If you were expecting to engage in some massive brawls early on, tough luck. But it sucks even harder to see hear SEGA’s other major tentpole title will take a while to get here, you know the one that was announced like, in 2006:

Long-in-the-offing shooter Aliens: Colonial Marines has been delayed from this Spring until some time in the Autumn, Sega has announced.

A statement from the publisher handed to Eurogamer explained that developer Gearbox Software needs a little more time to finish things up.

“Aliens: Colonial Marines is a process of creativity and invention and those don’t necessarily follow the structure of an assembly line. While setting clear goals, deadlines and predictions is helpful, they are often subjective.

[Source: Eurogamer.net]

One classic, one newer and a new one comin’ soon:

If you’re only just old enough to buy a pint, you probably won’t remember Sonic CD, a game released on the technologically astonishing Mega CD back in 1993. It used disks and everything and saved to memory.

Sonic Generations Casino Night Pinball Stage is the second offering in the line-up, while PC players can now also get their hands on Sonic The Hedgehog 4 Episode 1.

[Source: Eurogamer.net]

And according to Naka-san’s account, they might be working on something Sonic-related:

Though there remain skeptics, it helps when the alleged source is one of the main men behind Sonic, Yuji Naka.  Recently, Mr. Naka took a trip to Marza, and via his Facebook and Twitter feeds, mentioned something about a Sonic animation while there.  It had been tough to this point to get a proper translation, which has been key in determining what Mr. Naka actually said.  So we asked our Japan based reporter Danny Russell to help us. Here is what Mr. Naka said in part:

Marza Animation Planet is made up of members from VE R&D (http://sega.jp/corp/saiyo/csjob/ve.shtml), which is a division he had a hand in creating. It looks like they’re working on a Sonic movie. Their offices seem nice, and they have a screening room / theatre there.

Danny further clarified tonight, saying Mr. Naka’s remarks don’t necessarily confirm or deny anything that was fit for release–just that work toward a Sonic animation was seen while at the studio, and it appeared to be part of a larger movie project.

[Source: TSSZ News via SegaBits]

[Source: AndriaSang.com]

South Africa gets a piece of much needed SEGA love:

South African gaming distributor Ster Kinekor has announced that they will be the sole distributor for Sega Corporation Europe titles in the country.

(…)

“Acquiring the Sega property to distribute locally has been another feather in the SKE cap as we continue to grow and improve our publisher portfolio. Managing to partner with the likes of Sega who has established the Sonic property as part of the gaming software legacy since video gaming inception, is a great result for our business and we believe will prove a great result for the Sega Corporation business in South Africa,” said Mario dos Santos, Chief Operating Officer for Ster Kinekor Entertainment.

(…)

The first Sega title to be released by Ster Kinekor will be Binary Domain in February this year.

[Source: IT News Africa]

[Source: Sega.co.uk]

[Source: Sega.co.uk]

Binary Domain producer Masayoshi Kikuchi (also involved in Jet Set Radio Future, Yakuza 3 and Yakuza 4) tells Inside Xbox a little bit about SEGA’s major tentpole title for February. He talks about about a couple of things such as how character interactions, why the shooter genre was chosen, sci-fi themes, etc.

According to US ratings board the ESRB, Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 2 will see a release on Windows PC. A rating for the game has appeared on the ESRB’s website recently which lists the game for the platform. Early last month, Episode 1 appeared on the Steam registry, suggesting SEGA is bringing Sonic the Hedgehog 4 to PC users, and with such strong evidence like this, it seems a PC release for both Episodes is all but officially confirmed.

[Source: Sonic Stadium]

The Pitch:

Long time SquareEnix dev teams up with SEGA for a new type of RPG that trades the tradicional sword and sorcery model for firearms and more realistic setting. In a post apocalyptic world where the remaining survivors live inside a massive tower that has a machine that keeps them alive, players take control of three main protagonists who make ends meet as mercernaries for hire accepting jobs, but as the story progresses, not everything is what it seems. Like I stated before this RPG trades swords and magic for gunplay pure and simple in a sped-up version of a Strategy RPG where you wear down your opponents and then excecute them in a satisfying manner. Battles take place in a arena, where you can move your characters around and engage the enemy through Hero Actions that cost you a Battle hexagon, but be careful not not waste them, because it leaves you vulnerable. In order to attack an enemy you have to create scratch damage, which is a type of damage that is temporary and heals over time, so when you do scratch damage you then use another character that can do direct damage, thus converting it to permanent damage. Long story short: attack enemies with machine guns or grenades, then use your pistols to create direct damage. Rinse and repeat.

