Source: thexboxdomain.com

Source: thexboxdomain.com

Source: thexboxdomain.com

Source: videogamesblogger.com

In a recent New York Times interview with LucasArts staff, this tiny nugget of info seems to have leaked out on the second page:

Their excitement was palpable on a recent afternoon, when Mr. Ward, Mr. Hirschmann and Haden Blackman, the project leader of a forthcoming “Star Wars” game, reviewed all of the company’s recent projects. Mr. Blackman outlined a new storyline that delved deeper into Darth Vader’s history. Hmmm, I wonder when this will get officially announced.

Source: videogamesblogger.com

Sony has confirmed that Loco Roco, the 2D ball-rolling game that some have likened to a 2D take on Katamari Damacy, will be coming to the US and Europe as part of the game’s worldwide release this summer.

Loco Roco revolves around what can only be described as an orange blob with a voracious appetite. Using the handheld’s triggers, gamers tilt the screen back and forth in order to progress through levels.

Source: videogamesblogger.com

According to Sony Europe boss David Reeves “The US, Japan and Europe will be equally served, It’s my job to make sure Europe gets equal billing. I can’t specify the numbers but we’ll work hard to ensure that it’s equal.”

Good news for PS3 lovers then? Well maybe, especially when Reeves added, “Europe is on track and I think the third party publishers should recognize that. But for us, we’ll have four to six first party titles at launch.”

CVG quotes him as saying: “Of course the launch is important but we are looking at a long term business plan. It is impractical to believe you can fulfil every single order. But we are going to do the best job we can to deliver what we hope will be a world beating console.”

Looks like Sony will run into exactly the same problems as Microsoft did last Christmas, but at least all major territories will be equally disappointed, if that’s any consolation.

Source: videogamesblogger.com

Here’s a ton of new details for the Wii’s Red Steel game. Ubisoft released Red Steel pictures before. Here we go:

-Game development started shortly after E3 2005. Ubisoft saw and demoed the controller before E3 2005
-Ubisoft Paris took their idea directly to Iwata and Miyamoto, and were given the go ahead. After that meeting they were given prototype controllers. The article states that Ubisoft worked “closely” with Nintendo’s engineers in Japan on the title
-Game Informer mentions that while conducting the interviews with Ubisoft, they were handed the “latest version” of the controller

-During the beginning of the game, you are encouraged to use your weapons ruthlessly, but as the game progresses you become more proficient and strategic. This gameplay idea led Ubisoft to decide to give the game a martial arts setting. “Enter the Yakuza”
-The first third of the game will be all about being “brutal by necessity”
-You will be less precise and favor more devastating weapons (machine guns)
-As you progress and become more precise, smaller guns will be used
-”The goal…is to use five bullets to kill five enemies”
-”When fighting with this level of skill, the music and sound effects will reflect it, remaining calm and peaceful”
-”When you fight brutally, the sounds around you grow increasingly more intense”
-”Audio feedback”

-Freeze shot: by fighting effciently you fill the Freeze Shot gauge…fighting chaotically causes to decreases
-When the gauge is filled you can hit a button to momentarily stop time, and then target specific locations on enemy bodies
-Headshots thus are tempting, but non lethal shots, such as shooting guns out of enemy hand, can be more beneficial
-By defeating high ranking leaders who command others and sparing their lives, you will be rewarded. He will offer you respect and help (guns, help, new weapons, alternate paths, etc)
-Respect plays a MAJOR part in the game

-Flailing your sword isn’t a smart idea
-Specific motions with the controller will trigger combos (in the final game)
-Tracing an X in the air, for instance, will unleash a devastating attack
-You can stop these combos at any time by simply pausing your own movement. So if you do something that leaves you open to attack, you won’t be screwed
-New moves will be taught to you by two mentors in the game
-One will teach you gun tactics, and another will teach sword tactics
-If you don’t show the proper respect to them, they won’t help you
-Friendly/respectful interaction is tied to the controller
-You signal “yes/no” answers by nodding the controller up or down or shaking it from side to side
-You show extra respect by bowing to the masters
-Ubisoft is still coming up with other interactions
-”You can act disrespectively as well: there are no cut scenes in the game - all conversations take place in game, as in Half Life 2. However unlike that game, characters wont keep prattling on if you walk away from them. They will react angrily to your imputent behavior”
-Staying in the master’s good graces is key: they give you missions that can be tackled in any order
-You track down the gang leaders and try to turn them to your side. If you don’t, they will join Tokai’s (the main villian) gang
-You have to prove you are worthy to them by battling them and sparing their lives.
-You will need as many of them with you as possible to face Tokai. Without their help, you’ll have a rough time when you finally face him
-You turn gang leaders to your side by besting them in battle and stopping a deadly blow miliseconds before it strikes
-Training sessions are offered by the two masters so you can hone your skills

