Dragon Quest X Announced As A Wii & Wii U Online RPG

Holy Final Fantasy XII, Batman! Or something like that. Twitter practically fell over dead after the DQX news was dropped by andriasang a few hours ago. Rather than join the bird-buzzers out there, I’ll cut to the chase. I don’t think I’d like it (I’m not a big MMO fan) unless it has an offline mode and a decent story to play through. That said, it’ll probably do really well in Japan, as pretty much ANYTHING with a DQ logo will sell there. As for the US, well, that depends on stuff like subscription fees, gameplay and how data is shared between Wii and Wii U consoles if one upgrades down the road after buying the Wii version. Let’s see now: Akira Toriyama character designs? Check. 3D environments reminiscent of the lovely DQ VIII? Check. Interestingly enough, Square Enix seems to be developing the game in-house. While Final Fantasy XIV was pretty controversial in terms of a number of flaws in its online play, there’s little doubt that the development team is focusing on making the game a far better experience. I’d also imagine that the game is going to be programmed for multiple languages in order to get it to English-speaking gamers in as many territories as possible soon after the Japanese version ships sometime in 2012.

Everything else such as story, number of players online and other features will be announced soon (no doubt TGS will reveal more and probably some awesome DQX-related swag).



Thanks to NiNTENDOMiNATiON for posting these videos!

Curb Your Enthusiasm May Have Explained George Lucas’ REAL Issues (But Probably Not)…

Tinkering with film history thanks to a possible OCD and making longtime fans dislike all that futzing around isn’t Lucas’ ONLY worry according to last night’s episode of Larry David’s brutally hilarious HBO comedy. In the episode titled Mr. Softee, Larry’s psychologist name drops a wee bit to much info about the director’s addiction to prostitutes and his er, shortcomings in those encounters. All more than likely not true at all, but I was laughing so hard that I can only hope to hell that David let George in on the joke before the episode was shot. If not, I’ll expect the more irate Star Wars fans will use that not so true info as yet another reason to hate him. Hey, when you have that much money lying around, I guess everyone needs a hobby. His is “updating” his movies until he thinks they’re perfect… then updating them some more until the nostalgic factor vanishes under a heap of spectacular CG effects (and soon to be 3D effects). As to the title of the episode, well it has nothing to do with Lucas, but once you see it, it’ll make you laugh and/or cringe when you see and hear that familiarly annoying tune warbling from one of those white trucks…

Bill Kunkel: 1959 – 2011

Wow – this ht me over the head a few minutes ago, so I'll need a bit of time to let it sink in. Back around 1992 or 1993 when he was writing for Electronic Gaming Monthly as The Game Doctor, I'd sent in a few questions about random game stuff I'd been thinking about and much to my surprise, Bill not only printed my letter, but sent a nice note not too long afterward answering my questions in greater detail. Shortly afterward, he ran a contest asking readers of his column to draw up a Game Doctor picture and send it in. The winner would get his or her work printed in the magazine along with a prize package of random goodies, which was a big thing back in the day. I recall JUST making the deadline with a nice watercolor pic of some futuristic-looking guy in a green “surgical” robe. I didn't win the contest, but Bill liked my piece so much he ran it anyway, which made me quite happy. What made me happier was getting a small box packed with random items and a signed note on Sega/Capcom stationery that I still have here filed away. If I can track it down, I'll post the note for historical purposes, as the image on the note has Mega Man and Sonic shaking hands (now THAT would have been a great game had it ever gotten made)…Read more »