Konami's TGS 2007 Line-Up: Metal Gear 4 Playable

Konami has announced the lineup of new titles it plans to showcase at the 2007 Tokyo Game Show later this week.

Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots will be playable at 50 different PlayStation 3 kiosks in the Konami booth. Metal Gear Solid Portable Ops + for the PSP, Metal Gear Solid Online 2.0, and Metal Gear Solid 2 Bande Desinee, a digital graphic novel, will also be playable.

[Via Games Industry]

WWE SmackDown! vs. Raw 2008 PlayStation 3 Feature

New info is in on the PlayStation 3 version of WWE SmackDown! vs. Raw 2008. Each of the console versions have their own exclusive feature.

On the PlayStation 3, you'll be able to press R2 during your character's entrance and switch to a first-person mode. Taking advantage of the Sixaxis, you'll move your controller in whatever direction you want and the on-screen view will follow. You can toggle the view on and off with a click of R2.

[Via IGN]

Folklore: New Folk Ouasarilli

Contests, not behind video games at all. But there is a contest involved in this one. Sony recently held a contest about a month back, the design a Folk for Folklore contest.

Today, we have a winner. It is Lisa K. and her Folk named Ouasarilli. This folk will be featured in the game and will have the abilities listed in the image.

Congratulations Lisa K, for winning the Create-a-Folk contest from Sony.

[Via PlayStation US]

FIFA 08: Be A Pro Trailer

Learn how to be a professional in EA Sport's new trailer for FIFA 08. Watch and enjoy.

[Via IGN]

Army of Two: New Trailer

A new trailer for EA's upcoming action game, Army of Two.

Army of Two throws gamers into hot spots ripped from current day headlines where they will utilize unique two-man strategies and tactics while seamlessly transitioning between playing with intelligent Partner AI (PAI) and a live player. When one man is not enough, it will take an army of two to fight through war, political turmoil and a conspiracy so vast it threatens the entire world.

[Via IGN]

onAXIS: TGS 2007 Predictions

Well, there is a big week coming, starting this Thursday September 20, 2007 begins the biggest gaming event of the year since E3's downsizing. And when there is nearly a day before the show, you need to see some predictions from us. The predictions:

PLAYSTATION 3

• Angel Love Online will get a US release date for the PlayStation Network.
  
• Dead Rising 2 will be announced by Capcom as a title for the PLAYSTATION 3 and XBOX 360.
• Dragonball Z will get an exclusive series for the PLAYSTATION 3.
• Final Fantasy VII Remake will be announced along with Endless Crisis for the PLAYSTATION 3. The game may include online play, or even Home integration.
  
• Firmware 2.00 will be revealed, finally allowing in-game XMB (which also means in-game soundtrack), game invites, and enhanced profile features. (long shot, but hey)
  
• Kingdom Hearts III will be shown in a short trailer (downloadable on the PlayStation Network) leaving gamers wanting more.
  
• Metal Gear Solid 4 will get a release date, along with Metal Gear Online.
  
• Naughty Dog will finally reveal Jak & Daxter: The Lost Frontier.
• Naruto will get an exclusive series for the PLAYSTATION 3.
  
• SEGA will announce a new Sonic game for next gen systems.
  
• SONY will announce the Dual Shock 3 (or RUMBLAXIS) featuring Rumble, Motion Sensing, and double battery.
• SONY will announce a redesign for the PlayStation Store on the PlayStation Network.
• SONY will reveal the release date for Home, along with an announcement third-party games supporting Home. Along with that will come new Home features.
  
• SONY will reveal a new series for the PLAYSTATION 3 and other PlayStation consoles.
  
• Team ICO will announce Shadow of the Colossus II.
  

PlayStation Portable

• Firmware 4.00 will be revealed along with PLAYSTATION 3's 2.00.
  
• Daxter 2 will be announced by Naughty Dog, along with Jak & Daxter: The Lost Frontier.
  
• Kingom Hearts Zero (Mickey's Story) will be announced for the PSP.
• SQUARE ENIX will announce that Crisis Core has sold all it's PSP LE units, with 100K sales in total added with the individual sales.
  

A lot of them are pretty out in the dark there, but you never know right? Well, I guess when the time comes, we will see what happens, right?

