Category Archives: Gaming News

E3 2016: New Berserk Dynasty Warriors Game Announced, Hachi Runs out of Synonyms for Disbelief

Well, fancy seeing you here.

It is merely E3 eve and yet we’re already getting announcement bombed.

In a move that I could not have conceived in even my deepest inebriation (and trust me, that is some DEEP shit), Omega Force, which is the team in Koei Tecmo that works on the Sangoku Musou aka Dynasty Warriors series and most of it’s spinoffs, announced that the newest anime-fused branch of the franchise would be Berserk Musou, which will theoretically combine the hacking and slashing action of the Warriors games with Berserk, Kentaro Miura’s long-running masterpiece of dark fantasy and incredibly brutal horror. Continue reading →

Square Enix Announces Final Fantasy XII Remaster, Hachi Tries to Remember Who The Hell Vaan is

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Return to a world where young man-boys quest to find enough material to complete their vests. And save the world. But mostly the vests.

In a genuinely surprising move, Squeenix announced a PS4 remaster of Final Fantasy XII called Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age, to release in 2017. Some of you may remember Final Fantasy XII as “That One Kid in the FF Family Who is Totally as Cool as his Siblings, But Wears Weird Clothes and Chose to be a Philosophy Major in College so his Parents Pretend he Doesn’t Exist Anymore: The Game.” There have been rumors for a long time that something like this was in the works, but most questions had been shot down with prejudice, making the rather sudden announcement even more of a shock.

Also, the game may have starred young Gary Busey.

According to the press release, the game will feature the now-standard visual cleanups and texture enhancements, re-recorded soundtrack and a few of the bonuses that were previously exclusive to the Japanese version of the game. Also, apparently there’s a new trial mode with up to 100 consecutive battles for those who thought Yiazmat was not enough proof that God is real and he hates you and wants you to cry Continue reading →

Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 Announced, Hachi Begins Formulating Testicle Puns

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When the hype hits you right in the fucking face.

It’s been a pretty good past few years to be a Dragon Ball fan. The remastered version of the original series, Dragon Ball Kai, brought the series back into focus for modern anime fans who may have been too young to watch it upon its original release, or who had some moral opposition to men screaming and flexing for three episodes at a time. We got some OVAs here, an anniversary short there, and although the video games have been highly hit-and-miss in the wake of the Tenkaichi trilogy on the PS2, they all sold well enough to prove the franchise still had economic heft to it. The real resurgence came with the release and subsequent box office success of a new feature-length film, 2013’s Battle of Gods, which did great business not only in Japan, but in limited theater releases in other countries as well. Add in another highly successful film, 2015’s Resurrection ‘F’ (which yours truly had the pleasure of seeing on the big screen) and an entirely new television series following on from the aforementioned two movies that just wrapped up its first major plot arc, and it’s almost enough to make one forget the occasional trash we were served with for the past decade.

“Almost” being the operative word here.

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Newest JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure Game Announced for Release in the West, Hachi’s Shrieks Reverberate in Taiwan

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So many colors, so little time.

Source: Gematsu

Namco Bandai, in their continuing bid to earn my undying affection and sexual favor, have announced today that JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Eyes of Heaven will release “In the Americas” sometime in Summer 2016 on the PS4. This announcement actually comes less than a week after the game’s release in Japan.

For those who don’t know, JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure is an extremely long-running manga series in Japan, focusing on the, well, bizarre adventures of the Joestar family, as they take on vampires, ancient Aztec demigods, superpowered mafia dons and time-bending clergy. This of course is a grievous oversimplification of the plot, which spans hundreds of chapters and eight individual parts over more than 20 years of publication, but all you really need to know is that it’s a shounen action story that embraces a colorfully gaudy aesthetic to create one of the most flamboyant, and amazingly fun, fighting series ever, where characters are likely to vogue while explaining their powers to each other and contort like dance-models while battling. Think Ru Paul’s Drag Race meets Fist of the North Star, mixed with Shaman King, and just meditate on how amazing that is. Continue reading →

Nintendo President Satoru Iwata Has Passed Away

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In what could be be described as sudden and profoundly saddening, Nintendo has announced that its current president, Satoru Iwata, has passed away. They explain in a very short message that his death was due to a bile duct growth. He had surgery to remove this growth last year, which concerned many since it meant that he would skip out on last year’s E3. Upon his return, it seemed like everything was fine and that the surgery was a success. That is until today when Nintendo told us the news. According to their “Notification of Death and Personnel Change of a Representative Director (President)” (PDF) document, Iwata had actually died last Saturday, July 11th, and waited until today to fully confirm the news and relay the message to the public.

