There are so many great games coming out this week! PlayStation 3 owners have God of War III
But wait, there’s more! If you can’t get enough RPG excitement then you ought to check out Resonance of Fate
Let me know what games you’re planning to pick up this week. If you’re picking up a few, let me know what order you plan on playing them.
Here are NPD Group’s console software sales figures for February 2010 (sorry for the lateness!). Along with the usual Nintendo sales, there were some pleasant surprises that should make every hardcore gamer happy.
(Xbox 360): 224,700I’m thrilled that BioShock 2 snagged the top spot in February. I’m even more thrilled that Heavy Rain managed to crack the top 10, despite being released at the end of the month. As you can imagine, seeing a BioWare game on the list makes me happy (duh). It’s also cool to see a new IP like Dante’s Inferno make the cut. Last month I was surprised that Just Dance made the list, but a lot of people in the business play it (to my astonishment). One game designer I know shocked me at GDC when he said that he plays it for at least an hour a day.
Now’s the important part — let me know what you think of NPD Group’s top 10 games of February 2010. Anything surprise you?
NPD Group released its console sales data for February 2010 while I was at GDC. The numbers are pretty interesting. Check ’em out!
The continued onslaught of the Nintendo DS shouldn’t surprise anyone. It’s a great portable console with tons of games and a huge March release (Pokemon HeartGold
Now unleash your Pach Attack and go after the numbers as if you were a very tall gaming analyst. I can’t wait to hear your analysis of NPD Group’s sales figures!
GDC was pretty interesting last night. I thought it was just going to be coffee, friend chatting, and sleep. Instead, this hottie producer from the Bioshock team took me out to a fancy dinner. Chris Taylor and Kellyn Beeck from Gas Powered Games were at the same restaurant and we caught up with them after an excellent meal. I remembered that I promised my friend at Activision that I’d stop by her party, so Sugar Mama and I left the excellent GPG people to check out the True Crime event. I was expecting the flowing libations, but I was surprised that there were pole dancers at the event. Here are some photos for your viewing pleasure.
Electronic Arts has announced that it has partnered with Curt Schilling’s 38 Studios to publish Project Mercury for PC, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360. Here’s a clip from the press release:
Electronic Arts Inc. today announced an agreement with 38 Studios, LLC to publish the company’s first video game, an epic single-player role-playing game codenamed Project Mercury. 38 Studios is the creative enterprise of World Series MVP and avid gamer Curt Schilling. Project Mercury is being developed at Big Huge Games, a wholly-owned subsidiary of 38 Studios, under the leadership of Ken Rolston, former lead designer of the critically acclaimed hits, Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind and Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. The game marks the first entry into the company’s vast universe created by New York Times best-selling fantasy author R. A. Salvatore, with artistic direction by Todd McFarlane, renowned artist and creator of Spawn.
The game has a chance to be huge for the business. Rolston will bring the quality that he’s known for, but it’s the other creators that will get mainstream press for Project Mercury. Obviously Schilling is known for being one of the best pitchers in MLB history, R.A. Salvatore has millions of fans from his fantasy novels (Drizz’t rules!), and McFarlane buys really expensive baseballs (okay, he makes cool comics and toys too). I’m definitely interested in the game, but I’m more interested to see how mainstream outlets cover it.
What do you think of Project Mercury’s dream team?
As promised, here are some photos from Square Enix’s launch event for Final Fantasy XIII. The company took advantage of the GDC setting by having numerous high-profile developers in attendance. People like Tim Schafer (Double Fine), Corrinne Yu (Microsoft’s Halo Team), Mark Cerny (Cerny Games), Yoshinori Ono (Capcom), and Chris Taylor (Gas Powered Games) were in the house. The venue was super cool, decked out in all sorts of FFXIII decorations. Naturally, my mission was to find Leona Lewis, aka Reona Rewis singer of the FFXIII theme song “My Hands”. Here’s what I saw.
I got to the party late, due to a short flight delay. Reona Rewis was not at the entrance.
Just in case you forgot what company was throwing the party and which game it was for, Square Enix had these handy reminders.
Here’s some cool FFXIII art and a poster autographed by the development team.
I still couldn’t find Reona Rewis, but Shacknews‘ Garnett Lee is always fun to hang with.
Danny Masterson from That ’70s Show was spinning. I had to ask a friend, “Who the hell is Danny Masterson?”
The excellent Joseph Olin, president of the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences, is always fun to catch up with.
To the window…to the wall, the venue was decked out in cool FFXIII decorations.
I want to play games on a large screen with a DJ spinning and two girls dancing in front of it.
The girl on the left was definitely getting funky. I reviewed her — 8/10.
Still no Reona Rewis, but I found 1Up’s Alice Liang and 343’s David Ellis.
I decided to head to the VIP area. Maybe Reona was hanging out there.
VIPs got to play the game too.
1Up’s Sam Kennedy was hanging out with a woman that might have been Reona Rewis.
The chick had a L’Cie tattoo on her leg…as opposed to “My Hands”. *snicker*
With Final Fantasy XIII being released this week, I thought it would be nice to collect all the videos and stories on the game in one mega-post. For your convenience and entertainment, here they are!
Final Fantasy XIII Announcement Video (the one with the massive tool)
Final Fantasy XIII trailer with English voice actors
Leona Lewis (aka Reona Rewis) plays Final Fantasy XIII
Wired.com’s Chris Kohler Talks Final Fantasy XIII
Blog Posts
Poll: Which version of FFXIII are you buying?
Coffee Talk: What’s your favorite Final Fantasy game?
FFXIII Xbox 360 limited edition bundle details
FFXIII special edition details
Read FFXIII Zero Promise in English
FFXIII Japanese television commercial
Yoshitaka Amano’s take on FFXIII
Coffee Talk: Create your own videogame beverage
FFXIII Suntory beverage commercial
Mega 64 makes fun of the FFXIII launch date announcement
FFXIII North American box art revealed
How weapons level up in FFXIII
Final Fantasy XIII is obviously the big deal this week, but there are actually quite a few interesting games that you should keep your eye on. Also coming out for PlayStation and Xbox 360 is Resident Evil 5: Gold Edition
The handheld systems have some cool things going on too. The DS has Foto Showdown
As always, let your fellow RPadholics and me know if you’re picking up any new games this week!
Game Informer has revealed that the sequel to Portal — one of the most unique and creative games I’ve played in the last few years — will be released this holiday season! Here’s what you can learn in the latest issue of GI.
Our 12-page cover story gives you the first details on Portal 2’s new gameplay mechanics, storyline, and some surprising new twists.
I’m super-psyched for this game! How about you guys and dolls?
Gamers that want to express their sexual orientation, religious belief, and race on Xbox Live will be able to do so thanks to a Gamertag update from Microsoft. According to Gamasutra:
Microsoft is making changes to its Xbox Live Code of Conduct to expand the kinds of Gamertags it allows — which means users can now have tags that indicate their sexual orientation, religion or race.
I love this move. It gives gamers more choices in how they can identify themselves to other players.
Are you guys going to reveal more information? Do you like that Microsoft has allowed this? Or are you all “don’t ask, don’t tell” when it comes to race, religion, and sexual orientation?
