NIS America held a press event last night during which it announced three new wacky, niche, NIS-style games for North America. Ar Tonelico Qoga: Knell of Ar Ciel, the latest in Gust's RPG incomprehensibly-named series, will be released on PS3 in spring 2011. It features a completely new storyline and setting, so if you're up for a JRPG, you won't have to do your Ar Tonelico homework first. Warning: "edgy and kinky special moves."
The other two games are both for PSP. Cladun: This Is an RPG, officially the game with the most wonderful subtitle ever, is a PSN-exclusive localization of Classic Dungeon, a dungeon crawler with a similar intentionally retro-style presentation (and an extraordinarily similar logo) to 3D Dot Game Heroes. ZHP: Unlosing Ranger VS Darkdeath Evilman, which just immediately snatched away the "wonderful subtitle" prize we awarded to Cladun, is a localized release of Absolute Hero Modding Project, a superhero-themed, over-the-top strategy RPG. It'll be out this fall on both PSN and UMD. See trailers for Cladun and ZHP after the break.
EA has been sitting on a good chunk of Ubisoft stock for a few years now. It looks like the company is planning to unload some of those shares (perhaps a result of some recent losses?). Bloomberg reports that EA is preparing to offload a 15% stake in Ubisoft -- last we heard, EA was holding onto nearly 25% of voting shares in the French publisher. The company currently holds the single largest stake in Ubisoft shares, Bloomberg says.
UBS AG, a financial services firm apparently brokering the sale, is currently placing about 14 million shares at a price of 6.48 Euros per share, according to the terms laid out to Bloomberg. Ubisoft's shares fell 3.2 percent in Paris yesterday, to a price of 6.97 Euros -- as of right now, shares are currently up, at 7.09.
We've contacted EA for confirmation and will let you know what we hear back.
If you're a PS3 player and were all excited to see the exclusive "Jimmy's Vendetta" in your Mafia 2 DLC offerings, hold your horses there, Daddy-O. Turns out "Jimmy's Vendetta" is actually the second DLC pack coming to the game. The first is the one that's PS3 exclusive, and it's called "The Betrayal of Jimmy." Boy, this Jimmy guy, he's got some trust issues.
"The Betrayal of Jimmy" will be available exclusively for the PS3 at launch, free with a code inside the new game, or from PSN for $9.99. The pack will allow players to experience "dozens of intense newly created arcade-style, city-based missions" as Jimmy, a mob mercenary. "Jimmy's Vendetta" is another pack coming down the line (pricing and availability not yet announced) that will offer new locations and new missions and have the player working alongside Jimmy around Empire City.
Those previously leaked trophies are for the second pack, then, not the first. And we don't yet know if that pack is exclusive to the PS3 or not. Hey, it's confusing, but you're no mafia meathead -- you gotta be smart to outwit the feds, see?
San Diego Comic Con is going to see up-close what Gears of War's Marcus Fenix would look like if he were ripped in half by a locust and preserved as a trophy. The "Marcus Fenix Epic Scale Bust," created by TriForce Sales (which also created the Locust bust a couple years back), will be available for purchase starting next Wednesday, July 21, online and at the show. The bust is approximately 32 inches (81 cm) tall and features LEDs throughout the armor and a COG Lancer gun.
The "Marcus Fenix Epic Scale Bust" will have a limited run of 500 units, selling for $350 apiece. The "Marcus Fenix Epic Scale Gold Lancer Edition Bust" will retail for $400, with only 100 made. A perfect piece for any corporate lobby or Locust hive.
#reviews
Let's rank the games Kotaku reviewed in order of positivity to negativity, starting with the game we liked least and ending with our most lavishly praised game of the week. More »
#blizzard
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EA has been sitting on a good chunk of Ubisoft stock for a few years now. It looks like the company is planning to unload some shares (perhaps a result of some recent losses?). Bloomberg reports that EA is preparing to offload 15% of its shares in Ubisoft -- last we heard, EA was holding onto nearly 25% of voting shares in Ubisoft. The company currently holds the single largest stake in Ubisoft shares, Bloomberg says.
UBS AG, a financial services firm apparently brokering the sale, is currently placing about 14 million shares at a price of 6.48 Euros per share, according to the terms laid out to Bloomberg. Ubisoft's shares fell 3.2 percent in Paris yesterday, to a price of 6.97 Euros -- as of right now, shares are currently up, at 7.09.
We've contacted EA for confirmation and will let you know what we hear back.
One of the upcoming DLC packs for Red Dead Redemption -- henceforth referred to as "the one without the zombies" -- has been captured in screenshots. Titled "Legends and Killers," the pack includes nine multiplayer maps, eight playable characters from the original Red Dead Revolver, a tomahawk projectile weapon, and new Trophies and Achievements, which you presumably unlock by implementing the tomahawk in an unorthodox manner. Like, for spreading mustard on a delicious ham sandwich.
The "Legends and Killers" pack will land on Xbox Live Marketplace and the PlayStation Store next month for 800 MSP ($9.99). Check out a few screenshots of the new content in the gallery posted below.
If your Friday was feeling light on dashing digitized photos of dashing Daniel Craig, Activision is here to help alleviate the issue. Not only has GoldenEye 007's publisher released a handful of new screens that we've dropped into a gallery for you below, but there's also a new trailer that we've embedded after the break.
What, that's not enough? How about some photos of that other Daniel Craig looking dashing in another Bond game? Well, here you go! It's Bond day, didn't you know?
Miracle Piano Teaching System
Hell isn’t other people. It’s other people trying to teach talentless children how to play any type of musical instrument.
#thefix
Free cases for all iPhone 4 users! How does Apple's fix compare to some of gaming's more recent hardware problem solutions? Let's take a look. More »
Big Download has received the final retail system requirements from Blizzard for Starcraft 2, which will begin its real-time strategic war in stores July 27. In typical Blizzard fashion (and similar to the beta), the system specs don't appear like you'll need a Hydralisk to cut off an arm and a leg for a PC upgrade.
