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Nioh remasters are coming to PS5 on February 5th
‘Nioh 2 - The Complete Edition’ lands on PC on the same day.
Leaderboard: Which Marvel Heroes character should I play?
I'm going to borrow a bit from Massively's Choose My Adventure series in today's Leaderboard. My Marvel Heroes dabbling continues, but I'm having some decisional paralysis regarding my next hero. That's where you -- and today's poll -- come in. I'm going to restrict the choices to X-men (excepting Storm and Nightcrawler) because, well, I like X-men and it also keeps the poll manageable. Help me out after the cut, please and thank you in advance! Ever wish that you could put to rest a long-standing MMO debate once and for all? Then welcome to the battle royal of Massively's Leaderboard, where two sides enter the pit o' judgment -- and only one leaves. Vote to make your opinion known, and see whether your choice tops the Leaderboard!
Here's Diablo 3's Reaper of Souls on the PS4
Blizzard has released a brief look at Diablo III's Reaper of Souls expansion on the PlayStation 4. The Ultimate Evil Edition is headed your way on August 19th, and you can see it in action via the video after the break.
Time names Guild Wars 2 the top video game of 2012
What's the best video game of 2012? If you're Time magazine or are looking at the headline of this article, chances are you probably know the answer. Time's website counted down the year's top 10 video games, putting Guild Wars 2 at the top of the list. The author seems taken with the game's dynamic event system: "All those events and hundreds more play out in real-time -- with, as Bono would say, or without you -- lending Guild Wars 2 the feel of a living world, and the sort of compulsive anywhere-you-go playability other MMOs only dream of." Torchlight II also made it into the list at the number 10 spot, with the author saying that it delivered the same action-RPG rush of Diablo III at a third of the price.
Torchlight II might take some inspiration from Minecraft down the road
You like Torchlight II, right? Pummeling your way through waves of baddies, reducing those baddies to nothing more than piles of gold and items -- it's exhilarating, isn't it? But what if you could do more? Maybe like building a little house or planting a field of wheat? Max Schaefer, designer extraordinaire, hinted in a recent interview that that's the sort of future addition he'd like for Torchlight II. He said that his personal hope for the game would be "to get the building and resource aspects of Minecraft and put them into an ARPG, just so it's a little more than just wandering from one monster to the next and hitting them." Schaefer is a fan of this idea as a way to lend a sense of permanence to the game and a way for players to add to their game world. However, he's not the only person at Runic Games, which means his idea is just one of many possibilities for the future of Torchlight II. "We're a long way from exhausting the possibilities," he added. To hear about power creep, player mods, and how awesome a Minecraft-Torchlight II fusion would be, hit up the full interview.
Torchlight exec on MMO: 'It may be radically different'
Runic Games' Max Schaefer is preparing for the release of Torchlight II, but that didn't stop him from looking to the future for the franchise. In an interview, Schaefer teased that the eventual MMO may be "radically different" from what some are expecting. Schaefer did admit that the MMO isn't a solid lock as of yet. When asked about the next step after Torchlight II, he said, "We don't know what we're doing in the MMO next or ever or what. That's kind of the big plan is to keep expanding the Torchlight world." He did confirm that a Torchlight MMO would be an action RPG and not a standard MMO setup. "We would not want to do a traditional at all," Schaefer said. "We'd adapt it in many ways to Torchlight. It'd be an MMO in so far as everyone's playing in the world of Torchlight, but it may radically different. I think it would keep our creativity alive, not just to do traditional MMO."
American McGee on F2P, Ouya and his 'acceptable' experience with EA
American McGee's Spicy Horse studio is shrugging off the madness of console development to create free-to-play, browser- and cloud-based games such as Kongregate's Big Head Bash. This move follows Spicy Horse's partnership with EA to launch Alice: Madness Returns last year as a mainstream, boxed and digital title. Alice was Spicy Horse's last foray into the physical space, McGee tells Game Informer."Our studio wouldn't consider going back to traditional console development, but I do think we'll end up being in the right place when consoles come back to us," he says. "By that I mean we fully expect the definition of 'console' to shift radically over the next two years. Our consoles will become our mobile devices (Or if you prefer: Our mobile devices will become our consoles)."Spicy Horse has already seen a larger return on investment from its free-to-play games than Alice ever produced, or likely ever will. This is the future, McGee says, and static games locked to specific physical media will be unable to compete with always-updating, fluid titles in the free-to-play universe.
