Diablo III's fourth class is a Monk, Tricia Helfer voices Kerrigan in StarCraft II

BlizzCon 2009 has now ended, and I thought I'd post a few interesting bits of news that surfaced from there.

First, the 4th character class for Diablo III was announced, and it's a monk. Of what I have been able to gather from various interviews, the monk is a fighter class (surprise!), faster and more agile than the previously announced barbarian, but probably not as brutally powerful. Apparently the monk was slightly inspired by various fighting games, and has a versatile combo system behind the class, and of course some flashy special moves ranging from some kind of super combos to big area effect moves. All in all, an interesting class.

Another interesting news bit is that Tricia Helfer, perhaps best known as Battlestar Galactica's Cylon model 6, is voicing Kerrigan in StarCraft II. Of what I have seen and heard from various trailers and gameplay videos, the cast in StarCraft II isn't exactly top notch. But on the other hand, for all I know the voices in those are not final. Either way, this news adds some star power to that cast, so maybe more will follow.

Posted in Gaming by Kilu on August 23rd 2009 at 9:15am 0 Comments

Golden Sun DS, Phantom Brave Port, Dark Hero Days

For those long waited and anxious fans of Golden Sun... rejoice! Golden Sun DS is in the works and is in 3D. As I've heard it has a new story with the descendants of the previous heroes in a different setting. Though there is no release date set on this. More information should be available later on for Golden Sun DS.

The Wii release of Phantom Brave: We Meet Again has already been released and is in stores. For those who don't have a PlayStation 2 or want to see extra content of the game will have a chance on getting this. However, with the noticing changes of the DS and PSP ports of Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness with Etna's voice and some voices taken out in some scenes, will there be any changes to this?

Also Disgaea 2: Cursed Memories will have a port as well on the PSP called Disgaea 2: Dark Hero Days. Like being able to play as Etna as the main character, you will be able to play as The Dark Hero Axel. As said before, will there be changes as well to this? There is no news about it being on the DS however and it is set to release on September 8, 2009.

Posted in Gaming by Marona on August 21st 2009 at 9:28pm 2 Comments

Good Old Games Weekend Deal, Beyond Good & Evil and Prince of Persia: Sands of Time bundle for $9.99

Two Ubisoft's great games are this weeks Weekend Deal bundle at Good Old Games. This "Ubisoft's Action Pack" has Beyond Good & Evil and Prince of Persia: Sands of Time, both of which would normally cost $9.99 a pop.

If by chance you own either of them already, the deal extends to individual purchases as well, 30% off single item, that's $6.99 for either one of these classic games.

There are other Weekend Deals around the various digital gaming outlets as well, but none of them are incredibly interesting.

Posted in Gaming by Kilu on August 21st 2009 at 9:44am 0 Comments

Final Fantasy 13 for Xbox 360 about 70% done

1up has the news. Apparently the Japanese PS3 is about 90% done, so the work on the 360 version and English localization is now in full gear. All the English voice work has been recorded, and I hope the localization is as excellent as it is with FF12.

Apparently in another interview producer Yoshinori Kitase has also confirmed that the game is going to be shipping on 3 DVDs on the 360. Seems like this is the point the PS3 fanboys are trying to rub in, but I don't get it. Who cares if the game ships in more than one disc? I mean, really? Ah, fanboys, what a crazy race of people they are.

Posted in Gaming by Kilu on August 20th 2009 at 9:43am 1 Comment

PlayStation 3 Slim becomes reality, priced $299

As was evident before this years E3, Sony can't keep shit secret these days. Back then it was all the PSPGo stuff, pictures and everything. Now it was the PS3 Slim. Leaks of the PS3 diet version have been plentiful, and today it has become official.

So, what's changed? Guess what? It's smaller! That's right! You heard it here first! Confirmed!

