All Topics Gaming older than one year ago

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Perhaps you've heard, but Demon's Souls is a hard game. Like really hard. Like bone-crushingly, soul-scathingly hard. Speaking to Game Informer, Demon's Souls director Hidetaka Miyazaki explains why. According to Miyazaki, the difficulty was designed around giving players "a sense of accomplishment," specifically in regard to the soul collecting mechanic. For those who haven't played the game, souls act as currency and you lose all of them upon death. They can be regained, but only if you make it back to your bloodstain without dying twice more. Trust us, it's not as easy as it sounds. According to Miyazaki, "If the Souls could be recovered anytime, there would be no suspense or sense of accomplishment." He added that he wants players to feel like, "I did it! I made it to my bloodstain!" Of course, Miyazaki fails to mention the sense of utter, despairing failure one feels when they don't make it back to their bloodstain (a frequent occurrence). Regarding the possibility of a sequel, Miyazaki said he couldn't give a direct answer, but noted that the team learned a great deal on Demon's Souls and there were several things that didn't make it into the game. Given the opportunity, Miyazaki said he would "welcome the chance to create an even better game in the same style." Gluttons for punishment that we are, we'll take it.

Sega just announced that 40,000 lucky Xbox 360 owners will get extremely early access to a demo for the upcoming action game Bayonetta. To be considered for the prize, gamers must register for a free Sega Pass -- essentially the publisher's newsletter -- and enter for a chance to be selected on the official Bayonetta demo site.Registration for the "contest" will be open from Monday, November 9 to Friday, November 13. Winners will be notified on Monday, November 16. Those not selected will then be referred to as "the group least likely to win a 'boot-gun thing' firing contest" ... or PlayStation 3 players. Should you not get selected, you might want to take advantage of making a Japanese account.

The shores of Athens just got even more beautiful.

Square Enix recently chose to attack with its annual earnings report, and among the 12-page PDF file's barrage of numbers, things look pretty good for the company. Net sales for the six months ending September 30, 2009 were up 33 percent over the same period last year to 91 billion yen ($1 billion), while operating income was also up by 39 percent to 13 billion yen ($144.5 million) over the same period last year. It's not all roses and Dragon Quest IX sales, however -- net income was down almost 58 percent to 2.7 billion yen ($30 million). The statement also talks about the acquisition and assimilation of Eidos in direct proportion to Square Enix's games group division -- which includes video games across all platforms and online games for personal computers. Through the aid of titles like Batman: Arkham Asylum, Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days and the aforementioned Dragon Quest IX, the games division rose its net sales and operating income by 117 percent and 63 percent to 4.8 billion yen ($53 million) and 1.0 billion yen ($11 million), respectively. As for the company's upcoming darling, Final Fantasy XIII, Square Enix prez Yoichi Wada spoke about concern regarding the title's projected domestic sales. Basically, he's not concerned at all! "PS3 sales continue to increase. We're bundling PS3 and FFXIII, and can expect even further sales increases. Orders for FFXIII are definitely not bad," he said. While he didn't reiterate anything as bold as six million, Wada did claim that the game is expected to sell in the millions. Source - Square Enix earnings (PDF) [Via andriasang] Source - Wada comments on FFXIII sales

Use your Wii remote as a phone and much more.

Serve the dinner rush without the stress of being a real waiter or waitress!

Ascend to the stars.

Learn the history of the series with fresh gameplay.

I was just over at the official Nicalis blog, and I noticed something on the background of the site. This is the image I came up with. Any guesses as to what it’s about?

The Afterlife is full of sin and pleasure.

Shepherd reunites with an old friend.

What exactly is Monster Hunter Tri University (MHTU)? It’s a night to come learn about and practice the skills you need to slay the monsters of Tri! This is an opportunity to get your first glimpse of Monster Hunter Tri on the Wii. Monster Hunter Tri professors will help guide you through a new demo [...]

Direct link here How in the hell did The Running Man not get a game deal? It’s absolutely perfect for the world of video games. I think a dev should snatch this license up now, and go all out on it. It doesn’t even need Arnold in it. We could have another [...]

- developed by DreamRift, a company that features devs that worked on Tony Hawk’s Proving Ground, The Red Star, Dementium: The Ward, Guitar Hero III, and Henry Hatsworth - game doesn’t have a publisher as of right now - The lead character (Ellie) discovers a magical monster named Chomp, a - gameplay involves mechanics akin to those in [...]

