News

Mega Man creator Keiji Inafune is working on a cute social game.

Dr. Momo’s Island is Inafune’s first game since he quit Capcom last year.

Dr. Momo’s Island is a free, micro-transaction-based social game for the GREE mobile social gaming service in Japan, Andriasang reports.
You play mad scientist Dr. Momo, who loves cute things. He combines animals together in an effort to make the world’s cutest thing. Aww.

Read more…

Capcom has announced four additions to the Street Fighter x Tekken roster.

Poison is a brawler of ambiguous gender lifted from the Final Fight series. Dhalsim will, of course, meditate and destroy you.

From Tekken we get Yoshimitsu, a robotic samurai who has appeared in crossover fighting games in the past. The less said about British boxer Steve Fox the better, really.

Read more…

The DSiWare pick of the week is Antipole, an inventive gravity-manipulating platformer from Saturnine Games. It places you in the role of Johnny Hurricane, a man who’s ripped off Carmen Sandiego’s fashion sense and decided to go on an adventure where down is up and up is down…

Nintendo’s rail shooter competes against Konami’s big-headed baseball game and Namco Bandai’s rhythm title; 3DS sales went up.

The recent listings of the Media Creates sales charts (via Siliconera) have been taken over by a boatload of new Japanese releases. The most recognizable on the list is the 3DS iteration of Star Fox 64. The game debuted in the sales charts at sixth place with 32,475 units sold. For more recent information, check out GameSpot’s coverage on the title’s multiplayer components.

Slippy and company takes sixth place amidst big-headed baseball players and drum mania.

The current first and second place residents are Jikkyou Powerful Pro Baseball 2011 for the PS3 and Taiko no Tatsujin Portable DX (Deluxe) for the PSP. The former sold 117,759 units, while the latter sold 80,215 units. Jikkyou Powerful Pro Baseball 2011 is the latest entry in the Jikkyo Powerful Pro Yakyu baseball simulation series featuring players with ginormous heads and arcade-style gameplay.

This is the second game in the series to be released on the PS3, with the first being Jikkyou Powerful Pro Baseball 2010. Coincidentally, the PSP version of the game entered the charts at fourth place, with 73,247 units sold. Both the PS3 and PSP versions of the game combined for a total of 191,006 units in their first week.

Taiko no Tatsujin Portable DX (Deluxe) is a rhythm game where players hit the drums via button presses to match the rhythm and beat in accordance to the song being played. The latest PSP title features 70 songs ranging from “Heavy Rotation” by Japanese pop group AKB48 and “Monster Hunter Medley” from Capcom’s Monster Hunter series.

UnchainBlades Rexx, an RPG from developers Furyu which consists of staff members from past RPG series like Grandia and Lunar, made its debut on the charts for the PSP and 3DS. The PSP version sold 18,256 and is at seventh place, while the 3DS version sold 5,592 and is at 20th place. The game is dubbed as an “ultimate 3D dungeon RPG” where players control a warrior named Fang who has to maneuver through an ever-evolving dungeon. The game also introduces the Unchain system where up to 20 party members can take part in combat simultaneously.

Gamers who may be familiar with the Puyo Puyo puzzle game series spanning back to the Dreamcast and Gameboy Advance days will be pleased to know that the latest version, titled Puyo Puyo!!, debut at fifth place with 34,903 units sold. Capping off the last three spots on the top ten is Ocarina of Time 3D (15,636), the Wii Remote Plus pack bundle of Wii Sports Resort (14,725), and Danball Senki (12,085).

On the hardware front, the 3DS now takes the top spot with 46,637 units sold. Even with the amount of new PSP releases, Sony’s portable system is currently one step below Nintendo’s 3D device, selling 26,551 units on the week of July 11.

