Well, this wasn’t a total surprise, but it still make me do a little happy dance when it was confirmed. EARTH DEFENSE FORCE 4.1 The Shadow of New Despair July 18, on Steam. $49.99, but with a limited time 30% discount. Worth every penny even at full price. No mod support has been confirmed, but the game doesn’t need people messing with it creating content thanks to a few hundred hours worth of gameplay just in the challenge of clearing every difficulty level with every character AND getting all 800 randomly dropped weapons. PR on this has been quiet as a mouse, but I hope this gets kicked up a notch and made bigger news soon.
Here’s something you don’t see every day in Japan: an extended game video entirely in English that seems made for western audiences. Then again given the popularity of Earth Defense Force 4.1: The Shadow of New Despair worldwide, it seems that D3Publisher there is smart enough to have this new video all ready for distribution wherever people are playing their game. Anyway, enjoy this slice of humor, EDF style and go pick this one already if you have a PS4. It’s one of the better (okay, BEST) bang for your buck titles on any console with well over 100 hours of play which can easily double or triple if you get pulled into online play with like-minded EDF troopers.
As a longtime Earth Defense Force fan (since 2003’s Simple 2000 Series Vol. 31: The Chikyuu Boueigun, or Monster Attack in the UK), finally getting the chance to see the best game in the series finally arrive stateside and in its best incarnation to date is a great thing indeed. Granted, Earth Defense Force 2: Invaders From Planet Space may not convince some skeptics of how much of a must-buy title it is because at first glance it’s going to seem like less of a game than it actually turns out to be. But those of you who know the series who have yet to play this entry will be pleased to know that not only does it deliver the goods, it still holds up today as a stellar (and incredibly lengthy) game that packs in more action for $29.99 than bigger budgeted AAA titles that cost double the price. Continue reading →
Excellent. Between the new trailers above and below, the brand spankin’ new official site and the fact that both games come out on the same day as retail (YES!) and digital product, it’s a fine and dandy day for fans of Earth Defense Force 2: Invaders From Planet Space (PS Vita, $29.99) and Earth Defense Force 4.1: The Shadow of New Despair (PS4, $49.99). That lovely release date of December 8, 2015 means that plenty of fans of both titles are getting exactly what they’ve wanted from Santa, Krampus or whomever else buys their gifts. Buy someone a copy of this game and you won’t see them for weeks because all they’ll be doing in their spare time is blasting big space bugs and bigger spaceships, robots and other space beasties all day and night. Yes, your inner eight-year old kaiju fan will be wholly pleased, but don’t expect this to be an easy ride at all.
Getting these as physical copies (thanks Xseed!) is going to make a lot of EDF fans happier because it’s something they’ve desired with every game in the series and Xseed kept its ear to the ground and made it happen. As for the EDF 4.1 blooper reel below… er, well… I’ll give Xseed a pass on that one because the game is so much fun that a little comic relief won’t hurt it one bit.
Anyway, go get some finger exercises in and ask the boss for some time off in December. Once these games land in stores and on PSN, you’re not going anywhere for a while.
I’m thinking Xseed Games is going to be selling a lot more copies of Earth Defense Force 2: Invaders From Planet Space than they expect. The game is headed to the Vita this fall in both physical and digital forms and given that it’s the best version of the game to date, I can see fans of the series who haven’t played it snapping it up and hopefully recommending it to friends who also like offbeat Japanese games full of destructible environments and tons of gigantic bugs, robots and spaceships to blast. While the ESRB hasn’t rated the game yet, there’s nothing “mature” about this one at all. It’s mindless fun at its best, but also a game where a bit of strategic experimentation in the weapons you use can mean the difference between crushing defeat and total success.
I’ve played this oldie to death as an import on the PS2, PSP and Vita and I’m looking forward to the English localization just to see how it’s turned out. Xseed took a campier tone that expected with the title, but it’s all good in the end. This is one of those games where you get so many hours of play out of it that paying full retail on day one makes perfect sense. You’re not going to get 100% completion on this one for a while and the added online play should help make this one even more fun if you’re into playing with others. All the game needs now is a release date and all I need after that is time enough to sink a few dozen hours into it all over again.
SO much good going on here, it’s hard to know where to begin, although this presser’s a bit long and has some snoozy moments. Then again, unlike Microsoft forgetting ALL about it’s “last-gen” consumers, Sony gets in nods to the ps3 while expanding the base with that lovely $99 Vita TV, coming sooner than many thought. I’ll shut up now and let you watch it all, but expect some commentary later on individual titles as I find time to talk about them… enjoy!
Boo. First, I miss out on getting tickets to Sony’s Playstation E3 Experience by mere minutes (and nope, none of those standby seats ever got a callback, grrrrr!), THEN I find no one is broadcasting the thing on cable (as had been done for a few years previously), meaning anyone like me with a crappy home connection who can’t stream ANYTHING has to twiddle my thumbs and wait until tomorrow morning to catch a rebroadcast or watch it on YouTube. Bleh. Oh well, I see from my industry site haunts that there are some awesome announcements, but you’ll need to wait for my take on them if you want. Eh, someone just hit me on the head with a sack of money so i can just afford everything I want and give the rest to assorted family members of my choice. see you folks in the morning. it’s going to be a LOOOONG day between me playing catch up with Sony and the SUPER important make of break Nintendo Direct that’s going to have a couple of fun surprises if some “leaked” info is correct.
Oooh. I see Sony’s YouTube channel has filled up with trailers and such from their show. Here’s one now! Oh, look! There’s another! That’s good to know. They’ll be there in the morning when I crawl out of bed. Good Night!
NICE and thank you, SCEJ! Since that PS Vita tv announcement in Japan is quite the big deal. Wayforward Technologies has decided to add the game to its list of things to do. Excellent and yes indeed, the more, the merrier. 3DS owners, sorry, but you’re getting a completely separate new game to play, as your system isn’t powerful enough to handle what’s coming (just a fact!). Still, this means Vita-only fans aren’t left out of the Shantae loop this time, so Huzzah and all that.
Weird, wild stuff going on overseas, as Sony is surprisingly bringing out a redesigned, less expensive Vita in different colors with 1GB of on board memory, an even more inexpensive Vita TV device that will let users play Vita and other PlayStation titles, watch movies and more plus a whole load of so far Japanese-only info including the release date of the PlayStation 4 in the territory. The big surprise on that end is the PS4 is shipping out AFTER the North American and European launch, which is something of a first for a Sony gaming console if I’m not mistaken.
Back to the Vita for a second – Sony has also announced a new 64MB Memory Card as well as price drops on its other proprietary memory cards for the handheld. The 64GB card will retail in Japan for 9,980 yen (about $100) and the new pricing on the currently available cards is as follows: the 4GB card drops to to 1,480 yen (about $15), the 8GB card to 1,980 yen (about $20), the 16GB card to 3,780 yen (about $38) and the 32GB model to 6,480 yen (about $65). Meanwhile, as noted above, North American and European gamers will get their PlayStation 4’s a few months earlier than Japan, as a February 2014 launch window was revealed. According to a few news sites, the reason seems to be Sony having issues meeting high demand for the console worldwide and probably targeting more units for the US and Europe first thanks to greater demand in those countries.
Finally, the launch title lineup for Japan was revealed as well, but we’ll take a peek at some of those titles in another post shortly. My fingers are of course, crossed that these price drops and new products pop up here in the US, but as always… we shall see…
"DESTROY ALL FANBOYS!" 