Another month, another Final Fantasy game on the cards. Square Enix’s latest chronic milking of the series is tentatively titled Four warriors of light: Final Fantasy Gaiden. Not a great deal is known about this game. But it’s Final Fantasy. So there’s not a great deal to know really. It’ll probably play like all the rest, with a couple of changes.

The characters are designed by Akihiko Yoshida, who is also responsible for the games’ official artwork. And the setting will be an old school setting. Dragons, witches, castles, kingdoms and all that good fairy tale shit. We can also expect Final Fantasy Gaiden to be a new off-shoot of the franchise, as with Crystal chronicles and Tactics.

If Square didn’t roll out so many FF games that looked the same, I’d care more. I’m sure at least one of these non-main-entries-into-the-series Final Fantasy games are really good and worth the time. But when you click on gaming websites and see a Famitsu scan of a new game every other month, you feel like losing the will to even bother with half of ‘em.

It took 2 years, a batch of trailers, finally getting an Xbox 360 and finding out more about the story to finally get excited about Final Fantasy XIII. So it’s gonna take more than just a magazine scan to peak my interest in an FF game. A lot more.

It’s cool that the DS is still getting major third party support though, especially in the way of RPG’s. Of all the systems and consoles out right now, the DS probably has the best library of RPG’s to choose from.

You can check out the official website for the game here: complete with a cool piece of artwork, and a hot piece of retro, 8-bit, muffled and compressed to hell music.

Now with 80% less hygiene.

Details are starting to emerge regarding Rockstar’s recently announced noir third person shooter, Max Payne 3. Gamespy reports scans of the latest issue of Game Informer which unveil much information about how the game will play out. Major changes include a shift in setting down to Sao Paulo, Brazil, and our favorite detective is now a middle aged, balding, wash up of a man.  The iconic bullet time remains, along with the internal comic-book style monologues which told the story of Max’s downfall. Reports also indicate a cover system will be added, however it will not be as critical to the gameplay as Gears of War.

I don’t know about you folks but this gets me pretty excited, I just hope Rockstar can keep the good old Max Payne feel we have come to know and love.

[Gamespy]

It was only a matter of time until a Metal Gear Solid game ended up on the Xbox 360. It makes sense. Konami know they can’t keep being exclusive with MGS to Sony this generation. They can’t afford to. No developer can really.

This game was never going to be exclusive to the 360 as many speculated when it was first announced. It just wouldn’t happen unless it was some crappy little side title, and nothing more. Konami would never leave Sony in the cold. Not after it has been 3 systems of theirs that has played home to the Metal Gear Solid series and allowed it to sell record numbers. To make a game exclusive to the 360 and snub PS3 owning MGS stanboys would’ve been a huge mistake. Konami did the right thing going multi format with this game. And PC gamers, peep this: The game is heading for PC too!

I’m actually more excited about this than I was Metal Gear Solid 4. Weird. Considering there is no news on this game other than it will feature Raiden as a playable character. Metal Gear Solid 4 was a great game, but it just didn’t amaze me in the same way Metal Gear Solid 3 did. If there was ever a game that didn’t get enough recognition or praise – it’s Metal Gear Solid 3.

Hopefully Rising will explain what the hell happened to Raiden, because MGS4 didn’t explain a great deal about him. And what was disclosed was plain stupid. A dude goes from having only the part of his face melded onto a load of cybernetics, just to end up with a normal body again, plus a few scars!? Hell no! Raiden should have died, turned into an Mk.III or ended up as a talking head in a tank. Many hated Metal Gear Solid 2 for featuring Raiden as the main character. But I didn’t have a problem with it really. My dislike of Sons of liberty was due to it being so boring and long winded. None of the characters, cut-scenes or conversations were particularly memorable.

There are no screenshots or footage of Metal Gear Solid: Rising, and there probably won’t be for a good 2 years. Then we’ll have an onslaught of images and over-long videos right up until the games’ release.

So enjoy that image of Raiden’s face. ‘Cause that’s all we’re getting for now.

