It’s hard not to gush over the Atlus spoils program. Bringing the PS3 exclusive Demon Souls to North America was more than enough to win my affections - the game has been criminally ignored. But Atlus has once again gone the extra mile, offering an additional deluxe release of the game on October 6 that will include a 150+ page strategy guide. In addition to this, pre-ordering either edition of the game also nets you an art book featuring designs and concept sketches from an RPG that has been very overdue for attention on this side of the world. A tempting incentive for those of us that imported the game for sure.

I had the opportunity to check out the title at E3, and it was straight-out refreshing to find the game being marketed based on the legendary difficulty it has become known for since its Japanese debut. The fact that the online features offer a real unique strength to PSN is an added reason for PS3 owners to perk up.

My girlfriend is browsing my bookshelf, looking for something to pass the time. She asks about Picross DS, so I grab my DS to show her the tutorial. Upon seeing it, she remarks that it looks like Sudoku. I sigh. This is what everybody says when I show them this game. “It’s kinda like that,” I explain. “It’s a nonogram.”

I run her through the basics of the game: There’s a grid with numbers alongside each row and column that represent how many consecutive blocks are supposed to be filled in. On bigger grids, there are usually more than one number for each row or column and it becomes a matter of figuring out, not just what to fill, but what not to fill. Eventually, a picture emerges.

Her eyes glaze over a bit, but after the first few levels she starts to understand. There’s a lot of fumbling going on during the first few 5 x 5 levels, but its when the game first opens up to 10 x 10 playing fields when the real learning begins. Every stage has the same arc; the board is cleared of obvious choices at the start, then comes the deduction phase. There is no guesswork here, only cold logic. The best part, though, is when you get over that hump. There’s a smooth slide downward as the grid almost seems to fill itself, and then a short, colourful animation to reward you. But, as any fan will tell you, the true reward isn’t the destination, but the journey.

The control scheme is clean and simple, allowing for easy manipulation of the grids. There’s an immense satisfaction in chiselling out an image from the chaos of numbers. This is what my high school math teacher was prattling on about when he lectured on the beauty of math. I suspect this same euphoria was what drew reviewers, and subsequently, me and my girlfriend, into its addictive cycle.

I envied her as she started on her addiction, because nothing beats that first high. When I started battling the 20 x 25 sized grids I realized that the good times were behind me. With the smaller maps, there was a perfect balance of effort and reward. Yes, there was work, there was taxing of the mind, but when it clicked, it was pretty late in the process, and the cleaning up of the last few odds and ends was negligible. As the grids got bigger, so did the amount of cleaning up, and so did the tedium. Couple that with no replayability and there’s a problem.

Even the game seems to realize this. After doing some of the biggest puzzles, which coincidently seem to be the least fun, there’s a mode where you’re allowed to tackle smaller puzzles again. The only difference being that while most levels correct your errors, at the expense of adding time to your score, these offer no such luxury, and its easy to screw up and not realize it until you’ve already sunk in 30 minutes into the puzzle. This leads to even more aggravation.

So, as I watch my girlfriend play the game, I cringe a bit, knowing that eventually it’ll stop being fun. I try to warn her, but there’s a madness in her eyes. Us addicts have to learn the hard way.

Step into a nightmare with the shoes of a man who is constantly threatened to die. These shoes are probably nicely-polished, slick dress shoes because this story takes place in 1941. Back in the ‘40s, Film Noir detective films were popular and this is what Déjà Vu is: a classic crime fiction where you play a hardboiled private eye trying to crack a case of MURDER and MONEY LAUNDERING.

Déjà Vu I and II for Game Boy Color is a point and click graphic adventure game ported from Mac/PC versions developed by Icom Simulations. Déjà Vu was originally released in 1985 as the first-ever graphic adventure game that won awards (at that time) while Déjà Vu II was released in 1988, continuing the nightmare.

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XSEED Games has announced that they’ll be bringing The Sky Crawlers: Innocent Aces to North American Wii owners this holiday season. On the surface the game offers two things I’d very much like to see materialize - a solid flight game for the Wii and a story that attempts to break the monotony attached to flight games - with SkyGunner serving as the shining and solitary exception to the rule.

Using the Nunchuck as the flight control stick and the Wii-mote as the throttle makes simple and straight-forward sense. Assuming my faith in developer Project Aces is well founded - does Ace Combat ring a bell? - I’ll gladly pick up the Wii-mote and perhaps finally be free to focus solely on flying rather than remembering control schemes.

