Despite loving to post new Cover Art for novels, I don’t do a whole lot of posts about videogame Box Art. When I saw the artwork for Borderlands the upcoming FPS/RPG hybrid from Gearbox and 2K Games, I knew I had to go out on a limb.
So rad. It’s nice to see some publishers still willing to take a chance with their box art, instead of just resorting to the same lame-o designs we see all over the place. 1up.com has a nice preview, if you’re interested in learning more about Borderlands.
While their press conference was centred around the announcements of new Mario and Metroid games, Nintendo had another ace up its sleeve, albeit it a small and vague one: artwork from an upcoming Zelda game for the Wii.
From an interview with Shigeru Miyamoto, creator of the Zelda franchise:
Well, the story setting for this Zelda is, of course, in a completely different era and Link is older than he was previously. More approaching adulthood. There is one hint. Maybe from the art work you can see that he’s not holding a sword.
Source: Siliconera and IGN
Interesting, indeed. Considering that The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess was actually a game developed for the Gamecube and then ported over to the Wii, it will be interesting to see what Nintendo brings to the table with the first Zelda title developed from the ground up with motion control in mind.
In any case, considering it’s only a piece of artwork, one can assume that we won’t be seeing it on store shelves until 2010 at the earliest.
Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete is one of my favourite videogames of all time. It’s a great little package full of memorable characters, a tight story and a world that comes to life (thanks, in many ways, to Working Designs original localization back in the SegaCD days). I was rather ecstatic when I found out that XSEED Games would be bringing over the recently announced PSP remake.
While everything is calm on the surface, the world of Lunar is slowly devolving into chaos. The legendary Dragonmaster Dyne and his faithful companions have faded into obscurity only to have a shadowy figure known as the Magic Emperor begin to wreak havoc on the world created by the Goddess Althena. Meanwhile, in a small, humble village far removed from the turmoil in Lunar, lives a young man named Alex. As one who idolizes the legendary Dyne, Alex dreams of one day becoming the next Dragonmaster and matching the accomplishments of his life-long hero.
Egged on by his childhood friend Ramus and with his adopted sister Luna in tow, Alex heads off on what seems to be a meaningless adventure, unaware that it would be the first step in an epic journey with the fate of the entire world at stake.
Since it debuted over a decade ago, Lunar: Silver Star Story has continuously captivated fans with its timeless tale of love, betrayal and redemption, expertly woven into its involving gameplay and cinematic presentation. The classic masterpiece has now been reborn on the PSP as Lunar: Silver Star Harmony with all new graphics, added gameplay features, and a re-mastered soundtrack so a whole new generation of fans can experience this legendary first entry of the Lunar universe, while added story elements are sure to intrigue returning fans alike. This title is being developed by Game Arts and is scheduled to be released Fall 2009 exclusively for the PSP.
Source: Siliconera
RPGamer had a chance to talk with Development Producer, Masato Dobushi and Jimmy Soga of XSEED Games, and shed some light on the remake:
The last remake of Lunar on the GBA wasn’t as well received by fans as the Sega CD and PlayStation versions. What aspects of Lunar: Silver Star Harmony will appeal to new fans? Long-time fans?
Masato Dobashi: I really think the opinions of Lunar fans towards the series is very important. For this PSP remake, I really wanted to use the Sega Saturn version as the basis to create a solid title because it was also what everyone was hoping for [in Japan].
For the new fans, I would love for them to experience an adventure full of dreams and hopes. Don’t you feel like we’re lacking those types of RPGs lately? I really wanted to show why Lunar has been loved for 17 years with this new PSP version.
For the old time fans, I would first like to say thank you to everyone. The reason Lunar can be played on the PSP now is because of their long time support and love for this series. For this version, Kei Shigema has put extra effort into the scenario and created a new episode to make it a more complete version of Lunar.
How does XSEED plan on handling the game’s quirky humor and sexual innuendos? That was one area that really stood out for me in the prior releases.
