All Topics Gaming older than one year ago

The official Super Street Fighter IV development blog has revealed some unused character art for the first game, revealing a different take on Abel than the giant amnesiac in bike shorts we know now. Before he was beefy and uncomfortably pant-less, he was wispy ... and pretty much only in pants."With Abel," battle planner Taisaku Okada explained (as translated by Andriasang) we wanted to make someone representative of 'the weak can beat the strong,' and so he was originally a small judo character who could be mistaken for a girl." Eventually, it would appear, they opted for someone representative of 'the strong can beat the ... also strong."The post also reveals E. Honda's skeleton, which, like all the characters', is rendered in full 3D. The other characters' hairstyles probably don't have bone structure, however.[Via Andriasang]

No, no, in the game, silly! If you pre-order The Saboteur you get a knife in the game. Specifically, those who pre-order the game from GameStop will receive a code to unlock "an exclusive Nazi knife," which can be used for stealth kills. Frankly, we find it just a tad strange that a game about a stealthy underground agent doesn't give you a cool Nazi knife to begin with, but hey, metal was in shorter supply in the days of World War II. Also, just as a reminder, it's not a real knife. We're pretty sure EA learned its lesson since the last time. [Via @PandemicStudios]

Activision has sent out the intro cinematic for DJ Hero, and we can't help but think of Brütal Legend set in a hip-hop / club universe. A world filled with monstrous record needles and gigantic subwoofers. A place where DJs -- and truck drivers, apparently -- are kings, battling it out for rhythmic supremacy. We're not sure if the actual gameplay experience of twirling plastic records and tapping buttons will evoke the same feelings -- the signs are good so far -- but the intro video certainly has us pumped. You'd best check it yourself, lest you wreck yourself.

Ever the consummate hype man, Hideo Kojima is fluffing up Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker by teasing an apparent system-selling feature. "I haven't announced this yet, but there's another feature in [Peace Walker] that will surprise people, to the point where they'll want to go out and buy a PSP right now!" Kojima blabbed in the latest issue of Famitsu (as translated by 1UP). Short of some sort of in-game subliminal advertising (hey, these guys like to experiment), we're thinking The Two-Hundred-and-Forty-Nine-Ninety-Nine-Dollar Feature -- or maybe it's just "The Buck-Seventy Feature" -- could get lost in translation. After all, the two Peace Walker features that have been newly revealed seem distinctly Japanese in their appeal.Also plucked from the pages of Famitsu, is the revelation that Peace Walker will feature Yamaha's Vocaloid software. (Yeah, we'd never heard of it either -- just wikipedia it.) If we understand it correctly, Vocaloid will allow certain weapons in the game to sing and scream. Mm-hmm, sounds incredibly annoying.Also revealed: Those 2D-illustrated cut scenes? Yep, like this one. Well, they're interactive. "For example, if you zoom in on the scene where you first meet Paz, you can see the uniform she has on under her coat, and then what's under that," art director Yoji Shinkawa explained ... rather creepily. "It's an idea I came up with while thinking about what makes games different from movies or animation. I think it's pretty interactive." Hopefully, not too interactive.

Harnessing the power of Nintendo franchises for charity, the folks at TripleSpeedRunners will be spending 48 hours this weekend speed-running through games from the Donkey Kong, Star Fox, and Kirby series. Live streaming of the event will be handled on the crew's website, with live commentary and chat available to cheer the players -- or jeer 'em if you're a player hater.All proceeds from donations during the event will go to DC Outreach, an organization that provides worldwide support to families affected by Dyskeratosis Congenita. Last time TSR got together, it raised $1,140 for the DC charity, but we know with the full support of the Joystiq BioMass behind them we can help them double that. Right, folks?The speed-runs kick off this Friday at 7PM ET sharp.

100% more blood-gushing wounds. 100% less Malcolm McDowell.

You know, one day we hope to be as rich as the cats at Mega 64. The troupe's latest video -- an alarming look at one of the PSP Go's lesser-known features (courtesy of IGN) -- shows us just how stacked with loot these guys really are. We're not going to give the ending away, but let's just say the whole thing is a fine way to burn a neat stack of Benjamins. In the end, it's alright -- we bet they got paid a lot more than $300 for their work.Head past the break to check out the video. If you need us, we'll be eating some ramen and freezing to death in our apartment we can't afford to heat.

