When we heard about Mark Healey leaving Lionhead to make a new game, more than a year ago, little did we know that the crazy guy behind Rag Doll Kung Fu would end up on the PlayStation 3 bandwagon, dropping jaws at GDC 2007 with a new mind-bending game called LittleBigPlanet. Once again, Healey's team (this time from Media Molecule) is making a genre-defying game that words simply can't describe or do justice, and the best way to "get it" is to watch it action. Just for that, we have this first LittleBigPlanet trailer, based on the demo shown at GDC and with some uplifting music in the background. Or, if you'd rather see the full 18-minute demo, you can do that too on GameVideos. Oh, and we also have some screenshots, to see how much detail they're putting into this quirky game.

So, basically, LittleBigPlanet is a game that you can play alone or with your friends, creating your own levels and sharing them with the world, or exploring what others have done, via the PlayStation Network. You start out with a funny looking character that can grab things and move them around, and you can place objects in the world to make it look - and play - the way you want it to. All in real-time, based on advanced physics, and using a very simple interface.

In time, as you hone your creative and playing skills, you will also gain access to more and more objects, and you'll be able to create increasingly complex levels that require a cooperation between players to complete. For a more detailed description, you can check the local LittleBigPlanet gamespace or the Media Molecule webiste. Or simply go for Kotaku's abridged version: "If you really need comparisons, the game is like Line Rider meets Garry's Mod meets Super Mario Bros. meets an orgasm".

  LittleBigPlanet should be released later this year on the PlayStation Network, and early next year on Blu-ray.

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[GDC] The World Online MMO, From The Makers of Dreamfall

Even as a working title, "The World Online" sounds like one hell of an ambitious project, and according to info surfacing from this week's GDC, it's a new MMO game currently being developed by Funcom. Their latest online endeavour is of course Age of Conan, which should be released later this year. However, it's probably more relevant to note that the team working on The World Online is largely made up of former Dreamfall developers - even though they stress out that "It's not a Dreamfall MMO".

For the time being, Funcom is only showing the project to publishers, telling the press only that it takes place on Earth in the present day, and that it uses the same graphics engine as Age of Conan. Eurogamer managed to get the following comment from a company spokesman:

"We have always used our in-house technology, and we're developing the engine even further," the spokesperson added. "The Age of Conan engine, even today, looks really good with DX 10 - so the guys working on the [new] MMO have even more time to work on gameplay and content."

Speaking of Age of Conan and DirectX 10, we have just added some new screenshots from their barbaric MMO in our gallery, showing the difference between DX9 and DX10 in a couple of scenes (scene #1 on DX9 / DX10, scene #2 on DX9 / DX 10).

But getting back to The World Online, the final bit of info available is that the game is being made primarily for the PC, and apparently for the Xbox 360 as well. No release date has been estimated so far, so it might take a while until "the good stuff" is revealed.

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Geometry Wars Launches For PC Vista, Download Demo

For many Xbox 360 gamers out there, Geometry Wars is still the first thing that comes to mind when they think about the Xbox Live Arcade. And for quite a while now, their PC brethren have also longed for a Windows version of Bizzare Creations' old-school shooter. That version is, as of today, up for the taking from Microsoft's MSN Games website, for the meagre price of $7.95. According to the devs at Bizzare, this is a "pixel-perfect conversion of the Xbox 360 fan favourite", but at the same time Microsoft claims that Geometry Wars features "enhanced graphics for Windows Vista" (perhaps they regard the option of playing in full-screen / windowed mode as a "graphical enhancement"...).

If you'd rather try it before you buy it, we also have a Geometry Wars demo version mirrored locally for download. Although don't throttle up your modem just yet, not before you see this lovely error message I received on my rusty XP system when attempting to install this demo:

"Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved requires Windows Vista or later to install."

"Or later", huh? Yeah, real funny... But not as funny as observing that the PC demo weighs over 60 MB, whereas the original XBLA full game fitted just fine in the 50 MB limit when it launched on the Xbox 360, in November 2005. Must be all the "enhanced graphics" and stuff.

