The Playstation Blog and Polygon are reporting that the demo for “Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII” is hitting with the Playstation and Xbox Live store updates today. Promising to be unlike anything they have ever done in the series, the demo aims to give you insight into the game if you haven’t already seen it at one of the various conventions recently. The demo will have you playing as Lightning as she hunts down her friend Snow Villers. Downloading the demo gives you more than just an early peak at the game. It also gives you exclusive DLC for when you pick up the full version.

First off, downloading the demo scores you an exclusive piece of DLC that we’re giving to you PlayStation fans — the Utsusemi Samurai garb — that you can use in the main game (it’s not in the demo itself, so don’t panic if you don’t see it). Again, this offer is exclusive to PlayStation owners too, so right off the bat you’re getting something not everybody’s going to get, JUST for downloading it. You can’t tell, but I’m winking at you, especially at all you Final Fantasy XI Ninjas. — Playstation Blog

The demo is also aimed at giving us a look at the integration of real time battle mechanics into the field and combat scenarios, as well as a fraction of the customization available. Once you’ve snagged it and played a bit, drop us a line below. We’d love to know what you think.

Square Enix released “Final Fantasy VI” on the Google Play Store today. This is my favorite Final Fantasy of all time and I own it on multiple consoles and devices, all the way to the original release on Super Nintendo. (SNES Version was “Final Fantasy III” In the United States). You can pick it up for the usual Square Enix price of $15.99, that isn’t a typo, you read it right. The game you can buy as a PS One Classic for $9.99 is $15.99 on your mobile device. Absolutely love this game, but I’m not sure that is the price you should pay for it. Think I’m wrong? Sound off below.

Bravely Default – Square Enix – February 7, 2013 — $39.99

Photo Via – Bravely Default Website 

Square Enix is making a statement with their new title “Bravely Default” releasing for 3DS on February 7, 2014. The demo was made available about a week ago on the eShop sporting 4 difficult bosses and 7 quests that would help you understand game mechanics, and give you items that transfer into the full version when purchased.

The first piece of gameplay that I am impressed with is the town rebuilding system. Set as a freemium style select-and-wait game, this has you upgrading shops and exploring different parts of the town to unlock higher level armor from merchants. In the demo there are points in the game that require you to upgrade the city to progress. While this was crucial to understanding the mechanic, there was one point of frustration for me. The game only counts progress towards these elements when it is running or in standby mode. This means that if you hit a wall, like I did before the forest boss, you have to leave the system in standby while you’re waiting for the task to complete. This also means that even though I can’t progress further in the game I can’t play any other 3DS titles. The street pass addition to this feature did what all Street Pass elements do, make me wish more people were playing the demo and that more people walked around downtown SLC with their system in tag mode. Each unique tag you receive gives you an extra citizen in the rebuilt town, which can be used to increase the speed at which tasks are performed. For example, upgrading the weapons shop to level 3 takes 7 hours with 1 citizen. Two citizens reduce that time to 3.5 hours, 3 citizens to 1.75 hours, etc. Generally, waiting for these upgrades gave me time to grind levels and money which is the next thought on the demo.

Photo Via – Bravely Default Site

The demo itself lends you to a lot of grinding. It took me 13.5 hours of play to get to and defeat the Dragon on hard. I would say that 7 hours of that was simply running around the dungeon grinding up levels before I reach the boss. The dungeons in the demo weren’t large enough to push you up in level enough to feel equal to the boss you were fighting. The first two were quite easy, and then the next 3 were insanely tough. Not until the game allowed you to rebattle the bosses was I able to find an efficient way to level my characters to take on the higher challenges. Once again, this is only a demo, but the concern does sit that it may require you to do the same in the full version, instead of utilizing the story and battle system to force you into combat situations that will naturally level you.  I don’t mind a bit of grinding in an RPG, but I do mind if it is a constant requirement from quest-to-quest.

Brave and Default Mechanics

These mechanics are awesome, and the fact that the enemy uses them as well made battles challenging and exciting. Essentially, Brave mode lets you sacrifice “battle points” to use an extra move that turn, the consequences are, missing your next turn to recuperate that point, but if used correctly the rewards far outweigh it. “Default” sets you into a defensive stance that allows you to regain “Battle Points” faster, and has you taking less damage, finding different combinations of the two made battling unique and fun.

The classes in game are also intriguing, utilizing them and leveling up different character classes became a sort of obsession after finishing my first demo run. My current project is leveling my entire team as “Ninja’s” in the hopes of doing insane amounts of damage within the first three turns. Who needs healers or tanks when you can drop a nuke right?  

Even with a few points of contention towards mechanics the first impression from this game is absolutely phenomenal. I love the idea of a side story demo, vs. having you play one dungeon from the story. Everything on the 7^th will be fresh and the game itself looks like the developer really has a handle on making what we’d consider to be a run-of-the mill turn-based JRPG into something phenomenally unique. Check back next month for our full review, and if you’re in Salt Lake for God’s sake turn on your tag mode and come find me.

