This game was supposed to be released last year, if I recall correctly. Nevertheless, due to all kinds of delays, publicity stunts, or producer inability, Haze got postponed multiple times, and Ubisoft has vouched that we will see this PS3 (still) exclusive first-person shooter in May. This year. Probably.

Well, the truth is Haze promises great things, amongst which, sadly, free oral sex from any female character in-game is not included. Trailers are plenty, screenshots are plenty, Hell, you can find seldom previews here and there, some that are actually not licking Ubisoft’s or Free Radical’s ass.

While the game is still PS3 exclusive, I wouldn’t be surprised to see a PC or X360 “port” coming next year.

Destination Playstation is a nice and cozy meeting between Sony representatives, retailers and 3rd party developers, which takes place in Arizona, every year. If you are a console freak, then you probably know about all this bullshit, and even more, if you are a proud owner of a Playstation, be it a handheld, be it a PS3, or be it a PS2 for all those juicy bishojou games out there, you’ll be pretty interested in this.

First off, we’ll get a Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots PS3 Bundle in Q2 2008, which will include a nice 80 GB Playstation 3, a retail version of Solid Snake’s upcoming adventure, plus a Dualshock 3 controller, all for only 499.99 USD. The price is good, I must say, the only thing that I do not know for sure is the presence (or absence) of the dreaded backwards compatibility.

Secondly, PSP owners will get a huge boner when this pretty God of War PSP Entertainment Pack hits the shelves, for a mere 199.99 USD. The bundle will include a nice custom red PSP, with Kratos’ face forever carved into the handheld’s back, the upcoming God of War: Chains of Olympus, plus the voucher to freely download Syphon Filter: Combat Ops from the Playstation Store.

Last, but certainly not least, the much awaited Dualshock 3 will finally get its ass on the North American market, starting with April, 2008. It will be charged with no less than 54.99 USD, and it is said to be compatible with over 100 PS3 games. Frankly, I still think Sony lost a LOT with delaying this launch, but, hey, better late than never.

Ok, so Assassin’s Creed may have rocked some people’s worlds, but it’s sure as hell it didn’t rock my PC just yet. The incoming computer version, which *should* be up and running at the end of March, is said to use tons of DirectX 10 features, according to Charles Beauchemin, Ubisoft’s Technical Lead.

Even so, we won’t be seeing any visual difference between DirectX 10, DirectX 9, or any other X, be it direct or indirect, for that matter. The game only uses Shader Model 4 to provide us with increased performance. In other words, it goes something like this:

Charles Beauchemin: DirectX 10 enables us to make fewer calls to the API to perform the same actions. Therefore, it will be possible for the drivers to make optimizations making the game faster without any change to the game engine. Since most of the DX10 drivers are still young, we can expect a lot of gain to come from the optimization of these drivers.

The whole story.

It wasn't a secret anymore that the third game in Volition's literally ground-breaking action series would be titled Red Faction: Guerrilla, after last week's revelation, but pretty much everything else was still unknown. Until, that is, THQ made a proper announcement yesterday, clearing a few details regarding the shooter formerly known as Red Faction 3.

The most striking change is that Red Faction: Guerrilla will be a "third-person open-world action-shooter" (ok, those are actually two striking changes), and of course that it will be released for all three heavy-duty platforms - PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. The game will keep its signature destruction-based gameplay, and even "redefine its limits" as they say. The story will take us back to Mars, 50 years after the events of the original Red Faction (good thing there's no mention of Red Faction 2, since I couldn't be arsed to play it).

"Players will take the role of an insurgent fighter with the newly re-established Red Faction movement as they battle for liberation from the oppressive Earth Defense Force. Throughout their fight for freedom, players will carve their own path, wreaking havoc across the vast, open-world environment of Mars, from the desolate mining outpost of Parker to the gleaming EDF capital city of Eos. Utilizing improvised weapons, explosives and re-purposed mining equipment and vehicles, Red Faction: Guerrilla allows players to tear through fully destructible environments in an unforgiving Martian landscape swarming with EDF forces, Red Faction resistance fighters, and the downtrodden settlers caught in the cross-fire. Red Faction: Guerrilla will also feature a robust multiplayer component, including several modes focused on destruction-based gameplay."

For now, a tentative release date is set for fiscal 2009, meaning that it could come out anywhere between April 2008 and March 2009... at the earliest.

