Big Surprise: Final Fantasy XIII is a PS3 System Seller

Square Enix should give itself a pat on the back for selling more than 1.5-million copies of Final Fantasy XIII in less than a week. Sony should be kissing the company’s ass for the game being responsible for “the highest one week total ever for the system” (in Japan) according to Andriasang. Citing numbers from Famitsu, the site claims that 245,406 were sold between 12/14 and 12/20.

While some American journalists are whining about FFXIII’s gameplay (hi Kohler!), there’s no doubt that this will be a monster hit worldwide. The game has already conquered Japan. The rest of the world is next in March 2010.

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Japanese Man Marries Nintendo DS Character

A Japanese gamer has married a character from Love Plus, a Nintendo DS title from Konami’s Tokimeki Memorial series. Reuters has reported:

The man, who prefers to use his online moniker SAL9000, met character Nene Anegasaki while playing dating simulation game Love Plus.

They got married a few weeks ago, broadcasting their ceremony live on Japan’s version of video-sharing website Youtube.

The image of gamers has progressed greatly in the last decade. Unfortunately, some idiot marrying a Nintendo DS character will have the world thinking that we’re all losers that live in our parents’ basement. Thanks a lot SAL9000. Moron.

Thanks to N8R for sending this in!

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Blizzard Will Definitely Make Console Games Again

Blizzard is undeniably one of the best and most successful developers of PC games, with huge franchises like World or Warcraft and StarCraft. Gamers that play exclusively on consoles are missing out on Blizzard’s magic…but that will change one day. In an interview with Gamasutra, two company directors explained why Blizzard focuses on PC games and promised that it will eventually return to console gaming. Senior director Samwise Didier said:

We’re working on PC because it’s familiar to us and it’s relatively easy and it’s not changing formats every other year and there aren’t three different versions. Console, we have to worry about [those things].

The promise to return to consoles was made by production director J. Allen Brack, who said:

Continue reading “Blizzard Will Definitely Make Console Games Again”

Sony Details Heavy Rain Chronicles Pre-Order Bonus

Heavy Rain Chronicles

Sony Computer Entertainment of America product marketing manager Jefferson Dong (who I want to call The Donger, but probably shouldn’t) has detailed the pre-order bonus for Heavy Rain. Instead of some stupid accessory or dumb goggles, gamers that pre-order Heavy Rain will get more gameplay in the form of Heavy Rain: Chronicle One — The Taxidermist. The Donger Dong dropped the 411:

What exactly are The Heavy Rain Chronicles? Each Chronicle will offer unique, stand-alone, playable short stories featuring one of Heavy Rain’s main characters, and a storyline taking place either before or after Heavy Rain’s original narrative. Similar to Heavy Rain, each episode will offer a unique journey and different outcomes based on the players’ decisions and actions.

To me, additional content is way more of an incentive to pre-order than some stupid statue that will just collect dust in my living room. Heavy Rain is already #2 on my most wanted games of 2010 list and I’m totally down with The Heavy Rain Chronicles. Anything that adds to the characters, world, and story of what should be an outstanding game is awesome. In fact, I might go downstairs to GameStop and pre-order it now!

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What Are You Playing This Weekend?

Elin NordegrenI’ll be flying to New York for the holidays on Thursday, so this will be my last weekend with my home consoles in 2009. I recently completed my fifth run in Dragon Age: Origins (city elf rogue named Keebler, *snicker*) and I’m contemplating giving it another go. Still, I feel like I should play something else. Downloading Final Fantasy VIII is awfully tempting, but I think I’ll save that for my PSP in New York. What other games of mine need more attention?

Batman: Arkham Asylum and Uncharted 2 are two titles that I started, played for a few hours, acknowledged as great, and never picked up again. I know I’ll get back to both eventually, but this weekend seems as good a time as any. I’ve been meaning to play more Magna Carta, which is an under-the-radar game RPG fans should look at. I’m also tempted to dust off Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 to honor the world’s most famous adulterer. Too bad there isn’t a DLC minigame that requires you to drive around while hopped up on pain killers trying to avoid your hot Swedish wife.

Coffee Talk #50: Favorite Games of 2009 #1 Dragon Age: Origins

Welcome to Coffee Talk! Let’s start off the day by discussing whatever is on your (nerd chic) mind. Every morning I’ll kick off a discussion and I’m counting on you to participate in it. If you’re not feelin’ my topic, feel free to start a chat with your fellow readers and see where it takes you. Whether you’re talking about videogames, the miracle of Manning, whether Operation Chokehold will do some damage to AT&T today, or destroying all Snuggies, Coffee Talk is the place to do it.

As I mentioned last week, I’ll be counting down my five favorite games of 2009 in this week’s Coffee Talk columns and I’d love for you to join me! Let me know what your favorite games of the year were in the comments section. Remember, this isn’t about what games you thought were “best”. I want to know what you had the most fun with in 2009.

Dragon Age Origins 3

What did you think I was going to pick? Halo 3: ODST?!? Ha! For those of you that have have been reading my articles for a while, there should have been no doubt that I was going to pick Dragon Age: Origins. I adore BioWare. RPGs are my favorite genre. Fantasy is my favorite setting. I played the hell out of both Baldur’s Gate games. Of course I was going to go nuts for this game! (And if you’re new to the site, just nod and smile. This all makes sense.)

While the graphics in Dragon Age: Origins aren’t the best, pretty much every other aspect of the game is perfect for me. I love the versatile gameplay — tanking as a warrior, backstabbing as a rogue, and dishing out spells as a mage were all fun experiences that are quite different from one another. The story and writing are brilliant, especially after playing the game multiple times (five completions so far) and noticing how expertly different characters were woven into the game’s tapestry. The music is top notch. With different dialogue branches, multiple outcomes, various companion characters, and variations in gameplay, I wouldn’t be surprised if my play-throughs hit double digits.

Although I’ve logged more hours into Civilization: Revolution for iPhone, I had the most fun — by far — with Dragon Age: Origins in 2009. I swear BioWare made the game just for me.

Borderlands Sells Over Two-Million Copies Worldwide

Borderlands

Take-Two Interactive announced that Borderlands, developed by the excellent Gearbox Software, has sold over two-million copies worldwide. Normally, I don’t like writing about sales announcements, but this one has me particularly giddy. First of all (and most importantly), I’m thrilled for Gearbox. It’s a cool company and I’m so happy for its success.

Secondly (and immaturely), I love when Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter is wrong. On Gametrailer’s Bonus Round, Pachter said the game was “sent to die”, implying that there was no way it would sell well. Take that Mikey! Yes, I totally admit that I didn’t think the game would do well either, but I’m not a highly paid financial analyst. Plus, I’m totally happy that I was wrong.

To sum it all up, Gearbox had tremendous success with Borderlands and Michael Pachter was completely wrong. Win!!!

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