Internet sleuthing has uncovered what seems to be two unannounced games due in the next 12 months, plus a third, much-anticipated project.
A NeoGaf user claims to have stumbled across a wiki page labelled “EAP Marketing FY13 Home Page” – the site has since been protected with a login.
The user claims to have found a list of the following titles on the site: The Secret World; Overstrike; Populous; Outernauts; Respawn.
Both Funcom’s The Secret World and Insomniac’s Overstrike are to be published by EA Partners (commonly abbreviated to EAP) during FY2013 – April 2012 to March 2013 – but the others are a little more mysterious.
Populous is a classic Pete Molyneux-created property owned by EA; no news of a revival of the god sim has surfaced, but fellow Bullfrog production Syndicate has been rebooted as a co-op shooter due for release in february.
A domain registration for Outernauts by Insomniac Games suggests a second collaboration with EA Partners from the Ratchet & Clank developer.
Respawn is likely to refer to the new game from Respawn Entertainment, a new studio founded by former Infinity War heads Jason West and Vince Zampella after their dramatic break with Activision.
The authenticity of the site and its contents has not been established.
When traveling through time, you’re bound to cause a few paradoxes. That’s no different in the newest Final Fantasy sequel from Square-Enix, where most of the post-game content comes in the form of unlocking Paradox Endings. These special cutscenes can be extremely difficult to unlock, and just as difficult to discover. Stop wandering aimlessly through time and learn just how to cause disastrous changes in the timestream.
To find even more information on Final Fantasy 13-2, you’ll need on our text and video walkthrough. For more tips, tricks, and guides, check out the Final Fantasy 13-2 cheats page.
Trophy / Achievement Unlocked
Anamolous (Silver / 30 points): Witnessed every possible Paradox Ending. (Including the Secret Ending, which is discussed on our Final Fantasy 13-2 Secret Ending Guide.
Paradox Endings Guide
Note: Many of the Paradox Endings require a Fragment Skill called “Paradox Scope”. The Fragment Skill is obtained at Serendipity, from the Mystic in Temptation Plaza. You’ll unlock the “Paradox Scope” after completing the main story. Turning it on activates alternate versions of battles when replayed from the main story that will unlock Paradox Endings.
Addendum: Completing the instructions for each of these Paradox Endings will open up a new location on the Historia Crux. Visit it to see the Ending Cinematic and collect your reward.
Paradox Ending 1: Fate and Freedom
Historia Crux Location: Episode 5 – The Void Beyond – New Bodhum
Requirement: None
Instructions: This is the easiest Paradox Ending to achieve, and the first you should get while completing the main story. During the Live Trigger conversation with Lightning, select “Yes” as your answer. You’ll get the Paradox Ending, plus 1,500 CP. When you return to the Historia Crux map, return to Hollow Seclusion and don’t agree this time to continue the story.
Paradox Ending 2: A Giant Mistake
Historia Crux Location: Bresha Ruins (005 AF)
Requirement: None
Instructions: During your main playthrough, you’ll have to weaken the giant Atlas before defeating him in the Bresha Ruins. Instead of weakening him, you can always go back and defeat his fully-powered version. Once defeated, you’ll unlock the ending.
Paradox Ending 3: Vanille’s Truth
Historia Crux Location: Oerba (200 AF)
Requirement: Paradox Scope Active
Instructions: Return to the Deserted Schoolhouse, get to the northwest rooftop and defeat Caius with the Paradox Scope active.
Paradox Ending 4: Mog’s Marvelous Flan Plan
Historia Crux Location: Sunleth Waterscape (300 AF)
Requirement: None
Instructions: Return to the waterscape and defeat the Royal Ripeness with Snow. After defeating the boss, though, turn around and fight it again to unlock a Paradox Ending.
Paradox Ending 5: Test Subjects
Historia Crux Location: Augusta Tower (200 AF)
Requirement: Paradox Scope Active
Instructions: With the Paradox Scope on, return to the Tower and defeat the Proto fal’Cie at the top floor.
