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Didja know that the best RPGs are on the 360?
Microsoft just launched a new marketing campaign whose main aim is to get you trained so that when someone mentions the letters RPG your instant response will be Xbox 360. The Best RPGs Are On Xbox 360 is the campaign's name and highlights some of the best of the best RPGs that grace the Xbox 360 including Blue Dragon, Lost Odyssey, Mass Effect, Oblivion and of course Fable 2. Simply head to Xbox.com to get the dish on these super RPGs and if your interest is piqued, make your way to Gamestop. There you will find a free retail disc that comes packed with information on these "Best RPGs" as well as never before seen videos of Fable 2 and the complete Sci-Fi channel "Sci vs Fi" episode featuring Mass Effect. Now how can you not agree? The Xbox 360 is hands down the best place to find RPGs ... just none that are on the Playstation platform.
Magisters' Terrace Walkthrough
Yesterday I was able to get my warrior copied over to the PTR. I proceeded to head up to the new 5 man instance, Magisters' Terrace, and see what it was all about. Its a pretty cool place over all. It feels a lot like the Blood Elf city, and has a couple cool encounters. Including Kalecgos!Of course to get to the Terrace you first have to have your character copied over to the PTR. For a little while, Blizzard was letting new people through. But lately it seems that the PTR character copy queue is again backed up.Take a look after the break for lots of pictures of the place, a good walk through, and my first impressions of each boss fight.
Darkmoon Faire Decks: An overview
As I've mentioned before, The Darkmoon Faire is currently in Terrokar Forest, just outside Shattrath City, so if you have decks to turn in or need to refill your private stock of Darkmoon Special Reserve, now's the time to get on it. But if you're still a little bit taken aback by the prospect of gathering all those cards, or wondering if the trinket at the end will really be worth it, we'd like to help you out. In this post, we'll be looking at both the old and new decks and listing some pros and cons of each deck so you can figure out if you want to spend the next month tracking down cards before the Faire shows up in Elwynn Forest in March, or even if you just want to blow your epic flying mount fund on getting a deck before it leaves for the month. We'll start in on everything after the jump.
Patch 2.4 files reveal tons of goodies
There are a ton of goodies out there in patch 2.4. We've compiled some of our favorite items from poking around the patch files for you, and you can check them out in our Patch 2.4 Finds gallery. Just about everything was retrieved using a few tricks with the patch files and WoW Model Viewer.A few other sites, such as MMO-Champion and World of Raids are covering the latest 2.4 finds as well.There are a few interesting images. First, it appears that the Blue Dragon Kalecgos will be making an appearance, in both his dragon and human form. We were all introduced to Kalecgos in the World of Warcraft manga The Sunwell Trilogy. The second great little find is the World of Warcraft Trading Card Game loot-item; the new Rocket Mount. You can see an action shot of this sweet ride right here in a YouTube video I made earlier today.If you're poking around the patch files, what have you found? Anything special?%Gallery-15657%
New Blue Dragon screens toast our eyeballs
After the opening of the official site for Blue Dragon Plus late last week, we can start fretting less about the game's protracted development, and concentrate more on gawking at pretty pictures.Conveniently enough, Famitsu has just posted a selection of fresh Blue Dragon Plus screens and art, and things are looking as vibrant as ever -- it's encouraging to see Mistwalker and Brownie Brown cramming so many enemies and pyrotechnics into the DS's relatively small screens. Apparently, finding something/someone to fight will not be difficult.Advance past the break for more screens and art.%Gallery-15148%
New details for Blue Dragon DS, due out this summer
Last month, publisher AQ Interactive confirmed that Blue Dragon Plus for the Nintendo DS had been delayed, but that it would be coming this summer. Translations from the publisher's official BDP site (via NeoGAF) indicate the game is set to be a "simulation RPG." The description and subsequent new screenshots remind us of Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings (not a bad comparison, mind you).The site also seems to indicate that BDP takes place just after the events of the first Blue Dragon. So with a bold-faced spoiler alert we caution you against clicking on the main website as, once it loads, it gives away a big part of the Xbox 360 version's storyline. Same warning goes for the gallery below. Gallery: Blue Dragon Plus [Via DS Fanboy]
Blue Dragon Plus site shows promise
