Snake sneaks, Controllers Rumble, Playstations Bundle

Arguably the most anticipated PS3 game of 2008 is set to come out real soon. And according to PlayStation.blog gamers should expect to see playable demo of the game as early as April. MGS4 will also ship with a demo of MGS Online. Although Sony mentions the game to be due late Q2 '08, which can very well be june 30th, other sources such as Amazon.com and GameFly.com have the date Thursday, June 12 posted, and on GameStop's website the release date is shown as Tuesday, June 17. Given the game release records from before a Tuesday release is more likely.
In other news, gamers will once again have their sweaty hands shaking up and down real fast, as the rumblicious dualshock 3 hits the shelves in April. It is said the controller will cost about $54.99.
Bundling is the word of the day, because sony announced two new playstation bundles;
First will be a PS3 bundle, which will include an 80GB PS3, the upcoming blockbuster Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, and a DUALSHOCK 3 wireless controller for $499.99 (MSRP).
And the second will be a Limited-Edition “Deep Red” PSP with Kratos silkscreened on the back, God of War: Chains of Olympus, Superbad on UMD video and a voucher to download Syphon Filter: Combat Ops from PLAYSTATION Store for free, with a price tag of $199.99

Cheap Bastards Rejoice....For now.

Following the demise of HD-DVD, Microsoft is first slashing the price of their HD-DVD add on, down to $49.99 from $129.99 (which was discounted from $179.99). So, rejoice my cheap friends...because you too will be able to enjoy the goodness of hi def dvd for the time being 'cause, our good friend Microsoft is following the footsteps of Toshiba and shutting down manufactoring the add-on accessory.

PS3 Ran out of FUEL

THQ's financial problems has lead the company to drop a few titles from their line-up, which included PS3 version of Frontlines: Fuels of War. The XBOX 360 and PC versions of the game do however get to see sunlight because those port had been finished earlier, and THQ is hoping to get their money, they used to make the project, back. Hey who knows, maybe if it does well enough on 360 and PC, those sales can be used to fund the PS3 release. So my fellow gamers, let's save the ps3 release....buy the game for your 360's.

Lucas Arts thinks PS3 first

Lucas Arts will be joining many game developers as they too choose to build their new games on Playstation first. The fact that games are so much easier to port to xbox360 from Ps3, rather than other way around. According to the project lead of SW: The Force Unleashed, Haden Blackman, decission was made after they tried to port TFU onto Ps3 and realized that, it doesn't translate so well. So, in their future projects PS3 development will definitely come first. I guess guys from Factor 5 owe Lucas Arts a "told you so". Then again it isn't their fault, since Ps3 dev-kits didn't get around until 2006.

UE3 licencees rejoice as Epic give as shot of morpheme

This past week has been a fruitful one for Epic Games, as NaturalMotions join Epic's IPP(Integrated Partners Program). Which translates; as Epic puts it, Industry's leading game engine offers world class, cross-platform animation engine. And that means character models that look and move as life-like as none of us has ever seen before.

'Gears' keep turning

This week at GDC 08, by the end of microsoft presentation, the lights went dim screen blood red with teaser trailer and our good ol' Cliffy B came running with a chainsaw rifle to announce Nov 3rd as the day Gears hit the shelves. Since then we have seen the new unreal tech demo that shows the tweaks in graphics done for the game. New water effects were especially impressive, followed by the cube of meat used to demonstrate soft body feature, also the amount of Locust that can be put on screen at a time is quite notable. I will post more on GoW2 as more news become available.

Thank you Insomniac Games!

Today, at the GDC '08, Insomniac Games announced that they will be sharing their technology with all the game makers around the globe from their website....FOR FREE!!! The code given to other developers under the name "Nocturnal Initiative" will help handle common chores with benefits like memory-management templates, debugging utilities, and other basic functions that every developer has a need for when making a game. The utilities are also so basic that they could be adapted easily for any platform.

2008 Game Developers Choice Awards find their deserving owners

Here is the full list of Game Developers Choice Award. The ceremony also saw the Independent Game Festival winners crowned.

2007 Game of the Year

Portal (Valve)

Kim Swift, Erik Wolpaw

2007 Best Game Design

Portal (Valve)

Kim Swift, Realm Lovejoy, Paul Graham

2007 Best Visual Art

BioShock (2K Boston/2K Australia/2K Games)

Scott Sinclair, Shawn Robertson, Andrew James

2007 Best Technology

Crysis (Crytek/Electronic Arts)

Cevat Yerli, Douglas Binks, Timur Davidenko, Martin Mittring

2007 Best Writing

BioShock (2K Boston/2K Australia/2K Games)

Ken Levine, Emily Ridgway, Joe McDonagh, Susan O'Connor

2007 Best Audio

BioShock (2K Boston/2K Australia/2K Games)

Eric Brosius, Pat Balthrop, Emily Ridgway, Justin Mullins

2007 Best Debut

Crackdown (Real Time Worlds/Microsoft Game Studios)

Ramon Gonzalez, Violetta Sanchez, Rafael Diaz, Jose Guerra

2007 Innovation

Portal (Valve)

Kim Swift, Erik Wolpaw

2007 Best Handheld Game

The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass (Nintendo/Nintendo)

Eiji Aonuma

2007 Best Downloadable Game

flOw (thatgamecompany/Sony Computer Entertainment)

Kellee Santiago, Jenova Chen, Martin Middleton, Hao Cui, John Edwards, Nick Clark

More Alien news from SEGA

As it turns out Sega did not only acquired the rights for Aliens: Colonial marines, but the rights for other Alien games based on the franchise's entire movie line-up. So, there will be more games coming along with Colonial Marines. In fact, there is already an RPG game by Obsidian Entertainment in works.

Like it wasn't bad enough the first time

Variety magazine recently reported that Hollywood is about to insert another coin in the Street Fighter machine. The magazine even listed some names to be cast in the up coming "horror fest". We will see how the movie turns out as the film's leading lady role of Chun Li has gone to Kristen Kreuk (Smallville, EuroTrip, pictured right), with Michael Clarke Duncan (The Green Mile, Daredevil) lacing up the boots as fearless fighter Balrog. A pair of brawlers from the Street Fighter Alpha series of games has also been cast, as Chris Klein (American Pie, Rollerball) will play Guile's doomed friend Nash, while Rick Yune (The Fast and the Furious, Alone in the Dark II) portrays the mystical elderly fighter Gen.
Variety also reported on a handful of other actors signed on to the project for unspecified roles. Those include Shaw Bros. legend Chang Pei Pei (Come Drink With Me, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon), Moon Bloodgood (Journeyman, Pathfinder), Edmund Chen (Turn Left, Turn Right, the original Hong Kong version of The Eye), and Black Eyed Peas member Taboo.
Now when I see that a movie actually has cast Taboo from B.E.P, I start doubting its integrity and common sense on picking talent... Thus I believe this film to be next years top Razzie nominee.

Somebody shoot my eyes out please!!

Uwe Boll (the man responsible for abominations such as Alone in the Dark,and House Of The Dead) is holding the right for Far Cry movie. Here is a link to view a trailer of the movie: http://www.gametrailers.com/player/30630.html
Please be advised: In the event that any viewers feel like shooting themselves, we are not responsible. Enjoy the trailer, if you are able to.

Blu is the way to go!!!!

Last week Wal-Mart announced that its stores will no longer carry Hd-DVD's following Netflix and BestBuy. Also Toshiba seems to have thrown in the towel as it is reportedly planning to close its Northern Japan factories and preparing to take a hit in North America which is estimated to be around hundreds of millions of US Dollars. Meanwhile it is also reported that Sony and its Blu-Ray buddies are getting down with B's and H's.

Today Microsoft spokespersons announced the fall of HD DVD is not a problem to 360, "because it is games that sell consoles, not movies." (Although I think a certain cube shaped console would probably disagree)

Corporal Hicks reporting for duty!!

The cancelled 2002 PS2 project by EA and now gone Fox-Interactive called Aliens: Colonial Marines is rumored to be making a return 7 years later on PS3, 360 and PC. So far there are not that many news or leads to go on other than the game is being developed by Gearbox(makers of Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway) and published by SEGA, but as soon as there is anything to post, it will be here on Know Thy Game: The 11th Commandment. Watch for March issue of GameInformer. "Picture source: Gamespot"

Co-op the dying breed

I remember back in the late 80's and early 90's, everytime my brother took me to arcades, I would make my way to Final Fight console, to play aside others on the quest to save Haggar's daughter, or hang out at the TMNT's 4-player console...fun times. But in todays game releases, one of my favourite modes, co-op, seems to be getting less and less common, mainly due to online gaming's capability of keeping a full screenwhile playing with fellow game owners. Aside from a few games such as Halo 3, Gears of War or Resistance: FoM there aren't much choices left for me and my girlfriend to play together. Luckily some games such as Haze, are to come out later this year to keep us couples and friends happy. I hope one of these days a game maker reads an article like this, if not this one, and remember the good times, which would lead him to create a co-op side scroller or something. :)

Ps3 Sales are neck and neck with Wii

According to multiple sources(gameinformer, the-magicbox), numbers of the console hardware sales for January 2008 in US indicate the sales of PS3 has significantly increased after Warner Bros. and other publishers went Blu-ray exclusive...while sales of xbox360 fell behindby almost 40,000 consoles. Microsoft announced this was due to shortage of supplies.

Wii - 275,000
PS3 - 269,000
PS2 - 264,000
NDS - 251,000
PSP - 230,000
X360 - 230,000