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Top Spin 4 coming next year for 360, PC and PS3 2K’s announced Top Spin 4 is in development for a 2011 ship. The tennis title is due to hit PS3, 360 and PC next year, and will feature tennis legend Andre Agassi for anyone who pre-orders the game on PS3 and 360. We’re assuming this means there’s no Andre for you if you don’t pre-order. That kind of sucks. Details will come soon from 2K. The game’s in development at 2K Czech, with the last game in the series being Top Spin 3 in 2008. “Top Spin 4 is shaping up to be the most realistic and exhilarating tennis game in the Top Spin franchise,” said 2K’s Greg Thomas. “For this iteration, the development team is focused on delivering a bold new take on the sport of tennis by allowing gamers to experience first-hand an uncanny level of realism in the player and stadium models, authentic audio captured directly from real tennis matches, and all-new innovative controls to dominate the competition.”

We hope you’re done or at least halfway through Ys Seven by now. Why? Because there’s another Ys game coming to the PSP soon. Xseed sent us a reminder that Ys: The Oath in Felghana is due in stores this year. There’s also another limited edition for Ys fans to pick up. The Oath in Felghana package includes a music CD and a desktop calendar, which you can use to jot down dates for Ys I&II Chronicles and Trails of the Sky. Both of those Falcom titles are slated for 2011. The Ys: The Oath in Felghana limited edition costs $39.99. A standalone game is $10 less at $29.99.

Graphics + Sound As always, graphics and sound are one of the strongest parts of Torchlight. The outdoor areas were amazingly polished and they were detailed yet crisp at the same time. The indoor areas were equally stunning. It felt a lot less linear than the first game. Like Torchlight I, the combat was visceral and felt right. In fact, several random fans remarked that the gameplay felt right, like Diablo 2. * Sculpted wide open areas with hidden nooks and crannies. The game seemed to feel less linear than TL1 and I felt like I was exploring more. * Alternate versions of the existing tilesets (mountainous pass to evil undead ridden mountainous pass to snowy mountainous pass). * Visceral feel to combat (the sounds, animations and effects came together just right). * Characters that pop out at you. Like Torchlight I, the watercolor background lift the gradient shaded characters right to the foreground. * Lower particle effects than TL1. The particle effects were scaled way back from TL1 and didn't interfere with game play, even with multiple characters on the screen. * Much crisper UI (still in beta, but the UI was already better than TL1) The world in Torchlight 2 looks like it will be much more varied than the first game. There is good news for both the player and modders. Here are some highlights: * There will be 4-5 acts that will be somewhat non-linear but also have gated areas (think acts in Diablo 2) * Inside of each act, there will be a variety of sub-outdoor areas and dungeons. For instance, in the area I explored there were multiple variations on the same tile-set (mountain pass, mountain with river basin, evil undead gothic mountains, etc.) This is due to the tile-set aliasing which I will describe in the modding the world section. * There will be more than 10-15ish indoor tile-sets. * Each outdoor tile-set will have access to day / night cycles and weather effects. Modders will be able to control weather effects. * Dungeons will have a different feel to them... there will be variety (cramped hallways versus expansive areas, large sprawling levels versus a quick tomb or house basement) Dynamic Events There was a Caravan event in the build I played (players saved a caravan driver and then got fame). This was always there in the PAX build, but events like this will appear randomly in the final build. You may find something on one play-through that you don't on others. There will be random dungeons that may or may not show up in a specific game. I asked about whether there would be more variety of quests (inventory item and vehicle quests), but didn't get a definite response other than that Travis believed transformations were in the game and quests were going to get more focus in TL 2. PvP There will be two types of PvP in Torchlight 2. Firstly, you can choose to duel someone and secondly entire areas can be flagged as PvP areas. Travis gave an example of an arena and also said a moderator could turn an entire build into full on pvp by just changing a single flag for each zone. Multiplayer Multiplayer is a huge deal. I pumped Travis and Max fairly hard on this issue and got a few answers, some clarifications, but no definitive answers. Here are some of the bullet points: * There will be guilds where guild-leaders and officers will have the ability to ban player accounts. * You will have one account per Torchlight copy with an unlimited number of characters (except you may be limited if stored in steam cloud) * There will be a section of games that allows no mods and these characters may be segregated from characters that have mods. * When you are about to join a game / guild area, you will see what mods they have installed and your mod list. You will have the option to enable mods if you have them and you will see a list of mods you don't have. Although he didn't say, Travis said in a previous post that a links to the mod's site may be placed here. * They are looking into the feasibility of private servers and server character storage, but have no definitive answers at this time. Server character storage is a difficult problem that could cause other issues. * Players will be able to find each other and guilds through some type of lobby system that they see before joining a server. * They expect Internet play to be just as viable as LAN play so will work to make sure it is a fun experience. * They are not sure if SOAP requests will be in, but are looking into it.

Can you give us an example of a side quest or story in Torchlight 2 that you are really proud of? Most of the side-quests are still in flux, but I've designed one where the players pick up an ally--a Beornen warrior named Brool, who is full of confidence and the spirit of adventure. He helps out the players during part of their journey through the Estherian Steppes, during the battles with the Sturmbeornen. What you said earlier about moral choices was really interesting. Will we see anything like this in Torchlight 2? Like, being given a choice to follow a quest in two different directions? I know some fans have been hoping for this since before the first game was released. I'm a big fan of branching quests, particularly when there's not a "right" or "wrong" choice. But they have to remain necessarily brief--on a quest-by-quest basis, rather than as part of a quest chain. Some players might feel a bit "cheated" if they discover that they missed out on a game experience that they would have otherwise loved. As to whether or not there will be branching quests in Torchlight 2, well, that's still up in the air.

Title: Final Fantasy XIII Ultimate Hits International Platform: Xbox360 Price: 4980yen Release Date: 16th Dec 2010 Details: - The game contains text in Japanese, English, and European languages - The voice track is English only - The theme song is "My hands" by Leona Lewis - 3 discs, just like the US/EU version - Includes a new "Easy Mode" in the game First-press Bonus: FFXIII Booklet: Corridor of Memory - It contains a visual artwork collection of all the high quality key visuals used for the promotion if FFXIII both in Japan and overseas. - It also contains a look at deleted scenes from the game, including the scripts of such scenes. These are scenes removed for various reasons, ranging from unsuitable tones for the scenes they're paired with, pacing issues, and so on. - Finally, it contains Final Fantasy XIII -Episode i-, which is a novel covering events after the ending of the game. Similar to how Episode 0 was the prequel to the game covering events and character backstories before the game's story, Episode i will be a sequel covering events and character stories taking place after the conclusion of the game's story.