This comes from Gamestop CEO Paul Raines…
“We’ve thought about this vintage thing as an online initiative, and that’s where we’re doing most of our work. Part of what we have to do is we have to go source a lot of this product, get customers to trade some of their old product with us, and go find some old consoles, but we also own a lot of old product.”
How much old product do they have?
“Well, we don’t have a lot of NESes or Dreamcasts. That’s some pretty old stuff. But we just took Game Boy Advance out of stores recently, about a year and a half ago. Original Xbox, I think we took out of stores in 2009, as I recall. We’re reducing the footprint of PlayStation 2. We’re thinking about everything. Nothing we’d really want to call out yet. Our dotcom team is right now grinding through a lot of opportunities to see what’s out there and see what we can get our hands on and what we can merchandise.”
“A lot of what we do today is we let the PowerUp community tell us what they want to see, so we’ll be doing some contests around that and you can tell your readers to look for that upcoming pretty soon through PowerUp Rewards,”
“When I talk to PowerUp members they tell me, boy, it would be cool if you could have someone make new versions of old gear and old consoles, kind of a retro version of stuff. That’s an interesting one too. We also have relationships with every major publisher in the world and console maker in the world, that we can talk to about what they have and what they can make.”
Capcom has shared details on a slew of weapons that will be included in Monster Hunter 4. Details about all known weapons can be found below.
Souchuukon
– From ancient times
– Can control insects
– The “hunting insects” suck up energy from monsters that can strengthen the user
– Light weapon
– Allows the player to be very mobile
Great Sword
– Huge sword
– Like the tusk from a monster killed by a hunter
– Slow weapon
– If it hits a monster, it’ll kill it
– Can be used to guard
Long Sword
– Made for fast and consecutive strikes
– “Spirit” is accumulated after each strike which allows players to use a a spirit slash
Sword and Shield
– Versatile weapon
– Can execute a whirlwind slash
– Fast and constant attacks with few breaks in between
– Can use items while unsheathing the sword
Twin Swords
– Dual Sword users wield two small swords in both hands that can rapidly strike enemies
– Demon transformation mode adds more power
Hammer
– Best offensive power out of all weapons
– Hit a monster on its head to make it dizzy
Hunting Horn
– Play songs that change status effects
– Play a tune while attacking a monster so you can simultaneously be an attack and support character
Lance
– Has a gigantic shield and long lance
– Guard and counter-attack
Gunlance
– Powerful weapon
– Adds explosive shells to a solid lance
– There is a “full burst” attack that unloads all of the bullets in the weapon
Bowgun
– Lightweight and mobile gunner
– Can hit monsters from afar
– Bowgunners have different rounds of ammunition
– One type gives you rapid fire
Bow
– Agile weapon
– Target weak points from a variety of differences
Switch Axe
– Sword and an axe in one
– Switch to axe mode to do powerful strikes
– Sword mode used for speed
I sort of wish I would have typo’d “launch” and instead wrote “lunch” so that it said “Straight Right talks making lunch”. Oh well. Here’s some good stuff about Mass Effect 3 for Wii U, as well as some (re-confirmation of) information that we heard about earlier:
“It’s going to be a launch title, but of course we don’t know quite yet when the hardware will launch. We intend to be there that same day. It’s challenging [to meet an unannounced launch date].” – Straight Right boss-o man Tom Crago
He also talked a bit more about things they’ve touched on in the past and said that the Wii U is “sophisticated”:
“This is the biggest title we’ve worked on in a long time. There’s a significant technical challenge bringing the game from its original format to the Wii U. It’s a new, different and sophisticated piece of hardware, so there’s a good deal of technical energy that’s been expended making that happen. We’ve made a number of bets on the Wii U, so we’re certainly hoping that the platform comes strongly out of the gate. We’ve got two other titles in development. One of them is original, our own IP, and another is based on another big franchise that will come out in 2013. It’s a big title and you will have heard of it.”
New games are always good, especially for a new platform! Here’s to them succeeding with all of their Wii U endeavors.
The followings Rock Band Music Store songs will be made available on September 11:
Matchbox Twenty – “Bent” – keyboard support
Matchbox Twenty – “How Far We’ve Come” – keyboard support, Pro Guitar and Pro Bass expansions available for $0.99
Matchbox Twenty – “She’s So Mean” – keyboard support
Each song can be purchased for $1.99 on PlayStation 3/Xbox 360 and $2.00 on Wii.
Source: Harmonix PR
You know what I really appreciate in a developer? Humility. The understanding that they aren’t perfect and that they’re trying their hardest to do the best that they can. Self-awareness, I guess would be the way to phrase it, and Mass Effect 3 Wii U developer Straight Right has just that.
“We’re very conscious of not wanting to mess up given the level of expectation and the fact that we’re taking something which, on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 and PC, was exceptionally good.” – Straight Right boss Tom Crago
He went on to talk specifically about what their thought process has been with Wii U:
“You look at the game and think ‘how could I possibly make this better?’ The Wii U gives you that opportunity with the GamePad. But first and foremost you say, ‘well, I don’t want to screw this up’. You want to replicate the experience on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 as sympathetically as possible. But then you say, ‘how can I enhance this experience?’. We tried to get the game looking great and singing on Wii U, and then use the GamePad to complement this.”
Above is the Professor Layton vs. Ace Attorney ad from this week’s Famitsu. It contains the release date puzzle, which apparently hints at a November 29 launch.
It’s time to learn a little more about Straight Right, the developer behind the Wii U version of Mass Effect 3.
Did you know that Nintendo published the GBA version of Top Gear Rally? That was made by Tantalus, Straight Right’s parent company.
Straight Right CEO Tom Crago gave an overview of the company’s history while speaking with Polygon:
“We’ve been admirers of BioWare for a long time and had actually wanted to work with them on the DS a while back. Tantalus did Unreal II on Xbox so we had some experience with challenging ports, and with the Unreal engine. We also have a great relationship with Nintendo, in that they published one of our titles on GBA and in so far as we’ve always supported their platforms. So I guess the planets aligned and we were able to convince BioWare to trust us with their baby.”
Woah… two Nintendo games taking the center stage of Game Informer’s issue in the span of a year (the other being Skyward Sword)? I am shocked!
New Super Mario Bros. U is indeed the magazine’s cover story for the October issue, and that’s a pretty big deal. There’s a ten-page article on the Wii U game and an interview with Shigeru Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka. Game Informer also promises “an extensive feature that will prepare you for the impending launch of the Wii U.”
Between Game Informer’s October issue and the Wii U press event on September 13, next week will be a pretty big deal for Nintendo fans.
When Fracuted Soul releases, it’ll be the biggest game on the eShop. It takes up nearly 3,000 blocks on an SD card – 2,982 blocks, specifically. The large size shouldn’t come as a huge surprise as Fractured Soul started out as a retail title.
Other big eShop games include New Super Mario Bros. 2 (2,725 blocks) and Order Up! (2,485 blocks).
