News from Play Asia:

Welcome to this week's Games Update, our weekly summary featuring all new product arrivals from the last seven days.

Interesting products that came in this week are mostly RPG and strategy games. The Tales of series has made its debut on the third generation consoles via Tales of Vesperia [standard and Super Premium pack version].

With a new upgraded real-time battle system and HD graphics, you can experience the old school RPG in a refreshingly new way.

Transform yourself into a summoner wherever you are via your Nintendo DS in Summon Night 2. Summoners have brought chaos to a once utopian world, and your people are now wary of your special powers. Through your journey, show the world that you are using your powers for the good of the people and not for corruption.

Fire Emblem is also revived on Nintendo's newest handheld system. Prince Marus made himself famous for being one of the strongest player characters in Mario Smash brothers and redirects some of the attention he recieves to his own series which has been laying low for a long while.

Make use of your Nintendo DS functions to plan out how to reclaim your country, in the revival of this completely new game.

Start out by reclaiming your lands in Fire Emblem and move on to conquering the whole continent in Spectral Force 3. At the death of the late emperor, you are entrusted with leadership and the fate to unify Neverland under yourself.

Since this week is largely about military strategy games, we cannot miss Sangokushi Taisen Ten [standard or bundle pack versions].

The card game is based on its arcade predecessor and this portable version comes with new card(s) drawn by famous illustrators or manga artists such as Clamp.

Learn how to direct military matters from the warriors and highly acclaimed strategists from the era of Romance of the Three Kingdoms.

Everybody starts off their journeys at some point and Marl Oukoku no Ningyou Hime is a good point to start your journey in RPGs. The battle system is simple and the game eases you gently into its fun through its use of music. Take a break from the excitement and just relax to the beat of the songs.

A good RPG excel in all sorts of elements aside from gaming and strategy, and Final Fantasy, one of the best RPG series in gaming history has it all. The music producer Nobuo Uematsu joined forces with talented DJs from Tokyo, US and Europe and produced a Club remix disc.

As usually, here's a summary of all new releases from this week

Xbox360™
NBA 2K8 JPN US$ 59.90
Sid Meier's Civilization Revolution ASIA US$ 49.90
Spectral Force 3 US US$ 64.90
Tales of Vesperia JPN US$ 74.90
Top Spin 3 ASIA US$ 49.90
Xbox 360 Tales of Vesperia Super Premium Pack JPN N/A

PlayStation3™
NBA 2K8 JPN US$ 59.90
Ninja Gaiden Sigma (Greatest Hits) US US$ 34.90

Nintendo Wii™
Imabikisou: Kaimei Hen JPN US$ 59.90
Survival Kids Wii JPN US$ 54.90

PlayStation2™
Aoikuro no Kusabi: Hiiro no Kakera 3 JPN US$ 64.90
Aoikuro no Kusabi: Hiiro no Kakera 3 [Limited Edition] JPN US$ 89.90
Ar tonelico II: Sekai ni Hibiku Shoujo Tachi no Souzoushi (PlayStation2 the Best) JPN US$ 34.90
God of War II: The End Begins (Best Price!) JPN US$ 34.90
Grim Grimoire (The Best Price) JPN US$ 34.90
Ikkitousen: Shining Dragon (Best Collection) JPN US$ 34.90
Sengoku Basara 2 Heroes (PlayStation2 the Best) JPN US$ 29.90
Super Robot Taisen OG: Original Generations (PlayStation2 the Best) ASIA US$ 29.90
Super Robot Taisen OG: Original Generations (PlayStation2 the Best) JPN US$ 34.90
True Tears JPN US$ 69.90

Nintendo DS™
Chou Shittou Caduceus 2 JPN US$ 48.90
Code Geass: Hangyaku no Lelouch R2 - Banjou no Geass Gekijou JPN US$ 48.90
DS Pico Series: Sanrio no Party e Ikou! Oryouri - Oshare - Okaimono JPN US$ 48.90
Fire Emblem: Shin Ankoku Ryuu to Hikari no Ken JPN US$ 48.90
Gakkou no Kowai Uwasa: Hanako-San Gakita!! JPN US$ 34.90
Gintama: Gintoki vs. Dokata (Banpresto Best) JPN US$ 29.90
Marl Oukoku no Ningyou Hime: Tenshi ga Kanaderu Ai no Uta JPN US$ 48.90
Mite wa Ikenai JPN US$ 42.90
Monster Farm DS 2: Yomigaeru! Master Breeder Densetsu JPN US$ 48.90
Nazo Nazo & Quiz Ichi Kotae Jikkon Q Mate! JPN US$ 48.90
Ron-Q! Highland in DS JPN US$ 42.90
Sangokushi Taisen Ten JPN US$ 58.90
Sangokushi Taisen Ten [Arcade Shutsujin Pack] JPN US$ 69.90
Summon Night 2 JPN US$ 48.90
Wantame Variety Channel JPN US$ 48.90
Zettai Onkan Master (Hudson the Best) JPN US$ 29.90

