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| Tokoyo Game Show 2006 - TGS 2006 - News |
Source: Gamespot
| Chocobo to Mahou no Ehon Hands-On |
TOKYO--Every year Square Enix's booth is one of the busiest on the Tokyo Game Show floor, and 2006 is no exception. There's so much foot traffic there, in fact, that the only time you're permitted to stand still within its confines is when you're in line to play a game--in which case you could be standing still for a very long time. Not so in the case of Chocobo to Mahou no Ehon for the Nintendo DS, though, not because it isn't popular, but because you only get to play for a very short time. Our first session after waiting in line for five minutes or so, for example, lasted under three seconds. Fortunately we fared a lot better on our second visit, playing for all of two minutes and achieving a high enough score to earn ourselves a Chocobo-styled DS bag.
Although Square Enix's TGS press kit shows that Chocobo to Mahou no Ehon is clearly a role-playing game of some description, only three minigames from it were playable at the booth today. All three of them were played using the stylus, all three of them presented you with a "Game Over" screen as soon as you made a single mistake, and all three of them rewarded speed above anything else.
In the first game, around 25 playing cards each with a different character on them appeared on the bottom screen and our goal was to hit the correct card as quickly as possible when we saw a character run or fly across the upper screen.
The second game saw the touch-screen divided into nine squares via a series of white line drawn over the top of a woodland scene. Our Whack-a-Mole-style objective was to tap the squares that a certain kind of monster appeared in, while leaving another type of monster alone. The game started out at a sedate pace, but became more difficult as the monsters started to spawn in numbers and were often partially obscured by plants and other environmental objects.
The final minigame, which we were able to download a demo of at the Square Enix booth so as to avoid standing in line for a third time, divides the touch-screen up into a 5x5 grid and then places an arrow in one of the squares. The size of the arrow and the direction in which it's pointing determine which square you're supposed to tap next, and you keep doing that until you reach a square with a gold crown in it. This game was arguably the most challenging of the three on show, but after spending some time practising with it we have managed to achieve a prize-winning time by clearing three boards in under 17 seconds.
It's unfortunate that more of Chocobo to Mahou no Ehon wasn't being shown at the Tokyo Game Show, but we had a good time checking out the minigames nonetheless. The game is currently scheduled for release in Japan on December 14, and we look forward to bringing you more information just as soon as it becomes available.
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| No US PS3 price drop |
TOKYO--Following Ken Kutaragi's keynote address at the 2006 Tokyo Game Show, Sony announced that the 20GB-hard-drive-equipped model of the PlayStation 3 was getting a price drop in Japan. The lower-end version of the console, which will now boast HDMI high-definition video output, will cost just 49,980 yen ($429) when it hits stores in Japan on November 11. That's about 10,000 yen ($85) less than its prior price, which was around 60,000 yen ($515).
Although Sony's announcement applied only to Japan, news of the discounting spread quickly across the globe. Wire service reports with headlines saying "Sony slashes price tag for delay-hit PlayStation 3" surfaced in numerous local newspapers in the US. These, in turn, fueled a rumor firestorm that the 20GB PS3's $499 US sticker price would also be cut before it goes on sale November 17.
Sadly, though, Sony is sticking firm with its North American PS3 plans. "In the US, we're comfortable with the pricing that we announced at E3--$499 for the 20 gigabyte version and $599 for the 60-gigabyte version," Sony Computer president Kaz Hirai told GameSpot. "There are no plans right now to adjust the pricing for the US market."
Though disappointed, potential PS3 purchasers in the US did get a bit of a consolation prize from Hirai. The executive confirmed that every 20GB PS3 worldwide will have an HDMI port, not just in Japan, as some had speculated
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| Sony tips PS3 Japan launch hand |
As part of its effort to promote its wares at the 2006 Tokyo Game Show, Sony Computer Entertainment Japan fired off a fusillade of press materials this morning. Besides revealing five new titles for the PlayStation 3--Ninja Gaiden Sigma, Sega Golfclub, flOw, Wangan Midnight, and Shirokishi--the releases partially lifted the veil off the Japanese PS3 launch slate.
