Shin Megami Tensei IV screens leaked from Soul Hackers exclusive trailer.

Nier:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/offer-listing/B003922WQQ/ref=dp_olp_used?ie=UTF8&condition=used

Valkyria Chronicles:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sega-Valkyria-Chronicles-PS3/dp/B00197U1G6/ref=sr_1_2?s=videogames&ie=UTF8&qid=1346245135&sr=1-2

Alpha Protocol:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sega-Alpha-Protocol-PS3/dp/B001AQ2RHC/ref=sr_1_1?s=videogames&ie=UTF8&qid=1346245244&sr=1-1

Just walking into this now: Keep it civil. No name calling, no drama, no shit flinging. The moment this deteriorates into something nasty, this will be locked and the key thrown down the river faster than a tiger taking a spanking the wrong way.

With that said, I'm happy that the Judge made the right decision and things are looking up now, Ryudo, but please, like Mitts is saying, spend it on the important things in life.

Alright, cheers Pete. I've started doing it this afternoon, will continue on it later on tonight.

What bothers me is that Kojima seems to be backpedaling...there's nothing fresh about this game, it sounds like MGS3: Less Linear Edition. At least with Rising, we're getting to not only play as Raiden again (waaaay overdue), but we also play as a ninja character, something the fans have wanted ever since Grey Fox in MGS1. This, on the other hand, just sounds exactly like MGS3 and Peace Walker combined into one game. Really smacks of laziness.

http://megaten4.jp/

O_O

The music!

HE SAID: "LET HIS QUOTE SAY IT ALL!"

Surely you heard that? You're getting deaf in your old age.

So Versus XIII won't be at TGS, supposedly.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=489500

"We can't show it, it's now FF XIII-2 time"
"We can't show it, it's now Kingdom Hearts 3D time"
"We can't show it, it's now FF XIII-3 time"
"We can't show it, it's now FF XIV's remake's time"
"We can't show it, it's now FF XV time"

etc, etc. lol

Well, despite the popularity contest, they've both been in development for hellishly long now. And when your line manager/producer leaves a project...that doesn't bode well.

They'll both come out. They'll just be finished by Gearbox, and criticized for being behind the times. ;-)

lol.

Yeah, they're both Duke Nukem Forever: Japan Edition now. I have no doubt they'll come out, just that they will come out very late into the PS3's lifecycle. It's not like I don't have enough games to go on, or anything, but man, I would have really liked to see either Last Guardian or Versus XIII at TGS this year. At least we're guaranteed a good bit of Atlus goodness though this TGS.

@OL: I'm looking forward to FFXIV and that's it from Square Japan. The publishing side though? One of the best publishers this gen., they've given me Nier, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Valkyrie Profile: Covenant of the Plume, Sleeping Dogs, Kane & Lynch, and Hitman is out soon, Army Corps of Hell will probably be my first purchase for PSVita and I still need to pick up Lufia for DS sometime. Overall, top tier publishing.

So with Metal Gear Solid Ground Zeroes looking as good as it does (graphically), we also have Halo 4 coming out soon, which similarly looks fantastic:

http://i.minus.com/iYb4wOyynFVFT.gif

http://i.minus.com/i7gySiBpFWdPI.gif

http://i.minus.com/iMDljMxIERbPo.gif

Who needs next gen when games are so good looking?

@Peter: Really? I thought ODST was the weakest, by a long shot. Halo 1 is still my favourite, I know there's only like two of us on here who are Halo fans, but I really like the art design and music of the series. And yeah, I enjoy the multiplayer...but it's a bit of a shame the single player has gone down in quality over time, so perhaps a new dev team (which was founded by former members of Bungie, btw) is the breath of life the series needed? Single player looks fun to me and I like the look of the new enemies.

@Dorian: Yeah, I'm getting sick of seeing articles popping up every day hyping Xbox 720/PS4...I'm not ready for it, nor is the PS3/360 finished yet, we're seeing some technically very impressive games, others that come to mind are David Cage's next game, The Last of Us and Hitman: Absolution.

