News in Brief: Communist Day Edition

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PNhXYmJ0G8c&w=640&h=390]

Welcome, welcome. If you’re here, you’re probably lamenting the fact that I am working on May Day. Either that or you’re probably thinking of that song by that guy. Whatever. It’s time for all the news that wasn’t quite fit to print.

Big news, of course, is that the Playstation Network might go up again soon. I’m kind of surprised it sparked less debate about digital content and online rights management, because with it down lots of people couldn’t play or download games they already owned. Well, I’m not really surprised: the whole thing’s been enough of a clusterfuck that I can’t really be surprised by anything about it.

In any case, the PSN will be back up. Will you use it? After two credit card scares in the space of a couple months? Do you think they’re good enough to stop a third? …Yeah, they probably aren’t.

More information about RPGs of all persuasions, the 3DS, and more after yon cut!

So, I can’t find it in a format that’ll play nice with wordpress (bad wordpress! Bad!), but this interview with Shinji Mikami and Suda-51 about Shadows of the Damned is glorious, and I don’t even care about the game much.

Someone thought those voiceovers were a good idea, and more importantly, they were right. Good on whoever that was. There’s not a lot of new information about the game, but it’s definitely going to make it catch your attention, which I guess was the insidious marketing ploy behind it. Dammit! Well, they’re good guys who’ve made awesome games, so I guess I’ll give them a free marketing pass. Especially if they can be so entertaining.

The sheer number of Japanese RPGs for portables to be detailed in the past week is absolutely fucking absurd, to the point where I’m going to make four mini articles about them and IT WON’T BE ENOUGH. The above pictured is Beyond the Labyrinth, a 3DS dungeon crawler from Tri-Ace. They’re also publishing, with Konami, a turn based Monster Hunter styled game called Frontier Gate. Of course, Tri-Ace games are kind of mediocre in general, but it’s interesting they’re making so many. We also got a lot more details about five or six other kind of generic, hard to differentiate Japanese RPGs, the most notable of which is Pandora’s Tower, which is notable because it’s for the Wii. Other games like Grand Knight History were detailed and look quite cool, and we got a time frame on Dragon Quest X. What the hell? Blame Famitsu, which apparently released an issue about nothing but RPGs.

We also got a million details about Japanese summer release Final Fantasy Type-0. I almost wrote an article about how I am a slave to the Final Fantasy name, and I still might, because seriously, considering how everything Square Enix has released in the past FIVE years has been a crock of shit, it’s…I don’t know why I have any hope. The last good thing they did was Final Fantasy XII, and that was only good because the director of Final Fantasy Tactics and Vagrant Story did as much as he could to make sure it wasn’t an awful game. And they fired him for it. Christ.

But no, the artist formerly known as Agito XIII (name changed, no doubt, because XIII was one of the aforementioned crocks of shit) looks compelling in a way that reminds me of Squall and Friends Happy Fun Time Adventure, which is possibly my favorite Final Fantasy. I’m keeping more of an eye on it than I care to admit.

Good news everyone! Mother 1+2 for the GBA has been translated! Well, it’s both not quite that exciting and so exciting. See, Mother 2 is Earthbound, and untranslated in this package. Mother, on the other hand, has been translated again and better compared to the NES version, and now will hopefully be played by a wider variety of people! So this is pretty awesome, and if I weren’t already playing two games right now I’d totally be firing up Mother right now in new, improved English.

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NO PICTURE THIS TIME BECAUSE YOU DON’T DESERVE A PICTURE. Ahem. I’ve got good news and bad news. The good news is there’s another RPG for the 3DS! The bad news is that it’s a blatant cash grab port of Tales of the Abyss!

Personally, I’m really not feeling all these ports. You do realize by Christmas we may have only Kid Icarus to show for new, unique games we can get on the 3DS, which really screams that the console was released way too early. Seriously, we’re getting a lot of good ports of old games, but do we really need a fourth copy of Ocarina of Time, let alone a second copy of a decidedly generic Tales game? I don’t think so. I really don’t think so.

Moderately exciting news, Marvel fans! Looks like Marvel and Gazillion are offering up a competitor to DC Online and, befitting Marvel’s superiority, it’ll be free to play. It’ll be based on actual, existing storylines, which might mean we could get something somewhat close to the comics, and it’ll feature heroes such as (wait for it) Squirrel Girl of the Great Lakes Avengers! Yes, become excited!

There’s supposed to be writing by Brian Michael Bendis, too, also known as the guy who caused the deaths of many of my favorite obscure X-Men characters through House of M, so I guess that’s something. Honestly, a Marvel MMO is the kind I’d play, so I’m looking forward to it launching in the distant future.

Well, kids, that’s all the news I find fit to post short summaries of. See you some other time, when the news is equally numerous.