The highly anticipated Mass Effect is still months away from its expected September release, and I'll take whatever updates BioWare will give. These new pictures of the science fiction action RPG aren't as revealing as the ones we saw in February, although there's a piece of concept art included in this update. There's also a recent interview with Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk about the game's progress. They've managed to fit their entire galaxy-sized game, including over one hundred voice acted characters, on just one DVD. However, they suggest they'll release downloadable extra content in between each game of the trilogy that they're calling the "best game BioWare has ever done."

Sony's Gamers Day ended last night and sadly I didn't get to attend the two day event. The majority of the games that offered hands-on time were the popular titles we already know plenty about, but the two new games that they introduced are Folklore and Pain. Normally I would tell you to keep your eye on them in the future, but I've already been keeping track of Folklore, which has been known as FolksSoul in Japan. Siliconera already has some pictures for us and a description of gameplay to go along with the confusing setting of the game.

Folklore is a third person action RPG that's being developed by Game Republic, the guys who worked on PS3's Genji: Days of the Blade. The dreamy, dark story follows Ellen and Keats who are both trying to solve the mysterious deaths of their mothers. They travel to the seven netherworlds looking for answers, and instead find each other and the ability to harness magical powers. The two team up and you can choose to play as either at the start of each level. In the fantasy world, once you defeat a "folk" monster, you acquire them and can summon them from then on to do battle for you. You'll run into over a hundred folks, but can only equip four of them at any given time. So picture Kameo gameplay and plenty of attack upgrades, with a slightly artsy Okami or Dreamfall feel to the environments and special effects.

Check out the imaginative gallery of 20 pictures below to get a better grasp on what to expect. So far the only major concern gameplay has brought up are tricky camera controls. Game Republic's still hard at work though, with a target release date set for October. You can also watch the developer walkthrough videos here: part one, part two.

According to Jeux-France, the newest Game Informer magazine issue should have news about Square Enix's new game The Last Remnant that will be coming out on PlayStation 3 and/or Xbox 360. Instead of coming out in Japan first (or being announced in a Japanese magazine first) it will release simultaneously in America and Japan. With the Unreal Engine 3 technology within his reach, Hiroshi Takai will direct the new RPG with help from Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy: Spirits Within's Kouzi Kobayashi.

The two main characters are Rush Sykes and The Conqueror, although Rush is the only playable character, and the gameplay revolves around Remnants:

“of one era the magic fragments spent, entered in contact with the human beings thousand years ago” which destabilize the world from their immense capacity, these Remnants can take the shape of vehicles, weapons and even of the creatures. The adventure begins on a called insulated island Eulam on which Rush and its Irina sister live peacefully. But Irina is unfortunately kidnapped by a mysterious organization, and Rush is found in the middle of a war related to these invaluable Remnants if coveted.

The Conqueror is the guy with the red clothes in the pictures, and his goal is to find the greatest number of Remnants. However, it seems like Remnants and their length through a certain timeline is important, so I'm gonna predict he's either the last Remnant from the future looking for the first, or he's actually Rush Sykes from the future. Combat consists mostly of magic battles and large numbers of enemies, and four races are available to join up with: "Mitra (of human), Yama (of the watery creatures), Qsiti (of small lizards humanoïdes), Sovanni (of the cat-like beings with four arms)."

Square Enix has definitely set up a unique looking Intellectual Property, but I'm not convinced it will be much fun at all. Check out the interfaces in the scans below, the morale bar could be fun to push around with different battle tactics, but everything else looks pretty simple and repetitive so far. Maybe Square Enix is trying to create a White Knight Story styled game of their own, we'll have to wait for this weekend's Square Enix party for more details on characters, combat, and story.

Every Spring, Summer, and Winter break I always end up starting a new PC game and playing it all night for a few days in a row, and then dropping it cold, and not touching it again until the next season, if ever. I was planning on going back to Ragnarok Online next week, but I've now found its replacement: Silverfall. Developed by Monte Cristo Games, the company honestly hasn't made anything very interesting to date, yet this action RPG looks top of the line. The huge set back is that it's not an MMO game, only a 1-8 player game with friends, but if you can get over that there's an impressive amount of positive gameplay traits.