Multiplayer:
-Split screen multiplayer with traditional deathmatches
-Totally original multiplayer modes Ubisoft is not revealing yet. Wait until E3
-They didn’t talk about Nintendo Wi Fi (NDAs). Full details haven’t been revealed yet
-Wii works by placing a small sensor bar either above or below any TV
-You can stand at any angle and not lose any accuracy. You can even take your controller to a friend’s house and instantly start playing without syncing up the controller
-”Perhaps most impressive is the fact that although splitscreen reduces the amount of onscreen space you are playing in, you don’t have to make smaller movements - you can gesture as wildly as you want, and it won’t interfere with the other player’s onscreen quadrants

Game Informer’s (GI) hands on:
-The two triggers on the front of the analog unit activate ducking and jumping. The analog stick controls movement, and the revmote controls aiming. No rails.
-Level consisted of shooting ranges that popped out from behind cover
“Aiming with the controller is as simple as using a laser pointer. You point your hand at a target and hit the trigger on the underside of the controller to fire
-”Unlike other FPS games, which tie the camera and aiming together, Red Steel’s camera follows your aim with a slight delay. If, for example, you point to the edge of the screen, the camera will turn to re-center on your view after a second. With the sensitivity of the controller, a standard FPS control would move too much, potentially making the player feel ill
-”Thanks to the improved reaction that the controller offers, the team can create gunfight scenerios that would be extraordinarily diffilcult with a standard controller”
-Most console FPS games limit their enemies to horizontal planes to prevent player frustration, but targets on a verticle plane are just as easy to hit with the Wii controller
-You can aim at a target as quickly as you can move your hand
-In the demo targets popped up on rooftops and in second story windows, as well as behind cover points on the ground, and all were equally easy to hit
-While you can quickly shoot enemies anywhere on screen, Red Steel never feels in a light-gun game - this is a true FPS, one that feels like it has drawn from the best of both the PC and console shooter worlds

-According to lead game designer Oriola, it takes roughly three seconds to turn completely around around in most console shooters, while it takes about one-quarter second in a PC game. In Red Stel, it takes one second

-AI characters will care for themselves. They will go for cover, attack you while you’re reloading. They focus on risk management
-”They won’t walk around a table to get to you. They will simply jump over the table”
-”The benchmark for their intelligence and aggressiveness, says Oriola, is the PC title F.E.A.R., which has widely been praised for it’s AI”

-Destructable environments. There’s a pic of a giant explosion on a carm with gang members being thrown left and right by the blast. Nice effects. The lighting on the explosion and the store signs is pretty good
-GI: we found Red Steel most enjoyable to play while standing up
-Straffing is extremely easy and effortless
-”Aiming felt similar to using a PC mouse, and it’s possible to quickly explore every direction in a three-dimensional space with quick gestures”
-”In the finished game, you will be able to push forward with the controller to knock over an object to use for cover, pull it backwards to reload, and twist it to lead behind walls”
-Lob grenades with the controller, or roll them on the ground like a bowling ball
-”gangsta style” shooting is cool
-Total immersion. Feels like you are living the game
-GI: the Revolution is real
-Andy: It could change the very way all gamers are played now and forever

Thanks to Zogdog.com forums for compiling this list.

Source: videogamesblogger.com

George Harrison is Nintendo’s senior vice president of marketing and communications. Here are some quotes of a recent interview with him:
-Harrison admits that a mere over-powered Gamecube would wind up doing just as bad as the GameCube. Because of this, Nintendo decided to do something totally different.
-Their main goal was to revive the Japanese market. The DS was to be the first shot at this (and it has clearly succeeded).
-Art direction can be just as expressive as photo-realistic graphics. He mentions that the Simpsons wouldn’t be nearly as funny if it was live action.
-Wii will be a multiple of the GameCube in terms of capabilities.
-Nintendo is still deciding what will be packed in the Wii. Right now a controller and a nunchuk add-on will be, but Nintendo is thinking about adding another controller as well. No mention of the shell.

