Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep Fresh New Screens

As previously mentioned, a kingdom hearts treat is coming to the Sony PSP. From the screenshots, it appears that players will tackle the mysteries of the heart using a comparatively older character this time around whose name happens to be Terra. Also appearing in the pictures are Ven, a familiar looking character, and an old man named Xehanort.

Another thing that can be noticed from the screens is….. the graphics are awesome! Good Job Square-Enix.

Further details regarding the plot will be revealed when available.
Enjoy them screens:  (Courtesy of Famitsu)

Tabula Rasa Beta Key Giveaway

Ncsoft, the makers of Guild Wars, have given us a whopping 300 Beta Keys to give away for their new MMORPG, Tabula Rasa.

For those who are blissfully unaware of this title, have a look here to know more about the game:
http://eu.plaync.com/eu/games/overview/tabula_rasa

What’s it about:
Richard Garriott’s Tabula Rasa (RGTR) is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game that takes you, the player, into lush forest planets, volcanic moons, and exotic alien civilisations. Face off against powerful alien soldiers, armoured mechanoids and vicious creatures!
Use a wide range of weapons and unique alien powers to help the Allied Free Sentients (AFS) in their desperate fight against extinction. Tabula Rasa combines a vast, persistent game world and ongoing storyline with fast-paced action, resulting in a striking new approach to the design of multiplayer online games.

Sounds interesting? Itching to try out the Beta? Then simply head over to our forums and reply to this thread to win yourself a Beta Key. Keep in mind, everyone who posts in the thread wins a Beta Key. Generous aren’t we?

You might want to hurry though because the Beta ends on October 12th and you wouldn’t want to miss the chance to try the game before it officially releases on the 19th of October! Have fun playing the game and let us know what you think over here!

Geon: Emotions

Geon: Emotions at first appears to be a unique game with a fresh spray of graphical paint on a solid base of interesting gameplay mechanics. However like so many other Live Arcade games, it actually turns to be quite ordinary and generic.

It is difficult to describe what type of a game Geons is. It feels like, and plays like a cross between Pacman and Mario kart. Your objective is to roll around the levels, munching enough dots (called “emotes”) in order to fill a meter (called an Emote Meter), which allows you to flip to the other side of the playing grid, which is the opponents side. Once on the other side, you must roll into a target which will score you a “goal”. 5 Goals will win the round. There are powerups available which affect gameplay such as allowing you to slow down your opponent or make yourself impervious to attack, and even knock emotes off your opponent. Powerups can be dropped besides one another to make a ‘Megaball’, which has a more devastating effect on your enemies. Each powerup is affected by choosing a particular “emotion” before the match. For example, choosing ‘Courage’ makes the shield effect last longer, while choosing the ‘rage’ emotion will result in you hitting the grid with such intensity that not only the enemy below you looses emotes, more emotes are lost and the effect is spread to other players.

There are several single player modes with Duel being head to head ‘combat’ as described above, and Time Attack being essentially the same, except medals are awarded for finishing in a set amount of time. Completing these matches will result in minigames being unlocked. Multiplayer is a bit more varied with support for both Xbox live and Split Screen. Xbox live features leaderboards and ranked and unranked lobbies. Team Geon is similar to Duel mode (which also has a multiplayer component), with the exception that it is two-on-two with the same rules as Duel. Last Man Standing is simply the person scoring no goals/ the least amount of goals is kicked off till there is a winner. The game supports 4 player Xbox Live as well as 4 player Local, and 2 player Co-operative.

The game features bright, crisp graphics and has a pleasing sound track that matches the energy on screen but soon becomes irrelevant. The gameplay however is a bit shallow with the emotions affecting only powerballs, making the ‘Emotions’ idea feel tacked on. The camera angle can be annoying sometimes, with neon colors and complex levels, spotting the last few ‘emotes’ can get slightly frustrating. Powerballs can speed up the cube occasionally but movement is sluggish, making collecting emotes somewhat like a chore.

Overall, this appeared to be an interesting game at first, but the ‘emotions’ are almost just cosmetic, and the game is hindered by shallow and mediocre gameplay. There is almost no difference between playing solo or multiplayer and although it tries to be different, it ends up being more generic than not.

