CGSociety and Ubisoft Discuss Assassin's Creed Development

If you're a 3D artist, chances are you've heard of CGSociety. In recent times, I've had a ton of exposure to the CGSociety community due to my workplace, and I am just incredibly baffled by the sheer amount of talent overflowing their forums.

Modeling artists, texturing artists. MAX, Maya, Zbrush ... CGSociety has a plethora of talent in every corner of the CG art industry.

Recently, the site had a chance to speak to Raphael Lacoste, Art Director of Assassin's Creed and other members of the art team. Originally hired by Ubisoft's Yannis Mallat to work on a Prince of Persia game, Lacoste soon found himself part of a team creating an entirely new concept. The CGSociety feature gives readers a considerable amount of insight into the art direction process for the game.

When we arrive on the edge of a cliff and discover a whole city, the impression is of an incredible open space. When we get lost in small crowded streets full of smoke, we are feeling oppressed. If we climb up on the roofs of the city, the feeling is far more liberating. We are mastering our moves, on the top of the living, breathing world. The contrast is also between the cities and the different quarters of the cities. We tried to make definite variations in the mood, even with edgy and almost monochromatic filters.”

That's just the obligatory quote. If you're a fan of videogame art, and especially if you're a CG artist, this is highly recommended reading.

[CG Society Production Focus - Assassin's Creed]

Picture courtesy of Raphael Lacoste's CGSociety Gallery

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Street Fighter 4 Teaser Trailer

No clue why the hell Games Radar took their Capcom Gamer's Day post down. Ah well, who cares? Street Fighter 4! Now, let's just hope it's on all three systems...

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Hellgate: London Special Edition Includes Graphic Novel

Even more game / manga publisher collaboration news for the day! This time, it concerns Flagship's Hellgate: London special edition (because we all know any game without one sucks).

Flagship has chosen Dark Horse to publish a Hellgate: London graphic novel that will be included in the special edition box. According to the press release, "In addition to the Hellgate: London game and the exclusive, special-edition, 104 page Hellgate: London graphic novel, the collectors set will also include a bonus DVD of The Making of Hellgate: London, as well as the game soundtrack, and a special Hellgate: London world map. "

And here's the obligatory quote:

“Dark Horse has been a perfect partner for graphic novels,” said Bill Roper, CEO of Flagship Studios. “Their attention to detail, creative talent, and dedication to representing the Hellgate: London world has been second to none.”

Press release after the jump as always.

EA AND NAMCO BANDAI GAMES ANNOUNCE OCTOBER 31ST RELEASE DATE

Redwood City, CA (August 6, 2007) –- Get ready to hack, slash, and shoot your way through a demon-infested London this Halloween! Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: ERTS) and NAMCO BANDAI Games America Inc. today announced that Hellgate: London, the premier title from Flagship Studios, will start hitting retail stores in North America on October 31, 2007 and in Europe on November 2, 2007 for the PC. Hellgate: London represents the next leap in the evolution of the action RPG genre, combining the depth and addictive gameplay of traditional RPGs with the visceral action of first-person shooters.

“We wanted to hit the sweet-spot for release in terms of the development schedule and delivering the highest-quality game to our players,” said Bill Roper, CEO of Flagship Studios. “Halloween was the perfect fit as it ensures that Hellgate: London will have an appropriate amount of beta testing, while also being an incredibly fun time to unleash the game.”

One of the most anticipated PC games and RPGs of the year, Hellgate: London offers infinite re-playability with dynamically generated levels, items, enemies and events. The player creates a heroic character, completes quests, and battles through an innumerable amount of demons to advance through a deep, rich story-driven campaign. A robust, flexible skill and spell system, highly customizable appearances, and a massive variety of randomly generated equipment allow each player to create his or her own unique hero.

