As somebody who considers himself both a gamer and a tech geek, it’s only natural that, from time to time, I play games on my mobile phone.

However, as any gamer with a cell phone will tell you, most mobile games are absolute crap. The small screen, lack of decent controls, and sub-par hardware generally make mobile phones horrible gaming devices. However, there’s occasionally a rare gem that’s actually worth playing.

Today I’ll be reviewing Caligo Chaser for Android operating system. The game is also available on the iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad (to my knowledge, there is no iPad-specific version of this game yet, so you’ll be playing a scaled version of the iPhone/iPod Touch version), however I cannot speak for the quality of these versions.

Caligo Chaser is an action RPG that plays somewhat similarly to your typical 90′s brawler title. The graphics are absolutely spectacular, the gameplay is decent given the limitations of a mobile phone, and the fun factor is pretty wicked. Read the full review after the jump.

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Max Schaefer, CEO of Runic games, the developers behind PC Action RPG Torchlight, said that the game may be headed to consoles and that a “serious effort” is being put into the idea.

“We’re going to put some serious effort into it — pretty quick — getting ‘Torchlight’ onto consoles,” Schaefer said.

“There’s a lot of really cool things about the console world, too, that would work well with our game.”

For fans of Diablo and Diablo-type games, Torchlight is an excellent addition to the genre, especially since Diablo III won’t be seen on PC for at least another hundred years or so.

Final Fantasy XIII director Motomu Toriyama issued a statement on the official European FFXIII website about XIII’s linearity and how it will be beneficial to all – fans and newcomers alike.

“In order to allow the player to become absorbed in the drama of the storytelling and the new and exciting world of Cocoon and be drawn to the characters without getting distracted or lost we have deliberately used a linear game design for the introduction sections so they can be enjoyed in the same manner as watching a film,” said Toriyama.

“We are aiming for a vibe while playing that is similar to the experience of an FPS style game, where the player rapidly progresses through a series of dramatic events and experiences one after the other on an imposing and atmospheric battlefield.

“This kind of design is also very beneficial for the player in allowing them to gradually and systematically learn the brand new battle system that this installment brings to the series. It is set up such that the player will experience and try out each character’s possible roles in battle and naturally internalize the intensely tactical nature of the Paradigm Shift system.”

Kind of interesting how an FPS game would influence an RPG game with the idea of quickening the action from one section of the game to the next. Never thought of it that way.

Final Fantasy XIII is out for the PS3 and 360 March 9th in the US and Europe!

Today, Bioware announced that the new DLC for Dragon Age: Origins has been delayed. The new DLC, titled The return to Ostagar was delayed the day before launch due to unexplained reasons.

The new DLC was scheduled for release today, January 5th, for both PC and Xbox 360 users and to only cost $4.99 (or 400 MS points, or BioWare Points).

A post from BioWare’s Chris Priestly states, “We’re sorry but the planned Return to Ostagar downloadable content scheduled to launch on January 5th has been delayed for all platforms. We will update you as new information becomes available.”

This is all just a big tease, but it sounds cool non the less. As fun as the Pokémon games have been over the years, they’ve never been as action packed and fast paced as the anime adaptation.

But according to Junichi Masuda, the director of Pokémon Diamond and Pearl, there might be a more action oriented Pokémon game on the way.

“… This is just an idea but … as you know, Pokémon is a role-playing game. But, personally, I really like the action type of games, so we just talk about that sometimes. We probably want to add some kind action element to the game,” said Masuda in an interview with Game Informer.

I’d play it. Would you?

Isn’t it strange how a lot of video game rumours turn out to be true?

IGN confirmed recently that Pokémon Gold and Silver will indeed be remade for the Nintendo DS. The remakes will hit Japanese store shelves this Autumn. The remakes will be titled Pokémon Heart Gold and Soul Silver. According to IGN there will be a number of updates, but no specifics have yet to be shared.

That sure was fast, wasn’t it? Major Nelson has confirmed on his blog that Fallout 3′s final piece of DLC has gone live on Xbox Live Marketplace.

