Last week we revealed the Eastern Conference rosters that will be available in the upcoming NBA Jam, which releases on October 5 for the Wii and is also bundled into the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions of NBA Elite 11. This week we get a chance to check out the Western Conference rosters. What is the conference going to look like? Check it out below.
Castlevania might become the next Japanese franchise to fall victim to the call to make that country's games appeal more directly to Western audiences. The franchise needs change, but must still remain Castlevania. Castlevania: Lords of Shadow is being developed in Spain by MercurySteam, similar to how the last two Silent Hill games were developed in the United States and United Kingdom, and the next one is coming out of Czechoslovakia. The Spanish producer of Lords of Shadow revealed that Konami over in Japan ordered him to make the game feel more western to appeal to more mainstream audiences.
There is no doubt that Japanese style role-playing games require an acquired taste; rarely do you find someone who doesn't either love or hate the genre. As such, Final Fantasy XIII's game director, Motomu Toriyama believes he has an explanation for why some Western scores for his game are a bit low. In a recent issue of Xbox World 360, Toriyama said, "We think many reviewers are looking at Final Fantasy XIII from a western point of view. When you look at most Western RPGs, they just dump you in a big open world, and let you do whatever you like... [It] becomes very difficult to tell a compelling story when you're given that much freedom". Whether or not the review scores are the result of a Western perspective, this is certainly a JRPG that will service fans of the genre. Those who don't like this type of game should steer clear, because while it may bring new features to the franchise, it is loyal to the Final Fantasy formula that polarizes gamers.
Kojima's latest endeavor is panning out to big a one. The 'main man' even said himself that Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker is worthy of the Metal Gear 5 name. There's no doubt the series' next installment will service its fans. As with any major title of epic proportions, delays are expected. Japan was expecting a March 18th release, but won't acutally arrive until April 29th. Western gamers will however remain unaffected. May 27th is still the European release date and North American gamers will get their MGS fix on May 25th.
See if you can picture it: a Final Fantasy game featuring space marines and gangstas, riding Chocobos and airships across a desolate landscape to drop a bomb-fueled Summon on a resurrected Adolf Hitler. It could happen, according to Square Enix President Yoichi Wada.
After a few previous opportunities, the demo for the upcoming Bayonetta will be available to everyone in western territories with next week's console store updates. No changes have been mentioned from the demos previously made available. The last two times the Bayonetta demo was made available users had to jump through a few hoops to get it. In the beginning of October prior to the game's October 30th release, the demo was made available on Xbox Live and Playstation Network in their Japanese regions. Many western users got the demo with Japanese accounts and you still can if you don't want to wait another week. The first official availability of the Bayonetta demo in the west was with a promotion that offered the chance to win the demo on Xbox Live to subscribers to Sega's newsletter. The promotion ended on November 13th and wasn't available on Playstation Network however. December 3rd will be the first official release of the Baoynetta demo in the west for PS3 owners or anyone who didn't want to sign up for a newsletter or make a fake Japanese account. There has been much worry and speculation over the PS3 version of Bayonetta's western release in January. It is doubtful that any of Sega's response will show up in this demo.
Hot on the heels of Atlus' announcement that they'd be publishing 3D Dot Game Heroes in North America, a March 10 release date, and a $40 price tag, we now have the Western launch trailer. It tells the story of Dotnia, a once-peaceful 2D kingdom overcome by evil. Fortunately, a hero appeared and "restored the peace." Now Dotnia has moved into its three-dimensional era and is in need of a new hero. This is all set to a very familiar musical theme and the whole thing is chock-full of gaming nostalgia. Some may complain it's just a Zelda rip-off, others would call it an 'homage'. Either way, it doesn't mean 3D Dot Game Heroes can't be a good game in its own right.
Some interesting news has been popping up regarding the Western release of Monster Hunter 3. To be more specific, while nothing is concrete, it could see some considerable changes from its Japanese counterpart. Via Nintendo Everything, G4TV.com has an interview with Producer Ryozo Tsjmoto, wherein he notes that "We're looking into a bunch a different things and one of the things is definitely like, a lot of users have asked for voice chat."
Curse those Japanese Xbox 360 owners! Curse them, and their ability to download Virtual On when it comes to Xbox LIVE Arcade! Why can't we be so fortunate? Why can't we-- Wait, what's that? Well, it appears that fortune has indeed smiled upon us this day, as SEGA has chosen to make it known that the 3D mech fighting game will be available to Western Xbox LIVE players this Spring. The HD re-release will have online multiplayer for one-on-one matches, as well as single-player fun, and a score attack mode that runs over 14 stages. You can check out a video of it here.
Oh, man. You have no idea how long I've been waiting for Microsoft to get to this stuff for their NXE Avatars. I remember seeing an image of a guy with the hat on the first day they had the NXE available, and they're only now giving it to me. Finally. In fact, it's more than just the hat; Microsoft has added a bunch of free clothing with which you can customize your Avatar, including some boots, a hat, and a couple of trench coats, including classic black (shown) and a western duster. It's still too bad that you can't alter the colors of clothing, but I'm fine with that now. I've got my hat, and a bonus coat to go with it. Now I finally feel like my Avatar looks right. And for those who haven't touched their Avatars since November, it's easy to see what's new: Just check for the gold star that appears on each item that's been added since the last time you signed into the Avatar editor. Now, if we can just get some stuff for the Miis...
Sign in with Facebook
John Doe