Gaming Console Platform

Compared to last week’s releases, we’ll be facing a more discreet batch this time. Surely, it’s difficult to look away from Super Smash Bros. Brawl now that it’s out in the market. If you can resist the charms of the Nintendo all-star fighting game, Condemned 2: Bloodshot can quench your thirst for hurting someone. It’s not all about melees, however, since there’s a good dose of lighthearted fantasy in the mix, thanks to Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates.

Level-headed gamers who want to put their strategic thinking to the test have numerous prospects highlighted by Wild Arms XF. Sports fans won’t be left behind with the release of Pro Evolution Soccer 2008, the latest entry in the popular football series. Still not enough games? We’ve got a chunky list right here.

Condemned 2: Bloodshot. Like its predecessor, Condemned 2 has close ties with the unexplainable. Taking the shoes of former Serial Crimes Unit investigator Ethan Thomas, players will face the horrors of a mysterious city littered with murder crimes while utilizing the game’s new hand-to-hand combat mechanic when guns are not enough.

• Microsoft Xbox 360, Sony PlayStation 3 - March 11, 2008
• US 59.99
• ESRB M (Mature)
• Sega and Monolith Productions

Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates. Fans of the previous iteration of this action RPG can find everything they loved about Square Enix’ multiplayer affair in its sequel. Four player mode is intact, coupled with unique controls made possible by the Nintendo DS’ touch screen.

• Nintendo DS - March 11, 2008
• US 39.99
• ESRB E (Everyone)
• Square Enix

FlatOut: Head On. What can only be defined as pure destruction is racing its way to the PSP for some serious devastating car crashes across Carnage Race, Deathmatch Derby, and Ragdoll Stunts modes. Wi-Fi support promises you won’t be alone during your savage trips.

• Sony PlayStation Portable - March 11, 2008
• US 29.99
• ESRB T (Teen)
• Warner Bros. and Empire Interactive

House of the Dead 2 & 3 Return. Sega’s classic arcade shooter series which was insane enough to turn a typing spin-off into something fun has finally come back from the grave to haunt the family friendly Wii. Zombies attempt to prove the undead is as cool as they were a few decades ago using motion sensing controls.

• Nintendo Wii - March 11, 2008
• US 29.99
• ESRB M (Mature)
• Sega

Insecticide. Yes, Gamecock’s handheld offering is buggy, but not in a bad way. If you thought killing insects is fun without feeling guilty, try playing the snazzy detective Chrys Liszt and you’ll know how those bugs you love to squash have their own problems to take care of, too. Insecticide is said to be a cinematic experience which progresses through fast-paced shooting in finely crafted environments.

• Nintendo DS - March 11, 2008
• US 29.99
• ESRB E (Everyone)
• Gamecock and Crackpot

Lost Empire: Immortals. Can’t get enough of 4X games set in space? Meet Lost Empire: Immortals, a PC game cooked up with the immortal formula of pitting various races against each other as they explore, expand, exploit, and exterminate. A solid number of 150 scientific advances and ten-player multiplayer mode ensure you’ll take hours to colonize every single star in the game’s universe.

• PC - March 11, 2008
• US 29.99
• Paradox Interactive and Pollux Gamelabs

Nanostray 2. It’s been a while since we first heard of this title, but it looks like the sequel to a solid top-down shooter is finally coming. Nanostray 2 has an array of new features with six game modes, multiple control schemes, and 16 bad bosses - definitely a leg up from the first Nanostray.

• Nintendo DS - January 15, 2008
• US 29.99
• ESRB E (Everyone)
• Majesco Games and Shin’en

Pro Evolution Soccer 2008. From its humble beginnings as Winning Eleven, Konami’s football franchise has exploded to stardom and now constantly scores goals across several platforms. This season, it will strike North America on the PS3, PSP, Xbox 360, and DS.

• Microsoft Xbox 360, Sony PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable, Nintendo DS - March 11, 2008
• US 59.99 (Xbox 360, PS3), US$29.99 (PSP, DS)
• ESRB E (Everyone)
• Konami

Sam and Max Season 2: Episode 204. It’s episodic content at its best, as Telltale Games is releasing yet another entry in Sam and Max‘ animalistic adventures. The latest episode has all the improvements added to Season 2, such as more lively neighborhoods and the introduction of mini-games in every installment.

