Rumor: Supposed Halo Movie Concept Art Surfaces
Kombo 08/05/08
Months back, we reported on a rumor that scriptwriter Stuart Beattie had penned a new script for a possible Halo movie, based on the Eric Nylund Halo novel, The Fall of Reach. The rumor came hot on the heels of news that Peter Jackson's Halo movie had been cancelled and forgotten by FOX/Universal. Well, Latino Review -- the source of that original Fall of Reach script rumor -- has updated this week with potential concept art for such a project. Apparently, the folks at Latino Review know exactly how to squeeze traffic out of a scoop and will be releasing one piece of the 5 they obtained over the next month, resulting in a new piece every week. What you see above is the first of five pieces of concept art. Stuart Beattie's script is very real and out there floating around in Hollywood folks. How real? Well, there has been concept art made by conceptual artist Kasra Farahani (WOLF MAN, HANCOCK, SPIDERMAN 3) for certain scenes of the new HALO: FALL OF REACH script as part of an eventual presentation to Microsoft. From what I'm told, the presentation is very cool! -- Latino Review So, what's your take? Real or fake?

Gears of War 2 to Feature Optional Gore and Language Filter
Kombo 08/05/08
Even to this day, it amazes me just how graphically violent and gory the original Gears of War is. I don't think that's a bad thing -- personally, I'm cool with the explicit detail -- but I am sure some parents might not be comfortable with their kids playing such a brutally gory game. Well, turns out, Gears 2 will feature an option that enables such parents to turn off some of the excess blood and the mature language, as well. Blood becomes sparks and swear words become mild curses with family-friendly Gears of War 2 option. Microsoft shoot 'em up Gears of War 2 will come with a parental control facility when it's released for Xbox 360 on November 7th. The game, which was earlier given an 'M' rating by the ESRB, will attempt to placate concerned parents by giving them an option to substitute blood for sparks and remove all bad language. -- MCV I'll still play with the blood and language turned on, but I think this is only a good option to have in a game like Gears of War 2.

LittleBigPlanet Pre-order Campaign Goodies Revealed
Kombo 08/05/08
The official PlayStation Blog has updated, announcing the first details on Sony's LittleBigPlanet pre-order campaign. It seems that you will receive a different pre-order bonus depending on where you pre-order the game. Although the blog reveals what the items are, Sony hasn't announced which retailers will have which items. LittleBigStickerBook - For those of you who love to customize - this item is for you! This exclusive sticker book contains some of our favorite LBP imagery for you to apply your own 'mash-up' to your favorite possessions. Or take something else you own and make it your favorite! LittleBigStickerBook - For those of you who love to customize - this item is for you! This exclusive sticker book contains some of our favorite LBP imagery for you to apply your own 'mash-up' to your favorite possessions. Or take something else you own and make it your favorite! LittleBigPouch - Keep your LBP game safe and protected from the elements with this exclusive burlap pouch. Its so unique and stylish, it would make a SackMother proud. Exclusive Nariko SackGirl - SackBoy's beware! Nariko SackGirl has been known to keep other SackBoys (and SackGirls) in check. This exclusive downloadable costume features our favorite heroine on the PS3. Exclusive Kratos SackBoy - Nuff' said. Yes…the forum rumors were true - but the biggest question remains "why didn't this guy smile?" Seriously, this is another exclusive downloadable costume that will elevate your SackBoy status to godlike proportions. -- PlayStation.Blog Check out photos of all the goodies at PlayStation.Blog.

MGS4 Helps Pull in $655 Million for Konami During its Q1
Kombo 08/05/08
Sounds like the release of Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots is helping Konami's bottom line. The publisher released its latest quarter results today, and the company has pulled in half a billion dollars since the release of MGS4. Publisher and developer Konami announced today that it raked in about 70.8 billion yen for the quarter ending in June, which translates to some $655 million in U.S. dollars. That was up from the same quarter last year by about 17%, no doubt in part to the return of Solid Snake in Metal Gear Solid 4. As we reported earlier, Konami revealed it had shipped out close to 4 million copies of the game, accounting for a massive chunk of its game revenue. Konami's total "digital entertainment" business did a cool 44.9 billion yen alone, with its "health and fitness" business ventures doing about 22 billion yen. -- Kotaku Konami expects to pull in three billion dollars total by the end of 2008.