To make their game stand out in a flooded market they adapted a subtle cel-shaded character style that helps make the points of interest on the screen pop out at the player. Outside of the character and creature silhouettes are great looking environments - since they don't have to deal with the complications of coding MMO gameplay, it allowed them to put World of Warcraft and other MMOs to shame, using nice textures and normal maps to make everything look more real. Interfaces are pretty weak though.

This is all interesting, but it's the way they structured their plot that's the most intriguing to me. Monte Cristo has put together half a dozen "behind the scenes" episodes showing off how the game will work, and I chose episode three to display above. I've got a feeling their character player system might be too limiting, but their world and quest system draws on a lot of clever ideas performed successfully in the past. Instead of a single linear plot, they've setup a world split between nature and technology ideals. So as you progress through the game you can sculpt the world similar to how KOTOR gave players the choice to grow evil or honorable. Taking it a step further, to an extent you can also recreate towns like in Dark Cloud. This opens up a ton of possibilities and most likely invites disastrous gameplay, but Monte Cristo keeps it simple. As you perform quests you're given the choice to pursue nature or technology at each turn on the map, letting you slowly create your own story as you play through the game.

Here's the Quicktime links to each episode:

• Episode 1: Birth of a World
  
• Episode 2: Creation of a World
  
• Episode 3: History of the World and the Quests
  
• Episode 4: Developing the Characters
• Episode 5: The Companions
• Episode 6: Technical Challenge
  

The episodes are all very short, only two minutes each, so we don't get many examples of how this gamplay works, but you get to see a multitude of concept art, environments, battle, and creature designs coupled with explanations fro ma narrator. They've even managed to put together their own lighting system to make Silverfall exploration unique. Where the fuck did you come from Monte Cristo? Well done team, hopefully my old computer can run this game when it comes out on March 27th. Here's some more scenery.

Let's recap - two days ago we were told about a Wii RPG game that doesn't use the Wiimote:

"Opoona is controlled without touching the Wiimote whatsoever. We only have a brief description of combat from Koei, but they claim movement and "Active Bombom Battle," which encompasses the game's combat scenarios, is controlled entirely by the nunchuck, allowing for one-handed play. Snapping the nunchuck fires projectiles at enemies, whose trajectory can be changed by moving the nunchuck."

Sounds really interesting . . . until you watch this video. "Opoona" is also the name of the main character, who looks exactly like the shitty cartoon character Ziggy if he ate a moogle and cross dressed with Space Channel 5 clothing. I don't think even Miyamoto could save a game like this. The graphics look less imaginative than Blue Dragon's dull cartoon style, and the main walking animation feels as frumpy as the Nintendo 64 quality environments.

However. I do want to rent this game. I didn't buy the Wii for graphics, but this game's lock-on imaginary grid gameplay doesn't look too exciting either. So why is this game worth a rental? Because at three and a half minutes into the video, you fight what is undeniably a penis head monster. Name one other game that has a penis head monster in it. Is it a circumcised monster for extra battle defense? Does it literally shoot yellow piss rays from its face? I rest my case. PEE FIGHT!

Maybe we're underestimating this game, and it's actually a sexual journey in disguise. That would explain those weird balls hanging over everyone's heads - once your testicles descend you level up and finally start having some fun. You only use one hand to play this game for a reason, yes, it all makes sense now. O-poon-a. Dexter345 was right. This game is genius.

At GDC Peter Molyneux showed off a test level of Fable 2 that's still being worked on heavily. Instead of impressing us with large panning views of his huge sequel, he chose to push the camera down to focus on . . . a dog. Pretty much every picture I've got to show you guys is . . . a dog. Ok Peter, do some explaining.

