Without much shock Final Fantasy XIII has become the fastest selling PS3 game as many speculated it would. The game sold over 1 million copies on it’s first day and reached 1.5 million by it’s first week. Just as a comparison the previous record holder was Metal Gear Solid 4 which Final Fantasy XIII has doubled.
Also unsurprisingly the game has also moved a lot of PS3s, sales of Sony’s machine jumped from 75,086 units sold to 237,086 unit sold.
Final Fantasy XIII Breaks Japanese PS3 Sales Record
New Weezer songs coming to Rock Band
Harmonix and MTV Games today announced that a three pack of songs from Weezer, as well as singles from Limp Bizkit, Yellowcard and The Offspring will be added this week to the Rock Band Music Store of downloadable content for the Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, PlayStation 3 computer entertainment system and Wii.
A three pack of songs from the quintessential California rock band will be added to the Rock Band Music Store next week. “Weezer Pack 03” features “Beverly Hills” the hit single from 2005’s Make Believe, as well as “Let It All Hang Out” and “(If You’re Wondering If I Want You To) I Want You To,” both from their new album, Raditude, which was released Nov. 18 and debuted at No. 7 on the Billboard 200.
Downloadable content featured for LEGO Rock Band continues with “Guys Who Rock!” “Build a Bridge” from nu metal favorites Limp Bizkit, “A Lot Like Me” from American rockers The Offspring, and “Ocean Avenue” from eclectic rockers Yellowcard will all be available as singles in the Rock Band Music Store and the LEGO Rock Band Music Store next week.
Assault Heroes announced for PSN
Konami Digital Entertainment, Inc. today announced Assault Heroes for the PlayStation Network. A direct port from the critically acclaimed title on Xbox LIVE Arcade, Assault Heroes makes its way onto an all-new platform for non-stop action with explosive graphics that push the boundaries of a timeless 2D action arcade game.
“Assault Heroes was an extremely successful title on Xbox LIVE Arcade, so it was only fitting for us to bring it over to the PlayStation Network, where all gamers could get a taste of the intense arcade action,” said David Daniels, Director of Marketing of Konami Digital Entertainment Inc. “As the demand for downloadable content grows, Konami continues to deliver quality titles and judging by the track record of Assault Heroes, this was the perfect game to bring back for fans to enjoy on an entirely new platform.”
Players begin the game as the only surviving members of an elite Special Forces Unit tasked with uncovering a classified weapons program hidden deep within a secret underground lab. Featuring vibrant graphics and intense environments such as enemy war camps, Assault Heroes offers an arsenal of weapons including devastating flak cannons, flamethrowers and grenades to navigate through the levels. Assault Heroes also features interactive destructible battlefields and underground areas to discover, as players are able to explore environments by foot, speed boat onto sea, or traverse through the lands in a heavily armed 4×4 artillery vehicle. Missions can be played in single player mode or in 2-player cooperative mode with a friend locally or online in order to strategize their plan of attack. As an added bonus, competitive rankings on the online leaderboards can also motivate players to execute the sinister alien force and fight their way to the top of the charts. Assault Heroes will be available for download in 2010 for the PlayStation®Network.
Review: Naruto Shippuden: Clash Of Ninja Revolution 3 – Naruto and friends all growned up and still fighting
Anime fighting on video game consoles has always been a constant struggle to recapture the intensity of the manga battles that we all love. Today’s generation of games bring us closer at reliving the famous battles of the anime universe. Naruto Shippuden: CONR 3 for the wii, while different then its PS3 and Xbox 360 counterparts still bring us one step closer to this goal.
Naruto Shippuden: CONR 3 for the wii is a fighting style game where you choose a character from the manga series and duke it out with an opponent. There are different modes to play in such as the Story Mode, VS mode, and Online mode just to name a few. Naurto, Sakura, Kakashi and a few others are avalible at start however most of the characters have to be unlocked by buying them in the store in the game. Completing story missions in the game’s story line will help you gain money for these characters. You can also buy other things such as more options to toggle with. ( For example, more power, harder difficulty, etc…) Online play and collecting money for store items will give players plenty to do.
