Nicholas Bale
Nestled in the Ignition Entertainment booth, a brightly-colored jRPG caught my eye playing on the Wii. Called Arc Rise Fantasia, it looked like it warranted some time, and I began to play through it. Read More.
In Asia, there are a ton of 'freemium' MMOs on the market: these are online games that don't require any subscription fees or anything of the sort, but allow you to purchase (with real money) special items and accessories to make your experience more enjoyable or easy. Read More.
Walking through Sony's booth, a name on a small PSN booth caught my eye: DeathSpank. Not a common title, but definitely worthy of a playthrough. In it, you play the heroic knight, DeathSpank, dispensing justice and...well, more justice, wherever you go. The gameplay involves running around a large world from an isometric viewpoint, killing enemies, taking quests, levelling up, and earning loot. Read More.
Fans of old-school action RPGs from Japan probably know about Falcom and one of their most popular series: Ys (pronounced 'ees', rhyming with 'cease'). It's an action-RPG series that's been around since 1987, and from what I've seen, it's still going on the PSP, now with the system's first exclusive Ys title. Read More.
I got the chance to talk to the developer of Dungeon Siege 3, Square Enix's first foray into the world of genuine western RPGs. When they first looked to make a Dungeon Siege game, they approached Gas Powered Games for it, but the developer didn't have a team ready for the game. Read More.
The beginning of Nintendo's press conference did not begin quietly, with Miyamoto himself demoing the new Legend of Zelda game, to great applause. Dubbed The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, it looks to do what many fans argued that Twilight Princess should've: give the player a connection to Link through the Wiimote. Read More.
I was looking forward to getting a glimpse at the new Witcher title, as I had enjoyed the previous one, but also heard much of the criticism directed to it. I was interested to see how they could change the formula to keep it interesting, and I came away thinking that this Witcher 2 might be heads above its predecessor. Read More.
I've played a few of the Trauma Center games in the past and enjoyed them relatively well. So when I was told that the new game would change up a lot of the formula, I was curious to see exactly what developer and publisher Atlus meant by this. Earlier, I was given the opportunity to watch a playthrough of the Forensics portion of the game, a strong departure from the typical slice-and-dice gameplay of the series that focuses more on evidence collection and analysis than trying to beat the clock. Read More.
At the end of this year, James Cameron's new film, Avatar, hits the theatres. Before that, however, the game based on the film's world hits the consoles, and I got a chance to see it in action at Sony's annual PlayStation Holiday Preview event in Toronto. Read More.
If I took one thing away from the Conviction previews that I've been shown, it'd be that Sam Fisher is a total badass. I mean, really a guy you should not piss off. Read More.
If you've heard of Mythos or Fate, two games from recent years, you may know about Torchlight, developed by Runic. Tucked away in a quite booth in the West Hall of E3, I found this game that I had heard about before, but very little about. Read More.
Games have often made claims of being 'interactive movies', but this usually means that you play a bit, watch a cutscene, then play a bit more. If you're lucky, you'll be given the chance to change the ending once, maybe twice. Heavy Rain, a game in development for the PS3 and slated to release at the end of this year. Read More.
From Hudson comes a title that the demo-er called "a cross between 24 and CSI", a action crime drama called Miami Law. In it, you take the role of both Law Martin and Sara Starling, officers in the police department in Miami, a city that's beginning to come under attack from unknown criminal elements. Read More.
Revealed as a surprise at the beginning of the Nintendo press conference was a title that no one was expecting, but seemed to make a big splash: The New Super Mario Bros Wii. Set to be released at the end of this year, this game brings back the 2D-and-a-half style of the game from the DS, but with a very important addition, that of four-player co-op. Read More.
Chances are, you've not heard of Shiren the Wanderer. It's an old rogue-like title that was first released for the SNES, then re-released on the Nintendo DS with a new wifi rescue feature. Now, the sequel is being developed for the Wii, and developer ChunSoft is making sure that it's more than just a simple graphical conversion. Read More.
