via Computer and Video Games


Atlus, publisher of the Trauma Center franchise, is bringing a fantasy strategy RPG to DS called Rondo of Swords.

The plot sounds like absolute nonsense, with a king dying mysteriously and a kingdom plunging into darkness and an evil army invading and only a magical sword can save the kingdom and restore peace to the land. Told you so.

However, the features sound quite promising. A deep party management system allows you to send your party members off on errands or go on quests to level up on their own, so you don't have to suffer the tedium of grinding through thousands of boars to get XP.

The game also includes multiple storylines and endings that are determined by your actions. Your decisions will apparently affect the character you become and the ending you receive.

How the game plays is still somewhat of a mystery though. The 'unique combat system' uses route maneuvers and momentum counters, whatever they are. And skills are not just skills, but "dynamic strategic devices that you choose to build or not." Your guess is as good as mine.

Rondo of Swords will be released on April 15 in the US and possibly Europe. We've contacted Atlus for confirmation on the release date and clarification of what the terminology babble above means, and are waiting for a reply.


Screenshots ...

via Computer and Video Games


Atlus, publisher of the Trauma Center franchise, is bringing a fantasy strategy RPG to DS called Rondo of Swords.

The plot sounds like absolute nonsense, with a king dying mysteriously and a kingdom plunging into darkness and an evil army invading and only a magical sword can save the kingdom and restore peace to the land. Told you so.

However, the features sound quite promising. A deep party management system allows you to send your party members off on errands or go on quests to level up on their own, so you don't have to suffer the tedium of grinding through thousands of boars to get XP.

The game also includes multiple storylines and endings that are determined by your actions. Your decisions will apparently affect the character you become and the ending you receive.

How the game plays is still somewhat of a mystery though. The 'unique combat system' uses route maneuvers and momentum counters, whatever they are. And skills are not just skills, but "dynamic strategic devices that you choose to build or not." Your guess is as good as mine.

Rondo of Swords will be released on April 15 in the US and possibly Europe. We've contacted Atlus for confirmation on the release date and clarification of what the terminology babble above means, and are waiting for a reply.


Screenshots ...

via Eurogamer


US attorney Jack Thompson has claimed that quotes attributed to him by British newspapers are "a total fabrication".

"I was never interviewed about Buzz. I had never heard about it until I was quoted having allegedly said this about it," Thompson claimed in an email to Eurogamer.

In articles apparently attempting to stoke concern about Relentless Software and Sony's Buzz!: The Schools Quiz for PS2, Thompson was reported to have said, "Videogames have hurt far more people than they have helped."

Thompson refutes this. "I would never say what I am quoted as saying in any context, as the quotation, regardless of what it is applied to, is absurd on its face. How in the world could anyone prove and/or quantify that games have hurt more people than they have ever helped?

"It is a total fabrication by a reporter who needed a quotation from an anti-gamer person and simply made this up," Thompson alleged. "I am very upset about this."

Thompson said he had contacted the newspapers to complain.

Having rung around Associated Newspapers (which publishes the Standard and the Mail) and Telegraph Media Group, we've been told that the quote originated in the Standard, but the writer in question has not responded to requests for comment at the time of publication.

Thompson said that while he was happy to accept criticism for things he did say, he drew the line at what he described as "fabrication". He added that he got a lot of nasty emails from people about his campaigns, and revealed that he had even received a death threat just before we called to confirm his identity.

Buzz!: The Schools Quiz uses Key Stage 2 National Curriculum questions as the basis for its interactive quiz-show. As Relentless Software's Andrew Eades explained in an interview with Eurogamer last Friday, the game was created in conjunction with the Department for Education and Skills (DfES), with development self-funded by the Brighton-based software company. ...

via Games Industry


The NPD Group has released its US hardware and software sales data for the month of December, bringing the year's total sales to USD 18 billion.

That figure represents a 43 per cent increase over 2006's total sales of USD 12.5 billion.

On the hardware side, NPD estimates that 8.5 million DS handhelds were sold in 2007, more than twice the 3.82 million PSP handhelds sold by Sony.

Nintendo sold 6.29 million Wii consoles, Microsoft sold 4.62 million Xbox 360 consoles, and Sony sold 2.56 million PS3 consoles during the year.

Sony also sold 3.97 million PS2 consoles in 2007, bringing its life-to-date sales to 41.12 million.

The year's Top Ten best-selling games in the US were:

1. Halo 3 (360) - 4.82 million
2. Wii Play w/ remote (Wii) - 4.12 million
3. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (360) - 3.04 million
4. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock (PS2) - 2.72 million
5. Super Mario Galaxy (Wii) - 2.52 million
6. Pokemon Diamond (DS) - 2.48 million
7. Madden NFL 08 (PS2) - 1.90 million
8. Guitar Hero 2 (PS2) - 1.89 million
9. Assassin's Creed (360) - 1.87 million
10. Mario Party 8 (Wii) - 1.82 million ...

via Games Industry


Wii Fit sat top of the latest Japanese software chart in a quiet week for sales as the end of year rush fell away.