Oh well, if there's anybody out there with Vista installed, rest assured that all of the original enemy and weapon types are present in the PC version, complete with local leaderboards to track your high scores. And the game has support for keyboard only, keyboard & mouse, and remappable joypad (dual or single stick), as well as the Xbox 360 controller on Windows. Enjoy, if you can.

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Sony To Change The PS3 SIXAXIS With Immersion's Rumble?

Less than a week ago, it was announced that Sony and Immersion had finally put an end to their tedious legal dispute, over Sony's patent-infringing use of vibration technology in the PS2 DualShock controller, and that the two companies are now ready to work together on future PlayStation products. What this means, basically, is that the PS3 could get a rumble-enabled controller after all. And that, despite Sony's claims at E3 2006 that it would be "technically impossible" to integrate both rumble and motion-sensing technologies in the SIXAXIS controller (story).

GI.biz recently quoted Immersion's CEO, Victor Viegas, as supporting this optimistic scenario:

"Our new business agreement with Sony is specifically intended to enable advanced vibration capability for the benefit of the PlayStation community. We are happy to provide our technology in this regard and hope to make technical proposals very soon with respect to use of our technology in the PlayStation products."

Back in October (story), Viegas also claimed that they "knew how to technically solve [Sony's] problems and now [they] know how to do it without adding any incremental cost". So, technically speaking, a new PS3 controller with both rumble and motion-sensing should have a similar price as the current SIXAXIS controller. So now the question is: will they really change the PS3 controller?

Well, according to GamePro's interview with Jack Tretton (CEO of SCE America), Sony is "certainly open" to this idea:

"We used to have a narrow approach to controllers. If you really wanted to [move outside the standard controller], we left it up to third party manufacturers. But now we're moving to a regional approach. You will see peripherals coming from SCEA that will address the interests of the U.S. consumer. I don't have anything to tell you specifically, but we're certainly open to changing the Sixaxis controller if it addressed North American gamers."

It was about time they bowed down and acknowledged what the gamers really want.

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You thought that the Wii controller was revolutionary? Well, think again. As much as they change the shape or the functionality of today's controllers - be it keyboard, mouse, joystick, gamepad, steering wheel, wiimote or whatever - all of these still depend on basic physical interaction, and more than often detract you from the game's atmosphere. But really, is there any other way?

According to Emotiv Systems there is, and it's got nothing to do with physical interaction. Instead of using your hands or feet, Emotiv's technology only requires you to use your most precious organ (no, not that one) to control your virtual actions: the brain!

At the Game Developers Conference 2007 down in San Francisco, Emotiv Systems today launched the Emotiv Development Kit (EDK) for the electronic games industry. "With the EDK", they say, "developers will be able to create games that respond to a player's emotions and allow players to control their characters' expressions and manipulate objects using only the power of their brain". The technology is allegedly the only brain computer interface solution that can detect and process both human conscious thoughts (such as the thought of pushing or lifting an object) and non-conscious emotions (like excitement and calmness), as well as facial gestures (smile, wink etc.). Here's how it's supposed to work:

"[EDK] enables game developers to attach dozens of specific thoughts and emotions to many different actions in their game. For example, they can enable players to move an object in a game without the use of a keyboard or joystick, make their character smile when they smile, or require that a player stays calm in order to ensure his or her character remains undiscovered in a stealth game. (...)

The EDK comprises a headset with multiple sensors for detecting brain activity and a series of application development suites:

- The Expressiv suite can identify facial expressions in real-time, allowing developers to create characters that respond to the expressions of the player, such as smiles and winks.

- The Affectiv suite measures players' discreet emotional states, allowing a game to respond to the player's emotions, such as excitement or calmness.

- The Cognitiv suite detects players' conscious thoughts, enabling them to move or manipulate objects just by thinking about an action, such as push, pull, lift or rotate."

You can see how the "brain controller" looks like and get a few more details about it on Emotiv's website, where they mention that the device is not yet available to consumers. The consumer version will be announced at a later date.

Let's hope we won't have to shave our heads for maximum precision.

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The number of people joining the World of Warcraft still exceeds that of the deserters (or rather awakened?) abandoning Azeroth and the Outlands, it seems, as Blizzard announced today that their addictive MMORPG has just passed the 8.5 million subscribers mark. And at the same time, the recent Burning Crusade expansion has set another record for the fastest selling PC title during the first month of availability.

