Category Archives: Gaming News

PS3 Cross-Game Chat Is Impossible Due To RAM Restrictions

Ouch… well, at least now we know the real reason Sony was so reluctant to include cross game chat in one of their updates. According to an interview Eurogamer had with Shuhei Yoshida, the Sony Worldwide Studios president admitted that the PS3 does not have enough ram to implement cross-game chat. The PS3 has 256MB of RAM each for the system and video, and all of it is used to run games. He states that the games themselves implement the voice chat feature, not the system. Because of the infrastructure of the PS3, and the possibility of alienating owners of newer PS3 models, Yoshida stated “It’s not possible to retrofit something like that after the fact.”

So there you have it. If you’re curious, the Vita has 512MB of RAM and 128MB of video RAM. So that little thing is quite a beast in that department.

Why the PS3 can’t do cross-game chat [Eurogamer]

Sonic Generations Trailer Shows More Stages, More Tails, + Mushroom Hill on 3DS

Leave a reply

Here’s another new trailer for Sonic Generations, fresh off GamesCon in Germany. It shows of the usual stuff we’ve seen so far for this game. But it we see a new stage being shown off. From what it looks like, it’s the stage from Sonic 2006. Or it could be that stage from Sonic Unleashed. Not too sure as I try to stay the hell away from these games as much as I can. On the bright side of things, Tails shows up at the very end of the trailer. Not sure if there will be any two-player support akin to Sonic 3 & Knuckles, but his appearance could spell constant death sounds behind you.

If you want to see some Mushroom Hill action on the 3DS, jump in.

Continue reading →

Soul Calibur V Gets A New Trailer, and Some Character Reveals As Well

Leave a reply

Elvis hair Maxi, bipolar Tira, chastity armor Hilda, and badass Mitsurugi make their debut in this latest trailer for Soul Calibur V. Voldo is also confirmed, but he (thankfully) is not present in the trailer. Right as the beginning, we can see that the development team’s “Project Soul” logo has a new look, so I guess they’re serious this time. After some brief cuts of some charters in their idle stances, we see the action. It looks largely the same as others in the series. But we do get glimpses of some of the characters Super Combo – like attacks, like Sigfried’s and Ivy’s. Soul Calibur V is scheduled for release next year.

Square Enix To Be Called Square…Just Square [Update]

1 Reply

Update: According to Dualshockers (via N4G), Square Enix has shot down rumors of rebranding, stating that both the Square Enix name and brand will remain as is. I’ll keep the original article up for your amusement.

Remember that epic merger that occurred at the turn of the millennium, where two of the largest rivals came together to become one Voltron of a conglomerate? If you say Nintendo and SEGA, give yourself a pat on the back ’cause that’s the wrong one. I’m of course talking about Squaresoft (Final Fantasy) and Enix (Dragon Quest) becoming Square Enix. Lots of things have happened since the merger, namely the departure of Squaresoft from EA, and the acquisition of Taito and Eidos, Well, since Square has more subsidiaries under its belt, having the name “Square Enix” is making less of an impact. And being called Square-Enix-Taito-Eidos is out of the question. So, according to a recent article by GotGame, Square Enix will be changing its name to Square in what may be an attempt to create a central family name, like Rockstar and all the other Rockstar branches. To some, this may bring back memories of old Square from the NES and SNES days. But this today’s Square is different from yesterday’s Square. We shall see if Square regains any of that old time quality with this re-branding.

Square Enix to Drop Enix [GotGame]

Here’s Lollipop Chainsaw, In Trailer Form [update]

Leave a reply

[Now with Youtube feed]

Accompanied by the old song “Lollipop,” We finally see Suda 51’s latest game Lollipop Chainsaw in action. The combat seems to borrow a bit from another Suda hit No More Heroes as the game’s main star, Juliet, with chainsaw in hand, fights smaller groups of zombies while the others wait to have a go at her. We can see her fighting in the halls, classroom, and gymnasium of her school, San Romero Highschool. Not sure if it’s just effects for the trailer, but the zombies seem to bleed not just blood, but glitter, hearts, and rainbows as well. It’s a Suda game, so this is normal folks. The story is being written by Hollywood director James Gunn and is being published by Warner Bros. Games.

Operation Rainfall: “Go Buy Final Fantasy”

Leave a reply

This is part of the second campaign they have prepared in trying to convince Nintendo to bring over Xenoblade, The Last Story, and Pandora’s Tower. As mentioned almost two weeks ago, Operation Rainfall was going to ready another mailing campaign in which they’ll send letters to Nintendo again the day Xenoblade is released in Europe. Since then, Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime said that they’ll “be watching very closely what happens in Europe… Certainly if there are business opportunities and positive consumer uptake from some of those titles, that will be great data for us to consider as we look at what to do with these titles.” It somewhat falls in line with what Operation Rainfall wanted to do in their second phase in regards to increasing awareness of Xenoblade in Europe to make it a success.

