Remember how awesome God of War III looks? If not, play along for a second. Here’s some footage of the game- and it’s not just a trailer. It’s game play footage, the best kind of footage there is (at least in the videogame world). There’s not much else to say, but there is plenty more to watch- thirteen minutes, to be exact. Do go ahead and hit the jump.

A few days ago we brought you the cover art, now check out the first gameplay footage of the upcoming Fight Night Round 4. The game will hit Xbox 360 and PlayStation in Summer 2009, preceded by demos on their respective systems.

G4TV has posted a video containing 15 minutes of gameplay footage they recorded themselves while fighting for their lives against an army of zombies. If this doesn’t get you ready to hit “download” when the public demo of Left 4 Dead hits XBL tomorrow, you must not be a fan of four player co-op awesomeness. Hit the jump for the video.

Straight out of Games Convention 2008 in Leipzig comes three minutes of Mirror’s Edge in-game footage. All the previous video has been above ground, featuring a bright cityscape, as you jump from building to building.

The new footage takes us inside of what appears to be an underground plant of some sort, and offers a stark contrast to the sunny rooftop footage shown at E3. Have at the video after the jump.

The recent PC update for Team Fortress 2 was a welcome addition to the already excellent gameplay, and it looks like our friends on the Xbox 360 will be able to enjoy the same delights soon enough.

The PC downloadable content included the new game type ‘Payload’: this tasks the attacking team to move a mine cart containing a huge bomb through the level and into the defending teams base, where it goes boom.

According to Valve’s marketing director Doug Lombardi:

We’re looking at bringing the Goldrush and the new achievements and stuff out to the 360. How and when is still sort of being determined, on pricing and that kind of stuff. On the PC it’s sort of wide open, you can release stuff whenever you want. On the console there’s a little bit more of a pathway.

What we’ve been waiting for is until we had a critical mass of new content to put out, so we feel like we’re kind of there now. We’ll probably be making some announcements pretty soon on what will happen with the 360 stuff. I don’t know that–unfortunately I don’t know that any of that will make it to the PS3.

The PC pack also included new maps and the first slew of unlockable weapons, which is sure to change TF2’s gameplay dramatically. Hopefully more news will be rushing towards us for both the 360 and PS3 DLC plans.

Source: Shack News

The creative masterminds at Blizzard have released yet another site update regarding the much discussed and yet to be released “Wrath of the Lich King” expansion pack. Aspiring Death Knights, and hardcore WoW fans alike, are given a glimpse into the new gameplay as well as a breakdown of features.

New Hero class highlights include class role detail, which reveals that the Death Knight will be able to both tank and DPS (complete with “disease effects”). They elaborate on the tank mode by stating that the DK will be able to put out “respectable damage” — whatever that means.

Talent tree hierarchy, reveals “Blood” damage, “Frost” tanking, and “Unholy” pvp focused branches which only add to the level of complexity and shear power the new class will seemingly deliver.

In addition to tanking and putting out insane amounts of DPS, the Death Knight will also be able to summon creatures, inflict disease, and much more. Get the full scoop by visiting the official World of Warcraft website.

The first bit of Gears of War 2 gameplay that we are to be treated to will be hosted tonight at 10:30 PST on 1UP’s video outlet GameVideos.

It is unknown as to what said gameplay video will contain, whether it’s single or multi player, what revelations will be had, or if we’ll even be alongside the good old Delta squad. And while I’m already pimping 1UP’s content, you may want to watch The 1UP Show to help ease the wait.

Check back later today for an update.

*Update* – Microsoft has announced that the footage will be available on Xbox Live Marketplace from from 7am BST on May 10.

Source: 1UP, Image, Videogamer.com

After two long years since the last Fight Night, Electronic Arts recently announced that EA SPORTS Fight Night Round 4 is in development at EA Canada.

The game will feature a revamped gameplay engine, all-new physics-based animations and, surprisingly, the appearance of a young Mike Tyson.

“The EA SPORTS Fight Night franchise has always been synonymous with quality and innovation that raised the bar for the sports videogame genre”, said Kevin Wilkinson, Executive Producer, EA SPORTS. “EA SPORTS Fight Night Round 3 was a platform defining game as the industry transitioned to next generation consoles. EA SPORTS Fight Night Round 4 will change how boxing games are played and measured in the future.”

Fight Night Round 4 will be available for both the PS3 and Xbox 360 sometime in 2009.

Source: EA Press Release

As seems to be the norm this console generation, not all games can hit that elusive 720p HD resolution.  First Halo 3, then GTA4 (PS3) and now the PS3 exclusive Haze.

As previously reported, a demo of Haze can be found on the Playstation Store, supporting 4 player co-op.  Graphically it’s solid, but what’s most impressive is that it runs silky smooth.  It runs at a locked 30fps, and even with a host of foliage and enemies on screen – it never dips.

Though there are more impressive looking games on the PS3, it’s with Haze’s gameplay and story that show off its true colours.  (More on this in our upcoming preview of both the four player co-op and multiplayer modes.)  Nonetheless, for Free Radical to achieve a solid PS3 engine with no loading throughout the game, they’ve had to make some concessions.

Qua51 of Beyond3d now confirms Haze’s resolution to be 1024by576 with no anti-aliasing.  That is, going by the demo, and there’s yet to be a difference in resolution from a game’s demo to its final release. At the end of the day, this is something we’re going to have to get used to.  If developers find they can put the saved power into a solid framerate, or better graphics – then should we really be complaining?

When we visited Free Radical at Sony’s 3 Rooms earlier this year, script writer Rob Yescombe had this to say about the game’s graphics::

We’ve got a 12 hour streaming experience and for someone to put that next to a game where they can spend 2 minutes loading a level every half an hour. Well good for them, but it’s a totally different game.  Just because it might be first person, just because it might be on the same platform, they’re totally different games, totally different things that we’ll be able to do.

