Making certain superhero videogames must be difficult. Some guys, like Batman, are just regular people with lots of money and awesome gadgets, and they can still die. But what about nearly immortal characters, like Superman? The Man of Steel has kryptonite to make him a little more "human," but Marvel's undying bundle of anger, Wolverine, can survive almost anything (or at least put himself back together after being torn to shreds). Wolverine's latest adventure X-Men Origins: Wolverine, does a great job of making you feel like the nearly invincible mutant, but it doesn't quite provide a story to match.

Like the title indicates, Origins details Wolverine's beginnings...well more of the origin of his name and adamantium frame. The character's true origin began in the 1800s. Regardless, Origins' five-chapter tale alternates between the present (mostly the Weapon X facility) and three years in the past (in an African jungle), setting up a frame story that slowly but surely drives the narrative forward. After act three, however, things start to get weird; for every question the game answers, it brings up two more. Other popular mutants, like Gambit and the Blob, make brief appearances, but their cameos only confuse the tale of flashbacks further. By the end, the game has set up so many loose plot threads that it leaves no choice but to try and wrap them up in a confusing mishmash of explosions and overlong battles.



But you're playing this game for one reason and it's not for a Dickensian retelling of Logan's history; it's to do what "he does best": tear people in half with reckless, bloody abandon. And that's what Origins gets right. The camera cinematically sweeps around the battlefield, and the game throws the action into slow motion whenever you execute an especially violent decapitation. And almost every enemy can succumb to getting ripped apart at the torso or a messy decapitation. The combos are simple, and button-mashing usually works just as well as any type of strategy. But the game always makes you feel like an effective killing machine.

The guys you're killing, however, get old pretty fast. Both the "past" jungle levels and "present" facility chapters pit you against the exact same enemies, reskinned to fit their surroundings. It's even more off-putting when you start fighting mutants. How many blade-wielding, four-armed dancers exist in Wolverine's world? Apparently several hundred. Boss encounters, while they force you to change up your battle strategy a little, are simple exercises in running around in circles, leaping on your opponent's back, and slowly whittling away at their health bar.



But to ease the grind of fighting the game's endless parade of cloned grunts, Origins incorporates a few adventure-like qualities (leveling up, equipping new powers, choosing which skills to power up). While it adds a sense of purpose to the slaughter, it's also a bit misleading. You can constantly upgrade your strength and stamina, but the enemies always seem to take the same amount of punishment. And it makes the cut-scenes, where Wolverine effortlessly slices through skin, bone, and concrete walls that much more jarring. How do the same enemies take so much more damage when they're in-game? By the end of Origins, I was hoping to have created a Wolverine who could swing a fist and immediately send limbs flying, rather than a character that feels about the same as he did at the beginning of the game.

Origins also occasionally throws in some nonsensical platforming sections to slow things down. Suddenly, the camera feels like less of a thrilling addition, and more like an annoyance whose purpose is to make you die. Leaping precariously between platforms or girders with Wolverine's inexact jumping is one thing, but some scenes force you to run toward the camera, away from some cataclysmic danger, usually while avoiding obstacles at the same time. Screw up: You die, and start over (though invisible walls tend to keep you from taking too many unnecessary leaps to your doom).



The game has unlockable costumes, which is a nice change if you get tired of looking at Logan's A-shirt attire, but neither costumes nor battle damage carry over to most of the game's cut-scenes. One second you're dressed as the classic, yellow-and-blue suited Wolverine, the next you're looking at your character in jeans and a white shirt -- all the more strange since most of the scenes take place in-engine, not as separate, high-rendered cinematics. It's the oversight to little details that ultimately detract from the game the most. Sure, Wolverine takes battle damage, exposing gaping chest wounds, protruding arm bones, and a bare skull. But his pants are always perfectly intact. Maybe Levi's Jeans has a secret deal with the Wolverine game: the pants can get a little bloody, but they can't sustain damage -- like a racing game where none of the cars can show any scratches or dents.

While Origins doesn't seem to have any game-breaking bugs, I still ran into spots that had me walking in mid-air or grabbing onto invisible ledges. Even the final boss encounter forced me to spend part of the battle running around in the sky, just trying to get back to the battlefield. The game never locked up or dropped me through a floor, but it still has some pretty big glitches for a finished product. And, this is a minor detail, but Origins doesn't have subtitles. If you want to turn down the game's constant shouting and battle noises, you'll also miss out on everything the characters are saying.



As a mindless, button-masher that puts you in control of the eternally angry Wolverine, the game provides some simple fun. But it quickly devolves into a mediocre Tomb Raider/God of War mash-up of balancing across precarious ledges, quick time events, and moving crates around to solve "puzzles." Origins isn't bad at what it does, but what it does isn't very ambitious.

Final Fantasy XIII Trailer - NEW!


Final Fantasy XIII is looking to be a showpiece for the PlayStation 3, and Square Enix is confident that it will push the system to its limits. Kotaku reports that, speaking to Japanese magazine Dengeki PlayStation 3, producer Yoshinori Kitase addressed some questions about the game. "Doesn't the demo use about 50 percent of [the PlayStation 3's] power?" he said. "Of course, I think the retail version will make use of nearly 100 percent."

As a comparison, he commented that this game will be to the PlayStation 3 what Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy X were to the PlayStation and PS2, respectively. But, he reassured that the game won't require disc swapping, at least on the PlayStation 3, due to the capacity of Blu-Ray and PS3 harddrive space.

Sony CEO Kaz Hirai recently made waves when he commented that the console was made "hard to program for" in order to pace the flow of taking full advantage of the console. Square Enix has usually been a trendsetter when it comes to packing punch on Sony's systems. If Final Fantasy XIII does take almost full advantage of the hardware, we can bet other developers will take it as an example to follow.

The other elephant in the room, of course, is the Xbox 360 version. Since it will be ported after the PlayStation 3 version is finished, it probably isn't on the minds of the developers. But if the game is really pressing the PS3 that hard, we'll have to see if any compromises are necessary for the 360.

Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars- First Official Trailer


Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars Hands-On
While Grand Theft Auto has previously been on Nintendo's Game Boy platform, Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars marks the first time the franchise has appeared on the Nintendo DS. The good news is that from our hands-on time with CTW so far, it seems the game not only captures the unique tone and flavours of the much-heralded series, but does so while introducing new and genuinely entertaining ways of interacting with the gameworld. In our hands-on time with a preview build of the game, we used the DS touch screen to do everything from nimbly racing timers to creating Molotov cocktails, hot-wiring cars, and assembling a kit-form sniper rifle.

The game takes place in the Liberty City you've come to know and love, complete with Dukes, Broker, Bohan, and Alogonquin boroughs. While the locations are familiar, you're going to be looking at them from an entirely different perspective. The most obvious change in GTA:CTW is the game's camera. It falls halfway between the classic top-down view of the original Grand Theft Auto and that of an isometric third-person action game, with the camera zooming in and out as dictated by the action onscreen. The environment initially appears quite flat, but once we found out we could twirl the fixed camera, we saw buildings and vehicles rendered as full 3D objects. Our Rockstar tour guide explained that while the city is modelled as closely as possible on the maps from its console big brothers, some minor tweaks had to be made to accommodate the new gameplay. Therefore, while you'll drive under overhead train tracks (which become transparent as you pass below) there are no split-level roads. Progressive game streaming also means that despite the city's enormity, you'll never bump into a load screen while crossing zones or driving across town to complete a mission. Pedestrians have their own individual AI routines, and following them around you'll observe them heading to and from work, eating hotdogs, and getting into fist fights with total strangers on the road. Full day and night lighting cycles and dynamic weather effects are also present here.

As the game's name suggests, Chinatown Wars focuses largely on Asian crime syndicates and rival gangs scrapping for turf control. You play the role of Huang Lee, the son of a syndicate boss who is killed during a triad power struggle. The game opens with you returning home to Liberty City to meet with your uncle, Wu "Kenny" Lee, to pass on the family's Yu Jian sword--a priceless family heirloom Huang's father won in a card game.



Animated cutscenes with accompanying text explain the backstory as you make your way home. On arrival at the airport, you meet some of your uncle's bodyguards, but before you can even get your bags off the carousel, a bloody shoot-out takes place and you're hit. Left wounded and presumed dead in the back of a car, you regain consciousness in time to find out you're being disposed of as your vehicle careens off the road and plummets into the harbour. It's here that the actual gameplay begins, and you'll immediately be introduced to some of the new stylus-driven interactions with the game. Naturally you'll need to escape the rapidly sinking car, and with doors notoriously difficult to open underwater, you opt to smash the rear window. You'll do this by rapidly stabbing at the DS's touch screen to chip the glass. Though it didn't appear to be velocity sensitive, a few strikes were enough to get us out of our waterlogged coffin and back on dry land.

Naturally, the first thing you want to do is get to your uncle's place and fill him in on the details. This is a GTA game, so there's no real surprise that since your ride is totalled you need to liberate one conveniently sitting at the docks. During our time with the game we stole some cars with screwdrivers, but we also found some with electronic security systems that needed to be hacked before they could be started. Once you get to Kenny's restaurant, Sum Yung Gai, you'll find out that the family sword has been stolen. A subplot unfolds, and though he's family, Kenny seems set on finding the sword not to rightfully return it to your kin, but to pass it on to triad mob boss Hsin Jaoming, with the purpose of winning his favour so as to assume his role when he retires.

Kenny hooks you up with an apartment that you use as your central hub for day-to-day activities. Here you'll be able to manage your contacts, take jobs, and store your drug stash. Once completed, any mission can be replayed at will using the whiteboard at your apartment. Though we didn't see the stats and scores in action, we were told that they will hook directly into the Rockstar Social Club, so you can compete with and compare yourself to friends as well as share in-game items. Given that the mission length tops out at around 10 minutes each to maintain the portability of the game, you'll also have a PDA that lets you save while out and about as well as line up missions without retuning to home base.

All the vehicles we came across included GPS to help point you towards where you need to go. There's also the option to turn on a giant yellow arrow indicator so you can stay focused on the road and not your minimap. The GPS will calculate the fastest legal path to your objective, but you can always take your vehicle off-road through parks or back alleys. The system is also smart enough to redraw on the fly if you deviate from the suggested path or take a wrong turn. Burnouts make a return, and by holding the B and Y buttons you'll streak fire and whip the rear of the car around with a temporary speed boost. It's incredibly useful for getting out of a pinch in a hurry or to take out errant rival gang members who are in the way. Multiple radio stations make an appearance in each car, so you shouldn't have any trouble finding cruising or fleeing tunes to suit whichever situation you find yourself in.



Controls are handled using the face buttons. X will let you enter or exit vehicles, B accelerates, Y reverses, and the right shoulder button locks up the handbrake to perform tight turns. The D pad is used to steer. When you're on foot, the A button shoots your selected weapon (chosen by opening a submenu on the touch screen), which can also be fired while inside cars for drive-bys. The right shoulder button locks onto targets. Like the gameplay, the city is interactive, and if you take the time to search red dumpsters scattered around the capital, you'll often find weapons and other goodies.

We saw several missions during our time with Chinatown Wars. The first, Streets of Rage, introduced us to a crooked cop named Wade Heston. Trying to both crack the Korean Wonsu Nudong crime family and keep the Internal Affairs department off his back, he seeks out your help. A hot tip tells you the gang might have your family sword, so it can't hurt too much to team up with Wade even if you have different agendas. After finding his apartment abandoned, we got an e-mail from Wade telling us that he was caught in an ambush. Once we located him, we faced a miniboss fight of sorts that saw us pinned down behind a wall in an alley as a guy with a minigun ripped the place apart. Since running out would get us shredded, we used grenades to stun the guy before scampering between cover and eventually taking him out. It's not the most complex puzzling we've seen, but it's a nice addition to straight run-and-gun shooter gameplay.

