Street Fighter IV 1up vid--finally!

The SFIV gameplay video 1up promised us has finally arrived--you can download it here (along with the rest of the 1up show). But be forewarned, it is about 580MB in size and I haven't even seen it myself because my connection is so slow but maybe you'll have better luck.

1up has new details on Street Fighter IV

http://www.1up.com/do/previewPage?pager.offset=0&cId=3165157

For those who don't wanna read the somewhat lengthy article in its entirety, here is a summary of important points:
-It will probably go multiplatform
-It's easy for anyone to pick up and play, but deep enough for more hardcore players
-The gameplay is strictly 2D, even though the background movements may say otherwise
-Some background objects are interactive (e.g. chickens may get roasted by fireballs)
-'Revenge Gauge': It is a lot like the typical 'power gauge', it fills up as you connect attacks and when it is full you can press hard punch and hard kick simultaneously to unleash an invincible attack.
-the Revenge bar also lets you pull 'Ultra combos' by performing a special signature attack (e.g. Shoryu Reppa) and pressing both medium and hard punch. Doing this activates a 3D cinematic (although the game is still 2D); it can also miss.
-Parrying is out.
-Online play is also available.
-New video tomorrow! First-ever gameplay footage.

Dragonball Z: Burst Limit official trailer

The funny thing about these recent Dragonball Z-based games is they look much, much better than the actual show itself, and isn't half as boring, and while still stupid is a good kind of stupid. I totally hate Dragonball Z, I felt it ruined what was established by the original Dragonball manga. However I just love the games. It's one thing to watch Goku take an entire episode just to charge his damn fireball, but it's a completely different matter when you're doing the charging yourself. The cartoony style is very pleasant to look at, and the gameplay is primarily button mashing. Overall they're nice games to waste time on.

This is the trailer for Namco Bandai's latest Dragonball Z offering, Dragonball Z: Burst Limit, which will soon (hopefully) become available for the PS3 and the 360.

Devil May Cry 4: PS3 vs Xbox 360

If you have both consoles, or if DMC4 is the reason you're buying your current-gen console, you should probably take a look at this video. It's just a comparison of the PS3 version versus the Xbox 360 version.

I embedded the video here but the resolution probably won't do justice, so you can also view the full resolution video here.








SPOILERS: there's virtually no difference, and this video won't help you make your decision. :(

Activision wants your money for the GHIII/Rock Band compatibility patch

http://www.ps3fanboy.com/2007/12/20/activision-wants-for-ps3-guitar-patch/

Well, that explains everything. The reason why Activision doesn't want to release the compatibility patch for PS3 GHIII/Rock Band is not because they want to punish Harmonix for being lazy and unprepared, they just want your cash. Which isn't really surprising. Now, the desperate Rock Band players who want an extra guitar will not only pay for the game itself, but also for the patch. You know, if Activision just said so earlier, and nicely, I probably wouldn't mind, since it is their technology after all. They could have made insane amounts of money from desperate Rock Band players that way. But no, they just had to be dicks. I hope you resolved the problem with the Wii version of GHIII already Activision for it looks like you're going to lose a lot of fans.

Etrian Odyssey 2 trailer & gameplay videos

Atlus just released 2 new videos of their latest DS project, Etrian Odyssey 2: the first is a trailer and the 2nd is gameplay footage. You may view them from the official website here and here, or the Youtube versions below.

Duke Nukem Forever video coming REALLY soon

BALLS OF STEEL BALLS OF STEEL BALLS OF STEEL

As in, a few hours from now (19 December 07, 12 noon CST). There is a god. HAIL TO THE KING, BABY.

See this for more information (good luck however, servers are so busy at the moment)

UPDATE: IT'S OUT

New information about Devil May Cry 4 + some videos and bonuses

From IGN:

-A new type of currency called "Proud Soul" has been added. You use these to purchase special moves/abilities. These are calculated after every mission, and the usual Red Orbs are also converted into Proud Souls.

-2 Difficulty modes: "Human" (easy mode) and "Devil Hunter" (the difficulty level at which you should play)

-Nero has Air Hike and can Hightime in mid-air for some awesomely crazy combos.

-You can refund items/abilities if you don't like them.

-The price of stuff you don't purchase goes up every time.

-Stages are replayable.

-Stylish play is now actually given numerical points.

