Record of the Agarest War 2 takes place after the first game, even though it’s the third game in the series. Everyone in the world remembers the Day of Light. That’s when the entire world was stunned by a huge explosion of light that seemed to be centered in the central continent. No one knows exactly what happened that day, but demons have shown up ever since and that’s when Weiss lost his memory.

So Weiss is then wandering around when he encounters Eva. Eva is an Agent of the Divine and enlightens Weiss. He’s an amnesiac because he is a Vessel. He killed a god, and now must collect the power of the slayed god so he can be resurrected through him. Players must then follow Weiss’ family line through three generations to find out what happened and eventually make amends for Weiss’ actions.

Record of the Agarest War 2 adds quite a few unusual new features to the series. There are some rather… odd… mini-games that involve massages and such. Those can even use the Move controller, if someone owns one. Also, this time around the Soul Breeding system can result in a good or bad ending, depending on how the potential bride was wooed and her feelings for Weiss or his son. If you make Weiss marry a woman who doesn’t like him, the result will be a loveless marriage and a second or third generation hero who is much weaker than he would have been had the marriage between his parents been happy and loving.

If the occasionally slow, turn-based, strategic RPG battles of the first two games turned you off, then Record of the Agarest War 2 may win you back. It still has a grid-based, turn-based battle system, but things are supposed to move much faster and be a lot less complicated for newcomers. So yay for that!

As crazy as it may sound and despite all of its “questionable” content and mini-games, the Agarest Wars series is actually pretty cool. In each one you have to pursue romance while also level-grinding characters. That’s because each one is split up into generations, and the romantic decisions from the previous generation determines the strengths and weaknesses of the protagonist in the next. So you really have to think about who would make the best wife for your hero based on the way you play, to ensure you’ll get even stronger!

Read [GamersHell]

So. Xenoblade Chronicles. Ever since Europe received a localized version of this supposedly awesome action RPG, there’s been quite a bit of heartbreak here in North America. There have been petitions, the Project Rainfall movement and some people even just gave up and found a way to make the European copy play on their North American Wiis. It seems like all that may have had some effect, because a NeoGAF poster is reporting that Xenoblade Chronicles is now showing up in the stores’ systems. Even more surprising, it’s labeled as a GameStop Exclusive. Which means, if this news is true, GameStop will be the only place to find Xenoblade.

Now normally, I wouldn’t bother posting it. It’s a rumor, after all. One that Wii owners are especially sensitive about, since Nintendo seemed to take such a strong stance against Xenoblade, Last Story and Pandora’s Tower. Except for one thing.

Nintendo’s fanning the flames of this story.

Shortly after this report appeared on NeoGAF, the Nintendo Facebook page was updated with a new photo album. It’s called Homs, Mechons, & The Monado Blade. All things featured prominently in only one game – Xenoblade Chronicles.

Which means one of two things. Either Xenoblade Chronicles is coming to North America and Nintendo is using this new album as a hint and to get people all fired up about it, or Nintendo has decided to rub salt in the wounds of every Wii owners who has been hoping and dreaming of getting a new RPG to play. I’m going to go with the former. Cause, you know, Nintendo has the 3DS and WiiU to sell.

Update

Nintendo has just opened a Xenoblade Chronicles website. Xenoblade Chronicles will be released in North America and people can place a pre-order either with Nintendo or GameStop.

Editor’s Note: This story was updated at 12:50pm CST on December 2, 2011

Read [NeoGAF] Via [] Also Read [Facebook: Nintendo]

The Boston Red Sox blew a nine-game wild card lead, missing the postseason in a baseball collapse for the ages. Getting a significant portion of the blame is the training regimen (or lack thereof) from three of the team’s veteran pitchers. According to the Boston Globe Josh Beckett, Jon Lester and John Lackey eschewed their workouts for a regimen of beer, fast food chicken and video games. This happened in spite of pleas from manager Terry Francona and strength coach Dave Page.

