Final Fantasy XIII-2, New Versus XIII Trailer, More...

Sure enough, Square Enix has officially announced the Final Fantasy XIII-2 sequel today at its "1st Production Department Premiere" event, confirming last week's rumor. But perhaps of more interest seems to have been the new Final Fantasy Versus XIII trailer that was shown there. You can watch it here in a low-quality Ustream version, for now, until a HD version is released next week.



Aside from these two titles, other topics discussed at Square's event included the game formerly known as Final Fantasy Agito XIII (now called Final Fantasy Type-0), the game formerly known as Kingdom Hearts 3D (now called Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance), and the game still known as Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy. A bit more about each of them, below. (...)

 Continue reading 'Final Fantasy XIII-2, New Versus XIII Trailer, More...'...

If web domain registrations are ever to be trusted (and they often are), the slightly controversial J-not-RPG Final Fantasy XIII may be getting a sequel in the numeric spirit of Final Fantasy X-2. As one twitterer noticed, the FinalFantasy13-2Game.com domain has been registered this January 10 by "Corporation Service Company" - a name that's also listed on other official Square Enix domains, including FinalFantasy13Game.com.



Further supporting this speculation is the fact that Square Enix will hold a pretty big event next Tuesday, January 18, to announce new game titles. For now, they're keeping a tight lip, silently avoiding requests for comments. Not that it would be a particularly unexpected confirmation, at this point.

Well, I guess I'll be keeping an eye on this one for a few more days...

That "Dementia" trailer from a few weeks ago did a great job at not showing the upcoming sequel Dead Space 2, so this fresh batch of screenshots issued by Electronic Arts should be a welcome addition - as should be the EA Showcase video interview with the game's executive producer, Steve Papoutsis, in which he talks a bit about the game. Yeah, they tend to do that in interviews...



The horror shooter sequel Dead Space 2 is once again developed by Visceral Games for the PC, PS3 and Xbox 360. The story picks up three years after the original, with Isaac Clarke returning for another heart-pounding adventure, taking the fight to the Necromorphs in this thrilling action-horror experience. New tools to gruesomely slice and dismember the Necromorphs complement Isaac's signature plasma cutter, empowering him as he meets new characters, explores epic zero-G environments, and fights against a relentless Necromorph onslaught.

A release date for Dead Space 2 (...)

 Continue reading 'Dead Space 2 Screenshots, Video Interview'...

Along with yesterday's new teaser trailer labeled "Leave A Message", Electronic Arts also revealed the release date for this year's Medal of Honor shooter: October 12, 2010 in North America, and October 15 in Europe. Being the first game in the series to completely change the theater of operations, leaving the battlefields of WWII for a more contemporary kind of conflict, EA saw fit to reset its title to Medal of Honor - period.



As the publisher's press-release-for-dummies explains, this "emotionally charged trailer" shows "a U.S. Army Ranger platoon heading into combat aboard a helicopter. The chaos and uncertainty of the mission is belied by the reassuring voice of one of the Rangers as he reaches out to his family back home" (insert crocodile tears). Aaanyway...

The setting chosen for this new Medal of Honor is that of war-torn Afghanistan, as seen though the lens of a small band of fictional characters. Players will be introduced to (...)

 Continue reading 'Medal of Honor Release Date, With New Trailer'...

The game formerly known as ArcaniA: A Gothic Tale has been revealing itself quite nicely over the last few days, first with a batch of screenshots (included way down below), followed this week by a couple of trailers and a high-res cover art. It's been a pretty long time since we've seen Gothic 4 in motion, and although I wouldn't call these trailers impecable, they are impressive enough to make fans forget - if only for a couple of minutes - that the series' original developer Piranha Bytes was abandoned by JoWooD, in favor of another team from Spellbound.



ArcaniA: Gothic 4 is currently planned for release in Fall 2010, on the PC, PS3 and Xbox 360. The story resumes 10 years after the end of Gothic 3, in a slightly changed world: the Southern Islands have become embroiled in a grueling conflict, and set the stage for the player to brave countless adventures in the guise of a nameless hero. Old acquaintances and new faces will aid the hero or attempt to thwart his efforts throughout his epic journey. Especially the members of the fairer sex will play a more important role. Who knows maybe the women will make the hero's life a little more (...)

 Continue reading 'ArcaniA: Gothic 4 Trailers, Screens, Cover Art'...

