Gears 1:1 weapons and armour coming

Triforce have announced that they will be making 1:1 scale replicas of weapons and armour from Gears of War, like the kind Cliffy B had to display at this years Dev Conference.

Fans will apparently be able to get their hands on C.O.G armour, C.O.G helmets and Lancer Assault Rifle replicas, one of which can be seen below (unpainted).

Here's the press announcement:

Highly realistic, 1:1 scale weaponry and battle armor from the Gears of War universe will be available to fans

(May 29, 2008 New York, NY) - TriForce Sales, LLC announced today that it has acquired the license from Epic Games, Inc. to produce 1:1 scale replicas of the weapons and armor from the Gears of War universe. TriForce has partnered with master sculptor Sid Garrand of Nightmare Armor Studios to recreate the gear worn by Delta Squad of the Coalition of Ordered Governments. Fans will have a chance to order their own C.O.G. Armor, C.O.G. helmet and the Lancer Assault Rifle, replicas created from designs based on images of Delta Squad, led by game hero Marcus Fenix. Advance orders can be placed online beginning July 8, 2008 at www.projecttriforce.com.

“I have been a huge fan of Gears of War since its release in November of 2006,” said Garrand. “In my spare time I sculpted a full set of armor for myself, which I enjoyed showing off at conventions. When the fans saw it they all asked me how they could get it. I was thrilled when the team from Epic saw it, and liked it, which allowed us to move to the point to where we are today. It all truly began as a labor of love.”

“Sid Garrand’s team came to our offices wearing the armor one day, and everyone here at Epic was blown away. The level of detail in these pieces is incredible, and it’s so rewarding to see our work come to life,” said Dr. Michael Capps, president, Epic Games. “We’re really psyched TriForce will give fans – and our team – the chance to own some of these awesome pieces from the Gears of War franchise.”

The winner of over 30 Game of the Year awards, Gears of War for Xbox 360 and PC, features amazing tactical action and multiplayer excitement. The plot thrusts gamers into a deep and harrowing story of humankind’s epic battle for survival against the Locust Horde, a nightmarish race of creatures that surface from the bowels of the planet. Gears of War 2, which continues the story of Marcus Fenix and Delta Squad. The epic saga of survival, loss and retribution, is the sequel to the blockbuster game that sold over 4.7 million copies and redefined the third-person tactical action game genre. Gears of War 2 is being developed exclusively for Xbox 360 and will launch this November.

TriForce will be hosting a panel showcasing prototypes at Wizard World Philadelphia this Saturday, May 31st. In addition to the unveiling of the prototypes and a Q&A with sculptor Sid Garrand making a special guest appearance will be Lester Speight – Augustus (The Cole Train) Cole.

As a fan of the game and a fan of cool looking guns I can say that i really, really want one of these.

Source: Internal

Resident Evil 5 trailer is live

If you head on over to Gametrailers.com you can watch the new and exclusive game trailer for Resident Evil 5, which features brand new locations and characters that we haven't seen before apparently.

Here's the link, enjoy.

Source: Internal

POP site is live

The website for the new Prince of Persia game is now live. Hosting news, media, downloads and a developer blog amongst other things. There are currently a few screenshots and trailers on the site. Check back there over the coming weeks as im sure there will be updates.

Hit this link to check out the site.

Source: Internal

SFIV to feature Online play

Street Fighter 4 will feature Online play as well as Console Exclusive Characters, says game producer Yoshinori Ono.

Ono stated that the Home console version of Street Fighter 4 will feature characters unavailable on the arcade versions of the game.

He stresses, however, that Capcom would be "adding characters while watching the overall balance" of the game, being careful not to add content simply for the sake of boosting package.

"We won't be adding unnecessary stuff," he told Famitsu (via IGN) in reference to the online mode's feature set. We'd be happy with straight one-on-one battles, and maybe a knock-out tournament mode.

Exclusive content and Online play will surely make Street Fighter fans very happy indeed.

Source: CVG

Super Mario RPG confirmed for VC

Nintendo have confirmed that Super Mario RPG will be hitting the Virtual Console this June.

The confirmation means that Nintendo has finally come to an agreement with Square Enix over releasing the game, breaking down the barriers for American and European releases. Sooner than later we hope...

On the downside, Japanese Wii owners will have to fork over 900 Wii Points to get the game. We have no reason to believe that the price point will be any different over here.

Super Mario RPG, originally released for the SNES, was very well received when it was originally launched, its remained a fan favourite ever since. Im sure the high price wont discourage fans from reliving this old gem.

