Square Enix has been shuffling composition duties for the Final Fantasy series among a number of composers in recent years, and former Square Enix composer Yoko Shimomura will be continuing that tradition. She was originally tapped to score Final Fantasy XV when it was still known as Final Fantasy Versus XIII, so it makes sense that she's continued on with the project after its rebranding.
According to a source close to development, Shimomura will be scoring Final Fantasy XV alone, and an orchestrator is yet to be determined. This will mark her first foray into the Final Fantasy series, with past composers including Nobuo Uematsu (XIV), Masashi Hamauzu (XIII), and Hitoshi Sakimoto (XII). While she's best known for her work on the Kingdom Hearts series (including the upcoming Kingdom Hearts III ), she's also worked on Legend of Mana, Parasite Eve, and Front Mission.
I'm certainly looking forward to hearing more.
I'll be the first one to proclaim my love for the classic Castlevania franchise, and while Lords of Shadow was considered by many to be a great game, I found myself wishing that more of a bone had been tossed to series fans. After playing Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 on the floor here at E3, however, there isn't a single title that has me more intrigued and wanting more.
It feels like a perfect storm in terms of story, visuals, gameplay, and music.
After responding to allegations that the separately priced $59.99 PlayStation Eye was not packed into the PlayStation 4 to make the launch price cheaper, Sony had a few words to say on the subject.
Regarding the experience as a whole, Sony's Worldwide Studios President Shuhei Yoshida stated that the technology still isn't there yet: "We already have many years of research on vision tech. The natural user interface is interesting, and sometimes really robust...this will continue to evolve. As far as I'm concerned, personally my view is that it's still in the early days of development in terms of tech. It's not mature enough to take advantage of with all kinds of games. So that's a decision we made. For some experiences it's great, and it's even better with the PlayStation Camera and HD."
Essentially, they are saying the camera can be used as an ancillary device for some games, but it's not core to the experience, like Microsoft wants us to believe with their packed-in Kinect. Sounds good to me.
Pretty much the only thing people didn't like about Sony's E3 conference was that tiny little part where they announced that you'd have to pay a subscription fee (PS+) to play games online with the PS4. It was kind of a bombshell for some, but for others, it made sense given the value of PlayStation Plus.
After being asked what went into the decision to charge for online gameplay, Sony explained that online features and services are going to be a "big pillar" of the PS4 experience. They go on to note, "we've already talked about the share button, sharing features, second screens...if we continue to invest into online infrastructures, that costs money. If we continue free service for online multiplayer, from a business standpoint, there's pressure to recover costs. That's when we decided 'let's ask the people who are most active in playing online to share some of the cost so we can invest more.'"
Sony ends with, "$399 is the price point we always wanted to hit. We carefully looked at the potential of the technology we put in the PlayStation 4. We believe that when PS4 comes out it will be the most powerful system inside."
I saw all of this coming, and I'm not really surprised. Sony can't afford to offer 10 more years of free online play with all of the cloud based services they're offering now. Still, as I said earlier PlayStation Plus is a tremendous value, and I'm willing to make that sacrifice to pay for online if Sony can provide a truly solid experience -- if.
Although Remote Play from the PlayStation Vita to the PS4 has been confirmed, Sony opened up a bit more today at E3. To clarify the situation, Sony has informed us that Remote Play is basically required for PS4 development. This is due to the fact that it's taken care of system-side, and the single biggest issue on why there aren't many PS3 games that utilize it is because it was optional. In order to take advantage of the feature, the game has to set aside some memory or CPU related cost -- and memory is the most precious resource.
When it comes to the PS4, features are very easy to drop -- "it just happens" Sony says. Sony is asking to make sure every game plays well on the Vita, and they provide default mapping system-side, but it's always better for the developer themselves to make the decision.
Nintendo has announced that the Wii Fit Trainer will be a character in the upcoming Super Smash Bros. The virtual fitness guru will use yoga moves and a variety of other exercises as her attacks, as revealed in her announcement trailer.
Watch the full trailer below.
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After teasing the Dark Sorcerer tech demo at its E3 press conference, Sony has released the full 12-minute tech demo from Beyond: Two Souls developer Quantic Dream.
Watch the video below.
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It was rumored that Sony came to the decision to oppose DRM-laden policies very late in the game in response to Microsoft, but that's not so, according to Sony.
At a Sony Roundtable today, President of Sony's Worldwide Studios Shuhei Yoshida stated the following in regards to used games: "We didn't make a policy decision [ for other company's mishaps]-- it takes time and effort. We are going to treat disc games like the PS3 because there are a lot of people that like to share their games…we do expect more people will gradually shift to all digital, but it's not going to happen overnight. There are still parts of the world that do not have robust internet infrastructure.. but it's important to provide what people need."
In other words, things will continue as normal on the PS4 -- no strict anti-consumer check-ups, and no restrictions on used games. Yep, I can see this working out very well for everyone involved. Nice job sticking to your guns early, Sony.
If you were a 90s kid, you probably remember the campy, wasted opportunity Mega Man cartoon by animation Directors Joe Ruby and Ken Spears, also known as Ruby-Spears Productions. It was released on DVD way back in 2002 and reprinted in 2008 in a limited fashion, but the DVD sets are still pretty hard to find, with Volume 2 running upwards of $50 used.
Thankfully for all the collectors out there Discotek Media has announced that they're selling everything -- all 27 episodes -- on a DVD set in early 2014. So if you've been itching to see what all the fuss is about, or watch the lackluster show for yourself, you're in luck.
Or, I can save you the entry fee and just link you the best part.
Discotek Media [Facebook via Rockman Corner]
The Castle of Illusion remake is coming along pretty nicely, as evidenced by the new E3 trailer above. It's pretty much everything you'd expect from an HD-ified romp, including 2.5D platforming, vibrant visuals, and promises of extra content.
Although I never liked the Illusion series nearly as much as the SNES' Magical Quest franchise, Castle of Illusion is still a great game in its own right, and I'm looking forward to the remake. It'll hit the Xbox 360, PS3, and PC platforms as a downloadable game later this year.
Sony has released five minutes of InFamous: Second Son gameplay footage. It features protagonist Deslin Rowe brawling with a number of enemy soldiers, showing off his abilities as well as the largely destructible world.
Watch the full video below.
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Richard Hogg and Frobisher Says studio Honeyslug have teamed up to create Hohokum, a freeform, abstract exploration game.
It was an IGF and Indiecade finalist in 2011, and has since been in the works with the help of Sony Santa Monica for release on PS3, PS4 and Vita. It’ll arrive next year.
You can watch the first footage of the game below.
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Valve has announced that it has paid out $10 million to Team Fortress 2 content contributors, by way of the Steam Workshop item contribution program.
It works like this: Player and fans of Team Fortress 2 work to design and submit new items. If approved by Valve, the items are put up for sale in the Team Fortress 2 store. Once purchased, Valve takes a percentage of the revenue, and gives the rest to those who created the items in the first place. It’s unclear what that cut is exactly.
Valve has paid “close to” $250,000 to the sixty-plus people who created the recent Robotic Boogaloo update.
The developer has also pushed out a new tool that makes it easier to test whether or not player creations are ready to be submitted to Valve. If the creations past the test, they get a gold star, indicating they’ve passed the test. The next Team Fortress 2 update will entirely consist of gold star items.
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