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Depp Lends Voice to Pirates Game

Posted by Thea Davis Categories: Adventure, Corporate News, PC, PlayStation 2, Xbox,

Movie star Johnny Depp is voicing the lead character in Bethesda Software’s new title “Pirates of the Caribbean: The Legend of Jack Sparrow,” reprising the role he originated in the Pirates of the Caribbean film series. Depp recorded his lines for the game in a Los Angeles studio; the game was also designed in LA. 7 Studios, a company under license with Buena Vista Games (Disney) is the game’s designer. Bethesda, the game’s publisher, released the title yesterday.

New Castlevania May Allow WiFi Play

Posted by Michael Cardiff Categories: Action, Adventure, Nintendo, Nintendo DS, Rumors,

In addition to removing the tacked-on rune-tracing from the new DS Castlevania game, series creator Koji Igarashi has announced that he is looking into whether to include WiFi-based play for the next Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin. If he decides to, this would mark Castlevania’s first foray into the online arena.

Says Igarashi:

“It’s not confirmed yet, because I haven’t started work on it. [Laughs] That’s why I can’t confirm. But actually I’m thinking about preparing a special unlockable stage where you can do co-op over WiFi.”

Personally, I’ve never thought of Castlevania as a multiplayer game—I can’t imagine doing battle against another player or anything like that. Still, the possibility of something like co-op play might be a great addition to an already great series.

A Look At The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess For Wii

Posted by Denise Shively Categories: Action, Adventure, Nintendo, Nintendo Gamecube, Wii,

Among the multitude of news bits about the upcoming Nintendo Wii, gamers can’t stop talking about the launch titles that will go along with this console. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess offers fans a new spin on the traditional Zelda series, but leaves many wondering whether the game will work with the Wii’s newfangled controllers or format? Fortunately, the consensus is that long time fans and newbies alike will not be disappointed by this upcoming installment in the Zelda series.

Click to continue reading A Look At The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess For Wii

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Katsuya Eguchi Talks Animal Crossing Wii, Hints at Guitar Hero Wii

Posted by Michael Cardiff Categories: Adventure, Nintendo, Rumors, Wii,

Animal Crossing GC box Nintendo exec Katsuya Eguchi, talking with Kikizo, recently dropped some more interesting Wii tidbits. Specifically, he discussed some functionality that Nintendo is thinking about for their next iteration of Animal Crossing on the Wii, including using e-mail or cell phone based text messages to send letters to people in the Wii Animal Crossing world. But that’s not all - Eguchi also talked a bit about the addition of Wii peripherals and dropped this interesting note:

“Of course, if software calls for a light gun, we’ll make a light gun. If the software requires a guitar, then maybe we’ll make a guitar. Our number one priority is always to provide the ultimate gameplay experience, so if the game requires a peripheral, then we’ll supply a peripheral.”

Sounds like perhaps Nintendo and RedOctane have been talking, no? Just recently, an interview with some RedOctane execs, posted right here the company expressed a great deal of excitement about the Wii controller and mentioned using it for drumming, guitar, or (if the Wii mic is a reality) karaoke games.

Andy Serkis to Star in Heavenly Sword for PS3

Posted by Michael Cardiff Categories: Action, Adventure, PlayStation 3,

Andy Serkis, the man behind both Gollum and King Kong, will be lending his talents to the Playstation 3 game Heavenly Sword according to the BBC news service. Serkis became involved by chance, after a trailer was passed on to Serkis by his mortgage advisor, of all people. Much like his work with Gollum, Serkis’ movements and dramatic performance is being motion-captured and used for in-game characters. The article goes on to describe some of the other Hollywood-like production qualities of this game, which is is expected to launch shortly after the release of the PS3.

If Serkis’ previous work is any gauge (13 Going On 30 being the odd exception) then we can expect great things from this game. Check the link below for a somewhat creepy look at the similarities between Serkis and his CG counterpart.

First Impressions of Mass Effect

Posted by Jake Ludington Categories: Adventure, E3, Role Playing Games, Xbox 360,

After being completely blown away by Gears of War early in the day, I was admittedly jaded by the time I got the chance to look at Mass Effect. Space games just aren’t my thing and the endless pitch of “we’ve got the new new thing” from each product demo starts to wear thin. So when the BioWare team launched into a demo of Mass Effect, I had my guard up. Turns out Mass Effect is exactly the kind of space game I might get into. I’m a huge fan of Bethesda’s Oblivion, with open-ended questing, divergent storylines and interaction with non-player characters throughout the world. Think of the Oblivion concept as the jumping off point for Mass Effect.