Paradox Ending 6: The Future Is Hope
Historia Crux Location: Academia (4XX AF)
Requirement: Paradox Scope Active
Instructions: Just like in the main story, Hope and Alyssa will send you on a quest for Gravitron Cores. Give them all to Alyssa, don’t skip the cutscene after giving away the fifth core. During the Live Trigger conversation, refuse to take the artifact.
Paradox Ending 7: Beneath a Timeless Sky
Historia Crux Location: Episode 5 – The Void Beyond
Requirement: Paradox Scope Active
Instructions: Go back to Academia (4XX AF) and replay the section where you deliver Gravitron Cores to Alyssa, and accept the artifact just as you would during the main story. To unlock the Paradox Ending, fight Caius again at the Throne of the Goddess.
Paradox Ending 8: Heir to Chaos
Historia Crux Location: A Dying World (700 AF)
Requirement: Paradox Scope Active
Instructions: This is the most difficult of all the Paradox Endings, and the trickiest to complete. Go back to Academia (4XX AF) yet again, but you won’t need the Paradox Scope on just yet, leave it off for now. Turn in the Gravitron Cores to Alyssa, again, and accept the artifact during the Live Trigger conversation. Fight Caius again, just like in the main story, but with the Paradox Scope still off. Keep following the story until you reach New Bodhum, which is at the point you’ll activate the Paradox Scope. Continue playing until you reach A Dying World (700 AF) and defeat Caius with Noel alone with the Paradox Scope active. Come prepared, this is one of the toughest battles in the game.
This is a weekly column focusing on “Western” role-playing games: their stories, their histories, their mechanics, their insanity, and their inanity.
Have you ever been horribly frustrated by one part of a game, only to think of it as the best and most memorable section of that game in retrospect? It’s the ruins of D.C. for me. I played Fallout 3 on the PC a year or so after release, so the first thing I did was load up on mods, introducing different play balance, graphics, more weapons, and most motivating of all, more music for Galaxy News Radio. But at the start of the game, GNR is in trouble and the station’s signal is weak. So I went to fix it as soon as I could.
When I went into the ruins of D.C., I wasn’t ready. By heading in that direction almost immediately, I skipped doing smaller-scale quests, which would have provided more experience and better equipment. D.C. was a slog. I scrambled for ammo, for health. I explored nooks and crannies that I didn’t need to, because I hadn’t even really figured out the game’s compass yet. It was nail-bitingly tense, it was fresh, it was new, it took me hours. It was a pain, too. I died multiple times, but oh was it magnificent.
The Cactuar is the go-to rare enemy in the Final Fantasy series. Dragon Warrior has Slimes, and Final Fantasy has Cactuars. That’s just how the world works. What doesn’t work is when these diabolically difficult Cactuars become huge and block your progress to hidden areas on the Historia Crux. Don’t get pushed around by these prickly problems, learn just how to defeat the three Gigantaurs with our text and video guide below.
Final Fantasy 13-2 has even more to offer, and we have all the information you’ll need on our text and video walkthrough. For more tips, tricks, and guides, check out the Final Fantasy 13-2 cheats page.
How to Defeat the Gigantaur
To find the Gigantaur, start at the Archylte Steppe. If you want to open the Sealed Gate at Grave Ridge, you’ll need to defeat three Gigantaurs. The gate itself leads to the Vile Peaks (200 AF).
Around the Archylte Steppe, you’ll find Cactuar Statues dotted throughout the landscape. To spawn a Gigantuar, you’ll need to find three special green Cactuar Statues.
One statue can be found in the Stonestump Wastelands, in the center of the map near a grouping of standing cactuses during any weather condition, and available during your earliest visit to the area, though we don’t recommend that you try to fight the Gigantuar yet.
Another statue can be found in sunny weather, in the northeastern corner of Clearwater Marsh, but it can only be found with the Moogle Hunt ability. The last statue is in the center of Clearwater Marsh, near a ridge, and only appears in rainy weather. It too must be found with the Moogle Hunt ability.