FFIV DS has some of the best art in the series. Just bought it the other day, might start it tonight.

Martin:



south carmain:



QWERTY:



Brotherman:

@henry :lol: what on earth made you think I'm a Mongolian eagle tamer

You give off an aura of "crazy Mongolian who is one with nature", what can I say?

Spokane:

http://i.imgur.com/rS7c0.jpg

Crimson Ryan:

http://i.imgur.com/taKlY.jpg

beedle:

http://i.imgur.com/r9vng.jpg

Mittens:

http://i.imgur.com/ej4q2.gif

Take this debate to Private Message, please, you're crapping up the topic at hand. Also, the three of you, quit the name calling, it's getting tiring.

Well, I learned some valuable life lessons today. Thanks for the philosophy, everyone.

But Mittens, Nintendo DS is region free and it's available on Amazon UK...

Like Riku, I hope there's new games we know nothing about.

Because you started your sentence with "like" I couldn't help but read that as if a teenage girl was saying it.

Like, whatever .
http://i.imgur.com/0wIIx.jpg

It also features one of the best NG+ ever (different endgame scenario set in a tower with loads of bosses that you have to defeat as you make your way up the tower, with new boss and new ending that brings further closure to the storyline). Love the game's battle system, shame we never seen any other game utilising it or expanding on it.

^Segata post incoming!

Where I work, people frequently talk about getting wanting to get as absolutely drunk as possible, I feel sad for those people, since that's their very existence and that's literally all they talk about. I mean, I can understand wanting to go out for a drink to relax or just getting themselves drunk at a party of some kind, it happens, but to actively seek out a lifestyle that involves nothing but getting drunk? Pathetic existence. Like southcarmain and a couple of others on here, I don't drink, but when I do, it's normally a cider I'll go for. It tastes good and is still to this day, the only alcoholic drink I can safely say that about. When I was in college, I used to go out and get drunk all of the time, but realised it was a bit of a useless exercise that resulted in nothing but pain the next day and that was not enjoyable. And having seen the effects alcohol has had on people, it was enough to put me off. So yeah, I don't go out of my way to drink myself to oblivion like others where I am, do.

Looks like it's a victim of "focus testing", wouldn't surprise me if the initial concepts got thrown out in favour of the "cinematic experience". Still like the aesthetics of it, though.

Also, how bad is that dialogue/voice acting? And the corrupt cop missing that many shots in that attack chopper? Really?

EX Troopers not coming to the West.

http://www.nintendolife.com/news/2012/09/sorry_lost_planet_fans_ex_troopers_isnt_coming_to_the_west

The forum member's original question actually related to the thorny issue of the Mega Man series, and a recent comment by Svensson that he feels the franchise has too many 'sub series'. To counter this argument, the forum poster mentioned EX Troopers based on the fact that it's a sub series of Lost Planet, seemingly making the assumption that the game would be heading out of Japan.

Svensson's response was:

No because EX Troopers isn't part of the LP series officially (thus the difference in name) nor are there plans to bring it Westward at this time.

So there you have it - Capcom isn't looking to translate and publish EX Troopers outside of its native Japan, where it launches on November 22nd of this year.

The only Lost Planet game I give a damn about...and we're not getting it. It seems like anything to do with Mega Man is cursed now.

Capcom continue to vie for the prize of most disappointing publisher and developer this gen with Konami.

]Biohazard actually used to have an interesting story, yes. Pre-BH4. Too bad it went down with Raccoon City.

Well, yeah, you of all people would say that. But really, I think the series had a brilliant B-movie horror plotline with some fantastic scenarios and atmosphere. We'll have to see if they can bring it any of that back with RE6. People can complain about RE5 all they like, I thought the gameplay was really fricking fun, though. At least, I know the gameplay will be fun with RE6.

RE2 is still my favourite and Hideki Kamiya hasn't directed a better game in his career.

^That game looks really good.

