Tag: Videogames

Final Fantasy XIII Mega-Post!!!

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

FFXIII graphics comparison

Poll: Which version of FFXIII are you buying?

Coffee Talk: What’s your favorite Final Fantasy game?

20 FFXIII screens

FFXIII Xbox 360 limited edition bundle details

FFXIII special edition details

Read FFXIII Zero Promise in English

13 FFXIII screens

FFXIII Japanese television commercial

FFXIII soundtrack sampler

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

FFXIII Crystallium system explained

FFXIII gestalt mode: Bahamut and Brynhildr

This Week’s Videogame Releases

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 PS3 returns to the Japanese underworld in Yakuza 3. On the other end of the spectrum is the lighthearted Sam & Max 2: Beyond Time and Space for Wii.

The handheld systems have some cool things going on too. The DS has Foto Showdown (the game with these awesome promo videos) and Spectral Force Genesis. The PSP has BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger.

As always, let your fellow RPadholics and me know if you’re picking up any new games this week!

Coffee Talk #101: Giacchino’s Incredible Career Started in Games

Last night at the 82nd Annual Academy Awards, Michael Giacchino snagged an Oscar for best original score for Up, adding another accolade to his phenomenal career. While he’s gained fame for his work on Lost, The Incredibles, Ratataouille, and more, Giacchino got his start in games. From The Lost World: Jurassic park to numerous Medal of Honor titles to several Call of Duty games, he has composed some of the best soundtracks in gaming.

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 Oscar Awards, the outstanding HBO documentary on Earvin “Magic” Johnson and Larry Bird, or wrestling’s Monday night wars, Coffee Talk is the place to do it.

New Coffee: Totally forgot about this, but I opened a bag of Colombia La Piramide Reserva from Stumptown last week.

Last night at the 82nd Annual Academy Awards, Michael Giacchino snagged an Oscar for best original score for Up, adding another accolade to his phenomenal career. While he’s gained fame for his work on Lost, The Incredibles, Ratataouille, and more, Giacchino got his start in games. From The Lost World: Jurassic park to numerous Medal of Honor titles to several Call of Duty games, he has composed some of the best soundtracks in gaming.

As someone that’s followed his career for more than a decade, I’m thrilled for Giacchino’s success. Every time he snags an award, he creates an opportunity for people to learn about the gaming world. His success brings attention, prestige, and legitimacy to the relatively young business of videogames. I know he’s busy with movies and television, but I hope he still has time to create music for the medium that helped get him to where he is today.

Out of curiosity, do you have a favorite Michael Giacchino soundtrack? I absolutely love the score for The Incredibles. Giacchino’s music is one of the reasons The Incredibles is high on my list of all-time favorite movies. Let me know some of your Giacchino favorites when you have a chance.

Will Future Sony Demos Degrade Over Time?

Sony has filed an interesting patent for software that will cause game demos to lose functionality over time. Siliconera reported:

Sony appears to be working on a new kind of video game demo. A patent filed by SCEA details a system that gives users a full or nearly complete game to play with, but slowly removes features until you buy it.

The software has customizable triggers that disable features after a set number of plays or lapsed play time. Let’s see some theoretical examples of how this could work.

The good news is that gamers will get try more of a game before they make a purchasing decision. The bad news is that the practice is a little evil. The first thing that I thought was, “Great! Sony is following the crack-cocaine model. The first time is free!” Seriously though, depending on how it’s used, the software could be fantastic or it could piss of millions of gamers. I can’t wait to see it in practice.

What do you think? It this kind of software smart of evil? Clever or devious?

Source via Gamasutra

Portal 2 Confirmed for Holiday 2010

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?

Source

Today’s Poll: Which Version of Final Fantasy XIII?!?

With the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions of Final Fantasy XIII getting a nice technical comparison from Digital Foundry, I thought it would be a good time to ask you which version of the game you’re getting. As for me, of course I’m getting it on the PS3! Reona Rewis 4 life!!!