When the PlayStation 3 goes on sale in Japan November 11, six games will definitely be available: Genji: Days of the Blade, Mah-Jong Fight Club Online, Mobile Suit Gundam: Target In Sight, Resistance: Fall of Man, Sega Golfclub featuring the Miyazato Family, and--wait for it--Ridge Racer 7. Sony also confirmed Armored Core 4 would arrive sometime in November.
For December, Sony has locked down a trio of games: F1 Championship (aka Formula One 06), Gran Turismo HD, and MotorStorm. Three more carry a general "winter 2006" release date in Japan: Need for Speed Carbon, Enchant Arm, and the railroad sim Railfan. Another pair will ship during "2006": Sonic the Hedgehog and Fatal Inertia, though the latter is only "projected" to make that vague release window.
According to Sony, 2007 will see at least 12 more PS3 titles come to market across the Pacific. Virtua Fighter 5, Virtua Tennis 3, Heavenly Sword, Lair, Monster Kingdom: Unknown Realms, The Eye of Judgment, and Wangan Midnight will all arrive in the "spring," while Everybody's Golf 5 and Warhawk will land in the "summer." Other games confirmed for the year are Afrika (working title), Coded Arms: Assault, and the much-awaited Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots.
Sony listed a sextet of several high-profile titles with the most nebulous release date of all, "TBD." Those included Shirokishi, fl0w (working title), Bladestorm: The Hundred Years' War, Devil May Cry 4, and Final Fantasy XIII.
While informative, the release dates revealed today are in no way a complete Japan PS3 release schedule, which has yet to be released by Sony. It also must be emphasized that the list is not reflective of the PS3 launch lineup in North America. There, Activision has publicly committed to having three games--Call of Duty 3, Marvel Ultimate Alliance, and Tony Hawk's Project 8--go on sale alongside the console. Electronic Arts is expected to have four to five games for the PS3 launch, while Take-Two is predicted to have three by January 2007, according to analysts. Ubisoft has also committed to have at least one game available.
The PS3 games featured by Sony at TGS 2006 are listed below, in order of release. The company has also released information on how far along each game is in overall development--the percentages completed are also listed below. (Another brochure listing floor-demo build development was also distributed with slightly different percentages.)
JAPAN SHIP DATE / TITLE / STATUS
11/11/2006 / Genji: Days of the Blade / 70% complete
11/11/2006 / Mah-Jong Fight Club Online / 60% complete
11/11/2006 / Mobile Suit Gundam: Target In Sight / 80% complete
11/11/2006 / Resistance: Fall of Man / 80% complete
11/11/2006 / Ridge Racer 7 / 80% complete /
11/11/2006 / Sega Golf Club featuring Miyazato Family / 70% complete /
November 2006 / Armored Core 4 / 80% complete
December 2006 / F1 Championship (working title) / 60% complete
December 2006 / Gran Turismo HD (working title) / 70% complete
December 2006 / MotorStorm / 60% complete
Winter 2006 / Need for Speed Carbon / 70% complete
Winter 2006 / Enchant Arm / 70% complete
Winter 2006 / Railfan / 30% complete
2006 / Sonic the Hedgehog / 80% complete
2006 (Projected) / Fatal Inertia / 90% complete
Spring 2007 / The Eye of Judgment / 70% complete
Spring 2007 / Heavenly Sword / 65% complete
Spring 2007 / Lair (tentative for Japan) / 40% complete
Spring 2007 / Monster Kingdom: Unknown Realms (working title) / 30% complete
Spring 2007 / Virtua Fighter 5 / 70% complete
Spring 2007 / Virtua Tennis 3 / 50% complete
Spring 2007 / Wangan Midnight / N/A
Summer 2007 / Everybody's Golf 5 (working title) / 30% complete
Summer 2007 / Warhawk / 50% complete
2007 / Afrika (working title) / 30% complete
2007 / Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots / N/A
2007 / Coded Arms: Assault / 40% complete
TBD / Devil May Cry 4 / N/A
TBD / Bladestorm: The Hundred Years' War / 60% complete
TBD / fl0w (working title) / N/A
TBD / Shirokishi / 10% complete
TBD / Final Fantasy XIII / N/A
TBD / Rainbow Six Vegas / N/A
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| Two GTs for PS3--one starting with no cars? |
Microtransactions are a white-hot topic in the gaming biz. Publishers love them because it's an easy way to scoop up easy revenue. Gamers love them because they can pick and choose what they want to add to their game for a few bucks.
