Options. Alpha Protocol seems to give gamers all the options they can want. The trailer really does want the player to believe that they are in charge of both the story and the gameplay. If they pull it off smoothly then this could be a great game. It could be the type of game that fans of the Bourne series have been waiting for in the spy genre. Could be a interesting title and considering Obisidians, the developers, reputation this game has all signs pointing towards quality game.

This trailer is much darker than the previous ones for the game, and I like it. It shows that the game will have a nice balance of light hearted humor and tough guy gameplay. This game looks so far like it could be better than Godfather II, and that’s a good thing because the type of game they are trying to create could be a lot of fun. The first game got good reviews, and this one looks to be even better. Who knows maybe it will be one of the first games to capture the essence of what made The Godfather such a great movie.

Looks like this could be a pretty interesting title. This trailer doesn’t show much considering it is CGI, but the story, setting, and feel being conveyed in it is pretty nice. Could be a sleeper this Fall with all the great titles coming out.

Steve Harris, founder of “Electronic Gaming Monthly” magazine, announced today that he has entered into an agreement with Ziff Davis Media to re-acquire certain assets, including trademarks and publishing rights, with plans to re-launch EGM in the second half of 2009.

“The re-launch of Electronic Gaming Monthly represents a welcome opportunity to continue delivering quality content to gaming enthusiasts,” said Harris. “I feel honored to once again be associated with this respected magazine. The talented writers and designers who built upon EGM’s original vision have left behind a publication that is uniquely positioned to be successful.”

“Electronic Gaming Monthly is and always has been one of the most respected publications among the gaming enthusiast community,” said Jason Young, CEO, Ziff Davis Media Inc. “We are pleased that EGM is now in the hands of its original creator, Steve Harris, and wish him and the publication the best of success in the future.”

“We have exciting plans for the evolution of what will once again be a leading independent voice for the gaming community,” Harris continued. “The twenty year success of the EGM brand has always been built upon a commitment to its readers who I believe will enthusiastically embrace the changes we are planning to introduce.”

Additional details and future announcements will be made during the upcoming E3 expo and posted on the magazine’s official website at www.EGMNOW.com or via the official EGM Twitter account at www.twitter.com/EGMNOW .

Eidos action adventure swoops to retail on 360, PS3, PC this fall. However, anyone who lives in Europe get to the play the game on August 28. To be honest, I was skeptical about this game, but after seeing that Joker trailer, I’m sold.

If you pay close attention to the Square-Microsoft relationship and its progression, you would begin to notice a pattern materializing before your very eyes. The pattern is more like water testing. Let me explain, if you are at a lake, and you suddenly feel the need to swim, your first thought would not be to jump in; the first thing you would normally do is test the water temperature; if it’s too cold and you are still feeling the urge to jump in, then you would need to slowly and gradually immerse yourself, in order to avoid jolting your system with a sudden temperature shift, until you are completely immersed in water; only at that point will you be able to swim freely and enjoy the experience. That is exactly what Square-Enix has done.

If you notice the gradual story progression of  the Square-developed titles for the Xbox 360, you would easily be able to predict where things are going. In April of 2006, they released Final Fantasy XI Online, a title that was released, over two years prior to the Xbox 360 version, on both the PS2 and PC, and was therefore, nothing more than a port of a title that Square had already profited from. In July of 2007, they released Project Sylpheed, a third-person space shooter from a genre that is not one of Square’s strong points.

In September of 2008, they released Infinite Undiscovery, a JRPG title developed by tri-Ace, one of Square’s most important second-party developers. In November of 2008, they released The Last Remnant, a JRPG title, developed by Square’s internal studio, that was initially announced as a multiplatform title, but was suddenly released as an Xbox 360 exclusive. Finally, after being fully immersed in the Xbox 360 waters, in February of 2009, they released Star Ocean 4: The Last Hope, a JRPG title, developed by tri-Ace, that was a sequel to one of Square’s biggest first-party franchises, exclusively on Microsoft’s console!

If we also add the fact that, at E3 08, Square-Enix announced Final Fantasy XIII as a multiplatform title, and the fact that Front Mission Evolved has been recently announced for the Xbox 360, it would be quite clear to us where things are going. Therefore, it is my belief that in 2009, one or more of the following predictions will surely be realized:

1. Final Fantasy XIII will finally be announced for the Xbox 360 in Japan.

2. Final Fantasy Versus XIII will finally be announced as a multiplatform title.

3. Kingdom Hearts 3 will be announced as an Xbox 360 exclusive!

On a side note, to any gamer that was not able to survive my last prediction, may you rest in peace.