The second mission we played had us protecting a shopfront from a firebomb attack by rival gang the Spanish Lords. After barricading the street by stealing cars and parking them strategically at the choke points, we waited for the gang to turn up. The action kicked off pretty quickly after their arrival, and we were involved in a heated gun battle. Setting cars on fire with a hail of bullets proved to be particularly helpful to keep them at bay. It was then simply a case of picking them off from range with our assault rifle.

The third mission, One Shot, One Kill, saw us driving a limo to a hotel to perform an assassination. Once we had parked and entered the building, we found a briefcase. Inside was a rifle in pieces and in need of assembly. By dragging and dropping the pieces together with the stylus, we got the basics assembled, but we still needed to rotate the stylus to screw in the barrel, insert the cartridge, and attach the scope. Moving into a first-person perspective, we were given instructions on acquiring the target--a man in a white shirt--and lining up our shot. Naturally, once we had completed the deed we attracted a little unwanted attention. We were immediately awarded a three-star wanted rating and needed to find a car to get the hell out of Dodge.



The wanted system for CTW has been changed up a bit. Instead of outrunning cops until they get bored and go away, each star rating you add increases the number of police cars you'll need to destroy before you can get away. Running them off the road or into oncoming traffic to cause head-on collisions usually does the job, and you'll be off scot-free soon enough.

Drugs play an integral role in this game. They're your primary source of income, and by buying and selling them across the city you'll build up your cash reserves, which you can then use for buying weapons. Illegal trafficking isn't without its dangers, though, and the game features its own mini-economy. Buying low and selling high has never been easier, and by following the upwards-pointing green arrow when trading one type of drug for another you can turn a tidy profit. Video cameras scattered around the city make trading near them risky and increase your chances of being caught but also up your profitability. Like with GTAIV's pigeons, you will need to destroy the cameras to achieve 100 percent game completion, and while doing so reduces your risk of getting busted, you'll also bring down your ability to earn. Trading with other dealers is never smart when within eye line of the police, but wherever you do a deal there's a possibility it could go sour, forcing you to flee if you want to keep your wares.

Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars looks to be a unique take on the well-worn franchise while adding a new twist to the control system and interactivity with the city itself. You don't have long to wait now, with the game due to hit shelves in mid to late March this year.

With all the critical acclaim for the Watchmen comic series and all the hype surrounding the new movie adaptation, it's possible that folks might have certain expectations for the new video game set in the same universe. However, if you are hoping to find some of the comic's depth and maturity here, or are looking forward to reliving your favorite scenes from the movie, you will be sorely disappointed. Watchmen: The End Is Nigh is a shallow beat-'em-up game set years before the events of the comic. Its narrow scope may disappoint some, and the Watchmen veneer isn't very deep. Yet thanks to lively, brutal combat and impressive visuals, Watchmen: The End Is Nigh is a fun, fist-flinging romp for the few hours that it lasts. The $20 price tag is a steep one, but for anyone who enjoys a good old-fashioned beat-'em-up, The End Is Nigh delivers.

Pretty much all you do for the entire game is beat up bad guys, and the combat is good enough to stay fun throughout. Whether you're playing as Rorschach or Nite Owl (the only two playable characters), the fundamentals are simple: light attack, heavy attack, block, and throw. Peppering your opponent with attacks works well, and there are some nice animation touches that make even this basic combat enjoyable. Throwing enemies is particularly delightful, whether it be into a crowd, off of a ledge, or into a wall. As you progress, you'll encounter tougher enemies that block your basic attacks, so you have to use the various combos you learn along the way in order to stun them or knock them down. These combos add new animations to the mix and are generally a bit nastier than your normal attacks. However, the best animations are the finishers, which you activate by matching the button prompt that appears over the head of a weakened enemy. The camera zooms in during these brutal flurries, allowing you to appreciate every blow. While Nite Owl's no slouch, Rorschach is the clear standout here: his finishers are so manic and so vicious that you can't help but cringe and cackle with delight as he just keeps hitting a guy who is clearly unconscious.



Basic attacks, combos, throws, and finishers make up the bulk of your fighting move set, but Rorschach and Nite Owl have a few other tricks up their sleeves. They can each counterattack easily, disarming any armed opponents and positioning themselves for a strike. Rorschach will even hold onto these weapons, and his brutal finishers get even nastier when there is a crowbar involved, though watching him wield a knife like a bludgeon is a bit silly. Each hero also has two special attacks that drain energy from a meter in the corner of the screen. Rorschach can do a short bull rush or freak out and do more damage for a short period of time. Nite Owl's grenade stuns anyone nearby, and he can use the electric charge in his suit to zap a large radius of foes.

As you fight your way through the rough areas of town, you'll encounter a few different breeds of thug and lowlife, some tougher than others. It's easy to die if you get yourself surrounded and try to punch your way out, but judicious use of counterattacks and special moves should be enough to get you out of any tight situation. There are throwaway actions here and there, like lever-pulling or valve-turning, and an oddly tricky lock-picking minigame that seems a bit out of place in a game that's all about brute force. Despite these extraneous tasks, a creeping sense of repetition looms over The End Is Nigh, and it's possible you'll grow weary of pounding your way through wave after wave of goons. Though the game mixes up your enemies' fighting styles in order to make you use your entire arsenal, the action can often teeter on the edge of button-mashing boredom. Those inclined to revel in the perverse joy of cracking skulls will be able to keep repetition at bay, but the relatively simple gameplay will quickly wear thin for others.



For all its merits, the combat wouldn't be nearly as fun if it wasn't paired with top-notch graphics. The sharp character models are fashioned after the movie costumes, and the smooth, realistic animations make the action exciting and extremely satisfying. You'll chuckle when Rorschach jams his hands in his overcoat immediately after furiously maiming an entire biker gang, and both he and Nite Owl pack a wickedly pleasing punch. There are occasional physics-based oddities, especially when throwing your enemies, but the animation is still consistently impressive. The detailed environments provide a rich setting for your beatdowns, and stark lights and deep shadows (occasionally too deep) create a dramatic look. The quasi-animated cutscenes provide a few pages' worth of story across the six chapters of the game, and the sinister machinations at work fit nicely into the Watchmen universe.