While some may prefer to slay demons solo, players will also be able to take the fight online*, teaming up with friends to save London in a secure, client-server environment and playing through the entire story-driven campaign for free. For those players who want to extend their Hellgate: London experience, Flagship is offering an optional subscription service which will give players access to huge amounts of content on an ongoing basis in the form of quests, character classes, demons, items, etc. More details about Hellgate: London’s online options are coming soon.

The game has not yet been rated by the ESRB, PEGI or BBFC. Visit www.esrb.org, www.pegionline.eu or www.bbfc.co.uk for updated rating information. For more information about Hellgate: London, log onto http://info.ea.com or the game’s official website at www.hellgatelondon.com.

* Internet connection required.

About Electronic Arts

Electronic Arts Inc. (EA), headquartered in Redwood City, California, is the world's leading interactive entertainment software company. Founded in 1982, the company develops, publishes, and distributes interactive software worldwide for video game systems, personal computers, cellular handsets and the Internet. Electronic Arts markets its products under four brand names: EA SPORTS™, EA™, EA SPORTS BIG™ and POGO™. In fiscal 2007, EA posted revenue of $3.09 billion and had 24 titles that sold more than one million copies. EA's homepage and online game site is www.ea.com. More information about EA's products and full text of press releases can be found on the Internet at http://info.ea.com.

About Flagship Studios

Flagship Studios is a creator of innovative entertainment software, designing games that focus on ease of play, replayability, and fun. The studio was formed in 2003 by former executives and developers from Blizzard North® and represents the creators of the worldwide, best-selling Diablo® franchise. With members that are renowned within the gaming industry, Flagship Studios embodies a team that has worked together for over a decade and have numerous #1-selling games and multiple Game of the Year awards to their credit. For more information about Flagship Studios log onto www.flagshipstudios.com.

About Namco Bandai Games America Inc.

NAMCO BANDAI Games America Inc., is a leading interactive entertainment software publisher and developer based in Santa Clara, CA. The company is a part of the NAMCO BANDAI group of companies known for creating and publishing many of the industry's top video game franchises including the PAC-MAN®, SOULCALIBUR®, NARUTO™ and Tekken® brands. For more information about NAMCO BANDAI Games America Inc., and our products log onto www.namcobandaigames.com.
EA, EA SPORTS, EA SPORTS BIG, and POGO are trademarks or registered trademarks of Electronic Arts Inc. in the U.S and/or other countries. Hellgate™: London is a trademark and/or registered trademark of Flagship Studios, Inc. throughout the world. Licensed by NAMCO BANDAI Games America Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

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Digital Manga Publishing Promotes Club Otakie With DS

Another example of Nintendo's newer systems really fitting in with very well the manga and anime industries. While the GBA was no slacker itself, I see a lot more potential for the DS and Wii to cater to the needs of what manga and anime fans would crave, especially considering some of the cooler niche titles on the systems.

A few months ago, Nintendo and TOKYOPOP announced that they would be teaming up to set up an anime theatre at Leipzig. Now, Digital Manga Publishing have announced that they will be creating a new mail order catalog, Club Otakie, for their fans. In order to promote this catalog, DMP will be hosting contests open to members from now till December 17th, where they will be giving out prizes every week.

This week's prize just so happened to be a DS Lite bundled with Brain Age 2 and a carrying case. Other prizes include goodies such as iPod Shuffles and $25 MasterCard Gift Cards. I'm fairly certain the DS won't be restricted to just this week, given the system's broad appeal. And what better game to ensure you're appealing to the widest age group possible than Brain Age 2?

Now, if only Nintendo and manga publishers would get even closer...

Press release after the jump.

Digital Manga Inc. Promotes Club Otakie Signups with Prizes like iPod Shuffles and Nintendo DS Lites!

Gardena, CA, October 16, 2007– Digital Manga, Inc. will be creating a new mail order catalog, Club Otakie, for fans. To promote the mail order catalog, Digital Manga is offering a contest for all signups where Digital Manga will be giving out prizes each week until December 17, 2007.

A total of 30 prizes will be awarded and contestants will be eligible to win a prize each week as long as they stay signed up!