The fighting system is very easy to learn. Depending on what controller you are using on the game, for example the Gamecube controller, the A button is strong attack, the B button is weak attack and the L and R buttons are for dodging and counter attacks. Y button for throw. The X button is for Super Jutsu attack (or called secret technique) and lastly, the Z button is for switching characters in a tag battle match. Each character has a super gauge called Chakra which fills up from oncoming damage from your opponent. In my experience using the GC controller feels more intuitive. However you can also also use the wii remote (with nunchuck), and the classic remote for different styles of play.
Each player has their own different super moves, however they all have very similar basic attack combinations. What separates the characters though is the different animations. This is not a huge flaw but having basically the same moves for every character can get boring.
However some characters are very unique to use. Granny Chyio and Tsunde are the characters who use puppets in the game. In this example you can manuever them through the field but their attack puppets move only through attack. The plus side is that the puppets have an auto tracker, the player won’t have to change the attacking postion.
Battles in Naurto 3 can be both fun and challenging. Some characters can inflict stauts ailments on their opponents such as reversing direction orientation. In other words, left becomes right and right becomes left. There is a scene in the game’s story where Guy must face himself which was an interesting feature in the game. The catch is that the computer character will mimic your every move. The goal is to defeat the cpu utilizing the stage enviroments under a time limit, this puzzle-like element adds a dash of orginality in fighting games which is a huge welcome.
Visuals in Naruto 3 is pleasing for the most part. The game uses cell shaded graphics to convey the anime feel which is a classic way of presenting in most anime fighting games. The games moves at a solid 60 frames per second which is great. The character models are nicely detailed however the environments are not very texturized as the the characters are and it is pretty noticeable. However this graphical nag doesn’t take away from the fighting experience and still enjoyable.
The sound is standard of this fighting game. From the classic booms, bangs and blows landing sounds from the manga are all here. The voices in the game are straight from the american voices of the show. The voice acting sounds a bit pushed and to not have the option to switch to the japanese voice seems odd in this point in time with video games. The option to play the game in the very natural japanese voice would of add more vaule and enjoyment to the overall experience.
Naruto 3 for the Nintendo Wii is a nice rendition of the series. Easy pick up and play mechanics, running at a solid 60 fps, and online play makes for a well rounded Naurto experience. There is room for improvement however but the presentation is fairly solid. This iteration of Naruto for the Wii is a step foward for anime games and with more focus on solidifing the game play mechanics and visual presentation, it appears games have become grown up as the Naruto series itself.
Overall: 7.8
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L4D2 parody: Left 4 Speed 2
Here comes a parody for Left 4 Dead 2 that’ll surely have you LOL. Of course this is when you can salvage a moment from actually playing the game.
Square Enix ships a million copies of Final Fantasy XIII
The release dat for Final Fantasy XIII is December 17 in Japan and Square Enix is preparing for the much hyped RPG by shipping one million copies of the game on the first day. Another 150,000 is also planned to be shipped on the day of launch, with another 150,000 on the weekend. Important to note that the Xbox 360 version will not be released in Japan. Final Fantasy XIII will be released in the U.S. on March 9, 2010.
Need for Speed NITRO Launches New Facebook Game!
Need for Speed NITRO on Facebook makes its global social networking debut. Like it’s Wii and NDS inspiration, this new social application designed from the ground up for Facebook is a fun and interactive game that can be experienced by players and everyone in their social network. Compete against your friends, and other car lovers by collecting cars from all classes, and winning stars to unlock cities and complete the game. Improve “Driving Skills” on each car (shifting, drifting, drafting, cornering and evasion) and use NITRO-specific power ups to get the upper hand and take down rivals.
While this is not a replacement for the Wii or DS versions of the game, the free to play Need for Speed NITRO on Facebook, brings some of the favorite elements from the console game to the social media site. With full 3D models of the cars, along with the same great exotic cities and tracks, players and their friends will get a glimpse of what it feels like to compete and dominate on an international stage.