So we want to give people variety of gameplay, and if that means you’ve got a texture that doesn’t look photo realistic, well guess what, you’re going to enjoy the game more than you would looking at a photo realistic texture.

And it’s hard to disagree with that.  Let us know what you think about the HAZE demo in the comments section and in our forums.

*Update* - Quaz51 of Beyond3d Forums has now confirmed that Haze uses 2xAA as opposed to the original 0xAA.

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We have the first off-screen capture of Resistance 2 gameplay from Sony’s Playstation Day.  The shot shows off the new Redwood Forest level.

More images are of course to come, and official ones at that.  But this off-screen capture of one of the multiplayer levels shows off Insomniac’s Work In Progress.

No it’s not clear, but we’ll update the article with new images as soon as we can.

Japan’s Famitsu magazine carries within it some long-awaited Resident Evil 5 info this week. Could this be the first indication of the title’s big reveal?

At the beginning of this year, conservatives seemed to think that it was unlikely RE5 would make it out in 2008. However, murmurs have begun to rumor that it will make a surprise appearance…this fall.

The new info isn’t extensive, but there is a video on the Capcom 25th Anniversary DVD included with the magazine that has a brief interview and shows the game up and running in a few short clips. You can even watch it here:

The featured gameplay takes place in a bright village locale– thought to be Africa– and looks to be based closely on RE4. Melee and context specific actions will return.

The game is definitely looking sharp and Capcom, in a slick move, may be sneaking up on us with this one.

Source: 1UP

The much hyped and highly anticipated Grand Theft Auto IV will take the player around 100 hours to complete, excluding the Xbox 360’s exclusive content, according to the games developer Rockstar.

With a vast array of main missions and a host of side quests, the time it takes to fully complete the game is claimed to be on par with your average RPG. Talking to videogamer.com, a Rockstar spokesperson said that “if you’re not in a rush and you answer the phone when it rings it’ll take about 100 hours to complete.”

100 hours sounds like enough GTA IV for my liking, but don’t forget about the promised 360 episodic content and the multiplayer. Best clear your diaries for a couple of months after April 29th. Actually, just scrap your diary, your summer is over.

Source: videogamer

Releasing a quality game each year, Insomniac are at the top of their game and put most developers to shame. Letting us in on their methods of genius is a treat, and today they bring us an exploration of how they create single player levels. From paper to game in nine “easy” steps.

1. Designers create rough map.

From paper to screen, a level goes through many iterations. Often times designers start sketching out setups with paper and pencil, then transfer to a vector map for the Environmant Artists to start fleshing out. The Designer and Artist will work closely to define what these spaces are, how they should look, feel, etc.

(Please click on the images to enlarge them.)

2. Designers create scale rough of their map.

3. Changes are made to the map based on scale rough.

The Designer scale rough is a crude model built by the Designer to check out their spaces and make sure it will work for what they were thinking. Sometimes a space just doesn’t feel right when you get it in 3D from a paper map, so adjustments can be made with little effort. From here, the map is retrofitted before handing it off to the Environment Artists.

4. Map gets pitched to Environment artists, who work closely with Designers to flesh-out the spaces.

Many times, the designs change radically once Designer and Environment Artist begin problem solving.

5. Environment creates Environment rough, where the space is made to feel “real” (i.e. Where does that road go?)

6. Design and Gameplay programmers wire enemy encounters and stub in story elements (usually text on screen at this point)

7. People play the game. A lot.

8. Design and Art make changes as needed.

9. The polish work begins.

There you have it, a day in the life of Insomniac level creation. Rather them than me! To look at HD screenshots of Resistance 2 please follow this link.

Note, multiplayer maps get much more time in rough so they can be play-tested for balance, action funneling, exploits (like camping grounds) and player capacity.

Thanks and Credit goes to Insomniac.

Over on Rare Witch Project, Banjo’s creative director Greg Mayles has given a mini-interview on how the next installment of their cult platformer is shaping up. The short answer is he’s packing light.

While Mayles hasn’t revealed anything concrete, there are clearly some changes underway. Ok, that’s not a massive surprise since the 360 crowd probably aren’t the ones lying awake at night reminiscing about the glory days of the N64 – but he doesn’t appear to be holding much sacred. In fact, the only thing confirmed as being kept in is Grunty’s ridiculous rhyming.

Among other things, Jiggys will be found and used differently, while multiplayer will see a shift away from the party game vein of Banjo-Tooie. Bigger though are his coy plans for the new gameplay – all Mayles says on the matter is: “Let’s just say you certainly won’t have seen it in a Banjo game!”

Thing is, the success of Banjo was never about being groundbreaking – most of it was an extension of Mario 64 anyway – but instead rested in the fact it was a simple format on an huge scale with a massive amount of polish. We can only hope that these flashes of genius won’t obliterate that.

Still, we feel skeptical about this statement from Mayles: “Don’t worry, we may be introducing something different to the Banjo universe but this remains a Banjo game.”

Source

Monster Madness: EX builds off the base set by the original Monster Madness: Battle For Suburbia (released earlier this year on Xbox 360). Taking on the role of four intrepid teenagers, players will set out to save their town from the evil that’s been unleashed.

Hopefully the gameplay has been improved from the original, but with tightened controls, 25 new levels, a host of mini-games, a polished camera, newly built in extras and 4 player co-op, the developers have been working hard.

Monster Madness Ex for the PS3 also includes:

Online Co-Op Adventure Mode – The entire Adventure Story is now playable cooperatively online and off by up to 4 players.

Character Customization – Player characters are now customizable with over 100 purchasable (in-game currency) power-up accessory items.