The Games of PlayStation 3: Uncovered!

[Cid Highwind]

Here are the games PS3 is supposedly gonna release, ofcourse nothing is sure yet, but these should be correct!
30 Titles Confirmed!


6GUN II
Publisher: TBA
Developer: BattleBorne Entertainment
Genre: Tactical Third-Person Shooter
Release Date: TBA 2007

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Story: Though the first 6GUN isn't even out for the current generation of systems yet, Nevada-based BattleBorne Entertainment is already prepping the PS3 follow-up for 2007. Regrettably little else has been revealed about either game up to this point, so there isn't really much else to talk about. The only remaining details that we know is that the franchise will be similar in concept to THQ's tactical shooter Full Spectrum Warrior and that the PS3 version will run on a brand new proprietary engine that's been codenamed Raptor.


Avalon
Publisher: TBA
Developer: Climax Studios
Genre: Vehicular Shooter
Release Date: TBA

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Story: The same Brighton team that was responsible for the popular MotoGP series has been working on its first next-generation title for the last two years. Known as Avalon, Climax Studio's PS3 and Xbox 360 combat racer is quickly nearing completion. Running on a combination of the company's Blimey 2 engine and the Tomcat Toolset, Avalon is said to built along the same lines as games such as Twisted Metal and Full Auto, only with piloted vehicles available for the land, sea, and air.

Despite the game's advanced developmental maturity, however, Avalon has still never been seen in any capacity outside of Climax's internal studio. This means that the project's artstyle, feature set, and conceptual designs are still impossible to know. Nonetheless, Climax has at least confirmed that Avalon will boast a number of popular graphical effects including real-time shading and normal mapping, bloom lighting and vivid rendering, and DYNE physics reactions. Last but not least, Avalon will also support several online networking options for competitive play. Expect to hear more on this one fairly shortly.


Dark Sector
Publisher: TBA
Developer: Digital Extremes
Genre: Stealth Action
Release Date: TBA

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Story: The very first next-generation game to actually be seen, Dark Sector is still surprisingly enigmatic. Created by the same team responsible for this year's Xbox favorite Pariah, Dark Sector is a brand new stealth action title that follows an intergalactic spy-type named Hayden. From what we can gather by watching the trailers so far, Hayden is charged with traveling to Pluto so that he and his kind (whoever they may be) can move on to an further mysterious place known as the "Dark Sector." As a stowaway on a really big spaceship, Hayden is guided by an off-screen female controller to help him find whatever it is he's looking for. But just like any good stealth game, Hayden gets discovered.

From that moment on, it appears that our protagonist will have a number of special abilities that can be accessed through the use of his armored suit. Creating force fields, turning invisible, and hacking into other machines so that he can control them are the powers that we've seen so far -- and we've even seen a few examples of Hayden telekinetically stealing enemy weapons and employing a dual pistol "bullet time" technique.

Unfortunately, the cold hard facts about Dark Sector are still forthcoming. Whether or not the game plays like Metal Gear Solid or Splinter Cell like the movies suggest are nothing but pure speculation right now. We also don't know what kind of perspective the final game will eventually employ (first, third, multi-angled?) and how much control over hacked machines that you'll gain. Given the relative age of Dark Sector and the fact that there's more footage of the game available than any other confirmed PS3 game, we expect its mysterious status to change rather shortly.


The Darkness
Publisher: Majesco
Developer: Starbreeze Studios
Genre: Action
Release Date: TBA 2006

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Story: Majesco's The Darkness was one of the first next-gen titles that the world found out about, and as a result, we know a little more about this one comparatively. To start, the premise is based on the Top Cow comic book of the same name -- telling the story of mafia hitman Jackie Estacado and the curse he's forced to live with.

You see, on Jackie's 21st birthday he's suddenly possessed by an unknown power known as "The Darkness," and from the moment on he finds himself at war with his former employers in the Franchetti crime family and its boss, Cousin Paulie. Naturally, a big part of the game's storyline will be how Jackie struggles with the sentient Darkness while simultaneously battling the Franchettis, as well as fleshing out the backstory of the Darkness itself.


Devil May Cry 4
Publisher: Capcom
Developer: Capcom
Genre: Action
Release Date: TBA

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Story: Talk about your obscure confirmations. The only thing we know about Devil May Cry 4 at this point is that the line "We are born, the innocent suffer, legends are made, evil is punished" appears as the tagline and that a very high-res Dante is standing in front of an ancient castle obscured by a snowstorm. Everything else about the game is a complete and total secret, and with a release date that has yet to be disclosed there's no telling how long it will be again before we hear anything else.


EA Sports Fight Night Round 3
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Developer: EA Chicago
Genre: Sports (Boxing)
Release Date: TBA

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Story: One of the best-looking PS3 games on display at Sony's E3 press conference was EA Chicago's boxing sequel, EA Sports Fight Night Round 3. The first and only confirmed PlayStation 3 title by Electronic Arts so far, Fight Night Round 3 had plenty of cool features to show off (like the brand new one-handed push off move and a few new punch animations). But it was the facial features and the emotion shown on top of them that was the biggest hit with the crowd. As an example, both pugilists showed real anger when rearing up for devastating punches and followed them up with expressions of pain, confusion, and arrogance.

Game designer Kudo Tsunoda went on to mention that Round 3 will also boast the best physics of any boxing game to date -- with individual reactions to whichever part of the body or face is struck depending on the angle and power of the punch. Gameplay differences compared to the first two titles weren't mentioned, so additions or subtractions in regards to the popular "Total Punch Control" feature are still up in the air.


Eyedentify
Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment
Developer: TBA
Genre: Camera and Voice-Controlled Adventure
Release Date: TBA

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Story: With the PS3's multiple technologies it only makes sense to want to use them, and that's exactly what Eyedentify aims to do with uses for both the HD-IP camera and the vocal headset attachment. Judging by the official teaser, the game looks like it will be a similar experience to Konami's PS2 title LifeLine... only this one's a lot more sophisticated.

In it, players will be able to use their headset to vocally command two smokin' hot female agents as they plant bombs, infiltrate places they aren't supposed to go, and perform other secret agent inspired tasks. The cool thing is that the HD-IP camera will allow users to put themselves in the game as well -- projecting their captured image into various designated hotspots. How much more there is to Eyedentify than that, we just don't know yet.

[Cid Highwind]

Fifth Phantom Saga
Publisher: SEGA
Developer: Sonic Team
Genre: First-Person Shooter
Release Date: TBA

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Story: Okay, so the idea behind Fifth Phantom Saga intrigues us but we're not exactly sure what to make of it yet. SEGA and Sonic Team's first PS3 title is a first-person shooter that allows players to command a Guyver-like apparition as a supplement to their very capable assault rifle. And while details pertaining to how this guy works are still under wraps, we can tell by the video that the blue specter dude is imperative when it comes to solving environmental puzzles (in the teaser, the apparition deactivates a force field, moves a couple of boxes, and takes care of some enemies out of range in a nearby alleyway). Sadly, that's all we know for now. But on a more entertaining note, did anyone else notice that this is an FPS whose initials are also FPS? No? Okay, so it's just us then.



Final Fantasy PS3
Publisher: Square Enix
Developer: Square Enix
Genre: RPG
Release Date: TBA

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Story: Much to the dismay of the 2000-plus people in attendance at Sony's E3 2005 press conference, the next Final Fantasy game won't be a remake based on the FF7 Tech Demo used to show off Square's programming chops, but rather an all-new title designed specifically for the PlayStation 3. Confirmed to be in development by Square Enix President Yoichi Wada, the first next-gen FF will likely be Final Fantasy XIII. But until any official details about the story, release date, and mechanics come to light, no other information other the game's eventual existence is currently unknown.



Formula One PS3
Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment
Developer: SCE Studios Liverpool
Genre: Racing
Release Date: TBA

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Story: The first of several trailers that showcased the next generation of videogames after Sony Europe's tech demos, Formula One PS3 is one of the most difficult games to judge. Like a few of the other titles on our list, we're still unsure how much of F1's high-speed trailer was real or rendered. But regardless of the truth, it still gave us a good idea of what to expect in game's the final version (such as drivers celebrating their victories with champagne after a race and axles breaking individually while taking bad turns). Sony Europe is also claiming that when completed, Formula One will make groundbreaking advances in AI and physics calculations -- and if the whole thing turns out anything like the trailer, we'll believe it.



The Getaway PS3
Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment
Developer: SCE Studios Soho
Genre: Action
Release Date: TBA

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Story: In the UK, Sony's The Getaway franchise is one of the most successful PS2 series around. And with the announcement that there's already a PS3 version of the game in the works, our European buddies have been begging us for new information since the news of its existence first hit. Sadly, there's really nothing to report about it right now other than the fact that the early movies of the game's environments are stunningly beautiful. Almost an exact replica of London's Regent Street, the single stage that Sony showed off at its E3 press conference was almost photo-realistic. We can only hope that the gameplay will match.



Heavenly Sword
Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment
Developer: Ninja Theory
Genre: Action
Release Date: TBA

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Story: Originally thought to be an Xbox 360 game by Microsoft fans, Heavenly Sword is in all actuality a PlayStation 3 exclusive. Developed by the same team that did the quirky party-oriented actioner Kung Fu Chaos, this next generation ninja drama follows a warrior woman with only a few days left to live. Before she dies, the girl decides to enact one last good deed by taking out a ruthless king and his invading army. Along the way players will explore a multitude of environments that include wasted battlefields, forested treetops, watery rivers, and even the heavens themselves.

The most interesting aspect of Heavenly Sword, though, is its complex battle system and enemy behavior. As not only will each enemy employ a number of multifaceted cinematic attacks, but the heroine herself will be able to battle them via an innovative freestyle combat system. This means that not only will the she-ninja be able to swap between multiple sword types and other weapons on the fly, but also be able to engage her foes in one-on-one battles, dozen-enemy skirmishes, or even take on several thousand soldiers at once. Players can expect a state of the art physics system and destructible landscapes as well.



I-8
Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment
Developer: Insomniac Games
Genre: First-Person Shooter
Release Date: TBA

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Story: For proof that the guys at Insomniac love first-person shooters, all you have to do is look at their history. The group's very first videogame, after all, was the PSOne classic Disruptor, and last year's Up Your Arsenal and the forthcoming Ratchet: Deadlocked are both very heavy on the FPS elements. But with its initial PlayStation 3 blaster simply entitled I-8, Insomniac has finally gotten the chance to create its first full-fledged shooter since Disruptor debuted almost ten years ago.

