Checking out the new trailers for Square-Enix’s PS3 epics Final Fantasy XIII and Final Fantasy Versus XIII initiates a trademark Final Fantasy impeccable - enlightening, revealing, enticing and confounding any red-blooded gamer in one fell swoop. Bear in mind that these titles are still a ways off; FF XIII has only shown smidgeons of gameplay footage and is scheduled for release in late 2008. FF Versus XIII only has CG-animated cut-scenes to its credit and understandably hasn’t been given an official date. However, the fate of the franchise and the two pillars supporting the massive Fabula Nova Crystallis project are, make no mistake about it, drop-fucking-dead gorgeous in an age where looking gorgeous is about as passé as making an FPS.

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Hot off the press! Condemned 2 looks absolutely amazing and so far, this looks like it’ll make Clive Barker’s Jericho look like another episode of Pokemon!

After seeing these screenshots, we know we just cannot wait to see this game. Once you see them, you’ll know why! Note to Parag: Please don’t shave the bishop when you see these, mkay?

Continuing with the tradition of our Thursday Top 10’s, we decided to look at something very obvious, but yet very distinct. So far we’ve looked at the Memorable Character Deaths, the Best Weapons Featured in a FPS and the Top Ten Nine (don’t ask) Original Game Songs. This week, we’re doing a run on some of the most memorable video game themes.

Why? Because apart from the fact how great games really are (no, really!), gamers themselves often tend to rate a game based first on graphics, game play and artistic appeal (though not necessarily in that order) – which is pretty much what decides whether its good enough to play. But EVERY game has to make use of sound and it’s plain to see that, what with games like Half-Life 2 and System Shock 2. Music forms a crucial component of the game-play experience; get the right music at the right time, and you feel the adrenalin pumping. But while most newer games now use ambient noise and music, a lot of cue based intros and then outros – the games we’ve all grown up on and loved have always had that catchy tune, hook, phrase or riff that made everything that much more captivating!

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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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Forget chopping veggies in Cooking Mama, how about actually learning to make yourself a Manhattan drink? Maybe a Daiquiri or a Jack Rose? Bartender DS will teach you all the proper mannerisms of mixing roughly 850 high-quality liquored recipes to even the types of glasses you’ll want to pour them in. Anything to get your cocktail on after a long day’s work of checking out customers at the Reliance Fresh cashier. Not that I’m trying to single anyone out here in particular.

Currently only seeing a release in Japan, you’ll have some nagging to do before EA decides to localize this anytime soon.

Source: 4cr

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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Oh yeah… Duffman…!! Well this is the dream come true story of the female comic artist from Canada, N. Matsumoto aka spacecoyote who drew a Japanese manga version of The Simpsons. She submitted the artwork at www.deviantart.com on January 5, 2007 under her DA account spacecoyote. As you can already see the amazing artwork in the images shown above, this work made to the top pages of DA within days and even faster then that the artwork was circulated throughout the internet. Soon it ended up on the digg.com as well as ABC News Australia and various other blogs and websites.

This was just the beginning of a never ending glory. Soon enough the big people sitting at the Simpsons end noticed her artwork and contacted her. Bongo comics, the brain child of Matt Groening offered her to work on a manga style version of the Simpsons. Also she was contacted by 20th Century Fox to work on the upcoming relaunch of Futurama! Woo hoo… this article is actually about many news, but its more about the success story of a simple girl, who is an artist at heart.

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This artwork doesn’t represent her awesome talent, so do make it sure to check out her DA gallery which has amazing comic artworks. Matsumoto has already done the manga versions of Futurama and a pencil portrait of Sideshow Bob. Also make sure to check out her website and her own comic strip (all the links have been provided at the end of the article).

Talking about the art and talent, many people are using her artworks as their own over the net. Well you will find numerous avatars and signatures made out of her artworks, but worst are those people who are using her artworks as their own. So, if you see any of her artworks under somebody else’s name, don’t let yourself being fooled and do raise a voice against the art theft. All the artworks drawn by Matsumoto are her intellectual property and she deserves a proper credit given to her. This also means a request to the readers of TAP who will be reading this article and saving these images on their systems. If you ever decide to use her artworks, don’t forget to give her the whole credit.

Congratulations to spacecoyote from me and the whole angrypixel team for making it. Some of us do end up painting our dreams in the sky. Mmm…..sky….

N. Matsumoto’s personal site
N. Matsumoto @ DeviantArt
N. Matsumoto’s webcomic - “Saturnalia”