Final Fantasy has been one of the biggest franchises to come out from Japan, with millions of games sold and millions of eager fans. Final Fantasy XIII was one of the most anticipated games if not the most anticipated one ever. And we can say right away that the game will meet the needs of Final Fantasy fans, however, the game has once again followed in the footsteps of its predecessors: for newcomers, it’s very hard to get into, and the combat will most definitely throw off many gamers who are looking for more action and less pausing and turn based gaming.

One thing is for sure though: the game looks gorgeous and manages to push the hardware of the consoles even further than most other games. That aside, Final Fantasy XIII tries a few new things, most noticeably is the new characters which are quite diverse and the setting is interesting as one might expect from Final Fantasy. However, the story, writing and even the characters feel unoriginal and uninspired, to the point where they’re all standard characters we’ve seen in many games, including the token black guy etc. For a series with such a rich universe, it’s quite surprising that XIII doesn’t include better storytelling than it does, and it feel throughout the game that the developer prioritized graphics over story, characters and gameplay. And 99% of the time, that’s a bad idea. The campaign, while lengthy, suffers from poor pacing and the first part in particular is quite boring and repetitive.

The gameplay, while based on the standard turn-based variety, is quite interesting and the few new features keep it fresh throughout the game. Sadly though, much of it will feel repetitive towards the end, and the extremely linear story doesn’t make it better. But if you’re used to western action games, especially FPS and third person shooters, you’ll certainly find the turn-based, menu-selecting-frenzy of FF XIII pretty much at crawling speed. This is still Final Fantasy, and unless you’re a fan of the series (and Japanese RPGs in general), there isn’t much to come after in Final Fantasy XII. However, fans of the series will find quite a lot to do with the game.

The Good:
Gorgeous visuals
Great universe
Diverse (but cliched) characters
Lengthy campaign

The Bad:
Horrible campaign pacing
Story suffers greatly
First part of campaign is slow and repetitive
Doesn’t appeal to newcomers

Overall score: 6/10

StarCraft is almost a national sport in South Korea, and the original game was given a regular “Teen” rating, a good thing considering most of StarCraft players are in their teens — heck, pro StarCraft players usually retire in their early 20s.

However, now with the much anticipated StarCraft 2, South Korean Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism has given the game an “Adult Only” rating, which means that the game can only be sold to those over 18. This will certainly cause some controversy when the game is released later this year. Blizzard plans to appeal the decision.

Singularity, the new FPS from Raven Software, has received an official release date for June 29, publisher Activision revealed. The FPS takes place in an alternate reality WW2, and will be released on the Xbox 360, PC and PS3. Activision originally delayed the game to offer even more space for their behemoth Modern Warfare 2.

The dancing Wii game, Just Dance, has been revealed to have passed to 1 million units sold in the US, combined with sales of 1 million in the rest of the world as well. Ubisoft’s dance game has proven to be a huge success, while some franchises, like Red Steel 2, have only sold a fraction of the sales Just Dance has achieved.

Valve has revealed that the upcoming DLC for Left 4 Dead 2 will be released next week. The DLC actually shows the point where the original Left 4 Dead crew intersect with the new guys from L4D 2. The DLC will be released for free on the PC and will sadly cost $5 on the Xbox 360.

According to latest reports from NPD, Red Steel 2 sold just over 50,000 copies in the US during its opening week, generating just over $1 million in revenue for Ubisoft, after the retailers get their cut. 50,000 isn’t much by any means, but Ubisoft expects the game to sell half a million copies worldwide.

Title: Psi – Ops
Developer/Publisher: Midway Games
Platform: PS2/Xbox/Windows
Original release date: June 14th, 2004

Price: Used $4.99 via Gamestop

Originally released in 2004, Psi-Ops was a game for the Playstation 2 that was very underrated. Sure, it was a third person shooter as opposed to first but the various psychic powers that the game’s protagonist, Nick, uses throughout the game make it ridiculously fun. This is one of those games for when you have a couple of bucks laying because you’ll be able to find it at your local Game Stop for just $4.99.

Anyways, upon entering the game you’ll be tasked with a mission and some baddies which you’ll encounter to the end. This is the basic outline of the game: pick up various weapons, collect keycards and other items, and of course kill people. This may seem like it would get repetitive but the fact that you’ll pick up 6 different physic abilities throughout the game makes it a lot of fun. Hell, just running around and throwing people around using telekinesis (which you’ll acquire pretty early on) is a ton of fun.

The story is definitely there and you’re sure to be engaged, if you are willing to sit through the numerous, lengthy cut scenes.

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Over a year ago we told you that Sonic’s Ultimate Genesis Collection was on its way featuring a whole slew of classic titles for you to run through. Well, I headed over to my local GameStop looking for a game under 20 bucks with a high level of re-playability and happened upon none other than Sonic’s Ultimate Genesis Collection.

Now I’ve played a ton of the games on here (which we’ll talk about in a minute) but I figured why not and slapped down the plastic because what could be better than a compilation of such classic titles. Upon examination I noticed no game list but some updated features include ‘enchanced HD graphics, ‘unlockable content’ and ‘mega multiplayer fun’. Awesome.

Turns out, the game is exactly what it is; a compilation of classic Sega titles. This, of course means there will be no ridiculous graphics like found in Crysis 2 (obvioulsy) but some argue that these games are much more fun than newer generation titles. Whatever, like them or not, with 40 games, there is something for everyone. Of course, there’s the entire Streets of Rage trilogy with all sorts of side scrolling beat em’ up action, Sonic, which I shouldn’t even have to tell you about, and other titles like Phantasy Star and Vectorman 2.

Hit the break for more.

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What was once a beloved company is seemingly becoming a shell of what it what was. Infinity Ward’s (of Modern Warfare 2 fame) number of lost employees since the founders got laid off is now 12. The 2 newest employees to depart from the studio are Mark Grigsby, lead animator, and Paul Messerly, lead character animator. Both of whom worked over 5 years at the studio.

It seems like only a matter of time before all of Infinity Ward’s greatest talents leave the studio.

via destructoid

While the Xbox 360 has sold a lot more than the PS3, one game’s PS3 version is outselling the Xbox 360′s version by 2 and that is Final Fantasy XIII. If you’re wondering the specifics, the PS3 version sold 828,000 copies while the Xbox 360 version sold 493,000.

A contributing reason to these statistics is probably the fact that the Xbox 360 version comes on 3 DVDs while the PS3 version comes on just 1 Blu-ray disc.

When is that Xbox 360 Blu-ray add-on coming, again?

via destructoid