Well, that's the theory at least. Some of the more vocal gamers have expressed displeasure over the choices and prices of content, claiming that several items aren't worth what publishers are charging (horse armor ring a bell?). On the other side of things, some publishers are being forced to lower prices on online content after dismal sales. In short, the business of microtransactions is off to a cool start.
If a post on the message boards of Web site Beyond3D is true, gamers haven't even seen the tip of the iceberg. A forum member who goes by the nom de plume "one" posted his/her translation of an interview with Gran Turismo creator and Polyphony Digital president Kazunori Yamauchi that originally appeared in Japanese game magazine Famitsu.
The interview allegedly says that the Gran Turismo debut on the PlayStation 3 will come in two forms, one called Gran Turismo HD: Premium and one called Gran Turismo HD: Classic.
Premium will feature "the full graphics power of the PS3" and include 30 cars and two courses, with the option to buy more of each later. There will allegedly be one mode--a casual racing mode--that doesn't include the typical GT gameplay of winning races and acquiring cars and medals.
Classic will (racing fans brace yourself) come with no cars or courses and is basically the demo that was playable at the Electronic Entertainment Expo. According to the translation, 750 cars will be downloadable for 50 to 100 yen ($0.43 to $0.86) each, and 50 race tracks will be downloadable for 200 to 500 yen ($1.72 to $4.30) apiece. The translation also states that cars will be released on a monthly basis, with some being available in limited quantities. New modes and tuning kits may also be downloadable.
There was no mention of how much the games would cost or if they would be included as a pack-in with the PlayStation 3.
It's obvious that publishers are still a bit confused as to how microtransactions are going to sit with gamers. But if such a scenario comes to pass, Sony could have a full-fledged riot on its hands, if the scathing comments in the Beyond3D forums are any indication.
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| Devil May Cry 4 Hands-On |
TOKYO--Yep, it's Devil May Cry. Thanks to a bout of sprinting, we were one of the first few people to play Devil May Cry 4 here at TGS after the show floor opened this morning. While it's not an earth-shattering revolution in gaming, fans of Devil May Cry 3 will be pleased to know that the series's trademark stylish action is returning in an almost identical form, at least based on the impressions that the demo left us.
Graphically speaking, DMC4 is obviously a pretty game, albeit not overwhelmingly so. The demo we played was somewhat low on the wow factor for the most part, which was mostly due to the environment that we were playing in. The action started off in a garden initially and then shifted into some grungy warehouses before moving outdoors into a dock area. It's done well, but not jaw-droppingly so--at least, not at this point in development. There are still frame-rate issues that will likely be cleaned up in the future, though.
Nero himself will be instantly familiar to anyone who played as Dante in Devil May Cry 3 since he looks and is controlled in almost the exact same fashion. The square button shoots his gun (a large revolver in his case), triangle slashes his large sword, X jumps, and circle causes him to punch with his demon fist, which is attached to his arm at the elbow and glows red. The combination of his demon fist and sword makes him control somewhat as if you were using both the sword and Beowulf from DMC3 at the same time. No evidence of weapon-switching was apparent in the demo we played, although we're betting that any new weapons you get will only replace the triangle attack; the demon fist seems to be important enough to always be equipped.
With that said, we didn't see any evidence of styles or the devil trigger. The normal style button, circle, was bound to the demon-fist attack command, so that seems to be irreplaceable. The normal devil-trigger button doesn't cause any kind of transformation but instead causes Nero to gain a short burst of speed. We're betting that our demo was from fairly early in the game, based on all of these factors.
