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Diablo III has been on many a gamer's horizon, a potentially quality sequel from a trusted and favourite developer. Today brings a twist in the story. Some fan reactions include 'I'm defecting to Guild Wars 2', 'I'll never trust Blizzard again', and 'boycott Diablo III!'. It might seem like someone at Blizzard personally ran over a family pet, but that's actually not what happened. So what's the news?

Three things have been revealed. The game cannot be played offline, there will be no modding available, and arguably most controversial of all it will be possible to buy and sell items for real money in the auction houses.

Blizzard seem to be modernising their game to fit into the current generation of piracy and cheating. No doubt for some RPG players it's a little galling to see another classic single-player series (although admittedly co-op as well) succumb to online exclusivity. Blizzard's reputation as a supporter of fan-made content in their other series, most recently in StarCraft II, makes the modding ban surprising. However it's the new auction features that have caused the biggest stir. Players will have kitty where they can buy and sell between themselves with real money. When players cash out at the end of a hard day's grinding and farming Blizzard will take a small cut. Click here for more information and screenshots. Blizzard emphasise that they intent to cover their costs, not make a profit from these microtransactions. Assuming that boycott doesn't get off the ground, and knowing Blizzard's track record of success, it might just well pay off. Due to the imbalances of a player-based auction house it might be worth tacking on another 6 months of playtesting to any estimated release date just to be safe.

Source: Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Okay, so we're all aware that the Nintendo 3DS isn't doing as well as Nintendo would have liked. Even the die-hard fanboys have to reluctantly admit that the 3DS is not the badass system that anyone had hoped for. It's still definitely got potential, but that won't be enough. So, on August 12th, The 3DS will drop from $250 to $170. That's $80. Down to two-thirds of its orginial price-tag. That's pretty hefty, and what some might call "desparate". Your turn. But there's a PLOT TWIST.

For those who bought a Nintendo 3DS at original retail price at any time before the 12th, Nintendo are giving away some games on the virtual console. And by "some", I mean "twenty". For free. And I know what you're thinking, that all the games on the Virtual Console right now are for the Game Boy (and ONE Game Boy Colour game). And you'd be correct, at the current moment in time. But, the games being offered to the "Nintendo 3DS Ambassadors" are from the NES and GBA eras. 10 from each. The NES titles will be available starting from September 1st, before they are available to new 3DS owners. They will feature such titles as Super Mario Bros., Donkey Kong Jr., Balloon Fight, Ice Climber and The Legend of Zelda.

As for the GBA titles, all we have for them are "before the end of 2011". However, the games offered here are Yoshi's Island: Super Mario Advance 3, Mario Kart: Super Circuit, Metroid Fusion, WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgame$ and Mario vs. Donkey Kong. You may have noticed that I only listed five games for each. These are the only titles that have been announced so far - and as of yet it is unclear whether we will have a choice of what games we download, or if its a set 10 that Nintendo will release. Oh, but there's ANOTHER plot twist. It's like Final Fantasy VIII in here, jeez. Wait, better not. Anyway, for those who plan on buying a cheaper 3DS later and buying the individual Virtual Console games: consider this. Nintendo have no plans to bring the GBA titles to the new 3DS users - only the "Nintendo 3DS Ambassadors".

As someone who's owned a 3DS pretty much since launch, this is only good news to me. Mario, Zelda, Metroid... Although I sincerely doubt how soon some of the release dates will be. I'd be willing to bet that they'll release one title a week, or something along those lines. One thing that Nintendo DID say, however:
"Once the paid versions of the games are released in Nintendo eShop later in the year, the updated versions will be available to Ambassadors for download at no cost."
It's pretty much a win-win for current 3DS owners.

Source: Nintendo

With this year's CoNniversary just a week away, we've decided that now's a great time to have a Necromancy Week - while our guidelines about reviving old threads has always revolved around the concept of adding something new and good to the old mix, we're going to use this week to try to get everyone involved. Over the next week, you'll see some CoN staffers going back into the significant forum archives and plucking out the best - and possibly the worst, at least of the threads not buried at sea - for a resurrection to the land of the living.

You don't have to wait for us to do it, though. We're looking for you guys to voice your opinions on ancient things too. Just go to the forum of your choice, filter posts to show all posts from "the beginning," and start digging. Post in as many as you like, and post in the threads that others have conjured from the abyss; all we ask is that you pick the threads that are still potentially relevant so that there's something worth saying there. laszlow has already gotten started!

