paying a small fee for 90 minutes of gameplay isn’t so bad. Expansions to existing games like Mass Effect and Lost Odyssey provide about the same amoung of gameplay with $10-15 price tags. But on the other hand, paying for a demo seems just plain wrong, especially if you enjoy the game enough to purchase it. I would hope they’d offer it free with preorders, or something like that, because paying for a demo and then paying again to re-play the same content along with the full game is an unsettling idea.
Square Enix hasn’t commented on the rumour, so we can only hope it’s not true. Don’t do it!
August 22nd, 2008 by Colin Temple
Nintendo has announced one Super NES RPG that’s making its way into the Wii’s virtual console. For 900 Wii points, you can download and play Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars.
Super Mario RPG, which was later succeeded by the Paper Mario series, was a joint project between Nintendo and Square (now Square Enix). It blends the general RPG style of the Final Fantasy series, with the fun and wacky nature of Mario games.
It’s one of my favourite RPGs of all time. When I was a kid, I played through this game several times. It’s just plain fun.
No date has been set, as far as I know, but it won’t be too long, I hope.
August 4th, 2008 by Colin Temple
Blizzard’s president Mike Morhaime has reportedly told investors about a new project his company is working on. The title is a new MMO from the famous developers of World of Warcraft.
It’s no surprise, then, that the project is being kept secret. As investors heard:
“Blizzard has begun staffing on another unannounced massively multiplayer online project but for competitive reasons, we are not able to share any additional information on that project at this time.”
World of Starcraft? Only time will tell.
August 4th, 2008 by Colin Temple
It was a fine day for Xbox 360 owners when Square Enix announced that it would release an Xbox 360 version of Final Fantasy XIII. But it seems that Square Enix hasn’t actually gotten around to developing it just yet.
At Square Enix’s DK Sigma3173 event, the game’s director, Motomu Toriyama explained:
“We haven’t changed the direction of the development … We’re making the PS3 version first, and then porting to the 360 later.”
Supposedly the development kits for the Xbox 360 aren’t even in the team’s hands yet, as Toriyama is urging his team to focus on completing the game before they worry about the port.
Square Enix has said that Final Fantasy XIII will be released simultaneously for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. The result: this probably means delays for the PS3 release of the game, while the team creates the Xbox 360 version.
July 11th, 2008 by Colin Temple
The use of drugs by characters in Bethesda’s upcoming RPG Fallout 3 has been deemed too realistic, resulting in a ban on sales of the game in that country.
The gameplay of Bethesda’s upcoming installment in the Fallout series relies on the use of “chems”, chemical enhancements that affect the player. The chems are essentially drugs that affect player’s stats, with both positive and negative effects.
The use of the chemicals is represented through pills, syringes and a pipe. Morphine can also be heavily used by the player to ignore pain. The representation of the drugs in the game is far too realistic, according to a statement released by Australian officials:
“In the board’s view these realistic visual representations of drugs and their delivery method bring the ’science-fiction’ drugs in line with ‘real-world’ drugs.”
The board also describes its discomfort with the incentives provided for players who use the in-game drugs.
Australia bans a small handfull of video games every year. The highest rating available is “MA15+”, meaning that some games that would be rated “M (17+)” or “AO (18+)” in North America are simply banned down under.
Many Australian gamers are calling for a similar 18+ rating to be introduced in Australia to allow the sale of high-profile titles, such as Fallout 3, to adults. Critics of the ban also point out inconsistencies in the Australian censorship board, namely their willingness to rate Bioshock, which also featured injection of “plasmids” via a syringe.
Fallout 3 has not yet been rated by North American or European censors.
