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If, for some reason, you didn’t purchase and love Might and Magic: Clash of Heroes on DS — or even if you did — you’ll have the opportunity to buy the puzzle RPG on two new systems this year, in glorious hand-drawn HD. Capybara Games has revealed a new PSN/XBLA version of Clash of Heroes, with totally redrawn graphics that eschew the 16-bit look of the DS original for more realistic proportions and a generally sharper look.

In addition, new equippable artifacts are being added, and the existing ones tweaked, to improve balance in multiplayer. Even better, you’ll now be able to go back and replay segments of the game after completing them. Capy expects to release Clash of Heroes in late summer.

[Via GameSetWatch]

Capy porting Clash of Heroes to PSN and XBLA originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 10 Mar 2010 14:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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You and your trusty White Knight Chronicles monster-slaying team don’t have to repeat the same quests over and over again (though you will, simply for the experience and materials). Every Thursday, starting this week through June, Sony will add new quests to Level-5’s RPG, visible in the world map, and all downloadable for free.

Each week, a new permanent quest will be available, along with limited-time quests that you can only download for two weeks. And to mark the occasion, Sony is giving away a 12-inch White Knight figurine to one lucky player that logs into one of six quests during a certain time period. See PlayStation Blog for all the details.

Free White Knight Chronicles weekly quests through June originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 10 Mar 2010 09:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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“I’m Commander Shepard, and this is my favorite store on the Citadel.” – English

“Jestem dowódc? Shepard, a to jest mój ulubiony sklep na cytadeli.” – Polish (machine translation)

In a GDC 2010 session entitled “Localizing Large RPGs,” which forms part of an ongoing localization summit, BioWare localization project manager Ryan Warden eloquently explored the revered developer’s process of adapting a huge, dialogue-driven game like Mass Effect 2 for alternative markets and languages. It may surprise you to learn that BioWare’s processes are significantly more elegant than hiring an army of workers to copy and paste lines of text into Google Translate.

With 450,000 words and 30,000 lines of voice-over in the English version, Mass Effect 2 demanded an active approach in its translation to eight languages, including Russian, Czech and Spanish. “Trying to manage this scope is almost unfathomable,” said Warden. “For BioWare titles, we don’t have the luxury of waiting for the title to be fully complete before starting localization.”

The concurrent process was designed to provide as much information and context to translators as possible, allowing them to focus on the job without having to request further information for each new conversation. BioWare compiled a complete localization kit, complete with a pronunciation guide (that’s crow-guhn, not kroggin!), an IP glossary, a collection of translator Q&A documents and an extensive character database. “Any time that a translator spends time asking questions and waiting for feedback … that’s wasted time,” Warden added. The goal, he said, was to “eliminate any doubt in the confidence of the translator.”

Continue reading GDC 2010: BioWare speaks up about Mass Effect 2’s localization

GDC 2010: BioWare speaks up about Mass Effect 2’s localization originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 09 Mar 2010 19:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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BioWare’s space opera epic, Mass Effect 2, is Amazon’s “Deal of the Day.” The Xbox 360 version is currently $40, which is $10 cheaper than you’d pick it up at your local Quarian pawn shop. A PC copy is 40 percent off, with a $30 price tag.

At that price, one could pick up Mass Effect 1 and 2 for the regular retail price of the sequel. For those who like their sci-fi soapy and their shooters refined, this is a deal worth going through the Omega 4 Relay for — see, if you play the game, you’ll know what that means.

[Thanks, Russ P!]

Amazon’s galactic deal of the day: Mass Effect 2 originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 08 Mar 2010 09:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The latest trailer for Yakuza 3 (embedded after the break) is all about Kazuma Kiryu’s memories of his life before the events of the current game. In other words, you’ll see clips from Yakuza 1 and 2 interspersed with footage of Kazuma kicking people. A one-minute trailer is hardly enough to bring you up to speed on the story if you haven’t played either of the PS2 games, but it does help demonstrate the visual upgrade the franchise has received as it makes the jump to PS3. (Just imagine how good Yakuza 4 will look!)

Speaking of memories, Sega is right to release a bunch of trailers for this game — the publisher needs to do everything it possibly can to remind people that Yakuza 3 is coming out, in the hope that a few people might pick it up when they go to buy Final Fantasy XIII or God of War III this month.

Continue reading Yakuza 3 trailer looks back

Yakuza 3 trailer looks back originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 05 Mar 2010 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Yesterday, early reports from Famitsu magazine brought news of a new game in the Metal Max series, in development for Nintendo DS by Crea-tech. Today, publisher Kadokawa Games opened a teaser site for Metal Max 3, featuring a short video of the RPG in action. As would be expected, it’s got tanks. A bright red one, in fact! Screens are up on Famitsu’s site.

Metal Max is a tank RPG series whose first localized entry, the PS2 spin-off Metal Saga, was released in North America in 2006 by Atlus. A DS sequel that same year was passed over, leaving the fate of this game in question.

According to 1UP’s summary of the Famitsu article, Metal Max 3 stars a character, having just been resurrected by a mad scientst, on a quest to regain his memories. Kadokawa apparently classifies him as “the strongest level-1 character in the history of video games.” The game will be released this summer in Japan.

Metal Saga sequel announced for DS originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 04 Mar 2010 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s rare for someone to berate you for not being tough enough for a Wii game, but that’s exactly what Capcom’s Monster Hunter Tri spokes-character Ironbeard does in this surprisingly funny series of ads. The Scottish huntsman mocks people for thinking that hunting real, regular-sized animals is hard when there are monsters to be hunted in Capcom’s upcoming Wii game.

Not only are these ads, which you can view after the break, funny, they’re also kind of effective. We don’t want to look at this fictional character with shame! We want him to be proud of us for being man enough to hunt giant fake monsters.

[Thanks, Kieran!]

Continue reading Monster Hunter Tri ads mock non-monster hunters

Monster Hunter Tri ads mock non-monster hunters originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 01 Mar 2010 11:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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PlayStation classic Grandia will make its way to the PSN this Thursday, February 25, at a price far less than what you’d pay for a new or used copy. For $10, North America can finally access the RPG that’s been on the Japanese PSN since April 2009 — and on the Sega Saturn since 1997.

Grandia stands out from other JRPGs with its exciting combat system, which was obviously in its infancy during the first installment. In fact, we’ve been waiting for another high-profile game to iterate Grandia’s turn-based battle system for years. Y’all just wait, when Joystiq publishing is off the ground, we’ll iterate the heck out of it.

Grandia coming to PS1 classics on PSN this week originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 24 Feb 2010 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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American DS owners have been waiting patiently for Dragon Quest IX, as the game racks up crazy sales in Japan and weekly DLC is released from Square Enix. Well … we’re going to have to keep waiting. While Nintendo didn’t announce a date for the RPG at the Nintendo Media Summit today, the company announced that it will not only co-market Dragon Age IX, it will publish it in North America. This is the first official confirmation of a localized release.

Square Enix previously said that it would consider localizing DQIX in its next fiscal year (beginning in April). Our best guess it to expect Dragon Age IX later this year.

Nintendo publishing Dragon Quest IX in North America originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 24 Feb 2010 14:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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