White Knight Chronicles II Goes Gold, Gets Pre-Order Goodies

OK, I’m a few days late with this news (oops), but hey, that backlog pile was a pain to dig out from under. D3Publisher of America has sent WKC II off to the presses and has announced a cool-looking armor set will be made available as a pre-order bonus (via DLC, of course) through participating GameStop retail locations or through the GS website. Don’t ask me about what the armor does other than look nice and showy, but I’m gathering that once you hop online with it, you can expect a few compliments from live party members if they didn’t score the bonus gear. WKC II is set to land in stores on September 13, 2011 (and remember, you get the remastered version of the first game FREE on the disc!).

Disgaea 4 Pre-Orders In Full Swing – Which One Is Yours?


Decisions, decisions, decisions! NISA sure isn’t making it easy this time out, but no matter which of the three versions of the game you get, a winner is YOU. There’s the $50 Standard Edition that comes with the original soundtrack on a CD, but ten bucks more gets you the Premium Edition in a nice box with a softcover art book and a cute Fuka fugurine. If you’ve got money to burn, you can blow $120 and get the Premium Figure Set which contains the PE box, art book, soundtrack, Fuka figurine AND nine more exclusive Disgaea 4 figures. It’s enough to make an indecisive person really, really crazy, I say! Even worse, the pre-orders only go on until September 5 and the game ships out on September 6! Yaaaaah! All THAT and I haven’t even mentioned all the cool stuff you can do in this latest installment (that’s what the links are for)! I seriously can’t decide, but methinks I’ll stick with the Standard Edition just so I can eat a lot less cheap rice noodles later. Hey, I can get by on one meal a day if I really needed to…

Renegade Ops Upgrades Trailer (Someone Get This On A Disc!)

Remember when games like this used to come out left and right back in the day on cartridges and later, CD’s? Sega and Avalanche Studios are going to drop a super-cool bomb of non-stop vehicle-based blasting on your heads this fall. I still think that all these publishers NEED to start compiling PSN and XBLA games onto discs and getting them into mass retailers such as Wal-Mart, Kmart, Target and Best Buy, as there are plenty of sales to be made to those who don’t have online console accounts or still use dial-up connections. Remember publishers – those folks STILL have some disposable income and might want to spend a few bucks on some of your games. Shutting them out is always a bad idea. Why not buck the trend, shock the hell out of those annoying analysts and make a bunch of people happy in the process?

Gamescom 2011: GoldenEye Reloaded Gallery

More lovely screens from Eurocom's upcoming re-reboot headed to the PS3 and Xbox 360. Along with many other GoldenEye fans, I'm more than thrilled with what's coming. However as usual in the free-thinking democracy we live in, there are people out there who just don't want the game to succeed. As long as the anti-Activision crowd (some of whom don't play many/any games in the genre or worse, judge every modern/console shooter as “bad” for some reason), overly nostalgic N64 fanboys (yes, the original is a great game, but come on – grow up and open your eyes while learning to show RESPECT to a developer updating a classic into an even better experience) AND Daniel Craig haters (who have ZERO clue about how licensing works – you're not getting Pierce Brosnan back as Bond in a new game no matter how loudly you gripe) who STILL think every FPS has been ruined by Call of Duty (they haven't) are around and thinking their loudly expressed opinions are 100% indication of actual facts (they aren't, but thanks for trying), the game might have that minor speed bump to overcome at retail. I say if you're THAT skeptical and jaded, not even a playable demo will help you. Here's hoping that a percentage of these wags actually change their minds after playing one.Read more »

Gamescom 2011: Batman: Arkham City Mr. Freeze Trailer

 
Finally, some chilling (ha ha) gameplay footage from the upcoming game that washes the vestiges of that awful Batman & Robin movie from the last century out of my brain for good. Rocksteady is definitely on course to deliver an even better experience than the first game, that’s for sure. I’m glad that there’s a separation between this and Chris Nolan’s films simply because it’s great to see what a developer can do when NOT tied to following or trying to capture a movie experience properly in game form. That’s hit or miss, especially with games based on films based on comic books. Yes, I’ll run the previous gameplay trailers within the next few days (thanks for asking)…

COD: Black Ops Rezurrection Promo Poster Is A Two-Faced Keeper…



While this one isn’t as high quality or quite as large as the Call Of The Dead poster, it IS double-sided, which is funky (but not unheard of).

AS I noted a while back, Activision absolutely NEEDS to slap all the DLC on a disc and get out some sort of Game of the Year package while very seriously thinking of making a full-on standalone zombie-blasting series at some point.

Oh, I haven’t decided if I’m going to give this one away like I did with the other posters, but if I do, you’ll be the first to hear about it… watch this space.

Legend of Zelda 25th Anniversary Flipnote + How To Draw Link Videos

Between the cool 3DS remake of Ocarina of Time, Skyward Sword coming to the Wii soon, the live symphonic concert and a few other treats for fans new and old, Nintendo even has some nice and arty Zelda-themed surprises in these two videos. I like that green DSi XL in the How To Draw Link clip, but we’ll see if it’s actually released outside of Japan. Seeing that Link sketch reminded me that I have a long-unfinished pencil piece here that I need to finally get done one of these days…

Gamescom 2011: Ridge Racer Unbounded Gallery/Gameplay Footage (Bugbear Redeemed, Part Deux)

Bugbear's take on Namco's seminal racing series definitely has a Burnout thing going for it visually, but given that Criterion has changed their popular crash-fest into a top-down retro-looking family-friendly download only arcade affair (say that three times fast!) with Kinect support over XBLA (it's actually a lot of fun), it looks like gamers who want polygons pushed around into assorted scrap metal might be looking at a new contender for the crown. As a HUGE FlatOut fan, I like what I see quite a lot and can't wait to take this one for a spin. Screens below the jump.Read more »

Gamescom 2011: Sonic Generations Trailer – The Hedgehog Still Has It Going On…

It looks as if we’re getting yet another solid Sonic game zooming our way soon enough. This time, classic and current play get mashed up in a cool way, so everyone should be pretty pleased with the end result. Of course, I’m still waiting for those Panzer Dragoon Box and Shining Force III Complete remakes, a new Otogi game and a ton of other stuff Sega’s NOT working on, but I’ll take the good stuff they’re producing one game at a time starting with this one…

Trine 2: Atlus’ Download Only Blast Of Fresh Air From FrozenByte

FrozenByte’s absolutely beautiful physics-based action/adventure is one of those great games that keeps classic gameplay alive and well. While this one is all is set to hit PSN and Xbox Live soon, it WOULD be nicer to also see a disc release with the first game as well as Atlus’ other download-only hit, the offbeat brawler/shooter/action game, Zeno Clash. Not all core gamers have access to PSN or Xbox Live accounts, so making sure they have the same opportunities to play as many of the games everyone else does should be a priority for all publishers until we see as close to 100% of the user base with high speed connections as possible. More games for everyone at both retail and online means more money for game companies and developers, right?