The subset of people who really want motion control on their PS3s yet refuse to wait for Sony to actually add it is pretty small, but never let it be said that peripheral maker Blaze is willing to leave money on the table. The company has just announced the Motion Freedom 3D controller for the system, and it looks unmistakably like a Wiimote for the PS3. The release promises the "all new device opens up unthinkable gaming possibilities," which we're taking to mean that no one actually thought to make any games for it. Okay, fine, Blaze says it at least works with Sega Tennis and Tiger Woods, but we can't imagine that such a retrofitted solution would be worth investing in before Sony's official offering arrives. [Via Engadget]

Remember htat video that showed Kurt Cobain in Guitar Hero 5? You know, the one that shows him singing all sorts of songs that he’d never sing? Yeah, it looks like that video is gone. Apparently Activision had it yanked. Could this have something to do with the impending legal threat from Courtney [...]

Does realism always make a game better?

If he fails, then we can eat him!

Smash more bugs and explore the unique landscape.

A lame character turned into something completely awesome.

Does the ultimate mash-up of rock and video games sing a pretty tune?

Take the best things you like about your favorite games, and put them all into a dark void.

Yesterday's announcement that Daxter, God of War: Chains of Olympus and Wii Okami developer Ready at Dawn would be releasing its own game engine was missing something. Specifically: Mention of Nintendo Wii as a supported platform. We found the omission a little odd, considering the studio has done Wii development, so we contacted RAD president Didier Malenfant to find out more."We plan on our newly announced platform to support all console systems," Malenfant told us. OK, that was easy. When asked about the fresh job posting on his company's site seeking "a few additions to our engine team in order to add support for an unannounced console platform," though, he remarked that his previous statement was "about all I can say for now," but that "we will have more engine news soon." We're sure it will be ... rad.

Yesterday's announcement that Daxter, God of War: Chains of Olympus and Wii Okami developer Ready at Dawn would be releasing its own game engine was missing something. Specifically: Mention of Nintendo Wii as a supported platform. We found the omission a little odd, considering the studio has done Wii development, so we contacted RAD president Didier Malenfant to find out more."We plan on our newly announced platform to support all console systems," Malenfant told us. OK, that was easy. When asked about the fresh job posting on his company's site seeking "a few additions to our engine team in order to add support for an unannounced console platform," though, he remarked that his previous statement was "about all I can say for now," but that "we will have more engine news soon." We're sure it will be ... rad.

Yesterday's announcement that Daxter, God of War: Chains of Olympus and Wii Okami developer Ready at Dawn would be releasing its own game engine was missing something. Specifically: Mention of Nintendo Wii as a supported platform. We found the omission a little odd, considering the studio has done Wii development, so we contacted RAD president Didier Malenfant to find out more."We plan on our newly announced platform to support all console systems," Malenfant told us. OK, that was easy. When asked about the fresh job posting on his company's site seeking "a few additions to our engine team in order to add support for an unannounced console platform," though, he remarked that his previous statement was "about all I can say for now," but that "we will have more engine news soon." We're sure it will be ... rad.

M-m-m-m-m-m-monster kill!

What seems to be a straight forward game proves to be more than you've bargained for.

BlueFang and THQ tell us what the big idea is.

When asked whether or not the Assassin's Creed series would be getting a third installment, Assassin's Creed 2 producer Sébastien Puel thinks the answer almost goes without saying. "I'm often asked if we're doing a third game after ACII... I mean, we could do 35 of these," he (hopefully) exaggerates to Xbox World 360 in the mag's latest issue (via CVG). When the game's creative director told us the second game would be ending with a cliffhanger, we didn't know he meant we'd have to play 35 games to resolve it -- that's approximately 35,000 assassinated fools, by our estimations.Explaining his hyperbole further, Puel admits that a female assassin isn't out of the question, even confirming "We've had discussions on that very topic." Still, the Ubisoft producer doesn't want to switch the protagonist's gender without a good reason. "World War II, the economies in England and France were run by women because the men were off fighting ... we don't want to just decide we want to change and have a female hero, as the first inspiration is always the time period." To read the full interview in its original context, pick up the latest issue of Xbox World 360 (if you're in the UK, that is).