This isn't to say that combat was uninteresting. It is, instead, overwhelmingly familiar, enough so that all of our (admittedly meager) skills were instantly applicable when we started playing, since most of the move sets are apparently identical to DMC3. The normal sword attacks can be combo'd together to form some rapid slashes, while the familiar forward-plus-triangle dash is back and capable of hitting multiple opponents. Back plus triangle will, likewise, kick enemies in front of you up into the air, letting you jump up after them and start slashing them while in midflight.
Fans of outdated street slang will be pleased to know that your ability to quickly land a variety of blows without getting hit will again get you a rank, anywhere from D all the way up to (presumably) SSS. The higher you go, the more red orbs you get when you kill your foes. We managed to scope out a few of the titles you can earn, spotting "Come On," "Big Ups," "All That," and, after a furious bout of button mashing, "Slammin' Beat."
The demon fist acts quite like Beowulf attacks from DMC3, with the default combo hitting enemies up into the air a bit and then smashing them back down into the ground, causing the floor to fracture and staggering nearby opponents. In addition to that, you can perform what's known as a "snatch" on distant enemies, where the fist will quickly detach from your arm, grab opponents by the head, then teleport them back to your location, letting you beat on them at close range.
Speaking of enemies, the trademark bizarre opponents of Devil May Cry games of yore appear to be influencing the design of the enemies here. We only saw a couple of varieties of foes in our demo, both of which were patchwork-doll-like creations, seemingly made of many body parts stitched together with a number of blades attached to them. The difficulty of the fighting here wasn't overwhelming, despite the inability to dodge or switch styles, so perhaps the difficulty adjustments made to the Devil May Cry 3: Special Edition have been incorporated into the initial run of Devil May Cry 4.
Overall, the experience of playing the Devil May Cry 4 demo here at TGS is very similar to playing Devil May Cry 3, save for the graphical upgrades. We weren't particularly surprised by anything we encountered, although the game did show off a huge, flaming Balrog-like enemy that stepped out of a fiery portal before the demo timed out. Only time will tell what Capcom has up its sleeve for the full version of the game; we're sure that it hasn't revealed everything about the title here at TGS. For instance, one of the postcards that representatives from the company were handing out as you exited the game booth features Nero standing on a set of steps with someone who's wearing Dante's red-colored trench coat walking up the stairs beyond him. What role Dante himself has in Devil May Cry 4 is yet to be determined, so stay tuned to GameSpot for more details on the title as they become available.
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| Metal Gear Solid 4 TGS Trailer Impressions |
TOKYO--It's practically a rule at this point that every major game industry trade show needs to have some sort of explosive Metal Gear Solid trailer to get everybody talking before, during, and after the event. Developer Kojima Productions seems equally as talented at putting together amazing trailers as it is at making great games, so with this in mind, we went into this year's Tokyo Game Show eagerly looking forward to anything new on Metal Gear Solid 4 for the PlayStation 3. And, once again, Kojima Productions delivered, this time with a roughly six-minute trailer showcasing what appear to be a lot of new gameplay mechanics from this next game in its popular stealth action series. Back in May, the E3 trailer for MGS4 wowed us with lots of tantalizing new details about the characters and story, not to mention with some really impressive graphics. This new trailer doesn't show off Raiden slicing and dicing or drop any obscure clues about the plot, but instead portrays a weathered old Solid Snake doing what he does best: sneaking, fighting, and surviving against all odds.
The trailer takes place entirely in the war-torn, dusty cityscapes we've seen in previous sequences from MGS4. There's not much preamble before the bullets start flying, and the trailer mostly shows some of the ways in which Snake will be able to elude or dispatch his opponents. And there is some surprising variety on display here, including a bunch of moves never before seen in an MGS game. At first we see Snake performing by-the-numbers military maneuvers, running through the streets while keeping a low profile, ducking around corners to elude foes, and so on. We also see Snake lying prone, rolling from side to side to avoid hostile fire.
Then a surprise appears in the form of the little robot operated by Snake's friend Otacon, which we saw in the very first MGS4 trailer. It turns out this speedy little thing is more than just a recon bot, because in one sequence, it rolls on up to an unsuspecting enemy guard and delivers an electric shock that drops this guy in an instant.