JAPAN GAME SALES WEEK OF JULY 11-17

Software
Rank/Title/Publisher/Platform/Unit Sales
1. Jikkyou Powerful Pro Baseball 2011 / Konami / PS3 / 117,759
2. Taiko no Tatsujin Portable DX / Namco Bandai / PSP / 80,215
3. Inazuma Eleven Strikers / Level-5 / Wii / 74,227
4. Jikkyou Powerful Pro Baseball 2011 / Konami / PSP / 73,247
5. Puyo Puyo!! / Sega / DS / 34,903
6. Star Fox 64 3D / Nintendo / 3DS / 32,475
7. UnchainBlades Rexx / Furyu / PSP / 18,256
8. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D / Nintendo / 3DS / 15,636
9. Wii Sports Resort (Wii Remote Plus Pack) / Nintendo / Wii / 14,725
10. Danball Senki / Level-5 / PSP / 12,085

Hardware
3DS – 46,637
PSP – 26,551
PS3 – 23,322
Wii – 14,237
DSi XL – 4,693
DSi – 4,384
Xbox 360 – 1,734
PS2 – 1,405
DS Lite – 131
PSP Go – 14

Read and Post Comments | Get the full article at GameSpot

Comic-Con 2011: Studio offers an in-depth inside look at the upcoming free-to-play update and the content-heavy Issue 21 overhaul.

Who Was There: Paragon Studios employees Melissa Bianco (lead game designer), Matt Miller (lead systems designer), David Nakayama (art lead), Nate Birkholz (development producer), and Andy Belford (community manager).

What They Talked About: Last month, NCsoft and Paragon Studios announced that their super-hero massively multiplayer online role-playing game City of Heroes was going free-to-play under the new name City of Heroes: Freedom.

Thus, it’s no surprise where the panel started off, with the developers talking about the new game and the major content update, Issue 21, that will arrive alongside it. First, Miller walked the audience through what is offered with each subscription rate, going over the same material found in the change’s announcement.

The City of Heroes will grow with Issue 21.

Additionally, Miller talked about the Paragon Market, the in-game virtual store by which Paragon will monetize the game outside of those who continue to pay a subscription fee. Various in-game items will be sold via this marketplace for all character types. Additionally, it will be updated weekly with new wares.

Once players are actually in the game they will be greeted by a new tutorial for Freedom, which takes place in an updated Galaxy City. A voice over will guide players through the tutorial. According to Paragon, this was done because the developer wanted to make the experience “like a ride in an amusement park: quick and fun.”

Additionally, newcomers in Freedom will not choose to be a hero or a villain right away; instead, they will begin their career in a neutral state. Inside the tutorial level players make a moral decision, then gameplay changes to suit that choice.

Another game region, Atlas Park, has also been made over. According to Paragon, the footprint is the same, but missions have been overhauled. All buildings have been remade to look reflective and “beautiful.” Paragon said it didn’t originally have the technology to pull it off, but now they do.

Furthering Freedom’s tilt towards accessability, Paragon said that the game will sport “ongoing training missions” for hero and villain characters that are levels 5-19. These missions are completely optional, and are a way for players to learn about the game in a fun and interesting way, according to Paragon. The developer stressed that so much was added in Issue 21 that they wanted to make sure players know what the new systems are without cramming it all into the short tutorial.

Paragon also spoke further about the upcoming Issue 21 update and what it will contain. The update boasts a new zone for levels 20-25, new villian groups, a Seed of Hamidon world event, and fresh cotumes and weapons.

Just a few of the architects of the City of Heroes.

Issue 21 also includes new assistance for questing in the world. When the update launches, quest-giving NPCs will have icons over their heads, designating that they have a new task to give gamers. Additionally, there will be a new “Find Contact Button” that will allow gamers to teleport directly to the contact.

Lastly, Paragon talked about one of the biggest parts of Issue 21: Signature Stories. These are “key storylines” in the City of Heroes universe that are updated once a month. The first Signature Story is called “Who Will Die?” and will take seventh months to complete, culminating in the death of a major character.