Okay, fine, seriously. There's an unboxing video at 1UP that you may want to check out, it shows pretty well the size differences between the old Hulk and the new slim. It's also lighter, and looks quite different. Most of the surface is now matte, as opposed to Hulk's fingerprint magnet glossy surface. And perhaps the most important change is that they ditched the Spiderman font. That alone makes me want to buy it.

Other things to note is that it has 120GB hard drive, and has no hardware for backwards compatibility with PS2 games. Software emulation is still a possibility, but I wouldn't know anything about that.

The obvious and the most important part (aside from the Spidey font) is the price cut that it brings with it. The Slim will cost $299 or 299€, and apparently the old Hulk of a model will also have it's price slashed. So far there has been no clear notion on what the old model will cost, but the general consensus around the gaming media seems to be that it will also get a $299 price.

What remains to be seen is whether it's durable or not. Obviously the chips inside the console are smaller and generate less heat, but I just get the feeling that maybe they packed it too tight and it might suffer from overheating. So, you can be sure that I'm not going to be one of the first to rush to buy one. I'll let all of you be the guinea pigs.

Now, another obvious question is, is this too little too late? For someone with limited amount of cash to spend on video games, chances are that a big chunk of the audience has already picked their console, of the two cheaper ones. I know I have, 360 was my choice and I can't see myself getting the PS3, no matter how slim it is, in any foreseeable future. So, who knows how this will go for Sony.

Posted in Gaming by Kilu on August 18th 2009 at 8:54pm 10 Comments

Steam weekend deal, everything Half-Life 66% off, Valve Complete Pack 10% off

Hey hey, I bring you great news. If you, even after all these years, still haven't managed to play any of the Half-Life games, now is your chance to change that. Steam's Weekend Deal is 66% off from everything Half-Life. The deal is valid for all the individual Half-Life games and all the Half-Life compilation packs, which there are a bunch of. For example, if you didn't play HL2 Episode 2 yet for whatever reason, now it can be yours for $5.09. Or, if you want everything Half-Life in one convenient pack, you could get the Half-Life Complete pack for $16.99. That's Half-Life, HL: Blue Shift, HL: Opposing Force, Team Fortress Classic, Half-Life 2, HL2: Episode 1, HL2: Episode 2 and HL2: Deathmatch for 17 bones. There is a lot of gaming to be done with that pack.

Additionally, the Valve Complete pack has its own little deal, with 10% off the top. Aside from the Half-Life games, that pack has such darlings as Portal and Team Fortress 2, along with bunch of other Valve games. So you have quite a few options to choose from, depending on what games you own already. Remember, this is a weekend deal only so don't think about it too long.

Posted in Gaming by Kilu on August 14th 2009 at 4:17pm 1 Comment

GRIN shuts its doors

It makes me sad to post this news, but GRIN, a Swedish game developer, is shutting its doors. In case you didn't know, GRIN made Bionic Commando: ReArmed and the new Bionic Commando, both of which are pretty awesome.

Though on the other hand they also made steaming pile of poop game like Terminator: Salvation. And Wanted: Weapons of Fate, which wasn't a pile of poop but kind of on the average side of things either way. Their official site has a short eulogy, here's an even shorter quote from it.

Quote: It is with a heavy heart we announce today that GRIN has been forced to close its doors. This as too many publishers have been delaying their payments, causing an unbearable cashflow situation.

That doesn't leave too much room for speculation on why they had to close down.

Regardless of the quality of their games, it's a damn shame that one more studio has to close down. Lots of stories like this over the past year or so with Midway of course making the biggest news. It's just too bad.

Posted in Gaming by Kilu on August 13th 2009 at 10:05am 1 Comment

E3 afterthoughts?

It's been silent here since E3, so here's a little filler for the time being.

Firstly, disappointments. I'm really sad for the lack of new Zelda game from Nintendo. Even though Miyamoto said in Q/A later that "The Team" have sat down and thought about how to bring Zelda back and really make it a new game instead of recycling the old stuff again, there is nothing concrete at the moment. I'm just happy if they bring the double hookshot from Twilight Princess back.