What I liked:

• Less is more: I don’t want to sound like I’m badmouthing any particular JRPG, but playing this game makes feel like I’m going through a grand adventure without the obviously padded out content and the often overwhelming plot exposition and occasional phylosphical lectures, the plot is precise, to the point and doesn’t feel overcrowded;
• New Game +: You can replay the game on roughly the same difficulty level, but with literally everything that you gained, items, currency, hexes, etc. Nothing more needs to be said;
• Amazing soundtrack: Motoi Sakuraba, you have my personal thanks for this impressive piece of heavenly orchestral soundtrack mixed with some bizzare rock tunes;
• The bigger they are, the harder they fall: Like stated before, while the game severly punishes you for making rash decisions, the level of gratification that you get when you defeat a major boss is indescribable. But should you fail, the game is more than happy to give a hand by exchanging ingame currency for another retry;
• Save anywhere: Except during boss battles, I’m afraid, but handy on every other situation;
• Solid voice-acting: Resonance of Fate spices things up with an ensemble cast made up of video game voice acting veterans and TV show voice actors and actresses, such as the always available Nolan North, TV veteran Scott Menville (Teen Titans, American Dad, Freakazoid) and even the Super Mario voice actor, all of them do their job perfectly;

What I didn’t like:

• Difficulty: The game is hard. One minor mistake will have you watching that Game Over screen several times. It’s not an easy game to pick up, because unlike many JRPGs, you don’t have a tutorial or any scripted battle to show how to play, though there is an Arena section that do tell you how to do all that, but the game does not tell you that right away;
• Unimpressive visuals: Sad to say, that for a 2010 game, the game engine is very sub-par when paired with other titles;
• What exactly is the plot: I find myself asking that question over and over again, the story itself plays out like episodes of your average TV series and you are spoonfed with the larger picture, and only… only much later in the game does it actually click, that it not to say that the episodes aren’t bad, because you get to know the characters a little better, but it feels way too spaced out and the actual sense of danger is only too distant for you to get invested into it;

The Final Word:

I don’t know what else to say about the game itself other what I’ve said over and over again on this blog. Personally,  would say buy it. But on the same token, I know people are going to buckle down and give up on the game because of it’s penchant for making you suffer a lot even from minor mistakes. It’s one of those games that only the hardcore gamers and critiques like, but won’t attract a more mainstream audience. It gets kudos, though, for makin’ something that’s vastly different from the average JRPG.

I was actually curious about Dungeon Siege III for a while, I almost felt tempted to buy it since you can find it quite cheaply, but I tried out the demo first and here’s a couple of things I’ve noticed: the game first and foremost, looks dated, feels bland, voice acting is terrible in general and you will get bored of it pretty quickly. So I decided to dig up my old copy of Alpha Protocol, just to see if the game stood the test of time. Long story short: It did not. But not only that, it carries the same issues that I’ve played on their other title. While the dialog system and the consequences are a nice addition because I’m curious to see how far-reaching your actions are and the choices you make. However, an interesting concept is muddled by mediocre graphics (the title was meant as a 2007/2008 release and getting pushed two years in a row did not help) and all the glitches and bugs.

I still have fresh recollections over some of the bugs that I’ve encountered on my first playthrough, from bosses getting stuck in one place and not moving at all, our main protagonist having his mouth wide open for no apparent reason, enemies that I judo-choppedare back up again when I turn around. Apparentely during the final boss battle, I entered some sort of God mode and nothing could hurt me.

One imagines that the Aliens RPG being canned was a blessing in disguise ’cause to put it mildly, Obsidian is the B-team of developers. Remember those japanese animated shows that ussually have two teams, the main one and the backup animation team, when the other is on vacation, hence why you see such a noticiable drop in animation quality. Now while the Internet almost gave the devs a free pass on this, but after Fallout: New Vegas, a lot of people have come to their senses.

Unfortunately my screen capturing hardware is not up to snuff right now. So we’ll have to make do with this terrible off-screen recording featuring my very loud Dreamcast console.

[Source: Sonic Wrecks]

In a stunning 12 minute interview with a fan site, Yu Suzuki actually discusses a few previously undisclosed plot points and what the creator of the series wants to do, several years after the last title was released on Xbox.

[Source: SEGA Bits]

With the latest title in the franchise jumping ship from the Wii to the PS3, so do a couple of titles, from the early Xbox and Arcade era titles are also making their way onto Sony’s online marketplace:

I’m going to just jump right into this one: The House of the Dead 3 is coming to PlayStation Network on February 7th, to be followed by The House of the Dead 4 in Spring 2012. Both titles have been updated with HD graphics, trophies, and complete PlayStationMove support to give you a full arcade HOTD experience in your living room. Boom. Yes. Awesome.

Originally released in 2002, The House of the Dead 3 introduced a number of new elements to the series, including “rescue events,” a shot ranking and grading system that challenges players to shoot both quickly and accurately, and a Boss “cancel” bar that players must fill to fend off devastating attacks.

[Source: SEGA Blog]

It should be noted that The House of the Dead 4 was an Arcade-only title up until now. And Playstation 3 owners are in for a treat.

This 40 minute special was included in the Sonic Generations Collector’s Edition and now it’s online, cortesy of the Mighty Sonic Wrecks. Watch 40 minutes of Sonic’s history.

[Source: Sonic Wrecks]

This trailer for Phantasy Star Online 2 is just so awesome!

[Source: SEGAbits]

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Sonic 4: Episode 2 Teaser Trailer

It’s coming… it’s coming… IT’S COMING!

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[Source: Rooster Teeth]

[Source: Gametrailers.com]