A Preview of Final Fantasy XIII-2

The longest and most beloved Japanese RPG game will soon be bringing out yet another game of Final Fantasy : XIII-2. This game has incredible visuals and blows every game away when it comes to the artistic side of the game which is shown not only in every cut-scene but also in-game.

While in Final Fantasy XIII the main goal of the game was to get out of Cocoon, now players will be able to return to the lovely human made world. There is however a part of the game that will play itself in Gran Pulse but it isn’t the main setting of the game anymore. Where you, as Lightning, saved the world of Cocoon from the destruction 5 years ago (Final Fantasy XIII), it came to the conclusion that it had to be rebuilt. After some time, it was believed that Lighting went missing and thought she was dead. Then all of the sudden, the town of New Bodhum gets overrun by horrible monsters and a new stranger by the name of Noel appears and saves her. You join forces together to find out what exactly happened to Lightning and meet some new characters on the way. Considering those new characters, until now, had been a mystery of what Square Enix will come up with and only time will tell what we can expect so sit tight…

(Pre-emptive striiiiiike! I'm good at those!)

The engine on which the new Final Fantasy XIII-2 will be running on is the Crystal Tools engine. When we look at the gameplay, a lot of changes have been made yet again to give us, the gamers the ultimate Final Fantasy experience. The CSB system has further evolved from Final Fantasy XIII and you are now even able to control the difficulty of the battles by the use of Cinematic Action moves which will allow players to deal a considerable amount of damage more to gain the upper hand in combat. Aside from that, you are now also able to use your tamed creature to be a fighting force in battle. The “Feral Link” which is basically the same as the Gestalt Gauge will be used to collect a certain amount of damage. When the Feral Link bar is full, let it rip!

As I said before, the new characters which will be introduced have not been made clear yet, however, the characters that we will also see in this one are Hope, with a whole new look on the world acting a little more mature in this one. And not to forget Snow, the rockhammer in the whole game who became from being a bit cocky: “I can beat everyone and everything by myself” to a more down to Earth, cool kind of guy.

This new game promises a lot and is due to be released in Japan in December 2011 and will be available on the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. As Europe and  North America are always second in line for the Final Fantasy series, it will be released early 2012 and I’ll be the first one in line to continue playing this amazing game to check out the next part in this amazing story.

The Wii U: Touchpad, Controller, and Tablet, Oh My!

The Wii U is the latest and hottest new console by Nintendo to bring the whole gaming experience to a whole new level. Basically the Wii U looks very much like the Wii, however the controllers have made it to level 10 and now have a beautiful touchpad screen built in straight away. This way, games are now not only play-able when you have a TV linked up, but you can just use this single controller to run the whole thing. This allows a lot more freedom in gaming and looking ridiculous wherever you want.

We all have to agree that when the Wii came out, it was amazing and people heavily bought the console because it was THE new way of playing games. However, as time passed and people got bored by the same games over and over again without any great new games being made, it felt like the Wii couldn’t keep up with the Xbox 360 or the PS3 and things had to change.

The Wii U comes with HD games which is a great upgrade considering visuals and when holding the console to use the thumb sticks and arrow keys, surprisingly even after long play, my hand didn’t cramp up at all. The whole experience using a tablet and being able to play anywhere you would like make the Wii U for a great console which is, this time, most likely going to keep up with the other console developments (as long as great new games keep popping up like popcorn!).

Now, for all those people who literally want to know the insides and outs of the new Wii U! The Wii U runs on an IBM Power-based multi-core 45m microprocessor, a microphone (ohhh handy!) and a 6.2 inch touchscreen and more for the new ultimate game experience. Other than that, there is a HDMI connection, SD card slots and last but not least, a USB connection. Basically we’re doing about the same as the PSP but then, a possibility to also see the same thing on TV.

All we can do is a lot of wait and see to what the new Wii U has to offer as the demo’s that have been shown during the preconference of Nintendo are “Mere demo’s to show what is possible with the new Wii U”. The Wii U shows serious potential in the gaming industry and unlike the Wii which was released a couple of years ago, Nintendo now knows exactly where the problem lies and what they have to do in order to turn this new console into a great success. So for all the Nintendo fans out there and for upcoming new fans: “Let’s go Nin-Ten-Do!”

(oh hey, it'sa me and Mario!)

Big Games of EA at E3 2011

This year’s E3 was an amazing event again and it’s easily seen that EA (Electronic Arts) had the biggest amount of games we have all been waiting for. In this year’s edition they brought BattleField back to life with the brand new edition featuring the Frostbite 2 game engine technology. BattleField 3 brings a massive upgrade to the table and this certainly shows while you fight your way through the missions as an Elite member of the U.S. Marines. While walls crumble, bombs and grenades explode next to you and bullets fly next to your ears. The game is as usual not only playable in single player but again brings some amazing multiplayer options which you have to check out!

Another great game by EA for the PC which has been anticipated for quite some time now is, Star Wars: The Old Republic where players have the choice to choose the path of the Sith, Jedi or some of the other classic characters of the Star Wars movies. Players are playing at about a thousand years before Darth Vader arises and you are now trying to fend your way through the massive war between the Empire and the Republic. Choose a side, develop and make your character unique based on decisions you make and there is also an option to team up with your friends to fight those impossible battles.

He’s baahaaaaaack… The most feared Locust killer in the entire world. Gears of War comes back with a brand new edition where you again fight as Marcus Fenix in a quest to fight of a new evil that brewed up and is now infecting the planet from the inside. This game was and still is highly respected in the online gaming world and with this latest edition, we can only expect more. Graphic wise the game has been tweaked, difficulty wise it’s at about the same level and I must say that Microsoft has made yet another great game!



And last but not least in the list of greatest games brought to us this year in the E3 is Prototype 2. The game is all about getting even with things happened in the past and now need to be dealt with on a mental and physical level. This basically means that in this game you are about to run wild through the city where you cannot be taunted and thrown off the screen anymore. Unlike the first Prototype game, players now have more control over their “puppet” as they make sure that all the stress of work, people, daily life gets emitted through the destruction of well... everything you can find. This game is certainly worth testing out to see how well it works for you and will probably graphically and emotionally amaze you.

More info on the E3 2011 will be online soon.