Nuclear power? Pathetic! Solar power? Are you trying to make me laugh? For true power that will satisfy your electrical needs, you need Pokémon themed batteries. May 25th will see the release of Pokémon batteries in Japan so all you Japanese gamers can grab some to go along with all the other Pokémon merchandise that exists in this world.

Source: Kotaku

It was recently announced that Demon’s Souls was finally making its way to PAL territories and that it would be arriving in a fancy box, complete with the soundtrack, art book and strategy guide. Namco were keen to point out that these were not just the leftovers of the other releases and were in fact completely new. So new, in fact, that the strategy guide is completely different and has been written by fans rather than professional writers.

Not just any fans mind you; the guide has been written by Matthew Whisker and Wayne Gibson, who run the Demon’s Souls Wiki. Namco Bandai contacted them and requested they write the game because their Wiki is the best place for information on the game. They obviously accepted and the deal means they do it free of charge but people who buy the game get a free strategy guide.

This deal keeps all parties happy really. Namco are able to produce the guide for basically nothing, the Demon’s Souls community gets credit for their work and gamers get a free guide!

Source: Demon’s Souls Wiki

2006 saw the launch of one of the finest third person shooters I have ever had the good fortune to play: Gears of War. It has led the way for practically all third person shooters of this generation with its extremely refined cover system and really weighty mechanics. It all seemed to come together brilliantly. There was pretty much no story but it had atmosphere and is quite possibly the best excuse to run around shooting the shit out of everything I’ve ever played.

Then, in 2008, Gears of War 2 was released, claiming to be “bigger, better and more badass”. Honestly though, the sequel was a little underwhelming. I’m not saying it was bad because it wasn’t, it was good, it just lacked any substantial differences from the original game. Gameplay was tweaked and polished to make it feel even better, and the new features like Horde were a welcome addition. There just seemed to be something missing from it, it felt too similar. I didn’t want an overhaul of the game because it was great already but they needed to expand it in some way.

This now leaves us with the recently announced Gears of War 3. Will it go the way of the second game and be good but not as good as it should have been? Hopefully not but we’ll just have to wait and see. If it truly wants to be “bigger, better and more badass” this time, despite Cliff Bleszinski not going for that approach, it needs to make sure certain things happen.

Single Player

Definitely looks like Gears of War 3 could be atmospheric.

Both of the Gears of War games had a good single player filled with set pieces and shoot outs. The original was more atmospheric which made the shootouts tense while remaining exciting compared to the sequel which was more about the epic fights and the huge set pieces; it was all out war. To have the best approach possible the third game should try and balance these two as they both had their advantages.

Judging from the announcement teaser this could be the case. It shows a dark, dull area, covered in ash which definitely could make for a tense, creepy atmosphere but then the shit hits the fan and the COGs end up in a huge fire fight with the locust. Then, the Lambent appears and unleashes more destruction. From the little information that we have, it’s definitely capable of creating a good balance between the two.

Multi-Player

You can see why Gears of War has appealing multi-player.

Unlike most games, Gears of War never tried to fit as many players as it possibly could into one match. Rather than go for something like 16 players, Gears opted for half of that. Why? To offer a more tactical experience that was much more suited to the game. I loved it; it was so satisfying chainsawing (This is a word!) other players and it never felt overly hectic. To top it off, one guest could join in the fun and I could play as Cole. Epic did a really good job.

Then Gears of War 2 was released. Somewhere amidst the chaos was the great groundwork of the original but it was near impossible to find. It started off very badly with more than a handful of bugs and a matchmaking system that didn’t really work too well. Over time it got better but it never got as good as it should have been which is a shame because now 10 people could play together! The third game just needs to fix the problems; spruce it up with a few more modes and new maps and it’ll be fine.

Both games also had a fantastic co-op mode too. This is something that has definitely been taken up a notch in Gears of War 3. Previously the co-op was limited to two players but now four players will be able to team up and take on the campaign together which should prove to be very fun. Horde needs to make a return too; slaughtering near endless waves of enemies with buddies never gets boring.

Story

Gears has a good universe; hopefully this will be explored without detracting from what the game's about.

Remember the story of the first game? Oh wait, there was none! Marcus and Co. Decided they wanted to blow up a bunch of Locust with a big bomb because they were in a war. That was about it, to be honest. It was simple and it kept the game fun so I’m not really complaining. However, the sequel decided to implement a more fleshed out story. Gears of War 2 had multiple sub-plots including Dom’s wife which was an improvement but it didn’t fit in as well as it could. This time, they’ll hopefully handle the story better.

