G-News

Here comes the big boss! If you’re one of them gamers who want to see a clearer picture of what exactly you’re gonna be up against in Konami’s Silent Hill: Homecoming (PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3), then this video here put up by GameCinemaHD is crystal.

It’s just the first boss you’ll encounter, but it sure looks to be quite a formidable meanie, don’t you agree? Anyhow, Silent Hill: Homecoming is coming your way

• E3 2008: Silent Hill: Homecoming PC version confirmed, plus an old fiend returns
• Silent Hill 5 gets official title, release date confirmed, more details revealed
  

After the recent series of shakedowns that has happened with Midway, word has been going around that the company may have to shut down its UK based studio Newcastle, subsequently putting development of its upcoming action shooter - The Wheelman - on hold. However, interim CEO Matt Booty squashed these unfounded rumors and confirmed that they had no plans of doing so.

In a talk with GamesIndustry.biz, Booty was quoted having said that Wheelman was going to be an important front line game for the company in the first half of 2009. He also had this to say regarding their commitment to their UK studio:

Newcastle is a very important studio for us. We just brought in a new studio head, Craig Duncan, formerly with Codemasters, so I think those two things are an indication that we’ve got a very strong commitment to that studio.

With that said, the UK studio will continue its work on Wheelman, an action title for the PC, Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3, which “stars” Vin Diesel playing the role of the main protagonist.

• Midway: The Wheelman faces high expectations
• Midway closing LA studio, moving operations to San Diego
• The Wheelman: Features and release date

Disney Interactive and Black Rock Studio are all set to bring their off-road trick-racing title Pure to PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC this month. Before Pure hits retail, though, gamers will be treated to a free demo for its PS3 and Xbox 360 versions.

The Pure demo features a 3-lap race against 15 opponents on the Mount Garda track. There’s also a qualifying track that serves as a sort of tutorial for those new to the game.

The demo will hit PSN and Xbox Live this Thursday, although apparently Gamestop already has it on disc. If you didn’t pre-order, then the downloadable demo’s the way to go to see if this game’s worth buying or not.

• Pure extreme off-road racing: official trailer, interview

The early birds do get the freebies after all. Ubisoft announced today that those who pre-ordered the Prince of Persia game in North America will be receiving a free upgraded Limited Edition version of the game.

Here’s what’s in store for you in the upgraded Limited Edition, in addition to the regular SKU:

• Collectable Limited Edition packaging
• An exclusive look at the making of Prince of Persia
• A Prima digital mini-strategy guide full of developer’s secrets to help players master the year’s best action-adventure game
• A digital art book that chronicles the game’s journey from concept to winner of Best Artistic Design at E3 2008
• The original soundtrack scored by master composer Inon Zur
• And much more.

Apart from that, they’ve also announced their new team-up with Penny Arcade for the comic book version of the title. It will be an expanded 32-page comics, and will elucidate on Elika and the Prince’s relationship. Yeah, a little love story never grows old, eh?

Prince of Persia is coming out this Holiday for the following platforms: Xbox 360, PS3, PC. Meanwhile, the Prince of Persia: The Fallen King will also be out on the DS to complement the release of the consoles and PC versions.

Getting a game approved by a country’s classification board is hard work, but what makes it even more frustrating is that different countries have different standards when it comes to censorship.

A very violent game may get the go signal in one country and be banned outright in another. The history of the video game industry is riddled with examples of this happening.

“The frustrating thing for us is that the standards and rules can be so varied across territories, that we work with five or six ratings agencies and each one has different ‘hot buttons’,” Fallout 3 product manager Pete Hines told CVG.

“In one place nudity is a big deal but violence is fine, and in another place drugs are a problem but nudity is fine,” Hines added. “You’re not aiming at one target, you’re aiming at six different ones, worrying about how each one will feel about different things.”

Bethesda’s Fallout 3 (Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC) has had its share of brushes with censorship. It almost didn’t make it through Australia’s Office of Film and Literature Classification (OFLC) due to the presence of drugs in the game. The game has since been given the green light.

• OFLC: Fallout 3 banned in Australia because of drugs
• MP proposes bill to apply more censorship in video games
• Grand Theft Auto 4 banned in UAE

Smashing Pumpkins is coming aboard Activision’s Guitar Hero World Tour (Guitar Hero IV), and they’re gonna be exclusive! That’s right, the band will be debuting their new single, “G.L.O.W.”, as an exclusive downloadable content for all you fans to fawn over.

This becomes even more monumental as this is the first time that a band has recorded a song solely for the game franchise. But what’s more, the new single will be coupled with two other favorite Smashing Pumpkins tracks, “1979″ and “Everlasting Gaze”.

Billy Corgan even takes the spotlight as an in-game character in Guitar Hero World Tour! Nothing like keeping it real, eh? Playing along with frontman Corgan is the single “Today”, straight from their quadruple-platinum 1993 album, Siamese Dream.

Guitar Hero World Tour is coming out for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, and Wii. You’ll get to rock your socks off this fall. In the meantime, keep it posted here for more news and updates.

• Ozzy Osbourne, Zakk Wylde officially announced as playable characters in Guitar Hero: World Tour
• New Guitar Hero: World Tracks spotted on Stuff magazine
• Rumor: Guitar Hero World Tour’s list of tracks

Buy: [Guitar Hero World Tour (Xbox 360)]
Buy: [Guitar Hero World Tour (PS3)]
Buy: [Guitar Hero World Tour (Wii)]

Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures now has its own Blade interface. Players that prefer the Xbox360 controller to the traditional PC keyboard and mouse combo can switch using the SwitchBlade software customized for AoC.

