Sony has announced plans to start releasing US and Japanese PSone emulations in Europe via the PlayStation Store. While the firm hasn't confirmed any specific titles or release dates yet, Ross McGrath of the PlayStation Store team said a few are "already in process".Here's a handy guide explaining what it all means for you guys:Publishers who own the rights to release PSone titles that were previously only available in the US and/or Japan will now be able to apply to have them released on the SCEE PlayStation Stores (providing they are rated by the appropriate ratings boards for each territory).All titles will be published 'as is', with either English or Japanese language game content where available.All titles will run at 60 Hz and you will need a 60 Hz capable display to play them properly.This also means that if a PAL version of a title has been unable to pass QA in SCEE, but the NTSC version is already available on the PlayStation Store in SCEA or SCEJ, we can look at publishing that version instead. We cannot simply take the US version and publish it immediately, as it has to be reprocessed for SCEE, but at least we know the title should already be relatively bug-free.Sony added: "With this news in mind, we'd love to hear from you what titles you'd like to see available in Europe for the first time - make yourself heard in the comments and with the most requested titles we will speak to publishers on your behalf."
2012年1月29日星期日
Early Access Langrisser Schwarz
By Darren Henderson (DizzyPW), OnRPG Editor-In-ChiefLangrisser Schwarz was the second stop on our tour of Gamania's Game Show. Now to be honest, I had never heard of this game until last Thursday when Gamania released their show's teaser trailer. One week later.. and I can say I am enthusiastically looking forward to reviewing this game at launch in person and might even consider bringing my guild on board to play it long term. This is truly the hit sleeper game of the show and I'm going to explain just why I'm so excited for it.Developers Jacky Chung and Roy Huang explained their game through a series of trailers and a clear cut resounding message. Langrisser Schwarz skimps on customization and crafting and instead focuses its fully development dollars into providing highly difficult content, immense class selection, and an emphasis on raw uninterrupted action at a level I have only seen in console games.To truly understand a game you first need to consider the available classes and how they interact. In Langrisser Schwarz this can be a daunting task! The beginning of the game throws you into the Goddess' test which decides your starting class (out of 6 possible) and your alliance (dark, light, or empire). But you aren't bound by this class and can freely change between any of the starting 6 classes so long as you have the armor to make it effective. As you level up and acquire TP from completing missions, each of these classes allow you to spend your TP to unlock one of two new classes. Those each lead to 2 more classes and then 2 more classes after that. From wizard to berserker to ninja to infighter to templar... players should never feel bored of their class in this game.What's even more interesting is that when changing classes, you don't fully lose access to the skills acquired from your previous class. In this way you have even more variety in that you can create hybrid classes with skills from two separate jobs, though it seems the hotkey is currently limited to about 6 skills which should add even more strategic depth to each battle.The actual action itself plays out as a sort of real time chess match. The camera is in third person and the game plays out similar to Diablo in that directional aiming is important. You won't just be able to click on a monster and automatically spam skills at them, each attack requires timing and aim to land successfully. A majority of the skills available also have a charging system in place to add more strategic depth. Against agile foes you might spam your skills rapid fire to ensure you can land hits, while more stationary foes require well placed charge shots to deal noticeable damage to. This system still needs some refinement though as some charge shots (like the archer's basic attack) are too wonky to use effectively. There's no reason an archer shouldn't be able to change the direction they are aiming while charging for an attack and I think this better get changed in the final release.Before entering a mission, players are able to customize their 'mercenaries' to accompany them in combat. Mercenaries act as mini soldiers that you can command in battle to offer extra damage and tanking ability to your character. If they die in combat you can easily revive them between fights, encouraging you to use them as expendables to speed up each quest.On the alliance versus alliance PvP side of things, mercenaries become more more important. A system is in place in which some mercenary units are more adept as defeating other mercenary units similar to the Fire Emblem series. In fact the example given felt straight out of Fire Emblem with cavalry units gaining the advantage over soldiers, soldiers being more effective against pikemen, and pikemen countering calvary. As you level up, your mercenaries gain strength as well, so don't expect tedious grinds to collect armor for both your mercenaries as well as yourself.Tedious grinds seem to be pretty optional in general in Langrisser Schwarz. Players will be able to acquire most of what they need in the battle arenas fighting for the honor of their chosen faction. After each match you will receive two types of currency: team points and personal points. Team points are rewarded based on whether you win or lose and how good of a fight your team put up altogether. Personal points exist to reward players that might have carried decently well but faced insurmountable odds due to baddies in their party. Currently the maximum combat consists of 5v5 though with the number of mercenaries added to the mix, this can have the look of a