Ubisoft's Romanian studio is back at work on what it usually does best: military sims, be they naval (Silent Hunter 3 and above), aerial or otherwise. In this case, aerial, as yesterday brought the announcement of Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X. 2. The sequel to last year's "over one million units" selling HAWX is planned for release in Fall 2010, for the PC, PS3, Xbox 360 and Wii platforms.



Much like the previous game, HAWX 2 also promises to plunge fans into an explosive environment where they can become elite aerial soldiers in control of the world's most technologically advanced aircraft. The game is meant to appeal to a wide array of gamers, as players will have the chance to control exceptional pilots trained to use cutting edge technology in amazing aerial warfare missions.

The game's official website is now ready for a very brief inspection, though offering little more than the above artwork. Which, by the way, had the following amusingly erroneous description embedded in its file: (...)

 Continue reading 'Tom Clancy's HAWX 2 Takes Off In Fall 2010'...

Several years ago (back when we were still posting on this website), it would've been a fitting way to start an article about Star Wolves by writing how underrated it was, how unique of a space-RPG gameplay it offered. But by now, the same can hardly be said about its latest sequel, Star Wolves 3, anymore. Or maybe that's just my EVE Online addiction talking... Anyway, the Russian publisher 1C Company is pushing on with the series, and today announced an upcoming expansion pack called Star Wolves 3: Ashes of Victory.



Developed by the same vodka-drenched bunch from Elite Games Team, the expansion is currently set for a Q3 2010 release. Among its advertised features, there will be improved graphics, a large-scale scenario covering more than 110 solar systems, "thoroughly re-worked" tactical and role-playing systems (a hint at how terribly flawed said systems were in the first place?), new NPCs, new factions, new ships, weapons, equipment, (...)

 Continue reading 'Star Wolves 3 Expands With Ashes of Victory'...

I came. Then I heard the soundtrack from Dragon Age: Origins' otherwise kick-ass E3 2009 trailer, and went numb again.

 (...)

 Continue reading 'There Be Dragon Age E3 Screenshots'...

Backtracking through four websites, all the way to a most obscure original source, I can only wonder what the hell am I missing here... Epic's CliffyB made it pretty clear some months ago that they're not doing a PC version "this time around" (unless he meant to say "at this time"), and yet some are desperately holding on to the hope of seeing Gears of War 2 ported to the PC. Conceivable as that may sound.

The rumor resurfaced last night over on IGN, whose syntactically-challenged report claims that "there were plenty of details [about Gears of War 2] that appeared to be pulled from an upcoming press release and even a preliminary box shot with the Games for Windows logo stamped on the front and limited edition details". Said source even offered pre-orders for Gears of War 2, with a release date allegedly set for December 4, 2009.

Bullshit? Oh, you bet! Right now, there doesn't seem to be any reference to the sequel's PC version on said website; not anymore, at least. Kotaku did catch a glimpse of it, though, and what they found out is rather amusing:

"(...) And then there's the fact that the retail codes are all for The Golden Compass. Yes, the UPC code, MPN number, and ASIN identifier all point to Sega's PC version of The Golden Compass, based on the theatrical version of the book, which did indeed feature a war, but instead of gears, we have bears. Bears of war.

Naturally, Microsoft's reps are still denying any plans for a PC version. Seriously, are people that desperate for gaming "news" after the E3 dried out the scene?

The PR gals from Nintendo must be arching their backs and twitching with delight, at the sight of another BIG, round number to spice up their communiques. 20 million units - that's the latest figure announced by the company (via GI.biz), representing the number of Wii consoles sold in the United States as of May 2009.

Some 244,000 units were swooped off the shelves last month, which is still a decent figure despite the console's more solid average of 645,000 units sold / month since its November 2006 debut in the territory. Confident - if not outright cocky - about their retail superiority, Nintendo of America's Cammie Dunaway (executive vice president of sales and marketing) indulged herself in a subtly mocking comment with regard to Microsoft and Sony's motion-sensing technologies announced at E3 last week:

"The continued enthusiastic consumer response to our products shows that Nintendo has something for everyone. (...) For Nintendo, precision motion controls and social gaming are realities today."

Add to that the roughly 8 million Wiis sold in Japan, plus way over 20 million elsewhere, and you get 50+ million Wii consoles sold worldwide since launch. So yeah, I'd say that the Wii still kicks ass. If only more of its games would, too...