Officials from Atlus U.S.A. have announced that the company has signed the North American publishing rights for Luminous Arc, an upcoming isometric strategy RPG from Marvelous Interactive (Harvest Moon DS) and Image Epoch. The game is planned for release later this year.
Key features in the upcoming SRPG include the ability to create new weapons and equipment with the game’s ‘Vitae Imbuing’ system, and an emphasis on relationships between characters so that stronger bonds yield more potent attacks on the battlefield. Luminous Arc will include multiplayer support over Nintendo’s WiFi Connection, as well as a variety of characters and voiced dialogue.
We’ll certainly keep an eye on this one in the march up to its release. Early reports have noted that the game’s original Japanese release was plagued by control issues and unimpressive presentation, so it will be interesting if these sorts of things are addressed during the localization.
It’s a sad day for fans and followers of Xbox Live Arcade. Joystiq spoke earlier today with Behemoth big-shot Dan Paladin about their victory in the category of Excellence in Visuals at this year’s Game Developers Conference. Specifically, they asked what kind of timeframe hungry gamers could expect for Castle Crashers, and they were met with some somber news.
It would appear that Castle Crashers still has a year of development left in front of it, putting its release date squarely in 2008. While we really had no strong basis for believing the game would come out in the near future, we just sort of assumed. Wishful thinking?
The silver lining in the story is that Paladin confirmed that the game would be bigger, longer, and include more features thanks to Microsoft’s recent announcement that they would now allow games up to 100mb in size. Considering the amount of content they squeezed into 50mb with Alien Hominid, this thing might actually approach the size and scope of a full retail game. I can’t wait to see.
For those who might be getting bored with the multiplayer maps on [i]Lost Planet: Extreme Condition[/i], there’s good news today. Marketplace now lists two new maps available for the snow-covered Capcom hit. Radar Field and Island 902 are now available as one map pack for the price of 400 Microsoft Points (5.00 USD). The two new maps follow through with Capcom’s announcement of new content last month, and gamers can expect another two packs in coming months.
[i]Lost Planet[/i] was released this past January and quickly became one of the best-sellers of the month. You can read our review of [i]Lost Planet: Extreme Condition[/i] [url=http://www.snackbar-games.com/r426.html]here[/url].
With the Playstation 3 set to debut in Europe on March 23, Sony is already attempting to lower production costs in anticipation of the launch. Sony announced on Friday that the company would be removing a microchip from European-bound PS3 units that will help to cut some of the heavy costs associated with PS3 production. The chip, which enables the console to process PS2 graphics and data, will be replaced with another chip that still processes the data for PS2 games, but will reduce the number of PS2 games able to be played on the PS3. The announcement caused shares in Sony Corp. to rise three percent.
It is unclear if the cost-cutting move with be applied to Japanese and North American PS3 units yet. Could this lead to lowered prices on PS3s in European countries? With Sony’s prediction that the company’s game operation will exceed losses of over 200 billion yen, don’t bet on it.
Publisher Strategy First announced that it has partnered with Los Angeles-based video game and film production company Union Entertainment to bring the Jagged Alliance to the big screen. Union and Strategy First have signed on Nick Nunziata (Grizzly Park, Meg) to help develop and co-produce the project.
The original Jagged Alliance game was released in 1994 and has spawned five sequels, with another currently under development at Strategy First.
The project’s title, Jagged Alliance, describes the cutthroat relationships between members of a mercenary team who are ready to sign over their services to the highest bidder. Each a specialist in his or her own discipline, these operatives know that in order to survive their missions, they must rely on, but never trust, each other. The team is assembled from the best of the best by the Alliance of International Mercenaries, an apolitical private organization with its own covert agenda.