FFCC: Crystal Bearers now bears a Japanese release date
Four years after it was first revealed, Square Enix has finally announced a Japanese release date for Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers: November 26. That makes us doubt it'll be out Stateside before the end of the year, but at least it's actually being released. Actually, for a long time we perceived Crystal Bearers as in trouble or delayed, but four years for a Final Fantasy game seems about right! Square Enix also revealed the box art (posted in full after the break), which is both nice-looking on its own merits and evidence that Square Enix is getting around to finally putting this thing into boxes![Via GAME Watch]
Atlus's latest delay-plus-bribe combo: Steal Princess
In order to prevent its localization of Climax's Steal Princess from being ignored at retail, Atlus has decided to delay the ARPG from April 21 to May 19, after already delaying it from its original March date. This gives DS owners more chance to hear about the game prior to its release, and blogs like this another opportunity to report about the game, like we're doing right now. Yes, we played right into Atlus's hands. But if the company's going to hold Steal Princess hostage until we post about it, what choice do we have? We'd like to play it this year!Along with the announcement, as is Atlus's custom, the company revealed a bonus included with every copy. The reverse of the box cover will feature the above artwork, selected by fan votes, as a mini-poster. We're on the fence about removing part of the game's box to decorate a tiny patch of wall space, but we like options (and we like Steal Princess artwork!)%Gallery-34394%
Mark it in your datebook: Avalon Code coming March 10
The Marvelous/XSEED publishing superteam has announced a release date for Matrix Software's action RPG Avalon Code. Should you RPG fans finish Blue Dragon Plus and Legacy of Ys this week, you'll still have Avalon Code to look forward to on March 10.Avalon Code tasks players with filling a magical "Book of Prophecy" with monsters, people, and everything else found throughout the world. Once profiled, the pages from this book can then be used to alter the game world and "influence a myriad of parameters from monster attributes to weapon strength." The book is also useful for identifying stats and elemental weaknesses about monsters you encounter. %Gallery-22487%
Capcom sort of confirms Western release of Monster Hunter 3
Monster Hunter 3 is coming to North America and Europe, according to a statement from Capcom in its 3rd quarter financial results conference call Q&A (PDF link)."One of our leading titles is "Monster Hunter 3 (tri-)," Capcom said, addressing a question about its region-specific plans. "If we can gain recognition of this product in the European and North American markets, our market strategy will see a noticeable change."Of course, if Capcom is hoping to gain recognition in those markets, then it plans to release the game in those markets. We had always kind of assumed it was coming, just because it's achieved such massive buzz in Japan, and because Capcom is starting to show an interest in localizing Monster Hunter games again with Freedom Unite on PSP. But it's nice to have an official statement!%Gallery-32281%
Monster Hunter 3 captures Japan's money this summer
Capcom announced a release window for Monster Hunter 3 yesterday at the Capcom/Pasela "Hunter's Banquet G" event in Tokyo. The multiplayer action RPG, which drew epic lines at the Tokyo Game Show, will be released this summer. Famitsu promises a full report of the event upcoming, but this is likely to be the biggest news out of it! We assumed that MH3 wouldn't be released until some time after April, because Capcom is including a demo with Monster Hunter G, which comes out April 23. We're surprised that Capcom isn't holding this back until the fall, since this is likely to be the company's (or anybody's) biggest release of the year.%Gallery-32281%[Via IGN]
Echoes of My Life as a King
New screenshots of the dual DS-Wii release Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of Time show off a lot of rather interesting new things! First, and most obviously, hey, it's the King and Chime from My Life as a King! Actually, as far as we can tell, it's player characters in costumes resembling the stars of Square Enix's WiiWare strategy game. Second, it seems that the Wii version has received a bit more of a visual upgrade since we last saw it. It's smoother, anyway.Echoes of Time features a (fairly standard) "New Game Plus" mode in which players can start again after finishing the game, to find more items, including many that are unavailable the first time through. We assume that's the only way to get these costumes, for instance. You can choose either to start again with your same character and continue building, or to start a new character, which increases the difficulty! Gallery: Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of Time
Monster Hunter 3: New monsters to hunt, new places to hunt them
We've been looking at screens of the ported Monster Hunter G lately, so to return to Monster Hunter 3, which is already one of the best-looking Wii games, is dramatic. Capcom's use of all kinds of crazy lighting in the sequel is effective, giving the action RPG a "next gen" feel. Really, they could make the whole thing in the ugly old Monster Hunter G engine and still sell millions of copies.The latest screens introduce a weird locale that appears to be somehow part desert and part swamp, full of nests of giant, monstrous insects, and home to this guy. This dragon, called "Boruboros" (probably "Volvolos" or something in English) comes out of a big mud pit and attacks with his giant, hard head.%Gallery-32281%