From the entry:

You may have dealt the Enclave a serious blow at Project Purity, but their forces are still out there, and still pose a grave threat to the people and security of the Capital Wasteland. In Broken Steel, you’ll continue your current Fallout 3 character past the events of Project Purity, and work with the Brotherhood of Steel to eradicate the Enclave threat once and for all. You’ll travel to new locations like the Olney Powerworks, wield destructive new weapons like the Tesla Cannon, fight powerful new creatures like the Super Mutant Overlord, marvel at the destructive power of Liberty Prime, earn new Perks like the devastating Nuclear Anomaly… and play Fallout 3 all the way to level 30!

It’ll set you back 800 points, but it’s worth it. As long as it’s not as broken as The Pitt was.

Looking through the fact sheet of changes from Diamond and Pearl to Platinum, you could get a little letdown. Does a new area, redesigned gyms, and new forms of legendaries really get anyone excited enough to buy the same game again?

Put your hands down fanboys.

Looking back at previous compilation versions of Pokémon you can’t expect too much. Surprising though, Platinum is an experience best played through then talked about. While it doesn’t feel like a wholly new game, it has enough new things and smoothed edges that it’s an enjoyable play through.

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From simple colours to precious gems, the Pokémon series has seen at least 3 core games on every generation of Nintendo’s handheld consoles.

For 13 years (going by the Japanese release of Red and Blue) players have been trying to “Catch ‘em all”, with the recent release of Platinum bringing the grand total of core Pokémon games to 14 games, and the total number of obtainable Pokémon to a whopping 493!

There has also been a slew of spin-off games ranging from dungeon crawlers, card battles puzzle games and a racing game, which brings the grand total of games to 32! Even so, the games are still selling like hotcakes among both young and adult gamers, which brings me neatly into this evening’s discussion:

- Have we gotten to a point where there are too many Pokémon, not to mention Pokémon games?

- Do you think the franchise should be put to bed?

Lionhead’s confirmed that more DLC for Fable 2 is on the way, though no details have surfaced yet.

“The team here in Guildford is working on some new content right now,” according to the company’s blog. “”More information will be shared in the coming weeks.”

I can’t wait to see in what ways Molyneux means this will change how we game.

A new trailer for the upcoming Wii RPG trailer has been released by developer Namco Bandai. It looks quite good to, and I kept wishing I knew Japanese in order to understand what the hell was going on.

My first impression was “Silent Hill” meets “Ghosterbusters” with some anime thrown in. Hopefully this will also be released in the US and Europe.

Fragile recently received (31/40) in the latest edition Famitsu.

Fragile trailer

Square Enix’ recent press release confirms the developers’ games for release in the first quarter of 2009, which includes a few new DS titles.

Star Ocean: Second Evolution (PSP), Star Ocean: The Last Hope (360), Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride (DS), and Valkyrie Profile: Covenant of the Plume (DS) will all be out by March of next year.

Full press release after the break.

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It seems Bioware’s influence reaches far and wide.

Michael de Plater, creative director of Ubisoft Shanghai, recently spoke with videogaming247, explaining his team’s take on the RTS genre, follows the path Bioware forged with Knights of the Old Republic.
Their upcoming game EndWar will lead on console, before heading to PCs.

“It’s not that we don’t want to do a PC version, and it’s not that it wouldn’t be a good PC game,” he said, when asked why EndWar would appear on consoles first.

“I think that really we’re kind of following in the footsteps of BioWare in regards to what hey did on RPGs with Knights of the Old Republic, where they had their PC background and experience with Neverwinter Nights and other RPGs, then when they did Knights they shifted the camera down, used their control scheme, made it much more cinematic and used the Star Wars license…
“And then subsequent to that, they could do Knights of the Old Republic on PC and it’s no problem.”

Finally, he added: “We basically followed their model.”

While the newly announced sequel does look good, we can see that it does repeat some of the old formulas of previous Mario RPG titles. Then again, why mess with success?