Archive for June 2012
Today Is A Good Day: Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch Limited Edition For Europe Announced By Namco Bandai
The Studio Ghibli and Level 5 collaborative JRPG effort – Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch is an a unique position; it’s fully capable of giving both JRPG fans and Studio Ghibli fans raging nerdgasms when the game launches on European shores on January 25th next year, just three days later than it’s release in the US.
To further consolidate such thunderous undergarment movements comes the news from publisher Namco Bandai that a limited edition version of the game is due to arrive in European territories on the same day as the standard edition.
The Limited ‘Wizard’s Edition’ as it is known, contains the following fawn-worthy goodies:
– A hardback of Oliver’s spellbook, The Wizard’s Companion, containing over 300 pages over luciously hand-drawn Studio Ghibli art and narrative notes.
– A plush doll of Drippy, Oliver’s guide.
– Exclusive “golden mite” and “golden drongo” DLC familiars.
In addition to those packed-in extras, certain participating retail outlets will also be dishing out two exclusive familiars developed especially for the western release: flutterby and griffy.
Preorders have yet to start for the title but just look at the ‘Wizard’s Edition’ in the picture.
JUST LOOK AT IT.
There can be no hope for my wallet. No hope at all.
Additionally, if you are in anyway unfamiliar with the game itself or you just want another reason to nerd-fap over it, take a look at the most recently released trailer below:
Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch releases exclusively on the PS3 on January 25th, 2013 in both standard and limited edition formats.
Bethesda Releases ‘Golden Cat’ E3 Gameplay Walkthrough For Dishonored – Confirms Potential Game Of The Year Status
Bethesda Softworks today blew the lid off of their behind-closed-doors E3 gameplay demo of their highly anticipated title Dishonored, with the release of two director commentary gameplay videos. Due to arrive in October, on PS3 360 and PC formats, Dishonored casts you as a supernatural assassin driven by revenge in a Victorian-inspired world merged with nightmarish science-fiction.
Broken down into two parts, each of these videos successfully conveys the primary lure of Dishonored; the freedom to creatively eliminate your targets with a hugely flexible combat system allowing you to combine supernatural abilities with a myriad of weapons and gadgets at your disposal. Boasting a dynamic mission structure that alters throughout depending on the choices you make, Dishonored is equal parts Thief, Deus Ex and Bioshock; combining the key aspects of each of these notable genre alumni into a cohesive whole, that while perhaps not so technically impressive amongst its contemporaries, nevertheless looks to captivate and enrapture with it’s complete freedom of approach to completing missions and objectives.
Everything from skulking in the shadows and dropping down for a gory kill, through to teleportation and possessing anything with a heartbeat (even a fish!) combined with the creative fusion of a hugely dynamic arsenal of weapons and powers is showcased in the two videos embedded below.
With commentary by Co-Creative Directors Raphael Colantonio and Harvey Smith, each video represents the same mission, but differ in the manner by which the mission is tackled. The first video shows a more stealthy approach; leveraging a select number of powers in addition to the traditional stealth genre tropes (hiding in the shadows, hiding bodies from sight etc.) to get things done quietly and undetected. The second video as you might reasonably infer, instead shows a total balls-to-the-wall approach – where the shadows are left behind and the entire supernatural arsenal of the player is brought to bear in full-on confrontational combat.
Personally, I would much rather prefer the stealthy sort of gameplay myself at this early juncture. The game appears to function much stronger in this regard and like last year’s Deus Ex: Human Revolution, the game seemingly has it’s most rewarding and satisfying moments when it is played in this fashion.
Enough of my prattle though, have a look at the footage below and see which approach you would favour in what looks to be a dark horse contender for Game of the Year:
Dishonored is due to be released on 360, PC & PS3 platforms on October 12th, 2012.
Square-Enix Confirms Tomb Raider And Hitman: Absolution For Eurogamer Expo – Sensationalist Groping And Killer Female Clergy Not Included
If you have a ticket, you’ll actually be PLAYING this at the show. Feel free to leave your issues regarding the recent controversy at the door eh?