Because you already know when and where the Gigantaur will spawn, always go for a preemptive strike to give yourself that extra bonus.
When fighting the Gigantaur, come prepared with a high level Sentinel to absorb damage while the rest of your team dishes out damage. Fire spells are a must, as are Deprotect and Deshell, anything to help your team kick up their damage potential.
Fighting difficult opponents often means you’ll need to wait for your ATB gauge to refill. Unless you shift Paradigms. If you’re not interested in filling your deck of Paradigms with different combinations, simply copy your set of Paradigms and shift between them for an instand ATB gauge refill, without forcing you to change abilities and skills. This is a simple and easy method for increasing your damage output without sacrificing your favorite Paradigm combinations. Once you gain multiple ATB bars, you can instantly recharge your ATB gauge about every other turn.
If you’re using a Sentinel to tank for your party, keep their health high, as Gigantuar uses the 1,000 Needle Technique more and more as the battle continues.
The Gigantaur takes double damage from physical, magical, and fire attacks — avoid ice, lightning, and wind. It’s also very vulnerable to Dispel and Wound. Daze, Slow, and Poison can also be effective.
Defeating Gigantuars rewards your party with a Monster Crystal everytime, as well as three Potent Crystals, 2,000+ gil, and 1,200 CP. You can only fight three Gigantuars total, so don’t go using their Monster Crystals carelessly.
In advance of a tense investor meeting planned for later this afternoon (Pacific time), THQ confirmed that things are as bad as critics, analysts and the rumor mill have suggested since December with a staggering reduction in their workforce. It has been confirmed that today, 240 THQ employees have been laid off. It is not known whether this total includes the 140 employees – including VP of technology Mark DeLoura – who were confirmed laid off yesterday.
In addition, The company will be jettisoning certain fixed costs estimated around $ 2.5 million, and will terminate contracts valued at 500K. THQ CEO Brian Farrell has also accepted a 50% reduction in salary. He will now be earning a still sizable $ 359,250 (down from $ 718,500). While this is unlikely to make a dent in the estimated 8 million in severance pay the company will soon be shelling out, it sends a signal, however superficial, that times are tough all over and that upper management is taking their licks along with the hoi polloi.
We recently suggested that in light of the company’s serious problems, Brian Farrell may find himself among those deemed redundant. A reduction in pay this significant may be designed to stave off that outcome. We’ll find out whether or not its successful this afternoon.
This is the third games industry vet that’s been snapped up by Apple in the past year, following the hirings of ex-Nintendo UK comms boss Rob Saunders and former Xbox PR head Nick Grange.
Saunders is now tasked with promoting apps for iOS devices, while Grange does hardware PR.
Apple’s declined to say anything on the Scot’s hiring.
Activision Blizzard has appointed Humam Sakhini to the newly created role of chief strategy and talent officer.
“Bringing together our strategic planning and worldwide human resources responsibilities under Humam’s leadership underscores our commitment to talent recruiting, development and retention as a principal focus of the company,”said CEO Robert Kotick.
“This move will enable us to more closely link our strategic planning and business development initiatives with talent development to ensure we remain the preeminent destination for the most talented people working in interactive entertainment.”
It’s been six weeks since the release of SWTOR, and BioWare were in a triumphant mood today, releasing a variety of statistics that trumpet the popularity of their fledgling MMO. Two million subscribers and 1.7 million active subscriptions are both impressive figures (especially when you consider the cool $ 25mil that represents in subscription fees), but data on the SWTOR community’s collective /played — 239 million in-game hours, or 332,000 months, or, if you prefer, 27,000 years — raised eyebrows in their own right. They suggest that the average player has spent roughly 14% of his or her total time in-game since release day.
During that time, players have put paid to over 20 billion NPC’s and spent over 148 billion credits. With BioWare’s backers planning to profit off the game for many years to come, we’ll be interested to see how many NPC’s lie dead after more time has passed. For more SWTOR coverage, check out the 1.1.1 patch notes, or a guide to finding the powerful Fleet Datacrons.