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Let’s Watch And Analyze The First Gameplay Trailer of Persona 5

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So far news pertaining to Persona 5 has been pretty scant. The first trailer used chairs with ball & chains attached to them, with only the tagline “You are a slave. Want emancipation?” to go along with them. The second trailer showed a lot more, this time showing the main protagonist in a train heading towards the main city. Still, there wasn’t much we could go on except that whatever enemy was there showed up in the real world. So now we come to this, the first trailer to show gameplay as well as a lot more info than what the previous trailers were willing to let out. The quick cuts might be too much to take in or outright miss. So let’s break this down bit by bit.

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Shin Megami Tensei IV Finally Releasing in Europe… As Download-Only Title

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This’ll be somewhat bittersweet for European fans. Shin Megami Tensei IV was released in Japan and North America last year, and in both regions it was released in a long-box with a tribute CD containing prelude remixes of past mainline SMT games, a concept artbook with liner notes to said CD, and for — NA fans — a mini strategy guide that came part of the artbook. European fans were hoping for some sort of announcement about a release, sometime taking to the European Miiverse community for Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers. It was announced for Europe last year during a Nintendo Direct. Fans suspected that Nintendo of Europe would be publishing the game. Others thought it would be NIS America doing it due to a partnership between Atlus and NISA. But it looks like Atlus will be doing it themselves, and the only way to go is digital.

While they’re finally getting the game they’ve been asking for, they’ll be missing out on the extra goodies the other regions have gotten. On the bright side, most of us on the staff liked the game a lot, pretty much cracking into the top 5 games of 2013 for anyone that happened to play it (there were top 5s for each staff member). We don’t want to spoil much, but to our European readers that know their SMT, you still gotta know your buffs and debuffs, and early on learn to like the hell out of Blight. And watch out for “David”.

[via Atlus USA’s Facebook page]

Final Fantasy Type-0 Finally Heading Westward on PS4

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It’s been a long time coming, but Final Fantasy Type-0 is confirmed to be heading our way on the PS4. Previously known as Final Fantasy Agito XIII, Type-0 was released on the PSP in Japan only. Many fans asked for a localization, organizing a OpRainfall style campaign called Operation Suzaku. However due to the western market for the PSP being a virtual ghost town (among other, shady reasons), Square Enix didn’t budge. Fans soon came together to try and translate the game to English, and were successful in the endeavor. So far details are scarce as to what new feature this HD version will have. But fans can rest easy knowing that they can finally play the game.

The plot of Final Fantasy Type-0 is a lot darker than its earlier iteration when it still had its Agito name. The world, Orience, is divided by four nations. They are Rubrum, Milites, Lorican, and Concordia. The story follows Class Zero of the Fiefdom of Rubrum as they try to deal with the ongoing conflict between the nations. The gameplay is action based and played similarly to Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII. The flow of gameplay is mission based, with Story missions to advance the story, and side missions for extra items, experience, and side stories. The game also has larger battles where you can control a whole army.

Final Fantasy Type-0 HD is set to released on the PS4. A release date is yet to be determined.

Final Fantasy Type-0 HD Coming to PS4 [Playstation Blog]

[E3 2014] Nintendo Direct Live Reaction

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Last year, Nintendo skipped the traditional press conference in favor of doing a Nintendo Direct presentation. While the idea sound, their use of UStream’s service saw some viewers, including us, experiencing lag, skipping, and entire reveals just not airing. However this time they’ll be using Twitch as their main streaming service. Steam technicalities aside, Wii U sales haven’t been too hot for Nintendo since last E3. While there would be upticks when certain games released, sales would be back down to their previous levels. One of the heavy hitters, Mario Kart 8, saw sales of the Wii U increase in the U.S. and Europe, but now so much in Japan. On the 3Ds side, things are stronger than ever with games like Tomodachi Life, Bravely Default, and Shin Megami Tensei IV releasing on the handheld. But now it’s about the future. Who will be the next challenger for SSB4? What will X’s final name be? And when the hell will we finally see some Shin Megami Tensei X Fire Emblem action?

Note: due to last year’s incident with Youtube’s Content ID system hitting us as we were streaming the Sony Conference on Hangouts On-Air, we’ll only be showing our ourselves as we watch the conference, without the conference feed itself. Sorry for the inconvenience.

