Category: PS3

How Weapons Level Up in Final Fantasy XIII

Final Fantasy XIII

The excellent Anoop Gantayat at Andriasang has translated a recent Shonen Jump article detailing Final Fantasy XIII’s weapon system. Apparently weapons can be leveled up by using the random crap you find while adventuring.

FFXIII lets you make modifications to your weapons. You do this by combining materials that enemies leave behind and that you find in treasure boxes. You’ll find over 100 such materials in the game. Depending on your combinations, your weapons will rise in experience and become stronger.

Normally, I would think that this method of improving weapons through leftovers is silly and nonsensical, but compared to the completely ridiculous gestalt mode it sounds totally reasonable. Still…this is the 2010 release I want the most. I’m not going to lie about that.

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Nintendo’s Reggie Fils-Aime Calls Out Rivals’ Motion Controls

Nintendo of America president and COO Reggie Fils-Aime dismissed the motion controllers coming from rivals Microsoft and Sony at BMO Capital Markets’ Digital Entertainment conference in New York. According to Gamasutra, the Reginator said:

All of this talk around new motion controllers does make me think about the people who initially said that the Wii Remote was just a fad. I wonder what happened to those people?

Yes, it could be that our current 100 percent marketshare in motion control could lose a couple of points, but…with a head-start of over 51 million controllers, I still like our chances.

Reggie Fils-Aime 2

I still find it amusing that people consider the Wii a fad. Merriam Webster defines a fad as “a practice or interest followed for a time with exaggerated zeal”. Whether you love it or hate it, there’s no denying that Nintendo has been outselling the competition for years. The Wii has consistently outsold the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. People are still buying more of these consoles today than any of the others. Explain to Reggie and me (mostly to me, because Reggie will zap you with his eye beams) how this is a fad.

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Are You Ready for Final Fantasy Friday the 13th?!?

FFXIII Lightning 2

Square Enix has some big plans for Final Fantasy XIII tomorrow. Its silly anagram teaser revealed that there will be a (hopefully) big announcement on Friday. Adding to the mix, Sony’s PlayStation Home will be showing a brand new FFXIII trailer in virtual theaters tomorrow. In a world full of mysterious teasers and ridiculous countdown clocks — mostly from Japanese publishers — I expect Square Enix to deliver something substantive tomorrow. Or maybe that’s wishful thinking….

What are you expecting from Final Fantasy Friday the 13th? North American release date info? Exclusive NA features revealed? An amazing act of kindness in which the company sends me one of those awesome white and pink limited edition FFXIII PS3s?!? Leave a comment and let me know (please)!

Oddworld’s Lorne Lanning on Reaching a New Audience on PSN

A few weeks ago, I wrote about Oddworld: Abe’s Oddysee and Oddworld: Abe’s Exoddus hitting Sony’s PlayStation Network. These are two fantastic games from one of the most creative and imaginative developers in the business: Oddworld Inhabitants. I recently asked company co-founder Lorne Lanning what it was like reaching a whole new generation of gamers through PSN. He told me:

It’s a joy to see the fan mail from new players that have just discovered these games. A bit time machine’ish I should say. The feedback is fresh, it’s new to them, so there’s something that feels very much like it did when the games first came out. A lot of people got passionate about Abe. Now we’re seeing it again, and it’s the same vibe and reaction of newness, but a different generation. A bit Déjà to the last millenium.

When I see them write, “I remember my father used to play, but I was too young” it’s a serious testament to just how quickly time flies and how quickly the times change. We’re thrilled that the Abe games are finding a new audience, especially considering that we didn’t even foresee the future of digital distribution back when we originally built these games. I mean, most people still didn’t know what www.com meant back in ’94 when we started building Abe. Strange how different a world it already is today.

Oddworld Abe 2

Strange? How about odd?!? Bwahahahahaha!!! Seriously though, this is just a snippet from my conversation with Lorne. He went over a wide variety of topics with me and his answers were most interesting (some of them even juicy!). Stay tuned for my full interview with Oddworld Inhabitants’ Lorne Lanning!

For now, I wanted to see if any of you have downloaded these Abe re-releases or if you’re planning to. Anyone digging the Oddworld universe more than a decade after it was revealed? Are you excited by the possibilities of more Oddworld games in the future?

