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Trauma Center: Under our Studied Gaze
Trauma Center did a swear!It's common knowledge that Trauma Center: Under the Knife 2's setting and storyline is to involve disease, civil war, and refugees, but now swearing has been added to this gritty mix. Shocking! We'd expect disease in a game about making people feel better, but we hope that Atlus' game doesn't start taking itself too seriously. For this blogger, the otherwise excellent Advance Wars: Days of Ruin was a little too dark for its own good, and yours truly missed some of the inherent silliness of previous games. Here's hoping Trauma Center 2 retains its sense of humor.On the other hand, we appreciate that some of you couldn't give two hoots about the story. Regardless, make a careful incision and enter the gallery below for six new shots.%Gallery-20065%[Via press release]
First Trauma Center 2 trailer quickens the pulse
The breakneck speed of the first trailer for Trauma Center 2 is, frankly, all a bit bewildering. As we blog from our La Z Boys, margarita in one hand and our masseuses kneading our shoulders, we can't help but wonder: is watching this as downright stressful and frenetic as day-to-day life in a real trauma center?Well, uh, probably not, but it sure is exciting. The pace of it does mean that it's a little tricky to pick up on footage of gameplay, but what's there is comfortingly familiar, and there are old faces (under their Japanese names) and new faces (including Adel Tulba, who we learned more about recently) alike. No sign of the "improved functionality" of the instruments that has been promised by Atlus, but there's plenty of time for that yet. We need a breather.
DS Daily: Return to Hope Hospital
Good old Trauma Center. Preposterous storyline, not even remotely medically accurate, and a difficulty curve with all the consistency of lumpy custard. But hey, despite its flaws, we quickly fell in love with Atlus' unconventional surgical sim. It was one of the very first DS titles to really use the touchscreen convincingly, and the execution was, on the whole, superb.And now -- rejoice! -- there's a sequel planned, complete with improved surgical tools and a lower difficulty level for scalpel jocks like us. That's all well and good, but is there anything that you'd like to see done differently in Trauma Center: Under the Knife 2?
Trauma Center 2 scan suggests August release for Japan
Trauma Center, in case you hadn't already heard, is making a return to Nintendo's handheld to make ham-fisted would-be surgeons feel inadequate all over again, and Famitsu has just delivered an array of details and shots of the new game.According to this, we'll be getting a sprinkling of old and new characters, a slightly more Wii-like user interface, and a number of operations that will be familiar with us all, including the really cringeworthy ones where you have to yank excruciatingly long shards of glass from your patients (well, they made us cringe, anyway).Perhaps the most interesting tidbit to take from this scan, however, is the mention of a Japanese release date -- it's a little hard to make out, but the magazine seems to suggest the game will be released there on August 7th. That's by no means an official date, obviously, but if true it means we could be seeing a western release in 2008.
Dr. Stiles returns to the DS for Trauma Center: Under the Knife 2
The Nintendo Power news just keeps on coming in! If you're not already a subscriber, we very much suggest you pick up a copy of this month's issue when you can -- it's packed with exclusive announcements and screenshots. Almost three years since Under the Knife captured the hearts of wannabe surgeons on the DS, Trauma Center is finally coming back to the handheld after a remake and an indirect sequel on the Wii. Dr. Stiles stars in the game, once again, and is joined by Nurse Angie Thompson as they deal with the effects and "unanswered mysteries" left by the defeated GUILT Virus.Developer and publisher Atlus didn't reveal any new surgical instruments for this direct DS sequel, titled Under the Knife 2, but it did state that the old tools will have "improved functionality. Addressing difficulty complaints many often cited with the original game, Atlus has also included a mode for those of you with unsteady hands and frail nerves. Expect to hear a lot more about Under the Knife 2 from us before it hits stores this summer.