As for Snake, we get to see him climbing into an empty oil barrel and rolling through the streets, plowing through and past enemy soldiers. It's almost comical but thrilling--a new spin on the old cardboard box, if you will. Flashes of first-person-perspective gunplay meanwhile suggest that Metal Gear Solid's traditional point-and-shoot controls will still be intact. Some very impressive motion-captured animations are on display as wild gunfights ensue, and all the while, the environments look completely believable. However, notably, a recent issue of Famitsu magazine revealed that MGS4 will feature a new over-the-shoulder shooting perspective that instantly brings to mind Resident Evil 4. This new perspective doesn't get much screen time during the new trailer, but it brings to mind some exciting possibilities about how MGS4 might play.
Another remarkable sequence in the new trailer has one of the new bipedal Metal Gear robots "sniffing" around with its antenna-like tentacle, apparently trying to spot Snake. Despite Snake's camouflage, he's spotted right underneath the machine's foot, so it tries to stomp him dead with its powerful legs...but of course, Snake rolls out of the way just in time and then fires straight up into the thing's belly with his assault rifle. The Metal Gear unit collapses, a scene that seems to reveal this new model's weak point. Moments later, though, it clambers back to its feet, ready to cause more destruction.
Things only seem to get worse for Snake as the trailer wears on--one of the last sequences has him crawling straight through an enemy firing zone. Here's where the game's "no place to hide" theme seems resoundingly clear--Snake seems completely pinned down and helpless. However, even while lying prone, he's able to chuck a grenade overhead, and it takes out an enemy squad just like that. The various new fighting-while-prone maneuvers seem to be the emphasis of this trailer overall, at least for those of us watching for signs of new gameplay elements.
The trailer doesn't provide a lot of context for all this action but intersperses the visuals with brief oblique phrases that fans who've been keeping up with MGS4 will note clearly tie in to the game's solemn themes:
No beginning, no end. No time, no future. No virtue, no vice. No place for heroes. No time for heroes. No place in time. No time to die. No war for Snake.
The trailer also shows Snake wearing a few variations on his sneaking suit. In one sequence he's concealed within a cloak, and we also get to see him using his new active camouflage, which lets him blend right in with his surroundings as the light refracts around him. Previous MGS games have included stealth camouflage as an unlockable bonus, but it seems to figure more prominently into the gameplay this time.
At the seeming end of the trailer, Snake mercifully holds his fire as one of the last enemy troopers flees for his life. The Metal Gear Solid 4 logo and credits appear...and then a brief epilogue sequence ensues, showing a masked man with Snake's "solid eye system" eyepatch standing in a clearing with a statue in the background, while a few guards lurk nearby. The man evades the guards by blending in with the statue by grabbing onto its, uh...anyway, the guards just walk right on by. The man unmasks as a bird on the statue takes a bit of a poop, and we see none other than the spitting image of a young Solid Snake, sans headband, and he lights up a cigarette just as Snake would. Then another bird poops on him, and he scowls. The end. Huh...? Certainly there's no easy explanation for what a young version of Snake may be doing here. The sequence doesn't appear to be a flashback or anything like that.
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots won't be shipping until sometime next year, and one can only hope that it'll wind up looking as good as this latest trailer lets on. While the trailer seems to go out of its way to show sequences that might actually occur during gameplay, we'll believe it when we play it. Needless to say, we can't wait to see more of this increasingly impressive-looking game.
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| Ridge Racer 7 Hands-On |
Death, taxes, and a Ridge Racer game released during a Sony hardware launch--these are the things you can always count on in life. While Sony hasn't confirmed that Ridge Racer 7 will be available with the PlayStation 3 launch, the company's past history with the series indicates that the PS3 and Ridge Racer 7 will more or less be released simultaneously. We got a chance to play the game at a recent Namco Bandai press event, and while the game feels a lot like previous Ridge Racer games, there were a few surprises on hand.
Another PlayStation console, another Ridge Racer game.
