via cvg

Rockstar vice president of creative Dan Houser has been talking about why the firm decide on New York as the setting for GTA IV.

"We've always wanted to do New York properly," he said in the latest issue of Official Xbox Magazine. "With GTA III we were dealing with so many technical issues that we didn't really think trying to make somewhere like a real place was important at the time and then we discovered later that gave an added element of content to the place."

He added, "We've got a full time team of researchers and photographers in the office in New York who get emails from the artists in Scotland saying, 'hey can you find out that this building's like, or what the traffic flow's like around here?' or the designers want to find out how the law systems work. We wouldn't be as confident doing a next-gen game the way we wanted, somewhere we didn't have a base." ...

via cvg

Bungie and Microsoft has given out codes to select members of the press to get a first-hand look at the open beta of Halo 3 before it goes live on May 16. CVG has been hammering the game since last night and we can now proudly present our first-hand impressions.

Weighing in at just over 900MB, it took us around half-an-hour to get up and running late last. By now everyone should have seen the leaked YouTube movies and had a quick look at the maps, weapons and game modes of the open beta. What you'll see in the beta is nothing revolutionary and your first impressions will be that you've been here before.

It's essentially the same formula as Halo 2 online only with a few new spices to liven things up. But did we really expect it to be a totally different game? No, in fact it was just good to be playing new Halo again. Halo 2 has been pretty much exhausted since it came out and even releasing remade maps from Halo 1 will do little to give the game a fresh feel.

Snowblind, Valhalla and High Ground all serve as a good indicator that Halo 3's multiplayer is going to be just as much fun as previous instalments of the franchise. All three maps are small and open allowing you to spend most of your time engaging in combat rather than wandering through corridors and mountain passes trying to find someone to shoot. These have clearly been selected for the immediate fun factor.

You can play team or solo games and Bungie's new matchmaking options are being put to the test. Finding a game is no problem and the beta hasn't even gone public yet. But once you've joined a game and then finished, you can stick around the lobby and 'party-up' with other players just by hanging around. The game will then take whoever's left off to find more players for a new game. This saves the need to quit out and fire out friends requests, accept them, and join their games if there's someone you've got on well with on the battlefield.

There's a massive community feel to Halo 3 and you'll get to try out the much-talked about Saved Film function. Once you game's finished you can hit a button to save a replay of it and watch it later. The idea being that you can analyse you or your team's performance and improve it.

Clans are going to love this and you can swap and share clips via Xbox Live. There's limited function in the open beta of Saved Films but it's enough to give you a idea of the potential for fans sharing their greatest moments long after the glory has gone. Remember all those homemade videos of players blasting Warthogs around maps in Halo 1? Bungie has now basically given the community a set of tools to do it properly. It's just another sign that user generated content is beginning to take over the world.

Visually the game is looking good, nothing draw-dropping like in a Gears Of War kind of OMG, but that's more down to the art direction of Halo than developer skills or tools. There are some nice little touches in there though and they're so subtle you may or may not even notice them. For example Snowbound features soft surfaces and if you look closely, you'll be able to see character models sinking into the snow as they move on the map's surface.

The matchmaking process decides the game mode you're about to play and the playlist's favourites so far seem to be standard deathmatch, rockets and Shotty Snipers. Main team modes feature Team Slayer, Territories and CTF. Whether you're a fan of solo or team games, there's plenty to chew on in the beta.

Performance-wise we haven't run into any problems yet. Maybe that'll change when it goes live to the masses but everything seems to be running as planned, which isn't bad considering the size of the demo and that fact hat it hasn't been optimised yet.

The Halo 3 beta won't surprise you but it does serve as a reminder of how strong the console shooter is online. As we said before, it's just good to be playing new Halo and we'll be playing as much as possible for the three weeks it's live.

Expect more impressions and reports as the weeks unfold. If you're lucky enough to have got a place on the closed beta, let us know your initial thoughts below. ...

via cvg

With early press access to the Halo 3 multiplayer beta in full swing (we received our code last night and have been fraggin' away like the merry bejesus and top fun it is too), the first official movie from the game has hit the net courtesy of one of Bungie's own testers, the admirable Mr Jukes.

Taken from both internal alpha and beta phases, there's some top quality Halo 3 stuff to see in this Betalicious movie and none of it any of that shaky cam malarkey you'll find on YouTube either.

Nope this is the official real deal and top quality it is to behold too, so being the nice chaps that we are we thought we'd share. We won't spoil too much for you as a picture tells a thousand words etc. but definitely check out Lazr Cat's sequence at the end, Mawr Spartan Lazr rockz!

Movie at link above: ...

via cvg

The much-anticipated Halo 3 multiplayer beta is up and running as Microsoft gives select members of the press early access to the multiplayer beta.

It's not scheduled to go live until Wednesday, May 16 but there are well over 1000 Microsoft and Bungie employees sharpening their skills on the game as well as select members of the press RIGHT NOW.

CVG got its code a few hours ago at a special hands-on event in central London this evening and we've been flying the flag and hammering all three maps and various game modes ever since.

You can play solo or team-based game types in ranked and un-ranked modes. Game modes appearing in Slayer so far include Shotty Snipers and Rockets aside form standard deathmatch modes. ...

PSP Devolution is a "flashmod". It can downgrade ANY psp. Any firmware and any mobo version.
There are 2 versions of the PSP Devolution:
TA-079 / TA-081
TA-082 / TA-086


The PSP Devolution has been delayed. It will be for sale on May 18, 2007.

When it comes out, you can buy it here.

The official PSP Devolution site has also added instructions for installing the flashmod, which can be found here.
The installation instructions are for the non-TA-082/086 version only. ...

Yakumo of Segagaga Domain has uploaded screenshots and video footage of the unreleased Sega Saturn title: Fake Down.

More screenshots can be found in this thread:
http://www.assemblergames.com/forums...ad.php?t=13618

You can find video footage here:
http://www.segagagadomain.com/movie-pages/fakedown.htm ...

via Cubed3

We got very excited when the title was announced back in December of last year, and now we can bring you six new screens from the hotly anticipated DS title in development by Square Enix and Level 5. We'll let you make up your own minds as to just how good the game is. Check out the screens

...

via Cubed3

Aprotective parent has run riot in a bid to stop Nintendo and their evil foul mouth critters in Animal Crossing influencing her daughter with shiny blue-coloured swears.

The latest case of gaming parenting comes from a young 11-year-old lass in Scotland who, whilst enjoying exploring her town in Animal Crossing DS, was called a "****ing cow" by one of the characters, as featured in the London Metro newspaper.

A Nintendo UK representative insisted that none of the company's family friendly titles features any offensive language, adding "It is either a pirate copy or it is user-inputted text." Most likely a used copy or an attention-seeking girl already clued up in the ancient art of le-swear. ...

via Cubed3

Bandai Namco has revealed that it is working on a new Nintendo DS game called 'One Piece: Gear Spirit', which appears to be a 3D fighter, similar to Smash Bros. or Jump Ultimate Stars, and is set for release in Japan later this year. Check out the first scan of the game. ...