Making things worse, the chicken, beer and video game binges often came during games. The Globe alleges the three pitchers were playing games, eating and drinking on flat screen TVs in the team’s clubhouse while their teammates tried to stave off the epic meltdown. There’s no rule preventing such behavior, but you would hope players expected to be leaders would be on the bench supporting teammates. In a statement that speaks volumes about the negative perception video games have, Lester talked to the Globe to defend himself and others. He admitted to drinking beer and eating Popeye’s Chicken during games, but still adamantly denies he played any video games. He went on to say the team did the same things earlier in the year when it had the best record in baseball.

Video games still have a stigma of being for losers and slackers in some people’s eyes. Lester quickly cops to drinking beer and eating fast food, perhaps because he sees those as manly habits. Heaven forbid anyone thinks he’s playing Call of Duty out there. Maybe the Boston Red Sox should invest in Wii Fit for the clubhouse. It did wonders for Heath Bell.

Read [Boston.com] Also Read [Gamertell]

Which would be a welcome prospect, considering how lackluster the current 3DS game library is. Lots of leaks and rumors have been floating around Japanese websites, like 2ch and 4chan. Hachimaki picked up on some of them and put the rumors together for easy reading. Well, easy if you can read Japanese. Supposedly, Monster Hunter Tri G, Etrian Odyssey, Baten Kaitos, Ace Attorney, God Eater, The Silver Case, Hatsune Miku 3DS. Mach Rider Unchained and a new Yoshi game will all be appearing at the event. Also, launch dates for the The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords download and Super Mario Land 3D demo will be possibly be announced. There are also murmurs that Alchemist is working on a game for the 3DS, as well as the Nintendo SPD Group 1 and Intelligent Systems.

What makes these rumors seem credible are Monster Hunter Tri G and the Etrian Odyssey rumor. The former has already been confirmed by Famitsu and the latter is a game that’s been talked about since the 3DS was first announced.

Be sure to check Gamertell on September 13, 2011, as we’ll reporting on all of Nintendo’s announcements at the conference so you’ll have some idea of what to expect on your 3DS in late 2011 and 2012. Just don’t get too excited about a 3DS port of Hatsune Miku: Project Diva. The system is region-locked and I doubt Sega would be willing to take a chance on releasing a game like that outside of Japan.

Read [Hachimaki (Japanese)] Via [Gematsu] Also Read [Gamertell]

Earlier today (July 6, 2011) I received an email stating that I was charged $49.99 for a 4,000 Microsoft Points bundle.

The problem is that I did not order that bundle. In fact, I have not logged into my Xbox Live account for at least a month. Also, my renewal for Xbox Live is February, not July.

After receiving the email, I did log into my account today to see whether or not I was actually charged, as in this being a phishing email. Indeed, I was charged for the purchase I had not made.

I then checked the status and noticed that there was a “Service Alert” next to the “Account.” The extended note read:

User may experience difficulties with the following services:

• Creating new Xbox Live accounts, managing those accounts, or recovering an account on a different console.

In addition, a subset of users will be disconnected from Xbox Live.

We are aware of the problem and are working to resolve the issue. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and thank you for your patience.

I have contacted Microsoft Support concerning the issue but have not yet received a response.

You might want to check your email and Xbox Live account, as well. Here are photos of the email and the error message:

UPDATE (July 7, 2011): Microsoft did refund the charge late last night (July 6) but did not send any type of explanation.

Read [Gamertell]

According to a well-placed industry source who wishes to remain anonymous, developers were recently notified that a new revision of the PlayStation 3 is in the testing process that will feature a new copy protection system not on the motherboard but inside the BD-ROM drive itself, similar to the Xbox 360.

Presumably this would at least prevent these newer consoles from running copied games with an additional layer of authentication. It’s likely that there will be some kind of watermark on genuine PlayStation 3 discs that the drive is looking for. All of these measures are in response to the acquisition of the PS3 root encryption key earlier this year (2011) by hacker GeoHot which allows unlicensed code to be run on the PlayStation without restriction.

