Front Mission Evolved is a third-person action video game and the latest instalment to the Front Mission series of games. It is developed by Double Helix Games and published by Square Enix for the PlayStation 3 game console platform. The game claims to be set in the year 2171 which is 50 years after the events of Front Mission 5: Scars of the War. In Front Mission Evolved, the human race has started a massive push for space exploration through orbital elevators. Read the rest of this entry »

FIFA 10 World Class Soccer  (also known as FIFA Soccer 10 in North America) is the latest instalment to Electronic Arts’ FIFA series of football video games. It is developed by EA Canada, published by EA sports, and designed by David Rutter for the PlayStation 3 game console platform. The game was released on September 30 2009 to Australia, 2 October 2009 to Europe and is scheduled for released to the rest of the world on 20 October 2009 under the sports genre with an ESRB rating of E for Everyone. Read the rest of this entry »

Assassin’s Creed II is an upcoming third person action-adventure video game that was first officially confirmed on November 26 2008 during Ubisoft’s financial performance report. The game is the sequel to Assassin’s Creed and is scheduled for release in North America on November 17 2009 and in PAL regions on November 20, 2009. It is developed by Ubisoft Montreal and published by Ubisoft. Assassin’s Creed II is designed by Patrice Desilets, Sebastien Puel and Jade Raymond, written by Corey May and composed by Jesper Kyd. It is the second instalment to the Assassin’s Creed series built on an Anvil engine for the PlayStation 3 under the genre of third-person action-adventure with an ESRB rating of M for mature. Assassin’s Creed II is set in an open world with non linear gameplay to allow the player the freedom to roam the city and buy weapons which the character buys from vendors at will. Not only that, Read the rest of this entry »

Brutal Legend is a third person action/ adventure game that claims to have been in development since 2005. It was developed by Double Fine Productions and published by Electronic Arts. The game was built on a custom in-house engine with a native resolution of 720 p for the PlayStation 3. It was released on October 13 2009 to North America and on October 16 2009 to Europe under the genre of Action-adventure and Real-time strategy with an ESRB rating of M for mature. Brutal Legend was first promoted as “Rocktober” in official literature about the game from Electronic Arts when it was first released. Read the rest of this entry »

Dragon Ball Raging Blast is the fourth instalment in the Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi series which was originally published as Dragon Ball Z: Sparking! It is developed by Spike and published by Atari, Bandai and Namco Bandai Games under the genre of fighting game. The game was first officially announced in the May 2009 issue of V Jump magazine, containing several screenshots showing that the game included gameplay elements from the previous Sparking games, polished Sparking character models, and revealed the official title. It was first mentioned in the Namco Bandai 2009 fiscal report, and is scheduled for release in the second quarter of the 2009-2010 fiscal year. Read the rest of this entry »

Heavy Rain was officially announced at E3 2006 and is scheduled to be released in early 2010 under the genre of interactive drama. It is developed by Quantic Dream and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation 3 game console. The game runs on a PhysX (game physics) engine and is directed by Quantic Dream’s founder and CEO David Cage who wrote and directed the studio’s two previous games as well. According to the director, Heavy Rain will be “a very dark film noir thriller with mature themes”, without any supernatural elements, and that the “real message (of the game) is about how far you’re willing to go to save someone you love. In terms of the setting, the director has confirmed that there will be no big free-roaming city like GTA, as the flow of the story will then be hard to control, however there will be big sets, with a crowd, heavy populated areas like a mall and a subway, with the gameplay making use of those aspects too. There are four playable characters in the game, comprising of an FBI profiler named Norman Jayden, a private detective named Scott Shelby, an architect named Ethan Mars, and a journalist named Madison Paige, all of which are said to be looking for a serial killer known as “The Origami Killer”. Unlike other games, Heavy Rain will use a unique control scheme that includes a trigger button on the PlayStation 3 controller that will move the character forward, as well as take advantage of the button’s analogue function, allowing players to control the speed of the character’s movement by pressing harder or softer on the button. By having the left analogue stick control the movement of the character’s head and the direction he move in relation to where he is looking, the character’s movement will be free from the perspective of the camera, with the rest of the game played using a series of context sensitive actions and quick time events.

Read the rest of this entry »

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. Read the rest of this entry »

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. Read the rest of this entry »

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.
Read the rest of this entry »

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. Read the rest of this entry »