Jimmy Soga, XSEED Games: We’re still in the early stages of translation so it’s hard to say how we will handle it, but it would be a fine balancing act between keeping the original Working Designs English translations as is or to retranslate some of the stuff to be more true to the original Japanese. Working Designs did an excellent localization job, but their text has a lot of 90’s pop culture references and possibly some copyright issues that might have been okay when the original was released, but something we need to be more careful about today (such as “Tootsie Rolls”, “M&M’s”, “Wheaties,” etc.)
From all accounts, it looks like a lot more care is being put into this remake than the neutered (but still enjoyable) Gameboy Advance Remake and certainly much more than terrible Nintendo DS ‘sequel’. Hopefully there’s enough there for fans of the series and newbies alike, the Lunar series deserves as many fans as it can get!
1up.com used to be home to the best video podcast about videogames on the ‘net. Then, they were bought out and the majority of the video team fired. It was a crying shame and one had to wonder what the new bosses were thinking when they stripped the web site of one of its defining products.
Well, the guys from that team have landed on their feet, starting an independant video podcast with all the class, knowledge and production of the now defunct 1UP Show. It’s called Co-op and it’s worth a watch for anyone even remotely interested in the gaming world.
CO-OP 0000: Reflections Part 1 from Area 5 Media on Vimeo.
CO-OP 0001: Reflections Part 2 from Area 5 Media on Vimeo.
CO-OP 0002: Operation Apple from Area 5 Media on Vimeo.
CO-OP 0003: A Flower For My Valentine from Area 5 Media on Vimeo.
From their web site:
While editorial gaming video is our passion and our first love, we feel that we have the best team in the business when it comes to creating and editing video for the gaming industry. Area 5 Media is here as our outreach to any developer, publisher, or marketing team that is looking for highly efficient contractors to handle their video needs. We can handle every aspect of the video-production pipeline: developer diaries, DVD extras, mini- or long-form documentaries, or even editing your trailers and making sure that the formats are suited for wide distribution among all of the outlets, online and broadcast, that you deal with every day. Our previous experience creating video directed solely at the gaming audience gives us a unique perspective on how the video game industry can best utilize the moving image as a resource and as a vehicle to reach the gamer. After all, we’re as “gamer” as they come. Can you find that in Hollywood? Maybe. There are a lot of gamers these days. Can you find a video-production studio in Hollywood that’s done everything that we’ve done and knows the industry as well as we know it? Doubtful. Also, we’re fun to work with, and if you’ve already made a game, chances are that at least one of us has played it.
You can check out the web site for Area 5 HERE.
Peter V. Brett, author of The Painted Man has dropped in to the recent conversations regarding George R.R. Martin. Rather than wading directly into the conversation, Brett instead has some interesting things to say about his experiences as a new author and how some of the behind the scenes things change once you’re writing under a deadline.
From Brett’s blog:
What I would like to discuss instead is my personal experience with writing, and how I feel it relates to the situation, and perhaps gives me a different perspective than many people.
…
I started writing The Painted Man (AKA The Warded Man) sometime in 1999. I wasn’t fully dedicated to it, as I was also working full time and writing other books, but it was a project that I began plugging away at when I had time, and a couple of years later I put aside my other projects and started focusing hard on it. After several drafts (wherein I threw out a good 60% of the original story), I finished the sale manuscript at the end of 2006, approximately seven years after starting it.
…
When I sold the book in 2007, the publisher bought two sequels as well, and asked me how long I expected it to take for me to write them. I had just given notice at my job to shift to writing full time, and told them that I was already well into writing The Desert Spear (true), and that it would take about 9 months to finish it, meaning I would have it done in May/June of 2008. The third book, I said, should be ready about a year after that.
That was a very naïve thing to say, but I had been a professional writer for all of 5 minutes, and was very naïve. Now here we are in January 2009, and I still have two chapters left to write, not to mention several rounds of expected rewrites, all of which I believe are absolutely necessary to get the book up to my own standards, much less anyone else’s.
