Posts Categorized: Videogames

Videogames

An Aside | Are you ready to return to BALDUR’S GATE?

By Aidan Moher February 29th, 2012

A new BALDUR'S GATE coming?So a new website has appeared. No big deal, right? Well, this one’s special. You see, it’s for Baldur’s Gate, the near mythical CRPG series developed by Bioware. And all signs point to some exciting news coming down the pipeline.

Rock, Paper, Shotgun reports:

This is, apparently, coming from former BioWare developer Trent Oster, who worked on the original BG, as well as the first Neverwinter Nights. His new company, Beamdog, is a digital distribution platform, brought to wider attention recently via the release of MDK 2 HD, and this, GameBanshee claims, will be the source of new Forgotten Realms chat-n-chopping.

[…]

The rights to the games are owned by Atari, who have spent the last few years re-releasing the series, along with NWN and others, in about 30,000 different packages. It’s clear that the company has been trying to make the best of owning all the BioWare classics for quite a while, and in fact back in 2008 there were rumours they were going to add to these franchises.

The most intriguing part of all is found if you dig into the website’s HTML:

< -- February 28, 2012 -->
< -- Shadowy Figure- Raise Dead : Infinity Engine -->

< -- For years, I clung to the memory of it. Then the memory of the memory. -->

< -- And then... it returned. Better than it was before. -->

< -- Pore over the tapestries and works of art hanging from our walls if you wish, Child of Bhaal... perhaps you will find a clue. But patience, ah... patience would reveal it all. -->

I’m frothing here. But can it possibly live up to the series’ reputation? Many would argue that Baldur’s Gate 2 is the pinnacle of the CRPG genre.

Videogames

An Aside | THE LAST STORY coming to North America thanks to XSEED

By Aidan Moher February 22nd, 2012
THE LAST STORY coming to North America thanks to XSEED

Oh victory, you taste so sweet.

Thanks to the fine folks at XSEED Games, North American gamers are going to have the chance to experience The Last Story, an action-based RPG from Mistwalker, a Japanese developer/publisher headed by Hironobu Sakaguchi, creator of the legendary Final Fantasy series. This is, of course, the result of much hard work from dedicated fans operating under the Operation Rainfall umbrella, which was already successful in convincing Nintendo of America to publish Xenoblade Chronicles in North America (though with a very limited release).

Of the game, NintendoLife, awarding the game an 8/10, said in their recent review:

The Last Story is, in many ways, a significant achievement on Wii. With gameplay that is both simplified and complex, solid controls, attractive presentation, online multiplayer and a touching, well-paced plot, this title can be considered as a definitive entry in its genre. Technical problems with the performance, in particular regular and punishing drops in frame rate, unfortunately drag the experience back. When the game engine performs it’s terrific, but too often it struggles and significantly impacts your ability to control the action. The Last Story’s many strengths, however, ensure that it’s a story that can’t be missed.

The Last Story was just released in Europe by Nintendo of Europe. The North American version will presumably use the European English translation and voice acting, with XSEED doing the heavy lifting in localizing the game to American English and publishing/distributing the game to its North American audience. No release date has been set, but expect The Last Story to land on North American soil sometime this year.

Videogames

An Aside | First screenshots from new X-COM strategy game, ENEMY UNKNOWN!

By Aidan Moher January 9th, 2012
XCOM: Enemy Unknown Screenshot

When rumblings of a new X-com game first hit the gaming scene a few years ago, fans were understandably excited. The classic SRPG series helped define the genre and is considered one of the greatest and most influential of all time. Fan disappointment was also understandable, then, when it was revealed that the new X-com game was going to be a first-person shooter developed by 2K Marin, a far cry from what fans were used to or wanting. That game, simply titled XCOM, has sat in limbo, restarted and re-imagined several times and caught in development doldrums. A rather ignominious end to the storied franchise.

