Today NAMCO BANDAI announced the Dark Souls Shield Design Contest. It's open to anyone who goes to the official Dark Souls Facebook page and likes it.  The contest starts today on June 27th and ends on July 28th.  After liking the contest page all you have to do is download the three blank shield templates and start creating your own original design.  You are able to upload one entry for each of the three shield designs for the contest.

Make sure to submit your finished designs via Facebook on or before July 13th.  Fans are able to vote for their favorite and the voting will be open until July 20th.  The top ten designs for each of the three shield templates as voted for by the fans will be submitted to FromSoftware for the final decision for the winners.

The winners will be hand-picked by the Dark Souls development team at FromSoftware in Japan.  The three winning designs, one for each shield template will be added as DLC to be used in game!  Each of the ten winners will receive a copy of Dark Souls signed by game director Hidetaka Miyazaki.  The final three winners will have their designs added in game, and will receive a signed copy of the limited edition game plus their names in the game's credits.

 New videos were uploaded on iPLAYWINNER showing off matches between some of the best players of Street Fighter.  Listening to the commentary done by Seth Killian and FilthieRich and watching the pros play help give insight into the deeper mechanics of the gameplay.





  

Dragon's Crown is a 2D action fantasy RPG developed by VANILLAWARE.  The game uses the same unique art style that you'll recognize from other VANILLAWARE titles like Odin Sphere and Muramasa: The Demon Blade.  This will be their first HD title and it looks spectacular.  The gameplay will be similar to the old Golden Axe games; which are side scrolling hack & slash beat 'em ups.


Of course Dragon's Crown is modernizing the genre with some exciting new features.  The game has you exploring a massive labyrinth which is comprised of all of the lands ruins and monster lairs in search of treasure.  You can play the main story or do quests together with up to 4 people from around the world with online multiplayer.



Dragon's Crown has lots of treasure, items, and weapons for you to collect to power up your character.  There is also a level up system for the weapons and ways for you to customize your character's features.  Not much is known yet about the level up system or what you can customize as the game is not yet fully developed.  Just knowing that you can level up and customize in this type of game is enough to peek interest.

One of the more innovated features announced was the ability to resurrect fallen characters of actual players and have them aid you in battle as an NPC.  As you play the game you may see the bones of other players who have died.  If you collect the bones and take them to the temple you can resurrect that player's character to fight with you as an NPC.

There are 6 classes that you can chose from:

Fighter:
Wearing full plate armor and a shield the Fighter has the strongest defense of all the classes. This is an easy class for beginners to pick up and play.

Amazon:
Wielding huge 2-handed weapons the Amazon deals heavy damage that attacks multiple foes.  This class has a berserker style of play; low defense, but dealing high offense that increases with each strike landed.

Wizard:
Able to cast elemental magic the Wizard is very powerful.  Their spells are the most damaging out of all the classes, but they take time to cast and take up a lot of power.

Sorceress:
As a jack-of-all-trades support class the Sorceress is useful to have for any party.  They are able to turn foes to frogs, create potions for healing, and control golems or skeletons to aid in battle.

Dwarf
The Dwarf is a dual wielding grappler that can grab foes and send them flying at each other.  His great strength and large body can be used as a weapon, but it also slows him down.

Elf
Using a bow to attack from a range the Elf is very agile.  She also has a variety of special skills and can react quickly to any given situation.



Dragon's Crown is being developed for the PS3 and PSV.  Both systems are able to connect and play with each other online.  The game also won't be scaled down in any way on the PSV.  If you have both versions of the game you are able to transfer your data seamlessly between them.  Dragon's Crown is scheduled for release spring 2012.

From the moment I saw the first trailer for Dragon's Dogma I was immediately excited.  I've been waiting for a Monster Hunter type of game to finally come to consoles.  Dragon's Dogma shares one core similarity to Monster Hunter; which is being able to battle huge creatures.  If you look deeper you will see that they are very different games.


Dragon's Dogma is a mixing of high fantasy elements with Capcom's action game style of gameplay.  The game will be story focused and more of a single player experience.  The developer did say that there will be no traditional multiplayer and online elements will be announced in the future.  I'm hoping what they mean by "no traditional multiplayer" is something akin to how Demon's Souls did it.  After all battling huge creatures is a lot of fun solo, but it's even more fun with friends. 

Burn Chicken! Burn!

Don't worry though, even as a single player experience you won't be alone.  You will have a party with you throughout the game to help you out.  You can select from different pawns or partners to come adventure with you.  They all have different styles and bonuses so you may want to swap them out depending on the situation.  If they die, they can be revived or you can just replace them.