Molyneux was overly proud to present the sequel's sidekick to the press. This time, instead of your actions deciding your emotional and physical progression through the game, you've also got an impressionable pooch that'll be affected by you path through the game. He promises it won't be a crappy canine that you'll have to worry about constantly, and that it'll only be there to help kill enemies and loot treasure on quests. Rule of Rose recently tried doing the same thing with a dog, but it didn't work out as planned. Ok Peter, we need something more to look forward to. Whaddaya got for us? Oh, you can have sex in the game? As long as it's not with the dog, then I'm all for it, take as long as you need for more updates. I can't wait to get my hands on the Sword of a Thousand Abortions.

 

Earlier this week Kotaku found a video clip showing an artistic cinematic from the upcoming Fire Emblem Wii game. I'm new to the series but the art style looks interesting, so I went looking for some more details and just found this brand new video of the game's Wii gameplay. It starts off with some old cinematic footage, then shows some new scenes, and then gets into the details by showing us what the interfaces will look like, and how the grid based battle system will work with a Wiimote. It's all in Japanese, but the clips aren't flashed too fast one after the other, so it's not too hard to figure out how it will work. Just trace your movement path on screen in between battle turns and then confirm the attack route. The environments look decently varied, so if the story is good we'll have another solid Wii game on June 1st later this year.

Mass Effect is the highly anticipated Xbox 360 exclusive that's coming out around the middle of this year. BioWare's science fiction action RPG doesn't have a release date yet and there aren't a lot of screenshots to dissect yet either, but their X06 trailer is pretty impressive. I'm really hoping this game will get other companies to put more time into their story and character interactions. Here's what the box cover art will look like though. Seems kind of like a Fathom comic book cover, I'm liking the blue/orange color theme to it, but the vivid green border is a bit abrasive.

I made it! Guns were ablaze, but I am on the plane! I just blamed the whole cop ordeal on some guy who went tanning too much for the Vegas flight to impress the girls. Convincing people he was Arab was a piece of cake, and speaking of food - here's the peanuts. And there they go, all gone, sigh . . . Well, while we get settled in and continue to rise in altitude, enjoy the video above. It's not true flight, but a Dragon game is the best I have for you for now. But I'll be back in 30 more minutes - I've already got my eye on the hot stewardess. The brunette one, not the fugly blonde.

I've been following Blue Dragon for a while now, and this preview video is the best look yet now that the game is out in Japan. Sofar, I've gotta hold on to my predictions, I still see this game as being highly disappointing. Some of the battle system looks really solid - using the dragon shadows for fighting should be cool, and using the attack circle radius to include enemies that are also enemies of one another should be awesome as well. The story even starts off with an exciting beginning that matched the fantasy mood greatly. But beyond that? There's some robots and another 100 or so levels of running around in empty environments. I hate how empty it looks - look at the battle environments too - a big white box? Could we at least put a bump map somewhere? Every game hypes itself, we always assume there's a lot not shown that we have to buy the game for. The preview mentioned a ton of cinematics, so that should be fun, but that's also to be expected. I have a gut feeling that I won't very impressed.

I feel Ripley and I've just woken up from hyper sleep to something that doesn't make a lot of sense. The SEGA offices at America and Europe have announced that Obsidian Entertainment (the dudes who did KOTOR II, Neverwinter Nights 2) have been picked to develop an Alien based RPG. Yah, the movie Alien. Simon Jeffery, the President of SEGA America thinks "they are the only developer for us that could effectively combine the Alien mythology with compelling RPG gameplay to create the ultimate Alien experience."

Don't get me wrong - Alien and Aliens are two of my all time favorites, but let's think about this... An Alien RPG that lets you play as Ripley only offers 2 sets of clothes you can have wear - barely anything, and barely anything with a jacket. 3 suits if you can't being covered in Alien fluids. Will Bishop be an android blacksmith that repairs your flamethrower? Or will we be playing as an Alien? That offers 4ish total leveling up points, but does allow you to sleep with Sigourney Weaver - I'm all over that like gorillas on misty mountains, but I'm still skeptical to how they'll pull this game off. I'm up for non standard approaches to genres of games and I suppose if anyone could do it, it would be the people who developed KOTOR II.