One of the few PS3 trailers from Sony's E3 press conference that's actually running in real time, I-8 (not the final title, but a codename to represent the fact that it's Insomniac's eighth project) looks like a cross between Call of Duty and DOOM. There are dozens of allied soldiers on the screen at the same time, and plenty of bizarre-looking alien things for them to battle against. Of the stages shown (a village, several forest areas, abandoned roadways), each and every one seems to have some sort of limited environmental destructibility and the end of the trailer boasts a very cool Starship Troopers-like spider creature. Sadly, details outside of the video teaser just don't exist yet.



Infraworld
Publisher: TBA
Developer: Quantic Dream
Genre: Action
Release Date: TBA

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Story: One of two confirmed PlayStation 3 games that Quantic Dream is currently building, Infraworld is one of the most mystifying titles on our list. In fact, the game is so shrouded in secrecy that we know absolutely nothing about its storyline, visual style, or concept. The only thing we do know is that it runs on Quantic's proprietary next-gen gaming engine and that it features AGEIA's recently popular accelerated physics technology. We also know that Infraworld boasts "action-oriented features" of some sort. Celebration!

[Cid Highwind]

Killing Day
Publisher: Ubisoft
Developer: TBA
Genre: First-Person Shooter
Release Date: TBA

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Story: Ubisoft's only confirmed PlayStation 3 title joins dozens of other games in being mysterious. Granted, we don't know very much about Killing Day right now, but that doesn't mean that there isn't at least a little bit to talk about. The game's focus, for instance, is obviously going to be that of a first-person shooter with a gruff and tattooed lead character. Additionally, the environments appear to be highly destructible (exploding popcorn carts anyone?) and the enemies bleed a whole lot when you shoot them. Also confirmed is the ability to dual-wield certain pieces of your arsenal (including the only revealed weapon thus far, automatic handguns) and a level that resembles a three-story mall. See? We told you there was stuff to talk about!



Killzone PS3
Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment
Developer: Guerilla Games
Genre: First-Person Shooter
Release Date: TBA

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Story: It's currently unknown if Killzone PS3 will eventually become Killzone 2 or something else entirely, but one thing's for sure: the war with the Helghast will definitely continue on the PlayStation 3. Rather than just recreate the gameplay elements of the first Killzone while giving it a better coat of paint, however, developer Guerilla Games is already working on specific mechanical improvements to make it a more complete experience.

Interaction between you and your NPC cohorts, for example, will be a lot more realistic. People will help each other during battle by dragging the injured out of a firefight or by tossing you an extra weapon if you run out of ammo. Characters will be entirely aware of their environment and surroundings too, and they'll even have sophisticated adaptation behaviors that help them respond to problems on the fly. Finally, all of these reactions will be played out emotionally on each of your teammate's faces and the direction of the action will be a lot more cinematic along the way.

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But that's not all. A few other gameplay tidbits have been confirmed as well. The progression of each level, for instance, will be completely non-linear and will boast a number of destructible objects and environments. Additionally, users will be able to command a multitude of vehicles through the land, sea, and air, and even be able to customize the specifics of their online play.

Despite the above details, however, the biggest controversy about the game has been the nature of the drop-dead gorgeous trailer that ran at Sony's E3 press conference. Is it real-time or is it rendered? The official answer from SCEA Vice President Jack Tretton is that it was real and actual gameplay, but SCEE Executive VP of Development Phil Harrison has stated that some of the trailers during the presentation were rendered using in-game assets. We're leaning towards Harrison's answer right now until we can play the game for ourselves -- but either way, the trailer rocked.



Metal Gear Solid 4
Publisher: Konami Digital Entertainment
Developer: Kojima Productions
Genre: Stealth Action
Release Date: TBA 2007

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Story: The most popular PS3 game to come out E3 2005 was undoubtedly Metal Gear Solid 4. In development by Hideo Kojima's newly-formed creation studio Kojima Productions, MGS4 will take place three years after Sons of Liberty and introduce a game concept not yet explored by the series: "nowhere to hide." Additionally, there will be an online battle mode included for the final version and Solid Snake will be the main character once again.

Remaining details about the game are harder to find than Snake using a cloaking device, but press materials have confirmed at least seven more characters that will appear. Vamp, Meryl Silverberg, Revolver Ocelot, Otacon, and Raiden are the ones we can recognize without any trouble, while two remaining players look eerily similar to Big Boss and Naomi Hunter. In a recent interview with IGN, Kojima also acknowledged that the first official trailer provides several hints regarding MGS4's eventual gameplay mechanics -- the Russian symbol on Snake's uniform and the use of disguises were the moments we found most interesting. Of course, we still have a long way to go before we learn any more.



Mobile Suit Gundam
Publisher: Bandai
Developer: TBA
Genre: Unknown
Release Date: TBA

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Story: Bandai knows how to keep quiet, as next to nothing about the PlayStation 3 version of Mobile Suit Gundam is known right now. To be truthful, the only thing we can really confirm is that a Gundam of some type will be in it -- that's about it. Naturally, we think that Sony's E3 press conference may provide some clues as to what to expect, with the appearances of GM Mobile Suits, multiple Zakus, a Gun Tank, a Zauf Custom, and the RX-78 among them. But can we assume that all of these units will make the final roster? Does all the gunfire mean that the game will be shooting-oriented in nature? Frankly, we'll just have to wait to find out.



MotorStorm
Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment
Developer: Evolution Studios
Genre: Racing
Release Date: TBA

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Story: Developed by the WRC team at Evolution Studios, MotorStorm was one of the biggest hits of Sony's 2005 E3 press conference. Though questions swirl about how much footage was in-game and how much was rendered, the trailer itself was still one of the most impressive PS3 displays we've seen. Plus, the fact that the game is 100% PlayStation 3 exclusive is enough to garner even more interest.

As for the gameplay, the teaser hints at some truly vicious off-road racing (which the development team has also confirmed as "brutal"). The environment will play a big role in the progression of a race too, as mud, grit, and oil changing the landscape on a regular basis. What's more is that players can choose whatever vehicles they want and pit them up against whatever opponents they want -- ATVs, dirt bikes, sand rails, monster trucks, tally cars, and a bunch of other unnamed vehicles among them. Expect plenty of horseplay and an absolute disregard for rules.



Ni-Oh
Publisher: KOEI
Developer: KOEI
Genre: Action
Release Date: Summer 2006

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Story Formerly known as Akira Kurosawa's Oni, Ni-Oh is KOEI's first PS3 title and is being described as "the ultimate in historical action." What that actually means is anybody's guess, but given KOEI's history with games like Dynasty Warriors, Samurai Warriors, and Crimson Sea, you can bet that Ni-Oh will have lots of guys onscreen with plenty of hacking and slashing to go along with them.

In fact, the official E3 trailer alluded to this very type of gameplay, as the blonde-haired / blue-eyed main character sliced the living crap out dozens of Japanese warriors. Blood was shed and combos were everywhere. The most interesting moments of that teaser, though, were the bizarre bull-like creatures that were fighting against the humans. What are they? Where are they from? And will they have any bearing on the gameplay other than just being enemies? Right now, we just don't know.



Omikron 2
Publisher: TBA
Developer: Quantic Dream
Genre: Unknown
Release Date: TBA

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Story: Like Quantic Dream's other game Infraworld, almost nothing about Omikron 2 has publicly been revealed. Screenshots, movies, and technology demos don't even exist yet because the game is still in its conceptual and design doc stages. In fact, the only thing about Omikron 2 that its production team will confirm is that it's currently in development for the PC, PS3, and Xbox 360, and that it will run on Quantic's proprietary next-gen game engine. The original Omikron was released way back in 1999 for the Dreamcast and PC, and started the likeness and music of David Bowie. It mixed just about every single genre conceivable at the time but was primarily a first-person RPG. Whether Omikron 2 will continue that sort of direction is as of yet, still unknown.

[Cid Highwind]

Possession
Publisher: TBA
Developer: Blitz Games
Genre: Real-Time Strategy
Release Date: TBA 2007

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Story: It's quite possible that Blitz Games' Possession is the PS3 title that we know the most about. Not scheduled for release until sometime in 2007, the zombie-themed RTS pays homage to several well-known films about the undead. Possession's storyline, for instance, is ripped right out of 28 Days Later; as it follows four activists into a secret research facility where they unwittingly unleash deadly chemicals that turn them into flesh-eating zombies. Afterwards, players take control of the leader (known as "The Enslaver") and use him to command a legion of rotting corpses against the city in an effort to ruin the world. Happy times, no?

The city itself will be pretty expansive (measuring eight kilometers long and six kilometers wide) and boast three main neighborhoods: the suburbs, downtown, and the corporate district. The whole goal of the game is to infect as many humans as possible so they'll join your army, which you can then use to kill more people, grow bigger, and repeat. Along the way you'll be met by the military, police officers, and plenty of other concerned citizens who just so happen to boast weapons like machine guns, pistols, and rocket launchers. Additionally, controls will be simple and are to be designed specifically around the use of a gamepad, and your victims will transform into five specific zombie types.

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Possession's most basic type, will be the shambler -- the slow-moving clumsy dead dude that we're all familiar with. Next up are the runners who, like the bad guys of 28 Days Later, can move at high speed and will be able to compete with even the fastest escaping human. Moving forward, Bloaters are essentially walking zombie bombs that explode with infectious destruction when they reach their targets, and shredders can restructure their own flesh to become deadly pack hunters that can climb any surface. This class also has an unusual first-person mode can be used to identify various enemy threats, so you can think of them as your Special Forces units. The last undead class is known as "The Monster," and is for all intents and purposes, a 10-foot tall zombie tank. And while monsters can throw cars and crowds of people around with almost no effort at all, they can't infect people with the zombie virus as other divisions can. There you have your trade-off.

The final aspects to Possession are what we'd expect in any next-gen zombie game -- environments are destructible, neighborhoods live and breathe in a similar way to the Grand Theft Auto games, and there's a definite online multiplayer component. The only questions that remain are the finer points: How good will it look and how fun will it be? Luckily, the next two years should hold the answer.



