Before I start on this review, I want to make something clear: I don’t normally use my Wii. After all, once the novelty of the machine wore off, the only reason it ever gets turned on is so my wife can use Wii Fit. The main reason is that I haven’t found any games that can hold my interest.

So you can imagine that I was a bit incredulous when I got a copy of Muramasa: The Demon Blade to review. Sure, I knew the game had won all sorts of ‘Best of E3′ awards, but I was still not sure about it. I sat down and started playing, and I found myself really enjoying the game.

Muramasa is a classic, side-scrolling action RPG. This first thing that hits you when you start the game is the look and feel. If you played Odin Sphere on the PS2, you’ll recognize the style, and you’ll be impressed. The graphics aren’t 1080p, or high-def, but they are endearing and attractive. The graphics are more like living art than what you’d expect from a video game.

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I realize that most people go “ga ga” for Madden NFL every year, but to be honest I’ve always found college football far more exciting. Each year I look forward to EA’s incremental updates to their NCAA Football series just like the slavering Madden junkies do. Growing up in Columbus, Ohio and working at Ohio State has left me a bit numb to my hometown college team – The Ohio State Buckeyes because here college football is the second biggest thing next to God, but regardless there is something about playing college ball, racing for the Heisman that I just find more interesting. Maybe its the lack of professional polish, maybe its just the presentation and the crowd elements of the game that don’t exist in the NFL. This year EA is adding a number of needed defensive improvements as well as a TeamBuilder feature so players can completely create their own virtual college to compete against the best.

Its interesting to see how Madden and NCAA change and this years tweaks are bit different. You can find all the new features after the jump.

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Sony has just released a new batch of screenshots for their upcoming Siren: Blood Curse. You know a survival horror games is going to be creepy when even still shots of it are disturbing. The one posted above is probably the only one that doesn’t involve blood coming out of someone’s face. It’s looking like the PS3 graphics are being put to good use here to create a truly foreboding atmosphere.

You can check out the rest of the screens for Siren: Blood Curse here.

MMORPG has a new trailer featuring the Slywood area in The Chronicles of Spellborn.

The look and feel of Slywood is suspenseful to say the least. The landscape and structures are as detailed as I’ve seen in LotRO or tweaked Oblivion mods but much more sinister. The soundtrack is well chosen giving the area a foreboding feeling. Effects of magic and sword sweeps are nicely accentuated by the dark atmosphere. I wouldn’t want all the areas to be this creepy, but it’s a refreshing change from the bright and toony feel of WoW, even at night or in darker areas. I can imagine you might actually be surprised by something sneaking up on you.

TCoS is scheduled for a Q1 2008 release, but still has no US publisher. Hopefully they can market this game, or it’s going to be totally eclipsed by Age of Conan and WAR. That would truly be a shame. Check out this exclusive GDC video on MMORPG.

As many PS3 owners are now finding out, the latest PS3 firmware update (v2.10) included some almost hidden features. One of these features is a neat ‘Gaia‘ Music Visualizer (as demonstrated in the YouTube user-made clip above). The most amazing thing about this feature (to me) is that it all fits within the PS3’s limited flash rom. This took some extremely efficient coding to pull off.

The folks over at Gamasutra were equally impressed with Gaia, as they fired off a few questions to the developers behind Gaia’s creation, Kyoto-based Q-Games. In that Q&A we learn that Q-Games originally shopped the Gaia project to Sony as the PS3’s boot sequence. Sony opted for Q-Games’ rather simplistic waving cloth background instead. In fact, the Gaia visualizer you see now on the PS3 is actually a slimmed down version, according to Q-Games’ chief of technology, James McLaren. With such limited resources given, how did Q-Games pull this off? McLaren explains:

“This representation of the earth is a 3D model with some shaders and SPU trickery going on. We tried to accurately model the earth’s atmosphere and have all the correct highlights on the oceans, etc. The texture data is sourced from the NASA Blue Marble project.”

“They have some data that they’ve patched together from hundreds of satellite passes over the earth, which is really top-notch quality, as you can see. We really owe NASA a debt of gratitude for the data, as without it we wouldn’t be able to produce something that looks this good.”

Looks good, indeed. In fact, the YouTube video above doesn’t really do the Gaia visualizer justice. You really need to see it in person on a big screen HDTV (Bob Marley optional).

Q-Games hopes to expand upon the Gaia visualizer in the future with hint of possibly adding user controls. Also mentioned was possibility of taking Gaia to the next level by exploiting the full Blue Marble dataset (obviously this would require use of the hard drive).

Via Gamasutra

Gaming Steve posted an interesting article titled “Gaming Steve’s Top 10 Games That Nobody Played In 2007″. I may not agree with his entire list, but it’s an interesting read. The 10 games he listed are:

Check out this link to view his reasoning behind all picks. Most games above I would have to agree with other than The Darkness and Overlord. The Darkness was great fun for a few days, but the sloppy multi-player element really turned me off. It felt as if the game designers simply got lazy when they tossed that into the game. The other game I would not have put on the list would be Overlord. I’m not sure what to say about Overlord exactly, but it was over-rated by the press around release time. Overlord wore on my nerves after a couple hours of playing. It was simply too easy for the type of genre it fell into in my opinion.

Square Enix have announced that Odin Sphere will finally be available across all PAL territories and exclusive to the PS2 in early 2008 . With hand-drawn in-game artwork, Odin Sphere’s fantasy world interlaces five individual tales to tell an epic story of amazing power, inevitable loss and irresistible love.Fully optimized for Europe, the game is a favorite among RPG fans, as it delivers unique action-combat gameplay that rewards speed and style. The very cool alchemy system that lets you combine the spoils of combat for added bonuses and rare items adds also further depth to this gorgeous, epic experience.

John Yamamoto, the president and chief executive officer of Square Enix Ltd. comments, “Odin Sphere embodies the commitment of Square Enix in bringing new experiences to European gamers. This is especially reflected in our partnership with Atlus, allowing Square Enix Ltd. to publish the first non Square Enix title in PAL territories. The wonderfully crafted Odin Sphere is the best possible start to an exciting new period for the company.”

So congratulations my European brethren! It is about time you were able to experience this wonderful work of art! My only regret is that you have not experienced it sooner.

MORE SCREENSHOTS

Odin Sphere (North American version) is now available for the PS2. Brought to you by Atlus USA, this looks like a an RPG worth looking into. The PS2 is obviously still the best console for RPG games and continues to put out quality content. Many believed initially that the PS3 would be the end of the PS2, but this definitely has not been the case. The Sony PS2 is still a very viable system of choice and will continue to be so for a long time. This will certainly not go down in history as one of the great RPGs, but it will still hold it’s own for a while. Stunning details and interesting characters with developed background stories are the bonus with this game. Frequent load times and slowdowns during gameplay have been cited by many as the negative aspects of the title. Please enjoy the trailer and further information after the break. Odin Sphere is rated “T” for teen.

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