I bought:

You know it is kind of hilarious, we've had both 3D and virtual reality in the past and they didn't catch on, chalk it up to the fact that the tech wasn't there, but now, I think we're getting there. I'm actually kind of excited to see VR in the future, even if it is yet again, only a fad. It's not like I think such tech will get in the way of usual gaming with controllers, but the possibilities with VR is kind of exciting to me, sorry. :dunno:

Labyrinth of Amala in SMT3: Nocturne,
Some of the marks in FFXII which just destroyed me (Trickster comes to mind)
Growlanser IV where it's you vs. monsters vs, the female angel it's just crazy hectic.
Golgorand Execution Site/Golgollada Gallows in Final Fantasy Tactics is the most difficult battle in the game for me (the first Wiegraf battle is easy once you know the trick to it).
Hospital stage in Siren: Blood Curse.
Final battle against the Tyrant (Mr. X) in RE2.
Devil Survivor 2 where you fight the boss battle against Ronaldo and then team up with him against the alien. Still haven't gotten past that (either Day 3 or Day 4).
The real (there's a few of them) final battle in Drakengard 1 is legendary hard.
The final boss in Vagrant Story. Throughout the game you are pretty much told to find the enemy's weakness, with this boss... he has none!
The tower in NG+ for Parasite Eve, dungeon crawling tower full of bosses and really hard enemies.
Final boss in Metal Gear AC!D 1.

Lost more than a few times on those...

NSFW:

To be fair though, the Wii had a lot of shovelware. Then again, so did the DS and that's one of the best gaming systems I've ever owned.

The gaming sub forums got about 5 topics a month at the most so it's just pointless having them separate. As for the junk forum the new mods and Yama have said that they are going to be more lenient on stuff going in General so as long as they stick to that I'm cool with it.

The junk forum was cool I had a quick look over the topics in there about a week ago. I won't miss the topics like 'What colour is your poop?' I hope we still get topics in general like when QWERTY took the piss out of Alimn meeting Yu with a story on how he met Brian Blessed.

The fact is it won't kill this place because a good amount of the people who post here don't even give a shit about the drama.

Me and Pete tried to save what we could. Some of the topics gave me a big laugh last weekend, like the Orange vs Dragnoix topic (classic), or when everybody was trolling Jokatech in his relationship topic, or the odd topic from QWERTY or Mittens that made me smile, it was a trip down nostalgia lane, for sure.

So yeah, game looks like a mixed bag. No Kaneko!

New Trailer:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXH5WRP36fA[/youtube]

^Pretty much. I'm honestly surprised that Orange thinks that looks like Kaneko, like at all . It doesn't. In the least. It's actually Masayuki Doi; the artist for the Trauma Centre series, definitely. And yeah, his art is fine there since he isn't trying to do an (frankly terrible) imitation of another artist in those games. I wouldn't mind the change in art style, as much, if Doi was employing a new style instead of imitation. I'm not a fan of the actual designs of them either...like Segata said, they're very modern anime-like.

I honestly think at this stage that Kaneko has either: A) left Atlus (you've got to be shitting me if you think Kaneko wouldn't work on a mainline SMT title). Or B) Atlus has other projects up there sleeve, such as a new Devil Summoner game, which Kaneko is heading the art on. I so hope it's the latter, since the thought of Doi simply replacing Kaneko just sucks. I'm all for giving the new guy a job, but shoving the lead artist of the series away like that to make room for the new guy, (Kaneko has been at the company since the beginning) is kind of nasty. Or maybe Kaneko flat out refused to help make the game, not liking what the team has in mind? Guess we'll never know. Either way, major blow to the series, to be sure.

As far the game goes, I like that they're trying to strive for the best of both worlds by combining both third person exploration and first person combat. I'd even go as far as to say that the environments look absolutely incredible. The music is also brilliant. A shame they're cutting corners with the certain factors when it comes to presentation; animations of the demons (static one moment then massive shaking, the next, guess I'll get used to it). I'm a bit worried about the storyline being really anime inspired at this stage. No offence to Persona, they're great too, but I like to draw the line between the mainline SMT and Persona, it would be the same if Persona suddenly changed dramatically. They're both great series, but ultimately different.

