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Super Paper Mario at Japan World Hobby Fair
Posted by George Hatzidimitriou Categories: Nintendo Gamecube, Retro, Role Playing Games,
New videos are beginning to surface via YouTube of Intelligent System’s upcoming 2d action/RPG hybrid Super Paper Mario. Previously, there was almost no official info for the title other than a 30 second trailer at E3. Based on gameplay footage from the videos, Super Paper Mario looks to be the spiritual successor to the 2004 GameCube title Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door. The series has always taken an untraditional, humorous approach to the RPG genre and is taking that one step further this time with the inclusion of classic 2d Mario gameplay, various playable characters such as Bowser and Peach, and even the ability to switch between 2D and 3D viewpoints in order to discover new paths. Super Paper Mario is set to be released in Japan on August 3rd and will reach US shores a few months later on October 9th. Heres hoping this promising title isn’t overlooked amidst the hype of the upcoming Nintendo Wii launch.
Read More 
| YouTube via NeoGAF Forums
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Have Online Games Taken “Reality” Too Far?
Posted by Thea Davis Categories: Culture, PC, Role Playing Games,
The online games arena seems to be doing everything imaginable to facilitate gamers abilities to reach out and touch each other, virtually and/or viscerally. In the coming months, a number of “erotic games” – some of which allow players to use web cams to interact intimately within game play or schedule offline hook-ups – will be released. (One title has just debuted.) This spate of “erotic game” releases is framing a growing debate among sexual health experts.
Many experts fear that users will be unable to draw a line between the virtual world and the real world. They say that using technology as an enabler of communication and interaction can be beneficial, but using technology as a substitute for human contact can lead to a serious imbalance. Both sides seem to agree that consenting adults are “entitled” to participate in such games, but the naysayers express a certain wariness when a discussion of the level of commitment required to qualify as a hard-core “erotic gamer” is broached.
Read More | ABC News
When Life Imitates VR: Finding Love in Online Gaming
Posted by Thea Davis Categories: Culture, MMORPG, PC, Role Playing Games,
The online worlds of multiplayer games are spawning a new sideline. It seems that players who start flirting with each other while participating for hours on end in these virtual reality environments are meeting offline and continuing the relationships, leading to a “marriage” of like minds—that of gamers in love.
Take the case of Mark Brown, who says he searched for Ms. Right in all the usual places, but instead met her online while playing “City of Heroes,” a massively multiplayer online game. MMOG players tend to imbue their online characters with remnants of their offline personalities, so it’s possible to “meet” a character while playing online and hit it off with both the virtual entity and the real person controlling it. Avid gamers who have met their virtual mates sometimes stage in-game weddings, and these virtual nuptials often precede the offline equivalent.
It brings new meaning to the phrase “the family that plays together stays together.”
Read More 
| Wall Street Journal (Registration required)
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The Da Vinci Code Impressions
Posted by Denise Shively Categories: Action, PC, PlayStation 2, Reviews, Role Playing Games, Xbox,
The compelling plot behind the blockbuster motion picture The Da Vinci Code has bloomed into a video game spinoff that seems worthy of all the attention its release has garnered. Whereby most games that take their cues from books or movies may seem lackluster or untrue to the original, The Da Vinci Code is jam packed with enough thrills, mysterious puzzles, and a variety of things to see and do that will make this game worth your while.
Click to continue reading The Da Vinci Code Impressions
Oblivion Patch Issues Reported
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: PC, Role Playing Games, Xbox 360,
Gamers with the new Oblivion patch have been reporting a number of new issues since release. Primary among the issue are slow loading times in certain areas. It has been said that clearing the Xbox 360 hard drive cache will clear up these issues, but with this issue in Oblivion, and the issue that was seen earlier in MLB 2K6 with caching, perhaps it is too easy to fragment the Xbox 360’s cache. Will gamers be looking for a Norton Utilities 2006 Xbox 360 in the future to manage their hard drives?
Other issues include spurious game lock-ups, but there are few enough data points that this might not correlate with the patch release. On the other hand, while numerous quests have been fixed in the game, if gamers have already hit the bugged quests and gotten the corrupted data in their save file, some quests will still be bugged even after the patch. Bethesda’s offered solution: “start new characters if they want to experience these quests.” For those who have been playing since the game’s release, this is probably not the most ideal solution. Other issues have been reported against the downloadable content modules with the patch, as well.
There was a fairly large public beta for the PC patch, perhaps there should have been the option for this on the Xbox 360 side as well, as it sounds like despite all the work that has been accomplished with the patch, there could have been more polish before the release. With issues like this, though, it is largely a lose-lose situation for the game developers. Gamers rant daily about when they will get the patch, and when the patch is release, invariably new issues spring up that weren’t caught in QA.
