via IGN


Valkyrie Profile appears to be the next major franchise to jump ship to Nintendo. A few leaked scans from the upcoming issue of Japan's Jump comic magazine indicate that, following recent entries on the PlayStation 2 and PSP, the series is on the way to the DS through Valkyrie Profile: Toga wo Seou Mono.

Said to be the third entry in the series, Toga will feature a new hero, Wilfred, along with classic characters like Lenneth. The game appears to utilize an isometric perspective, with sprite-based characters controlled over three-fourths view play field. This would definitely be a change of pace for the series. Developer Tri-ace is once again handling development, with Square Enix, of course, publishing.

Once games are revealed in Jump, they're usually given a more open announcement within one or two weeks. Expect to hear lots more on the next entry in one of Square Enix's most critically acclaimed series shortly. ...

via IGN


Valkyrie Profile appears to be the next major franchise to jump ship to Nintendo. A few leaked scans from the upcoming issue of Japan's Jump comic magazine indicate that, following recent entries on the PlayStation 2 and PSP, the series is on the way to the DS through Valkyrie Profile: Toga wo Seou Mono.

Said to be the third entry in the series, Toga will feature a new hero, Wilfred, along with classic characters like Lenneth. The game appears to utilize an isometric perspective, with sprite-based characters controlled over three-fourths view play field. This would definitely be a change of pace for the series. Developer Tri-ace is once again handling development, with Square Enix, of course, publishing.

Once games are revealed in Jump, they're usually given a more open announcement within one or two weeks. Expect to hear lots more on the next entry in one of Square Enix's most critically acclaimed series shortly. ...

via Gizmodo


he Nikkei business daily is reporting that Toshiba will take a $986 million hit this year for its ill-fought HD DVD campaign, though somehow the manufacturing supergiant will manage to post a roughly $2.5 billion profit nonetheless, down from a projected $2.9 billion or so.

The estimated cost of HD DVD for the company this year was supposed to be closer to half a billion, but the halt in production means costly line changes and "other charges." Toshiba itself isn't saying a word yet, but damn if there ain't truth to this. ...

via Computer and Video Games


Capcom's old-boy classic top-down shooter 1942 is being revived for Xbox Live Arcade and PSN, where it'll release this summer.

Reported on IGN, 1942: Joint Strike retains the top-down viewpoint of the original; but obviously things have moved on a bit in the hardware department since the 1980s so we're getting what's described as "impressive 3D graphics".

Fans of co-op play will no doubt be pleased to hear that Joint Strike features support for two-player offline and online blasting.

If you're unfamiliar with 1942, in a nutshell you flew a WWII plane and shot the crap out of stuff.

1942: Joint Strike will set you back 800 Microsoft Points (£6.80) or $9.99 in the US on PSN (which would be five quid here). ...

via Joystiq


Lost Planet: Extreme Condition Colonies Edition -- known around these parts as Lost Planet: Colonies or Lost Planet 1.5 -- has finally been officially announced. The game is a repackaging of the full Lost Planet title, plus a bunch of additional multiplayer and single-player extras. The good news: It'll cost about $30. The bad news: Colonies Edition multiplayer will be incompatible with current Lost Planet games.

Scheduled for a May 27 release on 360 and PC, Colonies mainly adds new, creative multiplayer modes to the original game. Several are based on holding checkpoints and CTF variants. Our favorite, however, lets one gamer control an Akrid, with the others teaming up to try to take down the alien. Different creatures are available, and we recently saw a demo showing how a spindly, player-controlled giant can make quick kills with its swiping legs.

New playable characters, new weapons, and new levels are also added. Many of those are tuned for these alien battles, giving bunkers for humans to hide from the less-mobile aliens. Xbox 360 and PC players can play against each other using paid, Xbox Live gold accounts. Non-paying PC gamers will still be able to play online, but they'll only face other PCs.

Colonies single-player adds a few new ways to navigate the snowy wastelands. Score Attack awards gamers points for dispatching enemies and destructible objects. Another mode lets gamers fight each boss in order, one after another. And an extreme-action setting juices weapons, player speed, and lets gamers plow through, head-first.

All of this seems great for the Lost Planet newbie, but current players will likely balk at buying the game again. Capcom wanted the multiplayer modes to work between the old and new editions, but cited non-specific "technical reasons" for it not happening. And Capcom hasn't announced a PS3 version, so Sony gamers will also miss out on the newfound action. ...

via Games Industry


With the price of Xbox 360 models slashed this week, Microsoft Europe boss Chris Lewis believes the aggressive move will help snare the elusive casual consumer, while reinvigorating the platform in places where it is being outsold by PlayStation 3.

Speaking to GamesIndustry.biz, Lewis, newly promoted to full oversight of Microsoft's entertainment business in Europe, said: "There are some sweet spots of pricing, particularly in parts of Europe, that do genuinely open up larger communities to the console and certainly Euro 199 is one of those pricepoints. It's a perfect time to open up the mass-market floodgates."

