The latest teaser trailer for Rockstar’s eagerly anticipated Grand Theft Auto IV, dubbed “Looking for that special someone,” went online today. Starring Nico Bellic, the one-minute clip offers some aerial views of Liberty City, including the Statue of Happiness. The soundtrack features 2000’s “Arm In Arm” by New York band The Boggs, suggesting contemporary music will be playing on the radios of the game’s various borrowed vehicles.
While traffic to the video has been slowing down servers, a high quality feed can be found at consolewars.de. Grand Theft Auto IV for the Playstation 3 and XBox 360 will go on sale in North America and Europe in mid-October.
PlayOnline has scheduled an avatar get-together for June 29. Through a symbolic act coded in the game world’s virtual infrastructure, players of Final Fantasy XI will have the chance to express their romantic feelings for loved ones separated by geographical boundaries. Square Enix’s website describes the event as follows:
“During the festival of Celestial Nights, people write poems to their faraway loved ones on strips of brightly colored paper, which are then tied to bamboo stalks. These arcing stalks of bamboo represent a bridge that spans the great river in the night sky.”
An atypical activity for a virtual game world. Players, consult your hearts. Is it worth pinning your hopes and dreams on the world of Vana’diel?
Up up down down left right left right B A start. Konami officially announced Contra IV will be coming out this year for the Nintendo DS. A direct sequel taking place two years after the events of Contra III: The Alien Wars and starring Sergeant “Mad Dog” Bill Rizer and Corporal “Scorpion” Lance Bean, the sidescrolling sequel appears to be an honest attempt to return to the 8-bit roots of the series. While Contra, Super C, and Contra III are a platforming shoot-em-up trilogy to be reckoned with, there have been many a bewildering spin-off. At least the press release sounds appetizing:
“Refining the 2D side-scrolling genre the series established 20 years ago, Contra 4 delivers pure action at a fever pitch as players jump, shoot, and dodge oncoming hazards. Utilizing a new dual screen presentation, the action spans both screens of the Nintendo DS, giving players the opportunity to battle across expansive environments in which death can come from any direction. The use of both screens for the game’s core action also allows for massive boss battles as players try to seek and destroy the weak points of sky-high enemies. A first for the series, Contra 4 introduces a grappling hook accessory that lets players grab onto elements of the environment directly above them. Whether using it to avoid oncoming dangers or attack from a strategic vantage point, the grappling hook allows for new combat situations and dramatic set pieces that underscore the game’s adrenaline-soaked pedigree.”
Associate producer Tomm Hulett remarks, “New Super Mario Bros.is a huge inspiration for us. Nintendo looked back and created a game that was based on the original Super Mario, not Mario 3 or Mario 64, and made a game that’s feels like the original. That’s exactly what we want to do here with Contra. We’ve gone back to Contra III for the controls, the weapon system, even the platforming, which is something that was lost in the later games.”
Certainly looks good on paper. But the game is being outsourced to WayForward Technologies, whose CV includes Barbie 12: Dancing Princess. Which is… curious.
Square Enix’s chief executive Yoichi Wada told the Financial Times that handheld gaming is where it’s at. While the Playstation 3 and XBox 360 have superior specs, the requirements of these newer generation consoles are too burdensome for wide market penetration. “There are too many specs – and you also need a high-definition TV, a broadband connection and a deep knowledge of gaming – these consoles are mismatched to today’s environment. In a year or two years they will fare better.”
In other words, until the 2010s, expect a lot of emphasis to be placed on Square Enix’s PSP and DS development. Nintendo’s portable has sold over 35 million units globally, and Sony is shooting for 11 million PSPs shipped this year, bolstered no doubt by the slimmer PSP design which Kotaku’s sources say will be announced at E3.
Another advantage of the DS market is that there is a greater potential for reaching “non-gamers” with idiosyncratic titles like Squenix’s upcoming DS Style series including Flower Arranging DS, Yoga DS, and virtual tour guides. “There is a new breed of gamers in the market,” says Yoichi Wada. “We have to make games for all kinds of people… In the old days, we could just focus on the PlayStation or the GameBoy, but the environment has changed completely.”