From a driving standpoint, this feels much like the Ridge Racer we've all been playing for years. Sleek, sporty-looking cars dart around a number of different race tracks (five of which were on display during the demo), slipping around corners with the greatest of ease. The cars are built for speed and drift easily around corners--and drifting is the easiest way to fill up your turbo boost meter, which you can initiate for a quick burst of speed. You can have up to three boosts ready to go at any given time, and if you're skilled, you can use a boost in a corner to dramatically increase the rate of speed in a drift and thus build up your boost meter in the process. Ridge Racer 7 will also let you initiate double boosts and even triple boosts (by holding down the L2 and R2 buttons together), which you can engage for even more speed. One crucial addition to RR7 is drafting. Get close enough to a car ahead, and you'll enjoy a tow off of him, in some cases allowing you to whip right past a number of opponents. A small draft meter underneath your nitrous gauge will let you know how much of a draft you're getting off the car in front of you.
If the racing is the heart of the RR7, you might say that the game's extensive customization features will be its face. The producers have included a wealth of customizable parts in the game. As a result, you'll be able to tweak not only how your rides look (using things like custom paint jobs, body kits, and rims), but how your car performs as well (thanks to handling upgrades). Producers estimate that there will be more than 375,000 possible combinations of parts and visual upgrades you'll be able to make on your car. Best of all, you'll be able to take any of your thoroughly modified rides online to share your creations with the world.
The online world will play a big part in RR7. In addition to gamewide leaderboards that will keep track of your progress in various challenges, as well as how you compare to the best racers in the world, the game will support online racing for both individuals and teams.
Of the more than 20 tracks that will be playable in RR7, a handful were on display at the Namco event. The playable tracks represented a good cross section of the kind of environments found in the game, and all of them did a fine job of showing off the graphical prowess of the PlayStation 3. There was Lost Ruins, featuring vaguely Aztec architecture and attractive hanging foliage everywhere; Industrial Drive, which weaves through factories and mazes of piping; and Shadow Caves, which will have you driving through a series of high-speed caves. Oddly, the car we drove had a sort of luminescent glow around it while zipping through the caverns; we're not sure if that will be part of the final game, but it certainly looked strange.
Drafting will give you a boost of speed around one or more of your opponents.
Unfortunately, there's not a lot we can say about the sound of RR7, as the demo we played wasn't running sound (and the event venue was probably too loud to let us glean much in the way of useful audio observations, anyway). With or without audio, RR7 was instantly familiar with the PS3 controller, even if we missed the rumble features found in previous games. Namco hasn't announced any tilt-functionality support with RR7, but because the game is so tightly tied to the PlayStation series, we expect some sort of announcement soon.
Though no official announcement has been made regarding Ridge Racer 7's release date, we expect the game to be available at or around the launch of the PS3. We'll be bringing you more on the game from the Tokyo Game Show, so be on the lookout for more this week.
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| Lost Odyssey demo found |
Mistwalker CEO Hironobu Sakaguchi is hoping that attendees at next week's Tokyo Game Show find something to like in the demo of his latest effort, Lost Odyssey.
The latest Weekly Famitsu features an interview with Sakaguchi, formerly of Square, in which he revealed that a demo for his anticipated role-playing game has been completed and is ready for TGS. It reportedly requires about an hour to clear and allows the player to work through the opening scenes of the game, which Famitsu called a "seamless" integration of movie and gameplay. The demo will also be distributed with an issue of Famitsu sometime in November.
While the demo is apparently pretty polished, Sakaguchi is still humble about the fruits of his labor.
"Development didn't go well initially," he admitted. "For instance, in the scenes with massed armies, not that many soldiers are present. However, we're performing optimization to raise the speed. The finished game will run at 30 frames per second, even when the screen is packed with armies as far as the eye can see."
He added that the demo's graphics are representative of about "80 percent of the finished game's quality," and that the game uses a single graphics engine for everything. "The modeling itself is basically the same for the cinematic and real-time sequences. There isn't a lot of difference in texture resolutions or level of detail."
However, the gameplay is only partially implemented in the demo. In fact, Sakaguchi claims it consists of the game system in its "most basic form." The finished game will contain a character development system that forces players to sort through moral dilemmas.