Despite the games never fully exploring it, Gears of War does have a relatively interesting universe which has been detailed in the novels. Now I don’t need an excessively deep story in Gears of War 3 but something that works well and fits in with the games would be nice. Karen Traviss, who has worked on the Gears of War novels, will be the lead writer for the game which should hopefully allow for such things to happen.

Character Diversity

They're like one, big happy family.

One thing I’ve always loved about Gears of War is the wide range of characters that seem to pop up. Marcus, the battle scarred veteran; Dom, the trusty sidekick; Baird, the annoyed, angry white guy; Cole, the fun and crazy, beefed up, just-generally-awesome guy. Then you can throw hillbillies, spiritual soldiers, army generals and more into the mix.

Already we know that Marcus, Dom, Baird and Cole will be re-appearing as they showed up in the teaser. Also, to be included is Anya. She was in the previous games but now she’s wielding a Lancer and more than willing to kill. Alongside a female soldier I’m hoping to see even more diverse characters show up; I want a COG cowboy! Hopefully another Carmine will show up too; it would be great if he was a total badass this time. Oh, and Dizzy better return because he was awesome!

Bigger, Better and More Badass Set Pieces

Hopefully the set pieces will be on a similar scale to this.

In the words of Cliffy B, the whole game should be “bigger, better and more badass” but to be honest this will mainly apply to the set pieces. Hopefully, we’ll see some huge set pieces with massive explosions and lots of killing as that’s what Gears is about. With the introduction of the Lambent, that does open up plenty of possibilities for some really big fights. Can you imagine fighting ten of those at a time!

It’s already been rumoured that mechs and underwater battles will make an appearance in the game so Epic seem to be on the right lines if this is true. Seeing the COG soldiers swimming would be a little bit weird as they’re awfully big but if handled correctly it could go down well. Mechs should allow for some even bigger battles on a new scale too.

Even More Weapons

"MEHMEHMEHMEMMEMMEMMEHMEM"

Gears of War offers a fair selection of weapons ranging from a bow that shoots explosives to an assault rifle with a chainsaw on it. One of the things I’ve always praised about the series is that it it’s filled with big, manly, beefy guns that make you feel indestructible and the third game should continue with this. If mechs are introduced that should give us some exciting new toys to play with.

I’ll trust Epic to come up with new weapons though. They’ve done a good job in the past (Gears and Unreal) so I trust they come up with some more impressive weaponry. We do know that a double barrel shotgun will make an appearance as Marcus puts it to good use in the trailer. I still don’t know how it took this long to stick a chainsaw on the end of a gun though; it’s just one of life’s great mysteries.

Gears of War 3

Gears of War 3 is going to be a big hit no matter what. With a year to create hype for it, I imagine that we’ll be seeing many excited gamers come release. I’m almost 99 percent positive that it will be a good game but be a truly good sequel this time, it needs to constantly improve in every possible way.

David Jaffe (God of War, Twisted Metal) is not known to keep his opinions to himself very often. Don’t get me wrong, I respect the man and think he should express what he thinks just like everyone else does, regardless of any criticism he gets. Yesterday, on Twitter, he gave his opinion regarding “game sharing”.

“@zKAPOWz No, but I think game sharing on PSN is utter horse shit. Why is it ok to buy a game and give it to 2-5 peeps 4 free? Insane!”

For those who don’t know, it’s when one PSN account downloads a game and then give the details to others to download onto their PS3. There’s a limit of only 3 systems though (Thanks – SJ) though. He has a fair point really, especially since he developed Calling All Cars on PSN. I don’t actually know if this is a big issue; it’s not something that’s heard of a lot but he still makes a fair point.

Back in 2008, gamers were granted with one of the most fun and inventive games of the generation: LittleBigPlanet. Anyone who’s played it will know that it has so much charm to it and is just generally a really enjoyable game. Since it’s release, there has been loads of DLC for the game ranging from level packs to character skins and Media Molecule (The developers) have expressed that they wished to support the game by continuing to add content rather than make a sequel.

However, Christopher Leary (Better known as Ochre), Tweeted earlier on that he was “Pleased to announce the licensing of ‘Infotain Me’ to Sony for Little Big Planet 2 on PS3.”. Since then the Tweet has been deleted which suggests that there may be some truth behind it. Sony wouldn’t want a LittleBigPlanet sequel to be announced like this; this is the kind of thing for E3.

