Pirates vs. Ninjas Dodgeball trailer

From Gamecock Media Group comes this...thing. Pirates vs. Ninjas: Dodgeball. What. The. Hell.

Coded Soul: A new reason to dig up your PSP

The PSP has been really quite amazing lately. It baffles me why it didn't sell as much before, and needed something like Final Fantasy to attract attention. This pretty-looking game is brought to you by one of the original creators of the Shin Megami Tensei series, Koji Okada. Which explains why Coded Soul is so SMT-like in appearance. It also reminds me somewhat of Xenosaga, especially that picture of the white room.

I'm not sure what the gameplay is like, but judging from this screenshot it seems to be an "active" RPG like .hack, judging from the little button icons. That's a good thing maybe, but I hope it's a little more Tales-like if it's gonna be this way.

No US release date yet, but February 7, 2008 in Japan. See the official site for more info (that is, if you can read moonspeak).

New Silent Hill V details revealed in Play Magazine

Here's some chilling (/groan) info about the new Silent Hill installment, courtesy of Play Magazine and SilentHill5.net:

-Flashlight and broken radio return! The enemies react to light. Some puzzles will require you to use particular light-emitting tools so this might pose a problem!
-Camera can now be controlled by the player. Which might help with the problem stated above, but will definitely lose the game some points because Silent Hill, or any of these horror games for that matter, shouldn't really show the player everything--you know, it creates suspense and stuff.
-Button mash- er, matching segments for certain puzzles and events, kind of like those things in God of War or Dynamite Cop.
-MGS3. You now have to tend to your wounds and other negative afflictions because this will affect gameplay. It's no longer as simple as using a potion and your status will be "fine".

The flashlight and radio are welcome re-additions especially after they disappeared for some odd reason in SH4, but I'm really not too keen on the movable camera. The "survival viewer" aspect is a nice touch of realism though and will definitely add more tension.

Golden Axe: Beast Rider. Finally some details! plus pictures

It's been more than a month since Golden Axe: Beast Rider was confimed; now we finally have some details on the sequel. From Sega Nerds:

"If you’re looking for a straight update you’re probably going to be disappointed, because the classic bruiser has been pretty much completely re-imagined in the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 update.First off, you now play as one Amazonian hero, the scantily clad Tyris Flare, instead of the original game’s trio of fantasy stereotypes. Gillus the dwarf and Ax Battler are still in the game, says PSM3, but only as supporting cast.

Secondly, and probably the biggest change of the lot, is instead of straight-forward bruising Golden Axe: Beast Rider’s focus shifts over to free-roaming environments and - surprise, surprise - the various beasties you can ride and battle on. There are five in total, ranging from the light and nippy to hulking, slow dragon-ites with scales the size of toilet seats. The traditional hack and slash combat is still there and if you’re tired of fumbling around on a dragon you can hop on foot and perform combos whenever you like - plus Tyrus has a range of spells at her disposal.

The open environments are looking rather nice, but as always it’s going to come down to how decent Golden Axe’s combat system is when it finally comes out next year."

It's kind of disappointing that the 2 other guys are now just supporting, non-playable characters, but hey I don't mind almost-naked women. However I'm not too sure about the "free-roaming" aspect of this "re-imagining". I don't think I quite like the idea that one of my favorite side-scrolling beat-em-ups is gonna become ye olde GTA. Sure it might be fun to explore, especially with the whole beast-riding deal, but I was hoping it would be the same silly old arcade-style beat-em-up, with maybe some added features like an extended inventory, because that's what Golden Axe really was about. But oh well...I'll just wait for the demo and see.

The Orange Box on PS3 doesn't look THAT bad...

Yep. It looks quite good actually. Judging from this video anyway. I honestly can't tell the difference between the PS3 and 360 version just with this. However, there really are issues, notably framerate drops which are especially prominent in Half-Life 2. But overall, nothing that will throw the regular gamer off. Many games experience graphical problems even on the PC but are still great (Crysis is one notable example). And I personally don't care as long as the overall experience is at least satisfactory. The Orange Box is definitely something way above satisfactory, and the small problems in this PS3 port shouldn't even begin to overwhelm its greatness, though it could be much better. If you have a PS3 and are wondering whether to get Orange Box for PS3 or for PC, I believe you can get either version and have an equally great time.

Here's a HD video of Half-Life 2 for PS3.

Fragile, Namco's new RPG: Screenshots and official website now open

Fragile is Namco's latest offering for Wii players. Developed by tri-Crescendo (responsible for Eternal Sonata and Baten Kaitos series), this RPG is a third-person "exploration RPG" with a post-apocalyptic setting. The Wiimote will be used mainly to move the flashlight around as the player explores abandoned, empty (or are they?) ruins.

The official website is online but there isn't much and it's Japanese, though there is a trailer and a song.

Screenshots and scans (Famitsu):






Porn of that girl on the lower left is going to exist real soon.

No NA release date yet, sadly, but hope for it to be announced soon because this game is looking great.

By the way the main character is a dude.

White Knight Story scans +screenshots

White Knight Story seems to be Level 5's (creators of Dark Cloud and stuff) offering to those who like giant robots and fantasy worlds at the same time, in the form of giant medieval knight armor. This is one of the very few RPGs coming for the PS3 (the only other one I know is Eternal Sonata and it's not even originally for PS3) and it's by Level 5 so you know it's going to be good.

Here are some pretty new screenshots . (from Jeux-France)





And here are the scans but they're too big so just click on the underlined words in this sentence to see them.