BitSnark

Mass WTF’ery ensues… Click the link:

http://uk.xbox360.ign.com/articles/861/861688p1.html

I don’t see how they can do this properly to be honest, but it’ll be entertaining to watch them try.

They are determined to put Sonic into 3D aren’t they? Well, 2.5D at least. Early this morning, screenshots and a teaser trailer appeared on the ‘net from what appeared to be Sonic’s newest adventure. The game, although not officially titled by Sega is known as Sonic Unleashed, a trademark that was filed bu Sega only very recently.

The game itself appears to be a mixture of 3D graphics locked on an 2D plane of movement, think of Pandemonium on the PSOne as a reference of sorts – in terms of possible platform destinations, the graphical quality on show would lead anyone with a set of eyes to see that the game could only be running on the 360 or PS3.

From the shots and teaser that I have seen the game looks quitely promising. Gone is the full 3D gameplay of previous sonic next-gen and last-gen failures, replaced with something that is more akin to the Sonic experience that people fell in love with in the first place, but mixed with typical next-gen sheen. It reminds me of the kind of reworking that Street Fighter IV got in relation to it’s older brothers, difference being here however is that Sega has a LOT to prove when it comes to a new Sonic game.

Shots, teaser and article courtsey of 1up.com below:

http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3167059

Rockstar Games have announced that next Thursday, March 27th, they will debut the fourth and final trailer entitled ‘Good Lord, What Are You Doing’ which is otherwise known as ‘Everyone’s a Rat’.

The release of the trailer not only gives us the chance to salivate once more over Rockstar’s newest and greatest entry in their open world crime saga, it also provides us with a marker of sorts as the game itself is due almost one month later.

After a lengthy saga of refusals and condemnation by the BBFC, Rockstar’s appeal to the Video Appeal Committee has been upheld meaning that the game can finally get a release in the UK and Ireland.

However, critical praise for the title has been sparse to the say the least in the US, with many reviewers failing to see what the fuss is all about and even in some cases, saying that the first title is superior.

What do you guys think of this? Will any of you care, or is Manhunt 2 too 2007 to be worth a look?

$2 Billion dollars. Thats the amount of money that EA has offered the shareholders of Take2 for a successful takeover. While there has been no response from Take2 as of yet, I guess it’s just a matter of time. Bear in mind though, Take2 said that while they would enter into takeover talks with potential suitors such as EA, they would refrain on taking any action until their latest opus GTA IV, is in the sweaty paws of gamers.

Wow. EA *really* want Take2 and don’t like being denied 🙂

Mired in the afterbirth of a boring conference call, 2K Games announced that the sequel to multi-platinium selling original IP Bioshock, is currently in development and will arrive in 2009.

While no platforms were specified or any details leaked, it’s safe to assume that it’ll arrive on 360 and PC at the very least.

A Bioshock sequel eh? 2k Games, would ya kindly not screw it up fellas 🙂

*UPDATE*

Also confirmed was the fact that Irrational Games (now known as 2K Boston), developers of the original, will NOT be reprising their duties here, instead handing it over to newly formed studio 2K Marin. It was also confirmed that Ken Levine will remain in the same capacity that he was in developing the first title.

While it may seem to some that the announcement was made perhaps a little prematurely, it’s makes sense from 2K’s point of view to make announcements of this caliber nice and early, so that they can they raise their share value and ward off potential takeover suitors, like oooh EA for example…

Effective this Friday, Microsoft will lower the price of all 360 SKU’s in the UK. The arcade system will drop from £199.99 to £159.99, making it the cheapest next-gen (current gen now surely?) console available – cheaper than even Ninetndo’s Wii console. The premium SKU also enjoys a reduction from £249.99 to a very reasonable £199.99, and finally, the elite SKU gets in on the price cut action being slashed from £299.99 down to £259.99.

While this should help stimulate sales in a format that has seen it’s momentum slow somewhat over the last couple of months with Sony’s PS3 catching up, Microsoft need to ensure that it’s backed up with decent enough bundles in store to make sure that the consumer is throwing the sterling in their direction.

Sony and Nintendo haven’t yet responded to the drop in any shape or form – and it’s unlikely that they will, with the Wii still enjoying stellar sales at it’s pricepoint and unique motion control offering and Sony selling their machines decently enough at their current pricepoint also.

Anyways, for those of you who don’t have a 360, now is your time to pick one up without any excuses… Unless of course you don’t like playing decent games 🙂

In perhaps blowing the top of the industy’s worst kept secret, IGN and various other sources this afternoon have confirmed that Microsoft are in talks with rival Sony in regards to the Redmond giant supporting the dominant HD format.

“We’ve already been working on, for example, in Windows, device driver support for Blu-ray drives and the like, and I think the world moves on. Toshiba has moved on. We’ve moved on, and we’ll support Blu-ray in ways that make sense,”

Yup, that little bit of humble pie eating comes from Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer who at the Mix08 internet conference which was held in Las Vegas, let it slip that Microsoft was courting Sony for a partnership on Blu-Ray integration into future MS products.

From the gaming perspective this really isn’t such a great deal as people would think?

The reason? Have a whole bunch:

– The integration of a Blu-Ray drive into the 360 hardware would create a diliemma for MS – the cost of inclusion would make the machine higher priced than that of the PS3 (their main rival in many demographics), or would they bite the bullet on cost and go back into the red again with each machine sold?

– Blu-Ray storage capacity for games is often overstated in terms of what it brings to the table.

– For those who have a 360 already, how much will MS charge you for the add-on drive? £100? £150?

While it’s all conjecture at this point excatly what the partnership would entail should it come to fruition, one thing is for sure – we’ll probably hear something more concrete at E3.

Don’t expect Kaz Harai and Bill Gates to be shaking hands though.

It would seem that there is no removeable media big enough to house Metal Gear Solid 4, and this little nugget of wisdom comes from the horses mouth, none other than Hideo Kojima himself.

There’s been a lot of talk about how *big* the game is going to be and what masses of content he must be struggling with to squeeze into Sony’s 47GB disc. In reality though, it can’t be the gameplay elements that are on the cutting floor (one would hope not anyway), but rather more cut-scenes and other crazy exposition like oh, I dunno, a weapons dealer with a pet monkey for instance…

More storage space for gameplay? Fine.

More storage space for cut-scenes? No thanks, we’d like some gameplay with our movie please.

Which one do you think will be taking up the most space on the disc when it comes out?

Oh yeah, you guys wanted to know about the release date. It’s currently slated for June 12th in all territories.

Get your Blu-Ray movie remotes at the ready folks.

1UP.com is reporting today that users that have ‘customised’ their 360 chassis with their own art and textiles will recieve their unit back but sans the art that was originally present.

Apparently, the machines come back with smudges where the art used to be.

Needless to say, my girlfriend will be less than happy about this, but then again, what would you prefer – a pretty 360 with three red lights or a working, alabeit smudged 360 that actually works?

Linkage for those intrested below:

http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3166762