Famitsu just posted an article online showing off a bunch of screenshots from the upcoming console version of Tekken 6. The screens are from the new Scenario Campaign Mode, showing off some co-op action. As usual, the info is stuff that has been already posted before; you navigate through the world on a large-scale map, battling cannon fodder enemies before meeting up with an area boss (one of the regular Tekken roster). You can use weapons and earn money to buy items and customizations, etc. Each character apparently has a unique ending at the end of the Scenario mode.

There’s also a clear artwork of Zafina’s new extra console outfit so check it all out here.

Well, what can I say aside from DAMN I WANT THIS GAME NOWNOWNOW!!! The Scenario Campaign looks freakin’ huge and expansive, and I’m actually excited about it- mainly about what kind of story elements they’ll reveal, and just the simple fun of seeing your fave fighters double-teaming enemies. Anyway, it’s still about, man, 100 days to the game’s release. GAH!

But well, tomorrow at least will cut down our wait to a 2-digit number of days, brings another pair of character trailers and a new week of Tekken 6 manga action. Heheh… gotta love tomorrow! Later then, people.

Assassin’s Creed: Bloodlines will be bundled with a Playstation Portable Package.

Assassin’s Creed 2 will take place in Renaissance-era Italy and star Ezio Auditore de Firenze, a young assassin and Italian descendant of Altair. As quoted; Players unlock health and hidden blade upgrades in Assassin’s Creed 2 PS3, the same upgrades will be unlocked in Assassin’s Creed: Bloodlines,” says Lefrancois.

The game will be bundled with a PSP-3000, a 2-gigabyte memory stick duo, and a yet unannounced UMD movie. The package will have a MSRP of $199. Ubisoft producer Frederic Lefrancois that Assassin’s Creed: Bloodlines will be compatible with the Playstation 3 version of Assassin’s Creed 2.

“On the PS3 you will be able to access any Templar Coins and special weapons you’ve collected on the PSP.”

Bloodlines for PSP is scheduled to be released on the PSP this come November 10, and on November 17, Assassin’s Creed 2 will be released.

[Source]

Games have come quite along way since the days of Atari and N.E.S. They now have 3-D graphics, HD resolution and can now be played online with anyone, anywhere, anytime.

Over the years games certainly have changed. Trends have varied from basic arcade games, platformers, shooters and RPG’s.

However, while the games themselves have seen a great deal of change, the way we are distributing them to the masses has not. Different countries have different release dates, game content is modified for each country and some games aren’t even sold worldwide. This is thanks to PAL, SECAM and NTSC and Regional Coding.

To make this clear, PAL, SECAM and NTSC are methods of conversion. Nothing can be done about this now as changing all TV’s of one type would cost to much. They don’t effect anything accept the quality. However, a NTSC game won’t play on a PAL console. All games must have these.

Regional Coding/Locking means that it is area specific and won’t work outside of the country it was made in. Games do not need this as they serve no real purpose. They should be abolished.

Early cartridge based games did not have regional lockout but as games moved onto discs and more advanced consoles, locks were put in place. These locks prevent games from being played on consoles from outside of that country.

Some game developers choose not to have this. Microsoft lets it’s publishers decide on whether or not they want it and Sony keeps all games (UMD’s for PSP, and Blu-Ray discs for PS3) region free. Nintendo are determined to be different however and make sure all their games, are region encoded.

For the players themselves, this provides no benefit apart from the fact the game will be translated into their language. The main benefits are for the producers of course. These are:

• Easily being able to censor/modify content in games. This results in some countries not getting the full game.
• Price discrimination between markets, allowing them to vary prices world wide
• Prevents people from getting a game ahead of the release in their own country

The disadvantages, provide no real loss to the producers, yet nothing is being done. These are:

• Stopping people from being able to enjoy games legitimately obtained in another country
• Many games are released for one region only, meaning that people who want to obtain a copy legally can not get it
• Encourages software hacking, pirating and other methods of illegally getting hold of the games
• Keen customers must wait days, sometimes weeks for a game to be released in their country

After seeing the pros and cons, it’s obvious that games could be sold worldwide, so it’s a win win for everybody.