World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade was already holding this record at the end of January, having sold nearly 2.4 million copies worldwide in its first 24 hours alone. But by now, the blues are estimating that the expantion was sold in approximately 3.5 million copies within the first month. This includes more than 1.9 million sold in regions that play on North American realms (including more than 100,000 copies in Australasia), and nearly 1.6 million in Europe. Eat that, number freaks!

Oh, and speaking of numbers, this week's *cough* "live" maintenance brought the game client up to version 2.0.10, fixing more stuff, adjusting some Arena points costs, nerfing feral druids and buffing warriors, among many others. You can read the latest patch notes here.

Also, let's not forget that the Black Temple will open its doors soon, to raids of up to 25 people. This level-70 dungeon is located in Shadowmoon Valley, and promises to be nonlinear (allowing you to choose your path through it), and to add more than a hundred new rare and epic items, including tier-6 armor sets. Eat that, epix freaks!

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With all the GDC commotion, we barely managed to pick up the new transmission from the Silent Hunter 4 website, announcing that Ubisoft's latest submarine simulator has gone gold and is ready to set sail for retail on March 22. As with the previous instalment, the game was developed by Ubi's Romanian studio, who left behind the U-Boat "wolf packs" and switched their attention over to the Pacific theatre of war. As such, this time around we'll take command of American submarines, as we hunt down the Japanese naval forces during World War II.

Aside from the graphical and gameplay advancements, the new Silent Hunter 4: Wolves of the Pacific will also be extended with more editions to chose from. Joining the standard edition (priced at £29.99) will be a Collector's edition (£34.99), as well as a Deluxe edition (£49.99). Regardless of which one you choose, you'll also get a manual, a map of the Pacific Ocean and a quick Reference card with the keyboard commands, in addition to the game DVD.

The Collector's edition (available exclusively at Amazon.co.uk) will add the following goodies in the pack:

- A Recognition Manual containing the full technical specifications of all 88 authentic looking war machines featured in the game

- The original soundtrack of the game, composed and played by Rod Abernethy and Jason Graves. A great way to plunge back into the atmosphere of the troubled Pacific Ocean!

- The official iron-on arm patch of the game

And finally, the metal-boxed Deluxe edition (available exclusively at shop.ubi.com in 3000 copies) will contain all of the above thingies, plus these:

- 20 additional pages of content (in the Deluxe Recognition Manual)

- A 145 booklet with leather-style cover, together with a metal pen marked with the game logo

- An Exclusive DVD documentary with 60 minutes of rare footage, including 3 US Navy films tracing the stages of the Pacific War

- The game Silent Hunter 4: Wolves of the Pacific medal in its presentation box

- An exclusive mouse pad

- A series of 6 unique postcards

- A numbered certificate of authenticity

If Wolves of the Pacific is anything as good as Silent Hunter III, this should be another sub-sim to remember!

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One of the new games shown at the Games Connection event from this year's GDC is Urban Mysteries, a non-linear time-travel action-adventure game of sorts, powered by the Unreal Engine 3 technology. The project is currently in development at Denmark based company ZeitGuyz, for the PC and some unspecified next-generation consoles, and by the sound of it, this could be one title worth getting excited about.

Unfortunately we don't have any media to give us an impression about Urban Mysteries' visual style, though the studio's website - check the "Timeline" tab - does provide some hints at the game's gothic / Victorian futuristic theme (ed. - looks a bit like the 1927 classic movie Metropolis, if you ask me). For further details about some of the game's features and locales, we turn to FiringSquad's impressions from the show floor:

"Urban Mysteries has alternate timelines in it as well. It takes place in one large fictional city and begins in the year 2052. However, your character has the ability to travel in time and in order to fight a far reaching conspiracy he has to use that ability to make choices and perhaps change history.