Also pretty sad that Ubisoft didn't show anything from Beyond Good & Evil 2 either. I mean, before the show they said that there wouldn't be any mention of it, but I was holding out hope for some huge secret thing. But nothing at all. It's even more sad that we haven't heard anything official in almost a year already, ever since that first teaser was shown at Ubidays. The apparent Jade gameplay video that leaked to the internets still hasn't been confirmed or denied by Ubi, so who knows what that is exactly.

The awesome things from E3. Just Cause 2. The developer gameplay thing that popped into the web around E3 makes the game look and play like pure awesomeness. And it looks over the top ridiculous and fun as hell, what else can you really hope for.

Splinter Cell Conviction, looks like it will be pretty awesome. There is something about how, well, pretty much everything works in the gameplay that makes me want to play that game right now.

Brutal Legend, this just looks so awesome in every way that I can't even begin to put it to words. So I won't even try. Just read up on it everywhere and look at the trailers.

Honorable mentions go to Mass Effect 2, Borderlands, Assassin's Creed 2 (Jesper Kyd is making the music again), Saboteur, Dragon Age: Origins, Alan Wake and Final Fantasy XIII. They all look interesting (especially Borderlands and Alan Wake) but at this point I just have to see more on them.

And that's the things that are on my mind after E3 2009. Back again 2010! Maybe we'll see some BGE2 then!

Posted in Gaming by Kilu on June 16th 2009 at 7:40am 0 Comments

EA and Ubisoft Press Conferences

Aside from the pretty awesome Microsoft's Press Conference yesterday, both Electronic Arts and Ubisoft had theirs as well. Nothing much to talk about in those however, most of what they showed, we have already seen in one form or another. In no particular order mind you, the thing was yesterday, how am I supposed to remember the order.

EA showed trailers for the BioWare triple Dragon Age: Origins, Mass Effect 2 and Star Wars: The Old Republic MMORPG. Triple impact! They still look like they will be awesome, not much new footage though. Mass Effect 2 showed a brief glimpse of some familiar faces from the first game that I don't think we saw in any of the earlier trailers.
The Saboteur is coming along nicely, and they showed a little gameplay along with the trailer we have already seen. Could be good I guess, hard to say at this point.
Crysis 2 trailer, maximum strength, maximum availability at PS3, Xbox 360 and PC.
Brutal Legend still looks awesome and will be the well deserved huge success for Tim Schafer. They showed more gameplay and another goof video from Jack Black. Also revealed that Ozzy Osbourne will do some voice work for the game. That's right, the Prince of Darkness himself.
Need for Speed Shift was also shown, but I really couldn't care less about that.
APB (All Points Bulletin), some kind of a new MMORPG thing with cops and robbers.
Oh yeah, and Peter Moore popped on the stage at some point with EA Sports stuff, Fight Night Round 4, some Mixed Martial Arts game, some Madden things, and some basketball things. I forget, clearly I'm not too interested in these things. Fight Night has still pretty impressive sweat. Sweat, yeah! They probably showed something else as well, but I forget what. Maybe it wasn't important.

Then at Ubisoft, well, Ubisoft conference was pretty lame.

The highlight and the end of the event was Assassin's Creed II trailer, and that's that.
Red Steel 2 was played on stage, seems to be working quite nicely with the Motion Plus.
Other things that Ubi had was some soccer game for kids called Academy of Champions, Pele was on stage to present it.
They also showed Splinter Cell: Conviction, but seeing it earlier on Microsoft's event kind of took the punch out of this one.
A Turtles brawl game, makes no sense to me mind you. Why would Turtles fight against April, for example. Just no.
James Cameron came on stage and talked for ages about his movie Avatar (not the anime), which Ubisoft is making the game for, and how they do it in sync and whatnot. Nothing was actually shown, just a lot of talk.
Showed a trailer of R.U.S.E, seems like it might be an interesting game for strategy people.
A new Rabbids game, collectathon by the looks of things. Lots of time wasted on "Tween Games", I can't believe that's what they are calling them. Stuff for girls yay.
And lastly they also showed a fitness game called Your Shape, which works with a camera. Their own camera, mind you, and it's coming for the Wii.