Sure enough, Nintendo was among those who tried to leave their mark on this week's GDC 2008 event in San Francisco. That's not to say they actually succeeded, but at least they announced / confirmed a new round of release dates for some of their upcoming products - namely WiiWare, Wii Fit and Super Smash Bros. Brawl.

First come, first served is Super Smash Bros. Brawl, set to kick into retail action on March 9. I don't think this Wii fighting game needs any more introduction, but just in case I'm wrong, these few trailers should enlighten you in no time.

Next, on May 12, comes WiiWare - the new game download service that got us (or at least myself) marginally excited. One of the early games developed for WiiWare we already mentioned in our previous news about LostWinds; another notable one will be Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King by Square Enix; and a new episodic game series from Telltale is also on its way.

Finally, Wii Fit will be released on May 19, complete with a "weight-and-motion-sensing Wii Balance Board" which may or may not prove useful for other kinds of games. Like... skiing? Just a thought.


Wii jokes just ain't what they used to be...

The folks from Radical Entertainment are doing some pretty radical things in their new action game, Prototype. For one thing, their vision of New York is rather frightening - or at least the art director doing the concept is. You'll know what I mean once you watch this Prototype 'New York' dev-diary (so much oversized ego in that guy... it's frightening!). If you can't be bothered with all that dev-blah-blah, or you need to kill some time while the trailer is loading, here are the latest screenshots issued by Sierra / Vivendi. The game might be released on the PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 in Q3 2008. Or it might not.

- The PSP version of Need for Speed ProStreet is finally shifting into retail gear this week, on February 22. Time for another NFS soon, eh?... *sigh*... What a drag racing.

- Also on February 22, the PS3 version of Unreal Tournament 3 will be released in Europe. Other releases this week include Dragon Quest Swords (Wii), The Club, Dynasty Warriors 6, and Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney (DS).

- The Witcher Enhanced Edition was announced for May 2008, bringing changes in the game's mechanics, better graphics, a MOD editor, and two new adventures (comprising 8 new quests). In other words, they're trying to sell us a fucking patch.

- Second Life goes mobile, by "[reformatting] the online world to fit on mobile phone screens while mapping the keys on handsets to commands in-world". World of Warcraft should take a cue, instead of experimenting with shitty mobile chat features.

- JoWooD and World Forge (Sparta: Ancient Wars) announced a new strategy game called The Golden Horde, which "takes you back to a place in time where the heirs of Dschingis Khan were ready to fight for their honor and glory". Dschingis Khan?! What the fuck! Somebody fire that PR idiot who can't even spell Genghis Khan right. FAIL.

- THQ and Blue Fang Games (Zoo Tycoon) are banding for a new game, in development for the Wii, DS and PC. More zoophilia?

- The world of Fallout 3 will be much smaller than Oblivion, Bethesda's Pete Hines told some aussies, "but packed with stuff to do". Stuff to do is good, mkay.

- "For Sims 3 there will be new information soon", Sims Studio head Rod Humble let slip in a forum posting. And guess what: they are "actually launching less [Sims games] this year than last". Oh, and "the Sims Label was created to innovate, make original games and take creative risks". I loled.

- Aion: The Tower of Eternity is coming in 2008. How exactly is that a novelty, beats me!

- Naruto: Ninja Destiny went gold, and is now destined to launch on February 26 for the Nintendo DS. Naruto sucks dragon balls.

- April 22 was announced as the day Square Enix will release its new DS action-RPG set in modern-day Tokyo, The World Ends With You. No U.

- Unreal Engine 3 got licensed by yet another Korean developer - Dragonfly (Karma Online, Special Force), who will be using it to make a new... something, whatever.

The idea of Deadly Creatures - that "creepy, cinematic thrill ride" announced by THQ a few days ago for the Wii - seemed interesting enough to earn it some further investigation. At the end of the lair, we found a few screenshots and the first trailer, which we're gladly sharing with you. Just be careful what you step on...

God of War: Chains of Olympus went gold a couple of days ago, and today we have some bloody new screenshots from this divinely brutal PSP game - the second one completed by developer Ready at Dawn (after Daxter, and ahead of Okami for Wii). You can also watch last month's trailer here, by the way. The final version should be out in the US on March 4.


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