[View TGS 2007]

WipeOut HD Fact Sheet from GT

Thanks to Gaming Target, we have a nifty little fact sheet on PlayStation Network's upcoming futuristic racer, WipeOut HD.

PS3 – Get ready to experience Wipeout in full-HD 1080p resolution at 60 frames per second on PS3, exclusively available for download from the PlayStation Store. Greater processing power of PS3 enables more immersive visuals and sound effects in Wipeout HD, heightening the speed within the stunningly beautiful tracks and environments.

SIXAXIS wireless controller – Wipeout HD provides full support of the SIXAXIS wireless controller to give the player a variety of choices and depth of control unseen in any previous iteration of Wipeout.

Tracks – A selection of the best tracks taken from previous Wipeout titles, meticulously crafted and fully reworked from the ground-up to showcase the full-HD resolution. Tracks include the new Mag-Strips feature, which causes ships to be temporarily locked to the track surface, allowing greater variety and dynamism in track design and introducing track features such as loops, vertical drops and 90-degree angled sections.

Teams – Wipeout HD features eight teams from Wipeout Pulse, including: Feisar, Assegai, AG-Systems, Qirex, Piranha, Triakis, Goteki45 and EG-X.

Seven Race Modes – Wipeout HD features seven race modes, including: Single Race, Tournament, Time Trial, Speed Lap, Zone Mode, Elimination and Head-2-Head.

Race Campaign – The Race Campaign feature contains many unique predefined race events to give an all new sense of progression for the player.

Race Rules Customization – Wipeout HD offers full customization of race rules, allowing the player to tailor their own race experience.

AI Pack Racing – Wipeout HD introduces Artificial Intelligence (AI) pack racing to keep players under pressure and on the edge of their seats.

Weapons System – A refined weapons system includes three new weapons: The Repulser, Shuriken and Leach Beam.

Difficulty Levels – Wipeout HD offers three difficulty levels; adjustable independent of speed class.

Photo-Mode – The Photo-mode feature allows players to be able to pause the game both during a race and the post race parade lap so that they can take a snapshot which they can then save to their PS3 HDD. These Photos can then be uploaded to the Wipeout HD website and traded between players.

Online Multiplayer – Up to eight players will be able to compete against each other in a range of online races, across several game modes:
*** Single Race
*** Tournament
*** Elimination
*** Team vs. Team (Two-player team based multiplayer races)

Player Profile and Community Website – Website TBA
*** Each player will have an extensive game profile that charts their progress and records for all the usual record lap times for races and fastest laps as well as statistics concerning weapons use, ship selections, favorite modes and most played tracks.
*** Players will be able to connect to the main Wipeout HD website from within the game and receive updates and information, such as records, stats and tips. In addition, players can upload their own profile, allowing the creation of a global statistics list for all to see.

Additional Content via Download – Extra game content will be made available to download and plug directly into the main game, including extra teams and ships, extra tracks and additional events for the race campaign mode.

Music – Wipeout HD features nine fully-licensed music tracks, remixed in 5.1.

Many features indeed. It just gets you pumped more for the release of this awesome game.

[Via Gaming Target]

Rumor: TGS 07 Shows Endless Crisis, Kingdom Hearts PS3 [Update]

With the approach of Tokyo Game Show which will begin on September 20, 2007 for the press and industry, here is the latest rumor from the famous Japanese forum 2ch, which lists new Square Enix titles for the show, like Endless Crisis: Final Fantasy VII on PlayStation 3, three new episodes of the series Kingdom Hearts to be appeared on PlayStation 3, Nintendo DS, and PSP. Nothing official for the moment, but were waiting patiently, we will know some more information in a few hours when the first information coming from the Japanese magazines Famitsu & Shonen Jump is uploaded online. Here are the titles.

- Endless Crisis: Final Fantasy VII (PlayStation 3)
- Final Fantasy XIII (PlayStation 3)
- Final Fantasy Versus XIII (PlayStation 3)
- Kingdom Hearts (temporary title) (PlayStation 3)
- Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories 2 (Nintendo DS)
- Kingdom Hearts 0 (PSP)
- Star Ocean 4 (PlayStation 3)

This is translated from French to English from JeuxFrance, which is citing their source as 2ch (2chan, a popular Japanese website.) For some reason, I highly doubt any of these though.

