Last week in Japan saw the release of the third spinoff title in the Yakuza series after its original delay way back in late March. With the Japanese market struggling for software sales, Yakuza: Of the End has helped lift the market somewhat, although the majority of the Japanese market remains dead. Continue to read on to see how well Kazuma’s latest adventure did.
The guys over at Siliconera had a chance to ask Iizuka if Sonic Team is planning a follow up to Sonic 4: Episode 1, in which he responded:
“We named Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 1, so there will be an episode 2. Since this year is the 20th anniversary of Sonic we wanted to focus on Sonic Generations. We don’t have a release date or anything.But, we can tell you it will be in the near future.”” – Takashi Iizuka
Near future? Iizuka and his love for time traveling plots. In all seriousness, it seems that Sonic Generations is getting the physics for cassic Sonic right. Would be interested if the physics being used in Generations will be used in Episode 2.
Steam has recently allowed publishers to put free-to-play titles on its store, one of the first titles? Spiral Knights.
Now you will be able to enjoy the game with the Steam overlay, that allows you to chat with friends while you game. If this wasn’t enough, SEGA has launched a Spiral Knights Steam group. Join it to meet up with other Knights and have some excellent adventures.
[Source: SEGA.Blog]
SEGA have been on the ropes with the development of Colonial Marines. Everyone thought it was a dead project but it is back. But will it be a shitty cash-in like other SEGA license games or a good product? Mike Hayes reassures you that they are trying to deliver a top quality product.
“As a general point, when you have a great licence, the amount you need to spend on marketing is significantly less. So the two balance each other out. But that’s independent of how much money you invest in the game, because we know how well tie-in licence games have gone recently, we have to create a game that stands on its own two feet. This is a quality-first approach.” – Mike Hayes, President of SEGA West
Another concerning factor is that Gear Box Software’s newest game, Duke Nukem Forever isn’t doing that great with the critics and seems to have disappointed fans that have waited 10+ years for the release of the game.
[Source:MCV]
[Ueda is on the left.]
Ryuta Ueda! Who is he you ask? Just a man that worked on games like Panzer Dragoon Saga, Jet Set Radio and the first 3 Yakuza games. Pretty much classy stuff.
Not only is he directing the project, he is also writing scenarios, doing the artwork and more (so teases his facebook page). So if you are a hardcore SEGA fan, this is a title you might want to keep a close eye on.
[Via: The Forums]
Destructoid snagged a pretty informative interview with Brian Martel, Chief Creative Officer at Gearbox Software. In the interview they discuss key elements of the game itself (obviously) such as drop in/drop out Co-op gameplay and new Xeno types like ‘The Crusher’. They also discuss working with such talent as Ridley Scott.
Finally the attention turned to Nintendo’s new console the ‘Wii U’ and the ways it could enhance the Aliens: Colonial Marines experience. The interviewer suggests this might be the most compelling possible use of the Wii-U he has heard so far and I tend to agree. I haven’t see anything that makes me want to rush out and pick up Nintendo’s new console yet, no not even that Zelda tech demo! However the idea of using the controller screen to view the motion tracker, security cameras, hacking mini games or say, my own idea; to see through allies’ head cams would be totally awesome, even more so when they get killed and it snaps to static.
P.S Why does everyone rag on Alien3 like it was a terrible movie? It wasn’t a classic but as far as horror movies go it was pretty cool! Alien Resurrection on the other hand…
Check out this trailer for 7th Dragon 2020. The original 7th Dragon on the DS was quite a fun little game. In traditional old school JRPG style you had to travel the land with a party of warriors killing the seven dragons which ruled it. Of course that’s a very simplified version of the tale as I don’t speak/read a lick of Japanese.
The game was headed by Rieko Kodama (Also credited as Phoenix Rie, or Phoenix in some of her early work.) Kodama has worked on many JRPGs including Phantasy Star and my personal favourite, Skies of Arcadia.
7th Dragon 2020 is heading to the PSP in Japan this year.
Though it’s been said before, it never hurts to hear it again. SEGA of America and Europe president Mike Hayes has recently said that the company has heard the voices of fans who were disappointed with Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 1, and that he believes Episode 2 will take these opinions into account and be “excellent.”
“I know there were some quality issues that we had there that we’ve taken on board and there will be further episodes following up on that. I think the next one’s excellent. I think that’s going to overcome some of the issues that we had on the first one.”
Nothing about Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 2 was present at either E3 or Sonic Boom; Probably SEGA’s hoping to keep everyone’s attention this year on Sonic Generations. If Episode 2 controls similarly to Sonic Generations’ classic Sonic stages, I’m sure (rational) fans will be much happier with it than they were with Episode 1.
[Source: ScrewAttack]
You know you all want to play Sonic Generations and now it’s been confirmed by Takashi Iizuka at the Sonic Boom fan event that that there will be a demo.
I think we all expected a demo and I assume the demo will be the Green Hill Zone stage with classic and modern gameplay. Whatever stage they choose, it will be awesome.
[Via: Sonic Stadium]
I’m still on the edge about voice commands in video games. The reason? They never work out and are just stupid concepts. Regardless of how I feel about this, Nagoshi’s newest title will have voice commands for squad members. If you have Kinect, you will be able to use that.
Oddly enough, Playstation Eye, which also has a microphone, has not been confirmed to be supported.
[Source: Joystiq]
So this is pretty awesome, GameSpot snagged a nice long interview with ‘new guy’ (yeah, I’ll learn your name in due time… When you live up to Aaron and Ken!) and the game director Hiroshi Miyamoto.
You can see the entire walkthrough of Green Hill Zone and City Escape in both modern and classic gameplay. It looks pretty great! Part one is above and hit the jump to see part 2!
The port of the highly successful The House of the Dead: Overkill is to get a large amount of new content. Destructoid confirms that the Extended Cut is due to not only have new levels as confirmed beforehand, but new zombies, weapons, and even audio tracks. There has also been a new mini-game added that occurs during cutscenes. It is safe to assume that those who are thinking of double dipping for this version can be justified in knowing that they will not be buying the same game twice.
[Source: Destructoid]
Straight from E3 are a couple videos of SEGA’s survival horror Kinect game Rise of Nightmare that showcase a range of gameplay elements such as covering your ears to stop loud sounds and the various ways to interact with the world of the game. Check after the break for a longer video of the game. Rise of Nightmares is slated for an October launch.
So you are waiting for big software to hit the 3DS? What will you play this summer? You could spend some time with Game Gear classics, thanks to SEGA. They announced that the following five titles will be released this summer, no specific released dates yet.
GG Shinobi is actually quite an excellent title. A bit weird, since you can play 5 different colored ninjas, but fun.
[Source: Siliconera]
Here is a demonstration of Virtua Tennis 4 being played on Sony’s new handheld console PlayStation Vita.