Game Politics Digs into Local Accounts of Thailand/GTA Incident
Kombo 08/05/08
Frustrated by English accounts of the Thailand Grand Theft Auto story, Game Politics sought out a more localized account of what had transpired, and found it on a website called Asian Sweetheart: The English language news stories left out much of the detail about the victim and the accused murderer. The Thai news had interviews of the families and other people involved. The story is very sad for many reasons. On the victim's side, they are a poor family and the man was the only person making any income, and not much because driving a taxi does not pay very well. He became the chosen victim because he was older and smaller than the first taxi driver the killer approached. GP notes that "Based on the fact that the victim was selected by the killer in the belief that he would be an easy mark, this looks like just another premeditated robbery, not some random violent act. Taxi cab robberies have been going on as long as there have been taxi cabs." More after the cut.

Dead Space Community Event Blog
Kombo 08/05/08
This week, Electronic Arts invited us, along with a number of other magazines and blogs, to check out the latest build of Dead Space. In addition to covering the game itself, I'll be blogging on my trip to San Francisco to see Dead Space. My latest updates can be found below. August 5th, 11:00PM PST Well, registration went quick, nothing more than a quick roll call and we were off to EA's Redwood studio, conveniently located right next door to the hotel. There we were handed our schedules, asked to sign a waiver to be recorded and/or photographed, and spent about half an hour schmoozing with each other in EA's game room. Sadly there wasn't anything particularly interesting to play since all of the actual, you know, video games were missing. There's nothing quite as heart-breaking as a PS3 and Xbox 360 hooked up to a gorgeous HDTV setup, and nothing to play on either. Ah well, the lack of entertainment forced us to spend time actually talking to each other, and most of the other guys here are pretty cool. EA actually gathered a fairly eclectic group of people, not only from gaming sites, but sites devoted to the horror genre in general. Over dinner the conversations ranged from the evolution of horror in movies, from the crazier sci-fi stuff that played off anxieties surrounding nuclear war in the 50s, to the break-through of taking terror into familiar environments like everyday homes and neighborhoods, to the idea that the popularity of the slasher genre in the 70s was a reaction to the rise of the women's lib movement; that men needed a vicarious way to act out their anxieties and resentment of growing female power. We ended up on the topic of the recent 'torture porn' movement, of which almost no one was a fan. Maybe we need a decade or so of time before we can reflect on just what the hell made that such a big deal (at the time anyway, not so much anymore). Obviously the topic of the horror genre segued nicely into discussing the goals that EA had for the experience of playing Dead Space, but I'll leave that more a longer, more in-depth blog post on the subject. When you speak of horror in videogames, obviously the name 'Resident Evil' is going to come up. And so it did, highlighted by a spirited debate as to whether or not the latest entries even classified as 'horror' any more. I feel they're basically just action games with creepy subject matter now, stripped of most of the tension and scary set-pieces that once defined them. On the other hand, we got better controls and even better graphics, so maybe that was a fair trade off. Besides, we still have Silent Hill, which many in attendance felt has always been the scarier of the two marquee 'Survival Horror' franchises. I've always preferred the more subtle but deeply penetrating brand of psychological terror that the Silent Hill games provided to the kind of 'Boo!' horror that Resident Evil offered, but I always figured I was in the minority. Other random topics included the narrative failings of Gears of War and Bioshock, the triumphs and disasters of the comic-book movie boom, Ubisoft's constant delays of Brothers in Arms, reactions to the reviewable build of Too Human, Nintendo's E3 showing and how they failed to showcase their building third party support. The night was capped off with a horror double feature in EA's movie theater (yes, they have a movie theater) and copious alcohol consumption. All of the attendees were asked to vote for two movies on a list of about 15 horror and sci-fi titles, though the options were limited by the fact that some of the best stuff in the genre isn't out on Blu-Ray yet. I voted for 28 Days Later and Predator, a nice mix of horror and sci-fi, but when the votes were counted the night went to Evil Dead 2 (which I've seen so many times now that I can't even muster a smile for it) and Sunshine (no, I have no idea for voted for it). Anyway, that's all for tonight, I'm going to head back down to the hotel bar and resume ingesting alcohol, possibly snap a few pictures of the crew that's still awake. Tomorrow the fun starts. Games and interviews from 9am to 6pm.

