E3 Trailer for Platinum Game’s “MadWorld”

Straight from the front lines of E3 is a another spanking new trailer, this time for the over-the-top violence of MadWorld from Platinum Games and Sega. My special message to Wii owners: PLEASE buy this game when it hits sometime next March…. you’ve already done grave injustice by not buying the Wii-tweaked Okami; so don’t be afraid to get some good games once in a while that isn’t “Wii Play”, mm k?

Portal: Still Alive to be the same game, just New Challenges

The upcoming Xbox Live Arcade (re?)release of Valve’s Portal: Still Alive, as briefly mentioned in Microsoft’s E3 press conference a few days ago, will reportedly bare no new content or addition to the existing storyline. Instead, new advanced puzzles will be available once the player has finished the main arc of the game. In an interview with Doug Lombardi, Kotaku sought the reasoning for a stand-alone XBLA release:

I wanted to know what gamers could expect from the game and why Valve decided to tweak it for the XBLA release.

“It’s about giving gamers more choices, more points of entry to get to the party, open more gates to the theme park as it were,” he said. “It makes a lot of sense for us.

“The main idea is that this is Portal available as a download, and there is additional content as advanced challenges that will be available to you after you finish the critical path of the game.”

Totally different than what I assumed it was going to be: originally I thought that a sequel was being made exclusive to the 360! Not surprising when you actually consider that Portal, Team Fortress 2, and Half-Life Episodes 2 & 3 are available as stand-alone packages on the PC as well. The original Portal was a blast to play through so I can only hope that more information about the inevitable sequel will be spilling out soon.

Preventing “Simulated Sickness” in Mirror’s Edge

 

Interesting post over at Joystiq : the multiplat DICE-developed first person action game (phew), featuring the player performing wild acrobatics across an impressive looking city, is looking to prevent players from getting sick while playing their game. From the story:

For starters a little white blip is now placed the middle of the screen. It turns blue when it’s charged for the slow motion action, but more importantly, it serves to focus the viewer’s eyes.

The rep told us that they interviewed ballerinas to see how they perform spins without feeling sick. Their trick is to focus on a certain object or spot on the floor, which inspired the devs to add the dot. For those who find it distracting and obnoxious, there is an option to turn it off.

Personally, I’m not the type to easily get motion simulated sickness from either movies or video games; however, I do know a few people who do – and playing this game, from the footage I’ve seen so far, would probably be the equivalent of riding endless loops on some roller coaster. Good news I guess for those who were afraid that they would never be able to play the game because of such sensitivity.

Sony talks future of Backward Compatibility

Engadget recently had a chance to sit down with SCEA CEO Jack Tretton, who, among other things, spoke about the future of backwards compatibility with the PS3 – the original 60GB launch had full hardware compatibility, followed by the software only 80GB, and the current 40GB has none whatsoever (it is still unknown if the new “Core” 80GB pack will feature this as well). This is a common concern among many people on-the-fence about buying a PS3, as due to the cancelation of the 60GB models, only the 80GB would be one’s best bet. Tretton said:

On backwards compatibility: Jack explained that Sony looked at how to “not take a greater hit on production cost, without losing PlayStation’s heritage … Hardware / software for backwards compat wasn’t all that expensive. … but we’re selling PS2 software to PS2 customers, and selling PS3 software to PS3 consumers.” Still, Jack seems to feel like it may have been the wrong move. “I would like to have had it in there, but Sony’s collective strategy determined we could afford to lose it. We’ve now gone down that road, and we’re not going back.”

While it’s unfortunate that newer models of the system no longer feature robust backwards compatibility with PS2 titles (remember, PS1 games are still perfectly fine across all SKUs), I tend to agree with Tretton here. Those who wanted BC, like I did, bought the original 60GB system; those looking to buy the system and still want it at least have the software emulation in the 80GB systems. Don’t get me wrong; I enjoy the feature greatly. But with games like MGS4 and Call of Duty, I find myself distancing further and further away from playing new or old PS2 games. There’s still a few gems I haven’t played, like Okami or Odin Sphere, but with so much on its plate right now, Tretton is right; there’s no way to move but forward now.

Source: Engadget

God of War III: “In the end, there will be only chaos”

While hardly anyone doubted the existance of a third game in the much lauded franchise, Sony formally announced Kratos’ return to consoles with God of War III. Shown as an extremely brief trailer during their E3 press conference this morning, the footage consists of what looks to be pre-rendered video consisting of a crumbling Olympus, with the favorite anti-hero gradually coming into view.

Screens from the trailer can be found on Kotaku.

Resident Evil 5 shipping March ‘09, Co-Op confirmed

Further news bits from Microsoft’s E3 presser: Capcom’s newest entry in the Resident Evil franchise won’t be available until Spring of 2009. From Joystiq :

Microsoft says that it won’t be available until a worldwide simultaneous release on Friday the 13th, March 2009. “Please hang on just a bit longer,” they say, “we’ll have it to you shortly.”

As for co-op play, Joystiq notes that only “online” co-op is confirmed, whereas the other player will take control of Chris Redfield’s new partner, Sheva Alomar.

FFXIII E3 Trailer

While the gaming world is still recovering from the news that Final Fantasy XIII will be multiplatform, Square Enix also managed to slip a relatively new trailer for the much awaited RPG. There are still some traces of old footage that we’ve already seen years ago, but at least the new stuff looks quite pretty!

Still no word on an estimated release date, however.

Breaking: FF XIII heading to the 360, PS3 fans weep

 

As if the recent Microsoft Japan Press Release wasn’t enought to crush many JRPG fans on the Playstation 3 (to see a handful of Squenix RPGs heading to the Xbox 360 either exclusively, or released first) today at the E3 Microsoft Press conference, Square-Enix President Yoichi Wada took the stage to formally announce that Final Fantasy XIII will indeed be heading to the Xbox 360.

Up to this point, future Final Fantasy titles were previously assumed, then confirmed, at various points to be exclusive to Sony’s Playstation 3. Following Kotaku’s most recent liveblog of the Square-Enix press conference, executive Shinji Hashimoto attempted to provide some insight to why the sudden break from exclusivity from Sony:

Asked why the break from the PS3:

“Says Hashimoto: “We considered the hardware situation. Because of that, we considered   the spread of the hardware, so that’s why we decided that.”

About the development schedule for the multiplatform release:

“first they will finish ffxiii in japan. and then they will start localization for english. . . at that point, they will start the xbox 360 development.”

And that:

“[FFXIII Producer Yoshinori Kitase]: “As for development, we are using Crystal Tools for development. We are using it for the PC base. We are making the game at a faster pace. We should be able to show new footage in the future.”

Needless to say, today’s news will cause confusing ripples among the FF fan base, and obviously to the greater debate about the “console war” as a whole.  The above headline was not meant as a jab to PS3 users – I’m currently a frustrated one myself as a result of the news - or bait for flames; it merely represents further headache at the surprising turn in Square-Enix’s business plan to suddenly shun RPG fans who have happened to choose the PS3 as their main console of the generation.

With the previously announced exclusives or multiplatform releases to be seen first on the Xbox 360, and now that FFXIII will too be multiplatform, Square-Enix and Microsoft seem contently cozy sleeping in that bed together. Good news for Xbox owners; further confusion for the PS3 crowd.