During the short ensuing question and answer session, Borden fielded a question about the relative size of City of Heroes compared to other superhero MMOs. Borden said City of Heroes is “Significantly larger than any other super-hero MMO,” which he later clarified as also including DC Universe Online.

The next question asked how the online attack against Sony affected Paragon and its development of City of Heroes.

“It was impossible to ignore,” Borden said. “Fraud is a big deal.”

He noted that Paragon is “aggressively trying to make sure we don’t get hit by it” and also said the developer is working with other publishers to “fight fraud in a unified way.” He did not name who the other publishers were.

Quote: “[We designed a] completely new [user interface]. [It’s] friggin’ amazing,” Nakayama said, talking about the overhauled log-in and character creation experience.

Takeaway: City of Heroes has been around for seven years, making it one of the oldest MMORPGs in existence. The studio believes it can succeed with its new free-to-play business model, and it should be interesting to see how it all plays out.

Read and Post Comments | Get the full article at GameSpot

Comic-Con 2011: Film based on the game series, comic book on the way; Top Cow, Digital Extremes talk violent franchise.

Who was there: Top Cow president Matt Hawkins, The Darkness creator Marc Silvestri, Digital Extremes’ Sheldon Carter, and Faith No More singer and voice actor Mike Patton, with GameSpot editor in chief Ricardo Torres moderating.

From left: Hawkins, Silvestri, Carter, and Patton.

What they said: The panelists were on hand today to talk about The Darkness, a comic book series that launched 15 years ago and has since spread to video games and beyond.

Silvestri and Hawkins began with how The Darkness franchise was born. Silvestri said people think that it came after Top Cow’s other big comic series Witchblade, but actually that’s not the case. Silvestri said the idea for The Darkness was first conceptualized in 1993. He said The Darkness was launched out of Witchblade; both were supernatural-based and plugged into each other well.

Hawkins offered his take on the birth of the series, saying Top Cow made a conscious effort to go supernatural, and he wanted to make sure that it was “not spandex s*** like Marvel.”

Silvestri added that The Darkness’ main character Jackie Estacado is the “exact opposite of Superman,” further noting that “[Superman] bored the hell out of me.” According to Silvestri, Jackie has experienced nothing buy betrayal, saying he is more of an “intense” character than Super-Man.

Torres then queried the panel about how successful they believed the franchise would become when they first created it.

Silvestri said, “We didn’t want to do guys with their underwear outside.” He said he grew up on horror, science fiction, and fantasy, but not superheroes. He said after Witchblade performed well, and The Darkness spun out of it, he “never would have dreamed video games would have been done, especially at this quality.”

Then the panelists were asked to comment on the game’s protagonist, the troubled and dark Estacado. Silvestri said “everyone is kind of crazy. We all are people who have issues–some more than others.” He said Estacado was created out of the thought of “How terrible would it be to have something we try to hide inside come to life?”

Hawkins elaborated on the point, saying Estacado has the “power of creation, but with limitations.” He called Estacado the “classic anti-hero; he is forced to become the hero because he sacrifices his humanity to keep the darkness inside.”

Hawkins also said Estacado is a character that can be related to by both males and females. He said readers, through the comic books they read, “Need a guy guys want to be, and a guy girls want to f***.”

When asked about how Top Cow feels about bringing The Darkness to other mediums, like video games, Hawkins said it’s all about quality and aligning with the appropriate partners.

“Partner with the right people,” Hawkins said. “The second game is so much better than the first game. We knew it was gonna be good.”

Mike Patton–the singer from Faith No More–was tapped to voice of Estacado’s inner demon in the original game, but how was he chosen? According to Silvestri, all the credit goes to Starbreeze, the team behind the first Darkness. Silvestri added that the first time he heard the voice he said “What? That’s the coolest thing I’ve ever heard; there’s magic happening here.”

The Darkness is spreading to the big screen.