Unquestionably, the most sought after games in the world are Japanese anime and magna. Either, the Japanese don’t think their is much of a market overseas (which isn’t true) or they have no need to sell outside of Japan which is understandable.

Some gamers will actually import and Japanese console and the game, to experience it in it’s uncut, unaltered version. Kingdom Hearts Final Mix 1 & 2, are a couple of examples of games that don’t get sold outside of Japan, all the while people in the Western world are begging for their release.

This isn’t just a couple of games that are excluded, thousands of Japanese games never reach the Western World. PSN games that can be downloaded straight onto your PS3 is a great example. If you switch your PS3’s country to Japan, you gain access to all their arcade games. Unfortunately this means all the writing becomes Japanese.

As a huge fan of JRPG’s, it really is annoying to have to wait weeks or months to get a game and sometimes never being able to get it.

For this, there is a solution.

All countries need to do away with regional locking for games. That way, everyone will be able to enjoy the full version of the game, at the same time, with the only extra work being in the language translation.

This means that having games on shelves will no longer work. Games will have to be download able from the Internet. People can pay buy credit card and have it installed to flash memory. Each country will have their own site for downloading games (for language purposes) to make it easier on the consumers. Not only will everyone get consistent quality, the games will be more convenient as flash memory has no moving parts and there’s no disc to be scratched.

Since games will be downloaded, they will hit the Internet at the exact same time. Having games available for download though does provide a problem. Huge servers will be needed to store these games as HD ones now take up about 8 gigabytes of memory.

Once that is overcome, producers will also see the benefits.

• Their games can be sold worldwide, allowing for a larger market
• No shipping costs or packaging costs need to be used

To compensate for the disappearance of those costs  maintenance for servers, rent and electricity will be used. Storage is becoming cheaper everyday is the costs for having them to be downloaded will be far cheaper than making individual boxes and discs, then shipping them out to countries.

All of this can be done right now, we have the technology to achieve this way of distribution. It will be a gradual process and won’t happen overnight, but games being available to everyone, is the future of video games.

Doing away with regional lockout = Universal Gaming.

If you think I have gotten anything wrong, or feel something could be done better feel free to leave a comment.

Elogiadíssimo pela crítica mas com baixas vendas, a Sega decidiu não investir em uma sequência do RPG tático Valkyria Chronicles para Playstation 3. Ao invés disso a empresa optou por desenvolver o segundo capítulo no PSP, plataforma que é muito mais barata que os consoles HD.

Hoje foram liberadas as primeiras imagens do game, que pra mim até que tão bons.

CLIQUE AQUI PARA VER A GALERIA

O jogo sai no próximo inverno japonês, ainda não há data para versões ocidentais.

Elogiadíssimo pela crítica mas com baixas vendas, a Sega decidiu não investir em uma sequência do RPG tático Valkyria Chronicles para Playstation 3. Ao invés disso a empresa optou por desenvolver o segundo capítulo no PSP, plataforma muito mais barata que os consoles HD.

O jogo se passa em Galia, 2 anos após o original com uma nova ameaça, o Gallia Revolutionary Army. O efetivo militar do governo está minimo graças á ultima guerra, então estudantes da academia militar são obrigados a adentrar no conflito. Usando o mesmo sistema de batalha do último game, os jogadores controlarão cadetes e a história é contada pela perspectiva de Avan Hardence, adolescente de 17 anos.

O jogo sai no próximo inverno japonês, ainda não há data para versões ocidentais.

Valkyria Chronicles 2

Como ven amigos otakus, ya está en línea el sitio oficial de la secuela del gran RPG del PS3, pueden checar el sitio aquí (bajo su propio riesgo y si saben japonés) aquí y ya sin tanto rollo aquí están las imágenes.

Diversion para llevar

Gracias a nuestros amigos españoles menos tu troll sin vida, y a Sony España llega a youtube los videos del gameplay de LittleBigPlanet y Gran Turismo, ambos para el PSP y PSPGo , además cabe resaltar que esta nueva versión de la portátil cuenta con muy buen sonido.