Project Delta
Publisher: TBA
Developer: Playlogic International
Genre: Tactical First-Person Shooter
Release Date: TBA 2006

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Story Pretend for a moment that you're an elite solider thrust into the middle of an alien invasion and you have the general premise of Playlogic's Project Delta. Originally planned as a PS2 and Xbox game, development was switched to next-gen late last year when the team realized that its ambitions were far too big for current platforms (Onimusha flashbacks anyone?). Despite this move to superior hardware, though, Playlogic maintains that one of its coolest features is the narrative written by the same guy that did the Broken Sword series. The team is also pretty high on the alien races themselves known as the Cryzen (made up of fluid metal bodies) and the Dorian (bald armored dudes).

Eventually the storyline gets a little more complicated when your main character is forced to travel 700 years into the past and battle alien enemies to change your planet's fate. Part of the fun here will be figuring out which encountered characters are foes and which ones are allies -- not to mention the level of strategy needed to tactically command your troops ala Rainbow Six. Each of your squadmates will have emotional responses to how you treat them during orders too, and they'll even be able to learn new skills and remember your behavior as the game goes on.



ShadowClan
Publisher: TBA
Developer: Tiger Hill Entertainment
Genre: Action/Adventure
Release Date: Spring 2007

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Story: Though actual screenshots of ShadowClan have yet to be revealed, there's a surprising amount of information available on it. For starters it's the brainchild of Tiger Hill Entertainment, the collaborative production studio created by the legendary action director John Woo and his buddies Terence Chang, David Wohl and Brad Foxhoven. Additionally, ShadowClan will feature both single-player and online multiplayer gameplay elements -- with users taking control of a skilled ninja warrior who can also command several AI characters.

The storyline will unfold in modern day New York City and the Big Apple's landscape will also play a prominent role in the flow of the game. So while your Ninja lead may use his combination of stealth and weaponplay to eliminate enemies, you'll also have to order NPC clan members to tactically attack rival territory. These gameplay nuances will continue online as well, where users will have to create their own gangs to take out their competitors. ShadowClan is also scheduled for an Xbox 360 release, but no differences between the versions are known at this time.



Tekken PS3
Publisher: Namco
Developer: Namco
Genre: Fighting
Release Date: TBA

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Story: Of all the confirmed PlayStation 3 games out there, Tekken PS3 is one of the most mysterious. Developed once again by the graphics experts at Namco, this latest edition of "The King of Iron Fist" will feature Jin Kazama and appear on the PS3... and that's about all there is to tell. Additional cast members, storyline details, and everything else about the game is still shrouded in secrecy (though we did hear one Japanese Namco rep mention that Tekken PS3 will be a fighter and not a Death by Degrees-type action game, so that's good news).



Vision GT
Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment
Developer: Polyphony Digital
Genre: Racing
Release Date: TBA

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Story: The Gran Turismo series has been one of the most successful franchises in the history of Sony's PlayStation, and if the past proves anything, Vision GT should continue that trend pretty effectively. Unfortunately, details about the gameplay are almost zero right now but at least we do know that Series Producer Kazunori Yamauchi wants to include real world collisions during crashes for the PS3 sequel -- but whether Yamauchi's hope becomes a reality when Vision GT eventually ships, however, remains to be seen.

It should be noted that for the purposes of the E3 trailer, Polyphony Digital ran Gran Turismo 4's car models and stages through the rough equivalent of early PS3 hardware to give viewers a general idea of what the next-gen GT could be like. One peak at El Capitan and the GT4 logos on the pit crew are enough to give that away. The most significant aspect of that trailer, though, is the fact that more than 20 cars were shown onscreen at the same time -- more than double GT4's current limit on the PlayStation 2.



Warhawk PS3
Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment
Developer: Incognito Entertainment
Genre: Unknown
Release Date: TBA

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Story: In the pre-production stages for quite some time, Warhawk PS3 is the follow-up to 1995's futuristic PSOne flight game of the same name. In the original, players took control of aviation partners Hatch and Walker as they piloted an experimental aircraft against the formidable forces of a madman named Kreel. How this storyline ties into the events of the new Warhawk (and whether or not the valuable Red Mercury substance will make its return) is still unknown. All that's confirmed at this point is that the game is being developed by the remnants of the original SingleTrac production team at Incog and that's about it. Nonetheless, the official E3 2005 Sony press conference trailer did hint that air and ground-based missions could both be a possibility (just watch the tactical shooter-like intro for proof).

[Cid Highwind]

Untitled DICE Projects (2)
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Developer: Digital Illusions CE
Genre: Unknown
Release Date: TBA 2006/TBA 2007

http://ps3media.ign.com/ps3/image/article/618/618430/the-games-of-playstation-3-uncovered-20050526062730122.jpg

Story: The Battlefield 1942 guys are already working on two PlayStation 3 games for the 2006/2007 shopping seasons, but that's about the only thing we know. Early speculation points to both of these titles being extensions of the Battlefield universe, but with no concrete proof it's nothing more than wishful thinking right now. The one thing we do know, however, is that the first next-gen game will be a port of a PS2 and Xbox title of the same name and that it will be released in late 2006/early 2007. The second game will be exclusive to the PS3 and Xbox 360 platforms and will hit store shelves before the end of 2007. Both titles are to be developed by DICE's Swedish studio.



Untitled KOEI Projects (2)
Publisher: KOEI
Developer: TBA
Genre: Unknown
Release Date: TBA

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Story: Confirmed to be in development by Director and Chief Advisor Kou Shibusawa at Sony's E3 press conference, two additional PlayStation 3 titles other than Ni-Oh are currently in production. No details about the pair were given, except that KOEI considers them both "large titles," and that they will present "all new kinds of entertainment." Let the guessing games begin!



Untitled Page 44 Hockey Project
Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment
Developer: Page 44 Studios
Genre: Sports
Release Date: TBA

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Story: The only details about Page 44 Studios' upcoming PlayStation 3 project is that it will be a cross-platform title with Sony's other two systems, the PSP and PS2, and that it is being considered a "Triple-A sports franchise." Given the history of Page 44's relationship with Sony, we were always guessing that the game was supposed to be all-new hockey sequel to the current Gretzky series. Later confirmation through job postings on Page 44's website confirmed that the game would indeed be a hockey title.



Untitled Rockstar Old West Project
Publisher: Rockstar Games
Developer: TBA
Genre: Unknown
Release Date: TBA

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Story: Shown in trailer form at Sony's E3 press conference, Rockstar's initial PS3 game has been kept intentionally unexplained. The video itself was less than a minute in overall length and showed a lone cowboy character checking out various Old West environments like ghost towns and desert hills. Early speculation pointed towards this game being a follow-up to 2004's Red Dead Revolver. But with no title attached to the teaser and Rockstar reps refusing to comment about it, the project's true identity and genre classification is still a mystery.



Untitled SCE London Project
Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment
Developer: TBA
Genre: Unknown
Release Date: TBA

http://ps3media.ign.com/ps3/image/article/618/618430/the-games-of-playstation-3-uncovered-20050526072321311.jpg

Story: Also known as "The Exploding Gas Station," SCE London's current videogame project has not been given an official title yet. Phila Harrison did use one of the game's environments during of the many tech demos at Sony's E3 press conference. So obviously, the only thing we know about the game at this point is that it has a gas station that explodes in it. Silly but true.



That concludes the more detailed games..

Confirmed for Next-Gen Development


There is no official affirmation that the following titles listed below will come to the PlayStation 3, but these are all real, live games that have been announced by various companies as unspecified "Next Generation" titles. Could some or all of these titles be heading to the PS3 for sure? Or will some of them appear exclusively for Microsoft's 360 or Nintendo's Revolution? We'll just have to wait and find out.

# 2 Days to Vegas (Steel Monkeys)
# 211 (Gaia Industries)
# Alan Wake (Remedy)
# Dirty Harry (The Collective)
# Indiana Jones (LucasArts)
# Metronome (Team Tarsier)
# Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (Eurocom)
# Project New Jersey (Obsidian Entertainment)
# Psychopath (Titan Productions)
# Section 8 (TimeGate)
# Spider-Man 3 (Activision)
# Stranglehold (Midway)
# Theseis (Track7 Games)
# Tracer (Gaia Industries)
# Unreal Tournament 2007
# WarDevil -- Unleash the Beast Within (Digi-Guys)
# Untitled Epic Games Project
# Untitled Spark Unlimited Project
# Untitled tri-Crescendo Project

[jackal]

good job cid :D

[HRBEK]

Hey nice work Cid!!! By the looks of things, there is no hope in Hell that I am waiting to get those games!!! The second they arrive here, I will have them, lol.

Thanks,
HRBEK.

[DayleJ]

not the most impressive line-up, a few decent titles.

[Nitrous]

not the most impressive line-up, a few decent titles.

I agree but I8 and Killzone 2 look impressive from what I have read and seen as for the next GT game lol, well I'd put money on that being good!

[Josh]

Cant wait for the next FF! Nice job Cid!

[~Felly~]

Good job,Cid. I want that FF game....and that pic..!!!!!!!!1

[HRBEK]

I like the sound of Psychopath.

Thanks,
HRBEK.

[~Felly~]

I like FF and ShadowClan. They both look cool.



@Cid-Thanks for the images..now i'm stealing them from ya...for sig uses.

[Annihilator Knight]

I like FF and ShadowClan. They both look cool.



@Cid-Thanks for the images..now i'm stealing them from ya...for sig uses.

*off and on topic?*
You can just go to Gamerenders, PlanetRenders, some place for images for sigs...

*on on topic*
Hmm...can't say i will get a PS3...but if i do i'll go nutz and buy everything..

Ps3 is now smoking Xbox 360 and Revolution with me and me friends..basicly we want PS3 the most..

[SephirothsCloud]

great list Cid, found the part about FF funny tho, seing as how ive been saying it was jsut a demo for around 2 months...

but YAY MGS4!

although i have no idea as to how they plan on bringing Vamp back seeing as how i blew him into high density water that drug him down to the bottom of the shell.....there was a lot of blood.....but Meryl!!!! yay i love Meryl! (maybe hell add a panty trick for me to play around with like in MGS1?) it was funny crawling through vents then you look down and are all like wtf? no pants....

hehe looks like Snakes been hit with Foxdie.

On a side note anyone confused about Snakes ratehr advanced age? Well i have the answer.

REmember in the Les enfants terribles project the clones were engineered to have shorter lifespans than a regular human, hence snakes advanced age.

[The Latias Master]

When is it out?