[poll id=”30″]

Final Fantasy XIII Graphics Comparison: PlayStation 3 vs. Xbox 360

The fine people at Digital Foundry have posted a technical comparison of the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions of Final Fantasy XIII. As expected, the PlayStation 3 version is superior. Here’s DF’s conclusion:

“Adequate but a touch disappointing” best sums up the Xbox 360 version. Fine edges lose precision, and while the effect is mitigated thanks to the MSAA along with the multitude of post processing effects the engine has at its disposal, the fact is that the lack of resolution can make the 360 build look sub-par. The clean CG look of the PS3 game in motion is unduly compromised, and while it’s still a handsome enough title on Xbox 360, it lacks the pristine presentation of its sibling.

If you’re interested in high-level graphics talk, the article is definitely worth checking out. The read reminded me of my PC Magazine Labs days when we’d scream at each other about competing graphics card technologies. Ha!

Hmmmm, I think I’ll start a poll while I’m at it.

Source

Jason West and Vince Zampella File Lawsuit Against Activision

Someone should file this under Modern Publisher Warfare 2. *snicker* As some of you know, former Infinity Ward heads Jason West and Vince Zampella have filed a lawsuit against Activision through O’Melveny & Myers. While lawsuits in the gaming business are nothing new and seldom interesting, I found it amusing that the law firm issued a press release to publicize the case. Here’s a quote on the lawsuit from attorney Robert Schwartz:

Activision has refused to honor the terms of its agreements and is intentionally flouting the fundamental public policy of this State (California) that employers must pay their employees what they have rightfully earned. Instead of thanking, lauding, or just plain paying Jason and Vince for giving Activision the most successful entertainment product ever offered to the public, last month Activision hired lawyers to conduct a pretextual ‘investigation’ into unstated and unsubstantiated charges of ‘insubordination’ and ‘breach of fiduciary duty,’ which then became the grounds for their termination on Monday, March 1st.

Honestly, I lost interest in the whole affair on Tuesday. I don’t think it’s as big a deal or as interesting as some people in the gaming press are making it out to be. That said, some of you appear to be interested in it so I thought I’d post the quote and a link to the press release.

Just to check myself, are you still interested in the Activision vs. West/Zampella feud?

Source

Coffee Talk #99: Do You Understand Game Development?

With Game Developers Conference 2010 next week, I wanted to talk to you about…uh…game development. A lot of gamers don’t really understand what goes into making a game. Hell, a lot of journalists and critics don’t really understand the process either. I completely admit that there’s still a lot I don’t know about game development after more than 15 years of game writing, but I’ve tried to learn a fair bit and feel that I know more than most writers.

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, all these crazy earthquakes (end of the world?), whether Tiger Woods can dominate golf again, or the ex-Infinity Ward guys taking legal action against Activision, Coffee Talk is the place to do it.

With Game Developers Conference 2010 next week, I wanted to talk to you about…uh…game development. A lot of gamers don’t really understand what goes into making a game. Hell, a lot of journalists and critics don’t really understand the process either. I completely admit that there’s still a lot I don’t know about game development after more than 15 years of game writing, but I’ve tried to learn a fair bit and feel that I know more than most writers.

Do you know the difference between a producer on the publisher side and on the development side? Do you understand how budget and time restrictions can limit creativity and quality? Is there anything about game development you’d like to learn more about? Or do you not care about knowing more about the process? After all, you don’t have to know anything about game development to enjoy great games.

In some ways, I think it’s important for you to try to understand game development. It leads to a deeper appreciation of the games you buy. In other ways, it’s trivial. Do you enjoy a movie more knowing what the key grip and gaffer do?

I’m curious to read your responses today. They’ll shape my mindset going into next week’s show. Perhaps I can get some of the information you want. Learning together is cool. So let’s get to it (please)!

American McGee Taking on Little Red Riding Hood + Concept Art

After tackling Alice in Wonderland, The Wizard of Oz, and Grimm’s Fairytales in videogame form, American McGee is going with Little Red Riding Hood for his next game. The Spicy Horse game designer (that loves to slap his name on boxes) posted some concept art for American McGee’s Red and according to GameSetWatch will be pitching the title at GDC.

The concept art is definitely cool, but I’m interested to hear what you think of American McGee. There’s a whole generation of gamers that have no idea who he is. There are a bunch of gamers that think he’s some guy that feels the need to put his name in the title of every game he works on. There are also a bunch of people that loved what he did with Alice and are waiting for him to do something similarly great.

What do you think of Red and American McGee?

Source via GameSetWatch