This new hardware revision will be accompanied by a firmware upgrade that contains newly optimized Blu-ray playback drivers that can now handle BD-Java during Blu-ray 3D playback, at least on the 2D level.

This is a godsend for Blu-ray authors because they no longer have to author discs 3 times. Once for 2D, once for PS3 and once for full power BD3D.

There is no news whether or not this new firmware will also bring lossless audio to PS3 3D playback but our source indicates they doubt that this feature will be added any time soon due to the number of SPEs decoding the additional 1080p stream occupies.

This hardware revision is expected to accompany a price drop on the system hardware that could come as early as the Tokyo Game Show this September (2011).

I hope all you Call of Duty players are prepared for another map pack, because it looks like Treyarch and Activision have another one planned. As it was with the previous Call of Duty: Black Ops DLC pack, Escalation, it seems the next pack may have been leaked as well. This leak wasn’t as good though, as it only managed to reveal the five maps that will be included in the new add-on. The leaked image’s picture quality is horrible, but it looks authentic. You should probably remain cautiously optimistic.

Digital Warfare 24/7 first came across this GameStop ad, and posted it onto the internet. The image is blurry, as mentioned earlier, but describles five new maps. The text for each one is as follows.

• “Invade Hanger 18″
• “Escape the Hazard”
• “Attack at the Drive-In”
• “_____ the Silo” (Note: I have no idea what it says.)
• “Obliterate the Zombies”

These five maps would all be multiplayer maps, for people to fight with or against other Call of Duty: Black Ops players. The format is similar to previous packs, with there being four standard maps and one zombie map.

I suppose the timing could be right for another Call of Duty: Black Ops map pack. First Strike was released In February and March, 2011 and Escalation was released in May and June 2011. I suppose this unnamed pack could be announced in the next few weeks, then released in August and September for the Xbox 360, PS3 and Windows PC.

I’m a little suspicious about that last map name in this alleged DLC though. Would Treyarch and Activision really just call the new zombie map Zombies? Keep in mind, the previous zombie DLC maps were called Ascension and Call of the Dead. This rumor could still be legitimate, but that last map’s name makes me pause.

Read [Digital Warfare 24/7] Also Read [Destructoid] Also Read [GamePur]

Being such a centerpiece of conventions, post-convention coverage articles are a dime a dozen but I’m going to get the jump on everyone with my top ten predictions for E3 2011:

10) Blizzard won’t be there. I know, not much of a prediction but Blizzard is so massive and World of Warcraft so world-dominating that Blizzard can easily afford to miss the biggest show. Heck, they’ve got Blizzcon anyway. (Editor’s Interjection: They might not have a booth but you’ll likely see some Blizzard in attendance).

9) There’ll be many licensed games. Most licensed games are terrible and for good reason: Before the game is developed, a pile of money is spent on buying the license. There are exceptions, of course, but that initial spending cuts into the money spent on development, usually leading to a second (or third or fourth) rate game. Developers know when they’re releasing a dog and are also aware that E3 is a great place to generate early hype (and fast sales) that will let them recoup the money spent on the license. Buyer beware of the “E3 Effect” which makes games look so much cooler in a big ol’ booth than they will on your home computer. This is extraordinarily powerful when it comes to licensed games.

More booth babes. Since the very first E3 in 1995, booth babes have gone from a smattering to a preponderance as marketing folks realized just how easy it is to use scantily clad females to get the attention of young (and not-so-young) males. When E3 was trimmed back to a so-called “quiet” show a few years ago, the booth babes vanished. A few were spotted last year and I’m willing to be they’ll be back in force this time around.

