It seems that Tokyo based publisher Atlus has taken time away from getting their website hacked to bring From Software’s Demon’s Souls to the US.

Having been already released in Japan we know what to expect of the game with game reviewer Paint Yamamoto from Famitsu giving the game a 9 saying:

This is a game you learn how to play by losing — you’ll face sudden death frequently. But! Keep playing… and you’ll realize how deep it really is. If you’re looking to experience rich RPG elements, by all means play Demon’s Souls!!.

Sounds promising considering the Japanese really know their RPGS. Demon’s Souls will let players choose from a range of different classes and adventure through the fictional Kingdom of Boletaria to reclaim the land from demons.

Like what you hear? Demon’s Souls will be out exclusively for the PS3 sometime this fall.

After several problems and the majority of user experiencing problems during the install of the game, the publisher, Evolved Games, has now pulled all retail PC versions of the game, and will replace them with working copies.

However, the games purchased on Steam work with no issues. Xbox 360 and PS3 versions of the game are also unaffected. The publisher hopes to replace the broken games within a few days.

It’s rather ironic that a Zombie game would miss an event because of a real world pandemic, or at least, “concern”. Nevertheless, the Japanese government’s international travel restrictions due to the Swine Flu forces parts of the Capcom team to skip this year’s E3, thereby canceling the showing of Dead Rising 2.

Capcom will still be showing some of their other titles at E3, with the exception of Dead Rising 2, since the Japanese team won’t be able to make it.

I really, REALLY, hate Clive Barker.

It’s bad enough that he unleashes his misery on us in book form and in movie form, but recently, he’s dropped a video game on us too.  Not his first, I know, but it’s no less painful for the fact that it isn’t first.  If anything, it’s actually MORE painful, because he did it to us once already—now he’s come back for seconds.  It’s called Jericho, and it’s out for the Xbox 360, Playstation 3, and PC.

Anyway, this time, Clive Barker’s bringing us the story of the Firstborn, which he claims is part of Apocryphal and Gnostic texts (parts of the Bible in case you don’t follow that sort of thing) as the first thing God ever created.  It’s not male, it’s not female, but it’s both beautiful and horrifying all at once.  God, not surprisingly, turned out not to like the thing he made and thus shut it up in the Abyss.  He then followed up with humanity, which turned out much more to God’s liking than the androgynous singularity he’d made earlier.  And then, just to prove that Clive Barker’s grasp on logic is as tenuous as his grasp of sanity or writing a decent book, it turns out that the Firstborn decided to not be banished any more, and so, he wasn’t.  He made seven attempts to break out of the Abyss, and every time, God sent him back, but not without taking a piece of the planet with him.  The empty chunks of earth became fragments of time and space, and then did bizarre things to the world around them.  The U.S. government, as represented by the Department of Occult Warfare, sends in the Jericho Squad to investigate one such singularity, which one of its former members is using as a gateway to bring the Firstborn back into the world.

See, that’s a real mouthful of a storyline until you consider that Jericho is yet another first person shooter.  This is like trying to put a Ferrari chassis around a moped and expecting people to believe you own a Ferrari.  Seriously, they’ve put everything into this—time travel, various occultic stuff…lesbians…yes, lesbians.  They’re part of the plot, even though they’re really not here for anything more than the inevitable “hey look at this!” effect.

And while the game has spectacularly creepy visuals, the gameplay itself is suffering from some kind of mild brain damage, because your elite team of master soldiers dies a lot more often than master soldiers really should.  That may be the worst part about the whole thing—even I have to admit that this is a really impressive story, even if it requires massive suspension of disbelief.  And what do they DO with this story?  They strap a chain gun barrel to it and say “Here, go shoot something.  A lot.”  Great—why do I find myself utterly unable to care?  Maybe it’s because my character is just a gun barrel people talk to.

While this might have made a pretty good movie (or even series thereof), sadly, it doesn’t make a game worth a hill of beans.  There are much better first person shooters out there, with much more action and adventure and fun than this could ever generate.

Jonathan Blow’s indie success Braid is now officially released on the Mac OS X platform. Braid has been previously released on the Xbox 360 and PC, where the game has been a huge success.

The Mac version was developed in cooperation with Penny Arcade Adventures and developer Hothead Games.

Braid for Mac can be downloaded at Greenhouse at $15.

LucasArts might be raking in money hand over fist via a near-continuous stream of Star Wars games but without a doubt one of their most popular series was the Monkey Island games, featuring aspiring pirate Guybrush Threepwood and gaggles of jokes. From an era when unimpressive graphics forced developers to either craft addictive gameplay or use cunningly written stories full of intrigue, humor or both.

The Monkey Island series was very heavy on the humor, wit endless jokes, humorous solutions to puzzles and general silliness. Originally released in 1990 it was an adventure game which still delights fans to this day. A listing for a ‘Special Edition’ re-release has hit German ratings board listings for the Xbox Live Arcade.

Unfortunately since this isn’t an official announcement there are few other details, but a graphical update would be likely, given the extremely low quality of the original visuals.

BioWare has gone on the record and said that the second installment in the Mass Effect trilogy will be the dark installment — much the The Empire Strikes Back was for the Star Wars trilogy (the original, that is). Producer Casey Hudson said:

“As a trilogy we have our three acts. So Mass Effect 2 is the dark act. It’s an opportunity to really explore the tougher, more brutal parts of the universe.”

Expect a lot more details at E3. Mass Effect 2 is slated for release later this year.

Sony has unveiled a new DLC pack for mega-hit Killzone 2. The new pack will feature the maps Beach Head and Southern Hills, two well known battlegrounds from the original Killzone.

The DLC will be called Flash and Thunder, while the official release date and pricing are still unknown, although you can expect it to be priced similarly to the previous DLC.

The face of warfare is changing from the complex yet generally straightforward tactics employed during conflicts like World War 2. The wealthy nations of the world are dealing with resourceful enemies who don’t wear uniforms and utilize tactics like suicide bombings. In response the wealthy nations are seeking ways to defend themselves without putting lives at risk.

One threat naval forces have had to deal with is boats loaded with explosives being rammed into their ships while in ports. The US Military is purchasing several hundred Mini-Typhoon 12.7mm remote controlled machine guns which will be mounted in place of manned machine guns. They can be operated from anywhere on the ship and reportedly they say that anyone with video game experience can be quickly shown how to use them. This, along with the British RAF revealing that they were finding experienced gamers were effective at piloting remote combat drones hints at a new direction for technological warfare; not a soldier in peak physical condition and bearing the newest and most advanced combat gear, but electronic soldiers controlled at a safe distance.

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