It's going to be a pretty interesting gaming week this time around, with big titles cropping up. From Devil May Cry 4 (PC, PS3, Xbox 360) to Assassin's Creed: Altair's Chronicles for the Nintendo DS (finally!), as well as titles of specific interests such as Karaoke Revolution Presents: American Idol Encore and My Horse and Me, gamers of all kinds will certainly be in for a treat. Check out the full article for the complete list of games to be released this week.

If you've already tried out the demo Namco Bandai's Culdcept Saga on the Xbox Live then you may already have your ideas on the "perfect book" strategy. To help you out, the developers from OmiyaSoft have outlined the Book Creation Overview for players to review on their IGN blog.

For more information, check out the full article after the jump!

We've just found out that, along with the Xbox Live Fall Dashboard Update, a demo for Namco Bandai's Culdcept Saga has been released in the Xbox Live Marketplace.

For those who haven't heard of Culdcept Saga, think of it as a mix of board game and strategy card game. You create decks with which you fight with on a game board, and the object of each battle is to conquer most, if not all, of the available spaces with your creatures guarding the board tiles. Read full article for more details on this.

 

Here's a handful of awesome character and concept art for Namco Bandai's Culdcept Saga for the Xbox 360, designed by Japan's top illustrators. However, it's not only the art that shines through in this game. The music score will be done by Romancing Saga's Kenji Ito and will have a story written by a top-notch sci-fi writer, who is currently not named at this point.

The Xbox 360 incarnation of the Culdcept videogame franchise will have players experience the story of two friends engaging in a battle to conquer lands, control the elements, and return peace to their homeland using a collection of cards.

Culdcept Saga will let players choose from over 470 available cards, and it will be up to them to create and conceive powerful card combinations. There will be no such thing as the 'strongest card', but only the 'strongest deck'.

Developed for the Xbox 360 in high resolution, characters and environments will be rendered in photo-realism and will have transforming environments. Monsters put into play will come out of the cards and become alive.

One of the best things we have found out so far about this game is character customization. Clearing various modes and through items purchased in Xbox Live marketplace, you can change you're characters appearance to your liking.

Speaking of Xbox Live, a multiplayer mode will let you play against 3 other players online, complete with voice chat. If you want to play alone, there's always the mandatory mode where you can build up and improve your card collection to better prepare yourself for online battles, as well as putting card battle strategies into practice.

Strange as the game's concept may be, Culdcept Saga may turn out to be one promising game, if the developer plays its cards right. Where it stands right now, it seems that way.

   

More Culdcept Saga character art after the jump!

Culdcept Saga may be new to a lot of eyes and ears here, but the franchise has actually been around for more than a decade. The original Culdcept games were developed for the first PlayStation, the PlayStation 2, the Sega Saturn and the Sega Dreamcast. So what is it exactly? Picture Monopoly with magical elements for a next-gen platform and you're on to a good start.

The almost-trivial storyline is typical enough not to deviate your attention from the quirky fun. You have a powerful queen and a young boy who must fight to bring peace to the land using magical cards in battle. With gameplay driven by dice rolls and moving around the game board, it'll be easy enough to figure out the rest.

If you're still lost on how the whole thing works, we've got these screenshots to help you visualize. Culdcept Saga isn't exactly a title that'll cause a stampede on the Xbox 360 turf, but it's a welcome addition in a platform dominated by M-rated stuff. Enjoy!

More Culdcept Saga screens coming your way after the jump!

We're pretty sure you North American fans are crossing your fingers extra hard so that Culdcept Saga's North American release pushes through this summer.

Well we have yet to receive any more news regarding this bit, but EB Games did announce last February that Culdcept Saga will be shipped to our side of the fence in May. Whatever the case may be, we just hope Namco Bandai gives something more tangible to hold on to, especially as May is just around the corner.

While we wait for Namco Bandai to hold up to their other end of the sky regarding the North American release date, we give you something definitely concrete and tangible from Culdcept Saga in the form of screenshots. Enjoy!

More Culdcept Saga screens after the jump!

QJ Blogger Ryan A. noted the EBGames listing some time ago, and well, now it's official folks. Namco Bandai has announced that Culdcept SAGA will be released this summer for the Xbox 360 and feature online competitive gameplay via Xbox Live. Below are some screens for you if in case you're curious about the game.

More screens and some game details after the Jump!

Namco Bandai released the game Culdcept Saga sometime in November of last year. We've always described this game as a hybrid of board game Monopoly and Magic: The Gathering. Not that the game is weird, but it's just different, that's all. So before you guys render judgment, it would be nice if you've actually tried it first.

And if retail store EB Games is to be believed, Culdcept Saga is on its way to the U.S. this coming May. There's no official announcement yet from Namco Bandai if this is indeed true, but it released a couple of English screenshots a couple of months ago. That's a promise, though unsaid. And we don't believe Namco Bandai would want to give fans empty promises.

So there. We would update you as soon as more concrete information about Culdcept Saga surface. In the meantime, refresh your memories with these English screenshots courtesy of gaming site Siliconera.

Blim Blim over at Xboxyde.com has got some raving insights on the game Culdcept Saga. Sure, the screenshots may appear to be laughable, and laugh he did. That is, until he got hold of the game and lost four hours of his weekend playing the game.

If you're willing enough to overlook whatever bias and prejudgments you had for this game, then check out the first ten minutes of gameplay by clicking on the download links below. Here are also screenshots taken from it. Blim Blim noted that while it may not be the best game out there technically, the art direction is excellent. Apparently, the storyline being really deep, and really well thought out more than compensated for whatever graphical shortcomings it may have.

But that's just one guy's thought on the game. To have your own impressions, just check the videos out. Soon, you just might find yourself wishing it won't be limited to the Asian market.

Download: [Culdcept Saga: First 10 minutes]

As innovative as Culdcept Saga may be, there are surprisingly aren't a lot of information available on it; non-Japanese information to be exact. So we can sit here and tell you guys over and over that it's a hybrid of Monopoly and Magic: The Gathering, or instead show you these videos from the Tokyo Game Show.

The game will be released in Japan in the summer 2006. And as the Jumanji tagline goes - Roll the dice and unleash the excitement!

Download: [Culdcept Saga Gameplay Video]
Download: [Culdcept Saga Trailer]