[Cid Highwind]

I just saw a MGS 4 Trailer for PS3!!
Snake looks so old hahahha, he has this grey moustache and grey hair.
And he lost an eye and got some kind of eye-machine thingie in the place :P

[The Latias Master]

Like Terminator? It better be better than MGS 3

[MORSN417]

i cant wait for MGS 4
and FF XIII

[Jdeadevil]

im gettin the new tekken when it comes out, tekken 5 was dead realistic enyway so tekken 6 will be ace i hope

[thegame]

Like Terminator? It better be better than MGS 3

Are you implying that MGS 3 is crap.

[Jdeadevil]

hey, he's got a point there

[Nitrous]

MGS games are not to everyones likes ya know. I for one think it's rubbish but the graphical detail is rather impressive. I got the offical PS2 mag yesterday just to read the BLACK review and play the demo and read a Review of Toca 3 but it had some rather good stuff on the PS3... most of it was journilst crap who dont know there arse from there elbow but the MOH Airbourn assult game thats heading for all consoles and the PS3 was rather impressive. Full facial expressions are being used and there are no invisible walls so you can go anywhere you like within reason.

[Jdeadevil]

i think the MGS games are good, MGS2's best thou, how can you not like it Nitrous Oxide?

[Nitrous]

Hey that Killingday or what ever it's called (see first page of thead) look rather good from the images and footage I've seen. Only problem is I suspect it was an interpritation of what they or we can expect the game to maybe look like on the PS3.

[Cid Highwind]

Taken off IGN.com

Brothers In Arms: Hells Highway
Taking the fight to the Nazis next-gen style. First footage and new screens included.


At Ubisoft's pre-E3 event there was a first look at Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway, which is the next chapter in the World War II-based franchise. Sure WWII shooters have been done before, but Brothers in Arms emphasized tactical strategy over reckless run and gun shooting using primary and secondary teams to eliminate threats. However, Hell's Highway isn't an expansion pack to the previous games; Gearbox has revamped a number of features that helped define the series thanks to the power of the next generation consoles and PCs.

Randy Pitchford, President and Director of Gearbox Software, laid out a little background behind Hell's Highway, which is set during Operation Market Garden. Initially designed by Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery to break the stalemate between Allied and German forces, Market Garden was a concerted push to capture key bridges that should've lead to a faster Allied victory. Instead, the Allies ran into some of the strongest opposition of the war, failed to take the key bridge at Arnhem and lost the British 1st Airborne Division. As Randy stated, "Normandy is kind of like Star Wars -- Carentan was the Death Star. Operation Market Garden is like Empire Strikes Back -- it's not so good for the good guys."

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In Hell's Highway, players will once again control Sergeant Matt Baker as he leads his platoon through the operation of Market Garden. Having been promoted and assigned to a recon unit, Baker, Sergeant Hartsock and the rest of the squad are sent into Market Garden via glider. However, Baker now has three squads to command in battle instead of a fire and an assault team. Depending on the objective, you may have a machine gun crew, a bazooka team, a mortar squad or a radio man that you can additionally use to wreak havoc on an enemy's location.

This opens up the way that you would previously play the game, and literally redefines the way that the Four Fs (Finding, Fixing, Flanking and Finishing an opposing force) are used. For instance, Randy related that you can setup the machine gun crew to continually suppress multiple enemy units, keeping them pinned down for fear of getting their head blown off. You could also use mortar crews to rain shells down on their head, use bazookas to destroy their cover, or have the radio man call in artillery strikes to obliterate dug-in soldiers. Environmental destruction plays a much larger role in Hell's Highway too, as structural shields like sheds, fences and other places can be ripped apart by fire from either side.

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This damage will take place on a much larger world map than was ever presented in the previous Brothers in Arms games that is completely accurate to the Market Garden locations as they existed during the operation. "In Normandy, we had to rely a lot on on-location surveys, eye witness accounts, we had about 30% coverage from aerial reconnaissance photos and they were all taken in May before the invasion," Randy said. "In Market Garden, they were a little more advanced, and they were flying spy planes daily, multiple times a day -- we have hour by hour [footage of] how the whole invasion unfolded." As a result, they took aerial photos of the locations and built their game maps on top of them to recreate the city in its entirety. The result is that the largest map in Road to Hill 30, by comparison, would only be the space of a city block or two in Hell's Highway. This means you've got a lot more freedom during a sortie to accomplish your mission. Gearbox has also done away with load times, presenting a seamless game environment as you explore the city streets and avoid incoming fire.

To this end, Gearbox has redone the AI for both friends and foes to provide more realistic combat conditions as the missions progress. Unlike the previous two games, where your troops were either being fired upon or simply exploring a map looking for a fight, Hell's Highway now has four levels of AI alertness. In a relaxed state, Randy explained with screenshots taken from the game's real-time engine, Baker's GIs might have their weapons slung over their shoulder and may spend some time talking to each other. In fact, you could walk behind a soldier and he might turn his head, recognizing that you were there, and start a conversation. German troops, by contrast, would most likely be in the midst of some kind of maintenance of their unit, either cleaning their guns, working on a machine or eating. When soldiers are in a patrol state, however, their weapons are at the ready to fire away at a moment's notice. The grunt knows that enemies might be around and even if you wind up walking behind him, the soldier may turn his head, but it'll swing back around to search for possible targets.

The stealth state further moves the soldier closer towards an opponent as quietly as possible, pressing up against cover and taking a knee to create as small of a target as they could. Randy explained that in this mode, soldiers could also lie prone as they waited for an attack. He also explained that troops will not fire their weapons until one of three things happen: they are given the command to fire, they are fired upon, or you open up with your weapon. With this, you can effectively surround a group of unsuspecting Germans and with a quick strike, wipe them out in the crossfire. Finally, in the combat state, a fellow soldier is fully focused on firing his weapon, and will not acknowledge your presence for any reason unless you yell a command to him.

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Along with a stronger AI, Gearbox is hoping to tie together the drama of war with a feature the developers are calling Bromos, or Brotherhood Moments. Akin to the slowed down replays from Burnout that highlighted a particularly nasty takedown of a rival car, Bromos are going to be used to demonstrate moments that define a character in the game, a particular problem or an effective solution to a situation. For instance, Randy related a sequence where a soldier keeps talking about Stella, and it leads the player to believe that he's referring to his girlfriend at home. After a particularly tense battle sequence, it's revealed that Stella just so happens to be his Bazooka. Elements like these add a minor amount of humor to the stress and tension of the war, essential and realistic elements that make the story better.

"We've gotten better and better at the craft of storytelling. We're not yet up to the Spielberg level of storytelling, but we're trying really hard and we're getting better at that craft," Randy said. "We're learning how to make characters you can remember, characters that you can care about." One of the ways they're doing this is by placing the key characters in situations that they would respond to without a second thought. So when Red runs off to save survivors and comes across the body of a child, fans of the series would understand how he would feel, since he left his family back home to fight in the war. "People who have played the Brothers in Arms games, they know who Sgt. Baker is, they know who Sgt. Hartsock is, and there is some connection with these characters," Randy stated.

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Visually, Gearbox also wanted to highlight the power of next generation systems and PCs while still making the game look realistic. By manipulating Unreal Engine 3 with some customized tools, they've reduced the plastic look that normal maps can sometimes impart to objects. To that end, waxy leaves appear shiny and vibrant, while character faces and outfits look natural and realistic. Gearbox also tried to make sure that the player had the sense of actually being in the boots of Sergeant Baker. Instead of using the standard first person viewpoint, they designed the model to operate like a third person character initially and then placed the camera in its head at the end of the process. The result imparts a sense of momentum as you place your hand on a wall and you vault over it, or when you reach to your belt to see how many grenades you have left.

Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway is slated to be released in the first quarter of 2007.

[Cid Highwind]

Ridge Racer 7

Famitsu may have gotten the big scoop on Ridge Racer 7, but now the game is making its way into all the other big magazines over in Japan. The latest coverage for Namco Bandai Games' PS3 debut title comes from the monthly Hyper PlayStation magazine, which put the game on its cover and features a short interview with producer Hideo Teramoto.

The magazine first asked Teramoto to explain the differences between the Xbox 360 Ridge Racer 6 and the PS3 Ridge Racer 7. The development staff is for the most part the same for both games, Teramoto noted. "When actually getting our hands on the PS3 hardware," he explained, "as we gained a deeper understanding of what things we could realize, it was clear that we could realize something different from 6." It was with this realization that the team decided to make a new entry in the series.

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Teramoto and crew believe that the Cell and RSX chips give them the chance to achieve a "Feeling of Ridge Racer" better than they were able to in Ridge Racer 6. This includes the feeling of speed and a refreshing, good play feel that you instantly get when starting play.

The PS3's power could be used for realistic physics, but that wouldn't very Ridge Racer, explained Teramoto. "The PS3's power will be used for various effects, and things that take place both on and around the course. If we use the Cell's computational power for these areas, we believe we'll be able to make a Ridge Racer like never before."

Namco Bandai has given some strong hints as to what we can expect from Ridge Racer 7's Offline play, but has been rather quiet about the game's Online play, only stating that up to 14 players will be able to race at once and that the game will offer some form of cooperative play. "We, of course, want people to take note of the Online elements," Teramoto stated, "and we're working closely with SCE as we advance in this area. As a personal dream, I want to make something where you feel as though you're in a space where you're always connected to other players without an Online connection."

It's unclear what we'll be seeing of the game at E3. Namco Bandai Games will be showing a trailer titled Ridge Racer Vision 2010, a name that's meant to mean that the trailer will show elements from the future of Ridge Racer, including those elements that will be included in Ridge Racer 7. The trailer is meant to show what can be achieved in, perhaps, four years, when Teramoto feels the PS3 will have possibly become ubiquitous throughout the world and both gamers and developers will be pushing the system's capabilities. Based on his comments it's unclear if the footage shown in the trailer, and in the high res screens pulled from the trailer and included in our media section, are based off Ridge Racer 7 visual assets.

One of the screens we've included has what appears to be a set of key terms for the game. The terms suggest some of what will make the Ridge Racer 7 experience, although Namco Bandai hasn't clarified what most of them mean. Here's each term and what we think it may stand for:

Revolutionary Interface: Ridge Racer has always had a slick interface. Revolutionary? We'll have to see what Namco has in store.

Live Cover From Ridge State: Perhaps the game will have tournaments featuring live coverage?

