There are a couple of things that I find terribly disturbing in this story's title, and I honestly can't imagine anything good coming out of this thing. But, then again, I felt the same about putting LEGO and Star Wars together, and boy was I wrong... This time around, the way the LEGO Group is trying to further promote its popular brand is - believe it or not - by turning it into a massively-multiplayer game. And to build this LEGO MMO game, they chose NetDevil.

As you may remember, NetDevil were the ones responsible for Auto Assault, one of last year's most original, yet troubled MMO titles. But despite the fact that they got off to a bad start, NetDevil are currently working on several new MMO games: one is Warmonger, Operation: Downtown Destruction (announced in December), and another one has just been revealed as well.

Unfortunately, today's announcement bears no details about what kind of gameplay to expect. But at least we can rule out a LEGO Star Wars MMO, since that would be kind of redundant... Other than that, all we have are these two blank statements, given by a couple of officials from LEGO Group and NetDevil:

"As children around the world continue to spend more time online, we are developing new and engaging ways for them to interact with our brand," said Lisbeth Valther Pallesen, Executive Vice President, Community, Education and Direct Division LEGO Group. "The LEGO brand represents construction, creativity and problem solving - values that complement the MMOG market. By merging the online world of social interaction with physical play, the LEGO brand is providing new experiences for children, as well as fans. NetDevil's technological capability, openness to work with a large community, and enthusiasm for the LEGO brand make them a natural partner."

"Playing with LEGO bricks and developing online worlds are both creative activities. To bring them together is deeply professionally satisfying and we look forward to working with the LEGO team," said Scott Brown, president of NetDevil.

I dare you get excited over this!

UPDATE: Speaking of the NetDevil, NCsoft annouced the release of the fourth free content expansion of Auto Assault - which includes the installation of an auction house, the introduction of new vehicle chassis and a new tournament schedule, as well as several quality of life system improvements.

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Much like Tomb Raider: Legend revived Lara's classic action-adventures in a most pleasantly surprising way last year, this month we might just witness the revival of another fallen (sub-)series, with the release of Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars on the PC. I must admit that the recent C&C 3 demo turned out to be *way* better than I expected, and if that's anything to go by, then Electronic Arts will probably want to "capitalize" on their franchise a bit longer...

One way to do that - other than the inevitable C&C 3 expansion(s) / downloadable content - would be to take the Command & Conquer universe and use it in another kind of game. You know, like they did with Renegade five years ago. That didn't turn out so bad, did it? So why not make another one?

We're obviously not asking this question just for the sake of it, but because this rumour actually surfaced over the weekend, on a certain Media Feet blog (keep in mind that they have barely begun posting one week ago...). The blog claims that an EALA employee told them that EA's Los Angeles studio is considering developing a new C&C shooter for the PC, using the Crytek 2 (Crysis) engine:

"In a recent internal meeting at EALA on February 23rd, 2007, it was announced to the project team leaders of all EALA projects that the Crysis engine would be moving in-house in the very near future. Speculation began to arise internally about a Command and Conquer Renegade sequel seeing that the EALA studio is primarily known for RTS titles and Crysis is a next generation FPS engine. After discussing this with an EALA employee who wishes to not be named, it was stated that there is an extremely high chance that Electronic Arts’ LA studio will be developing a new FPS Command and Conquer title for the PC. It is not known if the title will be a true sequel to Renegade or a new stand alone IP however EA is very serious about exploring the options of the Crysis engine with current IPs."

If we were to disregard how unreliable this source is (for now), it would sure be great to get a C&C: Renegade 2 sequel, with the same quality multiplayer gameplay, and hopefully a much better single-player experience. As for the graphics... well, anything that looks even remotely as good as Crysis would be fine by me.

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Have you ever felt like beating some (virtual) guy to death with your Wiimote? If so, you'll probably get your chance to do just that this summer, when Sierra / Vivendi will be releasing Scarface: The World is Yours for the Nintendo Wii console. Despite it being one of last year's most mediocre action games (quite a distinction!), Scarface sold over 1.5 million copies on the PC, PS2, Xbox and Xbox 360, so there's clearly more money to be extorted from the fans' pockets.

As with the previous versions, the Wii game will continue the classic movie's storyline by asking players "What if Tony Montana survived the mansion shootout?". Naturally, the publisher promises that the new version will have "an all-new control scheme that takes advantage of the Wii console's unique motion-sensitive Remote and Nunchuk controller design, as well as other alterations for the Wii audience", along with various graphics and gameplay optimizations (though not necessarily improvements). If you missed it last year, this is what the starting scenario will play like:

"Scarface: The World Is Yours plunges players deep into the seedy underbelly of 1980s Miami as the one-and-only Tony Montana, featuring the likeness of Al Pacino. Players are challenged to re-enact the climactic mansion shoot-out from the original film, but in the game, Tony fights his way out of the mansion and survives. Returning to Miami, Tony must rebuild his fallen empire and wreak vengeance on his enemies."

GI.biz also has the following intersting details about the Wii control scheme:

"As well as using the pointer function of the Wiimote to shoot, the game will also allow players to control the chainsaw weapon by moving the Wiimote, and will replace the swearing function on the Xbox and PS2 pad with Wiimote gesticulations."

Vivendi expects to release Scarface: The World Is Yours on the Wii in summer 2007.

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This week marked not only the release of The Sims 2 Seasons, but also several announcements made by Electronic Arts about their upcoming, extra-cute sim games for the Nintendo DS and Wii platforms. We've known about MySims and SimCity DS for some time, and now we finally get to tell you a bit more about them, and also show you some new screenshots. So let's start with MySims - a game created especially for the Wii and DS platforms.