Digital Manga, Inc. has selected its first winner, Diane R. from Lochbuie, Colorado, who will be winning a Nintendo DS Lite Pack, which includes Brain Age 2 and a carrying case. Other prizes that will be given away include iPod Shuffles and $25 MasterCard Gift Cards.

Winners will be announced on the Contest Detail page every week.

For more information on the contest and for list of prizes, go to http://www.emanga.com/signup.php

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The Woes of Indie Developers

Jess Ragan over at 1UP has a fairly interesting piece up about the challenges of indie game development, with a considerable amount of everything that makes up a good investigative piece: history, quotes and numbers.

While the write-up is a tad long, it's still extremely refreshing and comes as a real wake-up call to anyone hoping to pursue game development in the future. With both down-to-earth and inspiring quotes, the article would certainly appeal to anyone interested in the more obscure, quirky side of the games industry. Give it a read at the link below!

[Filling a Niche: Bold Videogames that Buck the Mainstream]

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Nintendo Strategy RPG Game Trailers

We have three new trailers for you today. All of them feature game-play and cut-scenes from Nintendo's premiere strategy role-playing game franchises: Advance Wars and Fire Emblem which are about to be released. What is ironic about this post is, these games absolutely must be played to be full appreciated. Screen-shots and trailers do not even come close to doing them justice. I thought Fire Emblem looked very lame when I saw screen shots of it years ago. I played it anyway and now it's one of my favorite games. The original Advance Wars is just like it but pseudo-modern warfare instead of fantasy.

Nevertheless, here they are. Enjoy!



I absolutely love the new gritty look of Advance Wars. And now, I found out it's post-apocalyptic. Awesome! Assuming this game has a higher difficulty than games of past, this will be one very intense gaming experience. The artwork and animations are much more mature and stylish this time around. The future looks good for Advance Wars.



I've been waiting for this game to come out for ages. It's been out a year in Japan and I wonder what's taking Nintendo so long to localize it. Well, I actually know the answer to my own question. Translation of course! Want to read a book, but don't feel like it? Play Fire Emblem! Plenty of text to read all around. I do agree that reading in Fire Emblem games can get tedious sometimes, but it's worth it since the story is always so good. The trailer doesn't show anything new, just a few more bits of some awesome cutscenes.



Okay, okay. I know this isn't really an RPG...or at least a strategy RPG. Battalion Wars is a slight shoot-off game from Advance Wars, originally for the Gamecube, but the sequel is being made for the Wii as you can very well see. I did not play the first one. I was saying how I loved the new look and feel of Advance Wars. The complete opposite is true for Battalion Wars. It looks like a fun game. It probably is a fun game. Battalion Wars II looks a lot better than the first game, and with the inclusion of online play, I'll definitely make more of effort to play this game when it comes out.

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Juicy Handheld Rumours: NeoGAF

For those of you who are into hand-held gaming, someone at NeoGAF has some scans from a magazine and translated parts of it to give us some spicy new rumours to speculate on.

1. New version of DS next spring, with a mobile digital TV/radio tuner.
2. Square Enix make a RPG for DS with Shonen JUMP characters.
3. [Dragon Quest 9] also available for PSP.

New DS? That's understandable. It's the best selling gaming device of all time. I remember how many people laughed at Nintendo for even the thinking of creating something like the DS, especially since it would cut into the sales of their, at the time, best selling Game Boy Advance even if the hand-held was a winner -- which of course, it turned out to be. It's clear that Nintendo isn't by any means, stupid. If they think this will help sales of their already hot DS then I have no objections to them going to town with whatever crazy additions they want to include in the next SKU.

I'm not so sure about these new features, I'm fairly confident Nintendo will release a new DS SKU soon.

Shonen Jump RPG? Well they did make Mario Basketball so we know they can develop something other than Final Fantasy oriented content. Licensing could pose a problem, but it's no lie that Shonen Jump is popular in America, especially amongst kids. I wonder if it would be an RPG similar to Super Mario RPG.