Communicate: Presumably, this indicates that the game will have wireless communication features, although voice chat is mentioned separately below.

Spread Your Message Around the Globe: It's known that you'll be able to make 200,000 variations on each in-game car model. Perhaps your message is sent out via your car?

Newsflashes: Perhaps the game will keep you up to date on big race tournaments and winners.

Updates From Reiko: Apparently Reiko will have a big role in the game.

Course Conditions: This could mean track conditions will effect the race.

Machine Manufacturers: Real cars from real manufacturers maybe?

Parts Manufacturers: Real parts from real manufacturers maybe?

Watch Races From Trackside: This could be a view mode, similar to that of Microsoft's PGR3.

Download/Upload: This presumably means more than just scores, which would be taken account of in the below Global Ranking section.

Deliver Your Voice to the World: Voice chat perhaps?

Know Your Strengths: Perhaps the game will ****yze your play and help you improve your times.

Know Your Speed: Uhh... not a clue.

Global Ranking: Simple enough!

Bulletin Board: This could have something to do with Sony's Online service, which is still being kept a secret in Japanese game publications.

We expect clarification on some of this terminology as Ridge Racer 7's proper E3 debut approaches.

"We're aiming to make something that can be called the representative of Japan amongst the games that are released worldwide for the PS3," said Teramoto to bring the interview to a close.

[Cid Highwind]

Monster Madness
The living dead would have stayed dead if they had known about the killing power of Unreal Engine 3.


I'm starting to get the feeling that we're never going to see the return of Zombies Ate My Neighbors. That classic creature feature for the SNES and Genesis has always been a game on old-schoolers' minds, since few other games have tackled the glory (versus gory) days of early sci-fi horror with such fan-frenzied enthusiasm and sense of humor. It was top-down, it was a little clunky even in its day, and it was hard as hell to finish even with a friend playing along with you, but any game that can stick 3-D glasses on the lead characters and not come off as cheeseball is good food for sci-fi fans. Now that I've come to terms with there not being next-gen ZAMN, I think I can finally move on and welcome in another game showing signs of similar sensibilities for us gamers old enough to remember a drive-in, driven by the kind of mind-popping technology that makes us giddy for new systems.

It's called Monster Madness, and while the developer has a long way in development to go before it has a game that can compare to that classic (not that it needs to -- in control and concept, it's a whole other critter), the team behind the game seems to be sipping from the same radioactive waters as LucasArts was long ago. Monster Madness is in many ways an old-school game at heart. It's top-down. It's got split-screen multiplayer. It's broken up into levels instead of unfolding as some big sandbox. Add in a score counter, and it's the '80s all over again (in a game heavily influenced by the '50s and '60s, no less.) But put together with the massively powerful Unreal 3 engine, with physics designed with the next-gen PhysX chip in mind, all put together in part by the team who displayed ridiculously stunning Cell Factor tech demo, and you're dealing with a beast from another planet.

In development at Artificial Studios for PC and next-gen systems, Monster Madness is essentially a kill-em-all zombie and monster hunt, with a squad of four dopey teens wielding all kinds of dangerous weaponry to beat back the hordes. Each of the kids has his own main melee weapon to smash the skulls of the brain eaters who have taken over the town, but the fun really gets started when you open up with the game's big weaponry -- missile launchers, shotguns, machine guns, even chainsaws are all lying around to begin the splatterfest. And if they survive the night long enough to find power-ups, the kids can become a mummy, vampire, zombie or werewolf to do inhuman levels of death-dealing. Story isn't necessarily the focus of Monster Madness from what we've seen so far (multiplayer co-op play and versus play are the big draws here, as are the big bangs and bloodsplurts), but there will be FMVs sequences styled after comic books that parody horror and sci-fi clichés.

http://img45.imageshack.us/img45/5488/monstermadness2006042609041974.jpg

What makes Monster Madness one to watch for, besides the theme, is its technology -- this beast is powered by the frightening Unreal Engine 3, and even in the early, early sampling we have been able to check out of the game (running on PC hardware), putting that much horsepower to use in an old-school game can make worlds of difference. The graphics alone were enough to subtly engross us in ways we weren't initially expecting -- coming at the view from a top-down perspective doesn't give this game a lot of chances to show off, but when you notice the details, you're happy that it's a next-gen game. Little stuff, like the way the nerd Zack's glasses light up with muzzle flash reflection every time he shoots a gun, makes an impression here. Everything boasts self-shadowing and depth mapping. Light sources work correctly, stretching shadows out at appropriate angles and glowing bright when explosions spark up the world. Breasts of the big-boobied girls do bounce. Everything just works the way it probably should. The team switched over to Unreal Engine 3 literally a few weeks ago (from a proprietary engine used to concept the project out -- and beyond just looks, Artificial says that UE3 has opened a number of doors for the game), and we're eager to see what else Monster Madness is capable of once UE3 and next-gen platforms are really harnessed.

http://img45.imageshack.us/img45/5859/monstermadness2006042607515672.jpg
These early screenshots are from the game's original engine.
see the next screens for shots running on Unreal Engine 3.

The advanced engine makes for pretty lighting, but Monster Madness is a game determined to showcase technology even if it's got one foot in past gaming genres. The demo we played was still rudimentary in physics implementation (and also focused on deathmatching -- we haven't yet had a chance to see the thousands of flying objects shown in early videos of the game) but obviously, this is a team that's big on that stuff. When you go slicing through zombies, parts will go flying about and will stay on screen. This makes for pretty displays of chaos, but it will also be useful in some gameplay ways. You can, for instance, push enough stuff in the way to block the route behind you so that you can focus on fewer characters. Many of the game's puzzles will be physics-based. The engine is also robust enough to allow for vehicles, with everything from single-rider go-carts to towering mech-walkers and multi-rider hovercraft.

Probably the key to this game ensnaring those interested in its concept is its multiplayer offering. Monster Madness does a little bit of everything in this respect. Our demo of Monster Madness focused on the smallest scale of this -- four-player melee bouts, somewhat similar to Power Stone arenas with all of the action taking place on the same screen. Here, there are traps and power-ups to snag as you brutalize each other for points and bragging rights. Step up from that, and you can play the main game as a four-player adventure quest, with each player out to destroy the invaders on his own but also encouraged to work with the team in order for all of them to survive the night. One step up from that is a full 16-player match-up -- no story, just destruction, with modes that include Deathmatch / Team Deathmatch, Capture the Flag and more. You're welcome to mix and match offline and online players on any system (even the PC demo had offline multiplayer), and since each way of playing the game has its own flavor of mayhem, there are many different ways to engage horror fans.

http://ps3media.ign.com/ps3/image/article/703/703310/monster-madness-20060426084926055.jpg
Unreal Engine 3 at work. It's still early, but Artificial Studios has already enhanced the lighting and detail with just three week's worth of work.

Our hands-on session of the game in one of the four-player arenas -- the Cemetery level -- showed a total focus on console-style play (the demo doesn't even work with mouse-and-keyboard yet.) Using a dual-****og control set-up, Monster Madness allows you to move independently from the direction that you're aiming, for FPS-style controls from a top-down perspective. In play, you have to watch out for flying bullets, but the environments are also designed to smack you up. A gigantic guillotine guarded the rocket launcher up on a cliff, so to get to it, you need to use your dodge move to zip past its blade. Meanwhile, a deadly trap called "The Rake" guards a power-up in the bottom quadrant of the game (and also cuts off a good deal of the screen if you're not a player who thinks and moves fast.) One devious implementation was a drawbridge on the back half of the game arena that, while providing a good vantage point for distance shots, also could be pulled at any time by players far off in the distance to drop you into a vat of acid. Another cool aspect was that the place was full of explosive barrels, which you could not only detonate from a distance (provided you're a good shot), but also could send rolling towards opponents. And if you collect a Molotov ****tail, you can catch an opponent on fire, which will naturally make any barrel that those burning men and women come into contact with very hazardous for anybody around. Gameplay still had the skatey control of the early videos, but we hear that this is being adjusted now that the game is running on UE3. Weapon balance and other play was also still quite early, with melee combat not all that exciting just yet despite the addition of finisher moves, and we hope that Artificial Studios come up with some cool combo techniques or moves besides the button-mashing used here. (Big guns, on the other hand ... always fun.) We unfortunately were not able to see some of the game's cool main features, such as the drivable vehicles or the ability to build homemade weapons from objects found in the stage (this was an arena, so there wasn't much to find), but are looking forward to seeing full stages of the game sometime soon.

http://img45.imageshack.us/img45/2562/monstermadness2006042608492558.jpg

The details are not official yet, but we suspect that Monster Madness should have a publisher soon. Concentration on madhouse online play modes is a good way to go (its spiritual predecessor ZAMN was always best with a friend), and there's enough next-gen tech here to make for a groovy time hacking, slashing and shooting hellspawn horrors. Look for more on Monster Madness once the transmutation of this UE3 injection really takes place and the game has been more fully formed.

[Cid Highwind]

WWE Smackdown vs. RAW 2007
First look at the game that puts the mania in wrestling.

Kurt Angle clotheslines John Cena over the guard railing and both wrestlers flip into the crowd. The Olympic champ is drenched in sweat, and when he stands up, someone from the crowd hands him a bottle. With the crack of glass, Cena is left sprawled on the concrete. That's when it happens. Kurt Angle rolls the WWE champ on a table and begins to climb the scaffolding near by. The camera pans back with a cinematic flair usually reserved for Monday nights on USA, then Angles takes the death defying leap, attempting a moonsault through the table.

If this was real life, you know Angle misses the moonsault (doesn't he almost always?). But this isn't real life. This is the first footage of WWE Smackdown vs. Raw 2007 for the Xbox 360 (which we're told is similar in gameplay to the PS3 and PS2 versions), and at first glance, it's the closest you can get to the men in tights without buying a front row ticket.

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From the ab definition to the buildup of sweat throughout the match, the 20,000 polygon wrestlers (next-gen only) show amazing details. Tattoos, shoes, even facial expressions from fear and shock to the look of pain after getting beat over the head with fluorescent light bulbs... it's all in the game, presented, at least in the demonstration, sans HUD (think Fight Night 360).

But the improvements to the series aren't merely cosmetic. Using a new ****og grappling system (featuring both quick and strong grapples), users will be able to control when and where they can pickup opponents, then what to do with them once they're hoisted into the air. For example: If Cena decides to pick Angle up in a vertical suplex, simply flick up on the right ****og stick.

