New Persona 4 Screenshots

Check out these new in-game images from Persona 4, taken from Famitsu.com.

Visually, the game looks similar to P3 but with a fresh interface and improved graphics. The art design is as stylish as ever. The fourth image seems to hint that they are dropping the randomly generated dungeon idea from P3. This has not been confirmed but I'm hopeful because I missed the clever dungeons from P2 and other recent Shin Megami Tensei games. A North American release has not been announced yet.











Source
Famitsu.com

Atlus Reveals 'Persona 4' for PS2!

Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4 has officially been unveiled in the latest issue of popular Japanese game mag Famitsu. Persona 4 is scheduled to release for the PS2 in Japan this summer. Atlus USA has not announced a North American release yet, but it will likely come after Persona 3: FES (a directors cut of Persona 3 with new content) is released in the US this April.


Persona 4 (or 'P4' for short) takes place in a new setting. While P3 took place in the city, P4's main setting is a Japanese countryside. Many popular features from P3 return such as the calender/daily events, school events and activities, social links, battle system, persona fusions (an series staple) and an involved storyline with lots of voiceovers and the occasional anime cutscene.


New to P4 are the new cast of characters, new story thats centered around a mysterious chain of murders that occur on foggy days, additional personae (bringing the total to 180+), weather forecast system (a vital part to the story, will likely play a role in everyday events as well), new social links and several different endings to the story.


For more information on Persona 4, check out the 17-minute-long Japanese trailer (YouTube) and stay tuned to The Super Awesome Nerd Blog! Also, make sure you check out Persona 3: FES when its released stateside April 22nd, especially if you didn't play the original P3 that was released last summer.

Related Links
Offical P4 Japanese trailer (YouTube)
Famitsu P4 scans (Insert Credit message boards)

Sources
Kotaku
Joystiq
Famitsu (scans)

'Upcoming Releases' Updated

New releases have been added to the Upcoming Releases list for the coming weeks. I've also dropped the tacky red highlighting.

If you read The Super Awesome Nerd Blog! via a RSS or e-mail reader, you may have to visit the actual blog page to see the Upcoming Releases list.

New Street Fighter IV Character Revealed

Introducing 'El Fuerte', a Lucha Libre wrestler. Revealed in Japanese game mag Famitsu. Not much else is known at this time about him, but Street Fighter IV is expected to hit arcades sometime this summer.



Source
Kotaku

Free 'Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney' Playable Demo!

If you haven't purchased Capcom's latest installment in the quirky lawyer series Ace Attorney, check out this cool Flash-based playable demo. Apollo Justice is the first game in the Ace Attorney series that was actually built from the ground up for Nintendo DS (the Phoenix Wright games are actually enhanced ports of Game Boy Advance games). This demo includes the entire first case and is an official release by Capcom.

New 'Disgaea' in the Works for Nintendo DS

Cult favorite Japanese strategy role playing game (SRPG) series Disgaea will be making an appearance on Nintendo's dual screened Game Boy... er, Nintendo DS, reports Japanese game mag Famitsu.

Disgaea is a popular strategy series that plays similar to Final Fantasy Tactics, but with wacky characters such as a demon prince, his oddball vassals and demonic penguin slaves instead of your typical black mages and moogles. The series is also somewhat easier to pick-up and play and yet has a surprisingly large amount of depth. Previous games in the series include Disgaea: Hour of Darkness (PS2), Disgaea 2 (PS2) and Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness (PSP) - as well as series spin-off games like Phantom Brave (PS2) and Makai Kingdom (PS2) . There's also Disgaea 3, scheduled to release for the PS3 this August in the US.

It is unknown at this time if the DS game will be a new game in the series or a spin-off of some sort. But if its even half as good as the other Disgaea games, Nintendo DS owners will have yet another great game to add to their collection. NIS has not announced the game for US markets yet, but an announcement will likely come as the game progresses in development.

Source
DS Fanboy [Joystiq]

'Upcoming Releases' Updated

Many new titles have been added to the Upcoming Releases list (seen in red).

If you read The Super Awesome Nerd Blog! via RSS or email reader, you may have to visit the blog page to see the Upcoming Releases list.

Okami (Wii) Delayed Into April

Capcom has delayed the Wii port of 2006's acclaimed PS2 adventure game Okami. Originally scheduled for March 25th, Okami will now ship on April 15th.



No details have been provided on the cause of the delay, but with Super Smash Bros Brawl hitting this Sunday, maybe its a good idea to push Okami back a few weeks. It would be a terrible shame if Okami got overlooked by Wii gamers because they were too busy playing Brawl.

For those of you who already played Okami on PS2, there won't be any new content in the Wii version although it will support 16:9 (widescreen) and 480p (progressive scan). If you've never played Okami before, the Super Nerd will douse you in acid if you don't pick this version up day one. Serious.

Sources
1UP (news)
IGN (images

Gears of War 2 Coming November on Xbox 360

Microsoft will release the sequel to the platinum hit Gears of War this November for the Xbox 360.

Details are scarce, but gamers can probably expect more of the same stuff we saw in the first Gears when it hit the Xbox 360 back in 2006. That's not necessarily a bad thing mind you, Gears of War received a lot of critical praise for its intense, innovative gameplay and impressive graphics. The game was an instant hit at retail, selling over 3 million copies within its first ten weeks and boosting sales of the [then new] Xbox 360 hardware.

Gears of War 2 will be exclusive to the Xbox 360 when it is released in November. It is currently unknown if the game will ever make its way to PC like the original Gears did.

Stay tuned to The Super Awesome Nerd Blog for more details as they emerge.

Source
Reuters

Release Lists Update

I will no longer post the video game and anime release lists in the blog feed. They can now be found on the table to the right of the posts. If you read The Super Awesome Nerd Blog through an RSS or email reader, you may have to visit our blog URL to see the release lists now. The release lists are usually pretty long, so by removing them from the posts and instead pushing them to the side of the page I hope to make the blog look more organized.

Please leave feedback on whether you like the change or not.