• PC - March 13, 2008
• US 8.99
• Telltale Games

Sudden Strike 3: Arms for Victory. Despite its title, Sudden Strike won’t take you by surprise. It’s too massive to strike quickly, what with the overwhelming number of available units on air, land, and sea, all rendered by a powerful 3D engine. The wait is over, soldier.

• PC - March 10, 2008
• US 29.99
• ESRB T (Teen)
• cdv Software Entertainment and Fireglow Games

Wild ARMs XF. The long-running RPG series by Media Vision is ready for a shoot-out on a handheld for the first time, featuring a heavily modified HEX battle system. As one of the many turn-based strategy games for the PSP, Wild ARMs XF sets itself apart by providing deep combat backed by Formation Arts, Combination Arts, and 20 unique job classes.

• Sony PlayStation Portable - March 11, 2008
• US 39.99
• ESRB E (Everyone)
• XSEED Games and Media Vision

World Championship Cards. If you need card games on the go, Crave has an expansive collection of over 30 different card games in one PSP title. To top it all, there’s character creation and eight-player online play or via AD HOC.

• Sony PlayStation Portable - March 11, 2008
• US 19.99
• ESRB E (Everyone)
• Crave

XIII Century: Death or Glory. Epic battles between thousands of soldiers in 13th century Europe is the name of the game. Before joining the fray, military leaders are allowed to enter strategy mode in which they’ll be assessing economic, diplomatic, and political aspects of an invasion. When battle is inevitable, it’s time to customize troops and charge into battle!

• PC - March 12, 2008
• US 19.99
• GamersGate

originally posted Mar 10, 2008 at 12:36AM

Buy: [Condemned 2: Bloodshot (Xbox 360), (PS3)]
Buy: [Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates (DS)]
Buy: [FlatOut: Head On (PSP)]
Buy: [House of the Dead 2&3 Return (Wii)]
Buy: [Insecticide (DS)]
Buy: [Lost Empire: Immortals (PC)]
Buy: [Nanostray 2 (DS)]
Buy: [Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 (Xbox 360), (PS3), (PSP), (DS)
Buy: [Wild ARMs XF (PSP)]
Buy: [World Championship Cards (PSP)]

 

Last month, Peter Moore announced that EA Sports is working on several new titles, including the latest installments to some of their franchises, including Madden. There have also been talks that the studio will acquire the license to Sony’s Formula One label.

EA Sports’ global marketing boss VP has confirmed that aside from the recently announced Facebreaker (PS3, 360, Wii), there are two new (still unannounced) original games in the works. That’s as much as they revealed though. We’ll keep you posted on updates. But knowing EA, some of you might assume that they’re going to be multiplatform games.

Moore also responds to the rumors surrounding Formula One, saying that he’s a big fan of the sport but EA Sports currently has no intention of acquiring the license to the game. He adds though, that it’s a possibility that’s open for the future:

The excitement that Lewis Hamilton has brought to the sport, and its vast global appeal, make it an appealing game licence, but as of right now it is not available.

Maybe in a few years the situation will change, but until then we fully respect the rights held by our partners at Sony.

Always look to Aeris if you want world peace. Amidst all the complaints from RPG fans in US and Europe of how Japan always gets things first (settle down, folks; Crisis Core is coming in just a few more days!), Square Enix is now making a move to have worldwide simultaneous releases for their games.

Yoichi Wada expressed this goal of theirs to Japan’s Nihon Keizan Shimbun, saying that Square Enix will be “making simultaneous releases the norm” from this point on. This bodes well, especially after Wada’s consideration of expanding their development studios to Western regions as well as reassessing their partnership with Microsoft.

Unfortunately, it remains unsaid as to what specific games in their pipeline will be having a worldwide simultaneous release. Maybe Final Fantasy XIII or Dragon Quest IX? Square Enix seems to be putting those two in their priority lists - even though specific release dates haven’t even been revealed yet.

Who knows? While chances of seeing them roll out within the year are slim, we can still hope for a simultaneous release for when these games come out in the future.

 

Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games has been on top of the UK charts ever since December, bumped down only by a few notable releases. Last week is another one of those instances, with the release of Army of Two (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360).