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From here, Angle is in a bad way, completely upside down and completely at Cena's mercy. Hold up on the right ****og stick and you can keep Angle in the air. While he's vertical, Cena can choose to taunt the crowd or his opponent, even walk to the ropes in order to setup a more vicious superplex. In fact, there are over 40 interactive moves like this where gamers will be in full control of when and how to slam their opponent. Think about rotating the stick for an airplane spin, and you get the idea of the fun that could be had.

Gamers will also be able to put in work outside the ring as there will be 20 hot spots of interactivity including everything from the ring post to the steel cage to the guard rails. This enables you to decide how many times you want to consecutively pound your opponents head into the post, or what direction you wish to rake his face along the cage in order to bust them open.

When you throw opponents into the crowd, you'll see popcorn flying as fans try to pat their favorite superstars on the back or hand them a weapon like an umbrella, fire extinguisher, or crutches. There is also backstage environments you'll be able to interact with, including speaker systems you can whip opponents into as you watch the sparks fly from an electrifying electrocution.

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All of this action is running at a smooth 60 frames per second, and we were able to see everything from the intros (the crowd here cheers Cena) to the crowd interaction. There are over 1,000 fully 3D people in the audience (next-gen only), and they pretty much act like a hot crowd from RAW, jumping up and down, holding up signs, and trying to get as close as possible to these superheroes of the mat.

During the presentation, representatives from THQ also promised things like updated rosters, legends, online play with voice chat, a Create Superstar mode with over 250 customizable parts, along with enhanced versions of season and GM modes. None of this, however, was actually shown on screen. What we did see was some extremely impressive visuals and the kind of action wrestling fans have grown to love from the Smackdown series.

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Forget Edge/Foley, if you're looking for someone who stole the show Wrestlemania weekend, look no further than THQ.



The Getaway
Phil Harrison proves last year's demo real.

Following the cooling-off period from last year's Electronic Entertainment Expo, Sony Computer Entertainment President of Worldwide Studios, Phil Harrison had something to prove. "People didn't believe that The Getaway demo was real-time," he said during his keynote address today at GDC. "I'm going to bring back the same demo today to prove that it was."

And that's exactly what Harrison did. Booting up the same scene from The Getaway shown at last May's event, the president moved the camera around to show everyone that it wasn't a pre-rendered movie at all. Shifting camera perspectives, he zoomed in and out of London's Piccadilly Circus and revealed new angles to a stage that hadn't been seen before.

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Yes, it's impressive looking isn't it?


Sadly, there wasn't much else to the demo other than that. Cars moved realistically down the road; people walked the sidewalks; light reflected off glass and metallic surfaces. It all looked well and good, and as my colleague Chris Roper put it, "It had HDR out the ass!" (For the unfamiliar, HDR is short for 'High Dynamic Range,' which essentially means the manipulation of an image between its brightest and darkest areas beyond the current standard of modern displays.)

Straightforward as it may have been, the demo was used to prove a point. Harrison wanted to show the crowd why having the Blu-ray storage format was so important. This simple Getaway scene in particular, was so huge in terms of its data (hundreds of MBs), that without the Blu-ray, building the environment wouldn't be possible. It's an advantage that the 50 Gigs (on a dual-layered BD-ROM) can bring to content developers -- the opportunity to build and stream bigger, more detailed worlds.

What will all this mean for the final version of The Getaway when it comes out sometime before the apocalypse? Obviously we don't know yet, but if the finished game looks anything like the demo we could be in for a real treat.

[Cid Highwind]

Warhawk
We get our second look at Incog's sharp as nails shooter.

First shown at last year's E3, one of our most anticipated PlayStation 3 games is Warhawk. Promising to feature tons and tons of on-screen enemies simultaneously, Warhawk brings back the PlayStation shooter and puts players into the ****pit of a futuristic warfighter.

The game was demoed during Sony's press conference at this year's GDC, and it only proved to show us that the trailer from E3 2005 was indeed the real deal. The demo shown in real-time was actually being played during the presentation.

Taking place somewhere over an ocean, roughly a half-dozen large carrier ships unleashed squad after squad of enemy fighter planes. Each of these squads flew in formation throughout the demo, but they did so in an "organic" manner, meaning that while the ships stayed together, their flight paths were individualized and they didn't simply follow the exact same flight lines. This helped give a feeling of individualized fighters within groups, rather than each group being an single unit, if that makes sense.

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The carrier ships themselves were massive and highly futuristic in design, with complex geometry and plenty of the random offshoot architecture that you'd see in many sci-fi designs hanging down below the mostly flat decks. The texture detail on the carrier ships was quite impressive, with layer upon layer of shaders resulting in the look of complex panels, excellent reflections and fantastic lighting.

Perhaps the two nicest looking elements were the natural elements, the clouds and water. The clouds were rendered via software and mixed with the hardware rendered elements from the rest of the scene, which is apparently a very new trick in videogames (movie effect houses have been doing this for years to great effect). The clouds featured volumetric shading and looked thick, not like some placed sprites that are there to fool the eye. The demo took the ship through the clouds over and over again, proving that the clouds contained depth and are rendered both inside and out. With the excellent shadow effects flowing over the sides of the clouds, they truly looked like 3D objects in the scenery, solid or not.

The water, too, looked rather amazing. Featuring procedurally fluctuating waves, the water was anything but flat and reflected the scene's lighting in a very realistic manner. A screenshot might make it appear pre-rendered, but it certainly isn't.

Being as the demonstration focused more on the scenery, effects and whatnot rather than gameplay, we didn't get to see as much shooting as we might've liked. But, this will be remedied shortly as the game promises to be on display at this year's E3. We can't wait to check it out.


Resistance
Insomniac Games' first-person shooter demoed in real-time.

After seeing the I-8 trailer at E3 last May, Insomniac's WWII-inspired alien-infested first-person shooter jumped to the top of our internal "most wanted" lists pretty quickly. Though somewhat short and devoid of an explanation, the high-res teaser showed us plenty of promise with dozens of soldiers onscreen at once, lots of damage mapping, and several other neat little graphical goodies. Because it's been 10 months since we last saw the thing, however, the game's progress has been a bit of a mystery.

Well it's a mystery no more.

Unveiled today as part of Phil Harrison's "Beyond the Box" keynote address, the officially-renamed Resistance (Fall of Man) was fully playable on the GDC stage and was demoed by Insomniac President and Chief Nice Guy, Ted Price. To kick things off, Ted spoke a bit about the benefits of PlayStation 3, the advantages of Blu-ray storage, and the reasons that his team at Insomniac decided to develop for Sony Computer Entertainment in the next generation. It was also revealed that Resistance would definitely be released before the end of 2006 -- either making it a launch title, or something that will come out awfully damned close.

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Fall of Man's weapons are a big part of what makes the game tick.
Once the demo itself began, it was obvious that it wasn't looking as good as the trailer from E3 last year. Price explained this discrepancy right off the bat, "This is in an interoffice demo from several months ago," he said (which Phil Harrison later confirmed to have been from December). "We were using this to show off the look and feel of I-8. And keep in mind, when we programmed this demo we hadn't moved any of the subsystems to the SPUs yet. This was programmed only with the main processing core in mind" [Paraphrased, not a direct quote]

Less spectacular as the demo might have been, it did show off some nice next-gen effects that you wouldn't be able to do on the PS2. High-end bump mapping, specular highlighting, and other accelerator-friendly goodies were obvious from the very beginning but they weren't any better than what the 360 can do with software right now. No, the real stars of Resistance's show were the weapons. An Insomniac specialty, the main character's arsenal in Fall of Man is already looking pretty interesting. In addition to the typical shotgun-type weapon and pulse rifle, there was also a Lombax-like exploding spike gun that shot out a number of deadly needles the moment it blew up. The fourth and final weapon revealed was hard to decipher because the ammo was shot a bit off-screen. We're only guessing here, but it looked like a vortex or blow-back gun with a wind effect. Hopefully, Ted will clear that up in the future (since he also stated it was his "personal favorite').

Unfortunately, the demo's level design was a rather straightforward alleyway, so we didn't get to see many in-game assets other than that. We did get to sample some of Resistance's rag doll physics, though, and they look pretty good. Additionally, players can expect to see a lot of blood when they eliminate their ugly alien humanoid targets, and they'll also be able to duck and take cover behind obstacles in-between shots.

I wish there was more to report on Fall of Man, but the demo was so short and uncomplicated that the above is all we got to see. On a personal level, I found last E3's trailer made it look a lot more interesting, but the demo was by no means close to a final representation of the game. Expect another update around E3, where Insomniac has confirmed that Resistance will be fully playable for show-goers.




Motorstorm
The coolest-looking original PS3 franchise from E3 is now realtime at GDC.

In its platform keynote address at GDC 2006 this morning, Sony Computer Entertainment displayed for the first time the new multi-vehicle dirt racing game, MotorStorm.

Compared to its E3 appearance, the game is close in presentation and functionality and look to its promise, with detail not reaching the level of last year's astounding Expo demo (but still running with some very cool technology to provide a new way of playing in the mud).

Developed by Evolution Studios, the game's presentation featured buggies and motorcycles running through a rugged desert. MotorStorm's advanced new mud physics were incredible, leaving ruts behind in the mud using real physics. For example, a motorcycle was seen cutting a deep groove in the mud while kicking up muck at a white truck following it, the trailing vehicle buckily wildly as it battled off the streaming mud while also trying to find a line to drive in the groove-etched bog. It was also revealed that once splashed on a surface, the mud would begin to harden and dry just like the real thing.

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Mud and dirt are popular themes in MotorStorm.

The particle effects, however, were not nearly at that level of quality, looking very temporary at this stage of early development. Hopefully, the unfinished details will be sweetened up as the game goes on, and the gameplay already showed signs of achieving the frantic nature of the E3 2005 teaser video.



Heavenly Sword
The goddess of war is upon us.

In his platform keynote address at GDC 2006 this morning, Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios President Phil Harrison presented the new PS3 game Heavenly Sword. Developed by Ninja Theory, the PS3 title was one of the most amazing in the E3 2005 presentation reel, with internet talk on the game hot and heavy after its showing. The demo then was not real-time, but this one was.

