Oh fine, go ahead and scoff. It's a squid with a mouth on its head. Certainly doesn't sound like a very efficient killing machine. I guess it has to grab the player and toss it into the air like popcorn, catching them in its mouth as he or she drops. I hope the3se akrid have a voice, so we can hear it saying "Wait...do over" every time you bounce off its face.

Lost Planet 2 Akrid Profile: Defolma [Capcom Unity]

A forecast revisions document reveals that all four titles will be pushed back to the company's 2010 fiscal year (staring in April, ending March 31, 2011) and spread out over all four quarters of the year. The document lists the reasons for the delays as follows.

・Avoid competing with the major titles that other companies plan to introduce
in the 4th quarter
・Preserve the value of Capcom's titles and maximize sales volume
・Expand the lineup of titles in the next fiscal year and afterward

No concrete release dates are listed in the document, but tipster Rory says "This corroborates rumors spread about Super Street Fighter 4's new release date of April 1st being confirmed in this week's Famitsu, due out Thursday."

Sound logic, sure. But sound business practice? We'll see.

Thanks for the tip, Rory!

In an internal interview for Capcom's investor relations site, Jun Takeuchi - of Lost Planet and Resident Evil 5 fame - has gone all stick-in-the-mud.

"The core elements of [Lost Planet 2] were developed in Japan, while the music and some of the language details were handled overseas", he said. "Cultural differences don't allow for the smooth collaboration between Japan and developers overseas."

Well, they won't with an attitude like that!

Jun Takeuchi [Capcom] [image]

We can finally stop calling the Episode 1 boss for Lost Planet that giant monster thing or "Sir Om Nom Nom," ask Capcom gives him the official designation of Gordiant, or Gordy for short. They've posted some tactics for taking out Gordy at the official Capcom blog, along with some brand new screens which I've taken the liberty of reproducing here in vivid Kotakuvision.

Nice to meet you, Mr. Gordy.

Lost Planet 2 Boss Profile: Gordiant (The Salamander Gets a Name!) [Capcom Unity]

Okay, he's probably not related to Speed Akrid, if such an akrid even exists, but he does throw fireballs, breathes fire, and hurls train cars at you, all of which sound particularly painful. Luckily for you and your akrid-hunting friends, the town you take on Akrid X in is filled with weapons and giant robot walkers, so you should be okay as long as you don't die horribly.

Check out the full boss profile for Akrid X by following the magical link below.

Lost Planet 2 Boss Profile: Akrid X [Capcom Unity]

Dropping a fiver at your local GameStop location for Lost Planet 2 will score you a code granting you access to the skin of Resident Evil's superhuman Umbrella Corporation operative. Sure, you won't get Albert's superhuman strength, speed, and regeneration, but you will also unlock his revolver, which is just as handy to have around.

Here's Takeuchi discussing the winter 2009 Lost Planet 2 with Edge magazine's interviewer. Note that Lost Planet 2 is designed to be played in co-op and supports online play. And note that online gaming isn't very popular in Japan.

Edge asks: "Sticking with co-op, do you find it strange that Japan has one of the best broadband infrastructures in the world but online gaming is yet to really take off on consoles?"

After mentioning the rare popularity of co-op Monster Hunter and online Final Fantasy XI, Takeuchi says:

I just can't understand why Japanese gamers are so reluctant to play networked games. I find overseas players to be more curious — they go towards what they think looks, sounds or feels fun by themselves. In Japan, I have the feeling users are just waiting for us to guide, to feed them with fun things. The problem is that the online experience is something that requires users to make a move first. Nobody is going to open the door for you. You need to decide to go into it by yourself. I want to create in Japanese gamers that curiosity for going online. Because of course you can enjoy the game alone, no problem, but as soon as you are with a friend coordinating, you enter into a whole other dimension.

That interview runs in the new Edge issue, which covers the 2009 Tokyo Game Show and offers that new spin on the familiar topic of the modern struggles of the Japanese gaming industry. The issue is available in the U.K. and available to U.S. subscribers (like me) now.

