Swingin’ Report Show #21: Eurolamer

This week I’m (George) joined by Aki-at and Shigs to talk about stuff like TGS, Eurogamer and the recently announced Yakuza Dead Souls. Enjoy listening to this podcast, which was suppose to be recorded last week.
[audio:https://segabits.com/wp-content/uploads/Swingin_Report_Show_21_EuroLamer.mp3]

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Footage of Binary Domain at TGS 2011

SEGA’s up and coming third person shooter has promised to feature large scale boss battles and the above video is a demonstration of one. Showcasing the giant spider mecha that has been seen in previous trailers but never shown in gameplay videos, check out this impressive big boss battle as the player has to take out the machines legs using rocket launches whilst dodging the mecha’s gun turrent and missile attacks. But that’s not all, click after the break to see two more videos showcasing other areas in the game.

[Thanks to Pao for the tip!]

Project Draco is basically Panzer Dragoon Kinect?


When Project Draco was announced last year at TGS, everyone in the press, including us, thought it was meant to be the spirtual successor to Panzer Dragoon. Not only did the game sound like Panzer Dragoon, a rail shooter with Dragons, but it also had Yukio Futatsugi (known for his work on Panzer Dragoon games) leading the project. It seemed that Microsoft wanted to kill our hopes by saying the game had nothing to do with Panzer Dragoon. But how does it play? We find out this year, since it was shown in playable form for the first time.

“This is totally Panzer Dragoon Kinect. Yukio Futatsugi, who you may remember from Phantom Dust and Panzer Dragoon, is heading up a new team called Grounding Inc., and has brought together various team leads from the former Team Andromeda for this one.” – Says 1up.com

So they already had Yukio Futatsugi, but they are making a team and getting more lead members of Team Andromeda (who did Panzer Dragoon series)? Even though I think the new art style is inferior to the older Panzer Dragoon games.

The game will let players ride up to 5 dragons, have over 150 secondary skills and will have multiplayer (support up to 3 players). Not only that, the game awards the players who get high scores with rare food that you can feed to the dragon to level it up.

Daisuke Sato: “If SEGA localizes, there would be new controls”

Daisuke Sato, director for Yakuza 3 and SEGA’s up and coming Binary Domain, was asked how Yakuza: Of the End compares to Binary Domain and other Western shooters, he said;

“For the western version of Yakuza: Of the End — if that’s going to happen, then we will tweak the controls, to be closer to other western shooting franchises.”

It is best to keep in mind that this is not confirmation if Yakuza of the End will be coming out in Western markets but rather the changes that would be made to the title if it made it here especially as the control for the title is radically different to the establish norms of third person shooters in the West.

[Source: Joystiq]

Super Monkey Ball Vita allows you to create a level by taking a photo


SEGA said that the newly announce Super Monkey Ball Vita would be using the PSP’s camera, but never said how. The latest TGS trailer gives us a glimpse on one thing you can use the camera for, creating levels. If you watch the trailer towards the end, they take a picture of a banana and the game makes a course out of it.

As for what you can do with the levels, if there will be online sharing like LittleBigPlanet and if you can have more specific tools is not known. But its a pretty cool feature, hopefully its not half baked ideas like Monkey Fight and Racing on Super Monkey Ball 3D.

[Thanks: Shadi]

Binary Domain’s TGS Stage Show Was Awesome, Watch It Here



Video streaming by Ustream
Yes, Binary Domain had us questioning how good the game would be. Well, that was until we saw their TGS Stage Show for the title, spanning a little over 20 minutes. The gameplay looks awesome and the Japanese voice acting talent has people from the Yakuza franchise returning. As you know, the voice acting in the Yakuza games is fantastic.

But hey, don’t take my word for it. Watch the video above.

[Thanks: Suzuki Yu]

New TGS trailer for Anarchy Reigns

Check out the latest trailer for Platinum Games’ upcoming Anarchy Reigns. This one’s more story-driven, though I think SEGA should really consider releasing a demo one day soon.

Game releases early next year.

We will be having a TGS talkathon! Join us!

We are a little less than 24 hours before SEGA has their first TGS conference, so its about time I posted this. Most of the staff and some of the community users will be having a Mumble chat together and you can join. All you have to do is download Mumble here.

Once you install it, open it up and go to Server>Connect>Add New. Once you get there, fill out the box with the following:

  • Label: Whatever you want to call the connection
  • Address: vx38.commandchannel.com
  • Port: 31366
  • Username: Your display name people will see goes here
I suggest most users set a ‘push to talk’ button. Its not that hard. On the program go to Configure>Audio Wizard. After you go through all the pages, you will come to one like this, click on push to talk and in the blank spot press a key. 
We will be on mostly during the big SEGA stage shows each day, you can see the stage show schedule here

Check out the size of SEGA’s TGS booth

It is not long now until Tokyo Game Show but the above floorplan shows SEGA will be pulling all the stops, hiring out (Along with Capcom) the biggest booth at the video game expo. So far the confirmed titles to be at Tokyo Game Show are all titles that we already knew beforehand, but with such a large booth perhaps it would be wise to expect some more titles to be unveiled! Make sure to click on the picture above to see the full picture and check out other publisher’s booths too.