moon-speak

Not two weeks ago, Konami had posted up a teaser about an installment of the Metal Gear franchise to be announced soon.  Recently at the SpikeTV VGA, Kojima had stated in an interview that the details would be revealed within a few weeks.  Rampant speculation has torched internet forums as to what this new project is, the most common speculation being that this would be when Kojima Productions announces the ever so elusive Xbox 360 Port for Metal Gear Solid 4.

The answer, however, may have been prematurely found on the 2chan forums.  Apparently, a scan of a leaked Japanese publication has popped up showing off Metal Gear Solid Touch for the iPod and iPhone platforms, with part of the teaser logo visible on the page.  While there is no confirmation as to whether or not this scan (or rather, photo) is legitimate, it does look genuine, and iPod/iPhone as the platform had also been one of the more speculated outcomes due to the nature of the “i”’s in the logo.

Famitsu have reviewed the anticipated Square-Enix beat-em-up Dissidia: FINAL FANTASY.

Whilst we do not have the early magazine release we should expect to have it before the end of the day a long with a detailed translation.

The score is as follows

10, 9, 9, 8.

- Story modes will set players on a approximately 40 hour journey and for those looking to take in all the additional content it will be set beyond 100 hours.

- The game sets a benchmark in the so-called ‘Progressive Dramatic Fighting” genre with it’s fast paced combat and flashy presentation.

- All the favourite characters from the series are present and give a lot of flare to the game, the unique stories and how they all unfold with a link to one another is a step foward. The cutscenes are also very detailed and are on the level or beyond FINAL FANTASY 7: Crisis Core.

- The flow of battles are on the level of FFVII: Advent Children presentation. The combat is very slick and the movement and animation fluidity will keep viewers stunned.

- The character customisation presents players with endless possibilities to create a unique and fun character to fight your way through your many adventures with Dissidia: FINAL FANTASY.

Look forward to our very own review come Dec. 13.

Konami has put up a new teaser site, linked to from the Kojima Productions site, hinting at the next installment of the Metal Gear series.

The site shows a logo, displaying: i + ! = <universal power logo with an exclamation point>, in green text, below it the words: “A NEXT METAL GEAR IS…”.  There is a wide range of speculation over what this is, many seem to feel that the glowing green font indicates it to be a 360 title or port, as the 360’s power logo glows green much like in the teaser.  However, the use exclamation point in the logo instead of the regular line is difficult to explain.  Some say that ! represents Ac!d, suggesting that it could be the next installment of the Metal Gear Ac!d series, and many say the “i” could stand for either i-phone, i-pod, or DSi.  At any rate, we shall have to wait and see what Kojima Productions has in store for us next.

A new trailer has been posted at Black Mesa: Source.  For those of you who are unfamiliar, Black Mesa: Source is a home-made mod project that has been undertaken to recreate the campaign from the original Half-Life 1 utilizing the Half-Life 2 Source engine (With new high-quality in-game assets, unlike Valve’s in-house Half-Life: Source).

A teaser video for Uncharted 2 has been uploaded on Gametrailers featuring Nathan Drake trudging through a snowy field to pick up some sort of artifact.  He appears to be in bad shape.  The video ends saying that the world premiere is scheduled to be shown during the Spike TV Video Game Awards on December 14, 2008.

It can be assumed that an HD version will be uploaded on Gametrailers shortly after it airs on TV.

Video game sales analysis blog Chart Get! reports that Square Enix’s software unit sales have seen close to a 74% decline in 2008 since 2007 in Japan.  No, not 74% of what it was last year; it actually went down 74%, as in barely over a fourth of what there was in 2007.  Given that there were only 10 titles released as of the data reported in 2008 as opposed to 27 in 2007, it is still a shocking discrepancy.  Chart Get!’s analysis does point out, however, that a dip in number of release titles per year is part of a cyclical pattern with relation to generations.

Their analysis is based off of Famitsu sales data.

Source: Chart Get!

UPDATE: It must be noted that a significant portion of the sales numbers of some of the 2007 titles used in the analysis did actually take place in 2008 (I.E. DQIV and FFIV DS), and that some of their larger titles of the year such Chrono Trigger DS has yet to be charted, as well games like Final Fantasy Dissidia that have yet to be released.  The adjusted values would bring the disrepancy much, much closer, but is still projected to be over 50%.