Heavenly Sword developer Ninja Theory is hoping that its martial arts action game, Heavenly Sword, will be the start of a big franchise for PlayStation 3.

Ninja Theory is "thinking really big in terms of a franchise," the developer's chief technology officer Mike Ball told Edge magazine, continuing, "obviously our focus now is on the first Heavenly Sword but there's a big story to be told beyond that".

Heavenly Sword tells the tale of a young girl called Nariko, the daughter of a clan leader whose role is to protect the sword. She is then forced to wield the cursed weapon in order to wreak revenge when her father is killed by an evil king.

Nariko's story is only a small part of the Heavenly Story back-story as Ball explains: "the game is all about Nariko, but the sword itself has a story that's going to play out through a number of titles."

Screenshot Here ...

Since Sony's initial unveiling of PlayStation 3, it has been known that a new Getaway game was in the making for the next-gen console. But little more has been seen of the sequel... until now.

Sony showed next-gen footage of a photo-realistic London from the game as a tech demo to illustrate PS3's processing power at last year's E3, and released the impressive shots seen in our images tab, above. But while the new trailer - downloadable from the link above - is short, it demonstrates the attention to detail and realism we can expect from the game.

Rumours surrounding the project suggest that it won't be called The Getaway 3 as plans are for it to be somewhat different to the previous two titles in the series. It will, however, be set in the same universe and, from the trailer, it's obvious that it will have the same gritty and mature action.

Screens and more HERE ...

Via Gamesradar

Jeff Minter, the programmer and designer of the Atari Jaguar classic Tempest 2000, has been talking about his latest project in the June issue of Edge magazine.

Rather than being a remake of Tempest 2000 for Xbox 360, Minter has said that his next game, of which very few details are known, will recognisably be "what the creator of Tempest 2000 did next".

To achieve this he will be building on ideas from his past work and using "half a lifetime's experience of making shooters and funky graphics toys, rather than resurrecting a 25-year-old design".

Tempest 2000 was a remake of the 1980 arcade game - created by Dave Theurer and with trippy level design added by Minter - and was widely seen as the best game on Atari Jaguar.

Since then Minter has founded his own codeshop, Llamasoft, and is most recently responsible for Xbox 360's audio visualiser. ...

Lik Sang have done a fantastic handson of the New SuperMario Bros game with screenshots galore and indepth coverage of the game in full, heres a snippett:

Some would say it's been 20 years in the making: New Super Mario Bros., proudly shown during Nintendo's Media Briefing for this year's E3, sure is a highlight of the series that gamers worldwide are welcoming back with a current release on Nintendo DS. A true classic returns, based on the ingenious gameplay of the original title of yesteryear, in an all-new form: 80 levels of platforming goodness await. There are eight new worlds to explore, while on a quest to save lovely Princess Peach once more (Bowser Jr. beware!), which will take players through Plains, Desert, Tropical Island, Forest, Ice, Mountains, Sky and Bowser's Lair. On top of that, fresh moves and power ups are at your disposal, making it easier to kick some Goomba butt and navigate the diverse environments. In order to round out this ultimate trip to Mushroom Kingdom, lots of mini games got included, as well as wireless multiplayer modes. It's colorful, stuffed with merry Nintendo tunes and more fun that you could shake a Fire Flower at: New Super Mario Bros. is out now!

Check the full article out at Lik Sang ...

Via CVG

Us being the lucky sods that we are, we managed to spend almost the entire duration of E3 clamped around the Wii this year. Probably the most impressive game on display, in terms of intuitive control, insane action and graphical finesse though was Retro's Metroid Prime 3: Corruption - as you might have guessed from our gushing hands-on.

Speaking to website Nintendo Now, Retro's lifted the lid on some of the previously undisclosed features we can see when the game hits at the launch of Wii. First up, it seems that Samus' ever present ship will play a big part this time around, with the ability to control it remotely (not to be confused with Wiimotely) via your visor.

It appears that you'll be able to use the ship to launch bomb-runs, lift massive objects and position it to create temporary platforms. Not only that, but it'll play a vital part in interplanetary travel, although Retro seems keen to stress you won't actually have direct flying control.

There's also news of a new 'Hyper Mode', born out of Samus' corruption by the Phazon from the first two Prime games. Once in Hyper Mode, Retro game director Mark Pacini, explained "you'll become very powerful for a short period of time, but you'll also have a possibility of dying because you're using this ability.

"So the player has to learn how to balance this system, where you might want to go into Hyper Mode and use all your Phazon - your health switches to a different management system - and you might just use all your Phazon really quick and get through a tough area and then you're out of Hyper Mode.

"But because you can manage this bar by how much you shoot, and your shots take out a certain number of Phazon units, you can actually stay in Hyper Mode for a longer period of time and be powerful for a longer period of time, at the expense of possibly dying. So it's kind of a system where hardcore people who are really good at the game might kind of take advantage of that system at a high risk."

On top of that, there's also a new weapon stacking system, which applies to your beams, missiles and grapple beam. Essentially, this means that every new weapon you collect will boost your existing weapons, while still retaining the inherent properties of each. On the subject of weapons, Retro revealed that new additions this time around include a beam that shoots straight through materials and an X-ray visor, for solving puzzles and locating targets under surfaces.