I'm sure I'll like the game, Atlus have never let me down, I really like the settings and music, but at this stage, it'll take a lot for me to love it .

I don't want to keep going on like a negative nancy, but those terrible anime artworks will be the cutscenes of the game. So it's not like it won't be a factor into the presentation of the game.

And I still don't see how Doi's art is anywhere near Kaneko's, not on quality (I actually think Doi is good; not when he's imitating Soejima or Kaneko, though) but in similarity. Doi isn't using the same techniques at all, he's just sort of trying to imitate (badly), whilst also trying to do his own style at the same time, and it is pretty jarring to me. Doi's art doesn't try to convey the same disturbed look on the character's faces (look at the "villain" of SMT4, he doesn't look disturbed or anything of the sort, he just looks plain evil), look at the Demi-Fiend and compare him to the main protagonist of SMT4; it's a stark difference. Night and day, really. I also miss Kaneko's vibrant colour palette vs. Doi's monotonous colours. The big close ups of the demons make them look ugly, too. Aesthetics of the series are part and parcel of why I like this series so much, if the artist is gone, it won't be long till I stop giving a shit about it.

As far as Kaneko goes, the guy's gone from Atlus, no doubt about it. It's an end of an era, but it's no use crying over spilt milk, the damage is done and I've got to live with it. Oh well.

It's to me, like the soul of Shin Megami Tensei is gone now. It'll more than likely be a great fun game to play, but the themes will probably be shallow (by the looks of the anime inspired storyline and cliche characters; time travelling, oooh, that isn't overdone in JRPGs, or anything; the only positive will be the variety of beautiful environments we'll get) and the art mediocre.

Angelus from Drakengard. She was a complete juggernaut of death and destruction.



I also liked Epona from Zelda, the hog from Nier and the dragons from Panzer Dragoon series.

Game Republic founder/director Yoshiki Okamoto comes out of hiding to reveal he has retired from the game industry and is now "making mobile phone games".

Video game creator Yoshiki Okamoto, the man behind Time Pilot, 1942, Final Fight, and Street Fighter 2, says he's retired from the business of making console video games.

Following the closure of his studio Game Republic, where he developed moderate successes like Folklore and two Genji titles for Sony, the famed game designer and producer tells Polygon he's now working on mobile games. His first mobile title, a "secret" game, he says, will be released in the near future, he says.

"I have retired," Okamoto said during an interview in Tokyo this week. "That's what I'm told to say [by my boss]."

Okamoto won't actually say who he's working for. But he believes that mobile games, not traditional, increasingly risky console games, are the path to his future success.
Quote:
Okamoto got out of the business of making video games for consoles when his studio, Game Republic, closed its offices last year. The company still exists, he says, but Okamoto is its only employee.

"Game Republic has not gone away, but we ran out of money," he explained. "So I had to let go of everybody."

At its peak, Game Republic employed about 300 people. The company was hit hard financially after the closure of publisher Brash Entertainment. The studio was developing a video game adaptation of Clash of the Titans for Brash and when the publisher folded in 2008, Game Republic lost "a large amount of money."

"But of course we had made the decision to go with Brash Entertainment," Okamoto says, shouldering some of the blame. Okamoto also pointed to the weakened global economy at the time, adding "It wasn't totally their fault."

"There were a lot of things I wanted to accomplish [at Game Republic]," Okamoto says, including a sequel to PlayStation 3 game Folklore, "But I need a sponsor to create those games." Even mobile titles, Okamoto says, require an investment of more than $600,000 to have a chance at success.

http://www.theverge.com/gaming/2012/9/18/3349570/game-republic-yoshiki-okamoto-retired-console-games-mobile

MGS3: Snake Eater

US box art:

http://i.imgur.com/TFKEW.jpg

Japan box art:

http://i.imgur.com/cnFwJ.jpg

EU box art:

http://i.imgur.com/yhMhs.jpg

Personally, I really like art we got, they're all pretty good though.