Following on from their respective PR shitstorms seen here and here respectively, publisher Square-Enix has announced that both Tomb Raider and Hitman: Absolution will be playable on the show floor at this year’s Eurogamer Expo.
It’ll be refreshing just to get these games in our hands and push the sight and thought of terrifyingly inept PR cretins to the back of our minds as we attempt to lose ourselves in what should otherwise be two, very promising titles.
The announcement of the Square-Enix twosome being present at the show follows announcements from Ubisoft and Capcom that many of their banner titles would also be playable on the show floor, inclusive of the likes of the recently delayed Far Cry 3, Assassins Creed 3, DmC and Resident Evil 6.
Overall, it’s looking like it’ll be a pretty stacked show and if you haven’t gotten a ticket by now, you must be some sort of disgustingly cretinous miscreant.
Right your ship and buy them here while you still can.
What’s your excuse this time? Did your cat explode?
The Eurogamer Expo is due to take place this year on September 27-30 at Earls Court in London.
Eurogamer Expo 2012: Capcom Hit The Scene With Playable Resident Evil 6, DmC and Lost Planet 3
You’ll be playing this you know. If, you have a ticket that is.
Capcom put a check in the ‘shit just got real’ box by announcing that forthcoming titles Resident Evil 6, DmC: Devil May Cry and Lost Planet 3 will all be available on the showfloor for you to get your pizza-grease covered hands on.
In particular, this year’s Eurogamer Expo will be the very first time that both Lost Planet 3 and DmC will be made playable to public (Resident Evil 6 will have had a public downloadable demo by that point).
The awesome announcement follows another awesome announcement from last week when Ubisoft came out and said that a slew of titles that would be playable at the show including the likes of Assassins Creed 3, Just Dance 4 and the recently delayed Far Cry 3. Bloody great stuff and really, if you like games and you don’t have tickets – you need to get that shit sorted out.
Sharipsh. Redeem yourself here.
Still don’t have a ticket? Are you soft-headed?
The Eurogamer Expo is due to take place this year on September 27-30 at Earls Court in London.
Fist Of The North Star: Ken’s Rage 2(He’s STILL Angry) Is A Real, Official Thing – Completely Uneventful Debut Trailer Inside
It’s probably a good idea to make something clear here; the original Fist of the North Star: Ken’s Rage represents a very niche sort of game. Firstly, you have to be a fan of the Dynasty Warrior’s/Samurai Warriors games and secondly, you really need to be a fan of the Fist of the North Star manga or anime, since being a fan of the latter will likely help you embrace the former. Though I imagine it works the other way around; the game isn’t as technically sound from a gameplay perspective as Tecmo-Koei’s other, similar titles.
If you’re still unclear as to exactly what sort of game this is, take a look at this gameplay video from the original game below:
Still here? Excellent – keep reading.
A couple of years ago, Tecmo-Koei released Fist of the North Star: Ken’s Rage – their first adapation of the popular and OTT brutal manga which followed the ‘Musou’ gameplay style blueprint of their previous titles, Dynasty Warriors and Samurai Warriors. Really, it turned out that a narrative in which a perptually pissed off protagonist goes around punching a small country’s worth of folk until their heads explode, was aptly served by 1 vs 1000 style of gameplay that the Musou style enables. Nobody wanted to see the likes of Kenshiro and Raoh duking it out in the one vs one battles that the earlier games provided – no, what they wanted to see was free-roaming, wide-scale carnage of tattooed goons and impossibly muscled bad guys being offed in increasingly comical gruesome ways.
Largely, the original Ken’s Rage delivered in this regard with a game that felt like a Dynasty Warriors title, but yet had all the characters and events of the manga combined with a feature-set all of it’s own. For fans of the FOTNS manga and anime the game was a revelation – no other game had really done the property this sort of justice before and now Tecmo-Koei look to try their hand at the license again with a sequel to their 2010 game. I would expect the game to be conservative in it’s improvements and evolution over it’s predecessor (a practice seemingly common for all Tecmo-Koei Musou games), but really, we know little else at this stage about the sequel other than it simply exists.