Though you can have some split-screen fun with a friend, it's baffling that there is no online cooperative mode. That would have made the $20 price tag a little easier to swallow, but as it stands the price feels a bit greedy. Those inclined to tire of repetitive gameplay will find the price of entry too high, but there is some value here. The impressively animated combat is fun and brutal, and the sumptuous environments provide the perfect pugilistic playground. The many unlockable combos and achievements provide some replay incentive, and the combat is surprisingly fun to come back to even after you've beaten the game. Though it may be shallow, overpriced, and likely to disappoint anyone hoping for more weighty fare, Watchmen: The End Is Nigh is ultimately a simple, well-crafted game that will please those looking to dish out some good old-fashioned beatdowns.

Review By Chris Watters, GameSpot

Since its advent nearly 13 years ago, the Star Ocean series has challenged the role-playing game norm with its real-time battles and sci-fi trappings. Despite what appeared to be the series' conclusion with the unconventional revelations seen in Star Ocean: Till the End of Time, it has returned in prequel form on the Xbox 360 with a newly overhauled and better-than-ever combat system. Though it features a weak, cliche story and characters you may want to launch out of the airlock, its fantastic and engaging battles, simple yet fun crafting system, and bevy of bonuses make Star Ocean: The Last Hope worth your time.

In the latter half of the 21st century, humankind all but nukes itself into nonexistence, forcing the survivers on Earth to look to the stars for a new home. As Edge Maverick, a first-generation member of the Space Reconnaissance Force, you start off on your mission to explore the galaxy for a suitable new home and are drawn into a battle for the fate of the galaxy when you encounter a mysterious and destructive force that threatens all life. Of course, that's nothing that a can-do attitude, the support of your friends, hidden inner powers, and the occasional all-too-convenient plot twist can't handle as you race off to save the day. Sound familiar? Star Ocean: The Last Hope doesn't have a very original story, and its frequently ridiculous plot points and consistently dreadful dialogue don't help to make it any more memorable, especially when it forces half-hour-plus cutscenes on you with alarming frequency. Luckily, you can skip these epic events at any time (though oddly enough, they can't be paused) and read through condensed text synopses to make sure that you didn't miss anything too terribly important.



The formulaic nature of the story is further compounded by the cast of characters, themselves an off-the-shelf mixture of walking, talking space opera and anime cliches. You've got the hopelessly idealistic leading man, who is full of an infinite (and often misplaced) trust in others; the self-deprecating childhood-friend-slash-possible-love-interest; the emotionally repressed, scientifically minded space elf; the busty, scantily clad staff-wielding sorceress; the overly affectionate underaged cat girl; and more. Though the members of your misfit crew do undergo some fairly heavy changes as the game progresses--both as part of the standard narrative and in optional cutscenes and events--it's always in extremely predictable ways that ultimately fail to break them out of their original molds.

Despite these shortcomings, The Last Hope is a fun and engaging game thanks in great part to its deeply engrossing and highly addictive combat system; if the story is the heart of a Japanese RPG, then the battles are its soul, and Star Ocean's shines brightly. Monsters appear on the field, and once engaged, they're fought completely in real time with a party of up to four characters. You actively control one of your crew members and navigate him or her around a wide-open battlefield, dishing out damage at your own pace, while the others act according to basic AI routines that you've given them. At any time, you can switch over to manually control anyone who you have deployed, and you can even swap out active characters with reserve ones at your discretion. Every single character plays vastly differently, and it's fun and engaging to experiment with each character in order to find the play style and party combination that works best for you.



Though the battles can get frantic, they don’t all come down to button mashing, especially when you're taking on bosses. These major battles in The Last Hope often play out like simplified versions of encounters in an massively multiplayer game such as World of Warcraft. Each boss has a specific strategy that can be followed to take it out--though it's not necessary to follow these tactics if your party is powerful enough--and figuring them out during the fight will make your life a whole lot easier and dramatically reduce battle times. Another concept taken from online games is monster aggro, or aggression. Though enemies will wander around the battlefield, you can draw aggro from them with attacks or by using specialized skills for doing so, which is useful for pulling a monster off of your physically weaker magic-slingers to give them a chance to cast their powerful spells. Once you have aggro and the monster gears up for an attack, if you dodge out of the way with the right timing, you can break its line of sight on you, leaving it temporarily confused and open to special counterattacks called blindsides. Another powerful tool at your disposal is Rush mode, which can be activated once you've taken or dealt enough damage to grant you an array of bonuses and the ability to chain attacks together with other party members.

Perhaps the most interesting part of battle is the bonus board. By performing specific tasks in combat, such as defeating enemies using only skills or killing two monsters with one blow, you add a tile to this onscreen grid that grants you an extra reward at the end of battle based on your achievement. You can have up to 14 such bonus tiles active at any one time, and these carry over from fight to fight; by carefully manipulating the types of bonus tiles you have, you can customize extra rewards that are given after every single encounter. With this, you have the flexibility to power level your characters, grind for cash or skill points, minimize the number of restorative items that you need to use, or all of the above in any combination. It's possible to lose your bonus tiles, but if you exercise good judgment in combat, they shouldn't be too difficult to keep for as long as you like.



When not in battle, you're exploring a series of open, outdoor locations that range from beaches to deserts to snow-capped mountains and beyond, as well as the occasional puzzle-filled dungeon. These beautiful-but-dangerous environments often contain resource nodes that provide valuable plant life or raw materials if you've got a crew member who can harvest them. These supplies and others earned through battle (or bought from stores) are then used to fuel your research in the simple-but-powerful item creation system. By finding item formulas in your journey or forming research teams and thinking long and hard enough, you can invent recipes for new weapons, armor, items, and even decorations for your ship. Once you gain the right ally, you can further customize your equipment by synthesizing the properties of other items in your inventory to generate some truly powerful gear.