So what of Final Fantasy? Well, Operation Rainfall is telling its supporters to go and buy the original Final Fantasy on the Wii Virtual Console, which costs 500 Wii Points. This is to show Nintendo that there is still a market for JRPGs. I can see their logic in telling its supporters to buy Final Fantasy as it’s one of the most well known J-RPGs out there. However, the one main flaw I see in that is that Final Fantasy, as a franchise, is pretty popular based on brand recognition alone and is not very niche like the Rainfall titles. Plus, the first Final Fantasy has been on so many platforms already, people are bound to already have it on one of them (I have it on PS1). In a sense, Final Fantasy has that somewhat Mario-like transcendence of genre to the point that those who don’t normally play JRPGs still play Final Fantasy (either that or they have no idea that Final Fantasy is a JRPG). A better idea would’ve been to tell supporters to buy a JRPG from the Virtual console rather than a specific one. Maybe compile a list of what is considered a JRPG, like Breath of Fire II or Ys Book 1 & 2 for example, and let supporters choose. Now it may be problematic as numbers would be sporadic amongst many titles rather than it being condensed into one title, thus having those sales be attributed to regular run-of-the-mill sales. If they really needed to choose one title, Final Fantasy wasn’t the answer.

Sonic Generations Chemical Plant Screenshots (Oh, and Some Footage Too!)

Leave a reply

Maybe I’m a sucker for falling into the Sonic Cycle (the part where I’m hyped for an upcoming Sonic game), but one can’t help but just be giddy knowing that old Sonic stages are getting remade for Sonic Generations. We already saw Green Hill Zone (and played it on the demo). But just recently, SEGA has unveiled Chemical Plant Zone. First appearing in Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Chemical Plant was the second zone you traversed. It was known for it’s many wavy blue paths, tubes that shot into all over the place, the Mega Mack (that purple water than was responsible for demise during childhood), and of course, that kick-ass theme song that even had the SNES kids bopping their head to the beat. This was a huge departure from the first game’s second stage, Marble Zone, which was more about careful exploration a more mellow, if volatile, atmosphere. Here, it was all about speed and pushing forward to avoid the mega mack. It seems in this remake for Generations, Metal Sonic will be the boss. As Modern sonic, Chemical Plant starts to explode. Pics and footage after the jump.

Continue reading →

Catherine Sells 200,000 Copies in its First Week, Hachi Calls Doctor to Aid in Removing Jaw From Floor

2 Replies

Ah, I would do everything to you...

Source: Anime News Network

In an announcement that I found quite shocking, Atlus recently revealed by way of Twitter that seemingly niche Puzzler Catherine had managed to sell 200,00 copies in its first week on shelves. I found myself quite surprised by this, as I fully expected the game to fade into the background due to its…unusual nature.

Continue reading →

Operation Rainfall Readies a New Mailing Campaign

1 Reply

Fan movement Operation Rainfall has completed their initial three mailing campaign, which targeted Xenoblade, The Last Story, and Pandora’s Tower for NTSC localization. The last expected day that Nintendo would have received their letter was on July 27 (the campaign for Pandora’s Tower). Since then, Nintendo has released their release calendar(,pdf, pg 6) for the rest of the year, and still none of the above mentioned games were found on that list. To make matters worse, Nintendo has reported a massive financial loss in the last fiscal year due in part to poor sales of the 3DS and Wii (plus the massive drought occurring on the Wii). This might make the localizing of the Rainfall titles even more of a risk as now Nintendo is going to play in the safest of ways possible. Maybe that huge price cut on the 3DS might turn the tables, but for now, things are looking very gloomy.

Continue reading →

Xenoblade Confirmed… For Australia

Leave a reply

Usually at the butt of every joke in the videogame community and sometimes more screwed over than gamers in Germany, Australia can celebrate as its getting Xenoblade (under the EU name of Xenoblade Chronicles). At first, the game getting classified by the OFLC sparked rumors that Xenoblade would come out in Australia, But now it has been confirmed. No release date yet, but it pains us NA gamers to see other Nintendo branches become cooler than ours. Ours is run by a Suit in gamer’s clothing.

Xenoblade Chronicles Confirmed for Australia [Nintendo World Report]

Operation Rainfall

Relius Clover coming to Blazblue Continuum Shift II

Leave a reply

Relius Clover is the latest addition to Blazblue Continuum Shift II’s playable roster. A new arcade update will be coming this winter that will have him join the fighters, as well as add further balance changes to the game. Relius will be using a doll to do his dirty work for him, just like his son, but it hasn’t be revealed just how closely his gameplay may or may not be compared to Carl’s.

I’ve been hoping for Relius to join the cast for sometime now, however nothing has been mentioned about whether he will be arriving on console versions of the game yet. I don’t see Arc System Works not bringing him over though, as the other added characters have all become available through DLC. Then again, with the way fighting games have been handled as of recent times, I don’t know what to think anymore.

