Major new Xbox 360 RPG released:



Famed game producer Hironobu Sakaguchi of Mistwalker and developer Artoon present the highly anticipated Xbox 360™ exclusive Blue Dragon. Featuring the character design of Akira Toriyama of Dragon Ball Z and music by Nobuo Uematsu of Final Fantasy, Blue Dragon is an epic role-playing game that centers on a young boy named Shu and several of his friends.

These unlikely heroes possess the power to control phantom shadows that mirror the actions of their masters, giving Shu and his comrades miraculous strength and magical powers.

The warriors can create and develop their combat styles by utilizing different types of Shadow Change, including Sword, Assassin, and Power Magic. Shu and his friends must use the shadows as weapons and wield their skills to save their world from impending doom.

Encountering various people on a planet where numerous ancient ruins remain, the characters and their shadows travel through a world full of mysteries and illusions, where the slightest touch can cause reactions of unparalleled magnitude.

Info from Play Asia

The long-awaited Xbox360™ RPG hit Blue Dragon is in stock today, shipping as NTSC/J encoded Japanese release version at US$ 64.90 only. The game is also expected to be available as Asia release version in limited quantities by tomorrow.

Also in stock today is the Xbox 360 Core System Blue Dragon Premium Pack. Limited supply of the First Time Limited Edition Core Pack are also expected for tomorrow but currently pre-booked by preorders.

More info / buy here --> http://www.play-asia.com/SOap-23-83-...9-en-84-n.html ...

via joystiq

Are you an artist? Want to help fight breast cancer? If you said yes to all of these then you can try your hand at creating a piece of art and be one of eight winners of a PS3 or a Wii. theOtaku is holding a contest to coincide with AnimeFF being held in Las Vegas Jan. 13 - 14. AnimeFF is a "fully funded non-profit anime convention," which means 100% of ticket proceeds will go to breast cancer research. The contest brings attention to the convention, driving ticket sales to support a good cause.

The actual contest involves submitting a piece of art to theOtaku.com with the tag "awareness" and the art must have "something" related to breast cancer awareness. All art must be original, so no using a licensed anime babe with her breast sandwiched in a mammogram machine. All entries must be in by Dec. 20. Top two people get a PS3 and the other six get a Wii. And before anyone gets smart, they say they already have the prizes, so availability will not be an issue.

So go make art, maybe win a system and support a good cause.

More Info Here ...

via joystiq

Are you an artist? Want to help fight breast cancer? If you said yes to all of these then you can try your hand at creating a piece of art and be one of eight winners of a PS3 or a Wii. theOtaku is holding a contest to coincide with AnimeFF being held in Las Vegas Jan. 13 - 14. AnimeFF is a "fully funded non-profit anime convention," which means 100% of ticket proceeds will go to breast cancer research. The contest brings attention to the convention, driving ticket sales to support a good cause.

The actual contest involves submitting a piece of art to theOtaku.com with the tag "awareness" and the art must have "something" related to breast cancer awareness. All art must be original, so no using a licensed anime babe with her breast sandwiched in a mammogram machine. All entries must be in by Dec. 20. Top two people get a PS3 and the other six get a Wii. And before anyone gets smart, they say they already have the prizes, so availability will not be an issue.

So go make art, maybe win a system and support a good cause.

More Info Here ...

The battle over modchips rages on in Australia, heres the news from aussie it

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via gamespot

Koei evidently knows the value of a little romance around Valentine's Day. The publisher today announced that it will release Romance of the Three Kingdoms XI for the PlayStation 2 in North America on February 6, just in time for couples that share a love of strategic warfare sims.

The 11th installment in the series based on a 14th-century novel chronicling a turbulent time in Chinese history, Romance of the Three Kingdoms XI brings a graphic overhaul for the series. In addition to using real-time 3D animation for duels and other events in the game, Koei has used a style of art intended to evoke Chinese ink paintings.

Originally released for the PC in Japan back in March, the game was ported to the PS2 with additional scenarios included. Romance of the Three Kingdoms XI is rated E10+ for Everyone 10 and Older. ...

via gamespot

What we heard: In April, gamers were pleasantly surprised when news broke that a Nintendo DS, Wii, and PC game based on the PBS art show The Joy of Painting was in the works. The show, which ran in the 1980s and early 1990s, was hosted by the late Bob Ross, who painted landscapes with "happy little trees" and "happy little clouds." Ross became a cult hero not only for his artistic abilities, but also for his soothing voice, brown afro, and amicable demeanor.

Little was known about the games except that they were scheduled to be developed by AGFRAG Entertainment Group, a small studio largely concentrating on PC flash games.

