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The first concrete details on Ubisoft's new Tom Clancy franchise EndWar have reached the internet via US mag Electronic Gaming Monthly, and we seem to be getting more excited with every morsel of info we hear.

In case you missed the initial announcement EndWar is essentially an RTS mish-mash of Clancy franchises built from the ground up for consoles.

Apparently it's being directed by ex-Creative Assembly man Michael de Plater, who worked on the legendary PC strategy series Total War.

Action plays out on a Risk-like campaign map with three factions, U.S. Joint Strike Force, European Enforcers and Russian Spetsnaz, available for war duties. According to Ubisoft, each campaign will be different, giving the example that if the US is conquered in one campaign you can start the next "to liberate U.S. soil with a massive new 'D-Day' landing on the East coast."

"[The Battle for Middle-earth II] was a test case for exactly what we didn't want to do", says the Endwar boss, in reference to re-mappping controls for a console RTS. In answer to this Ubisoft has gone for a tighter, up-close camera along with your bog-standard battlefield map.

Everything in the game is destructible and there's a limit of 12 squads in battle at one time, which you can personalise with your own special abilities, motto and heraldry.

Apparently, there's also some impressive feats in how the AI works in the game. According to the EGM article, squads of heavily armed soldiers, when ordered to a cluster of firebombed cars, will automatically take cover in different ways, taking potshots through windows and over hoods. If a soldier gets shot, one of his squad mates will even drag him back to safety.

The question is, will Ubisoft be able to conquer the dodgy joypad RTS controls we've seen up until now? Lets hope it manages to iron them out before EndWar hits 360 and PS3 early next year. ...

via cvg

The first concrete details on Ubisoft's new Tom Clancy franchise EndWar have reached the internet via US mag Electronic Gaming Monthly, and we seem to be getting more excited with every morsel of info we hear.

In case you missed the initial announcement EndWar is essentially an RTS mish-mash of Clancy franchises built from the ground up for consoles.

Apparently it's being directed by ex-Creative Assembly man Michael de Plater, who worked on the legendary PC strategy series Total War.

Action plays out on a Risk-like campaign map with three factions, U.S. Joint Strike Force, European Enforcers and Russian Spetsnaz, available for war duties. According to Ubisoft, each campaign will be different, giving the example that if the US is conquered in one campaign you can start the next "to liberate U.S. soil with a massive new 'D-Day' landing on the East coast."

"[The Battle for Middle-earth II] was a test case for exactly what we didn't want to do", says the Endwar boss, in reference to re-mappping controls for a console RTS. In answer to this Ubisoft has gone for a tighter, up-close camera along with your bog-standard battlefield map.

Everything in the game is destructible and there's a limit of 12 squads in battle at one time, which you can personalise with your own special abilities, motto and heraldry.

Apparently, there's also some impressive feats in how the AI works in the game. According to the EGM article, squads of heavily armed soldiers, when ordered to a cluster of firebombed cars, will automatically take cover in different ways, taking potshots through windows and over hoods. If a soldier gets shot, one of his squad mates will even drag him back to safety.

The question is, will Ubisoft be able to conquer the dodgy joypad RTS controls we've seen up until now? Lets hope it manages to iron them out before EndWar hits 360 and PS3 early next year. ...

Capcom's focus for the Wii remake of one of GameCube's best games, Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition, is on making the game more accessible to Wii gamers, Capcom says.

Producer, Masachika Mawata, and Director Minoru Nakai told Famitsu that RE4: Wii Edition will feature Easy and Amateur modes, as well as the usual normal mode in a video interview

Easy and Amateur will feature a number of stress-lightening tweaks such as an easy enemy lock on feature, and a gun laser sight with infinite range to make targeting easier, they explain.

Nakai also admited that use of the knife in previous RE games was tough because of the need to aim up or down. Now, he says, you will be able to attack enemies and objects just by slashing the Wii Remote in that direction. The closer you are to the object or enemy the more damage you inflict.

