Following this morning's reveal of WWE Smackdown vs. Raw 2008, first screenshots from the THQ sequel are body-slamming us and following up with a Chinese burn (15 screenshots in fact, which we've uploaded to this here page).

The screens are from the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions of the game - Wii, PS2, DS and PSP iterations are also planned. Expect to see WWE Smackdown vs. Raw 2008 toward the end of the year.

Screens Here ...

At last weekend's GO3 Electronic Entertainment Expo in Perth, Australia, Metal Gear creator Hideo Kojima spoke to a keen audience about how he will push the series forward with MGS4 on PS3.

"I went back to the drawing board, back to scratch", he said, according to Gamespot, "and looked at what I did for Metal Gear 1 and 2, and for Metal Gear Solid 1, 2, and 3".

He goes on to explain: "Now I can't make Snake go into space to do his stealth mission, and we've exhausted the concept of the place, so now I thought why not create a situation rather than a place? And then I thought of a battlezone or warzone as the situation where Snake has to sneak in. So MGS4's game concept is playing hide and seek within a certain situation."

Kojima detailed his vision of game that places the player in a the middle of a war between two armies. "To make it very simple, in the past Metal Gears, Snake was going into enemy environments--so everyone apart from Snake was an enemy. This time it's a warzone, so you have country A or country B, so Snake could interfere with either of the countries."

Interestingly, he says that this "does not necessarily mean that everyone is an enemy to Snake", suggesting Snake will have to work with or even sneak past allies - which makes us think of the CIA level in the original Splinter Cell game. "This creates a new tension in playing this new hide and seek," he promises.

Kojima also hopes to give Sony's shiny super console a fair old work out in some interesting ways, "for not only what you can see, but also psychological effects, or psychological battles, where it can affect your gameplay."

MGS4 is bound to kick ass, so whatever "psychological" stuff Kojima is thinking up, we hope he can get it done and whacked onto a Blu-ray disc for us to feed our PS3 with pronto. Q4 2007 is the current ETA.

via cvg ...

via Computer and Video Games


On Thursday, April 5, Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter 2 developer Red Storm Entertainment is assaulting Xbox Live to take on European gamers in a tactical shooter showdown.

The event is running from 7pm GMT to 9pm GMT. First of all, you need to add one of the following GamerTags to your Friends list prior to the event - UbisoftDev1, UbisoftDev2, UbisoftDev3 or UbisoftDev4. Then log in to Xbox Live between 7 and 9 and wait for an invite.

Red Storm folks present will be Christian Allen (Creative Director), Chris Bray (Lead MP Designer) and Prince Arrington (Associate Producer) and they'll attempt to play as many people wanting in as possible. ...

via Xbox 360 Fanboy


Over on the AVS forums, an insider from Microsoft let the kitty cat out of the bag on the Xbox 360 Elite's use of HDMI. According to the post, the Elite will incorporate HDMI 1.2 and not the newer 1.3 version which the PS3 uses. What's the big difference you ask? Well, not too much other than HDMI 1.3 features TrueHD and DTS-HD audio output and other small fixes where as 1.2 does not. There's a lot of technical mumbo jumbo to be read, so if you're into all that technical jazz feel free to read up on the differences. For the HDMI noobs amongst us (which we mostly all fall under) check out Wikipedia's HDMI 1.2 vs 1.3 comparison and get learnified. To those of you who are purchasing an Elite 360, does this 1.2 revelation alter your opinion or sway you away from your future Elite purchase? ...

via DS Fanboy


What a week! At this rate, we could almost use a DS drought, just to give us time to save up some cash! But we shouldn't complain, since our counterparts in the UK and Australia aren't having much of a week as far as releases go. Isn't that always the way of it? One week, we get a ton of games and they get none, and the next week it's reversed. The only thing we can ever count on is that Japan is going to debut a veritable truckload of new titles. No matter what's going in the rest of the world, the Japanese must have their new DS games.

US releases

• Cake Mania
• Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo Tales
• Honeycomb Beat
• Konami Classics: Arcade Hits

European releases

Nada. insert sad face here.


