Breaking through an enemy by punching them so hard they traverse the entire globe before crashing back into place, teaming up with upto four party members to unleash a massive beating on an unluckily cornered foe, having a bipolar frog, semi-suicidal underage shinobi and a gun-wielding princess with a monster sealed inside her join your party as you pummel through level 100 minions and bribe powerful Dark Council members with either treasure or a closed fist; heaving exploding penguins at unsuspecting foes to send ‘em sky-high, and blocking an earth-shattering attack from a towering, Satan-like monster with your bare hands…If the above sentences couldn’t describe the sheer madness transpiring in Nippon Ichi’s Disgaea 2: Cursed Memories(sequel to Disgaea: Hour of Darkness, the immensely popular Turn Based Strategy RPG free-for-all), then the upcoming paragraphs may not get the job done either. However, if you had to bet you’re hard-earned EXP points on one thing, it’d be this—Disgaea 2 is the be-all, end-all of such games on the PS2, a frighteningly hilarious and laid-back dippy head-trip into the domain of character skills, classes, stats, levels, weapons and pizza-delivering cell phones.

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The dream team behind Chrono Trigger reunite for a role-playing tour de force on the X360.

It’s a sad fact that Microsoft had to face–that their newest console was going the way of the dinosaur in Japan. This changed recently with the release of Blue Dragon, a game developed by renowned Final Fantasy (FF) and Squaresoft alumnus Hironobu Sakaguchi. Thanks to his track-record, Blue Dragon went on to become the highest selling XBOX 360 title in the territory thus far (Microsoft has already sold more than the 200,000 copies that were readied on day one of the Japanese launch). After leaving his original home in the RPG giant, Sakaguchi founded Mistwalker Studios (which by the way, is also developing Lost Odyssey, that gorgeous gem also coming to the 360) who, in conjunction with Artoon Studios (Blinx the Time Sweeper) has developed this new 3D, turn-based RPG. Of course, renowned character artiste, Akira Toriyama (Dragonball), and legendary game music composer Nobuo Uematsu are also onboard and this is the first time the trio have worked together since developing Chrono Trigger more than a decade ago.

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Now if this isn’t news, what is? David Jaffe of God of War for the PS2 and Calling All Cars (one of the more popular titles available on the Playstation network for download) and Scott Campbell, former chief director at Incognito Entertainment (who also collaborated with the former on Calling All Cars, along with co-developing the Twisted Metal Games and being involved with the tactical air and land warfare PS3 game, Warhawk) have formed the new Eat, Sleep, Play Studios and signed a multi-year deal with Sony Computer Entertainment of America’s (SCEA) Santa Monica branch to develop games under their banner.

Yesterday’s announcement, which was officially confirmed as of today, has given insight in to the first big project which is confirmed for a 2008 release. In the meantime, Eat, Sleep and Play will release Twisted Metal: Head On for the Playstation 2 in winter of this year. The release will contain brand-spanking new levels from the never before released Twisted Metal: Black Part II. The best part though, is that the core members of Incognito will still remain with their original branch to continue development on Warhawk, so that leaves two massive titles for Sony to look forward to for its platform in the future. With the support of two of the most iconic developers in the gaming industry today, Sony appears to be on the up side. Stay tuned for details on Eat, Sleep, Play’s first PS3 title.

Source: Gamasutra

Shoddy controls, last-gen graphics, ho-hum gameplay that churns the same objectives out over and over in the name of fun…And still sells well. Holy unholy satanic demon-spawn Batman! Could it be? Yep, we’re talking about the movie game, one of the greatest abominations brought to this gaming earth since Sega’s recent incarnations of the little blue furball. It’s not enough to have one of the most treasured mediums butchered in the name of quick cash, but when it’s decided that there must be a sequel? Pure debauchery.

But as the mafia and top level gaming executives say, ‘It’s only business, nothing personal’. Ever since EA developed Godfather: The Game (which found itself embroiled in numerous controversies, from practically kick-starting the whole fiasco of target graphics footage for next-genenration games to issues like that of the original creator of the movie series, Francis Ford Capolla, whole heartedly disapproving of the game), and sold lots of copies of it, rumors have been up in the air of there being a sequel. But despite some of the nicer control schemes of the Blackhand edition (exclusively for the Wii), many gamers would have been skeptical, if not down-right hopeful of those rumors staying as such.

