Naruto games have been published in North America by D3 Publisher, Namco Bandai (who bought D3 Publisher), Ubisoft, and Tomy. Now Atlus is piling on, having announced a deal with license holder Tomy to distribute two new Naruto games. We think Atlus is acting as a distribution partner rather than sole publisher, as both games' boxes still bear the Tomy logo.
Naruto Shippuden: Dragon Blade Chronicles for Wii puts players in the roles of both Naruto and Sasuke as they search for the "Genryu" Elemental Dragons. And Naruto Shippuden: Naruto vs. Sasuke is a side-scrolling game for DS in which the two are at odds, and face off with a team of fighters that you recruit in-game.
Both games will be released November 16. Atlus said that retailers will reveal pre-order bonuses in the next few weeks, and also teased "more Naruto Shippuden adventures on Nintendo DS in early 2011." The publisher went ahead and revealed two of those items early in the images it sent: a hat for both the DS and Wii game at GameStop, and a set of figurines as part of premium bundles from Amazon.
Are you curious about the events that transpired between Gears of War 2 and the upcoming Gears of War 3? Apparently, there were enough to fill up an entire novel -- the recently announced Gears of War: Anvil Gate. The book, which focuses on a Locust attack on the titular settlement of Anvil Gate following the previous game in the series, was penned by prolific Gears scribe Karen Traviss.
Gears of War: Anvil Gate will arrive in bookstores on August 31, which should give you plenty of time to study up before Gears the Third comes out. Unless you're like, the slowest reader ever. In which case, you should go to bed, dude. It's already tomorrow.
Were you thinking that right about now would be a good time to make Parasite Eve and Parasite Eve 2 available via PSN, given the upcoming release of the third game in the series on PSP? Then, dear Reader, you have something in common with series character designer Tetsuya Nomura. He recently tweeted that he wants just that: a digital re-release of the PSOne titles, before The 3rd Birthday -- the game whose success could lead to a PS3 title in the series -- hits Japan.
"Archives versions of the 1st and 2nd [Parasite Eve] are in demand, so I'd like to do something about them before the 3rd is released," reads Nomura's tweet. He's referring to the Japanese PSN equivalent of PSOne Classics, the Game Archives, and we agree: we'd like Nomura to do something about them, too -- only globally, kudasai?
“The Arrival”
When: April 20, 1986. Game 2, 1st round playoffs vs. Celtics
Goal 1: Score 63+ points
Goal 2: Shoot 50%+ from the field
Goal 3: Win the game
“Shootout”
When: Any date in 1990. Regular season game vs. Hawks
Goal 1: Outscore Dominique
Goal 2: Hold Dominique under 25 Points
Goal 3: Win the game
“Bad Boys”
When: May 26, 1990. Game 3, Eastern [...]
As part of a mentorship campaign initiated by Disney's XD channel, England-based developer Black Rock Studio will welcome some young viewers into the exciting world of game development. Kids will get to see what's under the bonnet of Split/Second, the studio's disaster-driven racer that debuted in May.
Black Rock audio director Steve Rockett values the positive message and "inspirational format" of Disney's campaign, telling Develop, "I think this idea is comparable to what has been going on in the music industry in the past few years in that it shows we are becoming much more accessible, and now people see it for what it is - a great place to work." Rockett will be showing his informal pupils how engine sounds are recorded and implemented in the game (it's just a guy going "VRROOM!" into a microphone, right?), while lead designer Ian Hudson will delve into Split/Second's unique track creation. Cars go here, explosions go there. This bit collapses. Got it!
According to Hudson, allowing players to participate in this manner will help sell them on game development as a viable and fun career. "When they see their ideas appearing in those games, well that's just thrilling, and it definitely gives them the idea that this isn't that hard to do and they have the ability to do it," he said. "I think it will attract a lot of people. The kids will get to say 'oh that's how you do it, I understand it now'."
But remember, kids: don't release anything alongside Rockstar's latest game.
#irrationalgames
If you liked the BioShock Infinite trailer, check out the season finale of Irrational Behavior, the in-house podcast of the studio behind the next game. More »
Allow gamers to take up the mantle of the Taliban in your game and you're bound to receive some ire. EA is learning all about that with Medal of Honor, as the mainstream media and the British government have vocalized concerns. British Defence Secretary Liam Fox has actually called for a countrywide ban of the game outright, stating that it's "shocking that someone would think it acceptable to recreate the acts of the Taliban against British soldiers," even though you don't actually kill any British troops in the game. Still, EA Games president Frank Gibeau isn't sweating the bad press.
"We respect the media's views," Gibeau replied, "but at the same time [these reports] don't compromise our creative vision and what we want to do. The development teams care very much about what they're building, and of course a bit of criticism from the media causes some to get demoralised, but at the end of the day we're proud of what we're doing." Gibeau even compared the flak to the same types of reports that went on about Modern Warfare 2's infamous airport sequence -- one of many comparisons the two games have received.
Gibeau is of the mind that the collaboration between EA and the US Military and Congressional Medal of Honor Society is what will win people over in the end, not just because of the accurate depiction of the ongoing conflict, but because it has allowed EA to produce "the best story for the game." Plus, we all know the world has a natural affinity for whiskered gentlemen -- just look at the popularity of Grizzly Adams!
Pre-ordering Vanquish from GameStop will grant access to a set of three exclusive weapons: the Boost Machine Gun, the Anti-Armor Pistol, and the Laser Cannon. If, for some reason, you're not entirely sold on the idea of free extra stuff with your game, you can see all three weapons in action after the break.