[Via JeuxFrance]

9.18.07 Update

My doubts were wrong! Here's a new update, a scan from V-Jump in Japan, confirming one of the Kingdom Hearts titles. More updates as they come!

[Via Forever Fantasy]

WipeOut HD: New Screenshots

Amped for one of PlayStation Network's most anticipated titles? This game getting your adrenaline rushing? Well prepare to rush more, we have some new screenshots of WipeOut HD for your viewing pleasure.

[Via GamerSyde]

Miz Wants Every Extend Extra Extreme on the PlayStation Network

Every Extend Extra Extreme is coming to Xbox Live Arcade this October 2007. When asked whether Every Extend Extra Extreme would be coming to Sony's PlayStation Network, Q Entertainment's Tetsuya Mizuguchi said:

We would like to.

Then, when asked about Rez HD, he stated:

We haven't decided yet.

I guess we will just have to wait and see.

[Via Kotaku]

IGN: Yakuza 3 Detailed

Straight from IGN.

If you'd told us that SEGA would be continuing its Yakuza series with a third game on the PlayStation 3, we wouldn't have been too surprised. While the game was a big flop internationally, in Japan, the first two have combined for over a million sales on the PS2.

Now if you'd told us that the third game would actually be a prequel set 400 years in the past, we'd have looked around for a giant cone (or bench, or car) with which to smash you over the head (in case you haven't played Yakuza before, and few of you did, this is a typical scene in the game's battle system).

Officially titled Ryu ga Gotoku Kenzan! in Japan, this PlayStation 3 adventure takes SEGA's adult-oriented franchise back to 1605. Gone are the neon signs of Tokyo and Osaka, now replaced by the neon signs of an Edo Period Kyoto.

The game begins in the enclosed town of Gion, where girls use their bodies for money, and men use their money to buy dreams (that description is translated directly from a Famitsu article on the game... please don't write). Unlike the first two games, which were set in fictional towns designed to look like real places, Gion is a real historical part of Kyoto that was known for its geisha girls.

The story begins when main character Kazumanosuke Kiryu, a bodyguard who will take on any job if the price is right, is approached by a young girl named Haruka. She asks Kiryu to kill Musashi Miyamoto. Musashi Miyamoto is actually Kiryu's past self, and the name he goes by when outside of Gion. This, incidentally, is the same historical Musashi Miyamoto who's regarded as one of the finest swordsmen.

If you're familiar with the Yakuza series, you'll recognize the Kiryu and Haruka names. The two characters may share the same name as the hero and heroine of the first two titles, and they may even share the same basic model design, but they seem to have no actual relation. Presumably, these are the names we'll see in future Yakuza titles as well.

As we've come to expect from the series, SEGA has hooked up some serious talent to do the voices for Yakuza 3. The voices for Haruki and Kiryu haven't been revealed, but here's a sampling of the talent for a few of the other characters.

Kojiro Sasaki (voiced by Shouta Matsuda)
Nagayoshi Marume (Naoto Takenaka)
Itou, the bodyguard (Susumu Terajima)
The mysterious monk (Hiroki Matsukata)
Seijyurou Yoshioka (Masaya Kato)
Toji Gion (Takeshi Tsukamoto)

In Japan, these are some of the biggest personalities in television and movies. They'll be put to use this time for more than just their voices, as SEGA is using face scan technology to make their in-game counterparts share some visual similarities.

Outside of an adult-oriented storyline, Yakuza 3 appears to bring back much of what made the original two games so special. In addition to exploring a living town, now with more detail than ever thanks to the update in hardware, you'll get to make use of an updated combat system. You can now select between four fighting styles: fists (the standard style from past titles), single blade, dual blade and broad sword. "Heat Action" special moves return, complete with dramatic camera angels.

One of the coolest parts of the first Yakuza games was how your character grew as you progressed through the game. Previously, you learned new fighting moves by consulting with a master. That remains in Yakuza 3, but now you can also learn moves just by witnessing key events. Kiryu will even learn special attacks by watching animals move -- for instance, a dog leaping up to fetch a bone.

Mini games and side quests also have their expected place in Yakuza 3. The game will feature over 100 sub quests, some possibly featuring historical figures. Mini games include shogi, dice and archery -- things you might expect from the Edo Period. Hostess clubs are back, giving you a chance to woo the ladies, although these scenes now take place in a seedy tatami room rather than a seedy bar.

