Japan Gaming Guide

One of the most interesting looking PS3 games of the year is out soon – Afrika debuts on August 28th. Taking the role of a photo journalist players must head out into the wilderness and take pictures of the wildlife. Depending on the quality of the snaps, you can earn virtual cash, which can be traded for bigger and better cameras.

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Blazblue, the spiritual successor to Guilty Gear is shaping up very nicely. The opulent fighter is due out on the arcades in a few months, with a possible PS3 version to follow.

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Game Watch have over 90 screenshots from the forthcoming SOCOM:Confrontation on PS3. The snaps show off the game’s dense urban environments and cool looking explosions and smoke effects.

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Siren: New Translation has been out here for a few weeks now. Famitsu have been running a blog specifically for the game, filled with creepy details. The latest post shows several photos of the female zombies in the game, and a picture of an actress in zombie make up. You can see why the graphics are so lifelike when they went to this kind of trouble.

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An updated version of Siren is coming out for the PS3 in July. Siren: New Translation is an update of the original PS2 game and features an American TV crew heading to the remote Japanese village of Hanuda. Needless to say they get more than they bargained for when they find an army of living-dead villagers hungry for their brains.

Famitsu magazine has some very promising looking screenshots, with the zombies looking suitable creepy. Expect gore levels to be high. The original was praised for its graphics but wasn’t so hot in the gameplay stakes; hopefully this remake will show progress in more than just the graphics.

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The original NiGHTS – into dreams was re-released on PS2 last week. The twisty purple jester’s classic debut adventure is going for a tidy Y5000 in shops now.

We were all a little dissapointed by the new version of NiGHTS – it wasn’t bad, but didn’t really capture the magic of its predecessor. The original has only been playable on the original Saturn (or an emulator) until now, so it’s great to see this game back in the shops. If rumours are to be believed, PC owners will soon be able to get in on the action via a gametap release.

Now NiGHTS is available again and Ikaruga on the way we’re only waiting for Radiant Silvergun to work through our backlist of difficult to acquire must-play titles.

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A load of new info has just come out regarding Just Cause 2. Interviewed by Playstation World magazine, lead designer Peter Johansson revealed that the sequel will aim for “more scope for exploration and experimentation than the original.” Side missions have been ditched, which will hopefully make the game’s much vaunted freedom less of an illusion and more of a reality.

There’s a brand new island to explore – Panau in South East Asia. Rico will have to destabalise the island, remove it’s dictator, Baby Panay and return with his former CO who has gone AWOL on the island.

The island will feature a wider range of environments with snow capped mountains complementing the jungle setting.

Just Cause 2 launches in January on PS3, Xbox 360 and PC.

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It’s fair to say that 2007 stank for Sony. Everything they did seemed to go wrong. Their financial performance and sales figures left a lot to be desired. Their marketing and rhetoric was pretty desperate. Most importantly the games that came out for the system just didn’t cut it. It wasn’t that it didn’t get any decent games – just nothing stellar that would make people without a PS3 desperate to go out and buy one.

If you don’t have a 360, you’re probably wishing you could play Bioshock or Gears of War. If you don’t have a Wii, Mario Galaxy must be turning you green with envy, but people without a PS3? Well Drake’s Fortune is a decent game, but does anyone who can’t play it feel a sense of gaming loss? Hmm. The system still needs something that makes me think ‘I have to play that’, especially with its price tag as high as it is.

Blend Games have compiled a list of 5 PS3 games to look out for in 2008. Of those, Turok isn’t exclusive, so we’ll discount that, but let’s take a look at the others:

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Some random boxart. Time Crisis 4 with the guncon controller is going for a mere 9,286 Yen over at amazon at the moment.

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We really like Lego here at JGG. It’s only the harsh financial realities of the world that stop us from building our entire homes out of the fantastic bricks and living there chuckling evilly to ourselves. We liked Lego Star Wars too, and are pretty chuffed about this Lego Batman game that’s coming out.
Edit: Trailer is no longer there, sadly!
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