The Xenosaga series, like any great story-driven role player, is filled with many different characters. Each has his or her own secrets, and his or her own path through the world. Each has a different look, a different tone of voice, a different way of thinking or fighting.
Xenosaga doesn't limit things to a single world - it's a galaxy filled with alien menaces and shadowy organizations that manipulate the lives of people for their own ends. This cast of memorable characters must fight
Friday 28 July 2006
One game that has grabbed our attention firmly by the cojones is Just Cause from Swedish developer, Avalanche Studios. Not only does it look absolutely gorgeous but, by dropping the player into a huge, tropical hotbed of anarchic action, it promises an overload of riotous fun when it's released this autumn.
After being mighty impressed during our latest hands-on with the game, we tracked down Avalanche's content director, Odd Ahlgren, and liberated some answers from him
Three weeks ago, our sibling site NextGen posted the article, "The Ten Greatest Years in Gaming." It was full of cool industry info, but the first thing we asked was, "So, the PlayStation was first designed as an add-on for the SNES. We get the irony, but what were we actually playing in 1993 that made it so great?"
We checked it out. We made a huge list of the best games of the past 34 years, taped it to the wall, and fought for days about stuff like whether one Zelda is worth more than two
Step into the future
.hack//G.U. is unique because it straddles two worlds. There's the real world - the one we live in... 11 years in the future, 2017. It's a future that already feels familiar: in which network gaming is universal, thanks to advanced technology and a game-friendly society.
The backdrop to the events of .hack//G.U. is a massively multiplayer RPG, known as The World R:2, built literally on the ashes of the troubled online game that served as the backdrop to the .hack story
All the other games represented here are based on existing comic heroes (and Marvel ones, at that) - but only City of Heroes lets you make your own. A good deal of the fun in this massively multiplayer RPG comes from creating your own superhero, choosing from hundreds of various costume parts, accessories, and body types. Robotic arms, rotting zombie flesh, tattered kung-fu outfit, permanent goofy good-guy grin - put them all on one hideous character if you like. Design your outfit, create your
In the original .hack saga, The World is a massive online game played around the globe. The trouble is that it contained a terrible secret - players would fall into comas after playing the game. Fortunately, two players known as Kite and BlackRose, among others, battled the malicious entities living in the game world and brought safe play to everyone. In the aftermath, the game itself was completely destroyed.
But companies can't resist dicing with fate when money hangs in the balance,
Click here for part one of our two-part interview with Dean Takahashi.
Thursday 13 July 2006
After Dean Takahashi, author of The Xbox 360 Uncloaked gave us a peek behind the scenes at Microsoft, we got him to talk about games, online plans and Xbox 360's challengers for the next-gen gaming crown.
Will Halo 3 be worth the wait?
Bungie has a track record that shows it takes its time, but whatever it does winds up being a high-quality product. I think it'll be worth the wait. Halo 2 was finished
Wednesday 12 July 2006
Dean Takahashi, author of The Xbox 360 Uncloaked, knows more than most about what's going on behind the scenes at Microsoft. His new book (he also penned Opening the Xbox) reveals exclusive details about the birth of Microsoft's next-gen hardware. We tracked this intrepid journalist down and quizzed him about the past, present and future of gaming.
How difficult was it to research the book?
I posed the idea of the book to Microsoft as early as March 2005, and I was told
Click here for part one of our two-part interview with Dean Takahashi.
After Dean Takahashi, author of The Xbox 360 Uncloaked gave us a peek behind the scenes at Microsoft, we got him to talk about games, online plans and Xbox 360's challengers for the next-gen gaming crown.
Will Halo 3 be worth the wait?
Bungie has a track record that shows it takes its time, but whatever it does winds up being a high-quality product. I think it'll be worth the wait. Halo 2 was finished in fall 2004 and now
Dean Takahashi, author of The Xbox 360 Uncloaked, knows more than most about what's going on behind the scenes at Microsoft. His new book (he also penned Opening the Xbox, about the original system) reveals exclusive details about the birth of Microsoft's next-gen hardware. We tracked this intrepid journalist down and quizzed him about the past, present and future of gaming.
GamesRadar: How difficult was it to research the book?
Dean Takahashi: I posed the idea of the book to Microsoft as