full out war zone.Besides armor sets, collectors will rejoice at the detailed card collecting system featured in Langrisser Schwarz. Through grinding or the cash shop players will be able to obtain 100s of cards, featuring buffs, traps, and summons to support you in battle. Players will then be able to take 3 cards into battle (I'm not positive but I believe the 3 cards are randomly selected from a larger deck each time you enter an arena). These cards shouldn't be mistaken as fluff nonsense that only collectors will be interested in. The effects of these cards are truly devastating, often dwarfing any skills your character has at their disposal, though with the incredibly long cooldown time it is to be expected.From our brief playthrough yesterday I can say with full confidence that his is not a pick up and play MMO. The dungeons are well thought out, difficult, and require a full team of competent players to ensure PvE success. Most monsters mobs consist of a central leader and a group of protecting mercenaries, ensuring that the PvE battles don't just become gang bangs. The AI is adept at controlling their mercenaries as well, as an archer I often found myself receiving major damage for sending my mercenaries to the front line to fight instead of keeping them on the defensive to act as a buffer from getting flanked.Langrisser Schwarz also utilizes hazards such as siege towers and monster ambushes to prevent players from slowly crawling through a dungeon one group at a time. In one situation we were forced to fight through 2 very powerful siege towers and, one we were fully committed to the battle, a lich rose up and began summoning hoards of skeletons to protect saidwarham towers. Another boss, a spiked lizard, summoned tons of mini lizards while he continually dug under ground and popped up under our squishy players to deal massive damage. This fight truly forced us to perfect the timing and aim of our skills to deal even a scratch against him.Finally we party wiped in less than 10 seconds against Ominous Eyes, the dungeon raid boss. Ominous Eyes shoots out armor shredding hyper beams from any direction his eyes gaze, reducing even fully speced tanks into dust in 5 seconds flat if you are unable to evade it. Our team foolishly ran in like a like of British Red Coats and was incinerated the moment our tank landed his first hit and drew the bosses' attention. Speed and armor boosting cards were vital to stay alive in this match and my two Canadian journalist teammates died repeatedly for not paying close enough attention to the boss' wandering eyes. After a long drawn out battle and much ridicule from the Empire booth girl/cheerleader we were finally able to claim victory!The overarching faction versus faction versus faction conflict is similar in setup to Warhammer Online. Through PvP and, to a lesser extent, PvE players will be able to acquire faction points to obtain unique buffs for their side while stealing the same benefits from their enemies. As a griefer I was sad to hear that players will be unable to communicate with members of the other alliances.If you are one of those nerdy gamers like me who adore gaming storylines, Langrisser Schwarz is the game that will truly shine out of Gamania's 5 on display. Each alliance features a unique storyline from start to finish, pulling you in to a world of destruction and chaos and forcing you to understand the motivations behind each alliance.A last item of note in Langrisser Schwarz is the game features controller plug-in capabilities for console gamers who feel a mouse and keyboard are too foreign. This controller set-up plays out extremely well, with the various control pads allowing you to command your character and your mercenaries on the fly. Skills and card activation is also a breeze with the L1 button acting as a scroll navigation bar to quickly flip through your line of skills. The only true downside I found to the system was this scrolling made defensive skills far too unwieldy to access on the fly. By the time you have scrolled to the mage's teleport skill you will have already been knocked on your ass and 1 shot by a boss. Hopefully they realize this during testing and alter the currently useless R2 and L2 buttons (currently assigned as hotkeys for help menus...) into fast cast assignable skills to allow players a quick draw button for vital dodge skills.This game might not have all the refinements of most typical MMOs but it certainly has enough focus on fun to keep me interested. If you want to catch the Schwarz fever yourself I'd suggest heading over to the Langrisser Schwarz website (http://corp.gamania.com/products/langrisserschwarz/en/index.htm) and taking the Goddess' test to see which starting character and alliance is for you!
2012年1月28日星期六
Change Your Gamertag For Cheap Xbox Deal
The Xbox Deal of the Week this week is a bit of identity-shifting on the cheap: For the next seven days, you can change your Xbox gamertag for 560 Microsoft Points, that's 30 percent less than the usual cost of a gamertag change, so this is the perfect chance to go deep undercover... although, sadly, your friends will instantly see your new handle, and, by extension, know that you felt the need to change your identity.Here's a step-by-step guide: On your console, sign in using the Xbox LIVE gamertag that you want to change. Go to My Xbox, and select your gamertag. Select Change Gamertag. Note the Price of the change, and then select Enter New Gamertag or Get Suggestions to view possible gamertags. Once you enter or select a new gamertag, select Yes, use this gamertag.I'd like to make a suggestion, Xbox Live community: If your gamertag contains any reference to 420, change it. It makes you look like a tool. Also: Racist Gamertag Guy: Stop advertising your ignorance! Also: If your tag says "leet" or any variation thereof, get rid of it. Also: Mixtures of upper and lowercase with Xxx at the beginning or end are OUT. In fact, just use your full, legal name, like Ido.Yes, my parents named me XXxx SniperEliteForce XXxx Johnson.