Back to the topic at hand, if you still doubt my words, then let me explain my reasoning behind this from another angle:

First, given the fact that Star Ocean 4 had both the highest first-day sales and first-week sales in the history of Microsoft  in Japan, and the fact that, in the Land of the Rising Sun, the Xbox 360 currently has an installed base of over one million console owners, a large library of exclusive AAA JRPG titles, a tempting price tag, and a new reputation, it would not be too hard to figure out why Square has decided to continue their relationship with Microsoft and why they would decide to release Final Fantasy XIII in Japan; after all, they know that if released, it would easily surpass the Star Ocean 4 numbers and would become the best selling game in Microsoft’s history there.

Second, in case anyone wants to argue that Tetsuya Nomura, Director of Final Fantasy Versus XIII, does not have any experience with the Xbox 360 hardware, and, as a result, would not be able to develop it for the Microsoft console, you need to understand that all Square needs to do is outsource the Xbox 360 project to another internal studio that is familiar with its hardware and assign them to take over the task of porting the game to Microsoft’s machine. Furthermore, if anyone wants to argue that its trailer contained “Only on PS3″, you need to remember that the first trailer for Final Fantasy XIII had the same statement, and yet here we are waiting for the simultaneous release of this title in 2010!

In fact, the first trailer for Final Fantasy Versus XIII only contained “On PS3″, which lead gamers to expect that this title might actually have a chance to be released as a multiplatform title as a compensation to Microsoft for not receiving Final Fantasy XIII on their console. In other words, statements in trailers are meaningless nowadays; thus, expect the unexpected from Square this year regarding Versus XIII.

Third, if anyone would like to argue that Kingdom Hearts 3 will not be announced this year simply because Nomura, the Character Designer of  the Kingdom Hearts series and the Director of both installments on the PS2, is already hard at work on Versus XIII, and, as a result, would not be able to work on the third installment now, you need to understand that the solution to this issue is quite simple. All they have to do is outsource the project to another internal studio, and reassign over 40% of Nomura’s team, that had previously worked on the Kingdom Hearts franchise, to that project in order to benefit from their experience with the franchise.

More importantly, in addition to mainly focusing  on the Versus XIII, Nomura can also oversee the Kingdom Hearts 3 project. All he needs to do is design the macro-concept of the game and then allow the other internal studio to execute the project with his supervision. This is a very well-known strategy to give developers time to focus on multiple projects simultaneously; Sakaguchi used it for Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey by outsourcing them to Artoon and Feelplus respectively, and Lorne Lanning is currently using it for his next Oddworld game by outsourcing it to Maxis.

Lastly, let me ask you this: why would gamers assume that it would be necessary to have Nomura on the Kingdom Hearts 3 project anyway? After all, David Jaffe was not involved in the second installment of his creation, and it turned out fine; Cory Barlog, the Creative Director of God of War2, was not involved in the upcoming third installment, and we all know how that will turn out. If we also add the fact that the main reason for supporting the Xbox 360 was to break through to the Western market, and the fact that Kingdom Hearts is more directed towards Western gamers, especially by including the Disney characters in the game, it would be wise to assume that if Square ever decided to release this title on a single console, the Xbox 360 would be it. Despite the fact that a multiplatform release would be the best possible strategy, if there is one thing that we have learned from following the evolution of the Square-Microsoft relationship, it is that Square-Enix does not mind releasing exclusives on the Xbox 360. Thus, it is my belief that not only could Kingdom Hearts 3 be announced this year, but it has a very good chance of being an Xbox 360 exclusive as well!

God Bless You All

Master Samo

(Watch In High Quality)

Here’s something a little different for you guys. While I, as a writer on the site, like sharing news with you guys as soon as I get it and like writing about my ideas on the business/marketing side of the industry. Sometimes it may be lost that I’m a fan of games just like you guys and play them alot (probably too much).

