If there ever was a game so sadistic, so merciless in its execution, so single-mindedly methodical in making a player's life difficult enough that the individual either breaks down and cries, or simply chucks his portable game system into a wall - Etrian Odyssey would be its older, tougher brother. The one that has the tattoos and eats broken glass sandwiches for lunch.

If you've played any of this generation's roleplaying games (or even last generation) and found them challenging, perhaps difficult - mayhap you could even say they were hard - then say hi to the game that you will look back on say, "At least it's not as hard as THAT GAME."

This is the review for Atlus' Etrian Odyssey, or more commonly referred to as You Can't Win, or OMG A DEER JUST KILLED MY ENTIRE PARTY BLARGHSLARGHSDF.

The entire review after the jump!

 

The expansion to the well-liked game SpellForce 2: Shadow of Wars is gearing up to be another exciting journey for all fans of the game. This addon from JoWood Productions and Koch Media brings in the ever popular Dragon race to make the players' adventures in the shattered islands of Eo more exhilarating. Players will have to ally themselves with the powerful Dragons if they wish to defeat the new enemy in the game.

In this trailer we've provided, you'll see just how essential the Dragon race's role will be in the game, and just how powerful this race is. Of course, this trailer also shows you a glimpse of what else to expect in SpellForce 2: Dragon Storm.

Download: SpellForce 2: Dragon Storm trailer feat. the Dragon race

SpellForce fans rejoice! The next adventure to the Islands of Eo is close at hand. SpellForce 2: Dragon Storm would be brought to us by the joint efforts of JoWood Productions and Koch Media.

SpellForce 2: Dragon Storm is an RPG mixed with RTS elements. The Islands of Eo are well... islands and the only thing connecting them are the portals. The portals are weakening so the hero, a Shaikan, is sent to a dangerous mission to keep the portals alive. The Shaikan discovers the powerful ancient civilization called the Shapers. One of the last two surviving Shapers has awakened from a Sleeping Beauty sort of nap and is now considered a threat to Eo.

Along with that discovery comes the dragons. With their mixed sort of PR, dragons could either be good or evil - pretty much depends on which side you're on. Anyway, SpellForce 2: Dragon Storm boasts of more than 30 hours of gameplay, extended RPG gameplay with quests to unlock additional abilities, control the Shaikan faction on RTS gameplay, and more hero development. Additional features include: unit upgrades, summoning magic to conjure animals, hundreds of items plus players can create crafted set items, new maps for multiplayer mode, and skirmish mode at the Fortress of Decision.

SpellForce 2: Dragon Storm will hit the shelves in late March 2007. In the meanwhile, check out these screenshots.

Check out the rest of the screens after the jump!

Edict Reader is DS homebrew developer Eo's latest achievement. Basically, this app gives you access to a Japanese- English dictionary, and lets you display Japanese characters on your DS.

Want to give a try? Just get your DS and download it here. But before you do that, better check out some of the dev's notes first:

Building your NDS file:

• Running the files as they are WON'T WORK.
• Just run the builddict.bat to build your NDS file. New NDS files containing the dictionary files will be created with the prefix "New". That's the one you will put on your flashcart/whatever you are using (it works fine on SC).
• You will need .NET framework installed (for PALIB PAFS.EXE). You can try exchanging dct/jdx files in the "Files" folders with dictionary and index files in your own language (see EDICT site) but I only did a limited testing on those. I still have to work on the French to English dictionary.
  

Known issues:

• Some word selection highlight problem experienced while scollng backward to native language.
• Still some problems handling FJ.ASC and generated .JDX file.
• For some words having a lot of translations, some translations will be missing (no pagination implemented).

Usage:

• Press UP/DOWN arrows to move between the entries.
• Press LEFT/RIGH to skip pages (not properly implemented yet).
• Press A to display translations.
• Alternatively use stylus to select/display translation.
• Press B to return to index.
• Alternatively use stylus to return to index.
• Press START to display software info.

Download: [EDICT Reader v0.1.0]