Chéquenlos y dejen sus impresiones.

[Fuente: FaseXtra]

Nem Ps3 nem PS2, sim o PSP ficou com o novo jogo da série de jogos do naruto que fez história no PS2, o jogo será lançado no fim do ano apenas no Japão apenas para o PSP.

Nurture and play with one of the cutest and sweetest pets ever.
Choose the hamster of your dreams and watch them develop as they interact with you.

Keep your hamster amused and make sure he gets his favourite foods and toys.

Take care of your hamster and see your relationship develop.

Buy Now with Amazon

Create your own family of cute puppies and watch them grow up with individuals.

Adopt the puppy of your dreams from the most popular breeds including Golden Labrador, Beagle and Chihuahua.

You can dress your pets up in over 75 items of clothing and unlock toys and environment for them.

Buy Now with Amazon

Play as Lily in her most exciting horse adventure.

Raise and nurture your horses from foals and train them to win competitions, ride freely in the open countryside, meeting new people in your adventure.

Buy Now with Amazon

The slim princess has been kidnapped and imprisoned in the enemy’s castle to be fed on a diet of cake. The longer you take to rescue her the heavier she will get.

As time waits for no man, you must quickly rise through the ranks of the royal army and organise your loyal workers, warriors, archers and into an efficient rescue team.

Collect resources to build weapons, defend your castle, upgrade your army, attack the enemy and rescue your princess.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, players will return to Hogwarts to help Harry survive hissixth year. With exciting wizard duels, brew magical Potions and take to the air to lead the Gryffindor Quidditch team to victory.

Players can get sidetracked by Ron’s romance, and discover the identity of the Half-Blood Prince.

Buy Now with Amazon

The world of PixelJunk Monsters goes on the move with the arrival of PixelJunk Monsters Deluxe.

Defend your forest brood against monsters, by building towers which fire on your enemies. Make sure your placement and strategy is well organised, or you will see your helpless children will find snacked by the monsters.

Soulcalibur: Broken Destiny is the latest in the Soulcalibur series, the weapons-based one-to-one fighter.

Challenging single player modes, head-to-head multiplayer and this is a must have fighting game for fan.

Buy Now with Amazon

Release Date: 28 Aug 2009

The world’s most popular role-playing game series, the heroes and villains of FINAL FANTASY collide in a war that threatens the universe.
Action-packed gameplay and character move to another level on PSP

Buy Now with Amazon

Release Date: 4 Sep 2009

Star Wars Battlefront: Elite Squadron is an action-packed Star Wars Battlefront experience ever, bursting with all-in-one epic ground, space and capital ship battlefronts, a longer and more robust original story campaign If you are a Star War fan this is the game for you.

Buy Now with Amazon

Hunt down and trap mysterious creatures.

There are invisible creatures everywhere – and only your PSP Camera can see them. Track down the mysterious Invizimals, lay down a magical trap and try to capture as many of them as you can!
Your Invizimals will fight battles using magic and special moves to defeat their opponents. Your Invizimal will learn new attacks and build new powers to fight with.

<Note: If you enjoy this blog and wish to read more of my writing, please visit my new web site: www.zestfulcontemplation.com, for my most recent work and other fun stuff, including the first of my iPhone game reviews hinted at in this very article. Thank you.>

I am fully aware that in most hardcore gaming circles, announcing that you believe a phone can be a truly capable gaming device will get you roughly the same type of odd stare as if you announced that you thought the box containing the pizza was just as tasty as the round pepperoni-covered treat within.

Here I stand before you, however, ready to face your odd stares (yes, I can feel them through the Internet – I’m special that way) and announce that I think a phone can be a capable gaming device.

In fact, I’m going to do one better.

I think that the iPhone can provide a satisfying gaming experience on par with or better than the PSP or the DS.

There, I said it. Now let me explain.

The key to this madness lies in understanding that all of these various devices have their strengths and weaknesses.