The somewhat lacking debut trailer for the game does little to enlighten either, but hopefully we’ll get something with a touch more gameplay to help us fill in the blanks soon:
Fist of the North Star: Ken’s Rage 2 is due out later this year for 360 & PS3 Platforms
Mojang Releases New Gameplay Trailer For ‘Scrolls’ – Alpha Release Very Soon
Minecraftian codeshop Mojang has today brought to light their release strategy for their ambitious card-battling game ‘Scrolls’.
Posting on the relaunched Scrolls website, Mojang co-founder Jakob Porser let all and sundry know that a closed alpha version of the game, featuring multiplayer matches, single-player matches and Deck Builder, will debut very soon indeed.
In fact, to use his exact words, Jakob said that the alpha release for Scrolls was ‘rapidly approaching’ and that at some point after the alpha launched, Mojang will, pending stablity of code, release the open-beta version of the software. From here you will be able to purchase the game cheaper than if you merely bought the game when it reaches completion. Like it’s predecessor Minecraft, we can expect a veritable bevy of features to be included in Scrolls as development for the game matures. One example of which was the addition of an auction house which would be used for the buying and selling of the titular scrolls (cards, effectively).
Not ones to merely let us hang on words alone, Mojang have kindly supplied a brand new gameplay trailer for us to be getting on with which you can see below:
Scrolls is due for release sometime late this year for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux platforms.
Ubisoft to Bring The Big Guns To Eurogamer Expo 2012 – Assassins Creed 3, Far Cry 3 and Just Dance 4 All Playable
THIS is one reason why you should be heading to the EG Expo this year – playable Assassins Creed 3. Playable Far Cry 3, also at the Expo, is another.
The Eurogamer Network has announced that Ubisoft will be present at their annual Eurogamer Expo show this year in some force indeed. Assassins Creed 3, Far Cry 3 and Just Dance 4 (which will have a bus all to itself) as well as other Ubisoft titles will be all playable at the event. Bravo indeed.
Really, if you consider yourself any sort of gamer you should come along – it’s chuffing brilliant. You get to play the latest games before they are released, attend developer sessions with some of the industry’s best talent, unearth some fine independent games in their Indie Games Arcade and have packets of Chilli Heatwave Doritos tossed at you every time you try and leave the place among other things.
It’s brilliant I tell thee. Grab your tickets here before they all disappear like Jimmy Carr’s stand-up career.
Like games? Got a ticket? No? SORT IT OUT.
The Eurogamer Expo is due to take place this year on September 27-30 at Earls Court in London.
Yep They Went And Did It; Nintendo Announces A Super-Size Nintendo 3DS – Enter The 3DS XL
Nintendo’s fascination with making their portable hardware offerings larger and less, well, portable continues with the announcement that like it’s DSi predecessor, the Nintendo 3DS will be getting a size increase.
Known as the ‘Nintendo 3DS LL’ in the land of the rising sun and ‘Nintendo 3DS XL’ in the West, this new iteration of their 3D handheld boasts a screen that is 90 percent bigger, with both screens benefiting from the increase in size. For the pendants out there, we’re told that the top screen measures at 4.88 inches, while the bottom screen is 4.18 inches; highlighting the same 90 percent gain in size on both displays.
Battery-wise, you should see a slight gain in juice over the current iteration of the console; Nintendo is saying that the unit will last for 3.5 to 6.5 hours for 3DS games (compared to the 3 to 5 hours with the original unit) and 6 to 10 hours for DS titles (compared to 5 to 8 with the original unit). In terms of release, the handheld releases on July 28th in the UK for around £149.99 and August 19th in the US for $199.99.
The unit will ship in Black, Black x Blue, and Black x Red colours.