SEGA's NE Soft R&D Creative Officer Toshihiro Nagoshi, head producer of the Yakuza series, pointed out to Famitsu in a recent interview that the game doesn't have "3" in the title. That doesn't mean it's an offshoot. In fact, he says the game is being made to surpass Yakuza 2 in all areas, and that we'll slowly learn of the great scale as new information is unveiled.

The information should be forthcoming for this one. Although just announced, Yakuza 3 is already set for Japanese release this Spring, and will have a prominent presence in SEGA's booth at the Tokyo Game Show.

[Via IGN]

PS3 Games: Run New Games Without Latest Firmware

Team PS3-Hacks has done it again. Team PS3-Hacks has apparently achieved a breakthrough in the PS3 exploit scene as it showed us that the team can make new titles run on the high-end console even if you haven't updated to the latest firmware. Confirmations on the validity of this breakthrough have not yet been confirmed.

[Via QJ]

Gamer.Blorge Learns of Rumbling SIXAXIS

Gamer.Blorge learned some new information today. After a lengthy conversation with an important industry insider, they discovered Sony's real plans for the next iteration of the PlayStation 3 controller.

"As usual, the insider can't be named, but, according to her, she witnessed a set of test controllers used at her very important game development company. When I say "very important game development company", I'm talking about super major huge, like Nintendo huge but obviously not Nintendo.

She wouldn't mention if she had a chance to get her hands on one, but she knows for a fact that they rumble and are heavier, although not as heavy as an Xbox 360 controller."

Sounds like it's matching up with all the other rumors on the rumbling SIXAXIS, perhaps a Dual Shock 3.

[Via Gamer.Blorge]

Conan The Barbarian Delayed for PlayStation 3

What did you expect, an advance in the release? September 29, 2007 is the release date for the Xbox 360 in Europe and the US. THQ today revealed in its newest release schedule that the Playstation 3 version will hit stores on October 12, 2007 in both the US and Europe.

No reason for this delay was given.

[Via GFData]

Silent Hill V: New Scans and Screenshots

Here we have some new screenshots and scans from German magazine PLAYZONE on the upcoming Silent Hill V, the renowned psychological horror series on next-generation consoles. The game thrusts players into a shadow world of chaos and terror with atmospheric high definition graphics and an original storyline that sheds new light on the desolate, fog-shrouded town of Silent Hill.

View the scans at the link.

[Via GamePlanets]

WipeOut HD: Eight Teams Lined Up

Straight from Games Radar.

Sony's Studio Liverpool has revealed to GamesRadar the eight racing teams that will appear in WipEout HD when the game is released via the PlayStation Store later this year. They are:

• FEISAR
• Piranha
• AG Systems
• Triakis
• Goteki 45
• Assegai
• EG-X
• Qirex

With the exception of EG-X (which is new to the upcoming PSP title, WipEout Pulse), fans of the series will be familiar with all the featured teams. It's also highly likely that this roster will eventually increase in number through additional downloadable content.

As for which tracks will appear, so far we've seen WipEout Pure's Anulpha Pass and Chenghou Project. The developer is keeping the identity of the other six circuits a secret for now, although we do know that two will be taken from WipEout Pulse and the rest will be from WipEout Pure.

[Via Games Radar]

Conan: Magic Vignette Video Clip

Here's another gameplay video for the PlayStation 3 version of upcoming title Conan the Barbarian, entitled Magic Vignette.

This clip shows where Conan got his magic powers that will prove to be handy and useful as he ventures into the different quests in the game. It is also important because unlike any other third-person adventure game, Conan only allows players to have one kind of weapon at a time.

Rumor: Rumble SIXAXIS at TGS 07

There has been so many rumors that look like it's starting to confirm it's existance.

Speaking to an insider, Pro-G has learned that Sony is now supporting rumble for its SIXAXIS controller as revealed in the latest System Development Kit (SDK) sent to developers on Thursday. For those of you unfamiliar with the term, SDKs are essentially packages of tools given to programmers enabling them to develop applications for a specific platform, in this case, Sony's PlayStation 3.

Guess we will have to wait till the show, no?

[Via Pro-G]