And by "promise" we mean "screenshots." And also the fact that if AQ Interactive is bothering to set up a site at all, it means that they're probably planning to release the game for really reals. The "system" page on the new website confirms that Blue Dragon Plus is a "real-time simulation RPG," although the screens (which, by the way, are the first we've seen that haven't been scanned from a magazine) do a pretty good job doing that by themselves!If you've played through the original Xbox 360 game, the site will make it immediately obvious to you that this is a direct sequel, taking place after the events of that game. %Gallery-15148%[Via NeoGAF]
Bad news for Away, good news for Blue Dragon
Publisher AQ Interactive announced that Blue Dragon Plus has been delayed until summer. But rather than being disappointed by this, we're quite delighted, because summer is much sooner than never. Mistwalker announced earlier this week that it had been delayed indefinitely, leading some to believe that might be shelved for good.Away: Shuffle Dungeon has also been delayed by AQ Interactive, resulting in somewhat of a different reaction. We were surprised to find that Blue Dragon Plus has a release date now after its presumed cancellation, but this delay was a reminder to us that Away had a release date at all. Back in October, Mistwalker said that Away would be out on January 31st, and in the latest scans you can just barely make out a February 28th date. We just didn't realize that it was (supposed to be) out so soon. It's currently planned for a summer release as well.
Blue Dragon DS delayed indefinitely
French gaming site Jeux-France is reporting that the Nintendo DS adaptation of Mistwalker's Blue Dragon has been delayed without a future release window. The title was planned for a March release, although given its original September revelation, we thought the date was a bit suspect.Despite the indefinite loss of a portable Blue Dragon, fans of Hironobu Sakaguchi's work can look forward to other DS releases from the studio, including ASH: Archaic Sealed Heat (already out in Japan) and Away: Shuffle Dungeon. [Via DS Fanboy]
Blue Dragon delayed indefinitely
We thought March might be a little sudden for Blue Dragon Plus, and it turns out we weren't alone. Mistwalker announced that the title has been pushed back, and there is no current release window in sight. No reason was given for the delay, but do we really need one? We'll just go ahead and assume that they need more than a few months to put together the sort of title we deserve.
Famitsu treats us to more Blue Dragon
Click image to enlarge The latest issue of Famitsu didn't only have some interesting stuff regarding Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword, but also a spread on Mistwalker's upcoming DS entry Blue Dragon Plus. And, as intrigued as we were when it was initially thought to be a card-based game, we're now even more interested in what the game will bring to the DS. Sakaguchi never disappoints, after all.
Best of the Rest: Griffin's Picks of 2007
Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition (Wii)For a port of a two-year-old game, RE4: Wii Edition didn't have a whole lot going for it. It had the same extra features as the PS2 port of the game, not-so-updated graphics, and slightly lower reviews than its original iteration -- and yet, somehow, just by changing how the game is controlled, Capcom created an entirely new adventure. When the peculiar controls for the Wii were first announced, this is the type of interactivity that I imagined from the future games for the system -- responsive, accurate, and realistic. The only way they could have made the gunplay feel any more natural would have been to package the game with an actual gun, which you shot at the on-screen zombies. Once.
A closer look at Blue Dragon
The deluge of pre-Jump Festa info continues, and with it comes a three-page spread on Blue Dragon, complete with new images. Unsurprisingly, there's a lot of blue in the pictures. Who'd have thought?We've seen and heard a lot of rumblings about whether or not Blue Dragon can make the leap from console to handheld, but it's worked for so many other games and franchises that we don't have any major worries. Certainly it will look good, but after the mediocre reaction to ASH, we've got fingers crossed concerning the game play. We'll have to wait a bit longer to see that, however. For now, you can check out the scans after the break.
Blue Dragon DS nothing to do with cards after all
Remember those vicious rumors regarding Blue Dragon DS being a card-based RPG? Well, looks like they may have been wide of the mark, as a new scan gleaned from the pages of Japanese publication Shonen Jump suggests otherwise. Instead, the magazine describes the game as a "real-time simulation RPG," a label that brings to mind the recently released Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings. Whatever the hell Mistwalker's game is -- and the screens do suggest a kind of real-time strategy/RPG hybrid -- there's certainly no mention of cards. Pleasingly, that March 2008 Japanese release date seems to have held, which surely means we'll have more information on this in the not-too-distant future. Go past the break for the Shonen Jump scan.
