In case any of you haven’t heard the big news by now, Capcom and Namco Bandai are planning on releasing two new fighting games, bringing together Tekken and Street Fighter in what seems to be one of the most exciting crossovers in the history of the genre. The already-hyped game isn’t set to release until at least 2012, but there was some gameplay footage for Capcom’s Street Fighter X Tekken that was shown at Comic-Con this year. The footage features none other than the stars of Street Fighter and Tekken –Ryu and Kazuya. (more…)

Attendees of the “Street Fighter Mania!: SSFIV and Beyond” panel at San Diego Comic-Con on Saturday got a huge surprise when Capcom’s Yoshinori Ono revealed not only Capcom’s development of Street Fighter X Tekken, but also announced the development of Tekken X Street Fighter by Namco Bandai. The crossover games feature characters from both series and use different engines respectively.

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Before walking by it, with an almost sitcom-like double-take, I hadn’t even known that Enslaved: Odyssey to the West was being shown off at this year’s E3, and so I was happy to get my hands on a decent-sized demo while hanging around the Microsoft booth.  There’s been little mention of Enslaved this year, aside from many people likening its visuals to Uncharted and many others scoffing at the developer’s choice of name for the game’s protagonist.  The game is being developed by Ninja Theory, the team most famous for Heavenly Sword, and it’s looking right now as though Namco Bandai will be publishing it for release this October.  The demo I played through imparted echoes of many of my most beloved games, Uncharted 2, Beyond Good and Evil, and even a little Zelda, and so personally October is looking like a good month.

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Tekken has long been a viable alternative to those who have strayed from the Street Fighter, Soulcalibur, or Mortal Kombat camps. Ever the dark horse of the genre, it’s been around long enough to avoid the typical pitfalls that riddle efforts considered unsuccessful by the community. With the advent of Tekken 6, that lucky streak seems to have been cut short. While the core gameplay is slick and enjoyable brawler, the pithy Scenario mode and overall presentation mire this flashy fighter in a mess of broken gameplay, dated graphics, and disappointing online play. While it may be enjoying great success in the arcades, I can’t quite recommend it as a console port.

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Tales of Graces is gearing up for its December 10th release in Japan. Set to go along with the release of the game is a newly-announced Wii bundle, helping fans of the series who haven’t yet bought a Wii make the jump. The bundle is slated to include a standard white Nintendo Wii, a copy of Tales of Graces, and Nintendo’s Classic Controller Pro for Wii. The announced price is 27,8000 yen, taking the cost of the game/console pack to just about 320 American dollars.

Tales of Graces is twelfth in the Tales series of games, and follows the exploits of Asbel Lhant, a young knight who is groomed to be a feudal lord within the world of Elfinea.

[Source: Siliconera]

On schedule for its October 27 release for both Xbox 360 and Playstation 3, Namco Bandai has announced that Tekken 6 has gone gold. Though offline modes are present, Tekken 6 seems to be bringing the action in the form of online game types. Typical ranked and player matches, as well as leaderboards, will be available on both Xbox Live and Playstation Network. New features, however, will come in the form of Co-op Scenarios and Ghost Data downloads and uploads.

The Co-op Scenario Campaign, available sometime this winter as free dlc, will allow players from all over the world to work together against computer controlled enemies.

Tekken 6 will also allow ghost fighter data upload and download. According to Namco Bandai, “Any player in the world can download your ghost to take on your virtual self in a one-on-one battle even when you’re not online.” Not only this, but you will be able to upload replays of matches to share with friends. Even though I’m sure we’ll see awesome replay action, some people’s file shares will be full of what-not-to-do bloopers. Quit looking at me.

As a Wii owner, I often feel like that lonely kid on the playground at recess, desperately waiting my turn to be picked for dodge ball, only to be passed over again, and again, leaving me disappointed and neglected on the bench.  Any remotely “serious” gamer who owns a Wii console has likely felt this way at least once: a new game is announced, but Wii is sadly left by the wayside.  Or, worse, a title is released in Japan, but never for the North American market.  Instead, we are left with a plethora of titles aimed at children or people who know little about games and can be easily duped into purchasing an inferior product.  In a word, the Wii software market is flooded with “shovelware” as developers jump to cash in on the booming Wii audience.

However, thankfully, this year’s E3 revealed many quality titles that gamers of all levels can appreciate.  While Nintendo’s press conference may have left a lot to be desired in many ways, I know I came away from the expo’s revelations with a long list of games to look forward to over the next months.  What are some of the games I’m extremely excited about?  (more…)