-Nintendo is shooting for a worldwide Wii launch this year.
-”Clearly, for us, the Japanese market might be the most important - it’s the home market, it’s the chance to reset the clock to the main competition, which is Sony”.
-On price, as compared to the 360: “Yes, our goal is to come in at a slightly more mass market price.”
-Nintendo is considering some like XBL Marketplace.
-Harrison mentions that they learned a lot of lessons from the PS2, in terms of having a wide variety of software and the fact that the strongest tech doesn’t always win.
-”The other thing we recognized is that you really make your reputation in the first year. You’ve got to deliver software, not just at launch, but you’ve got to deliver software in the first six to nine months after launch. It has to be solid software. In GC, we didn’t have that, we had kind of a drought for six months after it launched. By that time your reputation starts to solidify and it’s hard to reverse that after awhile.”
-$50 games will not be the standard on the Wii, although he does say that there could be some games that cost $60.
-Compares the challenges Nintendo has in terms of marketing the Wii to those it had marketing the… Virtual Boy.
-You can’t simply show gameplay or people won’t see the difference. He mentions that game commercials used to show people on their couch playing the game, and that the industry moved away from that. He says Nintendo might get more into that with Wii marketing.
-Nintendo still hasn’t chosen a cost barrier for the Wii’s Virtual Console.
-Possibly 20 games at launch. He says they haven’t seen many of the games licensees have.
-”Maybe a third will be Nintendo games.”
-Red Steel is a Wii launch title, and will broaden appeal like GoldenEye 64 did.
-”We had no choice but to be successful with the DS.”

Source: videogamesblogger.com

PC gamers will have the chance to travel once more to the weird and eerily beautiful World with the original 1991 vector graphics and background art now retouched, reworked and scalable to appropriately epic resolutions (from 320×200 to 1280×800 pixels).

The remastered Windows XP version of Eric Chahi’s Another World (known as “Out of this World” outside Europe) became available for download on April 14th for just €7. Both demo and full versions of Another World for Windows XP can be found at www.anotherworld.fr. You can download the official Another World demo here.

Source: videogamesblogger.com

Sony is getting ready to unleash the God of War sequel at the Electronic Entertainment Expo in May, 1up.com went to the new director on the game, Cory Barlog, who’s replacing well-known director David Jaffe (now the creative director) for an exclusive first look at what to expect from the upcoming sequel.

1UP: Obviously the first had lots of action, but it had lots of adventure. Would you say that this one has a little less adventure?
Cory Barlog: No…from an adventure standpoint there’s some pretty amazing stuff we’re holding close right now. We’ve got a year until we’re releasing, so we’re going to start releasing stuff intermittently, but we wanted people to understand that first and foremost I understand where we are with the franchise and where we were in the beginning so that people [don’t think] we’re going to come out with that dual analog thing or something like that. We’re not changing it.

1UP: You do have more action, though. You have more combos and more moves in that vein, right?
Cory Barlog: What we’re doing is refining it. I wouldn’t even say that the action quotient has fully increased so much as that…there are all these things that I wanted to do…ways that I wanted to integrate magic and weapons into combat so that it wasn’t so clumsy. I don’t want to say that it was really clumsy in the last game so much as that when I’m playing it I want to be able to launch a guy up into the air and switch to a weapon before he lands. These are even the smaller aspects of God of War 2.

From the story perspective it’s definitely… the adventure is equally balanced with the action. But the puzzle solving and the platforming is sort of on the same level, kind of turning the puzzles in a different direction in some respects. Some we’re bringing back, like the ones with story elements, the story driven puzzles. Stuff like burning the guy in the cage, to me that really defined the character. It really made you think like Kratos. You had to decide what he would decide in order to continue the game. Those kinds of things, I want to continue making the player have to make those kinds of tough choices.

1UP: You mentioned there are going to be some cool bosses in the game.
Cory Barlog: We’re definitely bringing in a lot of really cool minibosses, not even just cool because it’s a cool fight, but because you’ll recognize them from mythology. To me as a fan of these things there’s a lot of cool things that I would appreciate, but from the big, eventful, massive boss perspective…things like the minotaur, Aries, these were things we worked on massively in the first game, but really we started a bit late. Now we’re starting way earlier and we’re going to get pretty amazing stuff and get a wider variety.

God of War 2: Divine Retribution is set to hit stores in February 2007.