DS Daily: Limited edition dreams
Looks like the Blue Dragon DS game will get a limited edition for its Japanese release. While that certainly comes as no surprise, it does remind everyone else that our limited edition quota is somewhat unfulfilled. Sure, we got the Zelda and Nintendogs Lites, and that's great, but we'd love to see a few more game-specific bundles. Which game's logo or characters would you like to have emblazoned on your DS?
Mistwalker reminds us they have something besides Blue Dragon
When it was revealed that Blue Dragon would make its way onto the DS, albeit in a different shape and form than it appears on the Xbox 360, there was also another title that developer Mistwalker was to bring to the DS. Titled Away: The Kidnapped People, little was known regarding it, other than Hironobu Sakaguchi and Nobuo Uematsu were working on it directly. Now, courtesy of a Japanese press release (link goes to pdf file), new details regarding the game have surfaced. It appears that Away: The Kidnapped People is to utilize a unique randomized dungeon system. Described as an action RPG, the fine folks over at Siliconera deduced that since the Japanese press release calls the game Away: Shuffle Dungeon, and with the Blue Dragon random dungeon generator DLC for Xbox 360 being titled "Shuffle Dungeon Maker," that Away must use the same randomized dungeon feature.[Via Joystiq]
Preparing for 2.3: Post-patch item farming, part 2
Yesterday, we took a look at some of the new items in patch 2.3 that will be in the crosshairs of farmers across the servers. Today we'll finish off that list. First, blacksmiths will want to keep their eyes out for the new craftable weapon chain being added to the game. While the source of the Adamantite Weapon Chain is currently unknown, it is speculated to be an Outland-wide world drop. If this is true, then the plans will have a low chance to drop from any creature in Outland. Hopefully this will prove not to be the case and it will be discovered on a specific creature's loot table, since the only other weapon chain is a world drop thus and notoriously difficult to obtain.
Blue Dragon anime headed to XBLM for the free
In celebration of Blue Dragon becoming a part of the Platinum Collection on November 1st, Xbox Japan will be offering a few episodes of the Japanese exclusive Blue Dragon anime series anime series to the XBLM for free.Available on the Marketplace from November 15th through January 15th will be free downloads of the first two Blue Dragon anime episodes to all Xbox Live members (silver or gold). The anime series is a semi-hit in Japan's Saturday morning cartoon circuit, so we just might be in for some entertaining anime fun or a lot of dragon confusion. Whichever it ends up being, we're sill excited and you can't take that away from us.
Blue Dragon gets Shuffled Dungeon DLC in Nov.
Today, Microsoft went on a press release mission to remind everyone about the new Blue Dragon downloadable content that dropped onto the XBLM last week. But in doing so, they also confirmed that some new DLC will be hitting the Marketplace in mid-November.According to the press release, a piece of Blue Dragon DLC called "Shuffled Dungeon" will be available for 400 Microsoft points (ouch?) on Friday, November 16th. We're sure the new "Shuffled Dungeon" content will be uber spectacular especially for all the "Shuffled" collectors of the Blue Dragon world, but at 400 points, it won't be an impulse buy. Anyway, more Blue Dragon money spending fun has been confirmed for November 16th ... get your wallets primed.
New Blue Dragon items now on XBLM
Microsoft sends word that a new piece of downloadable content is now available for Blue Dragon. This is the second bit of DLC for the game, the first -- Hard mode - being released last month. This new DLC is entitled "6 Treasures" gives players access to 6 new items that grant special abilities to their characters. One in particular -- the Shuffled Helmet -- creates the most powerful armor in the game when combined with Shuffled Splint and Shuffled Breastplate. Honestly, we haven't delved into the game, so we don't know how useful all these items are, though they will probably be welcome to those endeavoring to complete hard mode. The DLC is available for 200 MS Points. Check out the all 6 of the items contained in the pack after the break.
