Category: Videogames

FFIV: Complete Collection Brings Wii Games to PSP

Final Fantasy IV is one of my favorites in the series, so I’m incredibly psyched for FFIV: Complete Collection for PlayStation Portable. In addition to the main game, this compilation adds The After Years games that hit the Nintendo Wii. According to V Jump (via Andriasang):

This PSP title combines Final Fantasy IV with Final Fantasy IV The After Years. The latter is an episodic sequel to FFIV that was released on Wii Ware last year after originally appearing on cell phones. For the PSP, Square Enix is redoing the visuals and adding a new scenario that connects FFIV and The After Years.

Yay! This is my first early Christmas present of 2010. Anyone else psyched for Final Fantasy IV: Complete Collection?

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The 3rd Birthday Weapons and Upgrade System Detailed

In my continuing mission to get you to care about Square Enix’s The 3rd Birthday for PSP, here are some details on the game’s upgrade system. Andriasang did a fantastic job at translating the info from the official Japanese site, which added info on weapons, upgrades, and more. Here’s a snippet:

Aya herself can be customized by entering the OE Setup area of the customization menu. This gives you access to Aya’s DNA Board, where you can set OE Chips that you’ve acquired during your mission. Depending on how you place the OE Chips on the board, Aya will gain access to different skills, known as Over Energies. OE Chips can be set in such a way that you end up fusing them together, resulting in Over Energies with higher level or new Over Energies all together.

The weapons system seems fairly standard, but I’m really intrigued by the OE system. It potentially gives the game more depth than others in the survival-horror genre. Visually, the game is looking amazing and I have high hopes for it. Let me know what you think so far. And also, enjoy these excellent wallpapers!

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Mortal Kombat Special Edition Details + Kratos!

Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment has revealed information on the special editions and retail exclusives for the upcoming Mortal Kombat, as well as details on Kratos (God of War) appearance in the game. Here’s the skinny on the Kollector’s and Tournament editions:

  • The Kollector’s Edition featuring the award-winning Mortal Kombat game, Sub-Zero and Scorpion figurines, a collectible art book, downloadable content that includes an exclusive Mortal Kombat Klassic costume skin and avatar costumes.
  • The Tournament Edition featuring the award-winning Mortal Kombat game, a portable fight stick, and downloadable content that includes an exclusive Mortal Kombat Klassic costume skin and avatar costumes. The number of tournament editions is very limited with only 20,000 copies available in North America.

And because I know how much you guys love retail exclusives, here’s what you can snag at GameStop, Best Buy and Amazon:

  • Gamestop: Customers who pre-order their copy of Mortal Kombat at Gamestop will get exclusive access to the Klassic Scorpion Playable Character Skin and the original Scorpion Fatality.
  • Best Buy: Customers who pre-order their copy of Mortal Kombat at Best Buy will get exclusive access to the Klassic Sub-Zero Playable Character Skin and the original Sub-Zero Fatality.
  • Amazon: Customers who pre-order their copy of Mortal Kombat on Amazon.com will get exclusive access to the Klassic Reptile Playable Character Skin and the original Reptile Fatality.

Last, but definitely not least, is a bit of information on Kratos appearing exclusively in the Playstation 3 version of Mortal Kombat:

Mortal Kombat will feature Kratos as a playable character, as well as be in Stereoscopic 3-D exclusively in the PS3 version. The brutal warrior from the acclaimed God of War franchise will have his own customized move set, fatality, and fighting arena, available to all original purchasers when Mortal Kombat hits stores.

All of this sounds very awesome. I’m definitely high on the PS3 version and I’d probably buy it from Best Buy for classic Sub-Zero. How about you? What permutation of Mortal Kombat interests you the most? Name your preferred platform and retail exclusive (please)!

Coffee Talk #264: Game Developers vs. Game Journalists

I have the utmost respect for game developers. I’m amazed by how hard many of them work and how much they put into their games. With that in mind, I hate when developers…

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 beauty of Buddha Bar, the Red Sox owning the MLB winter meetings, or why Winona Ryder isn’t bigger, Coffee Talk is the place to do it.

I have the utmost respect for game developers. I’m amazed by how hard many of them work and how much they put into their games. With that in mind, I hate when developers accuse reviewers of “not getting it”? I understand that developers get attached to their products and it’s sometimes hard for them to take criticism, but it’s ridiculous when they think it’s some sort of disrespectful conspiracy.

Silicon Knights’ Dennis Dyack immediately comes to mind when thinking about this whole deal. More than any other developer, he has been extremely critical of game reviewers. (In some cases he’s absolutely right. In others, he sounds a little crazy.) When Too Human was met with mediocre to poor reviews, Dyack accused journalists of not getting it.

More recently, Warren Spector felt that game reviewers didn’t understand the camera in Epic Mickey. He told MTV:

This is a game that takes platforming elements and adventure game elements and role-playing elements and merges them. So we couldn’t tune the camera perfectly for platforming or for action adventure. It’s a very different camera style. What we did is try to find the best compromise in the moment and give the player as much manual control as we could. So we took the hardest problem in third-person gaming and made it harder by trying to accommodate two different playing styles.

