PlayStation 3-owning fans of the Tales series will be sad to hear that currently Namco Bandai has no plans to release the PS3 port of the 2008 Japanese role-playing game in the US. The port hit shelves in Japan last September and is about to get a combination anime/downloadable content Blu-Ray this May.
Siliconera reports today that a Tales of Vesperia anime movie called The First Strike is being bundled with downloadable content in Blu-Ray, DVD, and UMD form for a May 28 release. We asked Namco Bandai about a possible US release and were told that currently the company has no plans to bring the PlayStation 3 port stateside.
“As for First Strike, it is possible that an anime publisher in the US may pick up the license as there have been Tales anime releases in the US,” a Namco Bandai America publicist told GamePro, “but NBGA have no details regarding this issue at the moment.”
Namco Bandai previously released a PS3 port of the 2007 JRPG Eternal Sonata in the US which included new story content and playable characters. Similarly, the PS3 Tales of Vesperia features new content and a new character named Patty Fleur.
The First Strike anime serves as a prequel of the game’s story, covering the years main character Yuri Lowell spent as a knight. Siliconera warns hardcore fans who want to import the anime that “PSP/PS3 games are region free, but not Blu-ray discs or UMD movies. You’ll need a Japanese PS3 or PSP to play these.”
Lost in Nightmares, Capcom’s first of two new episodes for Resident Evil 5 takes the series back to its survival-horror roots. Along with a crazed, anchor-wielding enemy, the game takes on the look and feel of past titles of the series.
I don’t think I’m alone when I say that it felt like Resident Evil’s “pure horror” roots were ripped out of Resident Evil 5. To be fair, the game was a lot of fun and the series’ dramatic transformation into a more Gears of War-style cooperative action shooter worked for the most part. But as a fan of horror movies and Resident Evil’s survival-horror origins, I felt oddly betrayed by the game’s emphasis on explosions over suspense. When I sat down to play the first of the two new episodes coming soon for Resident Evil 5, titled Lost in Nightmares, Capcom explained that the return to horror in the episode is a direct response to fans’ reactions to RE5’s departure from the genre.
“A lot of fans thought Resident Evil 5 was too much action and not enough survival horror,” admits Capcom’s product marketing manager Matt Dahlgren. “And Lost in Nightmares (the first new episode available) is our response to that. After the original game shipped, we took a lot of fan feedback into account before creating the new episodes. There are two main ways people play Resident Evil: there’s the slow and suspenseful way, which is the more traditional Resident Evil experience, and there’s the more action-packed experience, which was featured in Resident Evil 5.”
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A quick study guide to prepare you for the complexities of Mass Effect 2 and how they relate to the broader canon. The races, characters, locations, and events that you’ll need to be familiar with if you’re going to understand everything that’s going on.
The Mass Effect universe is vast and complex, and to fully immerse yourself in the sequel, releasing January 26, it’s important that you have a firm grasp on the fundamentals. You need to know which races hate each other, which characters you might have stumbled upon before, and who did what to whom in all of the currently available fiction. What follows is a quick primer to get you up to speed on the essentials so you’re prepared for the bulk of what Mass Effect 2 will throw at you. It’s by no means an encyclopedic resource on the lore of the franchise, but it should help demystify some of the complexities you’ll face.
Spoiler Alert: If you’ve not played the first game through to completion, but are intending to do so before playing the sequel, you may want to approach what follows with caution.
Location The Citadel
The Citadel is a massive space station constructed over 50 millennia ago in the heart of the Serpent Nebula. The Citadel serves as the center of the galactic community and acts as its political, cultural, and financial capital. It is also the seat of the Citadel Council, the primary governing body in the galaxy. At the end of the first game it came under attack from the Reaper known as Sovereign, and any reverence toward Commander Shepard in Mass Effect 2 is due to his efforts to save it. There are challenges associated with the location in the new game however, as human efforts to help rebuild after the crisis have been seen as politically motivated, and have resulted in anti-human sentiments among many alien races.
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Elbow-dropping Majini is cool, but what we really want to know is if the game will be delayed to coincide with the new release date for Sony’s motion controller.
Capcom introduced a new character and some more info on its upcoming Resident Evil 5: Gold Edition this morning with some screenshots and a press release.
Excella Gionne will join the lineup of playable characters in the Mercenaries Reunion mode. Note the fashionable wrap dress and high-heels paired with the syringe.
Resident Evil 5: Gold Edition is a repackaging of all the Resident Evil 5 downloadable content plus some new episodic campaign gameplay. Episode two, “Desperate Escape,” features Josh Stone and Jill Valentine as playable characters out to assist Chris Redfield and Sheva Alomar’s mission. We don’t know much mroe about this new episode besides a quick bit of info from today’s press release that tells us Josh can “elbow drop injured Majini.”
Interestingly enough, Gold Edition on PlayStation 3 is compatible with Sony’s new motion controller and was originally going to hit shelves in Japan right around the spring 2010 release date for the new controller. However, as of yesterday, Sony’s pushed back the motion controller release to fall 2010.
We’ve asked Capcom if that means Gold Edition will be delayed as well and haven’t heard back at time of press.
UPDATE: Capcom got back to us and said that the delay of the motion controller will have no impact on the Gold Edition March 9 release date. Furthermore, “Capcom has not announced any compatibility between Sony’s motion controller and Resident Evil 5 in North America.”
Following the footsteps of Nobuo Uematsu before him, Square Enix composer Masashi Hamauzu is heading out the door.
Longtime Square Enix composer Masashi Hamauzu is leaving the company after a 15 year career, Square Enix Music Online reports.
Square Enix seems to be having a hard time hanging onto composers for the Final Fantasy series. Famed series composer Nobuo Uematsu left the company in 2004 after having passed the torch to Hamauzu and Junya Nakano for FFX and to Hitoshi Sakimoto for FFXII. Sakimoto actually composed the FFXII score as a freelancer, having left Square Enix in 2004. Nakano left in 2009.
Square Enix Music Online goes on to say that Hamauzu isn’t the only composer leaving the company. “Further departures from the remaining four composer team[s]” are expected in the coming months.
We’ve contacted Square Enix to request confirmation and will update this story with any information they may have for us.
The official Final Fantasy XIII soundtrack goes on sale in Japan January 27. The game comes out in the US March 9.