The probability for this game to be made is high. Square-Enix is big into the anime industry so I don't see why they wouldn't make this game. Whether or not it will come state-side is a bit to early to call, but it's not impossible.

Dragon Quest IX on the PSP? If you've already forgotten, this game is supposed to be a DS exclusive. Square-Enix loves all gaming platforms, so I wouldn't blame them if they did bring Dragon Quest IX on over to the PSP, especially since all the recent prequels to IX have been on a Sony system. When Square does make a game exclusive, it usually stays exclusive -- at least for a few years. So even if Dragon Quest IX does remain exclusive to Nintendo for now, I wouldn't be surprised if it's ported over to PSP a year or two later.

Remember folks, these are all rumours. They could be all be true, they could all be false. We'll just have to wait and see.



[Source: NeoGAF]

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SSBB Coverage: Everybody Hates Ike!

Where is Ike? I've seen game-play trailers and new screen-shots all over the place. Haven't seen Ike at all.

I blame it on Sonic! Maybe...people see his blue, messy hair and think..."sonic....more sonic...post about sonic....upload game-play footage of sonic..."

I even saw some game-play. Right before they start the match, Ike was selected, but some retard from Gamespot or somewhere changes to Sonic instead.

Maybe he's just too good for media coverage. When is the last time you played a good Sonic game? When is the last time you played a good Fire Emblem game? Clearly, "good game" and "Sonic" should never exist within the same sentence ever! It's probably grammatically incorrect by now.

Yeah, yeah. Sonic did have some good game..a few decades ago! But greatness can easily be cloaked by mediocrity if you just keep piling it on. Sonic's once great name is now stained because of that and I honestly don't see why anyone cares for him anymore.

Ike's the character I'm looking forward to playing as the most. I do believe Nintendo said that Ike would be a heavier fighter (not my play-style) than the likes of Marth and Roy, but I was okay with that. I love Fire Emblem. Ike wasn't necessarily my favorite Lord, but he is probably the most powerful out of all of them. I say that because you have to fight the last boss in Fire Emblem 9 alone with Ike, rather than develop some complex strategy to win with your whole team. Then again, the last boss in Path of Radiance wasn't a three story tall dragon.

Roy and Marth were my favorite characters in Melee. I'm going to be seriously ticked off if they don't make it back into Brawl. When Ike was announced as a playable character, I really took it as the greatest news about the game, for me personally. I thought that if Ike could make it, perhaps other Lords from Fire Emblem games could make the roster as well. I was really expecting someone from Fire Emblem 7...perhaps Eliwood (Roy's dad), Hector, or Lyndis...


I want to play too...

And she did make it...as an assist trophy! I'm being pretty ridiculous when I say this, but I find this insulting. I was not a happy camper that morning when I woke up to that RSS feed. Lyn was an amazing character. Hundreds of characters from the games would have made good trophies.

I'm over Lyn...I really am...mainly because of the possibility that Nintendo will make up for this horrible atrocity.

Two characters from Fire Emblem I do hope make it, are Eirika and Ephriam - the siblings and Lords and from Fire Emblem 8 (Sacred Stones).



I'm not getting my hopes up just in case Nintendo decided to make an assist trophy out of them as well. On top of Ike, Marth and Roy, I do expect at least one more Fire Emblem character to make it on the Brawl roster. By the time it comes out, Fire Emblem 10 (Radiant Dawn) will have come out so we might see someone from that game like Sothe, Sothe would be interesting since he's a thief or assassin class character...he wouldn't play like the others at all.

I love to say this, but I'd absolutely love a Fire Emblem only fighting game. Maybe like Smash, but not exactly the same. You could then go for more of a traditional fighting game model. If you've ever played any of the games in depth, you'll find you tend to get very attached to each one of your units. You'll turn crazy and start talking to them as if they can hear you...yell at them when they miss an attack - howl is agony if one dies..and you then promptly restart the level or turn off the game and stomp out of the room. Okay, maybe that's just me.

