via Games Industry


Worldwide Studios Phil Harrison has admitted that Sony didn't initially offer Epic enough support with optimising the Unreal Engine 3 for PS3 - but said the situation has now changed for the better.

Speaking to Game Informer Harrison said, "If we’re honest, we didn’t do enough of a good job supporting them and getting them the tools and technology early enough.

"Also, Epic isn’t a huge company. They don’t have unlimited resource. We have parachuted in some of our SWAT team of super engineers to help them. Specifically, to optimise for SPUs, which are the point of difference that the Cell Processor has."

According to Harrison, the process of optimising the SPUs is already underway - and it will have very positive results for those both creating and playing PS3 games.

"The benefits that it yields to end developers, whether they’re writing exclusive titles or multiplatform titles, is that the performance on PS3 goes up exponentially - and it will make for a much better game experience," he stated. ...

via Computer and Video Games


In an effort to protect the younger gaming audience in the world of online gaming, Microsoft has signed the Xbox platform up to PEGI Online.

PEGI Online sits alongside the existing independent PEGI rating system for videogames, and identifies online games providers who sign up as committing to the PEGI Online Safety Code. In a nutshell, it's to help clearly indicate games with unsuitable online content for minors.

In addition to embracing this new initiative from PEGI, Microsoft says it "continues to support, develops and encourages interactive games and entertainment, which are safe, age appropriate and educational. They continue their work with industry leaders, game developers, parents, caregivers and community leaders to look for ways to keep kids safe online while playing video games.

...

via Computer and Video Games


Super Smash Bros. Brawl has plenty of surprises in store it seems, and this is one of them: a new mystery gameplay mode that appears to allow you to fight with trophies.

Fans of the previous game will remember the several dozens of trophies that were awarded for completing certain tasks in the game. But in Melee, they were nothing more than ornamental collectibles.

Game creator, Masahiro Sakurai, only partly explains what happens in the new mode, which he files under '???' on the official site. "In this world, trophies fight," he says. "Those are the rules of this world. But... when someone... or something... breaks those rules, the world will pay a terrible price..."

Whatever he means, this mode promises to be something special because the principle of Smash Bros. is that you smash opponents off the stage - where they fall to their death - but the stadium pictured below has no edges, and so nowhere to fall. Interesting...


Screenshots ...

via Computer and Video Games


The new rumble-enabled SixAxis pad in the works will contain a few extra surprises within its slick black casing, according to SCEI president, Kaz Hirai.

Discussing the immanent release of the new controller, Hirai said: "We're also looking at a variety of other things that we can incorporate with the controller."

He went on to add: "We started out with the original PS1 controller with no analogue, and it's come all the way to this point, so obviously, as we go forward, it's not the final model for a PS3 controller, so we'll see what comes down the road."

He didn't, however, drop any hints as to what features these may be, leaving us to ponder that for ourselves. Recent rumours suggested that a new "TouchSense" feedback system designed by Immersion, which delivers feedback to the analogue sticks, could be incorporated into the SixAxis.

It's also possible Sony could add a microphone for voice recognition, DS-style (prepare for blowing mini games if so).

"We'll come out with announcements when we think we have the right mix of features," he concluded. ...

via Computer and Video Games


Tekken 6 on PS3 will incorporate fully-online fighting via the PSN, Sony has confirmed.

No specific gameplay scenarios were revealed, although we'd hope to see more than just straight one-on-one fights. Online tournaments would be nice, and maybe some multiplayer team battle modes too.

Online fighting will be one of many exclusive features to appear in the PS3 port of the arcade game.

The arcade game will be out later this year in Japan, with the PS3 version expected by mid-2008. But if you fancy some online Tekken action now, fire up your PS3 and download Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection via the PSN. ...

via Eurogamer


Rockstar plans to release Xbox 360 and Wii versions of Bully this winter, promising new content on top of the free-roaming schoolboy antics that made the PS2 version such a critical success.

Awarded a hearty 9/10 on its release as Canis Canem Edit in Europe, the game's return will be under the banner of "Bully: Scholarship Edition" in the States. Goodness knows what it will be called here. Canis Canem Edit: Liberate Tutemet Ex Inferis is our best guess. Hey - it's Friday.

And that's roughly all we know for now. There'll be "additional new content" this winter.

Whatever that ends up being, it's good news for owners of Microsoft and Nintendo's systems, as Bully's clever blend of GTA's free-roam principles, incidental humour and constant reinforcement gave Bullworth Academy a signature charm that really ought to have won it more sales than it made. ...

via Eurogamer


Microsoft is quoting a September date for Project Gotham Racing 4, but it sounds like they'll have a fight on their hands if Bizarre Creations wants more time, with business director Brian Woodhouse telling Eurogamer: "This one, we're not letting go 'til it's done."

Woodhouse was responding to our comment, during an E3 PGR4 presentation, that the difficulty for some of the latter Platinum medal goals in PGR3 was all over the place. "I can't argue with that," he admitted. "We just ran out of time. We feel like we've got more time [on PGR4]. Last time round, we feel like we got the game ripped away from us."

"It looked great, but we struggled a little bit to commit time at the end to really balance the game properly. This one, we're not letting go 'til it's done. We were disappointed with that. With 2 we probably got it right. With 1 we rushed it out as well. 3, you know, it was a launch title so we were under enormous pressure.

"Following on from that, we've totally changed our development mentality. With a launch title, you've constantly got this issue with difficulty with the hardware and not getting the game up and running early enough. This time around, because we're building it on a modular tech base we're able to bring the game up really early and think about all of those things as we go through, instead of me saying to you as a game designer, 'okay here's the game, you've got two weeks [to balance it]'."

He also admitted that Bizarre had "spent a fortune building this game". ...

via Eurogamer


Street Fighter II' Turbo: Hyper Fighting heads up this week's European Virtual Console update, joining the ranks of SNES titles by demanding 800 Wii points for the pleasure of its company. Its little brother, regular SFII, is already available.

Also on the VC this week is the original NES version of Metroid, at 500 Wii points. It's the first of Samus' excellent adventures to appear on Nintendo's downloadable service. Look out for the latest of our Virtual Console Roundups to see how it's aged.

And, finally, there's Silent Debuggers for TurboGrafx-16 at 600 Wii points. Not one I'm familiar with, if I'm honest, but Wikipedia declares that it's another Data East title and a first-person shooter, no less, in which players explore a cargo station in search of treasure. The overall goal is to "debug" a computer to turn off the self-destruct sequence that otherwise dooms you. ...

via Eurogamer


Sony Computer Entertainment Europe has refused to confirm or deny rumours concerning announcements the company plans to make at next month's Leipzig Games Convention, GamesIndustry.biz reports.

According to a report on MCV, Sony will reveal that video-on-demand services and Freeview TV features will be launched "across Europe and other export markets" by the end of the year.

The trade publication is also claiming that SCEE will announce a European price cut for PS3 - despite the introduction of a new "value-added" bundle earlier this week.

Speaking to GamesIndustry.biz director of corporate communications Nick Sharples said, "We do not comment on rumour and speculation." ...