Tekken used to be known for its awesome soundtracks. Take note of the words ‘used to’. Tekken 1 and 2 had great soundtracks. Tekken 3’s was a bloody masterpiece. And then shit went horrendously wrong with Tekken 4. I’m not sure whether key players of the Tekken 3 soundtrack were fired, or if they had mid life crisis’ which head shot their creativity. But something went seriously wrong with Tekken 4’s soundtrack. Game 5 brought things back a little. It was still far from the greatness of what Namco had brought to the table before – but the soundtrack did yield some gems.

One song in particular caught my ear in Tekken 5’s soundtrack, and that was the theme for the Moonlit wilderness stage. It was funky, it was epic and full of awesome. One of the most grandiose and melodic pieces to grace a Tekken game. Fitting, given that it featured on what I felt was one of the series’ best and most ominous looking stages.

I have my fingers crossed that Tekken 6’s soundtrack see’s the audio on top form. I’ve played the game in arcade, but I can barely hear anything. You lot know what it’s like.

Listen: Moonlit wilderness

Tekken 5
© 2004 Namco

For the mp3 players: Moonlit wilderness

Poor suckers who only own Wii’s exclusively were made to feel a little left out and like pieces of rubbish when Capcom announced Marvel vs. Capcom 2 would be releasing for the Xbox Live marketplace and the PS network, but not the Virtual console (blame Nintendo and their file size restrictions). But now they can perk right up and rejoice, because Tatsunoko vs. Capcom is breaking out of Japan and is heading for the US and the UK! Can I get a “Yaaaaay!”

After a good 6 months of shedding tears over never getting the opportunity to play this game, Capcom have done what we thought was impossible and gotten the game green lit for a US and UK release. Still no word on if Australia will see the game. But given Capcom being full of awesome as of late – I’m sure gamers down under will be in on some cross over battle action.

Capcom have noted that the game may see additional features not included in the Japanese release of the game. Notably the possibility of extra characters and the all important online play.

If Capcom do not add online for the US release, then I will spit in the face of a Capcom employee. Not any of the ones who helped get the Western release though. Just a miscellaneous one who looks weedy enough that he won’t be able to beat me up. You cannot release a beat ‘em up in this day and age without online play. Unless of course, it’s released on Wii. I guess we best gets to praying again that Capcom include it. Sure, the Wii version would have those bastard Friend codes and be kept in check by Nintendo’s “No communication” policy. But it can’t be any worse than Street Fighter IV. Nobody talks on that game during matches, nobody wants to add you as a Friend or a contact, and the match making and lack of a proper lobby system is crap anyway. So Wii owners will hardly be missing out.

This is great news. Day 1 purchase for me. I may even buy some component cables so I can witness the awesome in ‘not true HD, only up-scaled to 720, but still better than composite signal’ glory.

When it shits on Wii, it blasts out in a stream – just like diarrhea. Wii already missed out on Marvel VS Capcom 2 – which is bad enough given the console is actually powerful enough to run the game. Now it’s missing out on Tekken 6 and Soul Calibur IV. Sure, these games wouldn’t be able to run on Wii. But that didn’t stop Namco developing them for the PSP. Yes… Tekken 6 and Soul Calibur IV will be releasing for the PSP!!

Tekken 6 for PSP will just be the standard version of Tekken 6, and not the updated version: Bloodline rebellion which will release for consoles later this year. But the game will not be some badly cut down affair. It will feature the full Tekken 6 character roster, character customization, new items not featured in the arcade version of the game and ad-hoc play.

I lied a little when I said Soul Calibur IV was heading for PSP. The PSP soul game is titled Soul Calibur: Broken destiny. Not a direct port of Soul Calibur IV, but a game which will retain many of the gameplay elements of IV. Returning characters from IV will also have their IV move sets and costumes. The game will feature new game modes and also a couple of new characters. The only new character to be confirmed so far is Dampierre. Who looks like a money swindling, knife wielding gay pimp from a Dicken’s novel.

Namco may as well fly a blimp over Nintendo, Kyoto which reads “F**K Wii!” The Wii flogs more units than the PSP and is more powerful, yet loses out on 2 high profile, blockbuster beat ‘em ups to it! Looks like that PlayStation love still runs deep. Real deep.

PSP owners, rejoice! You just got a couple of good games to look forward to. I guess a Wii port wouldn’t be out of the question entirely. Namco Bandai could always just port the PSP version. It’s not like the Wii version would look THAT much better. (Tee-hee!)