Anyhow, Fighter Emblem would be a sweet game just for the sheer amount of characters you could play as. The starting roster could be huge and with Connect24, you could add more and more. I'm dreaming of course, but that is pretty much one of my dream games. Rutger was one of my favorite swordmasters ever, I'd kill to play as him in a fighting game. And Fir, and Zihark, and Nephenee, and Lucia. It's a pipe-dream of course but I'm not concerned about that.

Maybe Nintendo will wise up and take advantage of this opportunity.

[ADVANCE]

Capcom To PS3 Owners: Look Over Yonder, to Next Week!

Looks like my hopes might not end up getting shattered just this once. It seems that, regardless of all their Xbox 360 support and increasing Wii support, Capcom is still planning on backing the PS3 as well.

1P Start's forum recon unit brings us this bit of intelligence: A forum user by the name of "Vampire_Saviour" posted the following message on Capcom's message boards:

Capcom is losing fans. They obviously don’t care for their PS3-owner fans.

In response to which, Capcom's ever-vigilant and forum-savvy Senior Director of Strategic Planning & Research, Christian Svensson replied:

Let’s see how they feel at the end of next week about us.

Intriguing, no? Capcom's big announcements are due on the 15th. What could possibly make up for the betrayal that was Devil May Cry 4?

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BioWare Has Been Assimilated!

It's official! EA has bought out BioWare Corp. Go Nintendo reports:

REDWOOD CITY, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Electronic Arts Inc. today announced an agreement with Elevation Partners to acquire VG Holding Corp. — the owner of both BioWare Corp. and Pandemic Studios. This acquisition gives EA a strong competitive position in key genres in interactive entertainment: action, adventure and role-playing games. The two studios have been recognized for creating some of the highest-quality games in the industry.

BioWare Corp. and Pandemic Studios have ten franchises under development, including six wholly owned games. BioWare Corp. is currently developing the highly anticipated Mass Effect, which will be published by Microsoft in November, and is in the early development stages of a massively multiplayer online game. Pandemic Studios is redefining open-world games with its upcoming Mercenaries 2: World in Flames(TM) and Saboteur(TM), in addition to several unannounced projects.

Pandemic Studios and BioWare Corp. employ roughly 800 people across four studios located in Edmonton, Canada; Los Angeles; Austin; and Brisbane, Australia.

“These are two of the most respected studios in the industry and I’m glad to be working with them again. They’ll make a strong contribution to our strategic growth initiatives on quality, online gaming and developing new intellectual properties,” said John Riccitiello, EA’s Chief Executive Officer. “We also expect this will drive long-term value for our shareholders.”

Pandemic Studios is led by Andrew Goldman, Josh Resnick and Greg Borrud. BioWare Corp. is jointly led by Greg Zeschuk and Ray Muzyka. These teams will join the EA(TM) Games Label run by Frank Gibeau, President of EA Games.

“Pandemic Studios remains focused on attracting the best talent and creating blockbuster action games,” said Josh Resnick, President and Co-founder of Pandemic Studios. “As a worldwide publishing leader, EA represents the ideal partner to bring our titles to market as global entertainment events.”

“We are truly excited by John Riccitiello’s new vision for EA,” said Ray Muzyka, Co-founder and CEO of BioWare Corp. “This vision is consistent with BioWare’s focus on crafting the highest quality story-driven games in the world. It will enable us to further the careers of the passionate, creative and hard working teams at BioWare Edmonton and BioWare Austin.”

EA will pay up to $620 million in cash to the stockholders of VG Holding Corp. and will issue up to an additional $155 million in equity to certain employees of VG Holding Corp., which will be subject to time-based or performance-based vesting criteria. EA will also assume outstanding VG Holding Corp. stock options. In addition, EA has agreed to lend VG Holding Corp. up to $35 million through the closing of the acquisition.