The PSP is a powerful little bugger. It’s essentially a PS2 in a much smaller container that you can hold in your hands. Its software catalog is a bit lacking and it doesn’t provide you with many experiences you can’t get elsewhere, but it does have some nifty titles and a lot of power in a portable form.

The DS has a much larger selection of titles and an interface that provides for experiences that can’t be had elsewhere, giving you a reason to play even if you don’t travel often. On the downside, it’s lacking in power and most games available for it don’t do much to show off the true potential of its innovative interface.

I fully believe that the iPhone carves out its own little niche in the gaming world that makes it just as viable a competitor as either of these two other systems. It may not provide the depth of gameplay or keep you hooked for as long as its rivals, but that’s why it works – it does something different and it does it well.

Perhaps its greatest asset is simply the fact that, unlike the other portable consoles, you’ll likely have your iPhone with you wherever you go. This makes it maybe even the ultimate portable gaming platform, as it provides a fully capable gaming experience wherever you happen to be without you even having to remember to lug around a separate gadget.

It should be noted that this is less true of the iPod Touch, of course, which is just as capable of a gaming machine, but lacks some of the natural convenience of its phone counterpart.

Why the iPhone works so well as a gaming device is simply that the whole experience revolves around its portability and its constant connection to the Internet.

Most of the games might be more simple than what you’d find elsewhere, but they work fantastically for small, pick-up-and-play chunks, which is exactly what you want on a phone. They’re also much cheaper on the whole (you’ll almost never pay more than $10 for a game, and most are $5 or less) so the simplicity is far more acceptable. If you dig around, it’s more than possible to find a game for under $10 that gives more gameplay value than something you would have bought for $30 on the DS or $40 on the PSP.

Additionally, since the iPhone is connected to the Internet at all times, whether that be through a Wi-Fi connection or the cell phone data network, it facilitates the ultimate in impulse buying (especially when you combine its ever-present net connection with cheap game prices). Simply browse the App Store and download a new game – from just about anywhere – right onto your phone and immediately begin playing it. It’s incredible how addicting this becomes, especially when there’s so much good stuff to play.

Interestingly, both the PSP and DS are putting forth efforts in the area of instant purchase, downloadable impulse buys, but neither comes anywhere close to what’s already available on the iPhone. The PSP Go will bring the ability to download full games to the platform, but their larger file sizes, the higher price of the device, and the lack of much interesting to play all hold it back. The DSi now has a download service of its own, but let’s not mince words here – it sucks. Nintendo has a lot of work to do here.

I’m not arguing that the iPhone is a perfect platform. No gaming device is. Like any successful platform such as the DS, Wii, or PS2, the iPhone has its fair share of crap cluttering the App Store. The fact that there’s no easy way to find the best stuff in the store right now is a shortcoming indeed, as most of my gaming finds are discovered with the help of external sites. Also, like its innovative gaming peers the DS and Wii, many titles try to cram experiences or control types that just aren’t suited for its lack of buttons and the titles that truly take advantage of the platform are somewhat rare.

Still, the iPhone’s focus on control via only touch screen and motion sensors is far from a detriment. Even I was skeptical at first, but the lack of options forces developers to be creative and, when approached correctly, can make for some innovative and fun experiences literally not possible on any other platform. Sure, there’s plenty of titles that resort to a virtual D-Pad (not all of which are bad, mind you), but there are others which use multi-touch, creative touch screen controls, tilt controls, or some of these combined, to make titles that wouldn’t work anywhere else.

Of course, the most important part of any gaming platform is its library of games. No matter how much I try to convince you that the iPhone should be taken seriously, none of it is going to mean anything until I can prove that its great features and convenience are also backed up by things you’d actually want to play.

With that in mind, keep an eye out for many more iPhone game reviews here in the future. I already have a number of them written and ready to go, and many more I want to write after that. I am anxious to prove to non-believers that we have a true contender on (or rather, in) our hands.

It may be different, it may be easy to dismiss as too “casual” or too simple, and it certainly isn’t perfect, but I’ve had more fun and spent more time gaming on my iPhone recently than my PSP and DS combined. Hopefully more people will see the light as I do someday.