Square Enix has been giving Japan periodic updates on Dragon Quest IX, but until now, these have all been focused on the gameplay side of things. Today, the company detailed one additional area of gameplay and also shared some preliminary character and story details.

Your adventure in DQIX begins in the world of angels. Angels work to gain thanks and appreciation from the residents of the ground below. These feelings are turned into Star Aura, which can be offered to the World Tree, eventually opening a path to the land of the gods.

You happen to be an angel yourself. Dragon Quest IX's story begins when something goes awry as you make your offering of Star Aura. The identity of that "something" will presumably be revealed only once you've played the game.

Joining this initial report on DQIX's storyline is a look at one of the first named characters in the game. Named Sandy, this blond-haired fairy has dark skin and speaks like a "Gal," or a young girl. Square Enix is being a bit vague at the present, and will only say that Sandy has a major role in the game's story.

On the gameplay side of things, Square Enix offered first details on a "quest" system. Quests are mini-adventures that you attempt to tackle apart from the main story. You find and take on quests by speaking with people around town. Quests that you've accepted are added to a quest list and can be dealt with in whatever order you like. Clear a quest, and you earn rewards, and may even unlock related quests.

While Square Enix didn't specifically mention this, it's presumable that quests will tie in closely with DQIX's multiplayer mode, offering groups of players something to actually do when adventuring together.

With Dragon Quest IX's March 26 Japanese release date just a couple of months away, we can probably expect a constant flow of new information over the coming weeks. This is, after all, likely to be Japan's biggest game of the year.

http://uk.ds.ign.com/articles/941/941372p1.html ...

News via Nintendomax


Download Here and Give Feedback Via Comments ...

via IGN


If you're a PS3 owners who loves some crossover Musou, you'll want to sit down for this. Retail listings in Japan have popped up for Musou Orochi Z, said to be a new PS3 entry in the series that's known internationally as Warriors Orochi. The title is apparently due for Japanese release on March 12 and will carry a price of 7,560 yen.

Koei hasn't formally announced the title, so consider this just a rumor for now. We'll let you know if we hear anything more solid. ...

via Eurogamer


Sony has told Eurogamer that it will release a European demo of Killzone 2 through PlayStation Network, but cannot confirm exactly when, or what will be included in the demo.

However, a source close to the publisher told us that if it clears QA in time, the demo will almost certainly be released in Europe before the game.

That's in contrast to the US, where the demo is subject to an exclusivity agreement that means consumers will only be able to get hold of it before release by pre-ordering from GameStop.

A spokesperson for Sony America confirmed that to PS3Fanboy overnight, adding that the demo will appear on PSN there after launch.

Killzone 2 is due out in February, but Sony has yet to confirm an exact release date. Check out our Killzone 2 gamepage for our latest hands-on previews, trailers, screenshots and more.

And look out for our Killzone 2 review in the coming weeks. ...

via Games Industry


FIFA 09 has topped the UK software sales chart for the week ended January 3, amidst falling sales almost uniformly across the top 40.

EA's sports title, despite seeing sales drop nearly 41 per cent, managed to displace Activision's FPS, Call of Duty: World at War, which saw it sales plummet 50 per cent as it came in second place.

However, the World War II shooter remained 5000 sales ahead of another EA title, Need for Speed: Undercover, in third place.

Guitar Hero: World Tour climbed to its highest ever chart position, up from seventh to fourth, while elsewhere in the chart Mario Kart Wii saw sales drop 60 per cent, putting it in eighth place.

Sega's Sonic Unleashed held onto its position from last week at number ten .


The UK software sales chart follows:

01. FIFA 09
02. Call of Duty: World at War
03. Need for Speed: Undercover
04. Guitar Hero: World Tour
05. Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games
06. Wii Play
07. Far Cry 2
08. Mario Kart Wii
09. Quantum of Solace
10. Sonic Unleashed
11. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock
12. Carnival: Funfair Games
13. Gaers of War 2
14. Tomb Raider: Underworld
15. Prince of Persia
16. Mirror's Edge
17. Lego Indiana Jones: Original Adventures
18. Dr. Kawashima's Brain Training
19. Fallout 3
20. Wii Fit ...

via Games Industry


FIFA 09 has topped the UK software sales chart for the week ended January 3, amidst falling sales almost uniformly across the top 40.

EA's sports title, despite seeing sales drop nearly 41 per cent, managed to displace Activision's FPS, Call of Duty: World at War, which saw it sales plummet 50 per cent as it came in second place.

However, the World War II shooter remained 5000 sales ahead of another EA title, Need for Speed: Undercover, in third place.

Guitar Hero: World Tour climbed to its highest ever chart position, up from seventh to fourth, while elsewhere in the chart Mario Kart Wii saw sales drop 60 per cent, putting it in eighth place.

Sega's Sonic Unleashed held onto its position from last week at number ten .


The UK software sales chart follows:

01. FIFA 09
02. Call of Duty: World at War
03. Need for Speed: Undercover
04. Guitar Hero: World Tour
05. Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games
06. Wii Play
07. Far Cry 2
08. Mario Kart Wii
09. Quantum of Solace
10. Sonic Unleashed
11. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock
12. Carnival: Funfair Games
13. Gaers of War 2
14. Tomb Raider: Underworld
15. Prince of Persia
16. Mirror's Edge
17. Lego Indiana Jones: Original Adventures
18. Dr. Kawashima's Brain Training
19. Fallout 3
20. Wii Fit ...

What is GrafX2? ?!

It's a bitmap paint program that allows you to draw in more than 60 video resolutions (from 320x200 to 1024x768, including most of the standard Amiga resolutions : 320x256, 320x512, 640x256, 640x512, etc... provided your videocard knows how to handle them). It was written to run under DOS, but the code you'll find here was modified to use SDL and modern operating systems.

This program is dedicated to everybody who knows what a single pixel is. Its layout is not very different from the famous Deluxe Paint or Brilliance, so it will be quite easy to handle it if you know at least one of these programs. If you aren't used to the art of drawing with up to 256 colors, it will be a little more difficult for you, but you should give it a try (or more, because most of the power of this program won't show up on the first try). Then, you might eventually like to draw the oldskool way with GrafX2?.

The program, although still unfinished (but perfectly operational) offers all the useful tools you can expect from a bitmap paint program (if they aren't already available, they will be). We took most of the best ideas from other paint programs and added many other original and very useful tools, just to try to bring you the best 256-color bitmap paint program for PC. It's up to you to decide if we have succeeded, so please download it, try it and make your own opinion. By the way, it's FREEWARE and open source !

The gp2x port is actively maintained by the Grafx2 project team, so please report bugs to us so we can improve the program !

http://archive.gp2x.de/cgi-bin/cfile...0,0,0,0,8,2722 ...

News/release from yohanes via wiibrew




Download and Give Feedback Via Comments ...

SimonKagstrom has tooday released a new port of Frodo the Commodore 64 Emulator to the Nintendo Wii, heres some details:


Download and Give Feedback and Compatability reports at the release thread here at DCEmu --> http://www.dcemu.co.uk/vbulletin/sho...d.php?t=178591 ...