Archive for October, 2009

Final Fantasy XIII is a futuristic role-playing game set in a high-tech world that was officially announced at the 2006 E3 convention. It is the flagship title of the Fabula Nova Crystallis Final Fantasy XIII collection. Although the game takes place in the same universe, it is not a prequel or sequel to any of the other instalments and is not even directly related in terms of the story. Final Fantasy XIII is developed and published by Square Enix for the PlayStation 3, and built on Crystal Tools a seventh generation multiplatform game engine built by Square Enix for its future games. It was written by Motomu Toriyama and written alongside Toshiro Tsuchida and Yoshinori Kitase. The game is scheduled for release on December 17 2009 to Japan, April 2010 to North America and March 10 2010 to the rest of the world under the genre or RPG with a CERO rating of B. Final Fantasy XIII features a battle system of which its concept is to maintain the strategic nature of command-based battles, stemmed from a desire to create battles similar to those found in Final Fantasy VII Advent Children. (more…)

Lost Planet 2 is a science fiction third-person shooter video game that is the sequel to Lost Planet: Extreme Condition. Lost Planet 2 was developed and published by Capcom, and developed by Jun Takeuchi and Kenji Oguro on the MT Framework 2.0 engine for the PlayStation 3 game console. Lost Planet 2 is the second instalment to the Lost Planet series that falls under the genre of third-person shooter with a hint of RPG elements. Its scheduled released date is in December 2009 to North America and January 2010 in Japan. The story takes place ten years after the events of the first game, on the same fictional planet. It takes place back on E.D.N III 10 years after the events of the first game. This time around, the snow has melted to reveal jungles and more tropical areas that have taken the place of more frozen areas. The center of the game would be on the fictional corporation, also known as NEVEC and their on going war to gain T-eng. It is expected that many gameplay features from the original Lost Planet will return including major boss battles, extreme terrain, and the ability to pilot mechanized armour suits known as Vital Suits (VSs). Players will be able to ride on the sides of some VSs which can be controlled by one player, while two other hang on by the sides and shoot. Not only that, there will also be flying VSs which feature unlimited flying time as revealed by producer Jun Takeuchi at his Q&A session at Comic-Con 2009. (more…)

Skate 2 is a skateboarding video game that falls under the genre of sports game with an ESRB rating of T for Teens. It was officially announced in May 2008 as a sequel to the original Skate, although the company had decided to begin work on it earlier due to the fact that the original game posted bigger numbers compared to rival Tony Hawk’s Proving Ground. Skate 2 was developed by EA Black Box, published by Electronic Arts and designed by Scott Blackwood for the PlayStation 3 game console. It was released to North America on January 21, 2009 and to the rest of the world on January 23 2009. In contrast to the original, Skate 2 features more tricks including foot-plants, hand-plants, fingerflips, lip tricks, hippy jumps which involves players jumping off the board while it rolls along the ground and then landing on it, as well as the ability to skitch which involves pulling the bumper of a moving car while on a skateboard to gain speed. Not only that, it also features the choice of creating either a male or female character as compared to the original game which only had a male option. There are also other activities in the game, including the ability for players to get off their board and walk during which players can move and interact with certain objects in the world to create their own spots which will then be upload-able online via PlayStation Network. In addition to that, players can also download spots from other players and beat the high score to “own” them. Not only that, players will also be allowed to customize their skateboard and their clothing via the new graphics theatre. Alternatively, players can also purchase property and skate parks in the game.
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BioShock 2 is the sequel to the first-person shooter video game, BioShock. It was announced on March 11 2008 and is scheduled to be released on February 9 2010. The game is developed by 2K Marin, Digital Extremes for the multiplayer mode and Arkane Sutiod for art design assistance. It is published by 2K Games for the PlayStation 3 game console and runs on an Unreal Engine 2.5 (modified) engine. BioShock 2 falls under the genre of shooter and survival horror, in which players take the role of the first Big Daddy, a prototype for the Big Daddies seen in the prequel. Compared to the other Big Daddies, the main character possesses superior speed and intelligence as well as free will. Weapons that are available to players include Big Daddy’s drill and rive gun, although the drill tends to get overheated if used continuously. (more…)

Call Of Duty Modern Warfare 2 is a first-person shooter video game that was officially announced on February 11 2009. It is the sixth installment to the Call of Duty series and the direct sequel to Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. The game is developed by Infinity Ward, and published by Activision and Square Enix in Japan. It runs on an IW 4.0 engine with a native resolution of 600 pixels on the PlayStation 3 platform. Call Of Duty Modern Warfare 2 is scheduled to be released worldwide on November 10, 2009, in conjunction with Call Of Duty Modern Warfare: Mobilized for the Nintendo DS and Call Of Duty Modern Warfare, port for Call of Duty 4 adapted by Treyarch for the Wii console. The game falls under the genre of first-person shooter games with an ESRB rating of M for mature. In the single-player campaign, players take on the role of Sergeant Gary “Roach” Sanderson who is a young member of an elite, multinational commando unit known as Task Force 141. Sergeant “Soap” MacTavish who is the player character in Call of Duty 4 also makes a return, although as a non-playable character who is promoted to captain in the Special Air Service. He now heads the Task Force and thus becomes Sanderson’s superior officer. There is also a mysterious third member of the Task Force, whose character is only known as Ghost and conceals his face with a skull-imprinted balaclava. The game is set several years after the conclusion of Call of Duty 4, with the prominent return of the radical Russian Ultranationalist organization under the leadership of Vladimir Makarov who is a former associate of Imran Zakhaev, though with his own ambitions. An early campaign mission called “Cliffhanger” sees the player character Sergeant Sanderson and Captain MacTavish infiltrating a Russian base in Tian Shan mountain range in Kazakhstan and escaping on snowmobiles.