In all honesty i’m finding it a little difficult to get excited about the proposition of this hardware ‘revamp’.
Firstly, why wasn’t this announced at the 3DS presser at E3? (I suppose it couldn’t have been mentioned at the main presser, because Ninty were far too busy shafting the WiiU at the time) Despite my own personal reservations about this newest iteration of the handheld, i’m quite sure that it nevertheless would have stirred some additional interest in the platform.
Secondly, i’m a little stunned at the fact that Nintendo haven’t decided to include that additional circle pad on the thing with all the extra real-estate that they have to work with now.
And lastly, the much larger screen means that games which struggle to look smooth in the original display – owing to the low-resolution that the handheld displays it’s games at, will look even worse when they’re stretched that much more by the additional size of the screens.
So whilst it hasn’t exactly set my world on fire; how do you folks feel about it?
That is some increase in size there isn’t it? I can’t say it’s really for the better though.
Nintendo will launch the 3DS XL in Europe on July 28th for roughly £149.99 and in the US on August 19th for $199.99.
Vita Is Dead, Long Live Playstation 3 – Sony E3 2012 Press Conference Analysis
Sony had a fairly decent presser if you’re a PS3 owner. Less so if you’re the owner of a shiny new Playstation Vita handheld.
It’s obvious to anybody with a clue that Sony just like Microsoft, certainly held back a great deal of announcements for next year where like the Redmond based software giant, they’ll announce their foray into the next-generation of console hardware. Unlike Microsoft however, whose presser reeked exclusively of the fetid smell of coasting this generation out, Sony also had to ensure that they put across a strong ‘Vita isn’t dead’ message; a crucial objective given the struggling fortunes endured by the handheld powerhouse recently.
With that in mind, let’s take a look at how they fared shall we?
Playstation Vita – It’s alive! IT’S ALIVE! Oh wait, no, no. It was just a twitch.
This little fella needs all the help it can get. Someone forgot to send Sony the memo it seems.
The market hasn’t been kind to the Playstation Vita. It was supposed to be the machine that was going to triumphantly put two fingers up to the App Store and its ilk with home console quality gaming on the move and the finest visuals yet seen on a handheld device. That however, remains somewhat of a pipe dream; as the machine struggles at retail due to a relatively high price-point and lack of any real killer titles.
Sensible pricing and killer titles – the two key components of any successful console, handheld or otherwise should have been the crux of Sony’s bid to rejuvenate consumer interest in the Playstation Vita. As it was, their attempt to give the beleaguered handheld a shot in the arm, came across as both limp and unsatisfying with no sign of any decently priced bundles, discount initiatives or any real new titles for them to caw about outside of the previously expected Call of Duty and Assassins Creed spin-offs.
This was all we got to see at the presser for one of the Vita’s two great white third party hopes for the Vita. A logo. Soak it in bitch, soak it in.
Really, in retrospect, Assassins Creed 3: Liberation and Call of Duty: Black Ops Declassified, is all they had to show for the machine and even then, all we really got was a logo unveiling of the latter and a gameplay video of the former that barely crossed the one minute mark. That was basically the brunt of their whole Vita push during the conference; two games – two spin-off games no less. Now, before you leap down by throat and gut me from the inside with your serrated dual-shock controllers, having two entries from what will surely be two of 2012’s most popular properties obviously isn’t a bad thing, it’s just a touch unspectacular when it isn’t being backed up by ANY other franchises – first party or otherwise.
Where was the God of War Vita title that is supposedly in production? Or the Killzone title that was shown last year? Or the Little Big Planet title that was announced at the same time as the handheld itself was? Where was any real, new first-party investment on Sony’s behalf in the platform other than the Playstation All-Stars port that every man and his dog knew was coming? I find it completely fucking crazy that they would attempt to realign in a positive fashion, consumer perception of their struggling handheld without some seriously compelling first party software to back it up.
