via Eurogamer


Metal Gear Solid 4 will have an unlockable Altair costume in it after all.

Originally shown in a video released on April Fools Day, the Assassin's Creed character model will actually be in the game when it ships on 12th June worldwide.

How you unlock it is a mystery being kept by those to whom the secret was revealed in Tokyo this week, but it's not the only bizarre collaboration in MGS4.

According to GameSpot's account of the MGS4 wrap party, Snake also has an iPod in-game, which lets him play music he collects, with additional tracks set to be offered as DLC.

There's also a lot of raw product placement, like Triumph motorbikes, Sony Ericsson mobile phones and even some real-life clothing.

This being a Hideo Kojima production, and this being the last in the MGS series (at least until they change their minds again), goodness knows what else we'll discover - Psycho Mantis doing horoscopes, perhaps, or a radio contact who doesn't want you to lie on your tits in a warzone having existential discussions about soldiering.

We'll have to wait and see. The full game's out on PS3 on 12th June and we'll have a review for you very soon. In the meantime, check out our hands-on impressions of the finished game, which Oli was lucky enough to play in its entirety. ...

via Computer and Video Games


Microsoft Game Studios boss Shane Kim has played dumb when quizzed on the rumoured Xbox 360 motion controller, at the Xbox spring showcase today.

The Xbox 360 'Wii Remote' was said to be codenamed 'Newton', and speculated to be on the market by the end of the year, but Microsoft isn't saying anything (much)...

"The stock answer is that we don't comment on rumour and speculation," Kim told CVG this afternoon, and then commented anyway.

"I will say, look, we have a lot of research and development going on all over the place, in Live and in Hardware and we have a ton of success in the accessory business - and that's probably a story that doesn't get told enough.

"We're going to continue to look at new ways we can introduce different things - the third parties are doing this as well with the music controllers. So there's opportunities for us there too. We're an R and D company at heart."

Talking hypothetically, Kim said Microsoft would have to be careful with the 'me too' trend if it did decide to craft its own motion-sensing controller.

"What's interesting is that you have a lot of third parties that are trying to rush to the Wii phenomenon, but if you look at the data, the vast majority of software that has sold on Wii has come from Nintendo. So it's not turned out to be a great third party eco-system.

"But I've never heard of a motion sensing controller... I don't know what you are talking about..."

Read the full interview with Kim here. ...

via IGN


Microsoft has announced its next set of Xbox Originals that will be put up for download on the Xbox Live Marketplace on May 19. Stubbs the Zombie in Rebel Without a Pulse and Gauntlet: Seven Sorrows will be made available at a cost of 1200 Microsoft Points ($15 US) each. Gauntlet will not be up for sale in Japan and Korea while Stubbs the Zombie won't be sold in Austria, Switzerland, Germany, Korea and Japan.

Xbox Originals are digitally distributed versions of Xbox titles. They run on the same backwards compatibility software that allows you to run Xbox titles in an Xbox 360 and so the experience is largely identical. ...

via Computer and Video Games


We'll all agree that the first Banjo game was massive back on N64. Not just in terms of sales but in size too. But what does the man who helped crate Banjo Kazooie think about a game's length in today's terms?

"I guess people are now less tolerant of really, really long games," Rare's head of design, Gregg Mayles, told CVG. "Or if you're going to have a really long game it has to be structured in such a way that the majority of the players play the game up to a certain point and are happy with it, but that section is shorter and then make sure the tail-end of the game suits the people that want to carry on."

He continued, "The trick is not forcing everybody to play it for a colossal amount of time. So if people want to try and complete it in like 20 to 30 hours that's fine. If people want to then carry on, that's fine." ...

via Computer and Video Games


Team Ninja's Tomonobu Itagaki has declared Ninja Gaiden II the last game in the fantastic series.

The series has reached its peak with the 360-exclusive sequel, reasoned Itagaki, who says he looks to move onto something "completely new".

"Personally I think we were able to create the definitive 3D game in this series so I'm not planning on making any other games in the series," said Itagaki, adding: "So I hope fans treat this as a swan song for the franchise.