Source: CVG

Ninja Gaiden 2 demo

The demo for Ninja Gaiden 2 is on Xbox Live now....but only if you have access to the Japanese Xbox Store.

Now i cant read Japanese so here's what CVG said the demo entails:

"previously the official blurb has been that it comprises of a single level which has you "guide Ryu on his mission to avenge his clan."

If you're desperate to get your hands on the demo it should be easy enough to find it, with a Japanese account and some luck finding it. Of course it would probably be fair to guess that the demo will appear in the UK and US stores eventually.

Source: CVG

MGS4 IGN review

The IGN review for Metal Gear Solid 4, one of the most anticipated games of the year, is in.

After the absolute hammering IGN gave Haze last week they have hit the other end of the scale on this game. A rave review of 9.9 will certainly please many Metal Gear and Playstation fans alike. Many would say its been a long time since the PS3 last got a must have game but MGS4 certainly seems to be one.

Some may question the point of giving the game a 9.9/10, however im sure not too many people will argue over the 0.1 percent.

"it’s a magnificent, ground-breaking, masterpiece"

Source: IGN

EndWar Eye support

The Playstation 3 version of Tom Clancy's EndWar could support the Playstation Eye.

CVG asked Julian Geright whether the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 versions would be identical, here's what he had to say:

"Almost. We're still working on getting a decent anti-aliasing solution on PS3 that doesn't cost three frames per second.

"We've got six months left of debug, so we've got plenty of time for polish, but they're going to launch with more or less the same stuff.

"Maybe we're going to have some PlayStation Eye stuff, but that all depends on whether we can slip it past Microsoft. I might not be able to talk about this just yet..." .

So we could see PSEye support, don't take this as conformation though as the idea doesn't exactly sound concrete yet.

Source: CVG

Fracture demo out in autumn

Lucas Arts has announced that it plans to simultaneously release a demo of Fracture on Xbox Live and the Playstation Network around August or September.

"The third-person shooter takes a punt at innovation with a terrain deformation system that allows you to literally morph hills and craters into the ground using a gun called the Entrencher".

Source: CVG

PSN update time

Its update time for the Playstation store once again, and this one took me by surprise, its actually got some pretty decent stuff included, have a look for yourself:

PS3 Store
Games

• Super Puzzle Fighter 2 Turbo HD Remix - £6.99
  
• Rayman - 3.49

Packs

• Army Of Two Veteran - FREE

Videos

• Super Stardust - Solo & Team Trailer - FREE
  
• Overlord Trailer - FREE
  
• MGS4 E3 Trailer - FREE

Wallpapers

• PixelJunk Monsters Wallpaper - FREE
  
• Prince Of Persia Arabesque Wallpaper - FREE
  
• Prince Of Persia New Prince Wallpaper - FREE

PC store
Games

• MediEvil Resurrection PLATINUM - £14.99
  
• Rayman - £3.49

Not a bad list at all, here's hoping Sony can repeat that in future weeks to come.

Source: CVG

Far cry 2 - single player to last 50 hours

Louis-Pierre Pharand, the producer of Far Cry 2, has claimed that the single player aspect of Far Cry 2 alone will keep the player occupied for over 50 hours.

The games Massive Free-roaming worlds did look to offer a lot of game for your money, however 50 hours is a huge amount of time for any game, let alone an FPS title which will normally only hit 8-10 hours, 50 hours is RPG territory.

"Just on single alone, gamers can potentially have close to 50 hours of game play," Pharand told CVG, when we asked if he'd considered adding a co-op mode to the game.

"We decided to abandon it for this instalment simply because of the complexity and size of the game," he said. "Add the Multi experience & the Map Editor... gamers will have their money's worth with FarCry2."

Lets just hope that this supposed 50 hours is action pack gameplay and the not crap repetitive filler which is so often used to bulk out games these days.

Source: CVG

Tiger woods 09 shots

EA have released the first set of Screens from Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2009.

There isnt really that much to say about the game that you cant see in the pictures, its Golf, has nice graphics and will feature Tiger Woods. EA have said that Tiger Woods 09 will feature something called "dynamic, personalised gameplay" via Tiger Woods' personal coach, Hank Haney. What this means I don't know, lets just hope that this new feature actually works, unlike the "game face" feature from last year, which was completely broken.

Hit the source link for a few more screens.

Source: CVG

Rock Band price axed

Despite developer Harmonix insisting that the £180 price tag for Rock Band is reasonable, the good people at Play.com have decided that it really isn't and have consequently slashed the price by £40.

