Nick's Industry Spotlight # 1 (1/24/2008)

Hey everyone, this is the first of something I call Industry spotlight. Whenever, there is a big day in the entertainment industry, I will highlight and bring the big news together under this one headline. Today seems to be one of those days when the news is coming at me faster than I can handle. I will focus mainly on the Gaming Industry obviously but some Film highlights might make the cut as well. Anywho, lets get this underway.

1.) Square-Enix claims that gamers may get their hands on a playable demo of Final Fantasy XIII late this year. It may not be as good as the actual game being released but it definitely is awesome to know that they are making progress on the PS3's most anticipated title. Famitsu also went into some detail concerning the story of this new FF which I find to be surprisingly one of my favorite premises yet. The game surrounds two civilizations, cocoon and pulse. Cocoon is a floating metropolis that is protected by crystals while Pulse is the world below it. The magazine shed some light on two new races, Farsi, supernatural beings who built cocoon, and Lasi, human like characters that were created to follow orders given by the Farsi. It is also suggested that Summons will play a large role in the games story and may even transform into vehicles. We got our first glimpse of this in the trailer shown at the Jump Fiesta Event last year in which Shiva transformed into a motorcycle and came to the aid of unnamed character. The magazine showed off two other summons, Ifrit and Carbuncle. The game is looking better and better and hopefully the floodgates will open late this year.

2.) Today, Team Ico posted a notice saying that they are looking for talented individuals who are interested in helping them develop their new PS3 project. For those who don't know, Team Ico developed "Ico" and Shadow of the Colossus" for the PS2, both of which grace my top 20 best games of all time. What was even better is that they included a single screenshot of the project. The shot is simple and seems to be in the same category as their previous titles which means that this may very well be the next Ico game.

Check it out here: Team Ico Project

3.) We have all heard about the delays of GTA4 and most of us know that it has been slated for sometime in April. Today, Rockstar announced that the game is street dated for April 29th which means that hopefully this is the final date. After yesterday's detailed description of the new engine designed for the game, dubbed the "Natural Motions Engine", I am already salivating at the prospect of playing this title.

4.) In Film news, the follow up to the Best Bond film in years, Casino Royale, has finally recieved an official title. The new film is titled "Quantum of Solace" and gets its title from a short story based on the Bond universe by Albert R. Broccoli.

Thats it for now. Keep your eyes peeled for my next spotlight.

Peace!

-Nick