He went on: "I think we were able to achieve everything we wanted with this game so anything else would be extraneous," according to Kotaku (featuring a photo of Itagaki with a bloke that looks strangely like a less-green Incredible Hulk).

Itagaki brushed off the possibility of a "swan song" NG game for PS3 as "ridiculous", presumably while donning his iconic giant shades.

So what's next? Itagaki says he wishes to move on to something "completely unrelated to anything I've done before. Not any part of any existing franchises," expressing an interest in working with a US developer on "a game based on the Pacific Theater," or a game set in space.

Boo. More angry ninjas and decapitations, please. ...

via Eurogamer


EA money results show that its games sold better on Sony platforms for the first three months this year.

You see, those months were the final three in its financial year, which saw the PS2 crowned as the winner by making USD 166 million.

Close behind was its PS3 sibling commanding USD 152 million, while its Xbox 360 rival managed just USD 128 million despite its installed-base advantage.

On the other hand, a meagre USD 75 million was made from EA games sold on Wii, this generation's hardware sales leader.

Sony also dominated the handheld facts and figures; USD 69 million was made from EA games sold on PSP, which gave it 47 percent of the portable market, which is almost double the DS with 25 percent. Mobile accounted for the rest of the pie with 28 percent.

If you're still awake, this all amounts to a massive 192 percent increase in PS3 EA game sales, probably because it didn't launch in Europe until 23rd March.

All other platforms sold more EA games than last year as well, with only the PC going the wrong way by 11 percent. Still, with Battlefield Heroes around the corner, this should change. ...

via Computer and Video Games


Lost in Blue, Konami's cult survival series that makes staying alive on a deserted island seem harder than getting a ruffle under the sheets with Jessica Alba, is coming to Wii.

As the series approaches its third iteration on DS, the first images of a Wii Remote-enhanced version have appeared in the Japanese publication, Koro Koro Comics.

Obviously, all that juicy info is in crazy symbols, but you can expect the survival premise to be much the same, with a series-first two-player co-op mode thrown in, which should hopefully make surviving for longer than five minutes a little easier.

It also looks to make plentiful use of the Wii Remote's motion-sensing powers to perform the many survival tasks on whatever hell hole the game leaves you stranded on this time around.

It's down for an August release in Japan, so fingers crossed we'll get it before the year's out.

Check out some dodgy images over on Jeux France. ...

via Eurogamer


Lionhead boss Peter Molyneux has told Eurogamer there will be no playable demo for Fable 2 - at least not if the decision is left to him.

Speaking at Microsoft's Spring Showcase event in San Francisco Molyneux said, "There's no plan for a demo at the moment. Demos are probably the trickiest and hardest things to design, because there are probably 60- or 70- odd features we introduce to the player, and it takes us about ten to 15 hours to introduce all those.

"Trying to squeeze some of those down into a demo is really hard, if not impossible," he observed. "So I would vote not to do a demo."

Fable 2, an Xbox 360 exclusive, is due out this "holiday". According to Molyneux, Lionhead is "at the end of the road now" as far as development goes, and all the game's main features are in place.

"There aren't any new ideas going in," he confirmed. "In fact - and this is something I've had to learn - each idea is like a little baby. You have to nurture it and grow it. But I've learned over the years that if something doesn't fit, you have to get rid of it." ...

via Eurogamer


Silicon Knights boss Denis Dyack has told Eurogamer there are plans to release a demo of Too Human via Xbox Live.

"We haven't announced a date yet. Our goal is to try to get it out obviously before the game releases, and we'll announce the specific timing of that shortly," he said.

"But a demo is absolutely planned. We think it's critical for the game. If things go as planned, gamers should get a demo well in advance before the game's released."

Too Human is out in the US on 19th August, and in Europe on 29th August. So will we see a demo before the month of August kicks off? "Yes, that's the plan."

According to Dyack, they're still debating what the demo will consist of. "The more we put in the demo, the more challenging it's going to be. We're probably going to focus on the first level of the game," he stated.

"We really want people to focus on the gameplay, because the fusion between RPG and action is something really new. You can't really tell what the game's like till you sit down and play." ...