As for the narrative, colour me legitimately interested. The story involves a world invested in a tense peace after decades of conflict. The solution for easing or distracting the masses is the creation of war as a sponsored event between corporations using contracted military personnel, with this new war becoming a mass media show that replaces society’s instinctual need to fight. A rookie pilot codenamed, “Lynx” is working his way up the ranks of the Sky Crawlers while a secret military project attempts to make pilots immortal.

Sounds completely awesome as far as I’m concerned.

See More Images for The Sky Crawlers: Innocent Aces »

First it was Capcom, and now Namco Bandai has dumped new assets for the PS3 exclusive Katamari Forever before running off to have fun while I sit here posting it all… sigh. Perhaps following the King of all the Cosmos via his new Twitter account will cheer me up - http://www.twitter.com/kingofthecosmos.

These latest videos are joined by some of the remixed Katamari songs appearing in the game, including Saigenji’s “Katamari Resort Song,” SOFT’s remix of “You Are Smart,” and YMCK’s “Gin & Tonic & Red, Red Roses.”

Watch Gameplay with Katamari Resort Song »
Watch Gameplay with You Are Smart »
Watch Gameplay with Gin & Tonic & Red, Red Roses »

Admittedly, both Shaun and I were more than skeptical about the idea of a film based on the arcade classic Asteroids. But based solely on the early teaser trailer we’ve obtained, it’s clear that there’s fertile ground to develop what will undoubtedly stand as an American classic of cinema.

Watch the Teaser for Asteroids: The Movie »

Before disappearing for a very long weekend, the good people at Capcom tossed some new screens and video our way for Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles. Of course rather than celebrating and drinking themselves into a stupor they could be finishing the damn game for us. I’m just sayin…

If you haven’t heard of The Darkside Chronicles, it stars Clair Redfield and Leon Kennedy and weaves a complex narrative of mystery, passion, and zombies - loosely based on the Victorian novel by Sir Sanford Daftwager.

See More Images for Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles »
Watch the Latest Footage for Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles »

Man that was fun!

Even better might be taking a look at the newest video that came our way for Batman: Arkham Asylum - which offers interviews with Game Director Sefton Hill and Lead Narrative Designer Paul Crocker of Rocksteady Studios, as well as writer Paul Dini.

When it comes to superheroes and videogames, you either die a hero or live long enough to see an endless stream of crappy titles bear your logo. But we’re crossing every finger we’ve got that this will be the exception for the caped crusader - who has perhaps suffered more than any other superhero in gaming.

Watch Behind-the-Scenes Video for Batman: Arkham Asylum »

Eidos is bringing new DLC reinforcements to Battlestations: Pacific this month with new units and maps to keep the conflict alive - does that constitute war profiteering?

Available today for 160 MS points is the Mustang Pack, which offers six additional units and 18 pieces of nose art. New units include the US P-51 Mustang Bomber escort for those that enjoy flying the unfriendly skies, and the US Navy’s Alaska Class battleship and Japan’s Super Yamato Class battleship for the seafaring gamer.

On July 23 the Carrier Battles Map Pack hits for 800 MS points, offering four new maps that will be playable across all five multiplayer modes. Players will have the chance to fight carrier battles at Midway and Kamikaze attacks at Leyte Gulf, as well as experience battles at the Philippine and Aleutian Islands.

While I don’t mind side-scrolling platformers so much, I don’t go out of my way to play them (there are some exceptions that I will continually go back to). I’m not sure if the chief forgot this when he put this game in my inbox, but I figured I would give it a chance.

The Legendary Starfy is the North American release of a game series that has seen a lot of success in Japan. This iteration sees the main character, Starfy (yes, he’s an actual star) sleeping in bed when a spacesuit-wearing bunny falls through the ceiling of Pufftop Palace and lands on our hero. The bunny is then pursued by shadowy figures, but Starfy saves the day by using his trademark spinning attack to dispatch the would-be villains. Interestingly, we never see the details of these shadowy figures, giving a neat visual pun to these characters and their names. After the bunny disappears, Starfy decides he’s got nothing better to do than to go off in search of him. Upon finding the memory-challenged bunny and rescuing him in the first World of the game, Starfy’s quest changes as he and the bunny go off in search of the missing pieces to a mysterious crystal which is key to the bunny’s past. Did I mention the bunny can also team up with Starfy to transform into several different creatures? It’s actually pretty cool.

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