[E3 2014] Sony Press Conference Live Reaction

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Next up is Sony’s time in the spotlight. Sony dropped the mic last year when it took jabs at Microsoft’s DRM policy with withe their Xbox One. The PS4 launch was strong, but not a lot of big games have come out for it, at least not exclusively. While the PS4 leads in the graphics and hardware department, there are still some that are hanging tight to the 7th generation as games are still releasing on the PS3 and Xbox 360. On the Vita, while it is getting the identity as the Niche Gamer’s Handheld, sales of the Vita are still a little slow to move. They did reveal the new Vita slim however, but it still needs that big game that moves the handheld in the sales department. What will Sony show off to attract more people to their newer systems? Will they once again drop the mic like last year? Or will they be on the receiving of said mic dropping?

Note: due to last year’s incident with Youtube’s Content ID system hitting us as we were streaming the Sony Conference on Hangouts On-Air, we’ll only be showing our ourselves as we watch the conference, without the conference feed itself. Sorry for the inconvenience.

[E3 2014] Microsoft Press Conference Live Reaction

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It’s that time again, E3 is about to begin! Like last year, Microsoft will be kicking off the conferences, and they’ll have to make up for a lot. Last year saw them getting a lot of lip from Sony’s conference, and their old DRM policies were making fans shy away from their newest console, the Xbox One. But it’s a new year, and many things have changed. There is a Kinect-less Xbox One on the horizon, dropping the price of the console down 100 dollars to $399 US, same as the PS4. Now the question is, what will Microsoft show to convince fans to come back to Xbox?

Note: due to last year’s incident with Youtube’s Content ID system hitting us as we were streaming the Sony Conference on Hangouts On-Air, we’ll only be showing our ourselves as we watch the conference, without the conference feed itself. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Nintendo Reveals Gamecube Controller Adapter For Wii U, Rules and Players for SSB4 Invitational

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In a move people may or may not have seen coming, Nintendo has announced that the Wii U version of Super Smash Bros. 4 will be playable via Gamecube controller adapter, revealed at the end of a trailer detailing the Smash Bros. Invitational tournament. Let’s talk about that first. The tournament will take place on June 10 in the Nokia Theatre and will go from 4:00PM – 6:30PM PST (7:00PM – 9:30PM EST). They’ll be streaming the tournament live through Twitch. The announcers for the tournament will be Wynton “Prog” Smith, Bobby “Scar” Scarnewman, and D’ron “D1” Maingrette. Geoff Keighley will be the host of the show. As for the rules, the character a player chooses will be the character they stick with for the whole tournament. Not all the characters revealed so far will be playable at the tournament. The matches will be a 4-player free-for-all, 4 stock, will run for 5 minutes, with top 2 advancing. For the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd round, the items will be on. But for the grand finale, the items will be off. The last battle will take place on Battlefield and will be 1-on-1.

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Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection Comes To A Close

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Earlier this year we were warned by Nintendo that their Wi-Fi Connection online multiplayer service would come to a close. Well, today is the day. From today onward, all games that used Nintendo Wi-Fi connection for online multiplayer will be going offline. All of these games were released on the original Nintendo DS and Wii. Wii U and 3DS games will be unaffected as they use Nintendo Network for their online infrastructure. Nintendo has a list of games on their website, but it only cites games they themselves have published. There’s a bigger list of all games, both first and third party on both Wii and DS, that show what is affected. There is a there is also this list of games affected, but you’ll see that it goes way beyond Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection and further explains why this is happening.

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Senran Kagura: Shinovi Versus Confirmed for U.S. Release

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After many teases and inklings, we finally have confirmation that Senran Kagura Shinovi Versus will finally make it’s way westward, once again by XSEED. This entry of the game is a sequel to Senran Kagura Burst, and this one is a Vita game. First let’s talk how this will be sold. Not only will it be digital, there will also be a limited print run of Shinovi Versus. This edition will come with a soundtrack CD and a Shinobi Syllabus, a book containing illustrations, profiles, and strategies. I’m guessing it’ll be similar to the book that came with Shin Megami Tensei IV. XSEED hasn’t announced yet how one will be able to get a hold of these copies, though fans believe it could be through online shopfronts like Amazon. Pre-order methods have not been posted yet as of this writing.

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The Buried Atari E.T. Carts Have Been Found

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Photo by Larry Hyrb

This past week the public was invited to help out in digging up a location in a New Mexico desert where unsold copies of the the Atari E.T. game were buried. Microsoft’s Larry Hyrb was among the diggers. Things got very interesting when they dug up an Atari joystick in shambles. “A bit of evidence that we’re digging in the right place… ” the tweet reads, with accompanying picture. Then came the picture of the unearthed E.T. cart, confirming the urban legend to be true. Larry then posted another picture showing that E.T. wasn’t the only game buried in the landfill.

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