As for how Patton found the voice, he said he “came up with it on the fly.” He conceded that he isn’t a voice actor “per se,” but he thinks about voice acting as a “piece of music.” He said he channeled his “teenage death metal vocal styling” to play the role.

Patton said prior to entering the recording booth for The Darkness II, he “only saw a few stills and motions scenes,” and that creating the voice required “a lot of imagination.”

“2K really made me see it. If I screwed up they told me,” he said. “I’ve been screaming and using my vocal chords since I was a teen. It’s an extension of what I do all the time.”

As for how much fan feedback Digital Extremes is putting into The Darkness II, Carter said the developer was exhaustive and tireless in its pursuit to hear all possible critiques.

“We took everything under consideration,” he said. “[We] had our own feelings, but we really did comb the forums and read literally everything people had to say about [the original Darkness game].”

The sequel will stay true to the original’s level of violence, claimed Carter. Silvestri then chimed in, saying that in the pre-release builds he’s played, he’s found that the “Violence is over the top; it’s almost cathartic, but it definitely fits into the overall story. It’s not so much gruesome as it is entertaining.”

As a final surprise, Hawkins said that The Darkness franchise is gearing up to the silver screen. Top Cow has partnered with Mandeville Films–the production team behind David O. Russell’s The Fighter–for a film based on the franchise. Unfortunately, no further details are available. However, Hawkins did say the film will not be “a small watered down Darkness, and will be a major motion picture.”

“We’re not gonna do it if it sucks,” Hawkins said. “We’re gonna make sure the film kicks ass.”

Quote:”[Jackie is] a guy guys want to be, and a guy girls want to f***.” — Matt Hawkins on The Darkness’ protagonist Jackie Estacado.

Takeaway: It’s no secret that The Darkness has been a smash hit for Top Cow Productions. The comics have sold million of copies, the original video game scored a strong critical reception, and The Darkness II is receiving enthusiastic preview coverage. It’s too early to judge how big the film will be, but altogether The Darkness is proving to be a big brand in multiple media types.

Read and Post Comments | Get the full article at GameSpot

Comic-Con 2011: Isaiah Mustafa joins the cast, in-game graffiti art is contributed by OG Slick and American Chopper’s Paul Jr. makes an appearance.

Who Was There: Executive producer Rod Fergusson and creative director Cliff Bleszinski make up the panel with guest appearance by Paul Jr. from the show American Chopper.

Gears 3 Dream Team.

What They Talked About: Fergusson and Bleszinski began the panel by talking about how Gears of War 3 is a more personal story this time around, not only for the characters but for themselves as well, as both developers had lost their fathers at a young age. In the final installment of the trilogy, we’ll find out about how the war against the Locust will end, as well as learn more Marcus Fenix and the relationship with his father. It will be Epic’s biggest campaign yet, with four player co-operative play on top of several multiplayer modes, Horde mode and Beast mode.

Epic Games has a close connection with their community by being active on Twitter and visiting the forums, taking in feedback and analyzing how players play. Fergusson stressed how much he wanted to make this the most accessible and approachable game in the series for anyone to jump in and play. Each player can choose his or her own difficulty level when playing through the campaign so that no one should feel overwhelmed. He announced that there will be a casual area in the online multiplayer for those who do not have any achievements from the previous two games. Only players who do not have any prior Gears experience can enter this area to get a feel for the game, and they will have aim assist as well. Bleszinski described it as “reverse VIP.”

Next, the panel announced that Isaiah Mustafa–known for his manly man Old Spice commercials–will be joining the cast, voicing one of the COG Gears. Bringing on even more talent, Epic approached renowned graffiti artist OG Slick to make his mark in certain parts of the game.

They also talked about how Epic now has control as to what weapons you can now spawn with so torque bow tag is an option for special events.

Now look at me.

At the end of the panel, Paul Jr. from the reality TV show American Chopper made an appearance to announce that he has designed a Gears of War bike and will build another one for a lucky winner. The contest is part of a Gears of War Best Buy Sweepstakes online.