For today's demo, the warriors from last E3's presentation were shown again -- sequentially added to the desert environment by the dozens time and time again. Once the soldiers were in place, hundreds of them were blown up and thrown about as before by a fireless explosion.

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These guys got devastated.

This time, however, the whole shebang was pulled off in real-time, with real physics and real-time sound production. The camera in the demo zoomed out to show characters as if ants miles away, then zoomed tight for close-ups of any figure.

[Cid Highwind]

Rainbow Six: Vegas
Ubisoft gambles on Sin City in the upcoming Rainbow Six title.

When it was announced earlier this month that the next Rainbow Six title (aka "Vegas") would take place in Las Vegas, it took the videogame world slightly by surprise. As soldiers in Tom Clancy's elite antiterrorist unit, players will deploy in volatile hotspots like Asia and the Middle East. There's no doubting that Vegas is volatile in the America's-seedy-playground sort of way, but is Sin City a worthy arena for one of the most critically acclaimed squad-based tactical shooters? Apparently so.

In the April issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly, Ubisoft revealed its new plans for the next-generation shooter, which will make smaller splashes on current-generation consoles as well. Whatever the storyline is we don't know, but Rainbow Six will presumably defend drunken tourists from some sort of terrorist cell. Say what you want about Vegas, but if all goes as planned, the city is expected to show off the power of its beefy hardware. Ubi says it wants players to be able to do all the crazy things usually reserved for cutscenes, like rappelling down skyscrapers and bursting through windows to surprise enemies. Imagine it now: fast-roping down the Luxor and kicking in the window of a terrorist bad guy, then eating his room-service dinner. "The possibilities," Ubi says, "are endless." In fact, that's suppesedly the best part of a game.

With the current, very-early build that we've only talked about with Ubi, players will be able to storm through the front door with guns blazing, descend down a building and bust through the window with guns blazing, or find another more quiet entrance and go in with guns blazing. The point is that players will have many choices in how they want to eliminate terrorists, all depending on their style of play.

The game will stick to the core of what makes Rainbow Six a successful franchise: realistic, tactical warfare, no health packs mysteriously laying about, and intense, close-combat. The article also said that the first-person shooter will switch to a third-person camera when your troops are ducking behind cover -- like we've already seen in Perfect Dark Zero. From there, players can blindly lay down suppressing fire or pop their heads up for a quick shot. Either way, the new maneuver is expected to further add to the tense style of urban warfare for which Rainbow Six is known... a style in which one well-aimed shot will kill you.

All of this would be for naught if the enemies were buffoons, so Ubi dedicated one designer to work solely on enemy AI in hopes of creating environments with fewer foes that are more intelligent and even more dangerous.

One of the strong points of Rainbow Six in the past has been the ability to order your squad mates about. In Vegas, squad commands have been mapped to the D-pad and Ubi promises that the new method is simple and intuitive. At the same time, your squad mates will offer their own opinions and advice about the best ways to handle situations in order to help you along.

In the end, Ubi is hoping to create an emotional, engaging shooter that are two adjectives not normally associated with the genre. The article made mention of environmental storytelling like we've seen in Half-Life 2, the goal being to get players to think about saving civilian lives more than killing bad guys. Again, these are only the first details, but we fully expect Rainbow Six: Vegas to make a big bang when it releases in September.



Untold Legends: Dark Kingdom
SOE's Action/RPG franchise comes to the console.

Recently, Sony Online Entertainment had a Pre-E3 press event where it showed off its upcoming lineup of titles. Not only did the event serve as an easy way to check out the titles away from the hustle and bustle of the show floor, it was also a great chance to see how some of the company's other franchises were progressing. More importantly, though, it unveiled a secret project that SOE has been working on for the PS3 launch window.

Choosing which extension of its brands to take to the next-gen system wasn't a hard decision. The action/RPG gameplay of Untold Legends series (which initially debuted on the PSP) seemed to be one of the easiest to transplant to console. Therefore, when the concept behind Untold Legends: Dark Kingdom arose, the development team set three goals that it wanted to achieve. "We wanted to make a game that was fun, we wanted to make a game that was very fast-paced, and we wanted to make a game that was easily accessible to players," according to Andy Sites, the producer of Dark Kingdom. "To do that, we wanted to leverage the core game elements that the Untold Legends brand has: visceral combat, meaningful character progression and an intriguing storyline."

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Sony also wanted to build a game that took full advantage of the Cell processor. To that end, it created a new system from the ground up and made sure it implemented a lot of eye-catching features, such as realistic, fully interactive water. There are also plenty of particle effects and Havok-powered real-time physics, including rigid body and rag doll physics, to enable interactivity between the player, the environment and any objects they'd be able to come into contact with. For example, you'll be able to pick up and launch an enemy into a group of their allies, scattering them with the force of the impact.

Andy also alluded to players using the environment to help them dispatch bosses in key battles. "We wanted to leverage the processing power of the PS3, which up until now hasn't been offered on any platform, and integrate features like real-time physics, particle effects and post-rendering effects -- things that up until now have only been capable on highest end PCs."

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Even more, he talked about a couple of the different ways that the power of the PS3 was being utilized during the game. For instance, he stated that the physics system of the game might be handled by one processor, while the calculations behind the interactive water would be handled by another and the audio running on a third. The same could be said for the particle system, which will probably run on its own processor. The ability of the PS3 to handle all of these tasks due to its multi-core design is one of the reasons that Andy, and his team, are excited to program Dark Kingdom. "I started out working on PlayStation games. I ended up going to PC games, online PC, specifically, and this is the first time I've really wanted to get back into console games, because now we're capable of doing things that haven't been possible on a console before."

Unlike the other two titles in the Untold Legends series, Dark Kingdom is a much more revenge-oriented game. Penned by Keith Baker, the creator of the D&D Eberron series, and set in the Untold Legends universe, the plot of Dark Kingdom involves dethroning a corrupt king and saving the land as the primary mission for the player. As part of an elite military group, the player was initially deployed by the king to suppress uprisings and regional discontent. However, as you return from your mission, you start to discover a more insidious plot, including the appearance of mysterious creatures, the disappearance of townsfolk and the implication that the king has a hand in everything that's happening.

Players will have three separate character classes to choose from, and as Andy stated, there is a conscious decision to, "give players the feeling that when they switched characters, [that] this was more than a texture change or a physical appearance difference. We wanted them to really stand out visually." Players will have the chance to choose between the physically intimidating Brute, the spindly Mage and the agile Scout. Andy implied that all three will take advantage of the power of the game engine in a number of ways. For instance, the Brute might pick up a table and throw it into opponents, while the mage will capitalize of the particle system to demonstrate the power and fury of his spells.

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However, don't think that you'll simply be pounding away on a button continually through every single level on the game. "It's our goal to break up the hack and slash element with the use your brain, trying to figure out how to make your way through a certain area." These puzzle elements, Andy mentioned, will fully take advantage of the physics system, and so you'll need to manipulate a number of objects to successfully complete these tasks. For instance, one of the sections of the demonstration showed the Brute moving crates in front of pipes that were threatening to submerge the room in water. Presumably this was a time puzzle to complete before the room filled and killed the brute, but it showed off how quickly you'll need to act to save yourself. "It's our goal to offer environment puzzles every twenty to thirty minutes of gameplay."

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[Cid Highwind]

Unreal Tournament: 2007
New vehicles, new screens, and shiny stuff!

While Midway showed off some pretty interesting titles at its recent Gamer's Day event in Hollywood, Unreal Tournament is arguably its feather in the cap -- so we waited with bated breath as the lights turned low and two people stepped onstage for the first presentation: Epic Games' Mark Rein and Jeff Morris. With UT2007 rolling along behind them on a huge projection screen, they tag-teamed discussion of the game and revealed a few new tidbits and showed off some ideas they were still working on. Since the game isn't optimized yet, they needed quite a beast to run it, and nVidia stepped in with a quad SLI rig. That means four video cards running in one system. Yowza. They also mentioned that Dell would be selling such a rig, called the "XPS Renegade," and it's supposed to be available any time now. I imagine it would be a tad pricey.

At any rate, Rein and Morris started out by showing us a deathmatch map named Carbon Fire and explained some design philosophies evident in the level. They tell us that the UT2K7 team was oriented towards making the environments feel real and fairly familiar (for a science-fiction setting). Every map is supposed to feel like it serves a function as part of a larger world, rather than feeling isolated and "gamey" like we see in other shooters; imagine sections of a space ship under siege, or a land-based battle that feels like a slice of a large-scale war. There's also a massive sense of scope on some maps -- on Carbon Fire, scurrying around in some warrens eventually brought us out to a platform, revealing a huge, futuristic cityscape topped by a rotating planetary shield.

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Beyond the feel of the maps is the look of these environments. Apparently the guys at Epic really hate bland or repeated textures. Again, they're trying to steer clear of gaminess, this time by applying what they call "grungification." Virtually every surface gets grunged up so that the level doesn't look like it just popped out of a carwash. It feels like a place that other people have used before you. And there's also the look and feel of the weapons, which have all apparently been visually redesigned to incorporate moving parts (particularly the tri-barrel Rocket Launcher, which will show each rocket getting loaded into the tubes as you fire them off, rather than rotating and locking like in previous incarnations of UT). We didn't get an official list, but it sounds as though the arsenal won't see any huge alterations from UT2004.

Oh, and there's also a few new vehicles that haven't been talked about before. First is the Paladin (first introduced in the UT2K4 Editor's Choice Pack), which is a defensive weapon that's also useful as an escort. Its key feature is a shield projected about ten feet in front of it, which can also be rotated to block fire from multiple directions. It has a cool purple glow that's reflected onto the vehicle and ground. Another vehicle is the second UT2K4 ECP alumni called the SPMA, a long-range artillery cannon that can strike targets beyond visual range. Lastly we have the Cicada, visually similar to the Manta but capable of sustained flight like the Raptor. It's described as a close support vehicle, and it can lock onto a target while you load up a bunch of missiles. The target can eventually be completely out of your view, but the missiles will still track their way over to it, as long as you've locked on beforehand. Oh, and just like the other two vehicles, the Cicada was introduced in Unreal 2004's Editor's Choice Pack.