Atlus officially announces Steal Princess
The ESRB totally ruined the surprise of Atlus's North American release of Steal Princess, but the company has cleverly announced several more games since then in an effort to make us temporarily forget about Steal Princess. It worked -- we were surprised again yesterday when they sent the press release out!Steal Princess is a "puzzle platformer" developed by Climax, about a thief who is captured in an ancient palace and is forced to rescue a prince or be tried as a criminal. The palace is a labyrinth of more than 150 levels full of traps, platforming challenges, and, of course, demons. The game also features a level editor with online sharing!Steal Princess is set for release on March 24, for $34.99. We won't even be done with all our Atlus games from February by then! %Gallery-34394%
Japanese Monster Hunter G bundle includes special-edition blue Classic Controller, Monster Hunter 3 demo [update]
[Update: for those of you lusting after the game or (more likely) the controller, Capcom's Christian Svensson has announced that there will be no US release for either. "Sorry. :(" Thanks to Samfish for pointing this out!]For such a lazily-developed game, Capcom is putting significant resources into the Wii port of Monster Hunter G. In order to get around the Classic Controller requirement (and promote sales, of course), they've announced a Monster Hunter G Starter Pack bundle featuring this awesome blue, dragon-adorned (but not Blue Dragon-adorned) Classic Controller. This is, as far as we know, just the second special-edition (Nintendo brand) Wii controller -- the first was also a Classic Controller, specifically the Club Nintendo Super Famicom Classic Controller. This is also the first official Wii controller to be released in a color other than white. In other words: a big deal. And it's so cool-looking!The Starter Pack will retail for 5,240 yen ($59) when it is released in Japan on April 23. Both this release and the game-only release of Monster Hunter G (3,990 yen, or $45) will include a demo of Monster Hunter 3. And just like that, Monster Hunter G has become a guaranteed bestseller.
Monster Hunter G's online mode: play an old game together
Okay, so the remake of Monster Hunter G isn't entirely a quick cash grab by Capcom as they work on Monster Hunter 3. Well, actually, it is, but it's a quick cash grab with online play, which seems a lot better. Monster Hunter G's online mode revolves around various quests given to players from their guild hall. They're about what we'd expect: kill this monster, get this item, etc. Groups of up to four can participate in the same quests, using equipment (traps, bombs) found within the quest to complete their objectives.The game's quest-mode environments (or the real game) look much, much better than the in-town stuff we've seen, but MHG still looks exactly like the old Monster Hunter it is!
Final Fantasy Cattle Drive Chronicles
The latest update about Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of Time, Square Enix's DS/Wii action RPG, shows off some of the extra stuff that can be done in-game with pals. You can get new quests from Stiltzkin the Moogle, who has previously appeared in Final Fantasy IX and both previous Crystal Chronicles games, as well as from people around town.One of the quests shown: wrangling wayward cattle in a dungeon! Your team must use red flags to direct wandering cows to their destination without allowing any of them to get killed. Now that's adventurin'!When not corraling, you'll also be able to play a few multiplayer minigames, including boss rush and some kind of game about getting a floating beach ball into a whirlpool. Gallery: Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of Time
Underwater monster hunting
No, this is not a hyperviolent sequel to Endless Ocean (though that might be kind of awesome, until PETA got wind of it and freaked out), but rather a little underwater adventuring -- or hunting, if you will -- in Monster Hunter 3 (tri-). In these latest screens, our dear Hunter is faced with an underwater beast of epic proportions that might just be a very large, distant, and pissed-off cousin to the electric eel. There's lightning, anyway. And teeth. Big, sharp, point teeth. Gallery: Monster Hunter 3
DS Daily: Phantasy Starting too late?
Sega has finally announced Phantasy Star Zero for North American and European release (press release at the "source" link, new screens in the gallery), putting to an end our (mild) fears that the multiplayer action RPG would never leave Japan. But the press release specifies "Winter 2009" -- with a promise of more info in "the coming months" that suggests that they don't mean the winter 2009 we're currently in the middle of, but the next one. As in, almost a whole year away.Our immediate reaction was "nooooooo," but then we realized that there are just way too many DS games coming out in 2009 -- especially in the first half -- and maybe it's a good thing that we don't have to try to crowd Phantasy Star Zero in with all that stuff. It'll probably get crowded with a lot of future stuff, but we don't know that right now.What's your take? Too far away or helpful for your monthly time/money budgeting? Does PS0 say "holiday lineup" to you?%Gallery-31775%
