Nobuo Uematsu's record label Dog Ear Records just announced that The Black Mages' third album is finally nearing its release. The Japanese band led by the man behind Final Fantasy melodies we all grew to love is going to unleash The Black Mages 3: Darkness and Starlight, which will contain more than remixes of magical FF music. Learn more by checking out the full article.

This year's month of December will mark the 20th anniversary of Square Enix's very first Final Fantasy game (also available on the PSP). As a toast to this most special occasion, AWR Music Productions, LLC is announcing the upcoming Distant Worlds: music from Final Fantasy World Tour which will begin on Tuesday, December 4, at the Stockholm Concert Hall in Sweden.

At the helm of this event will be conductor/executive producer Arnie Roth, who will command the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, and the choir Allmänna Sången. Here's a brief rundown of the songs to be played at the program, all originally written by Final Fantasy series composer Nobuo Uematsu:

• Final Fantasy series: Main Theme, Swing de Chocobo
• Final Fantasy I to III: Medley
• Final Fantasy III DS: Opening
• Final Fantasy IV: Theme of Love
• Final Fantasy V: Dear Friends
• Final Fantasy VI: Opera "Maria and Draco"
• Final Fantasy VII: One-Winged Angel, Opening - Bombing Mission, Aerith's Theme
• Final Fantasy VIII: Liberi Fatali, Fisherman's Horizon, Love Grows, Don't be Afraid
• Final Fantasy IX: Vamo' alla Flamenco
• Final Fantasy X: To Zanarkand
• Final Fantasy XI: Memoro de la Stono - Distant Worlds

And if you're asking, yes - Uematsu is indeed going to be at the concert. Tickets for this event will be available since October 17 and can be purchased through the Stockholm Concert Hall box office, or online. For the fans that do manage to make it, you'll also be happy to know that the Distant Worlds: music from Final Fantasy CD will be available for purchase at the concert grounds.

Now, if you can't make it to the December event, there will be another Distant Worlds concert being scheduled for March 1, in Chicago. Arnie Roth will remain the conductor, with music from the Chicagoland Pops Orchestra, and voices from the CPO Festival Choir. Uematsu will be attending the event too.

Further details for the Distant Worlds: music from Final Fantasy world tour can be found at its official site, via the read link below.

  

Hot off the big BioShock launch last week, more great games are coming to stores this week. Particularly eye-catching is that wham-banger Metroid Prime 3: Corruption. There's also a new Naruto game coming out on the PSP, and Stranglehold will smash in to the PC and Xbox 360 scenes.

Fighting games, racing titles and sports sims, as well as casual puzzle games are also in the mix. There's something for everyone, so dig in:

Metroid Prime 3: Corruption. The latest sequel to one of the most decorated game franchises of all time is due out tomorrow exclusively for the Nintendo Wii. Samus is back and this time, the Wii Nunchuk is her toy of choice. Old moves and new weapons converge to create a new mind-blowing experience for the genre.

• Wii- August 27, 2007
• US$ 49.99
• ESRB T (Teen)
• Nintendo

Blue Dragon. The Xbox 360 is getting one of the year's most anticipated RPG offerings. Behind this title are luminaries Hironobu Sakaguchi for the game's design, Akira Toriyama for the character design and Nobuo Uematsu for the musical score. Play as a boy named Shu who sets out on an epic journey with friends that will enchant you for hours on end.

• Xbox 360- August 28
• US$ 59.99
• ESRB T (Teen)
• Microsoft

More hot titles for all the platforms after the jump!

*Originally posted at 7:17AM on August 26, 2007

 

Okay, since there's a decent amount of Buzz for this Square Enix game that's set to use the Unreal Engine and grace both Sony PlayStation 3 and Microsoft Xbox 360, here's the latest news that we could find regarding The Last Remnant. The development team assigned to work on it follows below:

• Director: Hiroshi Takai
• Chief Artist: Kimihiko Miyamae
• Events: Kouji Kobayashi
• Composer: Tsuyoshi Sekito
• Producer: Nobuyuki Ueda
• Exec. Producer: Akitoshi Kawazu
• Art Producer: Yusuke Naora

This info was first leaked into the wilds of the intarwebs via Jonnyram of NeoGAF. A quick sift through Wikipedia reveals that composer Tsuyoshi Sekito has games like Brave Fencer Musashi, Chocobo's Dungeon 2, Final Fantasy Origins, and Front Mission Online under his belt. He's also worked with Nobuo Uematsu, Kenichiro Fukui, and Keiji Kawamori on the music of "FFVII: Advent Children."

Yusuke Naora on the other hand has served as art director for these Square pieces: Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VIII, Final Fantasy X, and Final Fantasy VII Advent Children. He's also served as Art Supervisor for Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII.

Director Hiroshi Takai has worked on Saga Frontier, and The Bouncer, among others. Kimihiko Miyamae previously worked on Unlimited Saga. Kouji Kobayashi's got FFVIII and Resident Evil: Code: Veronica Complete in his resume. Noboyuki Ueda's most known for FFVIII and Akitoshi Kawazu was involved with FFXII.

In the wake of dance and music games' success, the bonds between gaming and music industries have become more apparent. And it's a marriage made in heaven. Gone are the days of monotone game themes.

Musicians have realized that there is more to becoming popular than MTV and have seen the potential of recording for a game. Guitar Hero's unexpected sales and Dance Dance Revolution's popularity has made the idea more appealing. And the genre is growing faster than you can say, "Karaoke". Bust a Move, Space Channel 5, Samba de Amigo, and Karaoke Revolution are just few of the titles available for this genre.

"Get Off Me" by hip hop artist Ludacris was included in Madden NFL Football 2000, making him the first rapper to contribute to a game's OST. Many followed suit as game soundtracks started to influence gamers.

Game composers are also in demand. Nobuo Uematsu is a household name for gamers as he composed nearly all the Final Fantasy songs. He held a Final Fantasy symphony concert in 2004 and blew the audience away.

We can expect more from this partnership as soundtracks have become essential to video games.

What would life be without music? What would video games be without music? Not much, huh? C'mon. Who doesn't know the Super Mario theme? Who wasn't moved by Nobuo Uematsu compositions? You might not realize it, but music is definitely one of the most crucial aspects of an effective game.

Video Games Live is taking that fact and making gamers go back to appreciating music once again. Last year, in the US, their debut concert was sold out, with a whopping 11,000 crowd - the largest video game concert in the world! Now, they're on the move and are bound to hit the UK on November 25th.

What's in store for you, then? Orchestraic compositions with accompanying video game clips. And they won't be just playing music from recent game franchises like Halo or Metal Gear Solid. We're talking across the board here - music from all-time cult classic game series like Final Fantasy, Tomb Raider, Castlevania, and even retro games like Pong, Tetris, Frogger, and even Duck Hunt!

That's one concert that'll surely blow your mind away. It's going to be a night of reminiscing and reliving some of your favorite moments in video games. Music is such a powerful tool, and we're all glad that Video Games Live is making that known throughout the world.