And I will go to my grave, imperfect as it is, proud as hell of my camera team. If reviewers want to give us a hard time about it because they’re misunderstanding the game we made, it’s not for me to tell them that they’re wrong, absolutely not.

The thing is, I don’t think reviewers should give a damn that the camera tried to accommodate a variety of genres. They should give a damn that the camera takes away from the game’s fun and should convey that to their readers. At the end of the day, reviewers are gamers. They are responsible for telling their fellow gamers whether a game is enjoyable enough to purchase.

Anyway, I’d love to hear your thoughts on the issue. Should reviewers care about the developers’ technical goals when judging a game? Do developers have a point when they say that reviewers don’t get it? Lastly, can you please take away my nasty hangover?

Get Psyched for thatgamecompany’s Journey

Here are some screenshots and a video of thatgamecompany’s upcoming PlayStation 3 title, Journey. As some of you will recall, I was incredibly bummed that I didn’t get the opportunity to see it at E3 2010. Like Flower, the game looks incredibly stylish and elicits emotion in a unique way. While Flower left gamers with a sense of joy, Journey has a desolate feel. Also, between this game and Uncharted 3, my PlayStation 3 will become a virtual sandbox in 2011 ( the year of sand?).

Anyway, check out the goodies and let me know what you think (please)! I’m so, So, SO psyched for this game and hope that some of you are too.

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What Are You Playing This Weekend?

I started the weekend off playing lots of Liar’s Dice. That is to say that I played too many games for far too long because the competition sucked (the loser buys drinks where I play…and one guy lost at least five rounds). To help me recover from last night’s bourbon, I’ll play a bunch of Golden Sun: Dark Dawn. Besides, that’s the only game I brought with me this trip. Ha!

How about you? What’s on you weekend playlist?

Will Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception Make You Buy a 3DTV?

You go on an airplane to San Francisco and Sony unveils a teaser video for Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception. Hmph. This will surely be one of the biggest games for the PlayStation 3, but I think it might be a game changer. I’ll get to that later. First, here are some details from Naughty Dog community strategist Arne Meyer:

Drake’s Deception features the return of famed fortune hunter Nathan Drake and follows him through a gripping, action-packed storyline that will take you all over the world. In his search for the fabled “Atlantis of the Sands,” Nathan Drake and longtime friend and mentor Victor Sullivan set off on a daring trek into the heart of the Arabian Desert. But when terrible secrets of this lost city are uncovered, their journey becomes a desperate bid for survival that will force Drake to confront his deepest fears.

Throughout Uncharted 3, you’ll be taken to spectacular new locations around the globe that will showcase all of the work we’ve taken on to take acclaimed physics, particle and visual effects to a new level.

What’s interesting is the initial reaction from many videogame journalists I know. A few of them have said that this is the game that might make them buy a 3D television. What do you think? Will Uncharted 3 help Sony push its 3D TV agenda? Or will it “just” be another awesome game from Naughty Dog?

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Coffee Talk #263: Are Single Player Only Games Doomed?

In a recent interview with Develop EA Games president Frank Gibeau said, “Fire-and-forget, packaged goods only, single-player, 25-hours-and you’re out. I think that model is finished. Online is where the innovation, and the action, is at.”

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, Carl Crawford on the Red Sox, congressional democrats turning on President Obama, or where the hell Eliza Dushku is, Coffee Talk is the place to do it.

In a recent interview with Develop, EA Games president Frank Gibeau said, “Fire-and-forget, packaged goods only, single-player, 25-hours-and you’re out. I think that model is finished. Online is where the innovation, and the action, is at.” It certainly seems like most games have multiplayer or cooperative features — even games that don’t necessarily need them — but are pure single-player games doomed as Gibeau suggests?

While I don’t see pure single-player games being “finished”, I can see them becoming the minority. That would be kind of weird for me; I grew up playing loads of single-player games and my favorite genre, RPGs, is (mostly) a solitary experience. That said, there are a lot of younger gamers that grew up playing mostly multiplayer games. Perhaps the notion of a pure single-player game is dated.

What are you thoughts on the matter? Are single-player games finished? Will everything have a multiplayer or cooperative facet? Or will there be a robust single-player space in the future? Anyone else remember 2009 as being the year of games with unnecessary cooperative modes?

X-Men Arcade Hitting XBLA in December, PSN in February

According to Eurogamer, X-Men Arcade will hit Xbox Live Arcade on December 15, 2010 and PlayStation Network in February 2011. X-Men Arcade is a port of the classic Konami coin-op arcade game. I pumped tons of quarters into it during college and am excited to play it online. Anyone interested in playing with me? It would be cool to get some four-player cooperative games going…but one of you has to agree to be Dazzler. *snicker*

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