Grateful Dead join Super Group line-up coming to Rock Band

Press release:
Harmonix, the leading developer of music-based games, MTV Games, a division of MTV Networks within Viacom (NYSE: VIA, VIA.B), and Rhino Entertainment, a division of Warner Music Group (NYSE:WMG), announced a deal that will bring the legendary band Grateful Dead to the highly anticipated music videogame Rock Band. The iconic group is making 18 master recordings from its diverse catalog available as digitally distributed game levels following Rock Band’s release this holiday season. Among the songs available will be the classic Dead tracks “Truckin’,” “Uncle John’s Band,” “Touch of Grey,” “Sugar Magnolia,” and “Casey Jones.”

“Grateful Dead’s unique fusion of rock, folk, bluegrass, blues, and jazz challenged traditional musical boundaries and pushed the limits of creativity to produce a signature sound that is undeniably their own,” stated Paul DeGooyer, MTV’s Senior Vice President of Audio, Home Video and Electronic Games. “With an enormous legion of fans all over the world, Rock Band will give players a chance to interact with the music of these beloved rock pioneers and experience what Grateful Dead did best – jam from the depths of their souls.”

Distributed by Electronic Arts (NASDAQ: ERTS), Rock Band is an all-new platform for music fans and gamers to interact with music like never before. The game challenges players to put together a band and tour for fame and fortune – all while learning to master lead/bass guitar, drums and vocals. Built on an unprecedented partnership with artists, record labels and music publishers, the music featured in Rock Band will span the full range of rock music and include original master recordings from the greatest songs and artists of all time.

“Grateful Dead, with their 30 year career and their timeless music, are the perfect addition to Rock Band,” says Mark Pinkus, Rhino’s Senior Vice President of Strategic Marketing, Custom Product & Sync Licensing. “It’s going to be a blast playing along to songs ranging from the Dead’s earliest hit ‘Truckin’’ to their final hit ‘Touch of Grey.’ I’m confident that Rock Band will be instrumental in introducing kids to the magical music of Grateful Dead.”

Grateful Dead’s journey ignited in San Francisco’s Haight and Ashbury district during the psychedelic ‘60s. The band, well known for constantly touring, continued to spread their message of peace and love for another three decades with a devoted community of fans known as Dead Heads, many of whom traveled the country with them. Earlier this year, the Recording Academy awarded Grateful Dead a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award for its contribution to the evolution of rock music.

Grateful Dead is the latest artist to join the vast musical downloadable multi-track master offerings of Rock Band, joining the list of epic artists such as Metallica and The Who’s iconic Who’s Next album, the first full album scheduled for downloadable content, in addition to the dozens of on-disc tracks spanning every genre of rock from alternative to classic to heavy metal.

Rock Band is slated for release on Xbox 360™ video game and entertainment system from Microsoft® and PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system this Holiday 2007 in North America.

Grateful Dead join Super Group line-up coming to Rock Band

Press release:
Harmonix, the leading developer of music-based games, MTV Games, a division of MTV Networks within Viacom (NYSE: VIA, VIA.B), and Rhino Entertainment, a division of Warner Music Group (NYSE:WMG), announced a deal that will bring the legendary band Grateful Dead to the highly anticipated music videogame Rock Band. The iconic group is making 18 master recordings from its diverse catalog available as digitally distributed game levels following Rock Band’s release this holiday season. Among the songs available will be the classic Dead tracks “Truckin’,” “Uncle John’s Band,” “Touch of Grey,” “Sugar Magnolia,” and “Casey Jones.”

“Grateful Dead’s unique fusion of rock, folk, bluegrass, blues, and jazz challenged traditional musical boundaries and pushed the limits of creativity to produce a signature sound that is undeniably their own,” stated Paul DeGooyer, MTV’s Senior Vice President of Audio, Home Video and Electronic Games. “With an enormous legion of fans all over the world, Rock Band will give players a chance to interact with the music of these beloved rock pioneers and experience what Grateful Dead did best – jam from the depths of their souls.”

Distributed by Electronic Arts (NASDAQ: ERTS), Rock Band is an all-new platform for music fans and gamers to interact with music like never before. The game challenges players to put together a band and tour for fame and fortune – all while learning to master lead/bass guitar, drums and vocals. Built on an unprecedented partnership with artists, record labels and music publishers, the music featured in Rock Band will span the full range of rock music and include original master recordings from the greatest songs and artists of all time.

