Just Cause 2

Creativity is one of the greatest tools a game developer can employ. The more things a gamer can creatively do of their own volition and the more open ended the gameplay mechanics are, the more potential a game has to be great (within a large percentage of games, not all of course).

Just Cause 2 takes everything fun about GTA, crams some action movies into the formula and sets off into it's own adrenaline and carnage filled ride. Makes you wonder why Jason Statham isn't the star of this movie, ala Crank.

what we've got below is about a ten minute video with one of the developers walking us through essential gameplay, and it's very exciting let me tell you.

This is one of the more promising games of 2010, but if you've been paying attention you'll already know that 2010 is shaping to be quite a year in gaming.

Final Fantasy XIV Trailer/ XIII English

Yup, thats right. Somehow, some way we've got another Final Fantasy already on it's way. It appears to be yet another online venture, this time on PS3 and PC.

Hopefully this means will get some really immersive character creation, seeing as how most of the characters in the trailer are pretty generic. Looks rightly amazing though, very impressive.



And for those who missed it amidst the flood that was E3 (it's very understandable if you missed it), we have an english voice cast trailer for Final Fantasy XIII enjoy!

E3 Review: Nintendo Flopped Big Time

After watching most of E3 (couldn't watch all of Microsoft's save for the first fifteen minutes), I have come to one conclusion that I think all of us have.

Sony > Microsoft > Nintendo

I started out as a Sony gamer with my Playstation 1 and Playstation 2, the latter of which still works perfectly. I moved onto Nintendo for their new technology, the Wii, and for my favorite Zelda games. I also am the owner of a Wii Balance Board, which I thought was very interesting technology despite my qualms with some of the stuff in Wii-Fit.

However, just like last year's E3, Nintendo failed to impress me. Here is the list of stuff they announced:

1. FOUR Mario games (4-D multi-player, RPG, Mario vs. Donkey Kong, and Super Mario Galaxy 2)
2. Motion Plus stuff (including Wii Sports Resort with it)
3. New enhancements for Wii Fit-- Wii Fit Plus
4. Red Steel 2 (which involves the Motion Plus with sword fighting, which looks interesting)
5. Final Fantasy Crystal Bearers
6. Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days (official release date is September 29th, 2009)
7. New Golden Sun
8. New Zelda game for the DSi
9. The President of Nintendo speaks about the future of gaming
10. New Sega game exclusively for the Wii called The Conduit
11. New Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles (this looked good) (exclusively for the Wii)
12. DeadSpace Extraction (exclusively for the Wii)
13. Metriod: Other M (due out in 2010)

The first one is a big turn-off to me when it comes to Nintendo-- their president even said they're focusing on revitalizing the old franchises. Mario's had enough-- end it and come up with a new idea. They're focusing too much on things like their Mario and Zelda franchises, even though I do admit that I love the Zelda games. One of the things I liked about what Sony did was that they introduced new franchises juxtaposed to their old ones. 

The second one falls short of what Sony and Microsoft presented in that category. Sony's motion sensored control, while still in development, blew the Wii right out of the water. Their technology was not only more accurate but more diverse. You could do more with it than you could with the new enhancement to the Wii-mote. I have no idea what Microsoft's is, but I heard it was pretty good too.

#'s 5, 6, 7 and 13 are the ones that actually somewhat interest me. Of course, this comes from me being a Square-Enix fan, though I'm not expecting much success from this Final Fantasy game (especially when you hear Final Fantasy VII in Sony's conference). As a Kingdom Hearts fan, I'll be buying the new game for the DS when it comes out in September-- again, Square-Enix. The graphics are spectacular for this platform and Famitsu already gave it a 36 out of 40 (9/10 in all four categories-- not bad). Golden Sun is a game a lot of us remember and will be looking forward to-- classic RPG right there. 

The Metroid game was probably the best thing that Nintendo did as far as the press conferenece went. It looks really good and hopefully will succeed. The rest of the conference fell short-- the presenters presentation itself was poorly done compared to Sony's and Microsoft's, who both talked directly to their consumers while Nintendo talked to the businessmen. 

All in all, I hate saying this as a Nintendo fan, but they're going to lose out because of what Microsoft and Sony have in store.