The game ratchets things up a notch in several key areas. Interaction and realism in interactions with NPC entities inside the Mass Effect galaxy are at the forefront of the non-combat experience. Where Oblivion occasionally gives you a couple of approaches for talking to a character, with different outcomes depending on whether you’re a jerk, polite or manipulative; Mass Effect takes this to the next level, offering multiple conversation options for each stage of the conversation, offering more ways to succeed or fail in getting the information you need out of a conversation. Combat scenarios offer a range of complex options as well. Instead of flying solo on every mission, you’ve got two NPC teammates who either focus on whatever target you aren’t currently aiming for or can be positioned for strategic strikes on target objectives.

We’ll see how the story plays out once the game finally hits retail. The foundation synthetic beings returning every 50,000 years to purge all humanoids from the galaxy. Part of your job is to figure out why. It seems like many RPGs borrow the Tolkien end-of-days approach where the monumental quest of a few will rescue the many from the brink of eternal darkness, but it often comes off feeling contrived. The 30 minutes I spent looking at Mass Effect leave me feeling like the story line works, but you never know until you actually play.

New Too Human Screenshots

Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Action, Adventure, Screenshots, Xbox 360,

Gamerscoreblog has just dropped some new Too Human screenshots into their Flickr account. Too Human is being developed by Silicon Knights for the Xbox 360, and is scheduled for a Holiday release. Silicon Knights last handled the port of Metal Gear Solid: Twin Snakes to the Gamecube, but is probably more known for their mind-bending release, Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem. Too Human is another game with a long history; the original concept for the game was pitched for the Playstation, and then when Nintendo formed their partnership with Silicon Knights, the game was rumored to be heading to the Gamecube. However, when Silicon Knights ended their partnership with Nintendo and wound up at Microsoft, the game surfaced there. The Xbox 360 may finally be the platform that will support Silicon Knights’ ambitions with the game universe, and looking at these new screen shots in Flickr, one is almost glad that the game never saw the light of day on the Playstation. Some of the screenshots have huge resolutions available, all the up to 4200x3255, which may mean these are frame buffer grabs or target renders. There’s a lot of detail and varied environments in the screens, and it looks like Too Human will be awesome visually, at least, upon its release.

New Oblivion Content Available

Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Adventure, Internet, PC, Role Playing Games, Xbox 360, Xbox Live Marketplace,

Bethesda today made available the latest Elder Scrolls: Oblivion downloadable content, the Wizard’s Tower. Like previous releases, the content is available for the PC for $1.89, and for the Xbox 360 for 200 Live Marketplace points. Updates include:

A fully detailed tower for you to explore
A breathtaking view of Cyrodiil from the highest point in the land
Simple furnishings including a bed for leveling up
An indoor botanical garden with over 130 specimens… including Oblivion-native herbs!
Summon Atronach Familiars that obey your commands
Instant teleports to every Mages Guild in Cyrodiil
New Spell and Recharge vendor in the Imperial City
Fully upgrade the furnishings in your lair to suit your needs
Upgrade to a fully functional Enchanting and Spellmaking station with no need to join Mages Guild
Upgrade to a laboratory that buffs your Alchemy skill

No real quest related additions seem to be present for the new content, so there might be further disappointment with this add-on. Still, Bethesda appears to be committed to regularly releasing new items and areas for the game, extending its play life, little by little.

Sony Drops New God of War II Screenshots

Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Action, Adventure, PlayStation 2, Screenshots,

Sony has dropped four new screenshots of God of War II on the official game site. The sequel takes place with Kratos having replaces Ares as the God of War. The new screens show of some of the new environments and creatures that Kratos will have to fight in the upcoming game, and the models and detail look extremely good, and look to be a great follow-up to the original game. Gamers can look forward to some more Kratos-style evisceration in 2007 on the PS2.

A Brief History of Kameo

Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Action, Adventure, Nintendo Gamecube, Xbox 360,

Kameo A combination review/retrospective of Kameo has been published on Siliconera; the review generally falls in line with the web consensus, getting an overall recommendation. Perhaps more interesting is the evolution of the game itself. Kameo was originally slated for the Nintendo Gamecube, and first made its appearance at E3 2001. A little over four years later, the game finally shipped for the Xbox 360. In between, the game underwent some fairly significant changes. Character designs were altered somewhat, and gameplay and combat styles received somewhat more dramatic modifications.

The review doesn’t discuss the repetitive nature of the game, but it feels like some of the character and combat changes were made to alleviate this. The different characters and control styles don’t always work out (see the water boss battle) but they did serve to break up the game into manageable chunks. It now feels like the segments spent as Kameo are the most repetitive and least interesting segments of the game, and its possible that Rare’s attempts to shake up the combat and character design were attempts to mitigate this.

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