Duke Nukem to Live On? — We Should Hope So

Interesting news on the gaming front today.  Supposedly long time developer 3D Realms closed its doors this week, leaving a lot of people speculating if Duke Nukem would go with it.  It wasn’t until Take-Two stepped in that we got a clear answer: nope, well not yet anyway.  It looks like the game that has been in development for thirteen years now, Duke Nukem Forever, will continue its slow development under the publishing license of Take-Two.

We can breathe a sigh of relief for now, since who doesn’t want to see Duke Nukem “Fornever” see the light of the day.  Though I’m sure we’ll all miss making fun of it’s slow development time once it makes its debut sometime in 2020.  Now that I think about it, I wonder if I ever got a refund from Babbages for when I reserved this game back in 1998 . . . oh well can’t remember.

Keep fighting the good fight Duke.

Virtual On Coming to the XBL Arcade

Gundams on Acid

I can faintly recall spending hours and hours with this game in the early stages of the new millennium.  The Nintendo 64 was entering its last run, the PlayStation 2 was making headlines, and the Dreamcast was just getting its foothold in the gaming industry.  A game that made up for a lot of my Dreamcast play time was Virtual On: Ontario Tangram; you know, that game you always saw in the arcades.  Whether it was at the local bowling alley or at home in front of my crappy television, Virtual On exemplified everything cool about video games: giant robots and huge explosions.

“Even after nearly a decade, VO: OT still looks sexy.”

Well, fortunately for us, Sega has decided to throw us old-school folk a bone.  Virtual On: Ontario Tangram will be arriving on the XBLA April 29th for 1200 MS points.  Now a lot of people have been complaining about the higher game prices, but get over it people; 15 dollars for action like this is totally worth it.  Whether you are an arcade junkie or a fan of the Gundam series, Virtual On is certainly worth it for those who lost their old Dreamcast copy.

“Get your waggle on”

Oh, and yea the 360 controller will probably suck control wise, but that’s why arcade controllers exist.  If your local game store doesn’t have a 360 arcade stick be sure to look at some imported units.  You’ll thank me later.

Final Fantasy XIII Revealed To Debut This Winter In Japan

Final Fantasy XIII has been anticipated for close to half a decade now; since everyone knows that XI was not a true Final Fantasy title (zing!)  Nevertheless, this announcement surprisingly didn’t come through a press release.  Supposedly a Final Fantasy XIII demo, that is to be released with the Blu-Ray version of Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Complete, has a special message toward the end of its session.  A message that says the following:

Final Fantasy XIII

Thank You For Playing!

Coming Winter 2009

Earlier in the year Square-Enix commented that they definitely would like to see XIII release by the end of the year.  Why?  Well who wouldn’t want to take advantage of the holiday season (cha-ching!)  Though this is still largely unconfirmed, fans of the popular RPG series finally have something to get excited about; well that and the fact that Final Fantasy VII just came out on the Japanese PSN.

Hooray for JRPGs!

Source:■掲示板に戻る■

Nice! – Final Fantasy VII now on the Japanese PSN

The epic classic Final Fantasy VII is now on the Japanese PlayStation Network (PSN).  While this comes as somewhat of a shock, I suppose it shouldn’t since it was the most requested retro game as polled by PS3 owners.  Though I never played the original on the PlayStation, I did get a hold of the buggy PC version.  Even with the format issues and stereotypical storyline, I still found Final Fantasy VII a thrilling game from start to finish.  It was the first Final Fantasy to truly take advantage of Full Motion Video (FMV), and though the visuals look poor by today’s standards, they truly were awe-inducing at the time.

“A tad overrated, but for good reason.  It truly helped RPGs become the popular genre it is today.”

The game retails quite high (at 1,500 yen/$15) , though I’m sure that won’t stop those crazy role playing fanatics from downloading it onto their respective consoles.  I haven’t touched the PlayStation 3 in quite a while, but this may actually get me to break out that fancy looking grill again; assuming of course it comes to America.  Though I’m sure Square-Enix will decide to “remake” it rather than port it, as is their custom these days.  Whatever S-E, just hurry up and release Final Fantasy XIII already.  Now there’s a game worth waiting for.