"Play first cut £30 from the price of the 'Band in the Box' instrument pack. So you can get a set of drums, guitar and microphone for less than one hundred pounds.

The company then pulled a tenner off the game disc, which brings the cost down to a more reasonable total of £139.99".

Of course, whether £139.99 is a reasonable price is still pretty arguable. Considering that Rock Band is still double the price of Guitar Hero 3 it wouldn't surprise me at all if we were to see a further price drop.

Source: CVG

Bioshock ps3 is Official

After months of speculation, 2K games and Take-Two have finally officially announced that Bioshock will be heading to the Playstation 3 this October.

The news was first leaked last week when PSM3 let slip the news in a magazine feature, or at least that's the official story. New content has also been promised, although no information has been released on what that may be, early speculation says it could be new plasmids or even areas of Rapture that were blocked in the Xbox 360 and PC versions.

"Since BioShock for Xbox 360 and PC won countless 2007 Game of the Year awards, we are excited to see the impact of this stellar title for the PlayStation 3 when it debuts this fall," said Christoph Hartmann, president of 2K".

"Over the coming months we look forward to revealing the new features and content that will make this a must-have game for its new audience, as well as for those who enjoyed it on the other platforms."

So although this news is nothing new, at least even the most cynical of Playstation owner can put their fears of it all being a big lie to rest.

Source: CVG

Afrika wont be released in Europe

Sony has told CVG that Afrika, which we featured earlier today, will not be released in Europe.

Sony has yet to make a formal announcement on the matter, the news come literally hours after fresh info on the game emerged earlier today on the Japanese official site.

Sony refused to comment any more about this news, a US release is still unclear. Of course this sint the first time Sony has shafted Europe. The Dual Shock 3 pads that were released in Japan in November 2007 still haven't made their way into Europe yet.

Good news for any potentially disappointedly customers is that all ps3 games are region free so you can still import a copy from abroad via Ebay.

Source: CVG

Pure screens...a lot of pure screens

Pure, the off road racer, looking to compete with the likes of Motorstorm: Pacific Rift and Colin Mcrae Dirt has been a little quiet lately, all that changed when these new screens were emerged.

23 new screens appeared today, some of which are monsters, weighing in at over 230 mb a piece, thankfully the chaps over at CVG have cut them down to a friendlier resolution, a few of which can be seen below.

Head over to CVG via the source link to check out the rest of the screenshots, they are stunning to say the least.

Source: CVG

HAWX screens

Ahead of Ubisofts 2008 party trip new screenshots of Tom Clancy's HAWX have emerged. HAWX is another Tom Clancy war game, however this time it is a flight simulation/combat game.

"According to the publisher's massive story blurb which it just launched into our inbox, the HAWX (or High Altitude Warfare, erm... X) is responsible for four things; testing experimental aircraft, going on national defence missions, capturing enemy technologies, and pushing the Xbox 360's bloom powers to the max (we made the last one up)".

The screenshots below look awesome, the graphical detail in each shot looks near photo realistic, hit the source link for a few extra shots and some more info on the game.

Source: CVG

Afrika screens

Despite having absolutely no knowledge about the gameplay, one game that has created a lot of excitement is Afrika.

First exhibited way back in 2006 along with the very early ps3 titles, the game showed off some very pretty graphics, in what we can only guess is some kind of Safari type sim. However, since E3 06 little has been seen or heard about this game, many started to believe that it was just a tech demo, used to show off the playstation 3's abilities. Apparently, those people were wrong.

New Screenshots have emerged today, now, whilst we cant really say for sure whether these are in game or pre-rendered shots, we can say they look very nice. Still little is known about the game, however in a market that seems over-run with FPS titles recently, Afrika certainly does look different and undoubtedly has some appeal with Playstation 3 owners.

Source: PSU

Motorstorm 2 looking rather bland

Given the recent video trailers of Motorstorm:Pacific Rift, showing racers battling through dense forests full to the brim with lush vegetation you would expect to see a plethora of colour in-game.

Well judging from these newly released screens we guessed wrong, whilst the vehicles look graphically fantastic, the rather bland and mono-tonal backgrounds leave little to the imagination. The empty and baron backgrounds of Motorstorm complemented the game immensely, however the below screens don't seem to fit in with the pacific island theme of the game.

Check out the screens below and make your mind up on.

Source: CVG

Resi timer live

Head over to the Resident Evil website and you will find something possibly very interesting. The site displays a countdown timer along with faux camera footage of a village. There are two timers in total, one seems to be counting from when the site went live whilst the other one, with 72 hours on the clock isnt yet moving, possibly this is a timer that will start 3 days from 31st May when new information on the game is expected.