Nintendo DS™ Accessories
Charge Stand DS Lite (Black) JPN US$ 16.90
Charge Stand DS Lite (White) JPN US$ 16.90
Hello Kitty Custom Hard Cover (Red) JPN US$ 12.90
Hello Kitty Soft Card Case (Red) JPN US$ 7.90
Hello Kitty Soft Card Case (White) JPN US$ 7.90

Sony PSP™
Daisenryaku Portable 2 (Genki the Best) JPN US$ 29.90
Goku Makai-Mura Kai (Best Price!) JPN US$ 19.90
Hayarigami 2 Portable: Keishichou Kaijiken ...

Back in the NES days, Japanese companies were making games and cartoons based on U.S. properties - Think of DuckTales on the game side, or Batman the Animated Series on the cartoon side. But times have changed! Witness the Japanese localization of the Speed Racer game, made by Western studios, based on a Western movie, based on a Japanese IP. The times, they are a-changin!

http://www.insertcredit.com/archives/002472.html ...

Bazix is the Dutch company that was responsible for Woomb.net, which I've mentioned a few times. That was the place where you could legally download and play MSX games, many of which were translated into English for the first time. Bazix planned to release D4's one-chip MSX (which plays all MSX games in a tiny package) in the West, conforming with European laws. Unfortunately, Bazix has run into some troubles, and is no longer able to bring the system to the West, and is shutting down Woomb.net, besides. The Wikipedia article says the MSX Association has already found solutions to the distribution problem, but their official site is down, so it's kind of hard to tell what's going on now...more as it develops.

http://www.insertcredit.com/archives/002473.html ...

Heres a reminder for all DCEmu Coders and Visiting Coders, you have until the 20th of August to submit your entries to what is regarded as the Handheld Scenes Best Homebrew Coding Comp, heres the details again for those who need to know:



Remember all coders you all have a chance of winning so enter , would be cool to have another DCEmu Coder on the winners table, cant let the talented French coders at Devfr pinch all the best prizes ...

Heres a reminder for all DCEmu Coders and Visiting Coders, you have until the 20th of August to submit your entries to what is regarded as the Handheld Scenes Best Homebrew Coding Comp, heres the details again for those who need to know:



Remember all coders you all have a chance of winning so enter , would be cool to have another DCEmu Coder on the winners table, cant let the talented French coders at Devfr pinch all the best prizes ...

News/release from Electronix


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News via gbadev

New game released for DS:

heres a video



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It's time to throw out the old playbook, says THQ president and CEO Brian Ferrell, because the the industry's traditional hardware cycles no longer exist.
"We used to always think of this industry as 'the cycle.'" said Ferrell. "I think the reality now is there are several sub-cycles."

THQ's leader sees at least three separate sub-cycles: 1) the handheld market, 2) what Nintendo's done with Wii and 3) the continued competition between Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. There's even an emerging sub-cycle in the online world, he said.

"It's hard now to talk about 'the cycle' -- I think we have to talk about all of the cycles," he said. "The way we think about it at THQ is we plan our business around each of those platforms, not around 'the cycle.'"

http://multiplayerblog.mtv.com/2008/...re-cycle-dead/ ...

Speaking to VideoGamer.com at the Develop conference in Brighton last week, Nick Burton, a senior software engineer at Rare, has assured Xbox 360 gamers that there's plenty more to come from the console.

"You never can push them as far as they can go. The reality of the peak performance of the console is yes, you could look to a generation beyond where we are now and think, yeah, I could use that power. But the reality is in 360 and the PS3 and the latest generation PC graphics, the amount of power in the GPUs is such that you're more bound by your creativity and the aesthetic you're going for than you're really bound by polygon pushing power," said Burton. "You're probably actually more bound maybe by art authoring and the amount of data throughput that, just the amount of memory you'd need, but I don't think 360 has reached its limit."

http://www.videogamer.com/news/05-08-2008-9007.html ...