Posts by Majed Athab at PSP Fanboy

Majed Athab
New York, NY - http://www.pspfanboy.com

Majed Athab is a long-time gamer and a seasoned games journalist working primarily for the Joystiq Network's PS Fanboy blog. He also contributes to the various other blogs on the network, including Joystiq itself.

He got his first break in the industry writing for the RPGamer website shortly after graduating from the University of Portsmouth in the UK. As of right now, he's joyously writing from his Manhattan home and virtual office.

Zwei RPG breaks out in this debut trailer

Posted Oct 24th 2008 11:45AM by Majed Athab
Filed under: Video

We don't know too much about this action-RPG for PSP called Zwei!!, but we do know one thing -- it's really pretty. A little research revealed the title was originally a PC game and it's currently being made by Falcom (makers of Gurumin). December 11 is the game's release date for Japan, which isn't too far off. Hopefully, like Gurumin, North America will also get to enjoy this Falcom RPG. Check out the debut trailer posted after the break.

Continue reading Zwei RPG breaks out in this debut trailer

Watch Tales of the World 2's new characters fight

Posted Oct 24th 2008 9:00AM by Majed Athab
Filed under: Tales of..., Video

Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology 2 is a total fan service title. Anyone who has played the first one could inform you on that. With that in mind, it's easy to note that the biggest factor that's going to drive people into getting Tales of the World for round two would be its cast of cameo characters.

So, just who is going to make it into the new Radiant Mythology from all the other Tales games? Some of the new characters have been revealed to be: Cless Alvein (embedded above) from Tales of Phantasia, Presea Combatir from Tales of Symphonia, Guy Cecil from Tales of the Abyss, Iria Animi from Tales of Innocence and Caius Qualls from Tales of the Tempest. You can see all of them in gameplay vids after the break, along with the original character Kanonno.

The game will be out in Japan by January 29. While a North American release date has yet to be even mentioned, a stateside release seems likely.

Continue reading Watch Tales of the World 2's new characters fight

Neverland Card Battles: Godseal Talisman trailer

Posted Oct 23rd 2008 11:15AM by Majed Athab
Filed under: Video

Neverland Card Battles releases next week on October 28, and to make sure gamers are ready for the S-RPG card battles to be had, we've got yet another gameplay vid for everyone. This latest trailer from Yuke's shows off the Godseal Talisman Cards, which are the most powerful cards in the game. We can feel the magic surge through our finger tips by just watching them on screen -- they're that powerful!

Sony: PSP sales to beat fiscal year forecast

Posted Oct 23rd 2008 7:30AM by Majed Athab
Filed under: News

Sony previously pegged the PSP to sell roughly 15 million units for this fiscal year ending March 2009. Now, the company is saying they're going to crush that forecast by another one million units. This news comes in light despite issues with the newly released PSP Brite. However, Sony still has other models currently out on the market including the sleek Blue and Red Slim models that are expected to sell, sell, sell.

Sony's numbers in Japan have done amazingly well thus far this year, selling over 1.6 million units from April to September; however, if the PSP is to meet 16 million units by March, there's still a lot of work to be done worldwide.

Dynasty Warriors: Strikeforce trailer, now in English

Posted Oct 22nd 2008 6:50PM by Majed Athab
Filed under: Video

Does Dynasty Warriors: Strikeforce seem like a DW game to you? After having watched this English trailer (posted after the break), it certainly feels far from anything we've come to know of the series. It looks like the title graduated from the Monster Hunter academy of game design because, frankly, the large mythical creatures and emphasis on 4-player co-op are elements more familiar to another popular series. We'll see how things stand when the title releases in North America next year.

Continue reading Dynasty Warriors: Strikeforce trailer, now in English

New FF Agito XIII scan show off in-game screens, battle system

Posted Oct 22nd 2008 7:30AM by Majed Athab
Filed under: News, Final Fantasy

Pictures say a thousand words. They really do. So having just one look at this new Final Fantasy Agito XIII scan should give you a better sense of what we saw back at Square Enix's TGS Closed Mega Theater [Click for trailer impressions].

That's right, the new scan shows off the in-game battle HUD. While still-images can't show off the game in motion, you can still get a Crisis Core vibe from the screens, can't you? Anyway, if you're having trouble seeing everything in the image posted above, check out the full size version here.

PSP-3000 sold over 140K in first four days

Posted Oct 21st 2008 7:45AM by Majed Athab
Filed under: News

PSP Brite is now out worldwide, so how's it doing everywhere else? In Japan (where the PSP is the sacred deity of 4-player co-op), it seems that not too many are catching on to the new hardware; only 141,270 units were sold in the first four days of sale (Oct. 16-19).

As PSPHyper points out, these numbers are not that impressive when compared to the PSP Slim's initial sales numbers which were 250,702 for the first week with 130K of that from the first day alone. With relatively slow sales figures and seemingly disastrous performance issues, it looks like the PSP Brite is getting off to a very rough start.