Enter, Firaxis, the developers of the equally legendary and revered Civilization series. The latest edition of Game Informer revealed XCOM: Enemy Unknown, a strategy game that will be instantly familiar to fans and has quickly surpassed XCOM in terms of importance and fan fervor.
Read More »

Videogames

An Aside | First Peek at SUIKODEN: THE WOVEN WEB OF A CENTURY

By Aidan Moher November 30th, 2011

SUIKODEN: THE WOVEN WEB OF A CENTURYVia NeoGAF:

The Centennial Monster…

That monster will appear without fail once every 100 years, devour everything, and continue to multiply… It is a fearsome beast. In order to prepare for the Centennial Monster, the Holy Ionian Empire has extended its reach to suppress the entire empire by forcing heavy burdens upon it.

But as time passes, the regional towns and cities have become dissatisfied with these heavy burdens and declared independence. In the beginning, a large-scale military battle between Holy Ionian Empire and the Regional Force occurred. There were massive casualties on both sides, but ironically, the existence of the Centennial Monster forced both sides to reconcile and work together.

Beneath the Ionian Banner, the Holy Ionian Empire, faced with an emergency, acknowledged the Regional Force’s independence as a condition of combining their forces. Ever since, time has passed peacefully, at least on the surface…

This year, it will have been exactly 100 years…

In Terube Village, three youths–the hero, Miyura, and Gino–are spending their days training to prepare for the coming of the Centennial Monster. One day, on their way back from training in the barricade ruins, the Hero and his friends encountered monsters they’d never seen before. No matter how many they defeated, the monsters continued to multiply. Unable to move forward or escape, the companions retreated back to the ruins.

Once inside, a mysterious boy named Zephon suddenly appears in front of them and sends them 100 years into the past. There, they will meet the heroes who defeated the previous Centennial Monster…

A newly-woven story of the Infinity that transcends time…

And the first trailer for the game, complete with crazy moon language:

My immediate reaction is disappointment, a feeling that’s becoming increasingly common where the once legendary Suikoden franchise is concerned. The cover art is classic and easily recognizable as a Suikoden game, which makes me feel all warm and fuzzy, but one look at the trailer or a brief scan through the synopsis makes it clear that this is another game in the tradition of Suikdoen Tierkreis, a step away from the layered, politically-charged setting explored in the first five games of the series. Instead, fans are left to explore a brand new world with no connections to the previous games besides the 108 Stars. Regardless, I enjoyed Tierkreis for what it was and will no doubt be picking up Suikoden: The Woven Web of a Century when (if) it’s released in English.

More art from the game, including full character portraits, can be found HERE.

Videogames

An Aside | A GAME OF THRONES MMORPG under development

By Aidan Moher November 14th, 2011
My thoughts on GAME OF THRONES

Via 1up.com:

The first game based on A Song of Ice and Fire, a real-time strategy game known as A Game of Thrones: Genesis, was released just over a month ago. An RPG known simply as Game of Thrones is also in development, and that’s not the only game in the works based on George R.R. Martin’s epic novel series — at least two more are on the way.

The first of these two, according to USA Today, is an MMORPG. It’s being developed by Bigpoint, the company responsible for the browser-based MMO Battlestar Galactica Online, among many other, lesser-known games.

[…]

The release of Genesis was met with surprisingly little fanfare, and reviews haven’t been especially kind. That has many fans worried about the prospects of the RPG given that developer Cyanide Studio was responsible for Genesis. With how little we’ve seen of the game, it would be unfair to pass judgment on it at this point. At the same time, it’s somewhat worrying that the screenshots seen in this story represent a big chunk of what we know at this point.

Does anyone think this will be good?

These days, even World of Warcraft is having trouble keep its subscriber base from falling (it’s lost nearly a million subscribers) and the pedigree of the development team doesn’t exactly inspire any confidence. With Game of Thrones becoming a world-wide phenomenon, what will it take to get the IP into the hands of a development team that actually has the chutzpah to do Martin’s work justice?

Mechanically, it also just doesn’t make sense to me. MMORPGs are known for their epic, large scale fights against ferocious, mystical beings. Beyond Dany’s dragons, those don’t really exist in A Song of Ice and Fire. So, you reach the end of an Epic Raid and fight… one of Tyrion’s turtles? At least we’ll be able to collect 15 lemon cakes for Sansa once we make it to Winterfell.