So I was sitting around tonight thinking about E3 and all the games that were going to be shown. Thinking about this E3 makes me sick, but of course in a good way. Compared to last year the amount of quality and depth that’s coming software-wise is crazy, and gonna make my wallet a very sad place next Fall. I started tinkering around with some of my video software (which I never do) and put together the video you see above of the five games I can’t wait to see at next weeks E3.

Well hopefully you guys find some brief enjoyment out of the video and if not then at least you get an idea on what one of these mystery writers on the hiphopgamer site is looking forward to. Hopefully this goes over better than the ridiculous and over the top sketch of the hipop white boy.

Well here’s some of my thoughts on the games, just as a fan and not a writer attending the event next week:

(NOTE: Both the videos and the list only reflect my thoughts and not those of the site as a whole)

Final Fantasy XIII:
Fans of Final Fantasy, I feel for you. The series made famous by Hironubo Sakaguchi and Squaresoft has had a very bad dry spell the past 6 years under the direction of Square-Enix and Yoichi Wada. Final Fantasy is personally my favorite gaming series. It’s probably the first series of games I got addicted to and just enjoyed every second of. The music, the visuals, the story, and the great RPG gameplay were just amazing. Unfortunately, XI and XII weren’t exactly what I was expecting and disappointed. While that may not be your opinion, I think we can all agree on that XIII has taken much longer that it should have to be released. The game has been in development since 2004 and was revealed in 2006. The fact that this game will take half a decade to complete along with a multiple month wait for Western fans is ridiculous.

Even with all this aggervation, the game still holds a special place in my heart and the trailers/articles released to the public have done nothing but impress me so far. Just release it already!

Modern Warfare 2:
I’ve played first person shooters before and enjoyed them, but COD4 did something to me. It made my love for the genre reach another level. I was actually one of those guys who played games like Halo for the story, and not the multiplayer. That all changed with COD4. I started playing for hours at a time and had no idea why. The game was just mindless fun, and the levels are still some of the most memorable I’ve played. The guns, the feel, the aesthetic of an Infinity Ward game is just something special. I stopped playing for a while to play WaW and I gotta say that when I fired up COD4 again, it almost brought back that warm nostalgic feeling you get when your reminded of good times.

I expect Modern Warfare 2 to have a great single player campaign with a large amount of memroable missions, and I expect online to be one of the best expierences avaialble to gamers.

Uncharted 2:
I’m actually playing the original as I’m writing this, which either shows that I really love games or that I need to do two things at once to keep my attention span up.

Basically, the first one was great and the second one looks even better. From what we’ve soon, it looks like they have improved on every single aspect of the game. As we all know the graphics look top notch, the animations look to be the best in the industry, the gameplay looks great, and multiplayer/co-op.

Do I really need to say more about this game?

God of War III:
Now this is going to piss people off. I know it, because after dealing with N4G the past couple of months, I know the internet. I have actually not played the first two God of War’s just yet. I know, I know fans of the HHG site are in a uproar. Actually, I’m buying a PS2 (since Sony is run by aholes who got rid of backwards compatibility) so I can play those two games along with some of my other favorite Ps2 games.

Basically I dont have much to say on the series because I have yet to play it, but the trailers released so far have looked great and according to everyone I know the games are great, so how can I not help but be intrigued. I really want to see how the developers push the hardware not visually but technically.

Mass Effect 2
I’m a big RPG guy, and the original is in my opinion probably the best RPG this gen and one of the best ever. It’s a space epic where your in control. I really like how BioWare is letting you carry over your Shepard to the next game along with the story you helped decide. The gameplay was fun, but some tweaks were needed (cover system/weapon balance) and it looks like they’ve improved it. The story looks darker which is nice.
And I mean really, did you think they were actually going to kill of Shepard? Come on…

So yeah guys I hope that was a nice change of pace from me, and I hope the video was halfway decent.

NEWS

Microsoft has always had the upper hand when it came down to exclusive content but Sony has taken the challenge while upping the ante. The Dark Knight was one of the biggest selling movies in history and now, with a new Batman game to follow it’s no surprise that everyone is looking at this title a bit more in detail. The Joker is the real star here in this game and the great thing about this will be the ability to control The Joker and be the villain in this epic story. Sony did a great job securing this deal and looking at this game already we can all tell that this was a smart move. Batman: Arkhum Asylum will be released Fall 2009 and if you want a big taste of The Joker then the Playstation 3 will be your fighting ground. Enjoy The New Gameplay Footage