We got to see a brief and very early demo build of the game running on Epic's Unreal Engine 3. The first part of the game showed our player character as he explored Urban Mysteries's vision of 2052 with gothic and Victorian architecture. We were told that we would even see Zeppelin like blimps in this future that the player can control and even use in combat. The demo got really interesting when we time traveled to the 18th century version of this city. Here we had to use native weapons like a one shot musket to battle an invasion. The game allows the player to either shoot or attack melee style with the musket to take out enemies. At one point in the demo we have to make a choice. Two people are in a burning building but you can only rescue one. You must decide which one to save and then head back up in time to 2052. The final part of the demo showed our character back in his own time line but we saw the future city change right before our eyes (in-game morphing of the level; not a cut scene) to something totally different."

The game's time travelling scenarios are well suited for episodic releases, and the devs believe they could have the first episode ready in late 2008. They don't have any publisher yet, however, and depending on the kind of agreement they manage to get, Urban Mysteries could also be released all at once, during 2009.

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One more MMO news for the day and we're done. So, to get straight to the point, The Inquirer reports from GDC 2007 (oh yeah, it's on!) that NCsoft announced the predictable third Guild Wars expansion pack... as well as an all-new Guild Wars 2 sequel! They say that the expansion - titled Guild Wars: Eye of the North - is scheduled for release in Q3 2007, and that it will be the last major addition before the sequel comes out a few years later.

Eye of the North should be the cheapest add-on to date, though it will still require any of the previous instalments - be it the original Guild Wars (Prophecies), Factions and/or Nightfall. Here is what the Inquirer found out about the actual contents of this pack:

"Eye of the North brings a conclusion what happened in Tyria after Guild Wars: Prophecies ended, and as such - is 100% oriented towards game[r]s with characters of maximum level. We know GW gamers want the numbers, so here they are: 18 new multi-level dungeons, 40 new armour sets, 10 new Heroes and massive 150 new skills, out of which 50 belong only to PvE (Player versus Enviroment)."

The first Guild Wars saga will therefore come to a conclusion by the end of 2007. And as soon as 2008, the first public beta-testing is supposed to begin for the Guild Wars 2 sequel! Don't hold your breath though, for the actual game will only come out in 2009 or 2010, according to the report. And by that time, it will certainly have even more splendid visuals. As for Guild Wars 2's setting and content, all that's known so far can be summed up in this paragraph:

"This game will be set several hundred years after GW: Prophecies and Eye of the North, but the main drool factor will be zone-wide events (read, open war in DaoC and Alterac Valley style), combined with refined control system, oriented for action and ease of use. Playable races include Humans, Charr, Norns, Asurians and Sylvarians. Level cap is set, but it is not known at the time, while characters will now progress through the game in a more sensitive way."

Great kick-off for GDC 2007, so stick around as we expect even more exciting news to surface during the next few days.

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The French from Ankama Games are finally ready to reveal - and show - more about their upcoming tactical MMORPG, Wakfu. This could easily be considered as a Dofus 2 sequel, since the game takes place in the same world as Dofus, only a thousand years later. So if you ever played Dofus, and enjoyed its colorful graphics and huggable creatures, odds are you're going to love this one as well.

Ankama launched the official Wakfu website one week ago, and they promise to add new content on a regular basis, as the project progresses. All 12 character classes from Dofus will return in Wakfu, among other new ones; but for now, the only one introduced on the website are the Xelors:

"Xelors control time and they know how to command strict obedience to all related mechanisms like chimes, clocks and pendulums. Therefore, Xelors enjoy playing with time... either to slow down their enemies or to teleport themselves wherever they want."

One such example of "teleportation" can be seen in the first Wakfu trailer, available for online viewing on the game's website. There are also several screenshots that we added to our gallery, along with a couple of clean wallpapers. As for Wakfu's story, here's how Ankama tells it:

"The story of Wakfu takes place a long time after that of DOFUS. An ogre named Ogrest gathered all the six Dofus and gained boundless powers. The ogre offered his beloved the dragon eggs. But she turned down the present though worthy of the gods themselves, and Ogrest started shedding tears of rage and pique. The tears of the ogre made the ocean level increase so much that parts of the World are now submerged to the inhabitants' great displeasure. Now gods and heroes of the World are starting a new adventure before reaching Ogrest and confront him in an ultimate fight!"

The first closed beta-tests of Wakfu will start sometime during 2007, though the recruiting campaign for the beta-testers will be launched within the next days. So be on your guard! Or simply register on the game's website to be notified when that happens.

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