“Grateful Dead, with their 30 year career and their timeless music, are the perfect addition to Rock Band,” says Mark Pinkus, Rhino’s Senior Vice President of Strategic Marketing, Custom Product & Sync Licensing. “It’s going to be a blast playing along to songs ranging from the Dead’s earliest hit ‘Truckin’’ to their final hit ‘Touch of Grey.’ I’m confident that Rock Band will be instrumental in introducing kids to the magical music of Grateful Dead.”

Grateful Dead’s journey ignited in San Francisco’s Haight and Ashbury district during the psychedelic ‘60s. The band, well known for constantly touring, continued to spread their message of peace and love for another three decades with a devoted community of fans known as Dead Heads, many of whom traveled the country with them. Earlier this year, the Recording Academy awarded Grateful Dead a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award for its contribution to the evolution of rock music.

Grateful Dead is the latest artist to join the vast musical downloadable multi-track master offerings of Rock Band, joining the list of epic artists such as Metallica and The Who’s iconic Who’s Next album, the first full album scheduled for downloadable content, in addition to the dozens of on-disc tracks spanning every genre of rock from alternative to classic to heavy metal.

Rock Band is slated for release on Xbox 360™ video game and entertainment system from Microsoft® and PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system this Holiday 2007 in North America.

EA revs up Burnout Paradise with innovation and style

Press release:
Paradise City awaits. Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: ERTS) today revealed the unique feature set that will define Burnout™ Paradise – the next-generation of Burnout. With true open world freedom, seamless ‘EasyDrive’ online multiplayer, four unique single-player events, and hundreds of online Freeburn challenges, Burnout Paradise thrusts gamers into an incredibly vivid HD world that pushes the limits of the PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system and Xbox 360™ videogame system. The white knuckle action explodes as players pull up at any stoplight and spin their wheels to jumpstart the action.

Spectacular bone-crushing crashes and an unparalleled sense of speed will always be a hallmark of Burnout games but Burnout Paradise ups the ante with an all new game design that expands the experience into a deeper, ever more immersive driving dream. Some of the key features that set Burnout Paradise apart include:

• True Open World Freedom – The entire city will be available from the outset, giving players the freedom to explore this immersive world known as Paradise City. Experience open world driving Burnout style as the action begins with you, but it doesn’t have to end.
• EasyDrive Online Social Gaming – See your friends online with the EasyDrive Friends List and connect with them instantly without having to wait or exit your game. Burnout Paradise is revolutionizing the way players jump on and offline, making it as simple and quick as possible.
• Single-player Events – Choose from Race, Marked Man, Road Rage, and Stunt by pulling up to the numerous stoplights in the game to initiate the event. The action isn’t forced any longer, as players have the freedom to start and even end a challenge at their leisure.

“This is the true beginning of next generation racing. On PLAYSTATION 3 and Xbox 360, we are delivering a game that brings brilliant graphics into HD at 60 frames per second. Burnout Paradise does something that no other Burnout game has ever done – it gives the player full control on how to play the game,” said Alex Ward, Creative Director at EA Criterion Studios. “At Criterion, we have a long history of delivering stand-out software on the PlayStation consoles. The entire team is fired up about the opportunity to carry that heritage into the PLAYSTATION 3 generation.”

Burnout Paradise will have you feeling every bump, crash, scrape, and collision using Sony’s new DUALSHOCK®3 Wireless Controller with rumble feature for the PLAYSTATION 3 . The EasyDrive online Friends List keeps the action flowing on the PLAYSTATION 3, as players get into a challenge with three easy taps of a button. Once the competition heats up, players can grab snapshots as they rip through opponents and collect candid Mugshots of friends and foes alike using the PLAYSTATION Eye. The Xbox 360 version of the game features Mugshots using Xbox LIVE® Vision.

Skates rolls of for PS3

Electronic Arts announced that SKATE for the PS3 has hit retail stores. Recently released for the Xbox 360 in North America, the game has already received high praise from the media and gamers alike.