The Last Hope features some top-notch visuals in its huge, open, and highly detailed environments, its abundant cutscenes, and its anime-inspired character models, but it also has a few notable issues. Sadly, the game has only a handful of unique monster designs, and it palette-swaps and reuses them ad infinitum. It's also exceedingly difficult to play on an SDTV thanks to incredibly hard-to-read text and muddied graphics. Sometimes just looking around you is an exercise in frustration thanks to the awful camera system; it zooms in ridiculously close at times and doesn't seem to know what to do whenever you're in a narrow hallway or traveling down stairs or a steep decline. Perhaps the most disturbing thing about The Last Hope is that all of the game's characters have a doll-like, glossy-eyed dead look to them, further accentuated by their complete lack of human emotion or expression. Besides being creepy, this makes supposedly emotional scenes unintentionally hilarious or just plain awkward to watch.

The game’s frequently awful voice acting makes it even harder to connect with the characters. At its very best, The Last Hope's cast will make you groan. At its worse, they're absolutely unbearable. Anyone hoping to escape the lackluster dub will be disappointed to hear that the original Japanese audio is not preserved here, though you do have the option to turn off battle quips from individual characters. Celebrated composer Motoi Sakuraba returns to lend his talents to the Star Ocean series once again, and though the voice acting doesn't work, his soundtrack is perfectly suited to the various locales visited, situations faced, and battles fought.



When it's all said and done and you've finished the game, there's still plenty more to do. Besides offering two unlockable difficulty settings, there are tons of side quests to complete, items to create, recipes to discover, bonus dungeons to explore, and bunnies to race. The Last Hope also has Star Ocean: Till the End of Time’s coliseum system, which lets you sign up for solo or group fights to battle your way up the ladders for prizes. You can collect dozens of battle trophies for each character by performing specific tasks with them in combat. And if you actually are interested in the story, there are multiple endings to see based on the relationships that you form as Edge Maverick throughout the game.

If all you're looking for is a strong, narrative-driven role-playing adventure, Star Ocean: The Last Hope isn't going to do much to satisfy you. But despite its deficiencies in this area, its huge number of extras and its addictive, deeply strategic and tactical combat system make it a lot of fun.

By Lark Anderson, GameSpot

Star Ocean: The Last Hope Opening

Dissidia: Final Fantasy is an action game produced by Square Enix for the PlayStation Portable as part of the campaign of the Final Fantasy series 20th anniversary. Information on the game was first released during the "Square Enix Party" event of May 2007. The game features characters from different Final Fantasy games and centers around a great conflict between the heroes and villains, as the god of discord, Chaos, tries to wrestle control of their worlds from the forces of good.

Dissidia: Final Fantasy's genre has been described as "dramatic progressive action" and its graphics are in three dimensions. It has wireless one-on-one multiplayer and fights revolving around the use of individual special skills of characters to do damage to opponents. Players can also customize their characters with equipment.

Character movement is fully functional within the three-dimensional field map. Characters are able to perform special maneuvers using the environment, similar to the Reaction Command feature of Kingdom Hearts II. Traps with a variety of ill effects can be found throughout the arena.




Similar to many fighting games, the aim is for the player to reduce their opponent’s HP to zero. A character's offensive (and, to a lesser extent, defensive) power is shown in numerical form called BP or "Brave Points". Both characters start out with equal BP, and each must steal BP from their opponent by attacking them with the basic "assist attack" to add it to their own total and gain the upper hand. Players can then use the "HP attack" to cause direct damage to their opponent; the higher their BP, the more damage they inflict. However, once an HP attack is used, the character's own BP is reduced to 0 and then recovers to its starting amount. A character whose BP total has been depleted (past 0 BP and into the negatives) is forced into "Break mode", where, aside from not being able to cause HP or BP damage, all attacks made against them cause critical damage, and the opponent gets a large boost to their BP.

One main feature of the combat system is the "EX Gauge", which can be filled in a variety of ways, such as inflicting damage on opponents, taking damage from opponents, and obtaining items scattered around the field of play. Once the EX Gauge is filled, the character can enter their "EX Mode", significantly increasing their power and enabling new attacks, including the "EX Burst", an unavoidable special attack similar to the Limit Break mechanic seen in many games in the series.

In Dissidia, there is an ongoing conflict between two gods: Chaos, the god of discord, and Cosmos, the goddess of harmony. The two gods have battled for eons, until Chaos summoned a number of villains from other universes to serve him. These villains built an army and overwhelmed the forces of good, and the balance of power tipped in Chaos' favor. The few survivors of the forces of good have banded together to strike back at Chaos and his forces and return order to the universes.

Characters

The game unites both protagonists and antagonists from installments of the main Final Fantasy series, their stories narrated by the first Final Fantasy game's Cid of the Lufaine (voiced by Bunta Sugawara). Chaos (voiced by Norio Wakamoto) also makes an appearance as the god of discord, while a new character, Cosmos (voiced by Sumi Shimamoto), appears as the goddess of harmony. The game has an overarching storyline that requires playing through all of the characters to complete. The game contains twenty-two total playable characters: eleven heroes and eleven villains, one of each representing Final Fantasy through Final Fantasy X, and two secret characters: a heroine representing Final Fantasy XI, and a villain representing Final Fantasy XII.

Characters' equipment can be customized, and they can gain EXP and gil from battles.

Many of the characters can transform into different forms, mostly as part of their EX Modes. For example, Sephiroth from Final Fantasy VII transforms into his One-Winged Angel form as seen in Final Fantasy VII Advent Children when entering EX Mode, whereas Cecil from Final Fantasy IV can switch between his Dark Knight and Paladin forms at any time. All characters have an alternate costume; examples include a design for the Onion Knight that makes him resemble Luneth from the Nintendo DS version of Final Fantasy III and Squall's SeeD uniform as seen in Final Fantasy VIII.

Summons are accessible using Summon Stones. There are over 50 different summons, each with a different effect.