This of course isn't the first time Capcom have put vague timers on their sites, some readers may remember something similar for Resident Evil 4.

Check back over the week, we hope there will be more information regarding the site and the game soon.

Source: Internal

Oddworld confirmed

The co-founded of Maxis, Jeff Braun, has confirmed that a new Oddworld title is in development.

Braun this week confirmed his involvement with the title, working with developers Oddworld Inhabitants.

This will come as a surprise to anyone who remembers the developer's founder, Lorne Lanning, announcing its retirement from the games industry and venture into film production in 2005.

"They're such a talented group of people and I really trust their ability to create compelling content," said Braun of Oddworld Inhabitants.

Oddworld: Munch's Oddysee (which came before the most recent Oddworld title, Stranger's Wrath) was one of the titles used to show off the next-gen abilities of the first Xbox, and Braun talked up a "revolutionary new 3D animation system" to be utilised in the new game, too.

"The rendering tools are getting so good now for 3D animation that you can literally create a linear animation and create a video game using the exact same objects," said Braun. "The tools are finally getting to the level where we can come out with a show and we can come up with a game." No gameplay details or platforms were specified.

However, don't expect to be playing the game any time soon, the game is apparently undergoing a "slow and measured production schedule" meaning we might not see this game on shop shelves for a few years yet.

Source: CVG

MGS signing

On June 2nd Hideo Kojima will be signing Pre-release box sleeves for his epic Playstation 3 title Metal Gear Solid 4, something that every Metal Gear Solid fan would surely sell their grandmother for.

Joined by the game's artist, Yoji Shinagawa, Kojima will turn up from 12pm midday to scribble on sleeves from inside the game's disc cover - more than a week before the game goes on shelves. Whoever organised the appearance should look at his or her diary closer.

The catch? There'll only be 300 sleeves given out - from 9am that day - and to get one you'll have to place a £5 pre-order on the game (and scrape your tired face off your bed pillow REALLY early, too).

So you can get up early, pay £5 and pray for one or go on ebay around 10am and buy one off there.

Source: CVG

MGS4 90 minute cut scenes

It has been revealed that Metal Gear Solid, part 4 in Hideo Kojima's epic stealth series, will have cut scenes reaching 90 minutes in length, that's the length of a full film in one cut scene.

Metal Gear Solid is renowned for lengthy cut scenes but i doubt even the most hardcore fan was expecting something quite this big, however the good news is that you can pause and skip the cut scene clips, just in case nature calls (or you are on you're 3rd play through and sick of them).

"MGS4's story is massive. The videogame equivalent of all three Godfather movies on one disc,"

"As you'd expect, you'll spend a lot of time watching cut-scenes, so if you found previous games' story exposition laborious, then you'd better find yourself a nice cushion and plenty of teabags in readiness for MGS4's.

"They can be skipped, but you'll be missing out on some of the finally crafted examples of FMV footage anywhere in gaming,"

Metal Gear Solid 4 launches June 12th so get ready for some monster play sessions if yhou want to get the game finished quickly.

Source: CVG

Nooo, pokemon MMO

Noooo, the developer of the WiiWare title Pop have announced that they are in the process of pitching a Pokemon MMO to Nintendo.

Noooo have had relative success with the WiiWare title and so have pitched several projects to different developers, one of these being Nintendo.

"We have a concept for a cool Pokemon MMORPG,"

While it's highly doubtful such a small company could develop the product, there is the possibility that Nintendo will buy it out and supplement its workforce.

Of course, an MMO version of Pokemon would seem the next logical step for Nintendo, for all we know such a project could have been in the pipeline for a while now. Expect some more news to surface soon.

Source: CVG

Man turns GTA4 box into pc

Ever wondered what to do with that tin you got with your special edition copy of Grand Theft Auto 4 ? How about turn it into a computer, because thats exactly what one man has done.

Whilst this isn't exactly news i'm sure we can all agree its pretty cool nonetheless. Mark Harris, who has a bit of a reputation for this, has managed to squeeze a fully functional computer into the safety deposit box that came with the GTA4 special edition.

During a quiet spot at work, Harris took a miniITX system and saw the potential in its size. "Normally I don't see the point in buying limited / special editions of computer games," he told us, "as they come with items that you will find yourself throwing away after a while. "Not pre-ordering my GTA IV early enough meant I had to order the special edition. I'm glad that I did."

Check out his website for a few of his other designs, including a Digg.com inspired one.

Source: CVG