Though we can't imagine what would dissuade you. Even the staunchest GameStop detractor must agree that Vanquish plus Laser Cannon is a much more attractive proposition than Vanquish minus Laser Cannon.
#roster
Movin' right along - EA Sports MMA is revealing its roster piecemeal. This week we're shown 22 fighters eligible at the game's middleweight class, eight of which were also revealed as light heavyweights last week. More »
When THQ's Metro 2033 was patched to support the "Ranger Pack" DLC something went wrong with the game's Achievements. The problem was first acknowledged on August 3 and noted as potentially an issue on Microsoft's end as of August 5. A couple weeks back the publisher told Joystiq it was still "investigating."
THQ has sent us over an updated statement on the issue: "We understand some people are still experiencing issues with achievements unlocking in the Metro 2033 Ranger Pack DLC. We are currently working with Microsoft to ascertain whether this is due to a code related issue with the DLC itself, or an error in the Marketplace process whereby the DLC was added to Xbox LIVE Marketplace before the new achievement data was added - this exact issue has happened to other games in the past, but we need to be sure that this is what's happening here. We realize this is frustrating for those of you who have been waiting to enjoy the Ranger Pack DLC, and we ask for your patience as we try to pinpoint the exact issue and solution." In the meantime, it's probably best not to download the expansion pack until the problem is resolved. It appears the normal game still works fine. We'll be sure to update once a fix for the problem goes live. Now, remind us, what's the point of Microsoft certification again?
#crafting
A fan of iPhone and iPad game Angry Birds is so into the game that she's created her own tabletop version which she calls Angry Birds Live. More »
In Halo: Reach you're Noble Six, the new guy -- the sixth man in an elite team of Spartans. So what's it like playing Halo alongside five other AI-controlled super soldiers? The truth is you aren't always flanked by a full team of the illest killers humanity has ever engineered. That would just be unfair.
Instead, Reach often pairs you with just one of your new pals at a time. Such is the case in "Nightfall" and "Tip of the Spear," the fourth and fifth missions of the campaign, respectively, which showcase what executive producer Joe Tung calls the game's "breadth of experience." Realizing this phrase only vaguely suggests what might make Reach special, Tung offers a more precise comparison of the two missions: "They're different in tone."
Your objective in Reach, as in any Halo game, remains largely the same throughout: eliminate hostiles "by any means necessary" -- words barked in a trite line of dialogue during Tip of the Spear that rather neatly sum up what this game is all about. Of course, your means are never quite the same.
Technophiles have no doubt been anxious to traverse that final frontier of Xbox 360 S technology: the shared CPU/GPU, dubbed Vejle after the city in Denmark. This 45nm system-on-chip (SoC) trims much of the fat of its predecessor, slimming down to 372 million transistors (it is summer -- gotta look your best out there!), requiring a mere 40 percent of the power and less than 50 percent of the die space used by the original Xbox 360 chipset.
It's actually the first desktop-class processor to combine a CPU, GPU, memory and I/O logic onto a single slice of silicon, which cuts down manufacturing costs dramatically. But perhaps one of its best features is how the chip will actually self-induce lag so as not to run faster than the previous chip -- a necessity of the architecture of the Xbox 360, since the new console must perform exactly as the previous hardware has.
The rest of it is probably too technical for us to try and explain, so hit up the source links below for additional info. If you need help breaking it all down, call up Tom, that smart friend of yours -- he's probably just sitting around, watching Star Trek or something.
#football
Quick Hit Football, the browser-based strategy simulation, will re-launch in September with NFL licensing. Though it won't carry real-life rosters, the game's maker can cut deals with individual players, and Dallas linebacker DeMarcus Ware has been added to the stable. More »
When we first wrote about the PSJailbreak tool - the latest in a series of purported hacks intended to circumvent the PlayStation 3's robust security precautions - we suggested that it might be a hoax. Notably, the screens shown to illustrate the tool at work were straight from a debug PlayStation 3; the same kind of PS3 that's designed to run un-signed code off of things like hard drives and the like. It turns out we were partially correct. The always excellent Digital Foundry has weighed in on the topic and the takeaway is simple: "the PlayStation 3's much vaunted security has finally been completely and unequivocally compromised."
And how is it compromised? DF writes that the presence of the debug options "suggests that elements of the bespoke system updates used on the debug PS3s are being injected into the memory of the retail unit." That coupled with the USB stick, which DF posits was likely reverse-engineered from the same "USB-based tools Sony uses to test and recover PS3s with corrupt firmware."
You've probably noticed that critics often employ flowery language when they're trying to describe hyper-violence, whether it's a "bullet ballet" or a "symphony of destruction." Never one to use my evolved human intellect to mask primal urges, I'm going to try to explain the appeal of Klei's side-scrolling kill-'em-up Shank in the most basic, honest terms possible. If the game's not employing the slightest bit of nuance, I don't see why I should have to.
Shank is a lot of fun because it lets you murder a lot of different people in a lot of different ways, and I think you should buy it.
Guns, cars and pressing one's luck is what this week's new PSN titles are all about. Shank, PixelJunk Racers 2nd Lap, Press Your Luck and Motorstorm 3D Rift are all added to the PSN. The audio of these games will involve a log of banging, vrooming and hollering of "BIG MONEY, NO WHAMMIES!"
Choose your platform to view the corresponding release list:
(Note: Continue past the break to view both release lists.)
#preview
Microsoft let me play a finished copy of Halo Reach on one of their Xbox 360s today. They even let me save my progress to my Gamertag.* I can talk about two missions, but I don't want to spoil things. More »