Reviews
The multi-player mode of Call Of Duty Modern Warfare 2 is said to have the same gameplay as the previous Modern Warfare, making it feel like a true Modern Warfare experience, with game sizes set at nine on nine with the levels mixed between indoors, outdoors and varied heights. In contrast to the prequel, the UAV mid-battle and mid-sprint seems to be more dependant on the gun to determine speed, with the game strongly reliant on perks and create-a-class options. In addition to that, the actual weapon load outs are also a bit different with a primary and secondary gun available in every create-a-class. In addition to pistols, players can now also add a shotgun, a machine pistol or a regular pistol in its place, as well as rocket launchers. Not only that, there are also major changes in the killstreak system, allowing players to customize their kills at the 3,4,5,6,7,9 and 11 increments, with only 3 and 4 available at the beginning Private class, providing some serious incentive to keep leveling up. These include everything from supply drops to predator missiles, helicopters, UAV, AC-130, anti-UAV, and air strike. In terms of design, items are very much more varied in this game as compared to Call of Duty 4 with more height, more cover areas and elevation change from section to section that are possibly drastic. Not only that, Call Of Duty Modern Warfare 2 also features a lot of customization with pure depth and options, including killstreaks that include a huge amount of versatility, far more expandable guns, and even crazier perks as compared to the first game. In terms of the weapons, the huge range of weaponry includes the M4, FAMAS, SCAR-H (which is a mix of AK-47 and M4), Tar-21, the MP5K, UMP45, a submachine gun called the Vector (similar to the original MP5, but with faster firing speed), light machine guns and sidearms.

“Modern Warfare 2 is a direct sequel to Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare and is clearly looking to step it up in terms of dramatic campaign levels. Those hungry for more Modern Warfare 2 should be sure to check out GameSpot’s stage show live from E3, where we’ll be sitting down again with Infinity Ward and delving even deeper into this exciting shooter.” (GameSpot, 2009)

God of War III was announced at E3 2008 and is scheduled to be released in March 2010. It is a forthcoming installment in the God of War series which falls under the genre of hack and slash, and action-adventure games with an ESRB rating of M 17+. God of War III is developed by SCE Studios Santa Monica and published by Sony Computer Entertainment under the God of War series with a native resolution of 1080 pixels for its PlayStation 3 game console platform. (more…)

Bayonetta is an action game for the PlayStation3 game console of which its demo was announced on 31 August 2009. It was directed by Okami and Hideki Kamiya, the creator of the Devil May Cry series, and was developed by Platinum Games in collaboration with Sega who is also the publisher of the title. The game is expected to be released in Japan on October 29, 2009, in North America in January 2010, and in the first quarter of 2010 to Europe under the Action genre and bears an ESRB rating of M for mature. It is set in a fictional city in Europe and centers on the title character Bayonetta who can wield four handguns as well as perform other magical attacks to defeat her enemies. (more…)

Gran Turismo 5 (commonly abbreviated as GT5) is the fifth edition of the Gran Turismo racing video game series, and is scheduled for release in March 2010. The game is currently under development by Polyphony Digital and is to be published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation 3. Its expected date of release is 31 March 2010 and will be released on the Blu-ray disc media. The game is designed by Kazunori Yamauchi and supports 1080i, 1080p, 16:9 aspect ratio, 480p and Dolby Digital sound. The game expands on the Prologue version (a new in-cockpit view provides a unique perspective for racers and features a customized dashboard for each of the cars in Gran Turismo 5 Prologue) and is the first of the main numbered series to feature on the PlayStation 3. The game features an online mode with support for up to 16 drivers racing simultaneously. (more…)

Rage is a PlayStation 3 game which will be id Software’s next release and is in full production and set for release in late 2009 or early 2010. It is built on the company’s new id Tech 5 engine. The game was announced on August 2, 2007 at QuakeCon. A trailer for the game was released by Gametrailers.com on the same day. The game takes place in a post-apocalyptic world similar to that of films such as Mad Max 2 and is set in the near future following the (fictional) impact of 99942 Apophis. Rumour has it that the game is an open world game, though not quite so completely as while there are ways to interact with the environment off the track, (more…)

Resident Evil 5, known in Japan as Biohazard 5 is a survival horror video game developed and published by Capcom (more…)