For my part, I plan to focus on threads that make long-time members look like they were morons when they were younger, as well as threads that fawn all over CoN. It's the only way to fly. Hope you all find something that grabs your fancy too!

Square Enix has provided us with a set of new information regarding Final Fantasy Type-0 (which you may better remember as FFXIII Agito).

First of all, the game has a set Japanese release date of October 13. It will sell for an unusually-steep 7700 Yen, or $98 US. This likely reflects another detail provided by the company; that FF Type-0 (it's getting hard to resist calling it FF Typo over here) will be played on two discs.

There's also a new trailer up. Combat scenes are found sprinkled throughout the video, revealing a gameplay system that appears fast-paced and action-packed. It also treats viewers to a lot of character-introducing, including the presumed faculty members (Provost, Cadetmaster, Commissar, Commandant) of the military academy at which the protagonists (Ace, Deuce, Trey, right on up to Jack, Queen and King) reside. A large amount of background and character information is known, though FF Type-0 does not currently have an English language official site.

This recent burst of information makes it clear that the folks over at Square Enix are going for something different with this upcoming title. What with the relatively-short period between now and the game's Japanese release, it shouldn't be long before we can see how their efforts pay off.

Source: Kotaku

Tetsuya Nomura had a little chat with Famitsu recently in which he discussed several elements of Final Fantasy Versus XIII's graphics.

The title's movie director, Takeshi Nozue, has apparently been working to improve the game-generated cutscene graphics, and with great success. Tweaks to character hair and conversation behavior (they've been working on this with the voice actors as well, recording certain lines in groups so as to achieve a more natural result) appear to constitute a large percentage of these improvements. The main area of attention, though, is lighting effects. Nozue and his team have put in seemingly obsessive amounts of work on this element of the game, an effort which resulted in images that astounded the Famitsu staff members present (I would imagine generating that response is no easy task).

Aside from the fact that the team is working to make game-generated cutscenes as close in quality to pre-rendered cutscene graphics as possible, they have taken on the challenge of changing the very nature of cutscenes within the game. Nomura says that in Versus, the player will have control of his/her character during all game-generated cutscenes. Nomura said that the new engine is difficult to explain and that he hasn't seen anything like it previously, so that's helpful. He mentioned that he often finds himself skipping cutscenes, and that the goal here is to create a more natural, immersive atmosphere that allows the player to remain involved.

Nomura also hinted further at Versus XIII's gameplay, stating that, while it will employ gameplay elements from the Kingdom Hearts series, it will not be quite as action-oriented as the later and that Versus XIII will have more variety.

Nomura ended by apologizing for making fans wait so long. I'll decide whether or not to forgive him if once this ever finally comes out.

Source: IGN

Despite the game just coming to light last week, details have already started to appear for the new Final Fantasy beat-tapping game for the Nintendo 3DS. First off, for those who feel that Square stretches themselves too thin, note that the game isn't being developed by Square at all; indieszero, the team behind the well-reviewed Electroplankton, will be at the helm of the actual game development.

It looks like the game will be split into worlds dedicated to some, most, or all of the main numbered series (that part's not quite clear, yet), and that some, most, or all of the games represented will also contribute a character to your roster, from which you will choose four for your party. Each game has three phases, "Field," "Battle," and "Event," and each of those phases will have a different gameplay type. There are, of course, some RPG aspects too around character building, but the details around just what that means remain murky too. What Square has said is that the game takes place in a world in between Chaos and Cosmos, so it seems that there may be some effort to append this game to the side universe that also contains Dissidia.

Of course, the main thing that seems to get people fired up about this game is the potential for awesome music. We know these songs are in, with announcements of more surely on the way soon:

• Clash on the Big Bridge
• One-Winged Angel
• To Zanarkand
• The Sunleth Waterscape
• Final Fantasy Main Theme

The tracks are indeed remixes from the originals, so they may or may not be to your liking.

For my money, it seems like this game might be a no-brainer. The art style is super-cute, the music is consistently one of the things the fans like best about the games, and Squenix have had very good success with portable games recently, more so than their big AAA console titles. I even like the official Japanese site, and that pains me to say since it's all in Flash.

Source: Kotaku, andriasang, THEATRHYTHM FINAL FANTASY