Analyst: Price Cut Could 'Significantly Impact' 360 Sales
Kombo 08/05/08
Should rumors of a further price cut come to pass, then one analyst feels that the effort will slow Sony's momentum in the marketplace. "We expect MSFT to cut its lowest priced sku to $199, its mid-priced sku to $299, and its high-end sku to $399. If we are correct, it would position the Xbox 360's low-end sku as the lowest priced next-gen console (below Nintendo's Wii for the 1st time). Its high-end sku would be price-comparable to Sony's new $399 PS3 sku." "When MSFT cut prices on the Xbox 360 in Aug '07, total unit sales increased ~35% that month vs. its prior 7-month average in the U.S. acc. to NPD (though the release of Madden NFL 08 in the same month likely had impact). Overall, consoles have seen an average unit increase of ~53% in the month of/after a price cut." "We believe any cut from MSFT aims to slow Sony's momentum before first-party PS3 releases in 2H'08 such as LittleBigPlanet, Resistance 2, SOCOM, and others. MSFT has a decent slate w/Gears of War 2 as well as short-lived exclusivity for Rock Band 2 in late Sept. Sony is unlikely to cut in response, though, in the unlikely event that PS3 sales significantly slow, Sony might have to reassess." -- Ben Schachter, UBS analyst To those who haven't picked a side yet, and perhaps are saving towards one of these bad-boys: Would a price-cut on Xbox 360 make you opt for it over Sony's monolith? Or is there enough going on over in Homeland that would keep you on course for the PlayStation experience?

Naughty Dog: PlayStation 3 Only Running at 30-40%
Kombo 08/05/08
As if in response to the comments made by THQ and Rare today, Naughty Dog has stepped up to the plate for Sony to claim that the PlayStation 3 is only running at about 30-40% of its full potential. "There's a set of tools called Edge that were developed on the Naughty Dog premises, actually, by a group of very, very senior games programmer, some from Naughty Dog and some from elsewhere." "...That's why we think we're probably only using 30 or 40 percent of the power of the PS3 right now, and there's this great, untapped potential." -- Richard Lemarchand, Naughty Dog Co-Lead Designer to ThreeSpeech Lemarchand refers to the Edge toolset, developed in early 2007, as "low-level libraries," and states that they are available for free to third party developers. Sony said of the tools at the time, "Rather than overarching engine, these teams have chosen to create specialized systems that demonstrate best practices of SPU and RSX utilization." "[Third-party developers] are going to be able to use them in their own ways, to get more and more and more out of the PS3 over the years," said Lemarchand, who believes the tools can make development considerably easier for developers.

PSP Needs New Way to Destroy All Humans; Big Willy Wii-ps
Kombo 08/05/08
What the? A PSP post? Ohmygodohmygodohmygod, what do I do? What do I do?!? Ehem, yes. Anyway, it would seem that where the PSP is concerned, humanity is safe, as that version of Destroy All Humans! Big Willy Unleashed has been cancelled. "Basically, the PSP version was cancelled because of control issues. DAH! Big Willy Unleashed was designed by [a] Wii developer specifically for the Wii. When it was ported over to the PSP, the controls simply didn't translate well, and instead of pushing out the product with translated controls, it was cancelled." -- THQ Rep to IGN At least Wii owners will get to experience the glory of wreaking havoc with a rip-off of Bob's Big Boy.

Rare Engineer Thinks Xbox 360's Limit is Not Yet Reached
Kombo 08/05/08
Some people might think that the Xbox 360 is starting to show signs of reaching its limits. However, at the possibly-biased Rare, there is a belief that the console hasn't shown everything in its bag of tricks yet: "You never can push them as far as they can go. The reality of the peak performance of the console is yes, you could look to a generation beyond where we are now and think, yeah, I could use that power. But the reality is in 360 and the PS3 and the latest generation PC graphics, the amount of power in the GPUs is such that you're more bound by your creativity and the aesthetic you're going for than you're really bound by polygon pushing power," said Burton. "You're probably actually more bound maybe by art authoring and the amount of data throughput that, just the amount of memory you'd need, but I don't think 360 has reached its limit." Regarding the capabilities of the Xbox 360, Burton noted that he's able to do things now that he thought impossible at the start of the generation. "If you see some of the stuff we've done, in fact some of the stuff our guys have done, the GPU particle systems and things like, some of our guys have been working on the geometric style real time radiosity," explained Burton. "Even at the start of this generation, if you'd said to me, without actually me just looking at it and you were asking me off the cuff as a graphics programmer, could that happen, I'd have said no. And then you think, well, what's going to come next? You can still keep pushing it and pushing it and pushing it." -- Nick Burton, Rare Senior Software Engineer, to VideoGamer.com Guess it's all in how you use it, too.