Quote: “The cast just keeps getting sexier and sexier.” –Cliff Bleszinski commenting on the Isaiah Mustafa announcement.

Takeaway: It shouldn’t be a total surprise by now, but Gears of War 3 definitely looks to be the biggest Gears yet.

Read and Post Comments | Get the full article at GameSpot

Xbox 360 unit sales rise to 13.7 million during 12-month earnings period as Entertainment & Devices Division pulls in $2.7 billion.

Microsoft’s Xbox 360 has been a dominant force at US retail, having outsold Sony’s PlayStation 3 and Nintendo’s Wii in 12 out of the past 13 months, according to the NPD Group. That success is reflected in Microsoft’s full-year earnings report, which the Redmond, Washington-based company issued today.

Xbox 360 sales continued to grow during Microsoft’s recent fiscal year.

The Entertainment & Devices Division, of which the Xbox 360, Zune, and Windows Phone 7 are included, saw sales rocket to $8.93 billion during the 12-month period ended June 30, a 45 percent rise over last year. Microsoft attributed the spike primarily to its Xbox brand, which includes the console, Kinect motion-sensor, and Xbox Live online service.

The Xbox 360 sold 13.7 million units during the 2011 fiscal year, up from 10.3 million units sold during the same period last year. Fourth quarter sales of the console (that is, the April-June months), came in at 1.7 million units, up from 1.5 million during the same three-month period last year.

Microsoft did not provide a sales update for the Kinect, having said in March that the device had sold 10 million units since launching in November. However, as part of a post-earnings conference call, Microsoft CFO Peter Klien said Xbox Live subscriptions now stand at 35 million.

Operating income from Microsoft’s EDD more than doubled during the 12-month period, rising 114 percent year-over-year to $1.3 billion. Of the factors hampering profit from the division were an increased spend on research and development, which rose 12 percent to $119 million during the fiscal year. Microsoft also ramped up EDD marketing efforts by 12 percent, bringing total spend on selling the platform to $90 million.

Microsoft’s EDD wasn’t the only segment fueling the company’s top and bottom line. On a company-wide basis, Microsoft said that it earned a personal-best $17.37 billion during the fiscal year ended June 30, 2011, an 8 percent uptick over the year prior. Net income saw even bigger gains, rising 30 percent to $5.87 billion.

It wasn’t all roses and sunshine for Microsoft, however. Windows sales were down 2 percent during the fiscal year. Since its release in mid-2009, Microsoft’s most recent operating system, Windows 7, has sold more than 400 million licenses.

Read and Post Comments | Get the full article at GameSpot

Comic-Con 2011: Creator Mike Judge talks about turning the notorious duo loose on a new generation of television and music videos.

Who Was There: Beavis and Butt-head creator Mike Judge, Jackass star Johnny Knoxville, and executive VP of programming for MTV, Chris Linn.

What They Talked About: After a brief intro from Linn, Mike Judge and surprise moderator Johnny Knoxville took the stage (beers in hand) to talk about the iconic teenage miscreants, Beavis and Butt-head. Judge began by talking about how the series got started back in the early nineties. Originally conceived as an animated short intended to help Judge make comedy connections, MTV picked it up for their animation showcase, Liquid Television. The short was picked up by MTV and developed into a series that ran for four years.

Now the pair is back. Judge said that in the intervening years, he kept them in the back of his mind and regularly noted things that he wanted to do with them and jokes he wanted to make. He spoke about the creative process which takes place in the States, while most of the animation is handled in Korea. After praising Korean art education and telling a few anecdotes from his visit there, Judge named some of his inspirations. Among them were Chuck Jones, Wes Archer, and John Kricfalusi.