7) The iSmell will return. E3 is a clearinghouse for all the latest in weird technologies and even if the new gizmos don’t catch on the first year, they just keep coming back. Usually. One gadget that appeared once and vanished was the iSmell, a device that actually emitted odors while you played. Fire off a machine gun and it would emit the smell of gunpower. Eviscerate a zombie and the room would be flooded with the sweet putrescence of festering bowels. OK, maybe there’s a reason why this one never really caught on. Still, being a bad idea never stopped someone, somewhere, from pursuing it to the bitter end.

6) Bethesda will have a must-play game. For years, Bethesda broke ground with its fantasy role-playing games but showed it could succeed in sci-fi with the Fallout franchise. This year Bethesda’s going even more post-apocalyptic with Rage and I’m sure it’ll be as good as anything else the company has done.

5) Battlefied, Medal of Honor and Call of Duty will promise another forgettable expansion. These are all top selling first-person shooters but they’re all blending together in grey mediocrity as far as I’m concerned. It really seems like the publishers of these respective titles aren’t really trying to put out anything truly awesome, instead taking great ideas and breaking them down into least publishable games for fans that will buy anything in one of these franchises.

4) A better zombie game will come forth. Left 4 Dead is a good game and series but the balancing is very tight, making it a weak game for public just-jump-in-and-play games. Success breeds imitation and Left 4 Dead has been around long enough now that someone’s going to imitate the zombie/shooter game in a superior way.

3) There’ll be another new controller that makes you move your body. Since the Wii, companies have been trying to improve upon the idea of a controller that lets you move, while still avoiding the complexity of most console controls. The new idea will fail, also, until they understand the economics of controllers: Most new controllers are meant to be played with one game, forcing sales to only be a fraction of that game. The only controller that will work is one that works well with every game on the console (just like in Wii) but I’m sure I’ll see a few more attempts this year anyway.

2) There will be computer troubles. It’s stunning how at the greatest concentration of propeller-heads in the world, the machines often don’t work right. I’ve seen E3s where half the halls didn’t have power, where internet connections didn’t work and where wireless maybe have been the “hot new” technology at a booth for all the reliability it had at the show. I don’t expect anything less this time around.

1) Duke Nukem Forever will be delayed (or something). This sequel to the 1996 Duke Nukem 3D has been announced at a dozen different E3 events. The latest estimated release date is June 10, 2011, but I’m not betting any money on it.

Read [E3Expo]

A little over a week later, a second Atlus Faithful message was sent out around February 25, 2011. This one was just as vague, but possessed the same pink background. You can see the image enclosed at the right. It simply reads, “Do you still like us?”

Now, this would normally be no big deal. The thing is, the color and tone of the messages seem like a veiled reference to Catherine, Atlus’ PS3 and Xbox 360 adventure and action game that is causing quite a stir overseas. It was released February 17, 2011 in Japan and has been doing quite well.

Despite gaming website Beefjack making a big deal out of Atlus’ standard, noncommittal response to a Catherine localization query, it seems the game may be destined for a North American release. While there is a great deal of voice acting, which would require a lot of time and effort to translate, it does seem a likely candidate. After all, the game is available on the PS3 and Xbox 360. Plus, when playing the PS3 demo, I noticed quite a bit of English text.

For now, the best thing to do is keep an eye on all Atlus Faithful emails. To join, simply head to Atlus’ website and register your email. You should receive a confirmation email and start receiving all future newsletters.

Read [Siliconera] Also Read [Beefjack] Site [Catherine (Japanese)] Site [Atlus]

Microsoft announced the availability of the Kinect SDK during an event called TechForum. The SDK will be a free download. The SDK will open up Kinect features such as the device’s sensor, “audio technology and system application programming interfaces.”

Microsoft believes that when used in the right hands, Kinect can be very beneficial to the education and healthcare communities. The software is intended to be used for non-commercial purposes. This means no one can make any money from their Kinect creations.

Back in November, Microsoft said that Kinect XNA support would be released in the future.

Sony has also teased providing developers with PC tools for PlayStation Move. Even if that does happen, Move will still be an exclusive PlayStation product.

Via [Microsoft Blog] Read [CNET]