Source: Siliconera

New and Old Characters Revealed for Soul Calibur V

3 Replies

Namco has shown off six new characters for its upcoming Soul Calibur V. SCV takes place 17 years after the events of the lackluster SCIV. The new main character for this entry is Sophitia’s son, Patroklos. Pyrrha, Sophitia’s daughter (thus Patroklos sister) has been shown as well. As expected, they don the sword & shield like their mother. Ivy seems to have not aged at all for the past 17 years. But I think she realized a lot of people were looking at her assets last time and decided to cover up. That ninja girl, now revealed to be Taki’s disciple, is Natsu. Will she be replacing Taki in the fighting arena is yet to be seen. Mitsurugi. Older. Badass. Siegfried is back, sporting some stubble and, if the story of Soul Calibur is anything to go by, probably too powerful for his own good. And we have Zwei, a new fighter that just screams Maxi wannabe. But, he doesn’t use nun-chucks. He appears to be using a tonfa-like sword (which would make one believe he’s had some interaction with Talim), but his weapon is much bigger than Talim’s tonfas, and he only has one. Lots of mystery surrounding this guy. Gallery after the jump.

Continue reading →

Grasshopper Announces Lollipop Chainsaw

Leave a reply

Image from Famitsu

Fresh off releasing Shadows of the Damned, Grasshopper has revealed their latest game, Lollipop Chainsaw. According to Famitsu batch of screenshots (which I’ll send you to in a minute), it looks like this might be a third-person game. Not necessarily of the TPS-like variety, if some of the game art means anything. The main star, Juliet, is a cheerleader that is also a Zombie Hunter. She can also use some cheerleader moves to dispatch her foes (and even use pompoms!).

The story goes that she’s from a lineage of zombie hunters. One day, zombies start to terrorize her school, San Romero Highschool (hehe I see what you did there). She whips out her chainsaw, and gets to work. Does it make sense? Not much. But it looks like Suda 51 is involved in this, so it’s automatically awesome and completely bananas. It’s slated to release on PS3 and Xbox360. The game currently has no release date.

『LOLLIPOP CHAINSAW（ロリポップチェーンソー）』須田剛一氏が贈る猛毒ゾンビ青春アクション！ [via Andriasang]

Ultimate MvC3 confirmed, coming in November [Update]

1 Reply

We’ve all been hearing about the recent rumor that Capcom may be giving MvC3 the Super Street Fighter treatment, but it looks like we don’t have to wonder anymore, it’s official…Ultimate MvC3 is happening. Along with the announcement, Capcom has released a debut trailer, which can be seen above, to showcase some of the new changes. From what’s shown in the video, we can see that several characters have new and altered moves, and the game will be adding Ghost Rider, Strider Hiryu, Hawkeye, and Firebrand to it’s roster, with more characters to be revealed in the future.

I have to say, this news doesn’t make me very happy. It doesn’t help that the original MvC3 has only been out for about 5 months. That fact aside, maybe it’s because I’m still torn over Capcom’s decision to cancel Megaman Legends 3, a game that a large number of fans have been waiting over 10 years for. Or perhaps it’s because, while I can still enjoy MvC3 to a degree, the game felt incomplete from the get go and this just feels like a way to squeeze more money out of the franchise. Or maybe, just maybe, it’s because Capcom has been slowly decaying into a nearly unrecognizable shell of its former self during this console generation, screwing over fans left and right. Regardless of the reason, Ultimate MvC3 is coming in November, and it’s coming to stay.

Update: All 12 new characters have been leaked, you can see the list and pictures after the jump.

Continue reading →

Megaman Legends 3 Has Been Cancelled

3 Replies

Megaman Death Sound

You hear that sound when Megaman dies. That’s not Megaman dying. That’s Capcom, becoming a former shadow of itself, becoming a company different than what I grew up with. That sound is the many visions of my childhood, growing up with Capcom, vanishing. This is not the same Capcom anymore. That company that made all those games back then… Megaman, Megaman X, Ghosts n Goblins, DuckTales, Resident Evil, Dino Crisis, Street Fighter, Darkstalkers, Zelda: Oracle of Ages and Seasons, Zelda: The Minish Cap, Marvel vs. Capcom, Devil May Cry… and Megaman Legends, one of the games that defined my childhood… This is not the same company.

This is not Capcom. This is Capcom Co., Ltd., a corporation with an air of arrogance and a belief that it knows better than thou. A company reaping the benefits of cheap, western outsourcing, only two fighting games in the market, and rip-off after rip-off (on-disc) dlc. There is no more Unity, as they proclaim. We are not fans to them. We are just customers now. We are not defined by our heads, our arms, our thumbs, our legs… no. We are defined by our wallets, like massive breasts in an office. That is all they want now. Well Capcom, enjoy this new world you made for yourself, this gray, dreary world. I’ll stay on this side, where I can still enjoy the old games you made.

I could do my usual journalistic breakdown of what happened and the reasons behind. But I’ll let Destructoid handle it. To me, this goes far deeper into what makes me a gamer.

Mega Man Legends 3 officially cancelled [Destructoid]