When Facebook users create their profile within the game, they’ll have a choice of all the same tags found in the Wii version of NITRO. This tag will represent the player to other opponents during the races. Prior to each race, they’ll choose a car from their garage and decide how much of each power-up to use (nitro, heat shield, and wrenches). They will then choose up to three opponents to compete against for the ultimate bragging rights, either with their Facebook friends or other players who have installed the app. Unlock more cities and cars as they take on more races. For more info click the link.
Batman: Arkham Asylum 2 announced
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UPDATE: Teaser trailer just added
Warner surprised everyone during the VGA Awards by announcing that they would publish Batman: Arkham Asylum 2. No release date announced of course, but i will say it will be out by summer 2010! lets wait and find out
Halo Reach premier trailer
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Last saturday on Spike TV premiered the first trailer to Halo Reach shown exclusively on the VGA’s 2009. We now bring you the trailer which will follow the story of the spartan team in their stand to defend the planet Reach. We’ll have more info as it comes in, for now enjoy the trailer.
Left 4 Dead 2 Review
One year after the release of the original, Left 4 Dead 2 has made its way onto store shelves after much controversy. First announced at E3 this year L4D2 has since been the target of boycotts supposedly supported by thousands of gamers who insisted that one year is too short of a time for a proper sequel. This fact rung especially true for Valve fans because of the developer usually taking extra amounts of time with their games. However fans who thought that L4D2 would be a rushed and undeveloped product will be surprised.
Left 4 Dead 2 though a sequel stays very close to the original’s formula, four survivors are pitted against hordes of zombies in the hopes of finding escape. The waves of common zombies are also complemented with “Special Infected”, these undead are much more dangerous and harder to kill and each have different abilities. This same basic foundation is completely intact for the sequel and rightfully so, the game makes for an excellent multiplayer experience that is rivaled by few other titles. Although the sequel is very close to the original there is of course plenty of differences as well. This time the game takes place in the American south, so you’ll get environments and characters that fit the theme well.
In the graphics department there isn’t much to talk about if you’re familiar with L4D. Characters are detailed and the environments are interactive but the real draw of the game is it’s ability to have dozens of zombies on screen at once, the game almost never slows down during the more hectic times and for that it definitely gets points. Artistically L4D2 is fairly similar to the original but with a southern theme painted over it. Overall there is little improvement over the original but that still puts the game above most titles on the current generation of systems.
Audio, like the graphics doesn’t have a whole lot of new things going on either but that’s only because the original was just that good. Zombies scream and grunt, each special infected has it’s own sounds and the music changes according to the happenings. What really shines however is the character dialog, like the original the characters have a lot of in game lines and they are all done very well. The southern accents fit extremely well with the characters and very few if any lines are acted out badly. Valve definitely takes pride in it’s character’s dialogs and it shows in L4D2.
The gameplay is where there is more variety in the game than its original. If you thought that the number of items and weapons in L4D were limited then you’ll definitely like L4D2’s inventory. One of the main draws of the game is its use of melee weapons, these range from axes to guitars, they work well when fighting off hordes of zombies and come as a welcome alternative to just using a pistol. Also the game offers more items like adrenaline shots that give you a temporary boost in speed and “bile canisters” that contain boomer vomit which can be used to turn the undead against each other. Defibrillators which can be carried instead of health packs can revive downed allies are also a welcome addition. The other major draw of L4D2 is also the new special infected, The Charger, The Spitter, and The Jockey. All of the new characters fit in well with the already established cast of infected and also provide a whole new dimension in versus mode.
All of the game modes in the original are here again, Campaign, Versus, and Survival were all great modes and are just as fun in L4D2. However in addition to these modes there is also Scavenge that puts an emphasis on collecting items and Realism mode that makes the campaign much harder to play through. All of these modes add up to a lot of replay value that makes the title well worth its price.
Overall Left 4 Dead 2 is a great game but mostly because the original was. There’s enough in here to warrant a purchase even if you bought the original and if you don’t own the original then Left 4 Dead 2 becomes a definite buy. Everything about the game shines with quality and when considering the sequel came out a year after it’s original this actually becomes a very impressive feat for the developer.
Overall 9.0
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