[PSP] Final Fantasy Dissidia New Trailer

NCsoft announced it's new MMORPG Blade and Soul on July 31. This new game is aimed at expanding the action aspects of the MMORPG genre to a never-before-seen level. As demonstrated in the video, there are some very interesting and intensive looking action scenes which seem to integrate in to the actual game play flawlessly.

The characters' oriental style arts are designed by popular Korean artist HyungTae Kim. Blade and Soul is being developed by the same development team that created Lineage II.

After watching the trailer, be sure to check out this extremely detailed breakdown! There are many secrets and clues within the video to be discovered. Click here to official site

Blade & Soul Gameplay(High Quality)

The most recent issue of Famitsu contains quite a few interesting details about the upcoming PSP game Final Fantasy Agito XIII. The title began life as a mobile phone spin-off, but somewhere between the orignal announcement and the recent Square Enix press event, plans changed. According to Famitsu, the developers were unhappy with the current state of mobile gaming and decided instead to build the game for the more popular -- and more capable -- PSP.

The magazine revealed that the game will also use a similar battle system to the one found in Crisis Core. The so-called ATB system allows players to freely move around the battlefield, block and attack at will (even though they must wait for a counter bar to fill before attacking). Agito will use an advanced version of this system, however the developers also revealed that it will be possible to control more than one character in Agito XIII.

The third bit of juicy news to escape the Japanese publication is that Agito will also support online multiplayer for up to 3 players using online Infrastructure, a rarity for Japanese games.
By Kris Erickson on pspworld.com

The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar is the world’s first and only MMOG based on the literary works of J.R.R. Tolkien. Players can experience the most famous fantasy world of all time, exploring and adventuring their heroes through the vast reaches of Middle-earth in the fight against the forces of the Dark Lord Sauron.

KEY FEATURES:



Experience Classic Tolkien: Meet famous characters like Gandalf and the Fellowship. Explore legendary locations like the Prancing Pony and Rivendell! Battle deadly enemies, including Nazgûl, Trolls, and Uruk-Hai !

Defeat the Shadows of Angmar: Join with the Fellowship and fight against the forces of Sauron. Confront the forces of the Nazgûl Witch-king in the North. Protect the Shire and root out evil on Weathertop.

Explore Ancient Lands: Journey through Middle-earth to collect valuable Tolkien lore, knowledge, and artifacts that bring your hero greater powers. Complete ambitious quests of courage and exploration that bestow compelling character traits.

MORE:



Create a unique character: Adventure as a Man, Elf, Dwarf or Hobbit. After choosing where your character hails from, select region-appropriate color palettes for skin, hair, eye color, and more. Equip yourself with items like sturdy Dwarven armor, intricate Elven mail, or weapons created with the knowledge of past Ages. Choose one of seven classes: deal massive damage as a Champion, protect your fellowship as a Guardian, beguile your enemies as a Burglar, or try a Captain, Hunter, Minstrel, or Lore-master.

As your character advances and grows, customize it using Traits - interchangeable abilities which modify your character’s skills to give you greater control over its specializations. Gain new Trait slots by leveling, and unlock new Traits by completing Accomplishments.

Fight alone or with other players: With hundreds of hours of gameplay, there’s plenty to do in LOTRO as a solo player or in a fellowship. Follow the storyline on your own or form a fellowship with other players for epic battles against creatures like Orcs, Wights, and even Balrogs. Coordinated fellowships can use group combo moves do incredible damage, heal their fellowship, or restore their energy - how they harness the power of a combo is entirely up to them to decide! LOTRO will also include a consensual Player vs. Player combat system (details forthcoming), allowing players to fight against each other for glory and honor!



Create items both legendary and mundane: Farm in the Shire or forge weapons and armor in Thorin’s Halls. Players can craft arms for the fight against the Dark Lord Sauron, or enjoy more peaceful activities like cooking and farming. Those who dedicate themselves to becoming master crafters can create legendary items of surpassed quality.

Dramatic sequences: LOTRO offers an expansive, open world, and incorporates cinematic technology to present the player with movie-like sequences which further the storyline. Experience epic challenges like the depths of the Great Barrow, the siege of Fornost and the battle to retake Weathertop.

Interact with others: Meet and socialize with thousands of other players and fans of J.R.R. Tolkien’s works. Relax at the Prancing Pony in Bree, the Green Dragon Inn in the Shire, or any of the many other social centers throughout the land. Express yourself through emotes and chat - wave hello, bow, or dance with a friend!



Journey through Middle-earth: Experience an epic storyline through hundreds of quests created as a companion to The Lord of the Rings. Adventure in familiar areas as well as new ones, created for the game, which were only briefly touched on by J.R.R. Tolkien in his master works. Experience Middle-earth as never before as you swim the Brandywine River or make your way through the mists of the Old Forest. Turbine, working closely with Tolkien Enterprises, has created what Gamedaily calls "...a must have title for fans of Tolkien lore.

Website: Click here

The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar trailer

Metin2 is a massively multiplayer online game which is packed with great features including quests, guild battles and nation wars. Metin2 players from all over the globe will be able to play at no cost!

With a completely revamped Battle System, Metin2 is one of the best in any real time FPS/TPS MMORPG to date. The action is fast and furious, while attacking anything your weapon makes contact with. Such a battle system is a new kind of fighting style as the player is able to attack multiple targets simultaneously. Fighting moves include cut, split, bent, prick and projectiles. Metin2 simulates the speed and fierceness of real world fighting.

Oriental Characters and Architecture in a Fantasy-Empire of exotic martial-arts

Move through realistic villages in the far east and let the atmosphere of the Asian warriors take hold of your mind. In the near future you not only will fight with sword and bow, but you will also have the ability to use the refined way of the Bells and Fans.

Intelligent monsters will attack you in groups
You can inflict heavy wounds to multiple enemies at once. But be careful: When one monster is defeated, the others will not leave you alone. You must be especially wary in areas around the Metin Stones!

Create or become a member of a powerful guild and take complete control your empire.