Jun Takeuchi Q&A [Edge Magazine Issue #208[

In a report of the company's performance for the first half of its fiscal year, Capcom provided sales projections for some of its biggest console games on the horizon.

The chart below, shows blockbuster expectations for Lost Planet 2 and a moderate hope for success with the recently-announced modified Resident Evil 5 that would be played with Sony's spring 2010-slated PlayStation 3 motion controller.

Resident Evil 5: Alternative Edition is currently announced only for release in Japan. It includes the 2009 game as well as a two-hour bonus mission starring Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine.

Capcom was showing a desert level of the company's winter-slated third-person shooter in New York this week. It controlled the same way the demo now available on consoles does, but it presented a new theater of combat. And in that theater were about a dozen human-sized combatants, many wielding super-human-sized guns. I fought alongside three other players on locally-networked Xbox 360s.

Clearing out the enemies triggered the arrival of two beast I can best describe as nimble, blind brontosauruses called Akrid. Though they could not see, they could hear very well. Anyone making a sound with their guns or feet would be mauled. That noisy man was me. A few times.

The controls and even the flow of the action in Lost Planet 2 take some getting used to. After playing so many other third-person shooters that react to a pull of the controller's left trigger by zooming the camera closer to a target, I find it jarring and dangerous to re-discover that Lost Planet 2 responds by having your guy toss a grenade. Your character makes right turns with the taps of other shoulder buttons. He switches his grenades and his ability to toss health energy with a two-button press. The mission flow can be confusing too, because both levels I have played have pretty much dropped me into battle as if I was storming Normandy Beach. The player doesn't even have a mini-map at first, but several small stations the size of short trees can be approached and activated on the battlefield, the first one turning on that mini-map. Turning on others adds numbers to the players' battle gauge, which essentially acts as a collective pool of lives.

Those elements are odd, but I liked them. They seem to produce in players a tactical scramble, allowing for precise movement that requires some thought about where you stand, cover and fire — a shade more Gears of War than, say, Modern Warfare. Getting in a bad position forces a sudden shift in strategy, from combat to healing to more battle-gauge collection. This makes the battle feel just a bit more open and frantic, less scripted than the norm.

Of course, the battles are scripted in the sense that certain actions trigger new events. As I wrote above, clearing out the enemy forces triggered the arrival of the Akrid. These monsters showed up on an overlook in a scene that looked good enough to be pre-rendered but was happening in real-time. I could move my guy around for better position. And then I had a choice: 1) Fight them and hope to hit their orange weak spots enough for them to die or 2) Work with my team to activate a number of scattered switched that would enable us to board a train and get out of there. We kind of executed both strategies. I managed to get the killing shot on one Akrid but then hopped on the train as the other one rushed it.

Throughout the battle, players earn badges to note things they've done mid-mission. They are currently called "Good Jon Awards." An example I was given involved firing from cover. Doing it well might earn a player "Half-Ass Cover." Doing it well multiple times could earn a better commendation, though probably not one as amusingly named.

More important for players than whatever Awards you win will be the points you earn for a mission well-fought. These can be applied to your character's stat development. Lost Planet 2 doesn't have a main character and lets players play on different factions in order to experience different sides of the same war. But a player's accrued experience transfers to whichever character the game has the player controlling, a Capcom rep told me.

The ability to have four-gamers jump into battle and fight giant monsters is, well, a bit Monster Hunter-ish. The stat-gaining in a shooter is somewhat Borderlands. All of this can be played solo with no change in the mission flow, making it more, well, Lost Planet-ish.

Whatever comparisons you want to make, the game is shaping up to feel like a chaotic science fiction of men against men and monsters. There are a lot of ingredients here. Cooked well and already looking good, Lost Planet 2 has surprising potential.

"Honestly", RE5 and Lost Planet 2 producer Jun Takeuchi told Kotaku, "the producer for Resident Evil 6 hasn't been decided yet." Takeuchi has previously expressed interested in a fresh take on the RE series. With Resident Evil 5, he spearheaded the implementation of a dual control scheme that allows players to play with more traditional RE controls or newer, tweaked ones.