2012年1月27日星期五
EA Online Pass revenue 'hasn't been dram
The revenue generated from EA's Online Pass system has been significant but not major, according to the publisher. "The revenues we derive from that haven't been dramatic," EA CFO Eric Brown said last night, according to Gamasutra. "I'd say they're in the $10-$15 million range since we initiated the program."But the publisher still sees the Online Pass system as beneficial. Brown pointed out that the above figure is "found revenue" that comes from users who previously "consumed bandwidth for free".This is a problem that DICE executive producer Patrick Bach flagged up at the beginning of the week, saying that Battlefield 3 will probably use the Online Pass system as a way of helping to pay for the game's online servers. Tom Pakinkis
40 staff cut at Mafia dev 2K Czech
Take-Two has cut around 40 jobs at Mafia maker 2K Czech. That's according to Develop, which claims 2K Czech has lost around a quarter of its 200 development staff spread across two studios based in Brno and Prague.Take-Two said in a statement that 2K Czech "has realigned its resources to streamline the development process, reduce costs and maximize studio performance".It added: "Our goal to create world-class video game titles remains unchanged... While this was a difficult decision, we believe it will benefit the studio in the long-term."2K Czech's most recent game was this year's well-received Top Spin 4. Tom Ivan
Metal Gear Solid 3 HD screens
Hideo Kojima has released a few off-screen photos of the Metal Gear Solid 3 HD update, which you can see below. It follows the release of the first gameplay footage yesterday.The Metal Gear HD Collection will include updated HD versions of PS2 hits Metal Gear Solid 2 and Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence alongside former PSP-only entry Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker. Ported to PS3 and Xbox 360 by Bluepoint, the studio behind the God of War Collection, the updated games will boast 1080p visuals and run at 60fps.The PS3-exclusive Ultimate version adds to the package with PS3 edition Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots and a PSN code to download the original PSone Metal Gear Solid. Tom Ivan
2012年1月19日星期四
Red Dead Redemption Is Not Coming To PC A
Red Dead RedemptionNews (95)Previews (8)ReviewVideos (69)Screenshots (130)Cheats and Walkthroughs (186)Red Dead RedemptionNews (94)Previews (8)ReviewVideos (69)Screenshots (130)Cheats and Walkthroughs (180) Max Payne 3News (18)Previews (1)ReviewVideos (2)Screenshots (30)Cheats and WalkthroughsMax Payne 3News (18)Previews (1)ReviewVideos (2)Screenshots (30)Cheats and WalkthroughsMax Payne 3News (18)Previews (1)ReviewVideos (2)Screenshots (30)Cheats and Walkthroughs Rockstar games recently admitted that they have no plans to release Red Dead Redemption for the PC. The company posted a lengthy asked and answered article on their website, and one of questions related to RDR and Rockstar's other PC releases. When asked why there are no plans to bring Red Dead to PC, the company answered, "All we can say is that whenever it is viable (technically, developmentally and business-wise) for us to release a game for PC (or any other particular platform) – we will and we usually do; unfortunately, that is just not the case 100% of the time for all platforms. To PC gamers, we hope that between the Grand Theft Auto titles, and the forthcoming L.A. Noire and Max Payne 3, you’ll have plenty of great Rockstar action to enjoy."And there you have it. I know many Rockstar PC gamers have been waiting (somewhat impatiently) for Red Dead to make its appearance but it looks like that wait will be forever. Sorry, cowboys. The good news is that it looks like the upcoming Max Payne 3 will be coming to PC though, so that's good news, right?