There were no new entries in the top twenty, and Nintendo's activity title sold just 90,000 units compared to the previous week's number one seller which sold over twice that number.

Nintendo platform titles continued to dominate in the sales week ending January 13 according to Media Create data, taking nine of the top ten positions and 16 of the top 20, as Mario Party DS and Wii Sports rounded out the top three.

Final Fantasy IV was fourth, while the lone non-Nintendo platform game - Monster Hunter Portable 2nd for the PlayStation Portable - was fifth.

Most of the rest of the top ten was taken up with top Nintendo-based franchises, while the week's highest new entry was Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare for the Xbox 360 at number 22 - two places above the next highest new entry, Mario Strikers Charged for the Wii.

The full top ten follows:

1. Wii Fit (Wii)
2. Mario Party DS (DS)
3. Wii Sports (Wii)
4. Final Fantasy IV (DS)
5. Monster Hunter Portable 2nd (PSP)
6. Prof Layton and Pandora's Box (DS)
7. Dragon Quest IV (DS)
8. Wii Play (Wii)
9. Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games (Wii)
10. Mario Kart DS (DS) ...

via Computer and Video Games


It's a year after the Xbox 360 version was released by hey, Lost Planet's a decent game and if you missed the 360 one it's well worth a look.

So here it is - 15 new screens of the PS3 version, looking as sweet as the first one did.

Unfortunately, if you're thinking about grabbing the game, you've got another six weeks of waiting to do because it's not out until February 29.

Screenshots here ...

via Eurogamer


Sony has confirmed to Eurogamer what some of you have been arguing about in our forum - that the European version of Uncharted: Drake's Fortune doesn't support 1080i resolution after all.


This means that a very small sub-set of PS3 owners in PAL territories will discover that their HDTVs only display the game in 480p.

The reason for this is that some older HDTVs don't support 720p resolution, which is the game's highest available, and despite the developer's ability to upscale that 720p image to 1080i that does require a bit of extra programming to achieve.

Fortunately not many people in Europe will suffer on account of it, because most of our HDTVs are more up to date. In the US, however, the problem is much more prevalent, which is presumably why - alerted to it at the last minute - Naughty Dog acted quickly to satisfy its customers there.

In the end then, we got Uncharted on 7th December with 480p and 720p support, but not 1080i.

It's not all bad news for those two or three of you with older HDTVs, however, because the PlayStation 3 does not discriminate against games from other regions, meaning that you can always pop along to somewhere like NCSX, Videogamesplus or wherever and snag the US version, and enjoy the game in 720p upscaled to 1080i after all.

Plus, of course, it doesn't actually look bad in 480p anyway. Those Naughty Dog kids, they're not messing about. ...

via Computer and Video Games


The lawyer representing the three Texas-based gamers who are suing Microsoft for damages in excess of $5 million over Xbox Live outages has spoken out for the first time about the case.

"These are not guys looking to get rich," said Jason Gibson, the plaintiffs' lawyer, in an interview with MTV News. "They are in their late 20s and 30s. They are college-educated. These are not young kids who just turned 18 and [want] to sue for the fun of it. This is, to them, a real issue."

Gibson's clients are gamers Keith Kay, Orlando Perez and Shannon Smith, who filed a class-action lawsuit against Microsoft on January 4 following troubles accessing the platform holder's Xbox Live online gaming service over the Christmas period. Gibson also said that more than 50 other plaintiffs have joined Kay, Smith and Perez in the suit.

As previously reported, Microsoft claimed that the Xbox Live problems, which it put down to unprecedented service activity over the holiday period, had been fixed. A minority of reports claim this to be untrue, stating that problems signing in to Xbox Live, matchmaking and account recovery issues persist.

Unfortunately for those users, the lawsuit, which claims that "Microsoft knew the increase in subscriptions would increase game-play on its servers, yet failed to provide adequate access and service to Xbox Live and its subscribers," is now prohibiting Microsoft from providing status updates regarding the functionality of Xbox Live.


Microsoft recently announced that more than ten million people have subscribed to its Xbox Live service. It says it will continue to communicate with its customers through "our normal channels, such as Xbox.com and other means". ...

via Joystiq


Fans of point-and-click classic Myst will have a chance to relive the experience this March, when publisher Empire Interactive brings a DS adaptation of the title to the US. Myst DS has been out in Europe since last Fall, but this will mark the title's debut in the States.

A tad more than just a straight port, the DS version of Myst features remastered video, a bonus area previously available in the realMyst remake, and touch-screen features such as note-taking and shortcut icons. The game will also feature the ability to take snapshots of certain screens for later reference, hopefully cutting down on all the tedious backtracking and rote memorization made so popular by the groundbreaking PC game. It seems that developer Hoplite Research put a lot of thought into this adaptation, making it a tempting buy for anyone who actually enjoyed the original. ...