As a member of a guild the results of your Guild Fights will have effects on both every guild member and the guild itself. You must fight to gain possession of one of the rare strongholds. As your guild´s might rises, you will get the chance to use Non-Player-Characters in your stronghold and train them to be more effective.

Fight other empires in the middle of the continent.
In hand-to-hand combat you will fight against other players from different empires for the domination of the continent. The victorious empire gains possession of money and land. You will gain Glory and Honor, as well as, earn a higher military ranking and lead other guild members in future fights.

Experienced warriors ride into battle!

As a reward for the successful completion of tasks you will earn a horse. While riding you will move much faster over the continent and gain advantages in battles.

There are many river, lake, and seashore locations for fishing
As your fishing skill increases, you will be able to fish for increasingly valuable things. You can brew potions from the things you fish, for the regeneration of health and spell power. Your results will depend on your skill level, fishing rod, and the bait you use.

Crafting and many other tasks will entertain you.
As your crafting skill increases, you will be able to upgrade your items in many ways.
Tasks will teach you how the game works and you will be challenged in difficult fighting tests.

Office site: Click here

Metin 2 MMOG Trailer

After weeks of speculation, Blizzard has officially announced Diablo III at its World Wide Invitational event in Paris.

Said to feature more quests than ever, the anticipated sequel will stick to its roots by being "first and foremost a cooperative game."

Diablo III will feature old standards such as the quotable Deckard Cain, as well as a new version of Tristram and a fresh class dubbed the Witch Doctor. The jungle-born warrior will use ancient tribal magic to cast disease and mind control spells, in addition to utilizing pets such as locust swarms and mongrels.

The game will also include several control improvements, including full zoom capability and a hotbar to easily access skills. Players will be able to quickswap between skills using the mouse wheel or tab key.

Armor will now be class-specific, designed to provide each character a unique look. Classes themselves are more diverse, as it was noted that there will be female versions of both the Barbarian and Witch Doctor.

In a demo of the Barbarian class, the company noted that less of an emphasis will be placed on potions for health. Instead, red orb-like items will drop that immediately recover health once the player picks them up.

Environmental destruction was also shown off, with a character at one point busting through a solid wall. The environment can also be used to kill enemies, as in the case of objects that fell from a wall, killing a group of monsters.

Enemies were shown to be larger in scale than in past games, with giant evil trees and a massive demon called a Siegebreaker.

Blizzard has released a set of official features and a story description, which can now be conveniently viewed below the fold:

Two decades have passed since the demonic denizens, Diablo, Mephisto, and Baal, wandered the world of Sanctuary in a vicious rampage to shackle humanity into unholy slavery. Yet for those who battled the Prime Evils directly, the memory fades slowly and the wounds of the soul still burn.

When Deckard Cain returns to the ruins of Tristram's Cathedral seeking clues to new stirrings of evil, a comet from the heavens strikes the very ground where Diablo once entered the world. The comet carries a dark omen in its fiery being and it calls the heroes of Sanctuary to defend the mortal world against the rising powers of the Burning Hells--and even the failing luminaries of the High Heavens itself.

Explore a fully-realized Sanctuary--the living, breathing gothic fantasy world of Diablo III rendered in gorgeous 3D.

Battle the unholy forces of the Burning Hells with all-new character classes like the otherworldly Witch Doctor, or with re-imagined warriors from Diablo's past: such as the fierce Barbarian.

Rain Hell on your enemies wielding the interactive environment as a weapon: lay cunning traps, turn destructible objects against your foes, and use environmental obstacles to your advantage--all powered by the Havoc physics system.

Experience the intensity of multiplayer Diablo III over an all-new, wickedly-enhanced Battle.net platform with numerous enhancements to make connecting with your friends easier--and cooperative gameplay more fun.
by Nick Breckon on shacknews.com

Diablo 3 Official Trailer

The world of Vana'diel stands at the brink of war. Three powerful nations, united in their plight against the beastmen forces, look to their last hope-brave adventures like you! will the beastmen gin the upper hand, and thrust the once-peaceful Vana'diel into another war? Step into the world of Vana'diel and journey forth on grand adventures with players from all across the globe!

FINAL FANTASY XI is the first online game in the award-winning FINAL FANTASY series. How you play it up to you, with limitless possbilities for adventure. set out on your own to discover the countless secrets of Vana'diel, or form a party with your friends to purge the beastman forces and bring home sensational spoils!

Create Your Own Original Character
The first step in your adventure is to create your character's traits, including race, gender, face, hair color, body size, job, and nationality. This will become your on-screen "alter ego" in the world of FINAL FANTASY XI. The classic Job System of the FINAL FANTASY series returns in FINAL FANTASY XI. You can acquire a wide variety of abilities with various jobs -- and even discover new jobs as you play! Rumor has it that with the proper training, Vana'diel adventurers can become paladins, bards, and rangers. What other jobs will you be able to discover?

Communication
The world of FINAL FANTASY XI consists of an international community that exists without borders. Hook up with your existing friends, or meet and greet new adventurers from around the world.
Communicating with other players is the main feature of FINAL FANTASY XI.
Communication is a snap with user-friendly chat, messaging systems, and easily-managed friend lists.
Teaming up with others is the key to success, so don't go alone!

There's More Than Just Combat
In Vana'diel, your existence is not limited to battling the menagerie of dangerous creatures that lurk outside the city walls.
You can also fish, synthesize items, and spend your time participating in a number of non-combative activities. Crystals, the origin of all energy, are scattered throughout Vana'diel. By collecting them, you can use their powers to create new items and become a famous craftsman in your own right.
Many other activities await. You can spend the day fishing, surrounded by the rich wilderness of Vana'diel. Try creating new recipes for fine dishes for your friends.
Aim for riches by synthesizing fine jewelry. Scour dark mines for precious ores. In FINAL FANTASY XI, combat is just the tip of the iceberg -- if you'd rather enjoy a peaceful life inside the walls of the city, nobody will stop you!

Beyond Platform Boundaries
Both PlayStation 2 and Windows players can coexist in the same worlds.
Vana'diel is looking for citizens -- no matter what hardware they own.