Another newcomer on the charts this week (or should we call this a reentry?) is Bully: Scholarship Edition. Check out the rest of the UK software charts for the week of March 8, and we’ll update you again next week (when Mario & Sonic’s probably back on top - ha! who knows?):

1. Army of Two
2. Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games
3. Dr Kawashima’s Brain Training
4. Bully: Scholarship Edition
5. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Xbox 360, PS3, PC)
6. Frontlines: Fuel of War
7. Game Party
8. Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War Soulstorm
9. Pro Evolution Soccer 2008
10. Lost: The Video Game
11. Lost Odyssey
12. Cooking Mama 2
13. More Brain Training from Dr Kawashima
14. FIFA 08
15. The Sims 2: Freetime
16. Carnival: Funfair Games
17. FIFA Street 3
18. MX vs ATV Untamed
19. Dynasty Warriors 6
20. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock (Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii, PC)

Buy: [Army of Two (Xbox 360)]
Buy: [Army of Two (PS3)]

 

The NPD group will be releasing the hardware and software sales for February in a few days. January held a few surprises, including the PlayStation 3 outselling the Xbox 360 for the first time. Analysts disagree whether the same will hold true for February though.

Industry analysts Michael Pachter of Wedbush Morgan and Jesse Divnich of simExchange have given their predictions for the February numbers. They seem to have disagreements not only in sales figures, but in the relative success rate of each platform as well.

The DS, whose sales have been slipping in Japan, remains Pachter’s favorite for February, while Divnich has lowered his expectations on the handheld. As for the PS3-360 race, Pachter favors the Sony console, while Divnich prefers Microsoft’s.

However, they do agree that the Wii will still be selling more than both of them. Pachter is betting on Blu-ray’s success over HD DVD to spike PS3 sales, while Divnich believes that the “stalemate” between the PS3 and 360 will continue on ’til April.

On the software side of things, both agree that Devil May Cry 4 will dominate the charts, with Lost Odyssey close behind. (Not surprising, really.) Here are their hardware sales predictions for the month of February:

Michael Pachter’s predicted numbers:

DS: 350,000 units
Wii: 300,000 units
PS3: 260,000 units
Xbox 360: 250,000 units
PS2: 245,000 units
PSP: 225,000 units
GBA: 1,000 units

Jesse Divnich’s predicted numbers:

Wii: 450,000 units
DS: 450,000 units
Xbox 360: 285,000 units
PS3: 270,000 units
PSP: 259,000 units

Here’s something to give Cooking Mama a run for her money. If some of you culinary enthusiasts (myself included) want to heat up the competition in your very own Kitchen Stadium at home, then what better way than to play Iron Chef America on your Nintendo Wii or DS?

Yep, Destineer finally confirmed it. Back in January, a product listing for a certain Iron Chef game appeared (and was later removed) in Gamestop. That, along with Summer Sports, which was then confirmed by Destineer a few weeks later.

Now, Destineer, together with United Media, have announced over the press wire that they’ll be releasing Iron Chef America: Supreme Cuisine for Nintendo’s latest console and handheld. Not much details have been revealed, but Destineer CEO Paul Rinde is optimistic of their upcoming title:

If the early buzz surrounding the game is any indication, then fans of the show and Nintendo owners are as excited as we are to be developing Iron Chef America: Supreme Cuisine. With their innovative control dynamics, Wii and DS are the ideal system for the inaugural Iron Chef video game and believe the ultimate secret ingredient to these games will be family fun.

The game is even said to have the virtual reincarnation of Iron Chef America host Mark Dacascos, and the developers are yet to reveal if other staple personalities in the TV show are going to appear in the game.

Will we be able play as Mario Batali, Bobby Flay, and Masaharu Morimoto? How about the special judges? Yeah, I’d definitely like to see the likes of Jeff Corwin, Ted Allen, and even Tina Fey (remember those episodes?) judge my culinary masterpiece. And who could forget that special episode where Rachael Ray and Giada De Laurentiis (aaaw, sweet Giada… sigh) faced off in the Kitchen Stadium?

We’ll let you guys in on more details as the courses are served.

 

While more and more games are now being developed for girl gamers (mostly thanks to the Wii and the DS), we still can’t deny that there’s a gender imbalance when it comes to the video game population. The same is also true for the people behind the scenes.

When you think of men in the video game industry, the list can go on and on. There are Hideo Kojima, David Jaffe, Tomonobu Itagaki, and on and on. But when it comes to women in the industry, most would think of Jade Raymond, and then… blank.

This issue was addressed by Emily Newton-Dunn, a former producer of the Burnout series and is currently with EA, working on the Harry Potter series. Her thoughts can be summed up when she said: “it s crazy that we don t have more women making games.”