Its finally been confirmed and you can once again burn the midnight oil, debating on how to make a proper movie game—Godfather 2 has been announced for the next-gen systems, and EA can’t stop ranting about how this a next step for them in developing games for a ‘more mature’ audience. Makes you crave for the days when all games were for kids (and actually fun). Nonetheless, it remains to be seen if EA will go forth and fix a majority of the problems of the original.

Source: Gamasutra

It seems things have moved even further than any one could have predicted in this console war. With the release of the next-gen PS3 and the Nintendo Wii, the age of the current generation seems to meeting its end with only a few games being planned for the PS2 console.

However, the shocking announcement made by Playstation inventor and Chairman/Group CEO of Sony Computer Entertaiment Inc., Ken Kutaragi, to step down (in his words, “graduate”) from his current status within the huge conglomerate wasn’t the only thing causing news. As if it couldn’t have come at a weirder time, the prodigal creator has also announced that he already has plans for working on the PS4 in the near future. To quote Kutaragi:

“As a matter of course, I have the vision of Playstation 4, 5 and 6, which will merge into the network.”

One can detect the obvious satire present in this statement taken from his exclusive interview with EE Times. Kutaragi also talks about the new-found freedom he’s gained to be able to communicate his thoughts on the PS3 in Europe, but as of now, he will emphasise more on independent projects (this won’t affect the obviously harmonious relationship he shares with Sony) and working to integrate better use of the Cell processor for network gaming. Replacing Kutaragi will be Kazuo Hirai who was already president and CEO of Sont Computer Entertainment America before recieving his higher orders.

Stay tuned for more news on the now free-as-a-bird inventor’s activities.

(Source: Gamasutra)

Gears of War for the Xbox 360 has garnered its fair share of attention (not to mention tonnes of awards, rabid fans and followers, and oodles of moolah for Epic Megagames), but then so did Halo for the Xbox. What’s the relation? Only the fact that the big-daddies of action gaming were slated to be made into motion pictures. Fresh from the moving tale of a giant CG ape falling for a woman (and vice versa…take that Bollywood!), Peter Jackson was to be the Executive Producer for the massive project, which has unfortunately entered into production limbo. However, Gears is still charging forth, like an over-adrenalized COG soldier through a horde of Drones. While a release date still hasn’t been announced, the folks over at LatinoReview.com claim to have gotten their hands on the script for the Newline Cinemas release. Aware that most people who’d wanna see the movie would be tempted to spoil themselves silly, only a third of the total script (the treatment weighing in at a total of 22 pages) is provided.

Written by Stuart Beattie (Collateral, Pirates of the Carribean: At World’s End) the flick doesn’t simply restrict itself to the Locust Wars– it also showcases a fair bit of history surrounding the Pendulum Wars, along with Marcus’s early relationship with his father, Adam Fenix. Also, much like the videogame it’s based off of, Gears of War The Movie will feature an awesome amount of headshots, carnage, bloodshed and tough-talking in between bouts of war ranting and displays of human emotion. Those who wish to check out the script treatment can click here.

(Source: Gamespot)

As if the news of Blizzard’s online MMORPG WoW and its expansion The Burning Crusade comprising 54 percent of the nearly $1 billion revenue that online gaming in the United States has generated in the past year wasn’t enough, it seems the masters of finger-crack are ready to stun the world once more with a new title. Lingering rumour mills suggested this could be a sequel to the ubquitously popular Starcraft, which was fuelled even further when analysts pointed out the game being unveiled at the Worldwide Invitational on May 19 in Korea (here, learning how to play Starcraft usually comes second to learning how to walk apparently). Realists called the news to be bogus and instead predicted this to be the ground for the announcement of the console version of its best-selling online game.

The truth? Both are wrong. First came the the news that Blizzard Entertainment was looking for a lead tools programmer, lead technical artist and lead engine programmer, the purpose for recruitment being work on a new MMO game that would utilize new technologies and techniques (which fuelled the Starcraft 2 rumour fire). However, just a few days ago, Blizzard announced that it would be working on a brand-new title and that too for the PC. The Starcraft sequel hopes remained simply that; to quote a rep:

“We have a very strong connection with the characters and settings of StarCraft, and we do plan to revisit that universe at some point in the future, but we don’t have anything new to announce in that regard at present.”

As for what exactly is in store for Blizzard fans on May 19 is any addict’s (very wild and excessively hopeful) guess.