As seen in these first screenshots - and in the updated MySims trailer that was first revelead three months ago, the game introduces a charming cast of whimsical, toy-like characters, with a distinguishable asian look (it would have been great for the whole series to look like this, if you ask me). You can of course customize your chibi-sims to your heart's content, "from pig-tails and baseball caps to dreadlocks and Mohawks", and you'll also be able to unlock new clothing, hairstyles and accessories.

The same goes for customizing the town in which you play: you start in a delightful but disorganized town where you can re-shape everything and make it your own. Using a selection of building blocks, unique patterns and engaging creativity tools, you can design furniture and appliances, architect new homes and businesses, and re-define the entire MySims landscape. And as the town expands to new areas, you will receive special building blocks, decorations and patterns.

For more details, check out the full description from our MySims gamespace. The game should be available in autumn 2007 on the Wii and DS.

As for SimCity DS, this one is (also?) being developed by EA Japan, but only for the Nintendo DS handheld, with a release planned for summer 2007. Aside from using a wide array of recognizable international landmarks, SimCity DS will also include some interesting features, by using the handheld's stylus and built-in mycrophone - "from blowing into the microphone to put out fires in the city to signing off on mayoral proclamations with your stylus". In addition, players will be able to communicate with each other, via a "wireless data exchange" feature.

Last year, it was revealed that the DS version would be based on the PC SimCity 3000, however this week's announcement mentions no such thing (which is not to say it's not true). Finally, EA also released a new screenshot, which we added to our growing SimCity DS gallery.

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If we were to say that some new development studio is working on some new MMO game, you wouldn't have much reason to get excited. Except that the studio in question - Vigil Games - is headed by former NCsoft director David Adams and famed Marvel comic artist Joe Madureira; and, most importantly, the MMO in question is the first one based on Games Workshop's Warhammer 40,000 sci-fi universe. Indeed, we may have something here!

Vigil Games was acquired by publisher THQ in March 2006, and the studio is also known to be working on an original property for next-gen systems. An announcement in this regard is expected to be made later this year. So for now, let's stick to the Warhammer 40,000 deal, and see what THQ's Kelly Flock (former CEO of Sony Online Entertainment) had to say:

"Our success in creating Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War as a category leading Real-Time Strategy experience for PC gamers is just the beginning," said Kelly Flock, executive vice president of worldwide publishing, THQ. "The Warhammer 40,000 universe provides a richness of worlds, characters and stories and level of depth that translates perfectly to interactive experiences across multiple genres and systems. We see a lot of opportunity to build new and different games based on Games Workshop's fantastic property in the coming years, beginning with our newly announced MMO."

They're still not ready to talk about the W40K MMO in detail - after all, they're just getting underway - but speaking to Gamasutra, Flock said that it could become "a great mainstream mass-market MMO". Warhammer 40,000 for the masses? That would be a first...

In addition to this, THQ also extended its Warhammer 40,000 license with Games Workshop all the way through 2013, to cover all platforms (PC, consoles, handhelds and wireless devices), and all online rights.

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Little by little, Ubisoft's latest Ghost Recon tactical shooter is approaching store shelves this month. GRAW 2's retail infiltration will begin next week with the now-golden Xbox 360 version, which is currently being mass-produced to meet the March 8 release date, and will continue with the PC, PSP and eventually PS3 versions. Their status remains unchanged at this time, meaning that the PC version should be out on March 27, the PSP version on March 13, and the PlayStation 3 version at the end of June 2007.

A couple of days prior to this announcement, Ubi also released the Xbox 360 demo for Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter 2, currently available to Xbox Live Gold members. This is a multiplayer demo featuring the Outpost map, with 16 players, new game modes, and a coop mission. Still no word on a PC demo, though... But at least we can comfort ourselves with a new GRAW 2 trailer showing some multiplayer action from said Outpost map.

Finally, Gamespot also has some new details about the sequel's achievement system, as follows:

"In-game achievements will be tracked and displayed by the game in a new menu. For example, the Helo Hunter achievement asks gamers to shoot down 20 helicopters in a particular game mode, and the tracking menu will let gamers know how far along they are in completing the objective."

Questing while tactically shooting? Might be fun.

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We were hoping for some more juicy details about Take-Two's future projects to surface in the company's latest financial report, but for now we'll have to settle with just a couple of things worthy of mention. First of all, one of their top PC franchises - Civlization - will return in 2008 with some sort of "new content", they say. Although it's still unclear whether they're talking about an all-out Civilization V sequel, another expansion pack for Civ IV, or even a spin-off. And unfortunately there's still no word on another Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri game, which I'm sure that many of us would like to see at some point in the future. But until that time comes (hopefully), here is the exact quote from the report:

"In addition to the licensed 2K Sports lineup, starting in 2008, 2K will have new content based on its Civilization franchise and other products, including both original intellectual property and third-party titles."

The second relevant thing revealed by Take-Two is briefly contained in the following paragraph:

"Grand Theft Auto IV, the next-generation console debut of the genre-defining franchise, will be shipped simultaneously for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 in October. Starting in 2008, Rockstar will introduce exclusive episodic content downloads for Grand Theft Auto IV. Rockstar will also release new titles based on its proprietary brands, including L.A. Noire developed by Team Bondi."

"Episodic" is probably the key word there. Because, had they said something like "additional content", we could have easily imagined new weapons, vehicles, missions and stuff like that, similar to Oblivion's extras. But the way they put it, we can expect some more consistent additions for Grand Theft Auto IV to follow from 2008. Something more like Half-Life 2's episodes, perhaps?

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