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well, blimey - where did this come from. This looks fantastic. I'm intriqued. Finally a game for ps3 that seems fresh and daring. Anyone knows how this should play?

Finally a new Japanese game for the PS3! Looks great too.

I wonder what's going on in the Japanese games industry though. We're getting tons of information about new games developed in the west and almost nothing from Sony's home front. Why have Japanese developers completely missed the boat in the next gen age? The majority of my PSX and PS2 games came from Japan, but with the PS3 and Xbox 360 I don't see this happening at all. On the contrary, since 85% of all interesting new games are from western developers.

it's nice ,that Game Republic managed to get the camera right for this intriguing looking game - I hope the game gets some love from the japanese audience , for sales are prty stagnant over there :/

Nice, very nice!

Probably because most Western developers jumped from PS2 to next-gen consoles really early. Capcom, Square Enix, Konami & many of Sony's own studios released BIG games like God of War II, Okami etc. for the console really late in its life span (or are still releasing them). Western developers, on the other hand, have moved at least partially to next-gen consoles & PS3 ages ago (Naughty Dog, Insomniac, Ninja Theory and everyone else have been working on their game engines for a few years now already). Give them time, and all kinds of Final Fantasies & Gran Turismos will start to appear on PS3 from first, second AND third party developers. Unlike Microsoft, Sony didn't abandon their last gen console months before the release of their next-gen console, and now PS3 is suffering from it a bit (while PS2 is still going on strong).

Exactly, good point and one I think people miss a lot.

I think that is only partially true. Forexample Sega has offically stated many times that it will now produce games more targeted to the western audience and has already published severeal... yes, I know a few was by western devlopers but still VF5, VT3 and Sonic was not. Capcom is another with multiple titles out already with has enjoyed massive succes in the west and has even more games coming. Yes they also did Okami for the ps2, but Capcom has always been pushing out games for multiple consoles at the same time. And there are others. Times are shifting and Japan is not the biggest gameregion anymore. Thus the demand for more western typed games are rising -> more western devlopers -> more western games.

Let's not forget that the ps3 has only just been released worldwide. And while it may seem sony didn't stop pushing games for it how many has really come from 1st party developers in recent months? Apart from God of War, that is. Yeah, not a whole lot.

So it maybe seem that MS ditched the xbox months before hand, but maybe you are blinded by the fact that the x360 is now almost 1½ year old? Or maybe MS was just abit more open about when they stopped developing for the 'ol xbox first hand?

plus, how many 1st party games have come to the x360. Not many actually.

I like the music at the start

The PS2 is still getting new games while the Xbox was actively avoided in multiformat releases only months from the release of the 360. That's a fact.

I'm not 100% sure of the specifics, but some people have said that MS themselves deliberatly killed the Xbox because of some expiring deal with nVidia, and encouraged all Xbox projects to be moved onto the 360 instead effectively putting the likes of Dynasty Warriors 5: Empires onto the 360 with no prior release of DW5.

In regards to Sega's development efforts, I dunno how you reckon those were tailored for a western audience. Fact is that they're establishing publishing deals with western devs to have those bases covered, whilst games that capcom developed for the 360 were deliberately western in their appeal because they figure all we wanna play is realistic looking stuff with no colour, resulting in Lost Planet and Dead Rising. Both brill games, but uncharacteristically gray and dull looking compared to their more charming efforts in the past.

I really doubt the whole "developing games for a worldwide market" will have any signficant impact once the PS3 finds a footing, because the gamers on the sony platforms have always enjoyed and been drawn to the more japan-centric games like Final Fantasy, Okami, Ico, et cetera. That in turn means that what they've always been doing will appeal to a worldwide market. It's seemingly where the 360 comes into the picture that games turn more sim like with real world themes and toned down stylistic aspects, perhaps due to its PC gamer appeal in the past. Nintendo aren't the only ones that have a hard time shaking their pigeonhole image.

Ironically I was half interested in this game until you said it's being done by the guys behind the giant enemy crab

I'm really liking the look of this game, fantastic artistically, the gameplay sounds like an action twist and adult themed pokemon, and the pokemon games are pretty great.

Its nice to see some exclusive ps3 content around here for a change.

@ synce )
give them a second chance - this seems to come out a lot better than genji2

.. the boss enemy shown in one of the walkthrough videos on GT has some giant enemy crab feel to it though ;)

@ simon
You might be right, I have no better sources or idea of what happend with the old xbox. You might also be wrong. I don't know. Maybe 10 years from now we will know what their (MS') strategy was regarding the last few months of the xbox.

Regarding Sega they have actually oficially said that they ARE targeting more towards western public with their games now. I do think that is quite easy to see from the last year or so if you check their portfolio. Sure there are some games that are regarded high in japan as Outrun and VF but they are also behind some quirky odd games too like Full Auto.

Worldwide gaming will have to happen for the new consoles especially for sony who is loosing crazy amounts of cash on the ps3 every day. Japan is not enough for them to thrive on. MS can largely do without japan as they are already succesful in two of the three territories. Ofcourse the would love to have a strong setting in japan too, but that seems to take it's time. If they ever will...
The problem is that games are now so expensive to found that you need a worldwide market to get the most out of sales of a given title. But because of the big cultural differences some games that hit in the western territories does't nessicarily do also in japan. Which brings me back to Sega - They have understood this and since you can target two major territories with a western game it is a much safer bet instead of doing a game that will be largely succesful in only one territory...

With due respect, I do get my facts rather straight before I claim to know what goes on. :)

Full Auto is developed by Pseudo Interactive, another american partner Sega has contracted along with a bunch of others. Believe me, when they talk of efforts made to appeal to a western audience, their acquisitions of people like Creative Assembly and subsequently games like Total War is what they refer to.

Also, they've made deals with Bizarre/The Club and Monolith/Condemned 1 and 2, and others that you'll see popping up soon.

Owl+deer+bird=picture 2

@simon

exactly. Seems like we only disagree with which publisher did officially state to develop more western games. :)

Been looking forward to this game since TGS, it's probably the first game that has had me interested in buying s PS3.