1up.com just spilled the beans on their categories and nominees for Game of the Year 2007, and we’re pleased as punch to see that there are several Capcom games included on their list.
We’re both amazed and excited to see Zack and Wiki on the 1up list for Game of the Year. Of course, we’re also realistic, seeing as how it’s a very long list and contains games like Bioshock and… well, other games, but Bioshock is on there, so I’m pretty sure I know right where that particular award is going: Ken Levine’s desk. And you know what? I’m alright with that.
If you’re not too busy now, might we suggest you follow the jump to 1up and vote for some of our fine, fine products? Danke! Remember: Guitar Hero, Call of Duty, Mario, Bioshock, etc. are all selling just fine, but Z-Dub could use some serious love!
Here’s how the award season is looking for Capcom at 1up:
This news was just confirmed internally, and I wanted people to know ASAP.
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After more than 3 years of online service, the external company providing server hosting for both Resident Evil: Outbreak and Monster Hunter has decided to exit the PlayStation 2 online business altogether, with no possibility of outsourcing either the service or the technology.
If Monster Hunter could be summed up in one Tom Waits song verse, it would be from Big in Japan: “I got the moon, I got the cheese, I got the whole damn nation on its knees, I’m big in Japan, big in Japan.” At this point in time, 1 in 5 Japanese PSP owners have a Monster Hunter UMD in their collection. That’s big — crazy big!
Kotaku has a story about a Monster Hunter PSP fan “meet up” that recently happened on the streets of Akihabara (”Akiba,” to those in the know). In a bit of brilliant Japanes-to-English naming, they called their event “Monster Hunter Portable 2nd Street Real Meeting Place.“ Can you imagine WoW/EQ fans dragging their PCs out into the street to hang out (those would have to be some real long CAT-5 cables)?
Babelfish has helpfully translated a portion of this sign as saying: “10 gill cards you aim toward exchange in the hunter and 1 day of first meeting! Dying, you grudge the handling!” I couldn’t have put it any better myself.
So, our compatriots across the Pong Pond at Capcom UK sponsored a Fortean expedition to the (I would suppose) murky rainforests of Guyana in search of giant anacondas and the mysterious didi, which supposedly “rip the tongues from living cattle.” Although it seems like it would be difficult for me to type anything more rad than that onto our corporate blog today, this expedition was sponsored in the name of marketing Monster Hunter in Europe. I will wait a moment while your mind boggles. G’head, collect yourself.
Now that I have dropped this mindbomb on you, head over to the official Center for Fortean Zoology’s Guyana Expedition 2007 blog to track the team’s progress in search of critters not normally seen outside the pages of the Monster Manual. Like, now. For the love of everything cool, add the subscription feed to your reader while you’re at it. So far, no sign of tongue-chomping forest apes, J-Lo crushing reptiles, lost tribes of Bigfeets or Cthulu, but who knows what the future may hold. Well, Cthulu knows what the future holds, but then again, he’s a telepathic sticky green spawn of the stars with an awful squid-head with writhing feelers who brings the End of All Things. So, there’s that.
For the benefit of our American readers, “the Pond” is that large body of water east of New York, aka “the Atlantic,” while Guyana is a country in South America, located south of America, and is not, as it might sound, an ingredient in Red Bull.
As hardcore Monster Hunter fans have already noticed, Capcom recently joined a Nintendo press conference in Japan to announce that Monster Hunter 3 will be coming to the Wii. Slashing monsters by slashing at monsters? Sign me up!
IGN has streaming video of the super-short teaser that was shown during the conference, which shows off some of the environments in the game and ends with a message from Capcom’s global head of R&D, creative genius and all-around nice guy, Keiji Inafune.
Inafune addresses the crowd, saying (loosely translated) “I’m Inafune from Capcom. Today we are presenting Monster Hunter 3. This is the formal sequel to Monster Hunter Dos. All of the video you have just seen was rendered through actual Nintendo Wii hardware. The development team is working very hard to make this a great experience on the Wii, so I hope you look forward to using the Wii controller to hunt monsters to your heart’s content. Thank you very much.”
Ginormous Monster Hunter fan folga has created an incredible fan-made Monster Hunter short movie, entitled Monster Hunter Zero. The movie will make even the most die-hard anti-Monster Hunter want to play. It’s that good.
Japan’s Computer Entertainment Software Association recently held their Japan Game Awards 2007 during this year’s Tokyo Game Show that took place from September 20-23rd and Capcom was able to walk away with multiple awards.
Monster Hunter Freedom 2, a PSP title that to date has sold over 1.4 million copies in Japan, was awarded the esteemed Grand Award as well as the Award for Excellence by the CESA. In addition, Okami, and our platinum hit, Lost Planet, also receive the Award for Excellence. Meanwhile, Dead Rising’s global mass appeal allowed it to capture the Global Award.
The Tokyo Game Show attendees chose as recipients for the Future Awards, given for highly anticipated games, Capcom’s Devil May Cry 4, Sengoku Basara 2 Heroes and Zack & Wiki: Quest for Barbaros’ Treasure.
We at Capcom feel very honored and thankful for the recognition and will strive to continue to bring top notch games to video gamers around the world.
London – 6th September 2007 – Capcom is thrilled to announce a new partnership with The Centre for Fortean Zoology [CFZ] the only professional scientific and full-time organisation in the world dedicated to ‘crypto-zoology’ – the study of unknown animals. Capcom is sponsoring the CFZ on a full scale Monster Hunt expedition to South America in association with its record breaking title ‘Monster Hunter Freedom 2’.
The expedition aims to locate and collect giant Anaconda specimens with reports coming in of locals seeing the indigenous snakes as big as 40 feet long – twice as large as they’re supposed to be – in nearby swampland. The CFZ hope to collect some young specimens and bring them back to their new zoo facility in Devon.
Monster Hunter Freedom 2 owners should check out the “Downloads” section of their options menu today, to discover the first of many new downloadable quests. The PSP title that already provides hundreds of hours of gameplay is back with even more free content, including the quests “Crabs and Monkeys” and “Challenge Quest 1,” and five bonus items, including “Piggie Fashions: Angel Leotard.” You know you want it!
While Monster Hunter has always been most popular with the dedicated fans, the latest installment has been winning over the critics as well. Monster Hunter Freedom 2 receives an 8.5 from 1UP.com, an 8.3 from IGN, and currently has an 82% score overall on gamerankings.com:
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