While it might be tempting to go straight to Craigslist with those Modern Warfare 2 Xbox 360 bundles you stole, it turns out that Activision notices exciting, high-profile offers just like your potential customers might. VentureBeat reports that when Activision noticed a listing for one of the bundles last Thursday, the company hired a private investigation firm, IPCyberCrime.com, to track down the seller. When IPCyberCrime found the person behind the sale, the investigator discovered that he was an employee at a retailer, who, with friends, had stolen the bundles to sell on Craigslist. The sellers were turned over to the store's loss prevention department. That bust led to one of the prospective buyers, named Christian Del Amo, who was raising money on a forum to buy the bundle (allegedly) for the purpose of copying the game and selling the copies, along with other pirated games, on hard drives. IPCyberCrime turned that case over to the Miami-Dade Police Department, who arrested Del Amo. Obviously, this demonstrates one reason (aside from the whole morality thing) why you shouldn't try to make a business of selling pirated games. Activision has enough money to hire a private investigator, and is not afraid to use it.

Not staying for long--just driving through.

Kaiju Busters certainly seems like a fun game. It’s almost like the DS’ version of the Monster Hunter series, at least when you look at the trailers and read info on the game. I was actually pretty interested in this title that has almost no shot at getting localized. Too bad that [...]

We can't be gaming all the time, despite our best efforts, and from time to time we'll actually take advantage of the movie-playing abilities on our gaming systems. JBO features our top picks for XBL, PSN, Netflix's Watch Instantly and Blu-ray each week.Recommendation of the Week: The Shield: The Complete Series (DVD [What, no Blu-ray?] $159.95, lower at many retailers)Vic Mackey isn't the first hardass cop to come down the line and smack miscreants into place, but he's definitely one of the most effective and most memorable. If you haven't had the pleasure of watching Michael Chiklis in The Shield, then this has your name all over it. If you have ... well, your name is still on it. It's the complete series, filled with extras, and packaged to look like a nifty coffee table book, embossed with a copy of the misaligned badge logo from the opening of the show. Forget everything else, this is hands down one of the best cop shows ever created, and it captures the underbelly of Los Angeles perfectly. Some people would argue that Los Angeles is all underbelly. Hopefully that means there's plenty of Mackey to go around. As usual, we'll see you at the popcorn sta -- well, actually, we won't see you at all. But you catch our drift. Plus, be sure to tell us what you'll be watching, or what you've seen recently that bowled you over.

We can't be gaming all the time, despite our best efforts, and from time to time we'll actually take advantage of the movie-playing abilities on our gaming systems. JBO features our top picks for XBL, PSN, Netflix's Watch Instantly and Blu-ray each week.Recommendation of the Week: The Shield: The Complete Series (DVD [What, no Blu-ray?] $159.95, lower at many retailers)Vic Mackey isn't the first hardass cop to come down the line and smack miscreants into place, but he's definitely one of the most effective and most memorable. If you haven't had the pleasure of watching Michael Chiklis in The Shield, then this has your name all over it. If you have ... well, your name is still on it. It's the complete series, filled with extras, and packaged to look like a nifty coffee table book, embossed with a copy of the misaligned badge logo from the opening of the show. Forget everything else, this is hands down one of the best cop shows ever created, and it captures the underbelly of Los Angeles perfectly. Some people would argue that Los Angeles is all underbelly. Hopefully that means there's plenty of Mackey to go around. As usual, we'll see you at the popcorn sta -- well, actually, we won't see you at all. But you catch our drift. Plus, be sure to tell us what you'll be watching, or what you've seen recently that bowled you over.

A portion of a Nintendo Life review… If you’re an RPG fan, this is one title that you absolutely must own in some shape or form. It’s one of the absolute pinnacles of 16-bit era gaming and a testament to how truly remarkable a system the Super Nintendo console turned out to be for RPG fans. Full [...]

Dive in for a pit stop.

Looks like War's got a lot of work to do.

Out of This World is one of my favorite titles of all-time. I played the SNES version back in the day, but have since played the PC and SEGA CD versions as well. Now for those of you that have never played the game before, you can check out a demo of the [...]