Unfortunately, the trees, mountains, and clouds won't be happy to hear that the game is currently in limbo. On the Bob Ross Game Yahoo Group, which the developers used to keep gamers up to date on the project, the following message was posted:

"AGFRAG is no longer involved in the development of ANY Bob Ross Game. Please contact Bob Ross Inc. for further information. Thank You." (emphasis in original.)

GameSpot contacted Joseph Hatcher, head of AGFRAG to confirm the message. Hatcher reiterated the previous statement, saying, "We will not be developing the game on any platform." Citing legal reasons, Hatcher was unable to give details of his company's decision. However, he did leave the door open for the game to live on. "We are not saying it is canceled in anyway," he told GameSpot.

Following his conversation with GameSpot, Hatcher updated the AGFRAG Web site with the following message:

"I'm sorry that we have disappointed so many people on a certain project. Please realize we did what we felt was best, with the cards that were dealt to us and the situation we were in. We have learned from the experience and we won't make the same mistakes twice. The companies we dealt with were
professional in every way and we enjoyed working with them while we did and appreciated the opportunities they presented to us. You won't hear anything about our next game until it's almost on shelves."

While it is possible that another developer may hop onboard, Bob Ross Inc. would be hard pressed to find another taker for what looks to be merely a cult project.

Bob Ross Inc. did not have any news of the game posted on its Web site as of today. Requests for comment from Bob Ross Inc. were unanswered as of press time.

Bogus or not bogus?: Unlike Bob's tranquil landscapes, the picture does not look good. Not bogus. ...

via gibiz

Apple's move into the console hardware market is 'a distinct possibility' according to Prudential analyst Jesse Tortora.

The research company believes that Apple could combine technology from some of its leading products to create a home console, supported by the continued evolution of its market-leading iPod device.

"We think the videogame market represents a distinct possibility for Apple, especially considering that it recently announced the availability of videogames for its iPod through its iTunes store," Tortora said in a note to clients.

"The game console device could be morphed out of some combination of the MacMini and iTV, while the handheld player could be developed as an enhancement for a future version of the widescreen iPod," explained the analyst.

However, the reality that hardware costs in the videogame industry are often taken at a loss, later recouped by software sales, would represent a real change of business for Apple, which has traditionally made profits from hardware sales.

"The videogame console market is notorious for subsidising hardware to sell profitable games. Apple would have to either rely on the sales of its games and downloadable movies to make enough profit to cover losses on hardware or figure out a strategy to make profits on hardware itself," said Tortora.

Tortora believes Apple's move into videogames would be taken to defend its position in the home entertainment sector, a market that rival firm Microsoft has recently made aggressive moves in with the launch of downloadable TV and movie content for the Xbox 360.

"There are no technical limitations to this capability, and Microsoft is already aggressively wooing the movie studios," noted the analyst. "This could adversely impact Apple's iTunes Movie download business longer-term, along with its iTV and video iPod sales."

Apple recently launched a limited videogames download service for the iPod, and has hired games developers specialising in both hardware and software, according to Tortora. ...

Given that these days, PS3s are selling on the resale market (e.g., eBay) for somewhere in the neighborhood of $800 or $900, someone in Japan stands to make a hefty profit. Asahi.com reports that on the evening of December 5, 180 units were lifted from the Meitetsu transport company's Ibaraki warehouse in Naka city (northeast of Tokyo), which should yield some serious dough, or whatever the Japanese slang for yen is. While this will only drive up the prices of PS3s in the short term (we hear 180 units is 80% of this week's production run), at least this good ol' fashioned theft was the type where no one gets hurt, or killed.

via engadget ...

Well whaddaya know. Sony just rolled out a global update for the PS3 this morning, fixing some of the smaller gripes with the console, and completely ignoring the only one we care about. Naturally, most people have been a bit anxious about that 1080i bug, especially since Sony retracted its initial statement about a fix being on the way, so instead of calming our fears with soothing PR statements or, perish the thought, actually fixing the problem, Sony is teasing us all with a re-org of display resolution hierarchy, moving 720p to below 1080i in preferences. Sony also added a BD/DVD image output option, for switching between automatic, RGB and Y Pb/Cb Pr/Cr over HDMI. Slightly less exciting -- but still welcome -- are the additions of a utility to backup your SD cards, compact flash cards and USB memory sticks to the hard drive, and a HDD formatting option, to bring your PS3 back to spankin' new status. All that's great and all, but if Sony doesn't currently have 50 engineers chained to desks in Tokyo, feverishly working out a fix for this bug, we're not inviting Sony to our birthday party. So there!

via engadget ...