Elder Scrolls V In Production? Rumour Alert

By Mark

People have been waiting for the new Elder Scrolls game for a long time now, and not even for the release I'm just talking about waiting for at least some confirmation that the game is coming. Over at Eurogamer there is a report that claims an 'unnamed source' has all but confirmed the game saying that voice work is currently being done.

The same source goes on to say 'The sequel to Oblivion is coming, we can hereby confirm without hesitation.' and also that it will be a direct chronological sequel to Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. In the same report it's also stated that "Fallout 3 technically does a lot more than Oblivion. The new stuff is an even bigger jump from that," and that "I can say it is on the existing platforms, which we're really happy with. You almost feel like you have a new console when you see the game.". Now they're some bold claims to make given how impressive some games are these days but we'll have to see.

Obviously I'm going to state now that this could be a load of bull, so please remember it is only a rumour and take the information with a pinch of salt. On the other hand if it's remotely true (which it must be, it'd be foolish not to make a sequel given how many people want it/how successful it would be, anyway!) then those of you baying for a new Elder Scrolls title may have hope yet. Excited?


Source - Eurogamer

DS RPG Radiant Historia is Bound for North America

By Mark

If you enjoy RPG's from the land of the rising sun you'll know that generally the wait we have between the original Japanese release and the North American/European one can be anywhere up to 6 months later. It's painful yes but Atlus have cut that gap down considerably for their original DS RPG title Radiant Historia.

It only launched this month in Japan and is bound for North America in February, not bad eh? Although there doesn't seem to be word of a European release which is a bummer, but there's still hope. Anyhow, what's this game about I hear a small amount of you ask. Well. It's about a fellow called "Special Intelligence Agent Stocke" who uses a magical book to alter the course of historical events both backwards and forwards in time. In terms of gameplay it plays on a grid with an emphasis of strategy and combo building.

As with alot of Atlus' releases these days they are offering additional content upon launch as well, the spoils this time around being a soundtrack disc that contains the piano arrangements by composer Yoko Shimomura. Here's a trailer for you to pass a couple of minutes with, enjoy.

The Last Story Trailers Now Subbed

By Mark

It's always nice when you get to see a trailer where you didn't have a clue what was being said now subtitled for you to understand. Especially when it's for the upcoming JRPG epic from Mistwalker Studios 'The Last Story'. I've said before that for a Wii game particularly, this game is looking pretty amazing and I only hope that it does well at retail provided it is indeed as good as it looks.

Here are two previously released trailers now for your pleasure in understandable English, many thanks to the subber.

What these trailers do now is leave me wanting more for not only the game, but also the option to play the game in this manner with the original voices and subtitles. Can only hope right?

See Bayonetta From the Past! - Early Build

By Mark

It's always interesting to see things that you never got to see in the final game and this video piqued my interest greatly as you get to see Bayonetta as a still work in progress game from what looks like back in 2007.

Sega and Platinum Games have released a video showing what the game looked like back then and the differences are indeed noticeable, look at the action itself. It's a little slower and to me changes the feel of the crazy fast action that the actual released game was known for and also the interface, both menus and loading screens are totally different. I'll say I'm glad Bayonetta went on to be the game it was but it's definitely pretty sweet to see what things were changed and what the dev's were thinking back then and to see certain ideas that where thrown away or tweaked.

Check out the video and see for yourself, but I will say that other developers should think about doing this. Granted it gains them nothing but at least we get to see what we could of had, what do you think?

More GT5 Gameplay For You to Gaze At

By Mark

We had London and the rain before and now we're gonna look at some snow and damage, got some time to kill then you should check em out even if you're not the biggest racing fan out there. They still manage to impress. 

Damage Gameplay: While to me the crashes themselves don't look 'all that', the actual damage representation on the car is sweet.

Snowy Gameplay: Footage is a little shakey but still watchable.

'Offensive' Symbols/Emblems Not Tolerated: Microsoft

By Mark

If you've been playing Black Ops recently or really any online game that allows players to have a clan tag/emblem/symbol then you will have undoubtedly seen a certain amount of people who think it's 'funny' or 'cool' for one reason or another to have provocative images/words just because they can. Stephen Toulouse (essentially chief cop for Xbox Live) has written an extensive piece on his blog explaining that the use of a 'Swastika' symbol can indeed get you banned. 

Here's an extract from the blog explaining their standpoint, i realise it's word heavy but stick with it.

"Tonight I got asked one of those questions that only my job can apparently engender, namely “Hey, I’m not a genocidal hater of Jews but I really love the design of the swastika because its actually used by numerous religions, can I use it as my Call Of Duty: Black Ops logo? SWASTIKAS ARE AWESOME.No really, someone asked me this as a serious question on twitter.  So I of course replied, “no, of course you can’t, we’ll ban you.”

UH OH!  OUT COMES THE INTERNET PUNDITS!

You know the type I mean.  They’ve read an article that’s contrarian to some position widely held, or they’ve found some obscure fact that contradicts common interpretation.  Some of them claim to have known it as innate fact, others claim it to be widespread common knowledge taught to every single person in elementary school. Of course, usually neither is true at all. Most of them are just contrarians.  They would never dare to wear a swastika openly, but they love to argue about how the world has “misunderstood” this symbol. Or they view any opportunity for human interaction, no matter the appropriateness, to push their point."

There is a fair bit more to the article but i won't bombard you with it here, I feel he makes a good point and does go to explain why it is that Microsoft will punish people for doing such things. In the conclusion of the post he writes its all about context and sums up his message in a TL;DR statement which was:

"TL;DR: If you see offensive symbols in Call of Duty, Black Ops, report them using the in game option and they will be taken care of.  If you want to argue that swastikas are actually AWESOME, go to another forum.  On Xbox LIVE they are not allowed. :>"

If you've stuck with this article so far I thank you for reading and here is the original blog page - http://www.stepto.com/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?ID=635 

Sweet GT5 Gameplay

By Mark

So Gran Turismo 5 will actually be upon real soon now, but while you wait just that bit more check out these videos of the game in action. The weather effects are pretty great, other games could definitely do to improve on the aspect.

So first up we have some gameplay from the London tack:



And now here's the rainy gameplay: