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Sometimes you see a game trailer that just renews your faith in the industry.  Such is the case with this teaser for Brutal Legend, the latest from Tim Schafer and his Double Fine Productions.  Yes, I know it’s a CG trailer, but the insane genius on display here cannot be denied.  Equal parts God of War, Guitar Hero, and Heavy Metal, Brutal Legend promises to be one of the most hilarious and imaginative games of next year.  Toss in the voice talents of actor/comedian Jack Black and a horde of heavy metal rockers, remind yourself that Schafer is the guy behind PC classics Full Throttle and Grim Fandango, as well as last generation’s underplayed platforming gem, Psychonauts, and you have the recipe for a truly special gaming experience. 

Brutal Legend is slated to hit the Xbox 360 and PS3 next year.  Inexplicably, the game’s Wikipedia entry is the only place online that has some solid info on the game, so check out the link below.

Read More | Brutal Legend's Wikipedia entry

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Bionic Commando screen

Remember Bionic Commando?  The classic NES side scroller, which introduced a grappling gun to the system’s action-adventure slate, blew us all away with its sheer difficulty when it debuted in 1988.  Popular with gamers and critics, Bionic Commando pretty much disappeared, only to resurface as a GameBoy and GameBoy color game.  Gamers were left to pray to the Capcom gods for a sequel.

Well, Capcom has answered, announcing that a new Bionic Commando is on the way to the Xbox 360, PS3, and PC.  Little is known about the game except that it will be developed internationally; indeed this new iteration is being produced by Capcom America, creatively advised upon by Capcom Japan, and actually developed by a Swedish studio called GRIN.  Oh, and fear not…the game’s storyline will be as ridiculous as ever.

Read More | GameSpot

The developers of Assassin’s Creed have always boasted of their game’s high level of environmental interaction.  They claim that every wall, object, or person in their highly anticipated Xbox 360/PS3/PC action-adventure game can be scaled, moved, or shoved.  And now here’s the video to prove it.  Watch Altair (the game’s featured assassin) try to escape the city’s guards by running, climbing, and jumping all over this Middle Aged playground, and kindly ignore the futuristic glitches and flashes that hint at a more mysterious storyline that Ubisoft will not divulge.  Gape at the mind-boggling geometry that for once actually does permit the level of interaction promised by its enthusiastic creators.  Raise an eyebrow at the anachronistic Hans Zimmer-esque musical score.  Breathe a sigh of relief that this long in development game looks like it could conceivably hit that once nigh-unhittable November release date. 

Read More | IGN

Latest Gear Live Videos

fatal frame coverTecmo has announced that the next installment of its Fatal Frame horror series is in development for the Wii.  The earlier games didn’t sell especially well upon release but have amassed a sizable cult following, or so I gather from the growing number of GameStops that have been unable to sell me a copy over the years.  Now, with the burgeoning Wii phenomenon upon us, Tecmo has seen a way to give its underexposed franchise a second chance.  You can certainly see where Tecmo is coming from, as snapping photos of ghosts is a staple game mechanic of the series, one that seems like a perfect fit for the Wii’s motion controls.

Interestingly, Tecmo has enlisted Grasshopper Manufacture to produce the game; Grasshopper is the studio behind Killer 7 and next year’s sure-to-be-bizarre Wii actioner, No More Heroes.  Tecmo has remained mum on the subject of release dates, but for now just add Fatal Frame to the growing list of promising third-party Wii games.

Read More | 1UP

Saints Row 2 Logo

THQ announced that sequel to the GTA-style next gen game Saints Row is in the works. Saints Row was an Xbox 360 exclusive that followed the criminal underworld/open world model of Rockstar‘s key franchise pretty closely but included a character generator and several minor improvements that made it a hit with early 360 adopters.

Saints Row 2 takes place years after the original in the same city (Stillwater), but things have changed with the passage of time. As described in the press release, “Saints Row 2 has a much darker and more sinister story that leads your character down a path of betrayal, revenge and redemption against the city that has left him for dead.”

Unlike the original, which was a 360 exclusive, Saints Row 2 will be released on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 sometime in 2008.

Read More | Business Wire via GamerNode


MGS4 picKonami has announced that the PS3 game the whole world wants will be playable on the showfloor of this year’s Tokyo Game Show, which kicks off later this week.  That’s right, Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots will make its playable debut to the tune of fifty demo kiosks at Konami’s booth.  Knowing the history of the franchise, you have to wonder if a PSN demo isn’t too far behind.

Drool over impressions of Metal Gear Solid 4 in the next week.  Finally break down and buy the game and that damned PS3 (it’s exclusive, kids) when the game is released next year.

Read More | Kotaku via Gamefront

Forgive yourself if you mistake the opening of Bioware‘s upcoming Xbox 360 RPG for an early peek at Ridley Scott’s interstellar follow-up to Blade Runner.  From the woozy synth-phonic score, to the pre-credit crawl that leads into the main title reveal, to the camera movements that just feel so [i]right[/i], Mass Effect oozes pure cinematic goodness.  Those of you who don’t want to know anything about the game before playing it should stay away from the above video.  For everyone else, however, this is a must-see, if for no other reason than it provides us with our first glance at a created character who doesn’t look like the bald space marine Bioware has used to promote the game so far.

Mass Effect is sure to be one of this year’s biggest games when it hits the Xbox 360 on November 20th.

Read More | Bioware

Rez HD pic

There once was a game named Rez.  Developed by Tetsuya Mizguchi’s division within Sega, Rez was a hybrid music-shooter for Dreamcast and PS2 that sputtered in sales but turned some heads in the process.  Before long, the game was out of print and new copies were fetching a pretty penny on Ebay.  Many gamers kicked themselves over that twenty-dollar copy that they didn’t pick up at the time, because now the chance to play the game was pretty much gone.

Well now we all get a second chance.  Mizguchi, now of Q Entertainment (who brought us Lumines), has announced that Rez HD is coming to Xbox Live Arcade

“We are excited to announce that Rez will be given a new life, this time in digital form. The game will be presented in hi-definition and will be accessible to those who did not have a chance to experience Rez the first time around,” said Mizuguchi. “Personally, Rez has been and will always be a lifelong concept. I hope to take what I learned from the experience of creating the original game and look forward to taking it to a whole new level in the future.”

Featuring 5.1 sound and the usual HD enhancements, Rez HD will hit XBLA early next year.

Read More | 1UP

CastlevaniaKoji Igarashi, creator of the popular Castlevania franchise, is featured in an interview with Game Informer where he talks about what’s next for the series.

[Next,] I will be working on a DS version, but I am thinking of moving to the home consoles for the future. I will continue to use 2D for the DS version, but I’m still trying to figure out which console to do the home console versions. I think the Xbox 360 would be the best platform for the U.S. market.

Another DS Castlevania wasn’t really a bold prediction, but focusing on the 360 is a little unexpected. Igarashi goes on to clarify, “The U.S. market is the biggest market for the Castlevania series, so I will give the first priority to the U.S. market. The platform will be the Xbox 360, since the PS3 isn’t doing well everywhere in the world.” He does later suggest that he thinks Metal Gear Solid 4 could easily increase the PS3 base in the US which would make it more attractive as a target for a Castlevania game.

As for the Wii, which represents an even larger market than 360, Igarashi says he hasn’t quite figured out how to make the gesture controls work with the game saying that the motion for cracking a whip might be too hard on users but some kind of abstraction would be “not so good.” “I will have to think about a way to accomplish this,” he concludes.

Read More | Game Informer

Ninja Gaiden 2 pic

Wow, these came out of nowhere.  Xbox Japan has posted the first screens of the highly anticipated Xbox 360 action sequel.  Things have been so quiet on the game’s development front that some of us were wondering if it was even happening.  Well wonder no longer.  Judging a game’s graphical finesse on a handful of still shots is always a fool’s errand, but I’ll bite anyway.  Ninja Gaiden 2 is looking nice…really nice.  The game doesn’t look like a monumental jump technically over Ninja Gaiden Sigma, but then remember the finesse and the still shots and the fool’s errand thing.  Itagaki’s latest will surely be a thing of beauty in motion.  For now, enjoy this little taste and expect to hear a lot more at this month’s Tokyo Game Show.  Oh, and hit the link for the rest of the screens, and gallons of arterial spray.

Read More | NeoGAF

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