EDGE mag scores:

Rise of the Argonauts (PS3/Xbox 360, Codemasters): 3
Mushroom Men:The Spore Wars (Wii, Gamecock Media Group): 6
Destory All Humans: Path of the Furon (PS3/Xbox 360, THQ): 3
Persona 4 (PS2, Atlus): 9
Fire Emblemhadow Dragon (NDS, Nintendo): 7
Skate 2 (PS3/Xbox 360, EA): 7
Away Shuffle Dungeon (NDS, AQ Interactive): 5
Space Invaders Get Even (Wii, Taito): 5
Big Bang Mini (NDS, SouthPeak Games): 6
Burn Zombie Burn (PS3, Pinnacle): 6

FFXIII 8 pics in one click here

Ogre Battle: The March of the Black Queen is coming to the Wii VC

darthhomer said:

GAH!

Oh, that's rad about Ogre Battle.

Ogre Battle: The March of the Black Queen (伝説のオウガバトル, Densetsu no Ōga Batoru?, "Legendary Ogre Battle") is a strategy video game for Nintendo's Super Nintendo Entertainment System, directed by Yasumi Matsuno with artwork by Akihiko Yoshida. It is the first installment of an episodic series (although it is supposed to be the fifth episode, the previous episodes have not yet been produced), and was originally developed by Quest for the Super Famicom system (and subsequently Sega Saturn in 1996 with vocal acting) in Japan.

Enix of America only distributed twenty-five thousand copies of the Super Nintendo version to the United States, which made it one of the rarest critically acclaimed video game titles to date. As such, it can be difficult to purchase a copy of the game, which can sell for over 300% of its original retail price. It was rereleased by Atlus as a PlayStation game (along with Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together) in 1997 with the name of Ogre Battle: Limited Edition. The version of the game is not as difficult to procure as the original SNES cartridge but still sells for more than $50[1] used.

Ogre Battle: The March of the Black Queen begins in the outskirts of the Zeteginan Empire, twenty-four years after the founding of the empire through conquest. Your main character is leading a revolution against this empire which has turned to evil through the use of black magic by the mage Rashidi.

The game begins with the seer Warren using Tarot cards to ask a series of questions to determine your suitability as leader of the revolution. There are several questions out of a fixed set which are randomly asked, each of which is associated with one of the twenty-two Tarot cards of the Major Arcana. Each question has three possible answers: one righteous, one evil, and one neutral. After you finish answering the questions, Warren wishes luck for the revolution and the game begins. The player's answers to these questions determine the Lord's (main character's class) abilities and starting units.

Ogre Battle mixes movement elements of a real time strategy game with the character development and combat of a role playing game. The game consists of a series of battles where you deploy units to fight against enemies and liberate occupied towns and temples. Each stage has a boss whose defeat signals the end of the stage. Both during and after the stage, towns and temples can be visited to gain information or items. The game also features an alignment system, both for the revolution as a whole (reputation) and for individual characters (alignment and charisma). These parameters are influenced by how the game is played.

There are twenty-five main stages in the game, with some variation possible in how the stages are played. There are also four hidden stages accessible through the main game with an additional stage as an easter egg. Note that the game can be completed without finishing all the stages. There are twelve different endings to the main game, depending on the conduct of the player during the course of the game.

Ogre Battle has two main modes of play, the world map and the tactical map. On the world map, the player can manage his characters changing their class, re-ordering them into different units, and erasing them. The player can also save and load the game, as well as manage items. In addition, the world map is where the player chooses the next stage, which can either be an already completed stage or a new stage.

Once the player has selected a stage, action shifts to the tactical map. Here, the player can deploy units and move them around. Each unit has a cost associated with it which must be paid to deploy the unit and every day at noon thereafter. There is a limit on the number of units which can be deployed at one time. Time passes on the tactical map alternating between day and night. Characters with high alignment fight better during the day while those with low alignment fight better at night. There are also towns and temples which can be liberated by units. Upon liberation, a random tarot card is drawn which can affect either the liberating unit's statistics or the reputation parameter. In addition, liberated towns provide income every noon which can be used to buy items (some towns have shops which can be used when a unit is stationed there) or pay for unit costs. In addition, there are often hidden towns, temples, or items which can be found by moving a unit close to the appropriate location.

One of the most important aspects of the tactical map is combat with enemy units. Each stage has a number of enemy units which attempt to re-capture the player's towns and temples. If a player's unit gets too close to an enemy unit, a battle ensues. During a battle, the view shifts to a close up view of the two combatant units. Characters alternate taking actions with the battle ending after one round of combat (many units can attack multiple times per round). The unit which caused the most damage is the victor and forces the other unit to retreat. During a battle, a player does not directly control their unit, but selects a tactic for the unit to follow (Best, Strong, Weak, Leader) which the characters follow when choosing who to attack. The player can also use stored tarot cards (which can cause damage or have a special effect), retreat, or change tactics during a battle.