Even third-party wise, a great deal of new games for the Vita simply just weren’t seen at the Sony conference and were sorely missed as a result. Instead of being part of the conference, Vita versions of games such as the newly announced Need for Speed: Most Wanted were relegated to footnotes in the respective publisher’s own press conferences. Really, rather than dispelling the fact that the Vita needs more decent, quality software, the slim pickings which were on show did little else then embolden the prevailing thought that the machine really has very little out, or coming out for it.
There are actually other third party titles coming out for the Vita y’know. Honest guv.
They didn’t even have a showreel for heaven’s sake, which would have been useful to at least highlight and remind folks about some of the forthcoming games like Persona 4: The Golden, Street Fighter X Tekken and more besides.
Some people have been keen to point out that this was Sony playing it safe and that there would be more unveils further down the road, but really this wasn’t playing it safe; this was tantamount to Sony putting the Vita out to die.
I mean really, they wouldn’t have had to do very much either to make things considerably better either; it’s already a well-known fact that Vita owners are craving HD collections, so why not feed that need and showcase the likes of Ratchet & Clank and Jak & Daxter HD collections running on the Vita? Sure, it’s double-dipping perhaps, but just about everybody I’ve spoken to would prefer those sorts of experiences in the palms of their hands rather than on their PS3 and let’s face it, the Vita *really* needs those software sales, so it seems like a total no-brainer.
Anybody who believes that these two games wouldn’t be IDEALLY suited to the Vita, needs to be sectioned. Immediately.
Price-wise too, people are reluctant to buy into the hardware because its base price (not to mention the still insane price of Sony’s propriety memory cards) is still relatively high and all of the bundles that currently exist for it are utterly shit and to that end, Sony made no real headway in addressing the issue; unless of course you live in France where quite puzzlingly, they were given a fifty Euro discount off the machine for two weeks.
Absolutely pointless in the extreme.
THIS was about as exciting as Sony’s first party support for the Vita at E3 got. Wonderful. I feel better about that Vita purchase already.
Most alarmingly, this was the ideal (and possibly last) window of opportunity for Sony to reinvigorate the handheld since next year Sony need to be all about the Playstation 4/Orbis, in order to attempt to grab some a share of the next-gen attention that Microsoft will be openly and loudly grabbing for. I mean come on now, the machine is not even a year old and is in need of some real, heavy support and really needs sorting out in order to make the machine even remotely relevant to gamers tightly clutching their 3DS’s and swanky smartphone devices. As it stands, they completely failed in that task and going on their E3 showcase alone, I simply don’t see one or two third-party titles making a significant overall impact to the fortunes of the embattled handheld.
Playstation 3 – First Party Crashers
If the Playstation Vita; a format desperately in need of a boost of first-party support, was sadly missing it then you wouldn’t have to look far to find where it all went. Indeed, PS3 owners were in for a treat as Sony showed off the bombastic triumvirate of God of War: Ascension, Beyond: Two Souls and The Last of Us.
God of War: Ascension held little surprise for the audience but nevertheless showed itself to be a formidable offering. Showcasing some gorgeously violent combat, superb visuals and seemingly what appears to be a very robust and enjoyable multiplayer mode, the game looks to be effortlessly capable of dutifully fulfilling that awkward spot as a worthy follow-up to God of War 3, but not the next ‘real’ canonical entry in the series which is presumably being prepped for the next-generation Playstation home console.
Beyond: Two Souls, the latest title from Heavy Rain code-house Quantic Dream, turned out to be every bit the cinematic wonder that we all thought it would be. Boasting some of the best visuals probably ever to be seen in this current generation of console hardware, the demonstration of David Cage’s newest opus went predictably heavy on cinematic bombast and equally predictably light on any sort of gameplay expose’. With some hugely richly detailed environments, highly sophisticated modeled faces that would put LA Noire to shame and an extremely nuanced and delicately subtle performance by a digital Ellen Page (who seemingly has a supremely polished cranium), the game never lacked anything in stagger-factor whatsoever. However with that said, the lack of any real gameplay was disappointing yet somewhat understandable given the developer pedigree.