Read More | 1Up
Read More | Patch Thread on Offical Forums
Tingle RPG Slated for DS
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Nintendo DS, Role Playing Games, Screenshots,
4 Color Rebellion got some scans from the latest Weekly Famitsu, and there’s a preview of the new Tingle RPG for the Nintendo DS. Ever since first appearing in Majora’s Mask, Tingle has been a really weird presence in the Link mythology, with possibly his largest role in Wind Waker. People with a fondness for the odd, middle-aged fairy may miss him due to his absence from Twilight Princess, but for those fans, he’s getting an RPG, called “Mogitate Tingle no Barairo Rupee Land” or, from 4 Color Rebellion’s translation, “Freshly-picked Tingle’s Pink-coloured Rupee Land.” Apparently, the story follows Tingle since his boyhood. The game features a quite cartoon-like rendering style, but gamers may have something to fear if the game gets the “Touch Generations” label.
Read More | 4 Color Rebellion
Square Enix Talks Final Fantasy XIII
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: PlayStation 3, Role Playing Games,
1Up has a new interview with a few of Square’s creators of the games set against new Final Fantasy backdrop, Fabula Nova Crystalis. According to Yoshinori Kitase, game producer at Square Enix, the new games in the Nova Crystalis universe are “slightly different because there is no central title upon which everything is based, but there is a central theme: the tale of new crystals.” The three games currenly announced are Final Fantasy XIII, which is the most traditional style Final Fantasy game, the parallel Final Fantasy Versus XIII, and Agito, the mobile game. While each game inhabits the same universe, there will be no interaction between the games.
For the “main” game, Square’s character goals were a “female version of Cloud from FFVII.” The combat will be based around the same active-time battle system from previous games, but will be faster, so less time is spent waiting to input commands. The “Versus” game takes a different tack, where Square really hopes to try and experiment with Final Fantasy gameplay; it will definitely feature more action, and should not be “a simple combination of Advent Children and Kingdom Hearts 2,” though the game mechanics will be developed by the team responsible for Kingdom Hearts 2. The Square team also hints that they have something special in mind for the new PS3 motion-sensing controller.
Read More | 1Up
Iwata Talks Release Date, Virtual Console, Pokemon Wii
Posted by Michael Cardiff Categories: Fighting, Nintendo, Nintendo DS, Retro, Role Playing Games, Wii,
In probably the biggest Nintendo update since E3, Nintendo’s President Satoru Iwata announced some major new details about the Wii and the games available for it. Quickly summarized, the main points of interest are:
- The Wii launch date will be revealed in September
- Unsurprisingly, Nintendo won’t lose much on Wii hardware sales. They hope to have 6 million units ready by April ‘07
- Game pricing for the Virtual Console is suggested to be around $5 and $10 a game (implying this won’t be subscription-based)
- The Wii will be able to recognize touch-screen input, meaning the DS can be used as a controller in some instances
- DS sales are expected to be around 2 million / month for the coming year, with production to meet this level of demand
- Pokemon for the Wii will be released and available in Winter ‘06
It’s good to see more concrete details filtering in. Also, announcing Pokemon during this conference instead of during E3 may have been a great strategic decision, as Nintendo appears to be trying to shed its “kiddy” image with titles like Project H.A.M.M.E.R. and Disaster: Day of Crisis that were announced at E3.
Read More | Famitsu (Japanese) via Spong.com (English summary)
Oblivion PC Patch Released, Xbox 360 Patch Tomorrow
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Internet, PC, Role Playing Games, Xbox 360, Xbox Live,
Bethesda has made the final version of the Elder Scrolls: Oblivion patch available for download. The download updates the PC version to 1.1.511, and the Xbox 360 (English) version will be available tomorrow on Xbox Live. There are numerous fixes to issues gamers have been seeing, including hardware fixes and optimizations for users with SLI and Crossfire configurations, numerous bug fixes to areas within the game, and a ton of fixes to quests that were broken or otherwise had errors in the original. There is the introduction of a new “Very Low Quality” rendering mode for users with low-end video cards. In addition, the patch notes list a number of ways users can optimize their game performance, modifications to get a wired Xbox 360 gamepad working with the PC version of Oblivion.
Read More | Patch Download
Read More | Patch Notes
Final Fantasy III Date Set for Japan - August 24
Posted by Michael Cardiff Categories: Nintendo DS, Release Dates, Role Playing Games,
For all you Japanese-fluent Final Fantasy addicts looking to import the FF III DS remake, MTV is reporting that August 24th, 2006 has been set as the Japanese release date. They also note that the price is somewhat higher than normal - 5,980 yen (about $53!). Given that pricing on other DS games in Japan is slightly higher than normal, this suggests that FFIII will retail for somewhere around $45 in the states. Lik-sang is currently listing $49.90 as the price for those of you looking to import early - not bad!
The game is scheduled to come state-side in September. Isn’t it nice to see Nintendo and Square playing nice again?
Read More | MTV.com
Read More | Lik-Sang.com
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