[Via PSPHyper]

Engadget unboxes PSP-3000

Posted Oct 20th 2008 3:00PM by Majed Athab
Filed under: Previews

So you've probably already seen the dismantled Japanese PSP Brite and took a look at what's underneath that shiny exterior. Now, how about watching the North American bundle get unboxed? While the Engadget crew has opted out of tearing their precious handheld apart, we do get to have a comprehensive look at all the goods inside the retail box. If you're planning on getting a PSP Brite for yourself, then check out the pics here and see what awaits.

New Dissidia vid shows off some summons

Posted Oct 20th 2008 9:30AM by Majed Athab
Filed under: Final Fantasy, Video

There are summoned creatures in the 'dramatic progressive action' title Dissidia: Final Fantasy, but they may not be exactly what you'd expect them to be. They pop up as static 2D images during gameplay -- no fancy FMVs here, folks. You can check out two of the summons (Ifrit and Carbuncle) in the trailer posted above.

Summon creatures appear upon pressing the R trigger together with the circle button. In the case of Ifrit, summons appear as equipable items (as represented on the HUD). Judging by the way they're used in the trailer, the summons primarily affect the Brave gauge -- Carbuncle adjusts the enemy's Brave to match the player's, while boosts a player's Brave by 1.5.

Worldwide PSP releases for the week of October 19

Posted Oct 19th 2008 9:30AM by Majed Athab
Filed under: Software

We could definitely get used this. Four games release this week for North America. The big winner is definitely Star Ocean: First Departure. Here's the full list:

NA Games:

EU Games:

Asian Games

Yet again, we'll have to congratulate Asia on its dominating quantity of new titles.

Neverland Card Battles hits retail Oct. 28

Posted Oct 18th 2008 6:30PM by Majed Athab
Filed under: News

Neverland Card Battles looks like another game that S-RPG fans would want to sink their teeth into. We've played it previously (check out our hands-on), and we think it's a fun title. Yuke's finally announced a release date for the game; that's October 28 for North America. That's only 10 days away. To keep yourself busy until then, have a look at trailers here and here.

[Via press release]

TGS 08 hands-on: Dynasty Warriors: Strikeforce

Posted Oct 15th 2008 9:00AM by Majed Athab
Filed under: Previews

When we first heard of Dynasty Warriors: Strikeforce (back then it was known by its Asian version name Multi Raid) we didn't think it would be coming over to Western shores. So, it was a nice surprise to see a little press release letting us know that the PSP exclusive will in fact be making a North American and European debut in 2009. Armed with that knowledge, we decided it might be worthwhile checking out the game on the show floor.

We picked up the playable demo. There were three characters available for play: Xiahou Dun, Zhao Yun and Sun Shang Xiang; they were all dressed up in their Dynasty Warriors 6 outfits. We chose to play as Zhao Yun and then picked out a map. The load time was fairly tolerable not taking more than a few seconds. Once the stage loaded up, we noticed that the graphics were not that much different from previous DW games on PSP; the character models look actually slightly blockier though.

Gallery: Dynasty Warriors: Strikeforce

Continue reading TGS 08 hands-on: Dynasty Warriors: Strikeforce

TGS 08: Have a look at Irem's Disaster Report PSP

Posted Oct 14th 2008 5:30PM by Majed Athab
Filed under: Fan Stuff

Zettai Zetsumei Toshi 3 (Disaster Report PSP) is a PSP exclusive for Japan that was shown off at TGS this past week. Despite it being only shown in video format, Irem booth goers who wanted to check it out did end up with quite a treat and a smile on their faces. Irem's booth featured an earthquake simulator (pictured) which shook gamers as a video demonstration showed them how the game works. It looked like a rather interesting experience, though we didn't get time to sit down and ride the monster.

While you can't experience the thrill of that machine to help get you better acquainted with Disaster Report PSP, you can do the alternative. You can check out our gallery for 16 all-new pics from the game and perhaps, if you want to, just shake in your seat.

Gallery: Zettai Zetumei Toshi 3

PSP Brite is now available in North America

Posted Oct 14th 2008 12:00PM by Majed Athab
Filed under: News

The third PSP redesign is now available in retail stores across the US and the rest of North America. The first PSP Brite pack, which is out now starting today, is the silver Ratchet & Clank bundle. It's a Silver PSP with a copy of Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters, a National Treasure 2 UMD movie, 1GB memory stick and an online download voucher for echochrome. The price remains the same as the older bundles at MSRB $199.99.

If you're looking for that other bundle which is the black PSP Brite with the 4GB memory stick, you'll still have to wait for next month in order to get that. The silver pack will be available in all European countries except the UK a day later on October 15. EU countries will also have to wait for the black bundle in November.

PSP worldwide releases for the week of October 12

Posted Oct 12th 2008 3:00PM by Majed Athab
Filed under: Software

PSP releases keep on coming. It's soccer and cake this month for North Americans. It's quite an odd combo, isn't it?

NA Games:

EU Games:

God Of War Platinum

Asian Games:

Yuusha no Kuse ni Namaikida Or 2

Japan gets a very interesting title in Yuusha 2, which brings the dungeon-digging game back for round two.

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