Finally, Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us (the one with NOT Ellen Page) painted us a spectacularly grim picture of a post-apocalyptic future; giving us our first look at the game in motion. Visually, the game looks to be on par with the beautiful Uncharted titles that the company is mainly known for, but really, it’s the tense atmosphere and unrelentingly brutal and dynamic combat system that are the stars of the show. Showcasing a makeshift inventory system which allows you to combine every-day items for deadly effect (see the improve Molotov cocktail in the video) and an AI partner that reacts dynamically to the events which unfold (see the helpful stabbing she gives to a soldier wrestling with the main character), the game looks to be every bit as cinematic as it does eminently playable. In short: I can’t fucking wait for it and for me, it was easily the highlight of Sony’s first party offerings for the PS3.
Don’t worry, I didn’t forget about Playstation: All-Stars or Ratchet & Clank: Q Force. Sure enough All-Stars is a solid enough Smash Bros esque mascot crossover fest, but outside of its highly touted cross-play feature with the also announced Vita version of the title, it’s pretty apparent that it lacks both the gravitas and the appeal of its aforementioned Sony stablemates. The same thing applies to the announced, but not shown, Ratchet & Clank: Q Force; with developer Insomniac games promising a return to the gameplay style of old that brought them to the dance. Really the fact that it was only mentioned and not shown in any sort of meaningful capacity, doesn’t exactly say much about Sony’s confidence in the title.
The US version is subtitled ‘Full Frontal Assault’. The UK version is subtitled ‘Q Force’. Just, wow.
Despite this though, they do have one advantage over their three more enticing brethren; both of them are actually coming out this year. So then, despite the spectacular nature of their demonstrations, the sad fact eventually sinks in that you won’t be playing these games this year and it really serves to underline the fact that despite their strong first-party showing, Sony actually have very little for you to enjoy this year.
The Last Guardian. If this guy isn’t next-gen bound i’ll eat my hat; or something vaguely hat-like.
Oh and the very distinct lack of The Last Guardian goodness was duly noted; anybody who expects it to appear on this generation of Sony hardware is clearly kidding themselves at this point; especially given the recent omission from the developer that they are having a ‘myriad of technical issues’ with the highly anticipated title.
Next year then.
Playstation Move – No Motion To Carry It
No decent Playstation Move support at E3? Kevin Butler wouldn’t stand for that shit.
It seems that Sony no longer wants to compete with Kinect, or at the very least, they aren’t too hot on talking about it. Microsoft on the one hand, seem completely hell-bent on including Kinect functionality in just about every title they can and forcing developers to smile and wax lyrical through gritted teeth about it. Sony however, seem a lot less keen to do so and additionally, appear a lot less interested in getting developers to continue sing the praises of the motion control device (the last guy who did was Ken Levine at last year’s E3 regarding Move integration into the forthcoming Bioshock: Infinite).
This year’s E3 presser did little to destroy the illusion that Sony don’t have much to say regarding the Playstation Move and despite some *relatively* solid sales numbers, you would think that they would have had more to show for the device than merely a sequel to 2010’s Sports Champions. In contrast to the previous year, where we had an enthusiastic (but again lone) demonstration of Sorcery, Sony’s presser was lacking – just a trailer announcing the game with minimal fanfare and that was your lot.
At this juncture, nobody should be surprised if Sony doesn’t opt to utilise Move as transitional technology (like Microsoft are doing with Kinect) for the next generation Playstation. They just come across as barely willing to give it the time of day, let alone any attempt to re-create a groundswell of interest in the thing at a developer level.
Playstation Plus – Pay It Forward
More free shit than you can shake a hairy stick at. Bravo Sony!
Playstation Plus has for the most part, never been much of a lure – at least to me anyway. Here was a service that you paid for monthly, quarterly or annually which gave you the odd free game, discounted game or beta access to a game that you didn’t really care too much about. Then E3 2012 happened and Sony went full-tilt with ‘Hey! We have lots of free shit to tempt you with!” and it worked.