The game has been previously mentioned before. It came up in an interview about the upcoming PlayStation Move where it was mentioned as a game that would support the controls. Sony told us that it was simply a mistake though; this may not be the case.

As reported yesterday, Namco Bandai said that a full announcement regarding From Software’s old school RPG, Demon’s Souls, would come today. Namco have now announced that it will be released in PAL territories June 25th this year so there’s not too much of a wait.

Of course, your patience will not go unrewarded. There will be no “standard edition” of Demon’s Souls and instead only the “Black Phantom Edition” will see release in the EU but at a standard price. Not only will you get a copy of the game but you will also get an art book, the soundtrack and a strategy guide in a nice, little box. All of these will be new and not left overs of the US versions.

Picture below/after the jump.

March seen the release of some fantastic games. Final Fantasy XIII, God of War III, New Pokémon games and more which gave gamers plenty of choice regarding what to spend their hard earned cash on. Last month’s NPD figures shows that God of War III was the most popular choice.

However, that’s only for the one individual platform. When you combine the sales of Final Fantasy XIII on the PS3 and X360 it comes out ahead, as with Bad Company 2. Then if you count Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver as one game they should take the top spot. Take a look at the data:

1. God of War III (PS3) – 1,100,000
2. Pokémon SoulSilver (DS) – 1,020,000
3. Final Fantasy XIII (PS3) – 828,200
4. Battlefield: Bad Company 2 (Xbox 360) – 825,500
5. Pokémon HeartGold (DS) – 761,200
6. Final Fantasy XIII (Xbox 360) – 493,900
7. New Super Mario Bros. Wii (Wii) – 457,400
8. Battlefield: Bad Company 2 (PS3) – 451,200
9. Wii Fit Plus (Wii) – 429,600
10. MLB 10: The Show (PS3) – 349,200

Some impressive figures there. Final Fantasy XIII apparently saw “the best launch for any item in the franchise” which is good news for Square Enix. As expected the PS3 sold better than the X360 version but I didn’t expect it to nearly double the sales. Bad Company 2 also did well and sold 170% more than its predecessor.

God of War III did really well. Not only did it hit the top of the sales but it also beat God of War II’s launch by 32% which is really impressive when you consider it has a smaller install base.

Fans of Metal Gear Solid will know that the upcoming PSP game, Peace Walker, is nearly out and will no doubt be getting excited as it’s looking pretty good. Any Japanese gamers out there may want to import a copy if they speak English because the Eastern version will be going through some edits before release.

In Japan, Peace Walker was given a C-rating which means it is only suitable for gamers 15 years old or above. Hideo Kojima tweeted that a few cuts here and there were required in order get it this rating, rather than the D rating it was originally intended for (17 years old and above). One of these cuts include taking out the blood in the game.

“The PSP is supported by the younger generation. That is why we avoided the animation of bloodspill. However, “A Scene” that is critical and essential to the series was pointed out by the rating board. No matter how much the game emphasized an anti-war and anti-nuke message didn’t matter at all. In disappointment, that scene was edited for the Japanese version. The European and U.S versions still include this scene though.”

Even though the edits aren’t essential to release the game, Kojima believes that the PSP is more attractive to the “younger generation” and wants to make sure that it is available for them. A certain scene that is apparently “critical and essential” required editing to make it possible for the game to get it’s C-Rating but no details were given about which scene.

Only the Japanese version will be edited; both the US and European versions will be released without any cuts. Peace Walker will be released on April 28th in Japan while it be released on June 8th and 17th in the US and Europe respectively, exclusively on the PSP.

Demon’s Souls has received extremely positive reception by gamers and critics alike in the US and Japan. From Software, the developers, were surprised with how well it’s been doing commercially, as well as critically. However, it still hasn’t been released in Europe despite us European gamers really wanting it. Finally, EU gamers can rejoice as Namco Bandai will be publishing the game in Europe.

This is all good news so far but it gets better. Namco Bandai told VG247 that they “will be making a full announcement tomorrow.”. This means that we will probably find out the release date tomorrow as they can’t really show off new gameplay when the game is already out in other regions. Either way, I’m looking forward to finally getting to play it.

Level 5 announced that they are working on a game called Time Travellers in the latest issue of Famitsu. Next to no details were released but it’s being developed for “unreleased hardware” which will most likely be the 3DS.

As you can in the above artwork, a girl stands above a destroyed city from a clock tower that is still standing; it has a certain charm to it but, again, it doesn’t revel much. That’s about it; no release date; no details; no concepts; nothing.

Via, VG247.