The game looks great graphically. I get sick and tired of saying it whenever a Square Enix trailer drops, because it goes without saying and it’s stating the obvious. But it’s something you have to throw out there none-the-less. Final Fantasy Versus XIII is a pretty looking game!

The whole thing is wreaking of Kingdom Hearts so far. I know the same team is behind this game, but damn! This whole trailer just stunk of Kingdom Hearts. The kakkoi boys with their over done hair do’s, puny arms and big feet. The main man wielding crazy blades looking like a member of Organization XIII. The girl who looks like she shares fashion tips from Naminé. And also the main characters names having dual meanings with things related to the earth ‘n shit: Kindgom Hearts – ‘Sora’, ‘Kairi’ and ‘Riku’ meaning sky, sea and land respectively. Versus XIII – ‘Noctis’ and ‘Stella’ meaning Night and star. Real original.

The mystery surrounding this game is what I think keeps it on people’s radars. Plus, PlayStation 3 owners can take solace in knowing it will be a system exclusive. Unless of course Microsoft drop a skip of money outside Square Enix HQ and it gets a release on the Xbox 360 too. Not out of the realm of possibility. We know how Microsoft’s pockets are deep and that Bill Gates can make it rain on hoes and game studio execs for days.

With Final Fantasy: Advent children complete now out in Japan, the first playable demo of Final Fantasy XIII is also out and about. As is the way in this new age of embeddable videos – Japanese gamers, importers and owners of hacked PS3’s and bit torrent software have done us a favour and uploaded videos of the demo being played through! You can peep a sneak peak at a section of the demo below…

The game is looking great! But it always did and was always going to.  I mean, c’mon: It’s Square Enix! You can always rely on them to push some stunning visuals out of a console when it comes to their big releases. Whilst the differences between the FMV and in-game engine graphics is easily distinguishable. There’s no denying how good the graphics are. Although after the graphical marvels that are Metal Gear Solid 4 and Resident evil 5, Final Fantasy XIII isn’t looking leaps and bounds above what we’ve seen on platforms already. Although I’m sure there are some visual marvels to be witnessed, particularly where summons and magic spells are concerned.

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Robert Pelloni , the man behind bob’s game and it’s various viral campaigns, has just released a demo of the first part of the game, along with a “NOW OFFICIALLY LICENSED” in 38 point font on the front page(although I have a feeling that that part is just an April Fool’s joke). The demo is real enough however. All you need to do is go to the site and download the .nds file.

Despite my initial perplexion at choosing to release such a thing at such a date, I’m enjoying the demo so far. The humor isn’t awful, just somewhat campy but still entertaining enough.  There’s nothing too surpising out there for those who have been following the coverage, and it is just a 2d adventure game, but what’s wrong with that? What do you guys think of the demo? Has Bob and his viral campaign fed you up too much to be able to enjoy his final product? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

[Bob's Game Official Website]

I was a bit taken a back when I first booted up Street Fighter IV and heard a guy start singing “I can feel it coming over me” as Ken and Ryu went at it. Street Fighter games and theme songs with vocals have been long estranged, so it’s both odd and refreshing that Capcom opted to change things with their latest Street Fighter game.

More often than not when games get themes sung by Japanese artists and said themes get translated into and performed in english, I opt for the Japanese version. But in Street Fighter IV’s case, I’m in preference of the English theme.  The lyrics and timing suit the music better, where-as in the Japanese version certain parts of the song don’t sound right. Almost makes me wonder if the song was written in English first and then re-worked into Japanese. Both versions are performed by Japanese boy band EXILE, and their English is perfect. No Engrish to the ears here! Okay…so there’s a little. But cleverly, the engrish is masked by loud guitars and synths. As a cool in-game option you can set whether you’re greeted with either the Japanese or English version of the song – so everybody wins!

I love this theme. I’d always avoided EXILE’s music like the plague, because frankly: Japanese boy bands suck. But I may check out more of their stuff as a result of their contribution to Street Fighter IV.

Listen: The next door: Indestructible

Performed by EXILE
Street Fighter IV
© 2009 AvexTrax / Rhythm zone

For the mp3 players: EXILE – The next door: Indestructible