A whole raft of games suddenly turned up on the service absolutely fucking free – the likes of Infamous 2, Warhammer 40K: Space Marine and the newly released Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown all together proved to be irresistible lure for many folks (including myself) and really, if this stuff continues (and the monthly game swap out plan suggests it will), I can see my new Playstation Plus subscription enduring for a good while yet.
Brilliant stuff.
Sony @ E3 2012 – Conclusion
Despite the considerable shortcomings with their Vita showing, Sony still managed to come across more like a company that cares about the current generation of gamers than Microsoft does by comparison. The demonstration of three highly anticipated, spectacular first-party offerings did much to bolster the perception that they remain invested in the current generation of Playstation and despite the fact they won’t arrive until 2013, it nonetheless speaks volumes about their support for the existing machine going forward through the next year.
While it was largely impossible to shake the feeling that Sony is saving its biggest guns for next year’s next-gen showdown, they really should have done better with supporting the Vita. It needs every bit of help it can get right now and the almost complete lack of demonstrable first and third party support at the presser, will do little else to mitigate the stymieing of growth that the handheld is current experiencing.
Overall though, the presence of some solid first party love for the PS3, bolstered by the new PS Move incentives wasn’t quite enough in my estimation erase the nasty taste that the PS Vita shafting left in my mouth. Sony should have gone for broke with new software announcements and bundles for their struggling handheld this year, since next year, the focus will irrecoverably have to shift to avoid being upstaged by Microsoft when they lock horns with them for their next-generation debut. Hopefully, we’ll get some more Vita love in the coming weeks and months, but as far as E3 2012 goes, Sony had their chance and blew it.
UPDATED: Here Comes The Sun – Capcom Announces Okami HD For PS3 Exclusive Release This Autumn
Praise the sun!
UPDATE: Eagle-eyed fellow blogger Critical Panda has since discovered that the game does NOT require the PS Move for gameplay and can, instead, be played solely with the traditional controller. The article has been updated to reflect this and a trailer (also discovered by said Panda), has been attached to the bottom of the article. Enjoy!
It’s time to dust off or rebuy that Playstation Move controller you scrubs; Capcom this morning have confirmed that one of 2007’s best last gen titles will finally make it’s bow a generation later with the giddy news that Okami will be remastered in high-definition, exclusively for the PS3 with optionalPlaystation Move functionality.
In retrospect, the PS Move with it’s tremendous accurate motion tracking credentials has always seemed like the ideal platform for such a conversion and now it’s become a reality; an absolutely brilliant, fucking reality.
At this point it does look like it will stay a Ps3 exclusive too, I mean could you imagine trying to play it through Kinect? Instead of the masterful brushstrokes required by the game, the screen would look like someone would have thrown the whole paint pot at it. Still, I would have liked to have seen the game on the 360 nevertheless, even if it *just* utilised traditional controller methods; the more formats Okami is on, the better really.
Details wise, things are pretty thin on the ground as far as the game goes. For instance, we’re not sure if the forthcoming HD remaster will boast the more muted colours of the original PS2 version, or if it will utilise the much more glossy and vibrant pallete of the later released Wii version, though I imagine that they would be using the latter rather than the former, as a point of origin for the visuals on this version of the game. No other PS3 exclusive features have been announced either, but the details that we DO know are the price and a release window; which are £19.99 and Autumn respectively.
Really, this game should have happened earlier in the cycle for the PS3 when Sony needed more decent games to reinvigorate the solid, but not spectacular sales of the Playstation Move. Still, i’ll certainly take this all the same and my hope is that this will pave the way not only for more HD remasters of quality last-gen fodder (Kingdom Hearts i’m looking at you), but also that more cruically, it’ll result in a brand new Okami title for next-generation consoles.
‘Okami HD’ is due for release this Autumn exclusively for the PS3 with additional Playstation Move functionality
BitSnark 