The new purchasing mechanic is interesting; it will force the players to really think about what to buy. It seems the new refund feature actually comes at this cost, which isn't necessarily bad. It will just require a little more planning. Then again, you can replay levels if you need the credits to purchase in case the items become too expensive.

IGN also has some new videos available. (PS3 version)

Bonuses:

If you pre-order you get this nice little artbook. For PAL people, there's a Collector's Edition coming soon. The tin case looks like this.

New Trailers for Final Fantasy XIII and Versus XIII from CLOUD

Wow, do I feel bad for forgetting about this. SquareEnix released an artbook last December 14 called CLOUD, which features art from various Final Fantasy games, as well as Kingdom Hearts. The real treat however is the special bonus DVD that comes with it; said DVD comes with new trailers of FFXIII and FF Versus XIII. It's probably been seen by everyone already, but just in case you wanted a downloadable copy Forever-fantasy.net has the trailers in .avi format (click the logos for the corresponding trailer):

Enjoy.

New Soul Calibur IV screens: OH LAWD

So, there's this new batch of delicious SCIV screens. They're gorgeous as ever, and you really just have to see for yourself. So here they are.

Sophhitia and Astaroth. Sophitia looks slut-like as ever while Astaroth's design is somewhat dumb this time around. But that's besides the point. Look at the nice texturing and light. Man, I wish Tekken 6 looked more like this...

Raphael looks older and somewhat creepier. Where have I seen that opponent before? Looks sort of familiar...

OH LAWD! It's Hilde! Finally some new pictures of her. Delicious D.S.L.

Who's at fault? Activision vs. Harmonix

Activision prevented Sony from releasing a patch Harmonix developed to allow the use of PS3 Guitar Hero III controllers for the PS3 version of Rock Band. Full story here. tl;dr Rock Band releases a stand-alone copy of their software (no guitar peripheral) for the PS3, was supposed to be compatible with GHIII controllers but Activision strongly objected all of a sudden.

Activision/Guitar Hero:
Guitar Hero is an established and highly-successful music/rhythm game, with many fans. Activision wants to stay ahead of the competition and drive off any rivalry, as all firms do.

However, they're being gigantic dicks to their fans who want to play both GHIII and RB. Some people may have bought GHIII so they can play both games. Others, who bought the RB special edition bundle, might want an extra guitar (bass) and now unless they buy another special bundle they won't get a bassist (until next year). Lots of people are already complaining.

Harmonix/Rock Band:
Harmonix recently entered the rhythm game market and produced Rock Band, which features not only guitars, but vocals and drums as well. There are Special Edition bundles of their game which come with all the peripherals necessary to play the game, but for those who don't want to spend as much (and already own GHIII), they also released a stand-alone copy of their game which was supposed to work with Guitar Hero controllers (which by the way aren't sold outside of the GHIII bundle, $100). RB's official controllers for PS3 are on their way but won't make it until early next year.

But did they really expect that a rival firm, of all people, would help them sell their product? Either they should have made the guitars available or not sell the game at all. They thought they could piggyback on Guitar Hero's success; they forgot that they are competing for the same market.

Sony
Sony just happened to get caught in the crossfire. They have the patch, but until Activision stops objecting they can't release it. In other news there are no RB/GH issues in the Xbox 360 version (i.e. you can use GHIII controllers for Rock Band on the 360). Wonder why though.

Who's the bigger dick? I still think it's Activision. Not even because they're being dicks to their fans anymore, but because they just missed a great opportunity for extra sales. ("Hey we need an extra guitar for bass; I know, let's buy GHIII! We can get an extra controller AND another fun game in one")

THIS is how you advertise your vidya game

Nothing smaller than ENORMOUSLY GIGANTIC? Check.
Blue-haired underaged-looking schoolgirl? Check.
In school uniform? Check.
:3 face? Check.
Her name is Kona-chan? Check.

Actually 4/5 of those can apply only to the Lucky Star PS2 game which, by the way, is delayed until January 24. :( Oh well, at least there will be a giant Konata reminding people to buy the game until then!

This building, the Media Land building, which always has game-related ads posted all over it. Last spring it featured Gyakuten Saiban 4 (Apollo Justice), summer it was Crisis Core, and now it's Lucky Star. I wish they did this kind of thing everywhere in the world.

