Net Portal

At a $20 price point, we’d have no problem recommending Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers to any Wii owner looking for a totally unique new experience. Luckily, Amazon has dropped Square Enix’s telekinetic adventure to just that price as part of its Deal of the Day.

In addition, Amazon is selling another starkly non-traditional Final Fantasy game, the PSP’s Dissidia: Final Fantasy, at a special one-day price of $14.99. It’s normally $20 in stores and on PSN — which means that you should probably buy it along with something else to qualify for free shipping, or you’re not really saving anything.

Also, Nier for PS3 is on sale.

Amazon discounts Crystal Bearers, other Square Enix oddities originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 29 Jul 2010 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’ve seen DC Universe Online several times now over the course of its development, and it’s failed to much impress us. Still, the game continues to generate interest, if only because Sony Online Entertainment is bringing it to the PS3, and many gamers have been waiting for a new console MMO, polished or otherwise, for a long time.

Last week at Comic-Con, SOE showed off the latest build of DCU and spotlighted a new feature with the awkward name “Play as Iconic.” (”Iconic” is what the licensed DC comics characters are referred to as in the game.) In the main game, you will play as your own custom characters, getting guidance and help from established veterans like Batman and Superman. But, as you’ve probably deduced, in the Play as Iconic bonus mode, you’ll get to play as DC heroes (or villains) in a 2-on-2 PvP match.

Continue reading Preview: DC Universe Online ‘Play as Iconic’ arena battle mode

Preview: DC Universe Online ‘Play as Iconic’ arena battle mode originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 29 Jul 2010 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Despite having culled its workforce earlier this year, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe’s Studio Liverpool — which has historically produced the Wipeout franchise and is bunked up with former Evolution Studios (MotorStorm) staff — is hiring once again. In this case, it’s looking for a senior designer to pitch in on a yet-unannounced title. One that, from the want ad, sure sounds like a third- or first-person (or both) action game. Last we checked, neither Wipeout nor MotorStorm would fall under that heading.

The job posting calls for an individual who has “shipped at least one successful action game” and possesses an “encyclopaedic knowledge of games, especially 3rd / 1st person action.” The studio also desires that its ideal candidate be an “enthusiastic, confident, positive personality,” which pretty much rules out any of us for the position, though we probably never had a chance and couldn’t care less.

There’s no specific platform experience mentioned in the listing, so the target platform for whatever the title is could be PS3, PSP, PS4, PSP2 or jump right to the PS5 (although it’s probably 99.99 percent for one or both of the first two). We’ll let you know when we learn more.

Sony Studio Liverpool staffing up for new project, probably not Wipeout originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 29 Jul 2010 15:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The proposed museum would be given EU funding and retain some of the original buildings, including one of the jail’s H-blocks and the hospital.

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Nintendo has announced it financial earnings for the second quarter in its Fiscal 2011, running from April 1, 2010 through June 30, 2010. Net sales, operating income and net income all saw declines compared to the same time last year. Net sales were down to 188 billion yen ($2.16 billion) from 253 billion yen ($2.9 billion), while operating income and net income saw less dramatic shifts, down to 23 billion yen ($264 million) and 25 billion yen ($287 million) from 40 billion yen ($460 million) and 42 billion yen ($483 million) last year, respectively. Nintendo attributes these losses to the appreciation of the yen and a lower DS price point.

3.15 million DS units and 22.42 million units of DS software were sold worldwide during this quarter. On the Wii side, Super Mario Galaxy 2 managed to be the big performer, selling 4.09 million units worldwide since its launch in late May. 3.04 million Wii consoles were sold, backed by 28.17 million units of Wii software worldwide. As far as forecasted earnings go, Nintendo anticipates net sales of 550 billion yen ($6.3 billion) by the end of September 2010 and 1.4 trillion yen ($16 billion) by the end of its Fiscal 2011, March 2011.

It’ll be interesting to see how those earnings are affected by Nintendo’s upcoming 3DS hardware launch. The company has revealed (via Bloomberg) that it’ll finally announce the launch date and price for its latest piece of tech in Japan on September 29.