I'll be honest. I've never played a BioWare game. I know that they make great games. Knights of the Old Republic has looked very appealing to me in the past, but I just never went through with it and played it. What this means now is that EA has their hands in BioWare's pockets. Gamers everywhere are really anticipating Mass Effect. With EA heading up the publishing, I'd expect to see a lot of advertising when we are near it's release date so be prepared.

Brian Crecente (from Kotaku) was present at the press conference when EA announced it's acquisition of BioWare Corp and Pandemic Studios and he was blogging live from the event.

Now the deal specifics:

They are paying $860 million in consideration, as we reported earlier, and they expect the deal to close by early 2008.

EA expects to break even on the deal by 2009 and start raking it in by 2010.

John Riccitiello's on the line now. He says he has a "residual interest" in Elevation Partners but that the decision to go ahead with the purchase was confirmed by an independent team.

Frank Gibeau, president of the games label, said EA expects games to be created in "10 plus" franchises as well as the MMO that Bioware's Austin office is working on.

Of the ten plus franchises there are many titles that have not yet been announced but will be in the near future. They do include Jade Empire, Mass Effect, Mercenaries, Saboteur, Neverwinter Knights and several others.

EA said Bioware and Pandemic have several titles that have been targeted for the DS and the Wii.

The dialog engine in Mass Effect which could be used for other games in the future.

EA brings a lot to the table in the deal, Riccitiello says. They can "offer them the leverage of the world's best publisher", much more in the way of online and much more in the way of mobile.

"We are not in the open world action adventure business, these guys are leaders. Strong intellectual properties and talent."

Of the ten titles that the EA folks referenced earlier, the games are expected to be spread out from now to 2011.

EA is already publishing a bulk of Bioware and Pandemic titles, so the effect of the titles hitting this holiday probably won't be that pronounced.

Take it for what it's worth. EA knows that BioWare knows how to make games. As long as they stay out of the development cycle, I can only see good things on the road ahead for BioWare and Pandemic. EA has been known to meddle with games. They enjoy making money so when that's more of a focus than making a great all around game usually that game and sometimes the entire franchise collapses.

[Source: Go Nintendo]
[Source: Kotaku]

[ADVANCE]

First Impressions: Dragonaut -The Resonance-

It's time to churn out some impressions of a new show that's a little more action-oriented. I wasn't particularly expecting much from Dragonaut; it was just one of those shows I had kept my eye on just in case it turned out to be really good. After watching the first episode, I am disappointed to say I'm still unsure about whether this show will be a hit or what it's even about for that matter. The story is somewhat disorienting. The style and animation seems to drop off at certain points in terms of quality. Some of the fighting was cool though.

Read on for more.




Story:

Our protagonist's name is Jin Kamishina. Jin is eighteen years old. Jin is very emotional and lonely because two years ago, he lost his parents and younger sister in a space shuttle accident. The story of Dragonaut seems to take place around our own current time period, perhaps slightly more into the future where ordinary citizens can take a commercial flight into space like we do today with airplanes. The shuttle that was carrying the Kamishina family was almost into orbit but then suddenly it was stuck by one of three foreign objects from outer space. It exploded high in the sky leaving the people in the space port that saw them off in shock. Jin was aboard this shuttle and somehow managed to survive the impact and the long fall into what I assume was the ocean. The first episode doesn't show us how Jin survives. Perhaps this will be used later on in the series as a part of Dragonaut's seemingly complex storyline.

Two years after this horrible tragedy, we see Jin living his current life with some relatives. As I stated before, he seems to be very lonely and not at all content with the company of his current household. Since he survived the shuttle accident, Jin seems to be well known. I say this because we see a reporter or investigator tracking him trying asking him questions regarding the event. Jin tries to lose him and succeeds.