Gamers can used one of several predefined configurations for AoC or create their own. For more on the blade for Age of Conan and other PC games, visit Blue Orb’s SwitchBlade website.

—Related Articles at Gaming Today:Switchblade Now Available on FileFrontAge of Conan Character Creation on "Set" Frozen For Time BeingSwitchBlade for Guild Wars, Hellgate: London & Half-Life 2More Than One Million People Sign Up for the Age of Conan BetaNew Age Of Conan Concept Art

The Tokyo Game Show is just around the corner - just a month away now. Capcom’s already listed to be present in the show floor, and you can bet your last chunk of rotting flesh that they’ll be bringing Resident Evil 5 with them.

What’s more interesting to keep in mind is that RE5 producer Jun Takeuchi has now confirmed that they’ll finally be revealing the new control scheme in the game during the TGS event. He doesn’t breathe a word about what the new control system will be like, and the only thing we have to go by is that he referred to it as “Gears-like”.

A reference to Gears of War, obviously. This probably means RE5 on the PS3 and 360 will finally break through the Resident Evil franchise’s stop-aim-shoot combat system (which is what we see in the Leipzig trailer for RE5) and now allow you to walk or run while shooting.

Checking back on our previous RE5 news coverage (check out related articles below), we also heard about the cover system that this game will be using.

Now whether this new control scheme will be showed off by way of a developer walkthrough presentation or an actual playable demo for the public (which I’m definitely hoping for!), we’ll definitely give you the lowdown once the event hits. Hang on for TGS, folks! We’re gonna be gunning down zombies with style!

• Tokyo Game Show 2008: full list of exhibitors revealed
• Leipzig Games Convention 2008: Resident Evil 5 gameplay trailer
• E3 2008: Resident Evil 5 demo, features, launch date revealed
• Resident Evil 5 new details revealed: online co-op mode, cover system, more

Buy: [Resident Evil 5 (PlayStation 3)]
Buy: [Resident Evil 5 (Xbox 360)]

So many bands are releasing new singles via Rock Band or the Guitar Hero games before their album even comes out that it is almost becoming a fad of sorts. Whether you feel that this newfangled way of releasing music is a good or bad thing is a moot point because there looks to be no end in sight.

The newest example of this trend is The Smashing Pumpkins who are slated to release their newest single via Guitar Hero: World Tour. The track “G.L.O.W.” will be a bit of an exception though because this will be the first time that a band has actually recorded a song for a music simulation game and released it before the album has even been finished. What this means is that if you plan on purchasing GHWT on October 15, you will get the single before the rest of the world; therefore,  if you do not plan on purchasing GHWT, you will just to have to wait along with the rest of the uninitiated.

“G.L.O.W.” will be bundled with two other songs from the band: “1979″ and “The Everlasting Gaze” and will be available pre-launch of the game. In addition, Billy Corgan will also be appearing as an in-game character that you can play as throughout career mode, so when you and your buddies are thrashing to the single “Today” (which will be on the game disc) you will really be able to pretend you are the head honcho of The Smashing Pumpkins. That is, if you are into that sort of thing.

Guitar Hero: World Tour seems to have a lot interesting gameplay elements associated with it, and with rival Rock Band 2 coming out around the same time, it looks like there will be plenty of coolness to go around. Here’s hoping that the peripheral compatibility that both camps are buzzing about pans out in the end so that we will no longer have to choose between the two.

I only wish that the name of the song was something different, because evertime I hear or see the word “glow” anymore I think about that stinky perfume from J. Lo. However, with the title of the song appearing to be an actual abbreviation of something it could mean anything - and with a mind like Billy Corgan behind it, you honestly just never know.

—Related Articles at Gaming Today:Beat It Anyone? New Tracks Confirmed for Guitar Hero: World TourTerrifying Video of the Day: "How To" Trailer for Guitar Hero On TourRandom Assortment of Rock Band Tracks TodayWeekly Rock Band DLC Fix Includes Smashing PumpkinsGuitar Hero: World Tour Rumored Set List Was Just That…. A Rumor

If there’s such high-profile games like GTA4 with exclusive content on XBL, it shouldn’t come as a surprise these days that other multiplatform games might go the same route: exclusive DLC for one console or other. Today we get word that the PS3 version of Mirror’s Edge will be getting exclusive content via the PlayStation Network.

EA Digital Illusions CE (DICE) seems to have some special deal with Sony, as Sony’s statement, via a spokesperson, reveals the following:

PlayStation has an exclusive marketing agreement with EA regarding the title. Exclusive downloadable content will be offered on the PlayStation Network.

After getting hailed as the best Xbox 360 title at Leipzig, you’d think that Digital Illusions would have brought some form of loving to the 360 fans too. But then again, it was Digital Illusions themselves that said before that the PS3 platform was better suited for the game.

While exclusive content on PSN seems to be confirmed, this doesn’t automatically rule out that other forms of exclusive content could also eventually arrive for the Xbox 360 and PC versions of the FPS game. We’ll bring you guys news as further developments take place.

• Leipzig: video game awardees for Best of Show in GC 2008
• OPM reveals PS3 is lead platform for Mirror’s Edge

Buy: [Mirror’s Edge (PS3)]
Buy: [Mirror’s Edge (Xbox 360)]
Buy: [Mirror’s Edge (PC)]