Creativity and uniqueness always score brownie points in a game. In Test Drive Unlimited, not only are you offered with awesome experiences and challenges, but you are also afforded this opportunity to jazz up your performance and appeal by visiting the car and bike dealers scattered all over the island. Ferrari, Lamborghini, Mercedes, Aston Martin are only but a few of the high-end names in dealerships you can rub elbows with, in addition to the access you'll have to the actual manufacturer's options. Here, the choice is in your hands if you'd change your rims, paint, or interiors.

Test Drive Unlimited also takes you into the glamorous world of car and bike collection, with 90 vehicles on the DVD alone, and more coming from the online marketplace. But of course, you can't just keep on collecting these toys if you don't have enough storage for them! So to add to that pimped up factor, apart from collecting those phat automobiles, you also get to collect luxury homes! The island is a pretty tight neighborhood with a tight selection of celebrity homes for that almost-celebrity lifestyle you'll be living. 60 houses on the island makes for a pretty exclusive subdivision. Of course, your character needs to be dressed for the part, so you also get to edit your appearance with the editor available in your dressing room, which contains tons and tons of your designer wears!

The game itself pretty much takes you on a ride through everyday life: dressing up, picking which car to drive (alright, so that one is more of a fantasy), driving out, and looking for ways to spice up your day. Here is where the challenges come in.

On the general map, you can find the hotspots for all the raving challenges, building, players and bookmarks. That would be on the first layer. On the second layer, it functions more as an info editor of some sort as you are able to specify specific elements you want viewed (available challenges, gained achievements, unlocked challenges, etc).

To help you get to that race you so want to conquer, the GPS is there to aid you find it in the shortest possible time, weaving you through the quickest routes for you to have that grand entrance. While the storyline may be found to be a bit reminiscent of PS2's Need For Speed Underground (you come from the airport, drive around in a borrowed car, pimp your ride at the shops, enter races and collect cars), TTU adds and offers so much more to auto racing and collecting!

With all these features onboard, Test Drive Unlimited brings in a whole new meaning of pimping up your ride, and your lifestyle!

As the release date of Enchanted Arms draws nearer and nearer, the marketing department of the the first Japanese RPG for the Xbox 360 has been stepping up the pace and is doing everything it could to whet every gamer's appetite.

One of the features that this game would like to introduce would be its battle system. As shown in the video clip, Enchanted Arms will make use of a grid-based combat system that will place heavy importance on the positioning of every member of your party. Different views of the battle will also allow one to carefully judge the trend of a battle, while a flexible party order system lets you dictate the process of how exactly you would like to cripple your enemies.

Slightly reminiscent of Final Fantasy games, location-based attacks are also introduced, so yes, flanking your enemy now has visible effects, and we're not just talking about your character's animation anymore. The Enchanted Arms team has also added the feature "auto battle" and fast forward, in case you can't wait for the next move you want to execute.

Other features would be the ability to perform combo attacks with your party members, thus allowing for some very interesting mixing and matching, as well as "Ex Skills", which we are guessing would be the equivalent of the Limit Break (the game that I grew up with is getting obvious, isn't it?).

Mere description won't do the trick though, so just watch the video instead and see how you'll like it.

That's right, folks, fresh as always. We're featuring the opening sequence to the xbox 360's first Japanese RPG title, Enchanted Arms.

This game is set in a world where golems - who once served mankind - went berserk at one point and turned against the beings that were once their masters, and then mysteriously shut down some time later. Jumping ahead hundreds of years later, the golems have started awakening and wreaking havoc again, and the young man Atsuma discovers that he has absorbed their power and is able to control them...after unwittingly unleashing the most dangerous one of all, that is.

But enough of the talking. Here's some eye candy for everyone...the opening cinematics for Enchanted Arms.

Plato's Republic puts into analogy the human body with his ideal, utopic city-state. The head represents the philosopher-kings, tasked with governance. The chest symbolizes the warriors or the military, specifically for the protection of the Republic. The stomach personifies the merchants who are accountable for the flow of resources into the city.

While there is a blatant display of hierarchy, it does not go to say that one is necessarily more important than the others. For while they may be different in levels, they are the same in their goal, that is to ensure the survival of the Republic. Thus, all component parts, while maintaining their individuality, are expected to work together for that one same goal. Much premium is placed upon this goal to the extent that to attempt to multitask on these roles is to put the goal at high risk of falling into utter chaos. Therefore, it is forbidden.

The underlying principle behind this system is that titles aren't there just for the convenience of identification. Categories are not there merely to be able to sort out things from each other. Titles and categories exist not just to portray some semblance of order, but more importantly, to define roles and responsibilities. Now, this is, more often than not, usually overlooked. But the thing is, names and roles ALWAYS come in a tight package.

Applying that same principle to our everyday existence, we often find it constricting to confine ourselves merely to just one area. Artists need not be just artists, they can be politicians. Professors need not only be able to teach, they can be athletes. Women need not be mere trophies and housewives for their husbands, they may be high-powered corporate executives.

And gaming need not be only frivolous and trivial, they can actually have a higher sense of aesthetic, even pragmatic, value in our existence. That is the battlecry of columnist Ernest Adams, at least insofar as gaming is concerned.

He posits that in the light of the growing clamor for censorship in video games, it brings to mind the fact that although gaming has already niched itself tightly into popular culture, it still remains to struggle for the respect it deserves as an art form. The most apparent excuse would be that video games or gaming has always been stereotyped into the category of entertainment for kids. And kids are almost always never taken seriously. By this mere affiliation, the gaming industry has been deprived by the highbrow end of society  of the proper value it should have.