Nintendo quarterly earnings down; 3DS launch date to be announced Sept. 29 originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 29 Jul 2010 12:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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As analysts predicted, Sony finished the first quarter of its fiscal year (ending June 30, 2010) with a net income of ¥25.7 billion ($295M), a significant increase from the ¥37.1 billion ($426M) loss during the same quarter last year. Overall, sales were up 3.8 percent year-over-year to ¥1.7 trillion ($18.7B).

Compared to the same time last year, the division that houses the PlayStation brand is in a much better place, even though it still operates at a loss. While sales increased 32 percent this year to ¥326 billion ($3.7B), bumped up by PC and PlayStation 3 hardware and software, the division had an operating loss of ¥3.8 billion ($43 million) — a vast improvement from the ¥36.7 billion ($422M) loss last year. The company expects hardware sales of the PS3 to continue increasing this year and software sales to remain flat.

Sony’s PlayStation division sees sales increase, still operating at a loss originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 29 Jul 2010 11:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Lordy! Another Worms game already? That seems to be the case, as UK dev house Team17 just revealed a solid release date for Worms Reloaded — August 26 — and even handed over a rather wormey trailer, found just after the break.

Continue reading Worms Reloaded tunneling ‘exclusively’ to PC on August 26

Worms Reloaded tunneling ‘exclusively’ to PC on August 26 originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 29 Jul 2010 19:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It seems silly to describe the “new features” that have been added to Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock without acknowledging the basic stuff the franchise still doesn’t get right. For example, do you want to see the difficulty of a song before jumping into it in campaign mode? Nope, you can’t do that. Want to filter and sort songs by multiple criteria? Forget about it. Compared to Rock Band 3’s feature set — keyboard, vocal harmonies, “Pro” mode — it’s clear that Activision has been surpassed. But maybe all you want from Guitar Hero is a “story” and the ability to bust through the five-star ranking system. 32x multiplier and 60 stars, YEAH!!!

You could argue that Warriors of Rock isn’t regressive; it’s an homage to the franchise’s origins, a celebration of hardcore guitar music. The 90 songs included on the disc support drums and vocals, but it’s clear what the focus of the game is: being a guitar hero. If the franchise’s penchant for crazy note maps hasn’t satiated your strumming skills, you’ll be glad to know that Warriors of Rock ups the ante by including the entirety of Rush’s “2112″ — as a boss, of course.

Final boss? Yes, Warriors of Rock’s big new feature is a Quest Mode, narrated by KISS’ Gene Simmons. While I could rant about how it feels like it was written by (and for) twelve year old boys, I’ll let Activision do the work. The fact sheet describes it as a “journey from the infamous stage of CBGBs to the molten lava fields of rock treachery … to help the Demi-God of Rock take down ‘The Beast’ and save rock ‘n roll.” Tim Schafer would be rolling in his grave (if he were dead).

Continue reading Preview: Guitar Hero Warriors of Rock

Preview: Guitar Hero Warriors of Rock originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 29 Jul 2010 13:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Transformers: War for Cybertron developer High Moon Studios is offering two distinct ways to accrue extra experience through the game this weekend. The first is by doubling all XP players earn in the game’s multiplayer component from tomorrow at 9 p.m. ET until Monday at 3 a.m. ET.

Continue reading Transformers: War for Cybertron offers double XP this weekend

Transformers: War for Cybertron offers double XP this weekend originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 29 Jul 2010 19:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The last footage we saw of Halo: Reach introduced us to the Forge World design tools. The latest video to come out of Bungie is a lot more straightforward, getting to the “real” Halo stuff: the campaign.

The trailer after the break, featuring an excerpt from Marty O’Donnell’s score, shows everything from hand-to-hand combat to massive space battles, with plenty of armored Spartans looking very serious. You’d look very serious too if you were fighting to keep a planet invader-free. Or if you had to walk around in hundreds of pounds of armor.

Continue reading Halo: Reach trailer reminds us it has a single-player campaign

Halo: Reach trailer reminds us it has a single-player campaign originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 29 Jul 2010 10:04:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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