2012年1月17日星期二
Black Ops Rezurrection DLC out now
Rezurrection, the new Zombies-focused Call of Duty: Black Ops map pack,jimmy choo outlet, is now available to download from the Xbox Live Marketplace. Announced earlier this month and due for release on PS3 and PC at a later date, the DLC features five Zombies levels. Four are remastered versions of CoD: World at War maps Nacht der Untoten,cheap jimmy choo, Verruckt, Shi No Numa and Der Riese,jimmy choo boots, while the fifth is the all-new Moon.It'll cost 1200 MS Points (£10.28), but will be free to Black Ops Hardened and Prestige owners, "as a thank-you to the hardcore fans for their support from the start". You should be able to go into your download history and re-download the classic pack you already own, and the fresh download will include the new Moon map.There are some new screens of the DLC on this page, and you can check out a Rezurrection video preview here.Mark Lamia, studio head at developer Treyarch, said of the DLC: "Our Zombies fans are so incredibly engaged with us in the ongoing development of the franchise, and we're excited to deliver them our first all-Zombies content package. Rezurrection is Zombies nirvana, with four of our best Zombies experiences, topped off with the awesome, all-new level Moon." Tom Ivan
2012年1月16日星期一
Xbox 360 on top in August despite PS3 pri
Games industry analysts have weighed in with US sales predictions for the month of August, ahead of the NPD Group's release of official market data this Thursday. Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter and fellow analyst firm EEDAR both expect Xbox 360 to continue its strong run in the US by outselling all other consoles for the month.The mid-August PS3 price cut should be enough to see Sony's console enjoy a jump in sales over the same month last year,jimmy choo boots, but not enough to overhaul Microsoft's system.On the software front,cheap jimmy choo, Pachter expects sales to be led by Deus Ex: Human Revolution, with continued strong sales of July release NCAA Football 12. Wedbush / EEDAR August sales estimates (change year-on-year):360 - 275,000 (-23%) / 250,000 (-30%)PS3 - 240,000 (+6%) / 245,000 (+8%)DS - 235,000 (-31%) / 210,000 (-39%)Wii - 175,000 (-28%) / 150,000 (-39%)3DS - 135,000 (n/a) / 175,000 (n/a)PSP - 60,000 (-24%) / 60,000 (-24%)PS2 - 10,000 (-87%) / n/aTotal - 1,130,000 (-15%) / 1,090,000 (-18%) Tom Ivan
2012年1月15日星期日
Star Wars Old Republic video shows off l
BioWare has sent over a new video developer diary of Star Wars: The Old Republic, which you can watch below. It shows off the Esseles, described as "a flashpoint that Republic heroes will be able to experience for themselves early in their hero's journey". During the Esseles scenes in the MMO, players must group together to protect a high-ranking diplomat and fend off Imperial boarding parties.Star Wars: The Old Republic is due for release late this year.
2012年1月10日星期二
Halo 4 director quits, cites 'lack of exc
Halo 4's not out until late 2012 but Microsoft has already seen a key departure from its dev team in creative director Ryan Payton, who's confirmed he has left the company. The ex-343 Industries man - who joined the Halo 4 team after his acclaimed work as assistant producer on Metal Gear Solid 4 - put his decision down to not being "creatively excited" for the project anymore.Payton's now started up his own studio, Camouflaj,cheap jimmy choo, and is already working on two new titles."I had a great run at Microsoft,jimmy choo outlet," Payton told Kotaku. "I don't regret one day of it. But after a few years, there came a point where I wasn't creatively excited about the project anymore." "The Halo I wanted to build was fundamentally different and I don't think I had built enough credibility to see such a crazy endeavor through," he added.Payton's work on MGS4 included updating the series' often clunky controls, plus balancing the game and story for international audiences. "It was all a crash course on AAA game development," Payton said of his MGS days. "It was an experience that prepared me for a big budget, high risk project like Halo."Though his NDA prevents him from talking about his Halo 4 work in depth, Payton confirmed he was very much focused on the story, working with Halo franchise director Frank O'Connor and the creative team to develop the Halo universe. He also hired MGS4's audio director Sotaro Tojima as Halo 4's audio director. "There's no doubt that his Japanese sensibilities will bring a lot to the new game and I'm confident the game is going to sound epic," he said. Andy Robinson
Assassin's Creed Revelations beta live on
Ubisoft's confirmed the Assassin's Creed Revelations multiplayer beta is now available for download on PSN,jimmy choo boots, exclusively for PlayStation Plus and Uplay members - but you can't play it until tomorrow. The multiplayer beta will kick off tomorrow, September 3,jimmy choo outlet, from 10am and close on the evening of September 11.The beta offers access to nine characters; The Sentinel, The Vanguard, The Guardian, The Vizier, The Thespian, The Deacon, The Bombardier, The Trickster and The Champion.On top of that, there are three maps to stomp around in (Knight's Hospital, Antioch, Constantinople) and four playable modes (Wanted, Manhunt, Deathmatch, and Artifact Assault).You can read all the beta details you could possibly need right hereRevelations is out on November 15. Andy Robinson
Halo Anniversary pre-order goodies detai
Microsoft's unveiled its pre-order incentive for Halo Combat Evolved: Anniversary: an official art booklet. At least it's better than a "premium map" (and a kick in the arse), eh? Customers who pre-order their copy with GAME and Gamestation will receive the special edition collector's booklet, which is based on the art book "Halo: The Art of Building Worlds" from Titan Publishing. Microsoft explains: "This 24 page, 170 x 135mm booklet contains a collection of ground-breaking art from the history of the Halo games including concept art, sweeping landscapes from the Halo universe, and of course the evolution of the Master Chief."Combat Evolved: Anniversary is out on November 15. Microsoft confirmed 3D support for the HD update last week. Andy Robinson