Generally, January is a month for digging through your back catalogue to finish games you missed over the previous year. Sony is making it easier to do this month with their recently announced 14 For 14 sale. According to the Playstation Blog we will be treated to great deals on games for the PS3 and PS Vita. “Rain”, for example, lists at $14.99 but will be $4.99 for the sale and $3.75 if you’re  a member of Playstation Plus. There are also great deals on “Killzone: Mercenaries”, “Far Cry Blood Dragon”, and “Puppeteer”. It is also worth noting that Playstation Rewards members receive 10x points when purchasing the sale titles. The full sale list is posted below, if you’ve been holding onto some Holiday PSN credit this is a great time to spend some. 

PS3 GAMES

PS VITA GAMES

Konami has released a question and answer video for fans of the series. After their first developer diary they encouraged fans to tweet and Facebook questions to them and they would answer them in due time. A few take aways from the video are 

• about 18 hours of gameplay, as well as new game plus modes
• free camera and more open aspects of the game
• Dracula’s mo cap is done by Anthony Howell
• The game is in a modern setting as we know so Dracula’s vampiric abilities are more important than ever.
• Developers cried during the gameplay.
• PC Version has Big Picture Mode, Cloud Saving, and with a good PC will look amazing. 

The next developer diary is coming sometime soon but the video below is worth watching.

Joystiq, and the Kickstarter forum have confirmed that Tuesday, January 14 is the release of “Broken Age” part one. This release is only for backers, and has been a long time coming. Initially, “Broken Age” was intended to launch in October of 2012, but was heavily delayed. Now, the 87,142 contributors that amassed just over 3.33 million dollars will get to see the beginning of their adventure. 

The Kickstarter Forum says the following:

The backer beta is mere weeks away! January 14! We can’t wait for all of you to get your hands on Part 1—hard to believe it’s about to happen. BUT IT IS. So get ready.

Did you back this? Are you bracing yourself for Tuesday?! Let us know!

Photo Via – PlayStation Blog

PlayStation Now is putting use to Gaikai’s technology that Sony purchased early last year.  CES 2014 is the platform with which they announced the existence of their new gaming service, “PlayStation Now”.

This service gives gamers instant access to Sony’s wide array of titles from previous and current generations via cloud streaming. The service will be available through PlayStation Vita, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, and other devices starting with Sony Bravia TVs. Though details are still scarce, the service is entering beta later this month and should hopefully launch by the end of Summer 2014. According to the PlayStation Blog, titles will be available for rent, or you will be able to pay a subscription fee to “explore a wider range of titles”. Maybe that fee could be an enhancement to PS+, so gamers would have the option of being members of PS+, or PS++! 

I hate shooters. Especially multiplayer shooters. There’s no story, no character, and it’s just an excuse to show off gunplay. It’s the exact opposite of why I’m into gaming.

That being said, I’ve clocked over 150 hours in the “Left 4 Dead” series. It’s the exception to the rule, and did a fantastic job creating the world in an unobtrusive way, and letting me emotionally invest in the characters simply by making them seem human. The dialogue is funny, poignant, at times even heartfelt, and combining that with the ability to play with your friends and the excellent gunplay, it’s easy to see why the game has been a mainstay of my Steam library for so long. In fact, it’s a mainstay of almost everyone’s Steam library. It’s the only game I can think of that nearly every single one of my friends own and play.

So naturally, I got a little excited when Gameinformer announced that the original developers of the game – Turtle Rock Studios – are developing a new IP backed by publisher 2K Games.

“Evolve” is the name of the game. Set for release late this year on PC, Xbox One, and PS4, the next-gen coop/competitive shooter sounds like someone might finally get a video game version of “Alien” right. Four players take on the role of alien hunters, working together to take down the fifth player, who plays a very powerful alien monster that can – you guessed it – evolve.

It’s not clear what the evolution exactly entails apart from stronger attacks. Each round the alien player gets more and more powerful, which is just a great idea for a game. One that I’m surprised hasn’t come along before now. It’s like a horde mode with a single enemy set in a science fiction universe.

Count me in.

via – IGN

iBuyPower has announced two of their “Steam Machines” at CES. Entering the field at $499 and $699 the two models are reportedly varying in graphics card and processor specification, but are (aside from CPU) reasonably competitive with next gen consoles. 

Photo Via – IGN

The device pictured above has two models the A model, which includes: a 3.9 gHz AMD A6-6400 K processor and a 2GB AMD Radeon R9 270. While its brother the B model will pack a 3.5 GHz Intel Core i3-4330 and 2GB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 760. Both are not incredibly well powered from a processor standpoint, but are packing decent video processing. How the latest software will hold up on them remains to be seen. 

The Valve conference is just a few hours away where we should see some more of the partners. For Steam Machines to take hold they need to control that price point, maybe some light will be shed tonight.

2013 brought in a lot of changes for the gaming industry. New consoles, mobile integration, expansions in free-to-play, and of course, rad games. We here at Big Shiny Robot! battled it out and assembled a rag tag list of some titles that you should have played last year. If you didn’t, these would be the ones to snag on random sales for your collection, or go crazy trying to find after they’re delisted. The video is available right here! We want to know what games you feel were the best from 2013!