So not very interesting thing from either of the two. Today, in about 50 minutes, Nintendo will have their event, and Sony's event is about 2 hours and 50 minutes away. I expect that Nintendo will pull out some new peripheral and a game that goes with it for the mass market, printing more money as they go. But on the other hand, they can't ignore the normal gamer audience anymore, they absolutely have to show a Zelda game for the Wii. It's that time of the console's life that it needs it. Afterall, Twilight Princess wasn't a Wii game really, it was a Cube game that they also made for the Wii with some additional controls.

So, looking forward for a new Zelda at Nintendo today!

Posted in Gaming by Kilu on June 02nd 2009 at 10:17am 1 Comment

E3: Microsoft's Press Conference

So the Microsoft's press conference is over, and here's a brief summary of what they showed and what you can expect to hear and see more about in the next few days as the actual E3 starts and the floor opens. I'm just going to list these things, anything else would be crazy.

Beatles Rockband, Ringo and Paul on stage.
Tony Hawk Ride with the new skateboard controller.
Modern Warfare 2 played on stage, looks cold.
Final Fantasy XIII (13), in English and played on Xbox 360, aiming for Spring 2010. Shows a never before seen Odin summon.

At this point the presenter dude came back and boasted how the next bunch of games will be exclusive for 360. I think he actually means exclusive in console market, rather than entirely exclusive, because PC doesn't count.

Shadow Complex XBLA game played on stage, bugs out a the end turning a big boss creature invisible. Got to love live demos.
Joy Ride trailer, apparently free XBLA game that uses Avatars.
Crackdown 2 trailer.
Left 4 Dead 2 trailer, game lands in November, probably 2009. Also coming to PC.
Splinter Cell Conviction played on stage, looks nice enough. 3 red dots instead of traditional 3 green dots.
Forza Motorsport 3, nice cars, lots of car skinning available.
Halo 3: ODST played on stage. I still think Recon was better subtitle, but they probably wanted to properly separate it from...
Halo: Reach. A brief glimpse of that is shown. Falls 2010.
Alan Wake, also coming Spring 2010. Introduced by Sam Lake (Sami Järvi) and played by some other dude. Looks like light is also a weapon, kind of like this one very obscure game called Obscure.
Metal Gear Solid: Rising coming to 360, starring Raiden. No more info than that. Hideo Kojima on stage, looking happy as always. It wasn't specifically mentioned in this section, but might be 360 exclusive since all the games were supposed to be that after FF13. But who knows.

And that's the games. Other things they showed were some interesting (I guess) social networking options that are coming to Xbox Live, such as Twitter, last.fm and Facebook. So now you'll be able to tell all your Twitter and Facebook buddies when you unlock new achievements! WOO?!?! Uh yeah. Also, taking screenshots of games and posting them to Facebook. That's pretty neat actually, if I heard that right. Also, Some Netflix stuff I know nothing about. Zune Video, brings FullHD 1080p streams. A lot more countries added to video services.

And last but not least, the new controller. They call it Project Natal and the tagline is "You are the controller." That's right. They are trying this thing with some new camera and motion detection tech. Also has facial and voice recognition. It's interesting and looks impressive for sure, but I'm not quite sure I want to play my games like that though. Some dissing at the Wii's "waggle" controls. The trailer for this controller looks very family oriented, clearly taking on Nintendo here. Some interesting tech demonstrations on how the movement recognition works, doesn't look half bad for an unfinished project.

And that, as they say, is that.

Posted in Gaming by Kilu on June 01st 2009 at 3:15pm 2 Comments