As the audience (and Knoxville) clamored for clips, Judge described what was in store for viewers. The new series will take a form similar to the old one, chronicling the misadventures of the idiotic teens and putting them on the couch in front of music videos to offer their own unique brand of commentary. In addition to videos, they will also watch (and skewer) popular MTV shows, including Jersey Shore, 16 & Pregnant, and Teen Cribs, among others. The clips he showed featured some funny couch sequences, as well as a few out-of-the-house exploits. In one, the two take a job in a tech support call center, offering terrible advice, insulting their customers, and mimicking their Indian boss’ faux American chit-chat. In another, Butt-head has to take Beavis to the emergency room after an attempt to insert a wood screw into an action figure’s butt goes wrong. Beavis then gets high on painkillers and we witness the return of Cornholio, his TP-loving, maniacal alter ego, who ends up attracting the worship of cultists. And in a particularly appropriate segment for Comic-Con, the two wander in search of vampires who can turn them into the undead so they can score with Twilight. They mistake a hairy hobo for a werewolf, greeting him as their dark lord after he berates them with a barely intelligible rant. The bum is more than happy to bite them at their request, which naturally results in the two lying on the couch, observing each other’s weeping sores and commenting that they are totally ready to pick up chicks.

In the audience question portion of the panel discussion, Judge offered a few interesting tidbits. A future DVD release is going to be problematic, due to licensing issues for the music videos. One of his favorite episodes of the new series is “Time Machine,” in which Beavis and Butt-head board a bus to an old-timey village, fall asleep, and wake up thinking they have traveled through time. In response to the question about the possible return of Daria, Judge said, “You’ll see.” And when asked if there was talk about a new video game outing for the duo, Judge was surprisingly enthusiastic. He said there had been talk about such a project, and that though there have been some fun forays into video games in the pair’s past, there “could be a really cool one that we haven’t made yet.”

Quote: “I felt like TV was getting too smart.”–Mike Judge, when asked why he was bringing Beavis and Butt-head back.

Takeaway: Beavis and Butt-head are back with the same animation style, same idiotic hilarity, and same obsession with skewering pop culture and scoring with chicks.

Read and Post Comments | Get the full article at GameSpot

NSW abstains from R18+ vote but says it will decide on the matter “ASAP”; all other states and territories agree to the introduction of the adult classification.

ADELAIDE–All states and territories except NSW today agreed in principle to the introduction of an R18+ classification for games.

The ministers met in Adelaide today at the Standing Committee of Attorneys-General meeting (SCAG) to discuss the fate of the long-disputed R18+ for games. Despite Federal Minister for Home Affairs Brendan O’Connor’s insistence that the issue be resolved during today’s meeting, NSW abstained from the R18+ vote today, while all other states and territories agreed in principle to the introduction of an R18+ for games. NSW said it would go back to its own cabinet to decide, and that this decision would not take long. NSW is considering calling an out of session cabinet meeting about the issue.

Earlier this week, the NSW Attorney-General Greg Smith announced his decision to abstain from the R18+ vote at today’s SCAG meeting, effectively delaying the process yet again due to the national requirement that any changes to the National Classification Code require the unanimous agreement between all nine federal, state and territory censorship ministers. After Smith’s announcement, both Western Australia and Victoria declared they were seeking further amendments to the R18+ guidelines.

This delay was one of a long line of set-backs for the adult classification, which has been on the SCAG agenda since 2002. In December last year, the federal government announced its public support for the rating, before postponing another vote on the issue before the end of the year.

Earlier this year, O’Connor’s office publicly released the proposed R18+ draft guidelines and hinted at seeking other options should state and territory censorship minister fail to reach consensus on the issue soon.

Other states have been ready to adopt the adult classification for games since April this year, with South Australia and the ACT eager to “go it alone” if necessary, provided the Commonwealth finds a way to introduce R18+ at a federal level without the unanimous agreement of all states and territories. South Australia went a step further, proposing to abolish the MA15+ category in the state and fold it into the R18+ rating.

Read and Post Comments | Get the full article at GameSpot