ROCK BAND PRESENTS GOING COUNTRY PACK 04!

Play songs from Lady Antebellum, Reba McEntire, Keith Urban, Dierks Bentley, Sugarland and more!

Xbox 360 players can download a “Rock Band Network Megamix” mash-up featuring 12 RBN artists free!

Cambridge, Mass. – Aug. 27, 2010 – Harmonix and MTV Games today announced that a nine pack of country songs from artists including Eric Church, Jamey Johnson, Lady Antebellum and more will be added next week to the Rock Band Music Store of downloadable content for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system and WiiTM.

With more than 400 artists, including Jimi Hendrix, The Who, AC/DC and Green Day, who are exclusive to Rock Band, as well as more than 1,580 songs available through the Rock Band platform and 70 million songs sold through its download store alone, Rock Band is the undisputed sales and content leader in the interactive music space, providing the deepest and best selection of artists, songs and albums.

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Curious about why Japanese RPGs are having a more difficult time finding an audience in the West recently, Nintendo Power asked Square Enix Executive Producer Akitoshi Kawazu why he thinks that this is happening and what developers can do to change the situation. Kawzu, however, doesn’t believe that RPGs is the only genre receiving less attention. Rather, he feels that Japanese games as a whole aren’t as popular overseas. Kawzu mainly pointed to the fact that “the technology isn’t on par with Western games” and that “developers are losing their passion to stick with their vision.”

“Aside from a few well-known titles, games from Japan are receiving less and less attention, regardless of if it’s an RPG or not. I feel that it has something to do with the marketing abilities of Japanese publishers, as well as the games themselves.

The technology is not on par with Western games, and it also seems like developers are losing their passion to stick with their vision because they are being overwhelmed by costs or market trends. It’s necessary for each individual developer to constantly be up-to-date with the latest computer and game technologies. It is also important for development teams and groups as a whole to support technological advancement. It is impossible for one person to keep up with all the skills necessary for game development on his own. On top of this, developers need to take on a project with the confidence and strength to stick with their vision. Everything I mentioned here applies to me personally, as well, and they are all things I would like to bring to fruition with my next project.”

Tonight’s game night, if I do say so myself, was one of the best ones we’ve ever had! There were a few new faces, as well as all the returning folks that show up every week, and the mix we had was really a great one! First and foremost, I want to thank everyone that showed up for the awesome time we had, and I really hope all the newcomers come back next week. Secondly, of course, we have to announce some winners (as we did have prizes this week!), so without further ado, here are our two winners:

In first place, we have our resident Mario Kart champ, Ronin180. Ronin has been with us for Game Night literally every night since the beginning, from the days when it was just me, him, and Valay to the more recent days where we have a good group. He swept the board today with a whopping 167 total points in our 12 recorded matches!

Second place, we have a newcomer to game nights, Yohonson, who came in second with 65 points. Yohonson joined us tonight and hopped in for the matches we played, and expressed his enjoyment. He should be back many weeks into the future, and we really look forward to seeing him around more!

If the two winners could contact us by e-mailing us via the contact form, we can work out receiving your prizes! Remember that to be eligible for the prizes, you must live within the North American region (United States as well, I think!) in the case that we cannot get the prizes out to you, we will do our best to both make it up to you and to distribute the un-usable prizes as fairly as possible.

Thanks again, guys! We really look forward to seeing you again next week!

This information comes from Tetsuya Nomura’s Twitter account…

“Weather sure is nice. Good morning! Last night I talked with Taba-chan about various things. 3rd Birthday of course as well as about Agito. The staff that played Re:Coded are excited and the anticipation for 3rd Birthday is growing too. It seems the trailer for the other title occuring with Re:Coded is catching a lot of attention.”

It isn’t entirely clear what Nomura meant by “the other title occurring with Re:coded.” One possibility is that he was referring to Kingdom Hearts 3D, since that’s the only other new KH we know is officially in development. It’d be nice if Nomura clarified things on his Twitter account!

Source 1, Source 2

Update: Game Night is now over! Winners will be announced very soon.

Mad photoshop skillz

Note: Game night will start at 6:30. Come gather in the IRC and chat until we start!

You all know the drill I’m sure: Hop in the IRC and play some Mario Kart Wii with all of us from the site! Remember, those in first and second place win a free copy of Grease: The Video Game for Wii or DS!

Akitoshi Kawazu, the producer of Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers, is working on an unannounced RPG. The news comes from issue 258 of Nintendo Power, though the magazine didn’t have any additional information to share. There is only small note that states his next game “remains a secret for now, but you can bet it won’t play things safe.”

Even though we’re hearing about this through a Nintendo publication, it doesn’t necessarily mean the project will end up on a Nintendo platform. Still, one would think that it’s likely that Kawazu will work on the Wii again, or possibly the 3DS in the future.

Super Famicom:

Romancing SaGa 3

Virtual Console Arcade:

SonSon
Exed Exes
Super Hang-On

Virtual Console

Mario Tennis 64 (1000pts N64 – Nintendo)

DSiWare

Action Puzzle Rabi x Laby (200pts – Silver Star Japan)
Arc Style: Furo Jump!! Guilty Gear Gaiden!? (500pts – Arc System Works)
Dungeon RPG Pikudon (500pts – Intense)

Source

Course: N64 Skyscraper
Objective: Time trial
Restriction: Wii Wheel only
Tournament date: 9/1 – 9/10