(Source: Akiba-ch)

New Disgaea 3 Trailer

Low-res 2D sprites are here to stay it seems, but it's not a bad thing for a game like Disgaea. Besides the portraits are crisper than ever, and when you zoom out you don't really notice the pixelation as much...and it surely will be much, much longer than its predecessors. I just hope they added a lot of new things (we've already seen some) because even I can't stand grinding for more than 6 hours a day :( And bring back the Statisticians! I missed them a lot in D2.

This trailer was ripped from PSN apparently. Will I get in trouble for this?

Also, guess who's narrating in the video.

Women and video games

Okay, the usual stance with regards to this issue is "LOL GIRL GAMERZ" (see picture) and that they don't really play video games. Of course they do. Although I will admit, the ones that I do see usually play casual/party games or rhythm games. And the ones that do play 'traditionally' male games (like fighting games) usually aren't very good at it. Or whatever is popular at the moment (Counter-Strike, for some reason, had many women playing, but Unreal and HL didn't get much love).

There are also women who are so vocal about their being "girl gamers" that it gets really unbelievably irritating, and yet the only games they play are CS and DotA and they aren't that good at it either. I mean, if you're a gamer then you're a gamer, regardless of the gender. No one is proud of being a "guy gamer".

So, I constructed a poll. It's on the right side of this site. It will run for 10 days. My blog can't get a good sample size, I know, but at least it'll give me a rough idea. How many women seriously play video games? We're not talking about rhythm games like DDR and Guitar Hero, party games, or games that you can win by button mashing. Seriously play as in, have been playing since childhood, have experienced controller-throwing frustration in a game yet still beat the game in question, yelled at your friend while playing Contra because he/she's too slow/fast, and know what "Roman Cancelling" is and how to do it. Of course, the definition of 'gaming' varies, and I really hate throwing around the term myself, but if you've been doing similar things, then that counts too.

Please vote, and thanks!

New Grand Theft Auto IV trailer. Right on time.

Some days ago when the official box art was finally revealed there was also an announcement about a new trailer coming, well, today. So here it is.

As per usual with GTA, there's still framerate issues, and the cutscenes still look like old Mafia movies. Some people might be annoyed by this; but then again isn't that what GTA really is? And the framerate can be looked over as long as the game is smooth overall. The animations however are getting pretty repetitive; I wish they'd make people move more realistically. Still it looks like a fun game--there hasn't been a non-fun GTA game (I'm not sure about the ones for PSP though as I haven't tried them) and free-roaming with such gorgeous (relatively anyway) graphics is going to be sweet.

Anyway there's also a HD version of the trailer if you would prefer that.

(Trailers from Gametrailers.com)

Some details about Street Fighter IV and one screenshot

Finally! After a few weeks and a giant shitstorm about SF becoming 3D, Capcom gives us some details (very few) about the upcoming and very late (about a decade late, in fact) direct-sequel in the Street Fighter series. From 1up:

-Graphics are 3D but gameplay is good ol' 2D
-New moves, locations, and features
-Six button controls remain
-Returning old characters: Ryu, Ken, Chun-Li and Dhalsim; the rest still not revealed
-No systems revealed yet either

...and that's all that was revealed. Capcom keeps the details tightly sealed, but the January issue of EGM will have an extended coverage so look forward to that. In the meantime, screenshot:

This looks like Chun-Li's stage, and man look at the detail. Even those cheap plastic stools are gorgeous.


Also, Ryu's crotch. Good luck trying to unsee it.

New Ghostbusters screens, hands-on from IGN

Today's update will be in the style of Masahiro Sakurai just for shits and giggles.

What a creepy-looking graveyard!

Hey! Slimer! Don't play with food!

That sure is a lot of books...

Oh, no! He got me!

Don't cross the streams!

...oh you know what this sucks, here's the rest of the new screens (from IGN):

Read IGN's hands-on impression as well.

New Burnout Paradise screens

These were apparently from an asset disc EA gave out themselves, during a demo of an early build. Some guy got them and posted them on the internet for our viewing pleasure. Thanks guy!

Burnout Paradise is looking really beautiful. Look at the nicely-detailed textures, and the designs are excellent. Well...not much else to say aside from that, since this is Burnout after all so you know what to expect. Oh, and it runs on 60 fps. Sixty.

These screens are from the PS3 version.

There's actually a lot more images than that, and I mean a lot more, but I can't really post them all here. If you wanna see the rest head over to X-Power, who provided these screenshots.