In Ogre Battle alignment indicates how good or evil a character is. The scale runs from 0 to 100, the higher the number, the more good the character is. When characters with high alignment liberate towns, it will raise your reputation (High charisma is also required). Characters with high alignment will be weak against dark attacks but strong against white attacks. They will fight better in the day and worse at night. Alignment can be built by defeating enemies stronger than yourself, defeating ghosts and other dark creatures, and drawing tarot cards which raise your alignment stats. Once your alignment is high it is recommended that you not exceed the level of the enemies you are fighting, keep even with them. Characters which naturally start out with high alignment include clerics, knights, angels, and samurai. Alignment will drop when you defeat high alignment characters such as clerics and angels or when you defeat characters who are much weaker than you.

Low alignment characters are more evil. They fight better at night and are weak against light attacks. Liberating towns with these type of characters will lower your reputation, especially if their charisma is also low. There is nothing wrong with having these types of characters. A good mix of high and low alignment soldiers is the best way to beat the game. Just keep low alignment characters with low and high with high. Do not liberate towns with them unless you want an undesirable ending. One benefit of using low alignment characters is that you can raise your levels as high as you want and don't have to worry about lowering your alignment because it is already at rock bottom. Just use your low alignment characters to slaughter enemy units while your high alignment characters travel the map liberating towns. Characters with naturally low alignment include ghosts, skeletons, and demons. Human characters such as wizards and ninjas have moderately low alignment but they can go either way. Evil Ones are human characters with very low alignment.

One of the most important aspects of Ogre Battle is the class system. Each character has a class which determines the characteristics of that character. There are over 75 different classes available in Ogre Battle, but any given character is limited to a subset depending on their race. For instance, human characters can either be male (fighter) or female (amazon). There are also Dragons, Wyrms, Pumpkins, Angels, Giants, Hellhounds, Octopuses, Hawk Men, Demons, Gryphons, Mermaids, Golems and Undead class trees. Within a tree, there are usually level, alignment, and often charisma requirements. In addition, some classes also require the use of a special item. Finally, the two human class trees are unique in that they have the most branches in their tree and characters can be demoted to move along a different path.

Apart from statistic increases at level-up, a character's class also determines how the character moves and fights. Each character has a terrain type where they move fastest and fight the best (some classes also get additional attacks), with flying characters able to move quickly over all terrain. In addition, each class has a set of attacks characters can perform, ranging from physical attacks targeting one opponent to magical attacks targeting a whole unit.

New sideswipe from Transformers 2

Classic Sideswipe:

80s transformers > New Movies

I just bought Valkyria Chronicles!

I still have to finish Uncharted, though.

Ogre Battle: The March of the Black Queen is coming to the Wii VC  THIS IS GOOD NEWS!

Hahaha, who wrote that F.E.A.R. 2 piece? Yes, my new PC will just teabag that game to death. This makes Edge happy. Funny thing is, I read that earlier today on IGN and said the same thing.

Not surprised at all about TR DLC. Its not just TR though, lets not kid ourselves. Companies are starting to get DLC down to a science....every game has planned DLC from the start; things that could and should have been in the retail game. As I've said before, its also why we don't see more map makers in multi-player shooters. Why let the player make his own maps when you can charge him for new ones?

Anyway, I now have my Tower, power supply, memory, and hard drive for my PC. Next up is the motherboard, CPU, my 2 crossfire Radeon cards, and Pioneer blu-ray drive.

Honestly, I only have like 2 games on my 360 list and like 4 or 5 on my PS3 2009 list with this PC in the works. I have more games on my Wii list at this point. My PC list is fucking ridiculously huge.

gamingeek said:

WTF? Indy game cancelled? Does this make any sense? They dump the studio that makes force unleashed, before the game comes out that game is a million + seller. Indy looked great and would most likely achieve similar sales. And its canned too?

The rumours are that there is a puzzle/adventure game based on Indiana Jones coming to PSP/DS and maybe Wii as well.

That Indy game had an AMAZING physics system.

Punk Rebel Ecks said:

gamingeek said:

WTF? Indy game cancelled? Does this make any sense? They dump the studio that makes force unleashed, before the game comes out that game is a million + seller. Indy looked great and would most likely achieve similar sales. And its canned too?

The rumours are that there is a puzzle/adventure game based on Indiana Jones coming to PSP/DS and maybe Wii as well.

That Indy game had an AMAZING physics system.

Also holy shit at "Flower, Sun, and Rain" for the DS.


So bad I can't even compare it to a generation. If the 3D era had a time where 3D consoles had graphics and environments as archanic as the earliest 2D consoles (Atari 2600) THIS would be it.

It looks like No More Heroes DS.

edgecrusher said:

It looks like No More Heroes DS.

Well it is by Suda. Anyway I'm picking this up over the summer.