"Besides the hero Kaim, you will meet and befriend other immortal characters. Normal [mortal] humans will also join your party. The immortals will be able to draw abilities from the mortals. Put bluntly, they can leech other members' strength."
While Sakaguchi is sure that his studio's debut Xbox 360 title, Blue Dragon, will be out this year, there was more doubt about Lost Odyssey and other Mistwalker projects. "We are working on Archaic Sealed Heat--or Ash--with the goal of completing it during first semester next year... With regard to Lost Odyssey and Cry On, although we won't know for sure until they actually launch, they are progressing steadily. We also have several other plans underway, which I will talk about some other time."
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| 573 titles at TGS 2006 |
With the Tokyo Game Show set to take place next week, a revised list of games has been released on the show's official Web site. It appears like this year's event will be the largest one yet, as the list contains a record 573 titles, beating out last year's tally of 516.
Aside from simply giving gamers a slate of games to look out for, the list also gives some insight into current industry trends. Action games represent the most popular genre on the list with 129 titles, while role-playing and simulation lag a little behind with 76 and 49 games, respectively. However, there are also a large number of ambiguously classified games, possibly accounted for by the recent boom in brain-training software.
The makeup of the platforms that will account for games at the show is also interesting, as fully half of the games are for PCs or mobile phones. These platforms combined account for 252 titles. As for portable platforms, the Nintendo DS claims the most games at the show with 52, while the PlayStation Portable should have 33 titles on display. The PlayStation 2 will have more games on display than any of the other consoles, but the lion's share of attention at the show will likely go to the next-gen systems.
There are 18 PlayStation 3 games confirmed to appear, 20 offerings on the Xbox 360, but only five titles for the Nintendo Wii. Nintendo's decision to hold separate Wii events around the world this week might account for the relative scarcity of TGS games on the platform. Three of the five are currently known: Sega's Bleach: Shiraha Kirameku Rinbukyoku, Marvelous Interactive's Bokujou Monogatari Wii (working title), and Konami's Elebits. However, none of those will be shown in playable form.
Some of the other next-gen titles added to the updated list are mentioned below. The full list is available on the official TGS Web site.
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| Square Enix lays out TGS offerings |
While the Tokyo Game Show is all but guaranteed to feature some surprises later this month, a number of companies are showing their cards early, releasing lists of which games they'll have on the show floor.
Square Enix has followed suit with a breakdown of its TGS lineup on its official Web site. Of the six playable console demos announced, half are for the Nintendo DS: Chocobo no Mahou Ehon, Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker, and Final Fantasy III. The remaining titles are Final Fantasy XI running on the PlayStation 2 and Xbox 360, Project Sylpheed for the Xbox 360, and Seiken Densetsu IV for the PS2.
The main event videowise appears to be Fabula Nova Crystallis: Final Fantasy XIII and Versus XIII for the PlayStation 3. Visitors will also be able to see footage from Final Fantasy V and Final Fantasy VI, both for the GameBoy Advance, and Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core for the PSP.
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| Microsoft Japan to bring TGS, X06 home |
Gamers who enjoyed Microsoft's E3 E3 Xbox Live promotion and the free week of Xbox Live Gold service, downloadable game demos, and fresh content from the show will be happy to know that the publisher is preparing to do it again--for Japanese gamers, at least.
Famitsu.com reported today that Microsoft Japan will be offering Tokyo Game Show-related content through the Xbox Live Marketplace service September 20-24. The publisher's "Bring It Home ~Oiede Tokyo Game Show!" event will be used to distribute high-definition videos, on-site reports, screenshots, and game demos.
Furthermore, there will be special sessions of Xbox Primetime, and the perks of a Gold Live membership will be free to Japanese Xbox Live users. A similar program is also in the works for the Barcelona X06 event, also scheduled for September.
When asked whether this program will be made available to Xbox 360 owners outside of Japan, a Microsoft rep only said, "We haven't made any announcements at this time." |
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Last Updated Sunday, September 24th, 2006
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