Brian Ashcroft has posted first details on the slimmer PSP, currently in the pre-manufacturing phase of its development. The revamped model will sport a thinner frame, made possible by a svelt LED display screen, which will also provide for up to four times the battery life. Nice!
In addition, 8 gigs of internal flash memory will allow the yet more portable Playstation to cut down on load times and speed up gameplay, where necessary. The handheld’s somewhat unwieldy buttons have also been redesigned to approximate the feel of the PS3 controller. Expect the new model to debut at E3 and sport a price tag of around $170.
Hmmm… sounds like Sony’s found a better way to sell a PSP than by viral blogging. More info at Kotaku.
A new RPG has just hit Japanese retailers called Trusty Bell, and it’s looking far more exciting than its dandified title might lead you to believe. The XBox 360 game, developed by Tri-Ace offspring Tri-Crescendo, will debut in English-speaking regions as Eternal Sonata. The soundtrack includes music by Chopin and Motoi Sakuraba, the least likely musical duo since the announcement last April that the Black Mages had teamed up with Bowie.
There’s reason to believe Eternal Sonata may well rise above standard gaming fare. It received a stellar 35/40 Famitsu score today and was praised by the Japanese gaming magazine for its original story concept. The world of Eternal Sonata is populated by people like Fryderyk Franciszek Chopin–wimpy and terminally ill, but possessing stunning magical powers.
The in-game anime surrogate for the composer actually stars in the game, and inside the feverish dreams brought on by the musician’s fatal case of tuberculosis, he discovers the village of Tuneto and meets a sickly maiden named Polka. Chopin shares with Polka a romantic passion and whooping cough: It turns out that among the game’s protagonists, everyone is gifted and dying, and the adventure revolves around the search for a cure. The game is scheduled to be published by Bandai Namco and will go on sale in North America this September.
Imagine meeting someone in an MMO and finding out s/he was literally born and raised in Second Life. The concept is not all that implausible, if you’re talking about a future decade.
AI researchers at a Silicon Valley company called Novamente are currently at work programming and training artificial intelligence software for use in simulated environments like Second Life, designed to demonstrate multiple facets of humanlike conscious awareness. Last week, Dr. Ben Goertzel, the computer scientist and mathematician who founded the company, gave a videotaped Google TechTalk at the search engine magnate’s Northern California headquarters, in which he discussed Novamente’s goal of integrating “narrow” AI programs together to form lifelike “artificial general intelligence.”
The talk gets pretty technical, but gives a good sense of how human-equivalent computer intelligence is currently developing in theory and in practice. For even more future shock, check out Ben Goertzel’s “Ten Years to the Singularity.”
Japanese school kids who dream of leading the life of a high-powered Wall Street day trader will finally have their chance, kinda. Kabu Trader Shun, or Stock Trader DS, will give up-and-coming Gordon Gekko’s of the world, as well as anyone who’s ever wanted their Beatmania skills to have an influence on the global economy, something to tap their styluses about. For an authentic Wall Sreet experience, just add cocaine.
Shun Aiba is an energetic young day trader with a tragic past. When he was 13, of all ages, his father lost all his money on the Tokyo stock exchange, and disappeared without a trace. Not content to let market conditions determine his fate, Shun has followed in his father’s footsteps and gone into business with his former trading partner, Toru Narasaki.
Stock Trader’s versus trading mode of the acquisitive-leaning DS title will involve fast-paced buying and selling against rival stock holders, such as Narasaki’s winsome pupil Hanako. The rest of the time, Shun goes about town collecting stock tips from unlikely sources of inside information, while gaining special abilities by collecting trading cards.
Trading. Cards. Get it?
Kabu Trader Shun, the “stock trading action game,” is due out June 7 in Japan. It’s likely to be more exciting than Mutual Funds Saver DS, if less reasonable.