Don't we just hate stereotypes?

The full article awaits after the jump!

It's a good thing that Ninety Nine Nights refrained from being a Japanese-only title. A game as good-looking as this definitely deserves a wider audience don't you think? Ninety Nine Nights, for those of you who have no clue, is a fantasy/strategy role-playing video game currently being developed exclusively for the Xbox 360 by acclaimed video game designer Tetsuya Mizuguchi and his development team at Q Entertainment.

It's impending U.S. release this coming Tuesday is only a few winks away, and to help you in that waiting process are tons of the games screenshots and art. The images you see in this article doesn't even account for half of them, so you'd have to get them and see for yourself (link below).

The screens feature some of the game's characters like Myifee, Inphyy, Dwingvatt, and Aspharr. Character arts are also included. So before getting N3 next week, do your homework and scan 'em screens. Enjoy!

Download: [Ninety Nine Nights Screens]

Even though there have been speculations of Elveon flat lining, since everything about the game has been taken off 10tacle Studio's website, the fantasy action epos is still battling it out. Coincidentally, the new trailer released features Elveon's highly developed combat system. The video is closer to an instructional demo really. Rather than showing you what moves your character can do, it actually teaches you how to do it. In the process, you are also learning strategy. Two birds with one stone.

Dynamic motion capturing and weapon collisions calculated in real-time is key to the realistic look that these sequences have. Creating the spectacular moves is no easy feat. Asian and Middle-Age martial arts have been combined and developed to create a unique Elvish fighting style.

A playable version of the game will be available at the Games Convention 2006 in Leipzig (Hall 3, Booth B20). But, if you're not in the area, just check out this featured article titled "Exploring Elveon" to get to know more about the game.

Download: [Combat System Video]

We're still brooding over Arrested Development's early demise and now this...

Technophilia has put together a list of games that won't reach your Xbox 360 and PS3 consoles because they have been cancelled for various reasons. We have announced some of them previously but here are the titles you can take off your wish list:

PS3

Theseis
A victim of its own production cost, Track7 has shelved its Greek Myth game epic for the PS3. The good news, you may still play it on the Xbox 360 and the PC.



Killing Day
Not confirmed cancelled but definitely MIA, and presumed dead by IGN, depsite impressive E3 sneak preview.




Elveon
Again, this epic fantasy title has not been officially declared a goner by its developer but anything about the game has been taken off 10tacle Studios' website. PC and Xbox 360 versions still alive.



The full list awaits after the jump!

Xbox 360 gamers are soon to be gifted with to another role-playing game when Two Worlds is released. The game, developed by Reality Pump, is set to thrill players with awesome fights, engaging characters and a cinematic story set in a medieval fantasy world.

In the game, the desire of supremacy drives the Orcs to wage war against sapient races. Strange and ominous creatures whose origins are traced back to the times before the gods have come, live side by side with the Orcs, Dwarves, Humans and Elves. These creatures came to be known as the Second World. In the end, only one of Two Worlds is to remain.

We think the basic storyline is intriguing enough to pique the interest of RPG fans. With The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion hogging the limelight, though,  Two Worlds might just be in for one tough struggle.

Check out these brand-spanking-new screenshots from Zuxxez (via worthplaying.com).

   
   
   

We've got an interview with the Two Worlds folks, so if you want to know anything about the game, or if you have questions on character development or gameplay, let us know through your comments.

Even if they haven't released many details about it, Project Sylpheed, a cinematic shooting game being developed by Square Enix, is starting to become a hot topic among XBox 360 owners. It hasn't even been discussed if it's a remake of the original game, released in 1986 by Game Arts, or whether it expands upon the existing universe.

In any case, the screenshots look good, and we can't wait to see more ship designs. There are some similarities between some of the character designs to Final Fantasy, though, which may be a plus or minus depending on your outlook. In the meantime, keep checking for Sylpheed news on QJ.

   
   
   
   
   
  

Famitsu has recently published its list of most wanted games in Japan. Unsurprisingly, the Final Fantasy franchise is still going strong, with Final Fantasy III edging out Final Fantasy XIII for the top spot. Biohazard 5 (Resident Evil 5 for us outside Japan), is in the number three spot, while Metal Gear Solid 4 and Kamaitachi no Yoru round out the top five.

Square Enix is certainly enjoying a lot of buzz around its titles, with 3 games in the list's top ten. In what may come as a bit of a surprise, Microsoft has one title on the top ten: Blue Dragon for the Xbox 360. It seems that Microsoft's starting to learn what games it needs to market in Japan to carve out their share of the Japanese gaming market.

Here's the top ten list:

1. Final Fantasy III (Nintendo DS/Enix Public garden) (-)
2. Final Fantasy XIII (Playstation 3/Enix Public garden) (-)
3. Biohazard 5 (Playstation 3/Capcom) (-)
4. Metal Gear Solid 4 (Playstation 3/Konami) (-)
5. Kamaitachi No Yoru 3 (Playstation 2/Sega) (-)
6. Blue Dragon (Xbox 360/Microsoft) (+ 2)
7. Seiken Densetsu 4 (Playstation 2/Enix Public garden) (-)
8. Sengoku Basara 2 (Playstation 2/Capcom) (+ 2)
9. Summon Night 4 (Playstation 2/Banpresto) (-4)
10. Gyakuten Saiban 4 (Nintendo DS/Capcom) (+3)