BioWare’s Mike Laidlaw Talks Combat in Dragon Age: Origins

BioWare lead designer Mike Laidlaw discusses combat design in Dragon Age: Origins in this video clip. He talks about how the team attempted to modernize the feel of Baldur’s Gate II and create “sword porn” for the game. All sorts of details on combat mechanics (accompanied by slick video) are shared by Laidlaw. Executive producer Mark Darrah, lead writer David Gaider, art director Dean Andersen, and lead character designer Shane Hawco bring their perspective to the mix too.

While I’m absolutely loving the game, I don’t really get the BG2 feel — more of a progression of Knights of the Old Republic and Mass Effect really — but perhaps you disagree. Maybe it’ll be more like BG2 when I play it on PC. Anyway, check out this cool video that talks about the combat in this outstanding game.

On a side note, let me know if you find it funny every time Laidlaw says about in his Canadian accent. “A-boot” always cracks me up.

Facebook Coming to PlayStation 3?

Facebook PS3It looks like Facebook integration will be part of a future PS3 firmware update. ScrawFX has uncovered some screens and reported:

The leaked images show the ability to manage your Facebook in your PlayStation Network account settings, changing the color of your PlayStation Network gamercard and a new, more sufficient way of looking through your photos.

As we discussed in Coffee Talk #21, social-networking features are becoming a big part of the console experience. It was only a matter of time until Sony bolstered the social-networking functionality of the PS3.

Any of you guys and gals excited for this feature?

Source via Joystiq

How to Beat Every Monster in God of War in Less Than 10 Minutes

Lead QA tester Stephen Peterson shows off his mad God of War skills and shares tips on how to get one of the most difficult trophies in God of War: Collection: the “15 Min Fight Scenes” trophy. It’s a pretty rad video that’s sure to leave you impressed.

Any of you picking up God of War: Collection?

Final Fantasy Web Site Reveals Mysterious Anagram

Final Fantasy XIII a

Confession: I was totally consumed with Dragon Age: Origins when I received an email from Square Enix’s PR agency on Friday. Apparently the official FFXIII site has a mysterious anagram that will reveal new information on the game. It reads:

“A Henchmen Inventor Tent Unto”

The answer will be revealed later today. Until then, any guesses as to what it might be? I suck at these word puzzles so I’m counting on you to solve it!

Details on Final Fantasy XIII’s Chocobos

If you’re a Final Fantasy fan, chances are that you love chocobos. These incredibly large avian creatures (that are undoubtedly Big Bird’s ancestors) are an important part of the FF universe. They’ve been used differently in the various FF titles and Shonen Jump has revealed how they’ll be used in Final Fantasy XIII. Andriasang did some translating and learned:

FFXIII Sazh

The FFXIII Chocobos have some helpful abilities. In addition to providing high speed movement through the fields of Pulse, they can jump high, taking you to places you might otherwise be unable to reach. They also have the ability to seek out treasure. When they sense the presence of treasure, you’ll see an exclamation point above their head. The magazine says that this means “it’s your chance” — presumably to dig for treasure, although I don’t think Square Enix has shared details on any sort of treasure digging system.

Your Chocobo has a life gauge, indicated by what looks like a set of feathers on the lower left of the screen. Strike an enemy, and you lose a bit of this life. When the life gauge reaches zero, the Chocobo flees.

The treasure hunting could be a fun little side game. In Dragon Age: Origins, I use my mobari to search for treasure. I imagine FFXIII will use chocobos similarly, though hopefully in a more active fashion. I do hope there’s a way to use black chocobos in XIII. That would totally rule.

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This Week’s Videogame Releases

The sheer number of game releases is dying down, but there are a couple of major titles left before the end of the year. This week’s biggie is Activision’s Modern Warfare 2. Some are predicting that this will be the year’s biggest game. I’m curious to see how “big” it will be, but I’m content to wait until it’s marked down before picking it up. Here are this week’s PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii, PlayStation Portable, and Nintendo DS releases…along with some brief commentary. I’ve taken out most of the garbage and kids games (unless I found them funny). As always, let me know if you’re planning to buy any of this week’s new releases.

Modern Warfare 2

Xbox 360
 Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 — I’m still not sure why this game is as big as it is, but cheers to everyone that’s looking forward to it.
Chaotic: Shadow Warriros
Dragon Ball: Raging Blast — Dragon Ball games should have a screaming mode, where you scream for 20 minutes before unleashing an attack. It would be like 1/3 of the DBZ episodes.
Final Fantasy XI Ultimate Collection
Hasbro Family Game Night — Mr. Potato Head is a mofo.

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