"I think, while Resident Evil 4 is a great game, its appeal was limited somewhat to maniac players," Takeuchi said. "With RE5, I wanted to bring the series to a larger audience. I think its important to do the same for the next RE."

Part of Capcom's plan to bring the franchise to a larger audience includes the Wii Resident Evil titles. Since Resident Evil 5 is coming to the PS3 with wand motion controllers, it would make sense for Capcom to bring the title over to the Nintendo Wii.

Wii ports might be possible, but according to Takeuchi, "With the difference between hardware specs for the Wii and the PS3, porting might be hard. We currently have no plans."

Xbox 360 owners have been taking down the giant Akrid boss in the Lost Planet 2 co-op demo since August 26th, but their gloating will soon come to an end, as next week sees the release of a bigger, badder version of the demo on the PlayStation Network. Coinciding with the first day of the Tokyo Game Show, the PS3 version scores two exclusive missions worth of co-op hunting of the Akrid of E.D.N. III. Both the new demo and a new trailer hit PSN on September 24th.

It's times like these that make me glad I own multiple consoles.

Lost Planet 2 Co-Op Demo Coming to PSN September 24 [PlayStation Blog]

The co-op demo will let you take on the "salamander" boss, give you access to a variety of weapons and suits, then let you climb inside the thing's guts and blow it up from the inside. Messy.

The demo will go live for Gold subscribers on August 19, while Silver users will have to wait until August 26.

Capcom is too, it sounds like, shooting off an email about all of the games that they'll have on hand for European gamers to check out.

Lost Planet 2, Monster Hunter Tri, MotoGP, Dark Void, Spyborgs and Tatsunoko vs. Capcom Ultimate All-Stars will all be on the show floor this year round.

Because this is Germany's biggest gaming party as well, Capcom isn't just about the games. They've also decided to bring along a Dark Void machine that will let gamers take to the sky on a 180 kmh vertical airstream. I wonder if I've told McWhertor yet that he'll be the one doing that?

The news came after a member of the audience asked if there would be more co-operative vehicles in the game in addition to the three-player mech we were shown during a brief demo. In response, Takeuchi explained that there would be more co-op vehicles, and some of them would fly.

After the panel was over I confirmed with Takeuchi's translating partner that yes, this was indeed new news and no, they might not have been supposed to say that.

According to Capcom's Takeuchi, when Capcom was developing Devil May Cry 4, he thought this was the Xbox 360's limit. But again, when they were making Resident Evil 5, the game fit within those boundaries, and ditto for the upcoming Lost Planet 2. "I was like," says Takeuchi, "'This hardware is deep!'" He goes on to say that he was surprised and that "This is good hardware."

While From Software's Masanori Takeuchi is not disparaging about the Microsoft hardware — but rather, the situation it puts Japanese developers in. According to Takeuchi, developing for the Xbox 360 is "difficult". "Japanese game makers want to make games for Japan," he explains. But things like the low install base in Japan mean that developers must think about creating titles for a larger audience. "The fact that you must make games for a global audience," he explains, "makes the Xbox 360 a difficult platform."

Hey, in this sluggish Japanese game industry, making hit games at home isn't easy either.

カプコン竹内「Xbox360は深い」、フロムソフトウェア竹内「Xbox360はキツイ」 [はちま起稿]

LP2 producer Jun Takeuchi tells Famitsu, "I think we might be able to offer it [the demo] in a little bit." The game was in playable form at E3, and Capcom is busy developing and fine tuning the title. "Taking the E3 feedback account, the game is changing daily," says Takeuchi.

Takeuchi goes on to say that LP2 will offer things like character customization and on-the-fly co-op play, among other things.

The game seems to be timed exclusive — as confirmed by the game's official website.

『ロスト プラネット 2』の体験版配信も正式発表！　新情報満載の"MIDNIGHT LIVE 360 CAPCOM SPECIAL Vol.2" [Famitsu]

海に囲まれた要塞…？『ロストプラネット2』新たなステージ公開 [Gpara]