via Joystiq


Ready to see a few seconds of Fable III in action? Ready to see Peter Molyneux and other Lionhead staff tell you how awesome it is? Check out the first developer diary of the game above.

Molyneux introduces the "extreme morph" system, which allows players to show their alignments in dramatic ways at the press of a button. His example? "You're walking along and someone upsets you.You can press this expression, and out of your back appears these huge angel wings. A shaft of light comes down and shines on you. Everyone around you steps back, and, 'Oh, my goodness!' You're showing your true character."

The Fable III peek also briefly introduces the weapon morphing system and the "touch" system, and it features several shots of people being stabbed, sometimes with interesting-looking weapons. Good stuff.


Trailer at Joystiq ...

via Computer and Video Games


Square Enix has just confirmed plans to release two 360 hardware bundles over here, as previously suggested for the US.

The Special Edition Bundle packs the game with a 250GB FFXIII-engraved console (yes!), two controllers and a bunch of exclusive avatar downloadables (1 x Rosch Outfit, 1 x Nabaat Outfit and a Chocobo pet for your Avatar).

A second bundle, the Elite bundle, contains the game and standard 120GB console with a single controller.

The game's out March 9, and we got a bunch of lush new shots today which you really should check out.


Bundle boxart here ...

via Eurogamer


Presenting at Fable III at X10 in San Francisco, Peter Molyneux has revealed that the RPG - if you can still call it that - has no experience points or health bar.

Health is represented by the screen-colouring effects common in action and FPS games - Fable III has no HUD most of the time - while your character grows in power according to how many followers he or she has in the game's world of Albion. Levelling up is also represented by your weapons, which grow and change appearance according to how much and how you use them.

"It's an RPG without a health bar or experience," Molyneux said in a demonstration. "Because we put the levelling up into the world, with followers, you don't need experience."

Why make the change? "The absolute main reason is that most people didn't really understand it," Molyneux told Eurogamer later. "When you asked people how to get red experience, they'd say, 'I don't know, sometimes it's green, sometimes it's red, sometimes it's blue'."

Molyneux came to feel that experience was out of date, and out of step with Fable's themes. "Why do you just get experience for combat? It seemed wrong. This game is expressions and getting married and doing things in the world that should be as significant as fighting. So as soon as we said the word followers... just saying the word followers, what people think of you, meant more to the entirety of the game.
For more on Fable III - including the weapon morphing system, the online features, and the Touch mechanic first revealed at Gamescom in Cologne last year - watch out for a full feature preview shortly. ...

via Engadget


Looks like someone at Google should fast forward those Nexus One design videos to the radio integration portion and figure out what went wrong, because it seems like the 3G coverage problem still hasn't been fixed, even after that last big OTA update. What's more, many in Google's support forums are noting that the phone will drop a weaker 3G signal merely when held by the bottom, as the video below clearly shows. Oops. We're not at all sure what's going on here, but we're hoping this issue can yet be solved with a software patch -- things are going to get messy if this is purely a hardware issue.


...

via Computer and Video Games


The latest issue of the Official PlayStation Magazine is in, and it's got the first review of God of War 3, giving Kratos' third outing a 9/10.

Is it better than the recent rip-off (but pretty bloody good) Dante's Inferno? Yes, says the review in issue 43 of OPM, and it even destroys the first two GoW games too.
So why a 9 and not a 10? "The game is inches from scoring 10/10, and it's only the familiarity of the core gameplay (standing on the shoulders of giants) that makes it feel less than the very, very best. But it's definitely the biggest, and if this is the finale (and the corpses littering the stage by the end of the game suggest it might be), then God Of War III gives PlayStation's toughest hero the send-off he deserves," says the review.

You can read the full review in the latest issue of the Official PlayStation Magazine UK, on sale February 16. ...

via Computer and Video Games


Rising Star's mental body-slamming, Lightsaber slashing sequel, No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle, will be out over here at the "end of April 2010", the publisher has confirmed.

If you played the first game you'll know what to expect - crazy cel-shaded graphics, retro-style pixelated HUDs, and the ability to slice people in half using bigger weapons and back-snapping wrestling techniques. All awesome. ...

via Eurogamer


Microsoft has said that it's attempting to restore downloadable content access for people still playing Xbox 1 games.
Earlier this month the company announced that it was terminating Xbox 1 support through Xbox Live on that date, but DLC and multiplay were still supposed to work until then.

In an open letter to gamers Microsoft's Marc Whitten said the change was being made to help "evolve the service with features and experiences that harness the full power of Xbox 360", potentially including support for more than 100 friends.

Bungie has said it plans to give Halo 2 "one last hoorah" on 14th April, and is cooperating with Microsoft to try and solve the DLC issue, which affects the game a fair bit. ...

via Eurogamer


Nippon Ichi has confirmed to Eurogamer that this week's "Holy Invasion of Privacy, Badman!" name change does apply to Europe as well and has dated the sequel in the process.

The second game in the newly renamed "What Did I Do to Deserve This, My Lord!?" series will be released over here on 7th May.

As in the US, the name change will mean the original Badman game, which we reviewed last year, also disappears from the European PlayStation Store to allow Nippon Ichi to update it. Hopefully it will be back soon.

NIS America hasn't officially commented on the "existing IP" with which the game's former name was considered to be in "conflict of interest", but everyone reckons it's Batman, obviously. Stupid Dark Knight always getting up in people's grills. Jerk. ...

via Computer and Video Games


The first image of a new fifth generation Pokémon seems to have appeared on the internet.

Scans on fan site Serebii appear to reveal not one, but two new Pokémon set to appear in the next handheld game.

The first Monster is supposedly called 'Zorua' and is a dark-type Pokémon while the other is 'Zoroark', an evolution of Zorua.

The pair's existence means we're now up to a whopping 495 Pokémon. Catching 'em all used to be easier in our day... ...