Your party members are able to help fight along side of you and do combination attacks.  The smaller enemies they will sometimes grab and hold so you can strike them down.  The larger enemies they can help give you a boost up into the air so you can grab onto the creature and do massive damage.  Your party will also give you battle advice and tell you about enemy weaknesses.  The AI is supposed to be done fairly well so they don't just stand there like in most games and will be an active participant in battle. 

I don't trust the look in that Goat's eye!

The game has 3 classes that you can choose from: Fighter, Strider, and Mage.  The Fighter is a sword and shield brawler type that gets up close and personal with the creatures.  I imagine the Fighter to take on the role of tank distracting the monster for everyone.  The Strider uses dual daggers for close range, and a bow for long ranged attacks.  The Strider is also the best at grabbing onto the enemies which gives tactical advantage for doing massive damage.  The Mage uses elemental magic attacks to fight with.  The Mage can also give elemental buffs to the parties weapons, and can heal or revive fallen comrades.
 
Dragon's Dogma will be Capcom's first open world game which I'm really excited about.  Capcom has said that it will be a full open world action game.  They want you to experience a real sense of adventure when you quest.  You will be able to see creatures attacking villages in the distance and you can decide if you want to venture there to help or not.  Where you choose to go and who you want to help can impact the story later in the game.

Somebody get these mutha effen snakes outta this mutha effen castle!

Fighting against massive creatures and impossible odds gives you a sense of life or death anxiety that you can't get from anywhere else.  I'll be keeping an eye on this one and will keep you updated as more information becomes available.  Dragon's Dogma is slated for release early 2012 for PS3 and 360. 
 

Rusty Hearts is an upcoming free to play multiplayer hack 'n' slash dungeon-crawler.  Currently they are accepting applications into the closed beta which will be starting soon.  If you're interested in applying head over to the official website: http://rustyhearts.perfectworld.com/

If you don't get accepted into the beta and need a key I have 1 extra to spare.  I'll give out a beta key to the person that comments first below this post and asks for the key.  If I come across any extra keys I'll be sure to hand them out as well in order of posting below this article.

Half-Minute Hero: Super Mega Neo Climax is the Xbox Live Arcade port of the popular PSP title Half-Minute Hero.  The Xbox version is going to have a new graphic style, 4 player co-op, and other extras that wasn't in the original.  A new trailer was just released, here it is for your viewing pleasure:

If you are a fan of RPGs be sure to check it out.  It's very charming, fast paced, and doesn't take itself too seriously.  The game will be out on June 29th, 2011.

Microsoft just presented it's E3 2011 press conference here are the highlights:

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3:  The conference opens with a live demo.  The demo starts with the player underwater scuba diving up to a submarine.  After placing and detonating some charges on it, the player gets the submarine to surface and infiltrates it.  Inside the submarine the player makes it to the bridge to activate missile launch killing hostiles on the way.

The player then escapes the submarine by boat heading to his helicopter taking out enemies that are in pursuit.  The game is looking pretty good, if you're a COD fan I'm sure you already got this one pre-ordered or will shortly.

Tomb Raider:  The next demo to be shown is the new Tomb Raider game that shows the origins of our dear Laura Croft.  I really like the new direction that the series is taking; giving it a more gritty and realistic approach to surviving impossible situations.  Finally seeing some gameplay has me hungry for more.  This is a game we will be following and will keep you updated as more information becomes available.   

EA:  Four EA Sports titles to offer Kinect support: Tiger Woods PGA Tour, Madden NFL, FIFA, and one unannounced title. Other EA titles to include Kinect support: the Sims, Family Game Night 4, and Mass Effect 3.  In ME3 you will be able to use your voice to make dialogue choices in the game as well as issue combat commands to your teammates.

Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Future Soldier:  Although the trailer had no gameplay, it was still pretty badass.  It has me interested in the fancy new gadgets you'll get to play with in game.  They showed off using the Kinect to aim and fire weapons which didn't look too horrible. I'm still not sold on using Kinect for hardcore gaming especially for long periods of time.  Customizing the weapons looked really interesting and a lot of fun as you are able to completely take apart the weapons and build them how you want. 

Xbox Live:  There will be some new features coming to Xbox live.  With Kinect you are able to navigate the menu using voice commands.  Some other interesting things coming to Xbox Live are: Youtube, Bing, and live TV shows.

UFC: Microsoft is partnering with UFC so you can watch it on Xbox Live.

Gears of War 3:  Cliffy B takes the stage with Ice-T to play a live demo of Gears 3.  The game is looking bigger and better than the previous Gears titles which is no small feat.  If you own an Xbox and enjoy a good shooter be sure to check this one out.

Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary:  Remastering of the most popular Xbox exclusive series is coming out November 15, 2011.

Forza Motorsport 4: The best Xbox exclusive racing game will be coming out October 11.


Kinect:
             -A trailer for Ryse (a first person hack and slash game set in Roman times) was shown.   
            
              -Fable Journey live demo.  I wasn't really impressed with this one.
            
              -Minecraft coming to Xbox this winter!
            
              -Microsoft partners with Disney for Disneyland Adventures. This game recreates the entire
                park for you to explore, have fun, and play games.
            
              -A live demo of Kinect Star Wars was played. To me the gameplay looks pretty bad, but it
                just might be the best looking Kinect game I've seen so far.
           
              -Tim Schafer is working on a Sesame Street game for Kinect called Once upon a Monster.
                It looks great for kids.
           
              -Kinect Fun Labs announced. With it you are able to develop for and try out new apps for
                the Kinect made by the game industry or the community.  A few of the new apps were
                demonstrated. People scanning was one of the more interesting ones shown.  With it you
                are able to scan yourself using the Kinect to create your avatar to use in game.

               Object capture as you can imagine is where you can scan in any object to use in game.  It
               will be interesting to see what other apps are created for connect in the near future.  Kinect
               Fun Labs goes live today, check it out.

              -Kinect Sports Season Two will be available this holiday season.

              -Dance Central 2 the most popular Kinect title will be getting a sequel with more songs and
                modes with a TBA release date.

Halo 4 announced for holiday 2012.

Overall I wasn't too impressed with the press conference.  There were a few good announcements that I'm sure a lot of people will be excited about.  I feel they focused the majority of the conference on shooters and games for the Casual gamer.  For me, I'm looking forward to what's in store for the rest of E3.  Sony, you're up next!

A new trailer for Final Fantasy Versus XIII was shown last night at a closed theater in Tokyo.  Although filming of the trailer was prohibited, it somehow ended up on YouTube a few hours later.  You just gotta love YouTube; it's got just about everything you wanted to see, and everything you wish you hadn't seen.  I'll post impressions of the trailer just in case it gets removed.

I'll also update this post with a translated version when it becomes available, currently the trailer is only in Japanese with very little English.  The trailer officially won't be revealed to the public until later this month, so if you missed it, you won't have to wait long.  Without further ado here is the new Final Fantasy Versus XIII trailer!



Going by this trailer the game is shaping up pretty nicely.  The facial animations and graphics are very realistic.  There is a lot of detail done to the characters and environments.  Noctis seems like a cool guy maybe a bit grumpy when he first wakes up, but who isn't.  I gotta say though having hair in my face all the time would probably bother me, but overall I like his character design.

The game has a darker and more gritty feel compared to most Final Fantasy games which I like.  In this trailer it showed some more scenes from the party shown in the previous trailer.  This time at least it shows a bit of gameplay with Noctis walking around a bit before some party crashers show up.  Military type guys busting through the windows riding what looks like giant mechanical flying whales.

As always they are doing a great job of mixing in pre-rendered cutscenes and events in with actual gameplay.  Which makes for a really cinematic and awesome gameplay experience you'd expect from a Final Fantasy game.  Getting to watch more of the combat gave a better idea on how the battle system works.  It looks like it plays a lot like Kingdom Hearts and Crisis Core.

You're able to dodge, jump, and do combos all in real time.  The menu bar on the side shows that you're able to use your standard item, magic, summon, and EX arts.  The combat looked really fluid and flashy, I saw a few times where Noctis did a teleport move mixing in magic and swordplay together.  There was also a few times it showed if you're using a gun you can aim in a 3rd person behind the shoulder view.

The trailer showed one part where a party member aimed a shot at an explosive barrel.  It made a huge explosion that staggered the Behemoth they were fighting.  Noctis was able to control a mounted cannon on a tank blasting away enemies.  Not only that but he also got in and controlled a giant mech.  So vehicles may play a big part in the combat, or at least a bigger part than past FF games. 

It was also nice to see there was a jungle environment that you'll get to explore.  Noctis and crew were fighting flying DemonSaurs; a mix between a demon and a dinosaur (not the official name, just a nickname I gave them).  Possibly there will be day/night cycle I couldn't really tell, but it did switch from day to night in the trailer while they were fighting.

Overall I was pleased with the trailer and it helped answer a lot of questions I had about the game.  It also left me with a lot of new questions and a craving for more.  This game has been in development for about 8 years now, I'm ready for it to come out!  I'll continue to be patient, I just hope it'll be worth the wait.  Going by this trailer it's looking promising, and more information should be revealed soon.