“The buzz around SKATE has been through the roof this month; everyone’s talking about it,” said Bob McKenzie, Senior Vice President Merchandising, GameStop. “Based on the exceptional demand from gamers the first week, we clearly have a new contender in the skate videogame genre that will be at the top of everyone’s must-have list for this holiday.”

SKATE delivers an authentic skateboarding experience like no other videogame. The game features innovative Flickit controls that take advantage of the dual analog sticks and a unique and easy-to-use skate.reel feature that allows gamers to capture video footage of their skate session at any time during the game and share the footage online at www.skate.ea.com for other players to view, rate and comment on.

SKATE is also shipping in Europe on October 5 for PLAYSTATION 3 and is currently available for purchase and download from most major mobile operators in North America and Europe. SKATE is developed by EA Black Box in Vancouver, British Columbia and is rated “T” for Teen by the ESRB and 12+ by PEGI.

Six new Geometry Wars Galaxies screenshots

We have updated our screenshot gallery of Geometry Wars for the Wii which will be out on November 16, 2007. We also bring you additional information of new enemies and battle entities featuring in the game. Enjoy!

Description for new enemies and battle entities:

Mutator: These nasties will latch on to simple shape enemies and turn them into very fast homing Mutated enemies.

Mutated: These enemies are spawned from the other enemies that the Mutator has come into contact with. These Mutated are very aggressive compared to their former self. The best strategy is to take out the Mutators before they create these.

UFO: These big-scoring, floating bonuses appear randomly through the battles and move very fast, if you can get them the reward is high.

Generators: These enemies will spew out tons of the simple shaped enemies at once. If you see a couple of these generators on screen, you’re in trouble. These enemies can only be destroyed when they turn blue….you wont want to see one of these and a Mutator together!

Black Hole: Like you would imagine, these blackholes will suck anything into their gravity core…..and out again when the field reverses, its not fatal in itself but it can certainly mess with your tactics.

Masters: Giant size versions of your feared enemies. When you destroy these, they split up into smaller versions of them until they become the normal sized enemies. The smaller they became, the more aggressive they become.

Cell Mass: These little “virus-like” nasties reproduce themselves very quickly, they will appears in “packs of blobs” and move very slowly but if you dont keep them contained, they’ll overun you.

Neutron: Top secret

NUFO: Top secret

Wormhole: These are portals that will teleport players from one wormhole to another, usually to another area of the grid previously unaccessible.

Meteor: These square based projectiles will appear in waves of “meteors showers” on certain unstable planets, luckily the warning alwam will sound before a flood of them appears.

Mine Layer: These docile but tactical enemies will leave a trail of mines behind them, if the player nudges a mine, they can create a chain reaction (depending on how many mines and if they are close by), any enemies caught in the explosion will get terminated and the player will gain bonus points on top of the regular points.

Flipper: Moving sold blocks that cannot harm you, but they sure can get in your way….but not your enemies. Dart: These arrowhead-like shaped enemies swarm towards you in a wavy path.

Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of The Lions details revealed.

The official website for Square-Enix’s new title has been enriched with loads of new content, media and story details.

Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of The Lions is a turn-based strategy RPG based on the 1997 game for the Playstation. It tells the story of the Kingdom of Ivalice that has been plagued by war for 50 years. Tactics is known to focus on multiple characters and engulf the player in a complicated world with plot twists and immersive story telling.

The game is scheduled for an October 5th 2007 release in Europe.
Check out the official website for more details and media.

God of War: Chains of Olympus Special Edition Demo Disc Shipped.

The demo UMD disc for the highly anticipated PSP title, God of War: Chains of Olympus has been finally shipped under the subtitle of Battle of Attica. The Creative Director, Cory Barlog speaks:

"What is up God of War fans? Sorry for the long hiatus but things have been crazy here at Casa De Kratos…much to do. I thought I would come out of my somewhat self imposed media coma to let everyone know that the PSP demo discs are freaking done baby!!!
As I type these words, legions of carrier Harpies are being dispatched to deliver the sweet UMD goodness that is God of War: Chains of Olympus – Special edition: Battle of Attica Demo Disc…otherwise know as GOW: COO –SE:BoADD. Good god…that is a freaking mouthful, even typing this abbreviated version makes me tired."

Courtesy of Playstation Blog

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