Nihon Falcom’s Ys was revolutionary when it first came out back in the 1980s and set the standard for modern RPGs. While the series have been well-received in Japan, it was largely ignored by western gamers. This is why not all of the Ys installments have made it outside of Japan. Hardcore fans of Ys have been patiently waiting for more Ys title, but until then, they will have to settle for remakes.

Atlus brings us a remake of the first two Ys in one single cartridge for the Nintendo DS which seems to be the ideal place for classic RPG remakes. This isn’t the first time the first two Ys have been remade, which the booklet attests to. How does this remake fare? Is this remake really the definitive version, and does Ys retain its charm after all these years? Read more… »

The methodology is simple, take one game founded on the PC and start hacking bits off until it fits on a console.  This is akin to a crazed child attempting to fit a round peg into a square hole. This is not the first time such a premise has been tried, and judging from previous efforts the attempt to reinvent a game for the console is not one that is easy to pull off.  So how does Sid Meier’s Civilization: Revolution fare when the war drums beat and the game marches off the desk and onto the television?

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The work is complete, and the new design is live, welcome to the new Gamer Limit.

While most of the changes are generally cosmetic, (and still in progress), we hope that you find the site easier to navigate, easier on the eye, and more relevant to what you want to read. Our new range of podcasts are on the way, which include the new Limit Break, a reboot of our original podcast franchise, along with Retrocast, our new nostalgia cast. Also included are two new regional podcasts, LimitDown and UNlimitED Kingdom, focused on the Australian and UK gaming scenes respectively.

Along with these changes, we have changed the site backend as well to accomodate a yet to be announced feature that will revolutionise how Gamer Limit interacts with our community and how the community can provide their views right back to us. Please note, that the site is still a work in progress, some aspects may look a bit strange or lead somewhere that might not be finished, but rest assured, this will all be fixed over the coming days.

If you have any feedback, concerns, or suggestions, please comment below and let us know. Otherwise, enjoy the new site, we’ll be back flowing the usual content you know and love very soon.

- The Editorial Team.

In a recent survey being conducted by PlayStation.com, Sony wants to know what the general public desires to be included in the collectors edition of God of War III. Interestingly, GoW I+II were listed as being included on a separate blue ray disc, theoretically bypassing the current PS3′s backwards compatibility faults (as phenomenal as these titles are, its still only two).

Earlier we reported that Sony is interested in what you have to say, but now they’re telling you not to get your hopes up. They have just added “It is simply a marketing survey. The goal of it is to do focus group testing. If that was the number one requested thing, that would be something they would need to see if that was most technically feasible.”

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This Sunday’s Retro Reunion will be covering a classic game that didn’t get enough love; Actraiser. Coincidentally, Actraiser will be our game of the week on our new Retro podcast (to be released in a matter of days).

If you told me that mixing traditional platforming with a Sim City esque God game in the SNES era would have become an instant classic; I would have been skeptical. Against all odds, Actraiser manages to perfectly balance both genres into one unique package. Read on to find out if it’s your cup of tea. Read more… »

The rhythm game genre is one that has been around for a long time.  It existed in the forms of PaRappa the Rappa, Guitaroo Man, and Dance Dance Revolution long before anyone knew who Harmonix was. However, unless you were willing to import or get off your lazy ass and play DDR, many gamers’ exposure to these games was limited.  That is, until November 2005, when the rhythm genre jumped into our hands and threw our favorite music at us. When Guitar Hero released it put rhythm games on everybody’s radar, but has the franchise grown with the core fan base, or abandoned them for the casual market? Read more… »

When it comes to shooters, it’s hard to imagine innovation.  It’s like trying to bring something new to the peanut butter and jelly sandwich.  From 1942 to Ikaruga to Geometry Wars, we’ve essentially done the same thing; exhausting all manners of color and direction.  The conceit of “Big Bang Mini,” for the Nintendo DS developed by the French Arkedo Studio, lies in separating the two things that shooters require of a player: shooting and dodging.

Much like siblings, one doesn’t easily imagine splitting up the brother and sister of shoot and dodge because status quo says “we are ship, ship does all.”  But imagine that you’re a flying pixel that has to dodge oncoming traffic, and you can shoot from anywhere, like casting fireworks from an infinite amount of backyards.  Low and behold the idea behind this entirely touch-based, spectacular shooter.  Read more… »

It sounds like Sonic’s Ultimate Genesis Collection was not enough for Sega, because achievements have been found for three of their greatest titles that most folks may have forgotten. The folks over at MyGamerCard are to be thanked for the discovery of these achievements.

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After reading Steshep’s article on casual gaming, I started thinking about how I truly feel about the casual gaming market, and what I think it does for both audiences (hardcore and casual).  After looking around forums and checking out the comments left at N4G it seems that casual gaming has almost reached Red Scare status.  Granted, there hasn’t been a head figure such as McCarthy to guide and dictate, but I feel like some gamers are afraid of it.

To quote one comment “Casual gaming is the apocalypse.”  This phrase here confuses me because this reader offered nothing other than his opinion (which he is entitled to) without offering any reasoning behind it.  Granted, his viewpoint is extreme and his trolling unnecessary, but his comment works for the next sentence.   Casual gaming is not the apocalypse, on the contrary, it’s merely the by product of a growing industry, and in the long run will benefit the hardcore audience. Read more… »

I miss the days of the arcade. Whenever I was a pre-teen, and even a teenager my parents would drag me to the mall so my mother could go shopping at JC Penny’s. Obviously I didn’t care much about clothes, so I would take a few of the dollar bills I could scrounge up around the house and head off to the arcade.

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Courtesy of Gamespot, there is now an exclusive video up detailing every change made in the upcoming Bioshock 2. While there isn’t really any “new” footage that we haven’t heard about before, if you have kept yourself at arm’s length I would suggest steering clear of this video. One non-spoilery change I thought was of particular notice was that this world will be bigger and more open than before (a definite plus). Funnily enough, this video has a bit of Molyneux-esque “Bioshock 1 was nothing” talk.

Remember, this video is spoiler-heavy; you’ve been warned. Read more… »

Sunday Sunday here again a walk in the park… you meet an old soldier and talk of the past… Whooops! Sorry, just got caught up in my own selfish, non-game related world there. I got tickets to see Blur at a tiny university student union bar and… oh, you don’t care!? Boooo! OK, well, hello to you on this glorious Sunday. This is your one-stop guide to Gamer Limit’s week in news stories – a round-up, if you will, of the week’s highlights, collected and outlined for you to check out if you’ve turned your back on society (or haven’t, as the case may be) over the last week.

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