"Our concept is 'easier'," said Kawata. "The number of hardcore gamers [who own Wii] is relatively small. A lower difficulty can attract Wii gamers but excessive easiness can reduce excitement. Our goal is to make it easier and exciting."

via cvg ...

An early 22 page script for the Gears of War movie has leaked on to the internet, giving us our first glimpse at the New Line produced game-to-movie adaptation.

The leak comes via infamous movie site Latino Review and it goes without saying that if you're a bit spoiler-squeamish you should probably click away now.

The early draft of the Gears flick kicks off with a violent and chaotic battle; the Aspho Fields scuffle referenced often in the 360 shooter. Both Marcus and Dom star in this version of the script and we're also given a glimpse of the pair's backstory, including an appearance from Dom's missus Maria.

The film's planned for release in Summer 2009, with Stuart Beatie signed up for writing duties and a pair of blokes called Marty Bowen and Wyck Godfrey apparently producing via their Temple Hill banner.

Though it hasn't been announced yet we expect Gears of War 2 to emerge sometime around the movie's release - that's if it doesn't go the way of Halo and end up in the great game-to-movie garbage bin.

via cvg ...

Assassin's Creed is going to make you feel harder than Vinnie Jones in a suit of armour when it comes out on PS3 and 360 later this year.

Just take a look at these new screens. Altair, the lead character, just shoves one guy out his way as he heads through a crowd of people with his eyes poised on his target. He swoops in for the kill, smacking one dude in the chops and plunging a knife into the body of another. Well hard.

Screens Here ...

Assassin's Creed is going to make you feel harder than Vinnie Jones in a suit of armour when it comes out on PS3 and 360 later this year.

Just take a look at these new screens. Altair, the lead character, just shoves one guy out his way as he heads through a crowd of people with his eyes poised on his target. He swoops in for the kill, smacking one dude in the chops and plunging a knife into the body of another. Well hard.

Screens Here ...

We're now mere days away from Spider-Man 3's May 4 release (unless you're waiting for the PS3 version, which arrives late on May 18) and Activision is getting in some last-minute hype with this new in-game trailer.

The movie shows Spidey flaunting his web-slinging abilities and the new city where the action's based. You also see him stick web to bits of scenery and swing it around to batter the royal snot out of enemies, leap acrobatically through moving lasers and switch suits to become the dark Spider-Man.

Trailer at CVG ...

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Sitting on our desk this morning was a neat envelope from those nice chaps at the SCEE PR team, within which we found this brilliant teaser for WipeOut Pulse.

Now you might not be as excited as we are, but if you also hammered the PSP launch title until your batteries cried out in pain, downloaded all the update packs and fancy yourself as somewhat of a futuristic rally champ, then WipEout Pure is going to be a little slice of racing bliss when it arrives later this year.

According to our release list it's still due out in September - so there's another one to add to you big end-of-year buy roster. ...

Most Halo fans will be wetting their pants in anticipation of the May 16 Beta, especially as Bungie has confirmed split-screen multiplayer and the ability to save your films and watch them back.

Bungie's latest weekly update has revealed that the split-screen mode will not divide the screen in the usual way if you're playing on a HD TV. "Instead of stretching the horizontal or vertical axes into big, scary too wide or too tall horrors, we've sensibly windowed the action, maintaining lots of screen real estate, but preserving a proper, playable aspect ratio.

The update confirmed that the split-screen multiplayer will be limited to two people in the beta version, seemingly suggesting the full game will support four players.

Bungie also revealed that players will also get to try out a new "Saved Films" feature in the beta, although it admits the feature "is very, very, very limited" in the early demo. "We just want you to play around with the general concept," says Bungie.

The huge update also goes on to talk about the progress on some of the game's new maps, and quashes some rumors that have cropped up of late from the ever-speculation black hole of the internet.

Get your reading glasses on and go check it out.

via cvg ...