At the Birds Eye View Film Festival in London, she was part of the panel of the Women in Games discussion. She remarks that there is a misconception that the games industry is “for males, and by males.” Take note, ladies:

Personally I don t think you have to be a woman to make great games for women, but I think that sometimes women might bring a different sensibility to the table which will enhance or make games more appealing to women.

[…] Like in any other creative media the more diversity you can attract or the more you personally go out and do different things and see other stuff the more you re going to bring back to your job.

I think if games were only ever made by one type of person you d get really boring games. You need to bring in some different cultures, different people, different sexes and different interests, otherwise you re just going to be churning out the same stuff again and again.

There is also a financial aspect to this, which was discussed as the panel went on. By failing to fully tap into the market of female gamers, the industry is missing out on “a sizeable amount of revenue.” To read more on the panel discussion, follow the link below.

Recently, there was news spreading that Nintendo won’t be releasing the holocaust DS game, Imagination Is the Only Escape, in North America.

Apparently, it’s not true, according to a spokesperson of Alten8. The spokesperson said that the game developed by Luc Bernard is currently in “concept/ pre-production” at the moment.

In addition to that, the developers haven’t even spoke to Nintendo about the game yet. Also, the spokesperson continued by saying the no one has blocked the game and that it still has no definite time for release because the game is still being fully developed.

Regarding the state of the game, the spokesperson said:

Luc Bernard is doing most of the artwork for all his game creations and we have not even discussed with Nintendo as of yet - Luc made various blog releases about the game concept and theme that have been picked up by various writers and used extensively, but are based on a few early artwork screens.

Having said that, we’ll keep you guys posted on the latest developments on the game. Do stick around QJ.NET.

Here’s this Nintendo DS title called Imagination Is the Only Escape that will be published by Alten8 and was created by a 21-year-old British video game developer named Luc Bernard.

This game, however, will not reach U.S shores. Wondering why? Well, it seems that Nintendo is not comfortable with releasing the game in North America as it tackles the Jews’ sufferings under the Nazis.

The game revolves around a young boy living inside a concentration camp. The boy is located in eastern France and tries to escape from real-life horror through a fantasy world.

If you ask us, Imagination Is the Only Escape seems an interesting game and is reminiscent of the movie Life is Beautiful. Anyway, one Nintendo representative commented, “At this time, there are no plans for this game to be released for any Nintendo platforms in North America.”

Atlus8 will also be producing another Bernard game called Eternity’s Child that tackles global warming. Despite all these, Luc Bernard is still hoping that his game will reach more audience as it was created to serve as an educational material.

Bernard said, “I hope that young children will play it, There will be no on-screen violence in this product. I don t see war as a game. I don t find that amusing.”

Fans of homebrew card games such as Spider Solitaire may want to check out yet another nifty card game for the Nintendo handheld: DiscardEmAll. Created by t4ils, DiscardEmAll’s main objective is to “discard” (which explains the name) all the cards in your hand before the computer.

In playing this game, all you need to do is to use your stylus to move cards from your hand, to the middle of the screen. Do keep in mind that you can’t just dump any card; you need to make sure that the card you’re discarding is consecutive in number to the card topmost of the pile (example, 2 on a 3 or 4 on a 3).

If none of the cards in your hand can be dropped, you can tap on the “heel” (card on the upperleft portion of the touchscreen) to draw four new cards.

Here’s the changelog for your perusal, in case you’re interested in grabbing this game:

04/03/08: Preview
05/03/08: Version 0.1

• Adding:
• The heel turns blue when the computer can not play, red when human and computer can not play
• Each cell card a sense, that may change if there is change in the map upside
• The card change in the direction that is not on a map of the same color Above the map change of direction, one can not play the same color
• Cells cards are a “tour”: you can go from 12 to 0 and 0 to 12 (depending on the direction)
• Map Joker is played on any map and allows any color

06/03/08: Version 0.11

• Adding:
• Sound
• You can see the computer play
• Modification: We must play a map of the same color as the Joker over the Joker

You know what to do: just download the game from the link below. Enjoy!

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UPDATE  Homebrew developer tails just updated the card game, and here’s the changelog:

09/03/08: Version 0.2

• Adding:
•  Menu
• Options
• Setting the level of AI
• Maps Bonus Yes / No
• Tutorial
• Slippage card when they pickaxe
• Modification: Gfx

You can download the updated game from the link below:

Download: DiscardEmAll v0.2