So what happens to Jin next? I'm not sure to be honest. We are then taken to other scenes involving unknown characters. We are also introduced to some organization or group called the "International Solarsystem Development Agency" or "ISDA" for short. We see various members of the ISDA are taking amongst themselves, and we hear that something called "Resonance" will be initiated that night.

If you are confused at this point, don't worry, I was as well. A monster is loose in the city and we see him attack and devour a woman walking home at night. It's dark and many mysterious noises are generated piquing Jin's curiosity, whom was also walking home nearby. He investigates but then realizes that something is very wrong and backs away. As he does that, his foot strikes a tin can on the ground and that catches the monster's attention. He then proceeds to attack Jin who tries to run away. We begin realize that Jin isn't exactly your typical macho man who's willing to fight anyone and anything, but then we see he's not some sissy either. He does what every man should do when being pursued by large monster and fights back. Our hero happens to find a steel pole laying on the ground. He picks it up and swings straight at the monsters head. Too bad it had absolutely no effect on the monster. He didn't even flinch. It was a nice try though, Jin.

This part of the show was pretty dark so it's rather difficult to tell what exactly is happening. The monster pursues Jin a bit longer. Jin escapes but the monster comes through the floor. Somehow they end up on top of a tall building and the monster attack Jin with his gigantic arms. He misses and does a lot of damage to the building and then Jin is now free falling straight towards the concrete streets below. Throughout the entire episode, a mysterious girl has been following Jin. And that's good for Jin because she jumps from a rooftop and catches him in midair and then lands on the roof of another building and jumps away with Jin still in her arms.

Of course their pursuer was not far behind them. He catches up to them on a highway and an awesome fight occurs. Don't judge the girl by her size. She gives their opponent some very hard kicks. It doesn't last very long. A gas tanker is driving down the highway and hits the monster head on causing a large explosion. The monster walks out of the flames and by that time the girl and had fled the scene with Jin.

Jin then wakes up. He falls asleep or loses consciousness somewhere amidst all the action. He quickly remembers that a monster had attacked him and was angry about it. Then he sees the girl who rescued him standing a few feet away from him with a pleasant smile on her face. She introduces herself as "Toa" to Jin. They grasp each other's hand and that's the end.

The Bottom Line:

Once again, for the third time in a row, I'm giving a sort of mediocre impression for the title anime. Dragonaut was alright, but it's nothing to get excited over. At least not yet anyways. A lot of characters were thrown at you and not many of them properly introduced or their roles explained. I even believe on the official website for Dragonaut, a chart is available that details all the characters and their relationship with each other. I believe that Dragonaut will have a very deep and somewhat complicated storyline so it definitely has the potential to become a very solid show later on down the line. But as for me, I just wasn't excited about it. I will keep my eye on Dragonaut though.















Opening:


Ending:

[ADVANCE]

Disaster: Day of Crisis Lives!

IIIIIIIIIIIIIT'S ALIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIVE!!!!

I'm sorry, I couldn't resist. Disaster: Day of Crisis is one of those obscure Wii games that you hear about once every six months. A screenshot here, some concept art there ... not much to go on at all.

But recently, as many of you know, Nintendo acquired Monolith Soft, which got a bunch of us really excited, seeing as how the XenoSaga games from Monolith are some of the best RPGs in existence, and that Day of Crisis has great potential as a new Nintendo franchise.

Well, it turns out the game is still very much alive and kicking, and this has been confirmed thanks to some new screens I found over at Kotaku. Hopefully, the game will be at Nintendo's press conference in Seattle later this week. You can expect FWA to bring you all the important updates as they roll in. We're just as excited as you are.

[ADVANCE]

New Character Announcement for SSBB, Delayed Release Date

Another new character has been announced for Super Smash Brothers Brawl. People have been waiting for him to make an appearance since the original and now you can finally play as Sonic the Hedgehog!. Along with this news, comes the announcement of a delay. the US release date has been changed from Dec. 3rd to TBA. Oh well, pretty soon I won't have to play flash games to kill Mario with Sonic.

[ADVANCE]