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  Tetsuya Nomura Working On Two Unannounced Titles

  Talk about a busy guy. Tetsuya Nomura worked as main character designer on Final Fantasy XIII, director and designer for Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep and ditto for Final Fantasy Versus XIII. We forgot Final Fantasy Agito XIII! He’s character designer for that, too. In the most recent issue of Famitsu, Nomura reveals that he…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published December 22, 2009
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  Final Fantasy XIV Features Robust Character Creator

  Square Enix’s upcoming MMO Final Fantasy XIV features a character editor that can be described as robust — with emphasis on bust. The creator allows for a variety of skin tons, eye colors, lip colors, hair colors and styles, tattoos, facial scars as well as waist, hip and bust size. Of course, these sorts of…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published December 22, 2009
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  Japanese Retailer Won’t Buy Back Xbox 360s?

  In Japan (like in many places in the world!), there is a strong culture of selling back used games and hardware. Japan especially is quite good about keeping instruction manuals and boxes in pristine shape as many who purchase gaming goodies do so with intent to sell back in the future. For retailer TSUTAYA, the…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published December 22, 2009
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  NSFW: NieR, A Cheeky Comparison

  There are two versions of action game NieR: NieR Gestalt for the Xbox 360 and NieR Replicant for the PS3. But what’s the difference? While based on the same universe, the games will have different stories. Also, the in-game butts are not the same — after close inspection, they are slightly different! That’s AI-controlled partner…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published December 22, 2009
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  Erotic Game Comments On Erotic Game Controversy

  In the wake of the Rapelay controversy, Japanese erotic games have come under intense scrutiny. The Ethics Organization of Computer Software in Japan banned the sale of games with forced sexual situations after an outcry in the Western press over Rapelay, a niche game released a few years back. Some game adult game developers have…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published December 22, 2009
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  Mistwalker Delay New Game Announcement

  Hironobu Sakaguchi, creator of Final Fantasy and head of development studio Mistwalker, was planning to announce his new game this year. Those plans will have to wait. “I was planning to announce my new project within this year but it’s a little late,” Sakaguchi blogs. Sorry about that. I imagine announcement will be starting around…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published December 22, 2009
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  Gundam Christmas Tree — The Video!

  Located on the second floor deck of the Akihabara UDX building in Tokyo, this is it, the Gundam Christmas tree. The 16-foot tree is decorated with over 60 Gundam models and strung with red, white and blue lights that twinkle pure awesome. Gundam Christmas Tree Akihabara UDX [Otaku2]

  By Brian Ashcraft Published December 22, 2009
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  First Look At Japanese Poster For Tekken Movie

  Back in early November, Kotaku posted the first Tekken movie sales art. It’s now late December, and time to post the movie’s Japanese poster. Funny how that works. No, not really. The movie is set in 2039, when fighters from around the world compete in the Iron Fist Tournament and centers around character Jin Kazama,…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published December 22, 2009
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  Dark Void Goes 8-Bit In DS Version

  Capcom’s Dark Void won’t just be appearing on the 360, PC and PS3; no, it’ll also be appearing on…the Nintendo DSi. In a marketing move for the main title, Capcom will be releasing Dark Void: Zero, an 8-bit interpretation of the game similar to the recent Mega Man 9 “demake”. It’ll hit the DSi Shop…

  By Luke Plunkett Published December 22, 2009
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  British Sales Charts: A Whiite Christmas

  In the penultimate holiday season charts, there was only going to be one system dominating the top 40. And it’s not the Xbox 360. Not the PS3, either. No, it’s the Wii, which looks set to enjoy its fourth successive Christmas atop the British charts. Fourth. I mean, come on. Mario Kart in the top…

  By Luke Plunkett Published December 22, 2009
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  Gran Turismo Creator Completes 25-Hour Car Race

  Kazunori Yamauchi, creator of the Gran Turismo series, has earlier this month completed a 25-hour endurance race at Thunder Hill Raceway, California. Yamauchi is of course no stranger to racing cars, but still. That’s quite an achievement. I get antsy driving for 25 minutes. He of course didn’t drive the entire 25 hours all by…

  By Luke Plunkett Published December 22, 2009
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  The Fall And Fall Of Duke Nukem Forever

  The latest issue of Wired has a great piece by Clive Thompson on the death of Duke Nukem Forever, and the development studio it took with it. There’s little real news in the piece – after all, the demise of both DNF and 3D Realms has been well-documented – but not everything has to be…

  By Luke Plunkett Published December 22, 2009
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  Command & Conquer 4 Trailer All About…Harvesting Tiberium

  “Our community loves harvesting Tiberium”, enthuses C&C4 producer Raj Joshi in this 5-minute long gameplay demonstration. Do you, community? Really? Video Games | Command & Conquer 4: Tiberian Twilight | Exclusive Tiberium Developer Diary HD XBox 360 | Playstation 3 | Nintendo Wii

  By Luke Plunkett Published December 22, 2009
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  GameStop Clerk Shot During Robbery

  An employee at the GameStop store in Orange County, Florida, was shot earlier today during an armed robbery. Shortly after opening this morning an armed man entered the store, held the employee and a customer at gunpoint while waiting for a security timer on the store’s safe to expire, stole a Wii and several games…

  By Luke Plunkett Published December 22, 2009
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  2009 In Review: The Shows That Were

  I always like to think of the video game industry as being more like the car business than any other creative medium. There’s art, yes, and business, but also functionality to consider. Oh, and shows. Big, loud shows. Just like the automotive industry revels in glitzy trade shows and product reveals, so too do gaming…

  By Luke Plunkett Published December 22, 2009
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  Dragon Quest IX Breaks Dragon Quest Sales Records

  Square Enix aren’t so preoccupied with the success of Final Fantasy XIII that they’ve forgotten about their other mega-bucks franchise, Dragon Quest IX, and how it’s also breaking sales records. In a statement issued yesterday by the company, it was revealed that sales of Dragon Quest IX on the DS have just pushed past the…

  By Luke Plunkett Published December 21, 2009
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  Leonard Nimoy To Appear In Star Trek Online

  Just like the recent Star Trek movie had two Spocks in it, so too will the upcoming Star Trek MMO, with Zachary Quinto (new Spock) to be joined by Leonard Nimoy (old Spock). While Nimoy won’t be starring in the game, per se, he will be lending his voice to the intro, as well as…

  By Luke Plunkett Published December 21, 2009
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  Some Artwork From Transformers: War For Cybertron

  I am daring to be excited by Transformers: War For Cybertron. Why? Because I love any Transformers not involving Michael Bay, and I especially love the War Within comic series. Which is kinda what this game is like! Though, sadly, not exactly like; as this artwork shows, cues have been taken from the fan-favourite prequel…

  By Luke Plunkett Published December 21, 2009
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  Mass Effect 2 Achievements Revealed

  Xbox 360 Achievements has the full list of Mass Effect 2 achievements. None are secret achievements, which means you should take the spoiler alert here seriously. Looking through it, I don’t see any plot giveaways, although “Cat’s in the Cradle” might raise some interesting questions of a character’s parentage. Then again, I could be reading…

  By Owen Good Published December 21, 2009
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  Try Out Team Fortress 2’s Bots

  Valve have quietly been tinkering under Team Fortess 2’s hood for some time now, and today would like you to try and help them test something out: officially-sanctioned, AI-controlled “bots”. It’s to be noted that these guys are in the early stages of development, so don’t expecting them to go pushing carts or pulling off…

  By Luke Plunkett Published December 21, 2009