Beat Down: Fists of Vengeance (PS2)

US box art:

http://i.imgur.com/XuXzV.jpg

Japan box art:

http://i.imgur.com/4oaOB.jpg

EU box art:

http://i.imgur.com/pzxiw.jpg

Again, I really like our box art as opposed to the ones for Japan and the US; the blood on the main character's knuckles are subtle rather than the US ugly box art with a weird colour palette.

Castlevania: Lament of Innocence (PS2)

Japan box art:

http://i.imgur.com/SFRRv.jpg

US box art:

http://i.imgur.com/a3Zp8.jpg

EU box art:

http://i.imgur.com/E2oLU.jpg

This, on the other hand...ugh. It's not even close; Ayami Kojima's artwork >>> badly composed CG art placed awkwardly on to box art "tearing off the page" with the use of the whip.

Kaneko back on Persona? That would be weird and Soejima fans would throw a hissy fit. In that case, maybe Soejima is doing art for the next Trauma Team game just to complete the mindfuckery that Atlus are doing here. lol

A new IP with Kaneko on art and Meguro doing the music has me pretty excited...the last time that happened we got Maken X! That was 13 years ago!

Raiden:

http://www.konami.jp/mgr/jp/images/chara01.png

Enemies:

http://www.konami.jp/mgr/jp/images/chara02.png

http://www.konami.jp/mgr/jp/images/chara03.png

http://www.konami.jp/mgr/jp/images/chara04.png

http://www.konami.jp/mgr/jp/images/chara05.png

http://www.konami.jp/mgr/jp/images/chara06.png

Gifs:

http://www.abload.de/img/ai2kog.gif

http://www.abload.de/img/a0gkl5.gif

http://i.minus.com/ibxwgAn1Y7DjdS.gif

http://i.minus.com/im7HbDrUvVE54.gif

http://www.abload.de/img/risingrunkmsmp.gif

http://www.abload.de/img/a6aqyl.gif

Codec team revealed (5 of them! Definitely better than MGS4):

http://www.abload.de/img/cut-what-you-will-metsjq3z.jpg

Cool your jets, Ryudo. Otherwise take a vacation.

Let's not rag on Yu too much guys, eh? He doesn't want to start getting our hopes up, for them to just fall if something doesn't work. Cmon we've all been through that rollercoaster of Shenmue hype.

But he sorta did falsely get people's hopes up...like last year - on Shenmue 3: "I think SEGA will let me make it". :roll:

Yeeeeaaaaaaahhh, yet another import to invest in.
The UK has never been as useful to me as it has in this generation of gaming.

Same for you guys, but in reverse. I've been importing from the US, like mad, this generation. Don't forget we're also getting Way of the Samurai 4 physical, too! :twisted:

Mostly my favourites like:

Shenmue I & II
MGS 1-3
Silent Hill 2
SMT3: Nocturne (which I am currently)
Final Fantasy Tactics - such an addictive game
Vagrant Story
Parasite Eve
Snatcher
Metal Gear AC!D 1 & 2
The Ys games
Final Fantasy XII (most addictive game, ever)
God Hand
Resi Evil 1, 2 & 3 (like crack; love seeing those glorious pre-rendered backgrounds, listen to the atmospheric music and the classic scenarios)
Nier
Front Mission 3
Breakdown (Xbox)
Call of Cthulhu
Treasure games: Sin & Punishment, Gunstar Heroes, Guardian Heroes, Mischief Makers etc.

A lotta games, really. I play them all whenever the mood is right. It's sorta what gets in the way of me playing new games; I'll play a new game and sometimes think like "well, this new game isn't that great, it's okay, but I'd rather be playing [insert game I love here] instead".

Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex. Not watched an anime in years, found this box set lying around, so it was about time I watched, really. Tis good. Love me some cyberpunk.