Coming in the wake of the demise of the Microsoft-backed HD DVD format, the price reductions are also designed to counter increasing Sony momentum, which saw SCEE president David Reeves boast earlier this year that PS3 had already overtaken 360's installed base in Italy, Spain, France and Germany, despite 360's head start.


The entry-level Arcade unit at GBP 159 is now cheaper than Nintendo's mass-market friendly Wii, while the main Premium model, at GBP 199, is now GBP 100 cheaper than PlayStation 3.

Accepting that there have been flaws in the mission to conquer Europe to date, Lewis revealed: "We have to be more consistent, we have to be more single-minded about the message that we represent. It's making sure that we develop marketing and content there that is appropriate and that resonates with local tastes. I think we are getting consistently better at recognising that. I will say that in the early stages of the last version and this we were less fixated on that than we should be. I guarantee to you that will change."

He continued: "Let's take Spain as an example – we are heavily invested there, we've tripled the size of the team, we've put a warehouse in Spain that makes sense to the local retailers' need there. And we'll continue to invest in that way."

However, Lewis was keen to trumpet the overall strength of the platform, boosted significantly by its critically-acclaimed software portfolio and the growth of the Live online service, insisting that installed base is only part of the picture.


Part one of the full interview with Chris Lewis can be read here. ...

via Eurogamer


Hudson has announced the forthcoming release of a WiiWare instalment in the Bomberman series.

As reported by Kotaku, the game appears in the latest issue of Famitsu.

Apparently it will be different to Bomberman Live, but you can expect the classic gameplay to remain intact. It won't just be a collection of mini-games, either. Up to eight players will be able to fight it out at once.

WiiWare is launching in Japan on 25th March, and the Bomberman game is due out in June. Here's hoping it arrives in Europe whenever WiiWare does. ...

via Computer and Video Games


Xbox Live Arcade currently carries a strict file size limit of 150MB, but it's emerged that Microsoft is to make special exception for Capcom's upcoming download games, which will break the size limit for the first time.

According to IGN, both Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix and Bionic Commando Rearmed will be swelling above the current cap.

Capcom says that both Rearmed and Street Fighter hold far too much content to fit the current 150MB limit, and to meet standards bonus material present in the PC and PSN versions would have to be cut for XBLA. With Microsoft's exception in place - which allows the Capcom two to swell above the 150MB limit - this won't be the case.

Thankfully then, it looks like earlier rumours suggesting "gimped" textures for the XBLA versions aren't true after all.

The last game to break the size limit rule was Konami's excellent Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, which broke the previous quota of 50MB. Soon after its release Microsoft raised the cap to the current 150MB rule, so perhaps we'll be seeing another rise following Rearmed and Street Fighters appearance on XBLA... ...

via Eurogamer


Capcom will let Xbox Live Gold subscribers who buy the Xbox Live Arcade version of Wolf of the Battlefield: Commando 3 access an upcoming Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix beta test, the US arm of the publisher said yesterday.

Commando 3 is set to cost 800 Microsoft Points (GBP 6.80 / EUR 9.60) when it launches this spring, and the HD Remix beta will launch shortly afterward and last for about eight weeks, with the aim of stress-testing the multiplayer network code. We've asked Capcom whether there'll be a PS3 equivalent but haven't heard back yet.

The company's prolific US bloggers have also shed some light on why we've been waiting so long for the HD Remix version of Super Street Fighter II Turbo, which was originally announced all the way back in April 2007. A lot of the delay is to do with revamping artwork, apparently.

"As a necessary part of development, we had to outsource a lot of the [artistic] work to an outside company that based their work off of Udon's key frames," producer Rey Jimenez explains. "This company has an excellent reputation and ability as an outside art contractor and we were very impressed with their overall resources and their infrastructure.

"Without going into the nitty-gritty of it, the art they were producing just wasn't up to par or schedule of what we needed. To be honest, a lot of their art was looking pretty good, but just not 'good enough'. It just wouldn't satisfy the quality bar that both Capcom and Street Fighter fans demand."

So Capcom redid it, reducing the number of tones for each colour, among other things. "We know that it sucks that we all have to wait longer to play HD Remix, but the plus side to all this is that with the extra time needed to reboot the art pipeline, we have extra time to: a) cram in tons of cool features that weren't planned from the onset of development and b) further refine and test features that we had planned all along," Jimenez adds.

"Recent tech solutions dedicated to online play" mean that HD Remix "will provide the best online console experience to date", he says, and the team has also added 8-man Tournament Mode, remixed and classic music, and "hit box display" which is good enough for a "Woohoo!" in Capcom-land. More features will be announced later, apparently.

So, look out for more on HD Remix soon, it would seem. ...