I can’t wait till this game comes out in March! Regular readers here will know how much I love the Final Fantasy series, and this latest installment looks gorgeous. I haven’t heard that many good reviews about the storyline though, but even that won’t stop me from getting this game. Enjoy:

I’m pretty much addicted to both Carcassonne and Settlers of Catan these days, so imagine my delight when I found out both of them are (soon to be) available on the Nintendo DS (discovered via Twitter while checking out the ‘tag’ carcassonne). I’m not sure how I missed this, but the Catan version has been available since this May!

The Nintendo DS version of Catan was developed in collaboration with Klaus Teuber. Besides the Basic Game, it also contains scenarios from the Seafarers expansion (among others, Greater Catan) that offer additional adventures and challenges. The Basic game presents a varied Campaign with eight different computer opponents. You can also play against up to 4 others over the wireless Nintendo WiFi connection. Here’s the trailer of the game:

From what I can find, I think it’s only available in Germany, but the NDS cartridge contains the English as well as the German language version. So far, I haven’t found an actual store that sells this game though; apparently it’s not as popular as I imagined it could be. If anybody finds out where you can get Catan for DS, please let me know.

The Carcassonne game for the Nintendo DS will be coming out this September. It’s already listed on Play.com for £24.99, so that will at least be available here in the UK (no idea about the US though).

Carcassonne for Nintendo DS will contain the main game including the River expansion. In multiplayer mode, both Single-Card Play and Multi-Card Play will be available for Nintendo DS owners and their friends via the wifi connection. The adaptation is true to the original, but with three added new locations: the Asian, Arabic, and Nordic worlds. I’m curious to see how this looks; I can imagine the gameplay will be exactly the same, it’s just different “themes” basically in which you can play in.

The above screenshot is from the Xbox Live version, so I’m assuming we’ll get a smaller trimmed down version of that. Still, I think it could look pretty sweet, and it’s definitely the type of game I’d love for on my DS.

Anybody know of any other Nintendo DS boardgame versions?

I stumbled on this game trailer via Wonderland this morning:

[Watch the trailer on MissGeeky.com]

It looks like a cool little game; I always enjoy the 2d versions of these type of puzzles, but they’re never really that difficult. Introducing a 3D aspect to it, is just what it needs to give that extra layer of difficulty.

The only problem is that it’s only available for Windows for $10. I wouldn’t mind having this game on my Mac, but seeing how the game is played I’d think the iPhone would be a better platform for it.

Check out CogsGame.com to download the game (or a trial version to try it out first).

Last Friday I was invited to a press event at Sci-Fi London for Dead Space Extraction, the Wii prequel to the popular PS3 and Xbox 360 game Dead Space. I still haven’t played Dead Space, mainly because I still haven’t got a PS3 or an Xbox 360 (I know, I know, I should get one), but it’s been high on my To-Get list once I’ve got one of those consoles. Needless to say (even though I hadn’t played it’s predecessor) I was curious to see what Dead Space Extraction had to offer.

At the press event, I got to meet Steve Papoutsis, the executive producer of the games, and Antony Johnston, the writer of the games and the prequel comics. They both held short presentations about their views on Dead Space Extraction, after which we got to see a live demo.

Dead Space Extraction is a prequel to the original game, taking place months before the events of Dead Space, during the infection of the colony. Your main protagonists are a group of 4 characters attempting to escape the colony: 2 security guards (McNeill and Warner, I tried to decipher my handwriting, so I think that’s what I wrote), a company executive (Eckhart) and an engineer (Lexine). It’s a stand alone game, perfectly playable if you haven’t played the previous one (or read the comic or seen the anime), but if you have, there are questions answered left hanging in the original and new secrets expanding the universe of Dead Space.

Unlike the original game, Dead Space Extraction isn’t a third person shooter, but something more like a rail shooter (as Steve Papoutsis put it “a guided first person experience”). Now this might seem a bit off-putting for some, but combined with the Wii controls it results in a great type of gameplay. Plus there are a couple of elements that differentiate it from a normal rail shooter, like some control over the camera for the player, the inclusion of puzzles and being able to choose different branching paths. Besides that, the game is designed to use the Wii controllers in a natural way to use objects. 

One cool example during the demo was the glowworm, a stick you have to shake to generate light, which meant of course you had to shake the Wii controller for it to go on. In one scenario, everything goes dark, while you’re being attacked by the Necromorphs. You have to decide if you want to shoot randomly in the dark, or take the time to shake your glowworm and generate more light. Another cool feature of this game was the option of drop-in co-operative play. With a single action, a friend can jump into your game and play with you together. No hassle!

I really liked the look of Dead Space Extraction and am now considering getting a Wii to be able to play this game. From what I saw from the demo the gameplay looks great. Plus it seems to have an interesting and intricate backstory. Now if only I could try out the original (and get a PS3)…

Dead Space Extraction – Release Date: Fall 2009