Final Fantasy XI - Opening trailer

From Flagship Studios – creators of the award-winning Diablo® series and the fathers of the action role playing genre – comes HellGate: London, the next benchmark in the evolution of the RPG genre.

Combining the depth of traditional RPGs with the frenetic, visceral feel of first-person shooters, HellGate: London offers infinite replayability with dynamically created levels, monsters, items and events that gives each player their own unique hack-and-slash experience.

A post-apocalyptic London has been overrun by hordes of terrifying demons, leaving the city desolate and scorched by hellfire. Those who were unlucky enough to survive now gather in the only sanctuary left, the Underground, banding together in order to gain a foothold against the minions of darkness and ultimately save the bloodline of humanity.

It is no surprise that these sole survivors come from three of society’s most elite factions, each of whom are masters of a robust number of skills and weapons essential to demon-thrashing.

The Templar, a secret society preserving the rites of the original Knights Templar, mix futuristic technology with ancient artifacts to create powerful weapons and armor perfect for short-ranged and melee attacks.


The Cabalists are students of the dark arts and edges of science which often leaves them standing right on the line between good and evil. Their mystifying spells make them suited for mid-range combat.

The Hunters are mysterious, highly trained ex-military operatives who lay waste to their foes with hyper-advanced weapons that blend theoretical science and the latest in technology – and their bullets can come from almost any distance.

HellGate: London delivers an amazing gaming experience to PC gamers of all types – delivering the eye-popping DX10 visuals demanded by the hardcore, and scaling to ensure the masses of casual RPG players can still get the best performance on older PCs.

Key Features
The RPG Authority – Flagship Studios was founded by the core creators of Diablo, one of the biggest PC gaming franchises in history with over 13 million units sold worldwide – they are the first, last and only voice in the world of action RPGs.


Beyond RPG – Experience new layers to the traditional hack-and-slash forumla by experiencing the action RPG from the first-person perspective and through nontraditional character classes and playstyles.

Have it your way - Three unique factions with their own visual and gameplay style, offering something for every type of gamer, whether they prefer the longer-range blasts of the Hunter or want to get up close and personal with the Templar.

Infinite Replayability – Dynamically generated levels, chance events and massive quantities of randomly created items makes for infinite replayability -- no two experiences will ever be the same and every game will be it’s own unique event.

Mad Skills – Each faction has two character classes that contain a wide variety of skills and spells that are fully customizable.

London Calling – Explore post-apocalyptic London, even darker and gloomier than usual. From shattered cathedrals and landmarks to the ancient ruins buried beneath the shell of a once-great city, players will need to scour all of London in search of the unknown.


Misery Loves Company – Don’t be a glory hog – fight online. Gather with friends or recruit strangers in Underground stations and venture out into mean streets of London together to erase the Demonic threat.

Hell Never Looked Better – HellGate: London features all of the latest next-generation technology to deliver a true, DX10 experience, while being fully scalable for optimal performance on older PCs.

Game site: http://www.hellgatelondon.com/

Hellgate London trailer

Game Introduction:

Warlord is an MMORPG with a large war system. Many heroes that exist in ancient China and Korea will appear in the game. Players will feel excited when combating the enemies. You can destroy hundreds of enemies with the skills you learned and can fight monsters in the way of 1v1. You will enjoy yourself in the game.

The operation of this game is very simple. Players can use W.A.S.D to move the characters, "1" to attack, "2" to give a special attack, "3" to protect yourself. And 4.5.6 are the skill keys.

Warlord Online trailer


The Guide is from MMOsite Forum.

Then follow the pictures below to register a Warlord account. Warlord is still in Closed Beta.

Company Main page: http://pmang.sayclub.com
Warlord Official Site: http://pmang.sayclub.com/warlord/warlord_home.nwz?ssn=319
Registration page: http://pmang.sayclub.com/pmang_agree.nwz

Dragon Ball Online, a massively multiplayer online game based on the Japanese comics Dragon Ball, is nearing the open beta testing phase.

According to an anonymous source, Korean game development company Ntl Inc. is developing a massively multiplayer online game based on Dragon Ball. Having high completeness, Dragon Ball Online will start is open beta in the first half of 2007. However, an official announcement has been withheld because the Korean operator for the game has not been selected.

The above image is a screenshot of Dragon Ball Online in its development phase, so it may be different from its public beta version.

Dragon Ball Online is not a casual game but a MMORPG set in the Dragon Ball world 250 years after the original work. In the game, players will take adventures in Dragon Ball world. The game graphics fully reflect the comic style of the original work. The characters in Dragon Ball Online are made in 3D, and the game has introduced quite a number of innovative game systems including world martial arts tournament and marriage system.

The world martial arts tournament is an online counter strike system which produces the strongest player in the game.


The marriage system is a system characterized by alternation of generations, where players can get married and have their children and they rely on their offspring to continue their adventures in the game. Players can only acquire new abilities through alternation of generations.

It is said that Ntl. Inc. is supported by Bandai in developing Dragon Ball Online and that Akira Toriyama, the author of Dragon Ball, has been keeping an eye the development of the game. According to the source, due to the author's excessive interference, some of the contents in the original work will not be incorporated into this game, for example, players will not be able to play as Monkey King.
Official Site: http://www.ntl-kk.com/dbo.html

In-Game Information:

Marriage System : When Dragon Ball Online , was first being developed at that time no other martial arts MMO had a marriage system, so they thought it would be a bright idea to implement it then , well unfortunately times changed, and now its very much a normal thing in MMO`s, Dragon Ball Online has a marriage feature and apparently from our reports its a very in-depth one!

Player Vs Player : If any of you are familiar with the party finding system in City Of Heroes / City Of Villains then this will ring a bell for you , there will be an option to show you all the people who are online, their level , if they have the PVP acceptance on and the chances of winning against them , this would have revolutionized MMORPG`s , but it seems like other MMO`s hit it before Dragon Ball Online.

Dragon Ball Online Official Trailer