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From there, Rein and Morris moved on to the character models of two human teams. The Twin Souls have red and black outfits and the Iron Guard are decked out in gold and black, and it's still quite impressive to zoom in on them and actually get more detail the closer you get -- beard stubble, facial scarring, individual teeth, that sort of thing. You probably won't get to enjoy these close-ups in UT's very fast-paced environment, but the PC version of UT2K7 is scheduled to ship with the Unreal Engine 3.0 SDK, so modders will probably appreciate such attention to detail. There is, however, no official release date.



Stranglehold
Midway's got it. You'll want it. First details, screens, and video of John Woo's Stranglehold.

Midway today revealed the first concrete details of Stranglehold, its high-production action game for Xbox 360, PS3, and PC -- a title that the publisher professes to be the spiritual successor to John Woo's action classic, Hard Boiled.

A third-person actioner promising acrobatic gunplay, movie-like camera angles, and Massive Destructibility (or "Massive D", and yes, the company trademarked the term), Stranglehold stars the polygonal recreation of Chow Yun Fat as Inspector Tequila in what Midway hopes will be a wild, rollercoaster of blistering bullet-heavy action. Fat returns in his famous role as a tough-ass cop, but remains torn between his duty to the police force and his wife, who has been kidnapped by the Russian mob in Chicago.

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In development by Midway Studios Chicago, Stranglehold enables gamers to play from a third-person perspective while dual-wielding pistols and totally destroying the "Massive D" backgrounds. If you've seen just one of John Woo's action flicks, it's all pretty much there in front of you. Tequila sees the bad guy; they see him; He smoothly retrieves his hand-cannons and slides down the rail of a staircase, mowing down enemies left and right while tumbling at the bottom of the stairs. Throwing his guns away, Fat pulls out two fresh pistols from inside of his coat pockets, lets a ballet of bullets fly inside the restaurant, which is of course, replete with millions of glasses, glass cabinets, glass windows, and maybe even some glass-stained port or sunroof domes for good measure. This is what Midway hopes will be a typical scenario, and oh... did we mention? Everything is destructible.

Top that off with another classic doozey of a trademarked phrase, Midway's own "Tequila Time Slow-Motion System," i.e. bullet time, and you've got a game that will likely beg to be played with hard music, no patience, and a hot and heavy hand.

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According to Midway, Gamers should find the action incredibly smooth. As Inspector Tequila, they can run up railings, swing on chandeliers, and leap onto a number of moving objects while shooting an endless stream of bullets. Released gameplay shots portray Tequila jumping in nearly every direction, backward, forward, left and right, and shooting enemies in mid-air. To help pull this off, Midway Studios Chicago is working with the Unreal 3.0 engine and is using the latest Havok physics tools. Additionally, Midway plans to bring Stranglehold online, though it would not elaborate on the subject.




Data-Fly
More info on a next-gen stealth/action game early in development.
by Charles Onyett

We previously reported on an upcoming action game called Data-Fly that's still early in development for the next generation of consoles, and recently got a few updates on some of the game's specifics. Produced by ORiGO Gaming Entertainment, Data-Fly puts you in the futuristic shoes of a female character named, well, Data-Fly.

At the game's outset you find yourself stranded in the desert and charged with the simple directive to find your creator. As you progress through the game, you'll find this task becomes increasingly complicated, as the creator tends to move around and is heavily guarded to boot. The actual gameplay centers on using a variety of stealth techniques to vanquish your opposition. Generally, these techniques revolve around hacking into enemy mainframes and manipulating enemy units to do your bidding.

Specifically, Data-Fly will be able to use a guardian hack technique to infiltrate the circuitry of manned and unmanned enemy units. She'll also be able to shape shift into other characters and blend into environments with a special AI she has equipped. Using this, she'll be able to scan and replicate enemy appearances, movement aspects, and weapons. She'll also be able to mimic enemy voices, the exact consequences of which are as of yet unclear, but it definitely opens up some intriguing possibilities.

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Nano-tech stuff.

In addition to these more stealth-based techniques, Data-Fly will have a variety of unique attacks and weapons at her disposal. Her main weapon is being called a body blade which, like the name implies, is generated within her being. Different body blade forms can eventually be discovered and created at will, at the cost of a certain amount of energy points. In order to maintain your energy points to continuously generate weapons and ammunition, you'll need to see out large energy sources such as open circuits or the electrical elements of dropped enemy weaponry.

Why the creator is so heavily guarded, who you really are and how all your skills will balance with each other are still questions that cannot yet be answered. These are the only concrete details we have at this point, though they certainly sound interesting and could make for some unique gameplay experiences.

[Cid Highwind]

Resident Evil 5
A new generation of zombies are ready to eat your face.

Everywhere at TGS there were reminders that Capcom's ever popular zombie series is headed to the next generation. We witnessed the trailer at the Microsoft Conference, at Robbie Bach's keynote address, and many times over at Capcom's booth on the show floor.

The trailer shows a seemingly abandoned town that is soon overrun by crowds of the undead. The footage is from the same trailer that has been floating around the net and that was shown at Xbox Summit. The main character has black spiky hair and carries a shiny silver pistol. The trailer shows him confront a crowd of highly detailed dead folks. The surroundings look at least partially urban and very post-apocalyptic.

If this is any indication of what the playable game will look like, get ready to be able to count the feathers on a crow, and see the burst veins in a zombie's eye. The game is reported to play in a similar style to RE4 and will feature realistic physics.



Other upcoming PS3 Games:

- Ratchet and Clank PS3
- Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
- Sonic the Hedgehog
- Vision GT
- Devil May Cry 4
- Theseis
- Dark Sector
- EA Sports Fight Night Round 3
- Eyedentify
- Fifth Phantom Saga
- Ni-Oh
- Killing Day
- Mobile Suit Gundam
- Formula One PS3
- Killzone PS3
- Tekken 6
- Final Fantasy VII:
- Possession

If you want any info on these listed games, request it in a post and i'll see what I can find, and what there is to find,
Cid out.

[Nanaki]

can you get anything on the FFVII?

[MORSN417]

Yeah, and will the FFVII be a re-make of the original or another game like Dirge Of Cerbebrus and Crisis Core?

[Cid Highwind]

Sorry guys, I was gonna add next to FF 7, Not a game, just a tech demo (but ofcourse, they also stated long ago that there was not gonna be an FF 7 Movie, and look now), hence the emptyness after the :

Only news available is:

Square understands that we can't get enough Final Fantasy VII. So just to tease our enthusiasm, we were shown a special tech demo of what a Final Fantasy VII remake would look like on the PS3.

We start with a lower body shot of what's obviously Aerith, kneeling at a source of mysterious green light (the mini crimson jacket and pink dress are a dead giveaway). Her hands clasp around a few strands of light, and she pulls it close to her chest. She looks to the side, seemingly startled by an unseen presence. She stands up and walks toward the camera, the frame never quite lifting to put her entire face on screen. Then the camera does a huge pull-out from the city of Midgar, as the Shina tower comes into frame.

http://img69.imageshack.us/img69/2342/finalfantasyviitechnicaldemofo.jpg
Cloud looks so real its scary.

A train calls in the distance with a haunting whistle, and a quick cut displaying the ironclad train charging into town. After a few cuts between the huge city and the oncoming train, we see the steaming machine crawl to a halt, and a shock of blonde hair leaps from its doors. Cloud falls to the earth in a ninja like pose, bringing his sword to a high guard, as the camera zooms to a close-up of his defined hi-res mug. He looks angry and determined to begin his mission. He's on his way to blow-up the Mako reactor with the rest AVALANCHE. It's the intro to Final Fantasy VII and it looks absolutely amazing.

President of Square Enix, Yoichi Wada, was quick to point out that this wasn't a teaser, or a hint of any intention to do a remake of Final Fantasy VII, but explained that Final Fantasy titles were indeed guaranteed to come to PS3 one day.



also,
This morning the British Gaming Blog posted a "confirmed" Sony PlayStation 3 launch list. The list included:

* John Woo's Stranglehold
* Tekken 6
* Sonic the Hedgehog
* Resistance: Fall of Man
* Lair
* Motorstorm
* Untold Legends: Dark Kingdom
* Ridge Racer 7

This is pretty early for an official PS3 Launch list so I wouldn't trust it fully, but it does give a general idea of what the launch titles are gonna be

[Laguna Loire]

Looking...absolutely...PWNAGE! Great info there Cid, nice one! :D

[Nitrous]

Looks great so far, just hope we get somthing close to what we can see here when it goes out on the shelves for us to buy!

[SaveMySoul]

http://img69.imageshack.us/img69/2342/finalfantasyviitechnicaldemofo.jpg


Obviously as I thought, exactly like Advent Children.

[Skeleton Lord]

im not sure what the story us but i was watching g4 again there is a game coming out called eight days it looks amazing

[SephirothsCloud]

I was wrong as it turns out, Square-Enix announced taht the first FF game released on the PS3 will in-fact be an FF7 remake. Hooray. Because they are gunna milk as much cash as they can outa FF7 before they get up the balls to actually make a sequal.....

Yes, this is me when i get bitter...

[DBZ_DUDE]

THOSE GRAPHICS AND THAT GAMEPLAY IS SICK AWSOME!!!!!! :eek: :D

[Nitrous]

^ hmm yes thats why we banned DBZ...

Anyway it would seem a number of PS3 games have already been canceled! The impressive Killing Day and Condemed for the PS3 are just 2 that I can remember.

[marapets]

I Reckon The Getaway 3 Should Be Awesome Cabt Wait For Mgs4 Either!!!!!! :-) :-) :-) :-)

[lostage]

I like the DMC4,MGS4 band FF from that list.

[lostage]

I wonder when will I get these games!They're so great and their graphic is good even in the pictures.Cid you have to be very patient if you want to do this work haven't you?

[Cid Highwind]

Yep, patience is very important

[lostage]

And what else do u need?

[sniperkiller]

i think about almost all the games on the list look good. also i agree with lostage about the dmc4and mgs4.

[Nitrous]

Just so people know. I have merged this thread with another of cids threads to combine the list of games and information he posted which now runs over page 1,2 and 3. I can also tell you that Devil May Cry 4 has been confirmed to be out on the Xbox360 as well as PC ;)

[mcdogit]

hey cid u forgot resistance fll of man and resistance rise of man

[Cid Highwind]

shrug, well I made this thread about 2 years ago, no need for uncovering anymore :) Since the console itself is out, no more secrets ;)

[mcdogit]

for that darknees part, he has trouble with uncle paulie not cousin paulie:D

[Nova]

why would you do that? Its pointless and just a retarded thing to do.