I'll keep everyone updated on new developments, be sure to check back.  Also, post your comments below and let me know what you thought about the trailer if you were lucky enough to see it early.

If you've seen a trailer for Total War: Shogun 2 then you can tell it has some nicely detailed graphics.  Having hundreds of high res units fighting each other at once with a detailed environment, and weather effects can run havoc on a PC.  If you were wondering what the system requirements are for Total War: Shogun 2 you're in luck.  SEGA announced the required and recommended PC specs for it.

 Minimum Specs (Required for playing Total War: Shogun 2):

-       2 GHz Intel Dual Core processor / 2.6 GHz Intel Single Core processor , or AMD equivalent (with SSE2)
-       1GB RAM (XP), 2GB RAM (Vista / Windows7)
-       256 MB DirectX 9.0c compatible graphics card (shader model 3)
-       1024x768 minimum screen resolution
-       20GB free hard disk space

Recommended Specs (Recommended for optimum game play of Total War: Shogun 2):

-       2nd Generation Intel® Core™i5 processor (or greater), or AMD equivalent
-       2GB RAM (XP), 4GB RAM (Vista / Windows7)
-       AMD Radeon HD 5000 and 6000 series graphics cards or equivalent DirectX 11 compatible graphics card
-       1280x1024 minimum screen resolution
-       20GB free hard disk space

The system requirements are pretty reasonable considering the scope of the game.  Most computers should be able to run it;  I have a 5 year old computer that could run it off of the minimum specs.  If you have a nice computer running it on the recommended and above you're in for a treat.  The graphics for this game are very impressive on high settings.  Check out this gameplay footage:



Total War: Shogun 2 has a release date for March 15, 2011.  I'll be doing a preview of the game as it gets closer to release, and possibly a review if I get a request for it.

I don't know about the rest of the world, but I've been waiting for a Bleach game to be released on the PS3 pretty much since the PS3 has been out. With numerous releases of the franchise on the PSP, I knew it only had to be a matter of time before one would get thrown in the home console's direction. Well, that time has finally come. Bleach: Soul Ignition is on its way, with a demo available on the Japanese PSN, but is this game going to be the one we've been waiting for?

No Ichigo, it's not cool.

First off, I'd like to say that I am a fan of the Bleach anime and manga, so my opinion of some of the game releases may be slightly biased. I've found enjoyment in pretty much every Bleach game I have played, from the Heat the Soul and Soul Carnival series' on PSP, to the two games released on Wii. Blade Battlers 2 on PS2 was by far the most fun to me, and I could go back to it even now and have countless hours of fun playing it with friends. That being said, the Bleach: Soul Ignition demo is one of the worst things I have ever experienced. It almost made me physically ill to play through it.

To start with, the graphics are horrid. Everything looks washed out, and enemies have hardly any detail at all. Ichigo's character model and animations are passable at best, but that's the only positive thing I could find in this department. They honestly could have just ported the latest Heat the Soul game over, and it would have looked better than this. I realize that anime based games don't really have that high standards, but come on. This is almost 2011, the era of Hi-Definition for crying out loud. This wouldn't even be mediocre standards if it were on Wii. Even so, I can deal with bad graphics. It's Bleach, so I'm willing to overlook lackluster visuals if the gameplay is decent.

Saying the gameplay is "decent" would be a huge overstatement for this game, however. Hell, saying it plays like crap would be a compliment. Soul Ignition is a hack and slash action game, putting you against hordes of mindless enemies and slightly smarter bosses. Playing Soul Ignition consists of mashing the Square button frantically while Ichigo performs the same combo over and over, while fighting the clunky camera simultaneously. I tried mixing up the button presses, delaying attacks in hopes that I would see a different animation, but there were none. You can chain a ground combo into a jump, and continue with an air combo, though! Neat, right? Aside from standard square button attacks, you have ranged fireball type attacks on triangle which seem pretty worthless. There's also a guard, dash, and auto lock-on button, which for some reason auto unlocks when you get knocked down. You also have a special attack that consumes a blue meter at the bottom of the screen, which is decent for taking down multiple enemies at once. There's another meter around Ichigo's portrait that you can use to become more powerful and unleash a more devastating attack.



All of this is presented in a very sub-par package, and the enemy AI doesn't force you to use any of these extra attacks. The hordes of hollow monsters are dumb. Dumb and docile. Not only that, but none of these abilities are Ichigo's signature attacks. This is probably the biggest disappointment at all for me. This demo has failed in delivering any fan service at all, which is a huge problem. An anime based game that doesn't feel like the actual anime is like a filler episode, and a lot of people skip those for a reason.