Japanese releases

• Kageyama Method - Dennou Hanpuku: Tadashii Kanji Kaki to Rikun
• Meitantei Conan: Tantei Ryoku Trainer
• Shin Sangoku Musou DS: Fighter's Battle
• Watashi no Happy Manner Book

Australian releases

• Tamagotchi Connection: Corner Shop 2

...

via DS Fanboy


What a week! At this rate, we could almost use a DS drought, just to give us time to save up some cash! But we shouldn't complain, since our counterparts in the UK and Australia aren't having much of a week as far as releases go. Isn't that always the way of it? One week, we get a ton of games and they get none, and the next week it's reversed. The only thing we can ever count on is that Japan is going to debut a veritable truckload of new titles. No matter what's going in the rest of the world, the Japanese must have their new DS games.

US releases

• Cake Mania
• Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo Tales
• Honeycomb Beat
• Konami Classics: Arcade Hits

European releases

Nada. insert sad face here.


Japanese releases

• Kageyama Method - Dennou Hanpuku: Tadashii Kanji Kaki to Rikun
• Meitantei Conan: Tantei Ryoku Trainer
• Shin Sangoku Musou DS: Fighter's Battle
• Watashi no Happy Manner Book

Australian releases

• Tamagotchi Connection: Corner Shop 2

...

via DS Fanboy


What a week! At this rate, we could almost use a DS drought, just to give us time to save up some cash! But we shouldn't complain, since our counterparts in the UK and Australia aren't having much of a week as far as releases go. Isn't that always the way of it? One week, we get a ton of games and they get none, and the next week it's reversed. The only thing we can ever count on is that Japan is going to debut a veritable truckload of new titles. No matter what's going in the rest of the world, the Japanese must have their new DS games.

US releases

• Cake Mania
• Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo Tales
• Honeycomb Beat
• Konami Classics: Arcade Hits

European releases

Nada. insert sad face here.


Japanese releases

• Kageyama Method - Dennou Hanpuku: Tadashii Kanji Kaki to Rikun
• Meitantei Conan: Tantei Ryoku Trainer
• Shin Sangoku Musou DS: Fighter's Battle
• Watashi no Happy Manner Book

Australian releases

• Tamagotchi Connection: Corner Shop 2

...

via Computer and Video Games


Despite a stellar reception from the press, not everyone was completely satisfied with the bandwidth-burning GTA IV trailer that hit the internet with a bang last week.

Three main trends among complainers crammed our comments section over the weekend, including outcries over the "untreatable" Russian main character, complaints of "yet again" returning to Liberty City and erm, apparently some people don't think the visuals look up to par.

"Talk about an anti climax! I was waiting hours for this watching the clock count down. I was expecting to see something fun that would make me need a 360 or PS3 but meh... It's Liberty/New York in a contemporary setting - how boring", said CVG user GiarcYekrub. "The only positive I can see is the bilboards look funny but that lasts how long?"

Believe it or not, others were more harsh in their criticism: "Oh my god, what a letdown", Burnsyboy2004 posted on Friday. "It's set in Liberty City again which is crap, and you're some dirty Russian gangster. Looks like they have run out of ideas boys and girls. Same old game again then but with better graphics."

But obviously not everyone was as disappointed over the GTA IV debut. Buffers32 defended the trailer: "I don't know what some of you were looking at but personally I just saw some the best graphics in a video game ever. Soft shadows, real-time lighting, volumetric lighting, massive draw distance, incredible detail, beautiful water...what more do you want?"

Whitepony888 echoed Buffers' comments: "Although I've seen better graphics on the Xbox 360, I honestly never anticipated GTAIV to look quite so beautiful. I haven't wanted to play a game this much since the series first moved into full 3D."

"I'm just glad that you don't have to be an american this time!" Piped in fellow CVG forumite Kapt15. We're with you on that. ...

via PS3 Fanboy


In lieu of all the crazy implications that the PS3 isn't the coolest thing around, we're going to go ahead and say, "that, good sir, is at the very least a debatable subject to deliberate on... with dancing!" However, instead of inviting other people over for probably the most humiliating dance-off this side of the internet, we're just going to cast some news out there and hope a little fishy bites.

According to MeriStation, the PS3 has nearly sold out across all of Spain. They were allocated 110,000 units and have reportedly gone through 100,000 of them. Sony is planning to keep the supply up, granting Spain 20,000 units every week. In addition to this, the demand for the Blu-ray format has increased by 30% since the PS3's launch. Awesome, but not unexpected. It is awesome. I wish anything that I created would sell 100,000 copies. Eventually! ...