Telltale: 'Strong Bad Coming to WiiWare August 11th'... Or So They Think
Kombo 08/05/08
The fine folks at Telltale Games have posted on their website the exciting news of Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People being available for PC and WiiWare on August 11th. Unfortunately, Nintendo has taken to messing around with not only its consumers, but the very people who develop games for them, as yesterday's Wii-kly update defied all expectations set by third-party companies just one day prior, as Hudson, Capcom, and SNK each boasted Virtual Console releases of Ys I & II, Mega Man, and Samurai Showdown II, respectively. This did not set well with many, who felt that Nintendo not only did wrong by them, but also did wrong by their third-parties. So, will Strong Bad make a simultaneous debut on PC and WiiWare on the 11th? Or will one start out of the gate while the other is being turned away at the door after being invited? Until Nintendo delivers their press release Monday, we won't know for sure... and Telltale might not, either. Skeptical? Hell yes I am.

Does FFXIII Going Multiplatform Spell the End for PS3?
Kombo 08/05/08
digg_url = 'http://digg.com/gaming_news/Does_FFXIII_Going_Multiplatform_Spell_the_End_for_PS3'; digg_skin =''; The PlayStation3 has had a pretty rough-and-tumble time in the market. It went from having the best exclusives out there, such as BioShock and Grand Theft Auto IV, to losing nearly all of them to Microsoft in either exclusive or multiplatform fashion. PlayStation fans held on to two near-absolute truths: Metal Gear Solid 4 and Final Fantasy XIII. These have been the cruxes of the pro-PS3 argument for years now, ever since we knew that both games existed. However, only one of those cruxes has held (that crux being MGS4), with Final Fantasy XIII having gone multiplatform in an E3 shocker that won't soon be forgotten. There have been a multitude of claims about the PS3's future issued in light of this major event, with the most popular being: "There is no longer a reason to buy a PS3."

Your Tax Dollars at Work: ESA Receives $280K in Fees from Failed California Anti-Game Law
Kombo 08/05/08
This would be one of those "good news, bad news" situations. The good news is that Judge Ronald M. Whyte found that video games are protected by the First Amendment, and that there is no evidence that playing violent games results in real-world violence (psst, ixnay on Ailandthay, kayo-ay?). Actually, there's more good news... if you're the ESA, as they will be reimbursed $282,794 of their $324,840 legal fees. Of course, this remains bad for Californian taxpayers, particularly those who probably didn't want that stupid law in effect in the first place: "California deserves more from its legislators than pursuing flawed legislation. State employees are facing pay cuts. California's services are being scaled back. And, anxiety is rising in Sacramento to find funds." "Rather than tackling real problems affecting Californians, they chose to waste time, money and state resources. It is shameful that legislators pursued personal agendas in spite of the facts." -- Michael Gallagher, ESA CEO So, what do you think of these monotonous failed attempts to pass such bills into law? Do you live in a state that's tried it? How do you feel about paying for these guys to keep running their heads into a wall, rather than using a door and leaving the paint alone?

THQ Pronounces Traditional Hardware Cycles Dead; Cycles' Wife in Mourning
Kombo 08/05/08
There are many cycles you can count on in life: The change from day to night, the seasons, life and death, the hopes and expectations of Sonic fans (seen at right), and video game consoles coming and going at fairly regular intervals. Well, maybe not that last one, if THQ is to be believed. We used to always think of this industry as 'the cycle.' I think the reality now is there are several sub-cycles. -- Brian Ferrell, CEO of THQ As he sees it, there are in actuality three smaller sub-cycles which demand more attention than the broader scope of the past: One is the handheld market, another is what Nintendo is doing with their Wii, and the third being the ongoing rivalry between the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. In fact, he notes there is even an emerging cycle in the world of online. It's hard now to talk about 'the cycle' — I think we have to talk about all of the cycles. The way we think about it at THQ is we plan our business around each of those platforms, not around 'the cycle.' -- Brian Ferrell, CEO of THQ MTV notes that Ferrell's theory is supported by the success of the Wii and DS, and the expense involved in the 360 and PS3. But, they ask as part of the purchasing public, "is this a good trend?"

Poll Results: What Gamers Predicted for E3 vs. What Actually Happened
Kombo 08/05/08
Prior to E3, we ran a poll asking which company you guys and gals thought would have the best E3 showing. Then, after E3, we ran another poll, this time asking which company actually had the best show. So, are you curious how accurate your prediction was? Check below to see the results of both polls. Pre-E3 2008: Which company will have the best E3 showing? Nintendo (38%) Microsoft (29%) Sony (34%) Post-E3 2008: Who had the best E3 showing? Nintendo (20%) Microsoft (43%) Sony (37%) Going into the show, I had expected Nintendo to have a really, really good E3. As you all know for yourself, that's not exactly what happened. So, I voted for Microsoft in the post-E3 poll, as I am looking forward to more games on 360 than any other platform at this time. There's now a new poll up on the front page, so get voting!