From Machinima comes a new Aliens: Colonial Marines trailer. It includes the Gearbox staff showing off the Xenomorphs along with the Marines weapons. Between these early looks and the ads I’ve been seeing all around GameStop, Sega is really giving this game a huge marketing push. Especially since it doesn’t arrive until February 2013.
SEGA has shared new images of characters that you will be able to either play as or visit with in two locations, Fukuoka and Hokkaido. This is two out of five, which is interesting. It seems that each character will have its own city to explore along with its own set of characters.
Platinum Games’ Hideki Kamiya tells it how he sees it and this time its a shot at Playstation All-Stars Battle Royale, a mash up fighter. If you guys have been following the game, it takes ‘Playstation’ greats and puts them together in 2D view fighting game that looks basically like Super Smash Bros. Kamiya doesn’t seem to like the idea of the game.
What do you guys think? Rip off or not?
French hackers Dyak and Furrtek decided that it would be a good idea to connect a shock collar to a SEGA Genesis/Mega Drive. The idea is that every time the on screen character takes damage, the user with the shock collar gets … Well shocked.
Oh, you crazy French people and your need to make awesome inventions like the French Fries and the French kisses. How awesome would this thing be to play with friends with? Imagine a nice tournament of Virtua Fighter. How satisfying.
Poor Anarchy Reigns. It really got a bum rap this year after Sega went through its restructuring. From being delayed indefinitely, possibly being cancelled to finally having a super-delayed release date of early 2013. All the while, Platinum Games finished the Japanese version with full localization built in for a world wide release. Several Platinum Games fans were outraged that they wouldn’t be able to play the game for another 6-9 months from now. I’m sure there’s a logical and financial reason why they’d make such a delay, but it makes no sense to me.
But why wait? The game is region free on both X-Box 360 and PS3 and is available to import from sites like Play Asia right now! It’ll cost a bit more than if you wait, but if you want one of the best brawling games this generation early, this is the best way to go. Read on to see what you’re missing out on.
Creative Assembly has been making some of the best strategy games on PC for years, but they want to do more with Rome II. They want to add Spielberg level of drama. It has been confirmed that Total War: Rome II will be the biggest and most detailed Total War game yet. So anything extra is awesome. Studio says it really took inspiration from the film Saving Private Ryan and wants to make the players care about the characters on screen.
To be honest I’ve spent a long time now somewhat ignoring the Project Diva series, as it’s never had a release in the West coupled with my only passing interest in rhythm games it has remained on the peripheries of my gaming radar. However I have to say I felt a bit of a tingle while watching this latest trailer for Project DIVA f for the PS Vita.
Somewhere between the Phantasy Star Online 2 cameo and a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it glimpse of what looks like a modified Dreamcast controller this trailer managed to capture my attention. If Sega was to ever take a risk with bringing Project DIVA West it should be with a game like this. Perhaps a digital release? What do you think?
It’s been a very long time coming, but after months of being in Japan and Europe Rhythm Thief has finally arrived on American shores. If the rumors of the game selling out are true, it seems to be a hit! But was this game worth the long wait? Will Phantom R’s musical escapades win you over or does it fall out of tune? Read on.
Oh memories, it feels like Sonic Boom 2012 just happened. Wait, it did? Jesus, time is going slow. If you went to the event, congratulations, you can now relive it through YouTube daily. If you didn’t, you can watch the video above and make yourself believe you were there.
It’s no secret that there’s a been a strong demand amongst the SEGA fanbase for a sequel to Bayonetta, the popular beat-em-up from Devil May Cry creator Hideki Kamiya. With years having passed since Bayonetta graced consoles and with Platinum Games and SEGA seeming to have parted ways, a sequel (at least, from Kamiya and his team) has seemed less and less likely as time has gone on.
That said, the subject did come up in a recent Famitsu interview, though Kamiya’s answer may not be the one fans were hoping to hear. When asked whether he’d rather develop a sequel to Bayonetta or Viewtiful Joe if given the chance, it turns out he favors the latter.
As a person who really enjoyed Viewtiful Joe and found Bayonetta to be rather annoying, this is actually positive news for me, though I’d imagine many SEGA fans won’t see it that way. Fans shouldn’t give up hope entirely, however, as Kamiya goes on to mention that he and one of Bayonetta’s producers have occasionally discussed the idea of doing a sequel or spinoff; usually, he says, while drinking beer.
Take from that what you will.
Looks like the mystery of the third bonus character may have been solved and it’s a Sega character this time! Today, Sega has announced Sonic and All-Stars Racing Bonus Edition. This special edition contains an exclusive Outrun Bay track as well as Metal Sonic with a levitating vehicle. In addition are some exclusive emoticon stickers. This bonus edition is only available as a pre-order exclusive (although I’m sure the bonus items will be available for sale as DLC later). There will also be a seperate limited edition available for Europe, but no details as of yet. Read on for for Sega’s official announcement.
In what looks like happy news for Sega, it appears Rhythm Thief is selling well in the USA and Canada. Mind you, this is going by only a few local incidences. Such as the Player One Podcast’s Greg Stewart mentioning that he could not find a copy at any store near him and that at the time of the recording, amazon.ca was completely sold out with third paty sellers wanting $12 over MSRP.
Well, I did a little digging myself, and it turns out most of the GameStops near me are either sold out or low in stock (mostly low). Also, Amazon.com in the US is completely sold out as well and relying on third party sellers. Keep in mind that it’s highly likely Sega only produced a low supply of the game for N/A retail after seeing how poorly it did in Europe and that’s why we’re seeing these copies run out. Still, it shows a strong demand for the game which is only good news for SoA. Those either on the fence or waiting for a price drop might want to consider picking up a copy sooner than later.
The Marie focused edition of Rhythm Thief Month has been postponed until I get further into the game.
Until then, I thought I’d post up one of the other things that makes Rhythm Thief cool: homages to other SEGA rhythm games. Rhythm Thief is a game with some interesting SEGA pedigree. Not only is its director, Shun Nakamura, responsible for also directing Samba de Amigo, but the game’s list of contributing composers include Tomoya Ohtani and Naofumi Hataya, whom have worked on the soundtrack for Space Channel 5 Part 2, Samba de Amigo, Feel the Magic as well as a variety of Sonic and Sonic Team games.
Above is Vamos a Carnival, from Samba de Amigo. The actual mini game is a surprisingly faithful adaptation of Samba de Amigo’s game play onto the 3DS, using both face buttons and tilt functions to replicate the Dreamcast classic’s game play. It’s one of my favorite games in RT, and this style of mini game is also one of the most difficult I’ve yet encountered in the game.
The other SEGA rhythm game Rhythm Thief pays homage to is Space Channel 5. Much like the Samba de Amigo mini game, it also adapts the Space Channel 5 formula into the game, complete with a track from the game, which I have posted below after the break.
SEGA assured that the changes they made would help the company and it doesn’t seem they are lying. SEGA has reported increased profits for the first quarter of the current fiscal year. Sadly the consumer business is still reporting losses, however SEGA has really reduced the losses year-over-year. Sadly the losses are contributed to the lack of demand for home video games in the U.S. and Europe.
SEGA only shifted 1.34 million units this quarter, which is down 42.5 perfect compared to 2.33 million year-over-year. SEGA has also stated that their free-to-play game Kingdom Conquest has been downloaded over 3 million times. No idea how many people opted for buying upgrades and other pay-to-use items.
Aliens is a huge franchise, with its big fan base that will nitpick the upcoming game by SEGA and Gearbox Software. Just to ease everyone’s minds here is the team talking about the upcoming game and how authentic it will be to the Alien universe.