On the subject of multiplayer, it seems that Retro has ditched the idea, following the largely lacklustre modes in Metroid Prime 2: Echoes. Senior producer Bryan Walker revealed, "We added [multiplayer] in Metroid Prime 2 and it was fun. It was an experiment for us. In Metroid Prime 3, we really wanted to go back to the roots of Metroid, a very immersive single player first-person adventure. But that said, we're also very excited about the Wii Connect24 functionality, and we're discussing a number of options for Metroid Prime 3 to take advantage of that, and add value to the overall experience." On this last point, Retro confirmed it's "discussing" the possibility of downloadable content, including weapons upgrades.

Last but not least, it appears Retro is keen to take onboard comments arising from E3, specifically addressing issues of controller sensitivity which, many people agreed, was a little too high on Nintendo's stand. "Since this is new technology", Pacini divulged, "we're always learning new ways that things do or don't work. As far as the sensitivity issue, that's something that there is a learning curve for with the Metroid Prime games.

"It is a little bit more complicated in the control scheme, but after, we're kind of estimating, fifteen or twenty minutes, [...] you come back again and are like "How did I ever play without this?" As far as tunable sensitivity, absolutely. That is something that we found that people want - more and less sensitivity. I don't think we're going to be able to come up with one control scheme that works for everybody." ...

Via akihabaranews

Nihon Car & Bike came to us with a very interesting piece of news, Mitsubishi (Mitsu) sells in Japan a car called the “I” (you can find here a full test drive and some HD video of this car). And today Mitsu decided to bring a new version of its “I” the “Play Edition” where in fact you have a special cradle for iPOD nano. How it works? Well quite simple, you just have to plug the nano in the nifty cradle and there you go, you now can control and enjoy whatever music you have on your nano directly form your car audio… This as for today one of the most well designed cradle for a mp3 player in a car, well done Mitsu ! ...

Via CVG

Since its unveiling last year, the Wii controller's inspired all sorts of frenzied speculation as to what sorts of games it might be used for. On many a gamer's wishlist though, one thing crops up again and again - lightsaber duelling, courtesy of Nintendo's spacially-sensitive remote.

While rumours were rife that we'd see just such a game revealed at E3 this year, it wasn't to be. However, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata has further added fuel to the flames in an interview with The Seattle Times. On the subject of adding a speaker to the Wii remote, Iwata suddenly gallops off at a wholly unexpected tangent, revealing, "We really want [George] Lucas to think about making a game where this can be used as a lightsaber. It should be fun."

So, intergalatic wand-waving, accompanied by that familiar "fzzzzt-wuuuuuuuujjjjjjj" noise: Iwata definitely seems to want it, and we saw a couple of LucasArts bigwigs loitering around outside the Nintendo press conference last week too, which can only be a good sign.

Could this grandest of dreams yet become reality? Come on George, leave the shitty prequels alone and jump to it! ...

Via Gamesindustry

The Nintendo DS is continuing to prove hugely popular with Japanese consumers, accounting for more than 70 per cent of sales - while the Xbox 360 is struggling to break the 1 per cent barrier.

According to data provider Media Create, 138,000 Nintendo DS units and 690,000 DS Lites were sold during the month of April - accounting for 12.01 per cent and 60.19 per cent of sales respectively. Total DS sales rose by 206 per cent compared to figures for April 2005, which can be at least partly attributed to the launch of the DS Lite on March 2nd.

The PSP was the next best-selling piece of hardware last month, with just over 130,000 units sold and an 11.34 per cent share of the market. The PS2 is still going strong for a console at the end of its life cycle - 112,000 units were sold, making for a 9.77 per cent market share.

In fact, the PS2 far outsold Microsoft's next-gen console, which launched in Japan last December. The Xbox 360 is also trailing behind the GBA SP and the Game Boy Micro (both of which have market shares of around 2.6 per cent) - 10,701 units were sold in April, accounting for just 0.93 per cent of hardware sales.

The original Xbox, which has never been able to secure a foothold in Japan, is also continuing to fair poorly. It lagged behind the GameCube (0.4 per cent) and GBA (0.02 per cent) with just 121 units sold last month and a 0.01 per cent market share.

As for software sales, Konami topped the charts with Winning Eleven 10 for PS2 (460,500 copies sold), followed by DS title Animal Crossing: Wild World (317,000). Other DS games appearing in the top ten include Brain Training, Tetris and Pokémon Ranger, but GBA game Mother 3 was the third best-selling game of the month. ...

PSP News and Lik Sang are proud to host a mini comp aimed just at coders who Code in LUA.

The Competition has one full day in GMT time left:

You can submit any Game, Demo or APP written in Lua, full rules can be found on the competition page.

Heres the Prizes:

The Prizes to the winner are

Multi Cradle



The Multi-Cradle is a cradle style charging solution that includes stereo speakers, multiple viewing angles, and stylish blue lights.

Lithium Battery Pack 2600mAh



A high quality lithium battery pack able to be recharged over 10,000 times. The battery pack provides 2600mAh of power for your PSP.

Replacement Faceplate (e.g. Liquid Platinum) (color winner's choice)



Replace your boring faceplate with exclusive new colors

Replacement Button Set (e.g. Agent Orange) (color winner's choice)



Replacement button set for PSP including the digital pad (D-Pad), Analog stick and all face buttons including the 4 main action buttons, start, select & home, volume, audio and display.

Now this competition is aimed towards those who are new and not so experianced or to those who just want some neat accessories.

Full Details on rules at the Competition Page, Let the LUA CODING BEGIN

AT the request of many of the coders the prizes will be split between the top 2 entrants.

To Coders, Please PM me or use our Private Devs forum to upload your entrys ...