The Games News

The newest chapter of the Final Fantasy saga secures another first place in overall sales in Japan in traditional low-sales period.

Square Enix can boast about possibly the largest fanbase in the world, based mostly around the highly successfull (and addictive) Final Fantasy series, and to a lesser extent around the Dragon Quest and Kingdom Hearts series. And surely such a large crowd will buy your game if there is any “Final Fantasy” snippet in the title.

Final Fantasy Tactics A2 on the DS follows the successes of Final Fantasy Tactics PSP and Crisis Core: Final Fantasy PSP in May, and September respectively, debuting on the first place in the japanese sales charts at 142,000 units units. This is a commercial success, if you take into consideration the following games in the charts: #2 Ar Tonelico 2 for the PS2 and World Soccer Winning Eleven DS.

To quote a famous future game hero, “It’s about time!”

After 4 years, Electronic Arts finally released Flagship’s signature piece. Bill Roper, ex Blizzard North and currently CEO of Flagship Studios (with several ex-Blizzard members whom worked on Diablo) is convinced that the game will bring a lot of enjoyment to all rabid fans out there, waiting for another quality hack-n-slash-action RPG.

I have played the demo, things are looking up, and this will probably a GREAT game. You just need to go to the local game shop and get convinced yourself. I just wouldn’t want to be paying to play multiplayer (still not very sure what the plans are about this).

Kojima states that, for the good of the game, MGS 4 will be delayed

In a brief announcement, Konami has confirmed that the release of key PlayStation 3 exclusive Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots has been delayed until early 2008. It appears that concerns about the quality of the game were raised, so the 200 developers working on Metal Gear Solid 4 will spend this additional time polishing the game to a neat finish, as all Kojima games are.

Touching another subject here, MGS 4 and Final Fantasy XIII are PS3 exclusives that Sony puts a lot of faith in showing to the world the real capabilities of the Play Station 3, and a little delay is surely going to hurt Sony too. The good news (if any) is that Kojima wants to try a worldwide release for this title, which means everybody will get it at the same time: Japan, Europe and America.

Xbox Live Arcade subscribers will get some new titles and half-price games after the usual XBLA Wednesday update.

Microsoft representatives have announced the arcade conversions of Cyberball 2072, a futuristic robot battle football game, where you have to score a touchdown while the ball gets hotter and hotter, and SNK’s classic fighting game Fatal Fury Special, where Joe Higashi and the Bogard brothers, amongst other fighting titans, must compete against “the ruler of the underworld, Wolfgang Krauzer”.

Microsoft also announced a special limited time Labor Day weekend special, where they will offer Small Arms, the now-classic Zuma Deluxe puzzle game(both for 400 points/5 $), Gauntlet from Atari and Dig Dug from Namco for just 200 points(2.5$). This limited time offer is going to take place between Sunday, September 2, 12.00 a.m. GMT and Monday, September 3, 11.59 p.m. GMT.

At this moment, Fatal Fury Special is going to be priced at 400 points(5$), but no pricing has been announced yet for Cyberball 2072.

Duke Nukem Forever (DNF) is the upcoming First Person Shooter (FPS) from 3D Realms. The Garland, Texas-based company, 3D Realms, has been a multifaceted pioneer and innovator in the PC gaming industry. It is part four in a series of PC games featuring Duke Nukem as the hero. Parts one (Duke Nukem) and two (Duke Nukem 2) were side scrollers / platform games, and part three, Duke Nukem 3D, was an FPS. DNF will initially be released for Windows only. It is also possible, but not definite, that Duke Nukem Forever will be ported to the Macintosh. It all depends on whether or not DNF sells well enough. Editing tools like DukeEd, 3D Realms’ modified version of the multipurpose UnrealEd and many more will be included free on the Duke Nukem Forever CD for all of your level design, art importing, and scripting needs. The developers of DNF do not commit to any release dates. The only matter of concern here seems to be that Duke Nukem Forever (DNF) which has been in development for over 8 years now and the only choice the gamers have is to wait and watch!!!