Now I realize that this is just a demo. It's not fair to judge a game based purely on a demo, even though it's not very often that the final product is a vastly improved. There are also supposed to be multiple characters to play with, and I'm betting there will even be other versions of Ichigo to play as that will feature his traditional moves and Bankai. But from what the demo indicates, adding more playable characters is only a drop in the bucket of things this game will need to succeed. I'm sorry to say it, but the long wait for a Bleach game on PS3 looks like it may have been for nothing. This game would sooner extinguish your soul, rather than ignite it.

The PS2 is simply amazing.  Not only is it the best selling console of all time, it's arguably the best gaming system period.  With 10 years of games being released for the PS2, it has a massive library of games to choose from.  By popular request from a previous article: Best Samurai Games this Generation, it's time to take a look back at some of the best samurai games last gen.  I decided to choose mostly games for PS2 because the majority of the best samurai games last gen were for PS2 only.  Not only that, but what I consider some of the best samurai games of all time were on the PS2.

 

Genji: Dawn of the Samurai is loosely based off an old Japanese story.  It's full of demons, mythological beasts, and of course samurai.  You get to play as two different characters: Yoshitsune and Benkei.  Yoshitsune dual wields swords and is the most agile of the two.  Benkei lacks in speed, but makes up for it in power wielding huge club like weapons.

You're able to level up your characters and equip lots of different weapons.  Aside from the great boss battles; one of the coolest things about the game is using kamui.  When you use kamui time slows down so you can focus on the attacks coming at you.  If you time your strikes correctly you'll deliver a devastating counter strike that will one-shot most enemies. 

 The Onimusha series is one of Capcom's biggest franchises.  Once you get used to the tank-like controls (similar to the Resident Evil series) you're in for a treat.  The controls aren't as bad as you might think, and is much improved in part 3 and 4.  All four of the main Onimusha games are great, and I can highly recommend them.  Although the main character and story is different in each game; you generally play a samurai that fights demons and has demon powers.  You also get to fight against Japan's favorite villian that they love to hate: Nobunaga.  I'm really hoping there will be news soon on Onimusha 5, I'll keep you updated.





Rurouni Kenshin: Enjou! Kyoto Rinne is a beat-em-up based off the manga/anime.  If you're a Kenshin fan you'll enjoy this game a lot, it's pretty faithful to the anime.  You get to learn and use all of Kenshin's signature attacks, and fight all of the memorable battles from the show.  You'll also get to play as 3 other characters: Sanosuke, Saito, and Aoshi which is great fun.  If you're not a fan of Kenshin this is a great samurai game, and after playing this I'm sure it'll make a fan outta you yet.


Like the Bleach game this one also hasn't had a Western Release which is unfortunate.  I was still able to enjoy the game and understood most of it from being a Kenshin fan.  There are online faqs and tutorials to help you play this game, so if you don't understand Japanese it's not much of a problem.
Samurai Showdown Anthology consists of parts 1-6 on one disc which is an amazing deal.  The Samurai Showdown series is one of my favorite fighting game franchises.  There is a lot of variety to the types of samurai that is in this game.  If you're a fighting game fan, and like samurai or ninjas you gotta check this game out.  I hope that the next game they come out with is another 2D one and that they learned from their mistakes from the latest one on 360. 

Samurai Champloo - This one is loosely based on the Anime, but not as good.  It's not a bad game, it's very stylish and fun to play.  I just can't recommend it to everyone, even if you're a samurai fan. 

Code of the Samurai - A hack-n-slash samurai game that focuses on counters and combos.  It looks pretty cool, unfortunately I haven't had the chance to play it.

Kengo: Legacy of the Blade - This game was labeled the spiritual successor to Bushido Blade.  While I don't find it as fun as Bushido Blade, I do see similarities.  Kengo has a lot of depth behind it, and is definitely not a button masher.

Seven Samurai 20XX - A hack-n-slash game set in the future where samurai slice down cyborgs with katana.  This game is basically mindless fun, but is that so wrong?

Mushashi: Samurai Legend  - This is the sequel to Brave Fencer Mushashi for the PS.  It's a bit different from the first game and takes more of an action approach.  Being able to learn lots of new attacks from your enemies was addicting to me.

Blood Will Tell - It's an action game based off of the manga/anime Dororo.  You play as a samurai that lost 48 body parts to demons and is out to get them back.  Believe it or not the story is actually really interesting, and it's worth playing just for that.  The game does have some problems, but if you're able to look past them, it's a pretty good game.

That about does it for the best samurai games last gen, hope you enjoyed reading.  If you're still hungry for more samurai games, check out this article:  Best Samurai Games this Generation  Be sure to comment below and tell me which samurai games are your favorite and why.