When recently asked how he thinks the PC platform is holding its own as more and more quality first person shooters are released for the new generation of consoles, Epic Games’ VP Mark Rein said that consoles are indeed stealing a lot of hardcore gamers away from the PC.

In an interview with Guardian Unlimited, Rein said: I’m a real fan of the PC, but yes, consoles are definitely stealing a lot of hardcore gamers from the PC. When Call of Duty 4 came out, I heard some of our guys sitting around talking about the great game they’d had last night and I’m like, ‘Hey guys, what server are you playing on? I’d love to come and join you,’ and they said, ‘Just send us a friends request,’ It was at that point I realized they were all playing it on console. Plus, the sales of the console versions are something like ten times the sales of the PC versions.

And with consoles these days offering more variety and that at an higher visual quality than the majority of PC games — I dare someone to find a boxing game that looks as good as Fight Night Round 3 or a racing game as good looking as Project Gotham Racing 4 on the PC — why shouldn’t harcore PC gamers, often proudly known as graphic whores, look towards Xbox 360 and PS3? Especially as PS3 also offers mouse and keyboard support.

Gamespot UK has conducted a video interview with Clint Hocking, the Creative Director of Far Cry 2. In the six minute video, Hocking talks about everything from the tech of the Dunia engine and how they wanted to have the absolute best looking PC title ever, to how important the choice of the vast savannah for the games’ setting was, to how the recently announced Xbox 360 and PS3 versions came to be.

With Crysis tightly holding on to the beauty queen title right now, Ubisoft Montreal definitely has their work cut out for them. What they’ve shown so far looks great without a doubt - but great enough to top Crytek’s beast of a game ? Fortunately, it won’t be long now until everyone — and by everyone I mean the 2% that have a PC powerful enough to run it at maximum settings — can judge that for themselves as Far Cry 2 will arrive on store shelves in March.

[Also see: Far Cry 2 gallery]

As PS3’s production costs have been cut in half recently, prices of the SKU’s lowered, and software sales on the rise, Sony’s game division has begun making some money and posted profits for the last financial quarter — Sept-Dec’07, where Sony sold 4.9 million units — meaning the big three are now all profiting from their console businesses.

Sony also upped their sales forecasts for the PSP from 10 million to 13 million units. But on the flip side, cut PS3’s sales forecasts from 11 million to 9.5 million units by the end of March.

Stormregion, the developer of Codename: Panzers – Cold War, is particularily proud of the new game engine they’ve created for the game. So much so that the publisher of the upcoming RTS game, 10tacle Studios, has sent out a press release explaining a few things - the engine is named the Gepard3 Engine and the weather effects allow for the devs to add a number of fancy, gameplay altering effects to the game.

Here’s the official wording from the press release: “In a detailed war simulation it is important to create realistic weather transitions which in turn have a realistic effect on gameplay and visual effects. The new graphics system provided by the brand new Gepard3 Engine allowed developer Stormregion to create a large variety of different surfaces such as, for example, reflecting puddles which disappear over time, vehicles which become wet with rain or glistening sheets of ice. This creates a completely realistic weather system which directly affects play through decreased visibility, changing movement speeds or changed weapons ranges, to name but a few examples.”

Unfortunately the video above (which was sent out with this press release) doesn’t show what’s promised, so I guess we all just have to take 10tacle’s word for it. The game doesn’t have a conrete date as of yet but we do know it will arrive in March of this year.

When it comes to sport simulation games, EA sports ranks as one of the top tier developers in the business. Covering a wide range of competitive sports, their games are often lauded for their ability to present the spoils of professional competition in an effortless and enjoyable manner.

Enter FaceBreaker; a new arcade style boxing game that centers around breaking your opponents face. Clever right? The development by the game is being handled at EA Canada, by the same team that brought us the ever enjoyable Fight Night Round 3. Details at this point are a bit scarce but the game is being billed as an “arcade” boxer along the lines of Ready To Rumble and Super Punch-Out!. So far what is known is that there will be multiple playable characters — like Romeo, a Latin lover known for his pelvic thrusts, and Molotov, an oversized Russian demolitions expert (I kid you not) — and the option for players to customize their boxer with uploaded photos via the Game Face technology system, used in games such as the Tiger Woods Golf series.

Peter Moore, president, EA SPORTS: “We’re very excited to announce FaceBreaker, an all-new franchise from EA SPORTS that is fun, fresh and innovative. FaceBreaker reinvigorates one of the great genres in sports videogames. Arcade boxing takes me back to my roots in this industry, and this game signals our shift to adding more approachable fun to our product lineup. In no time at all, you’ll be picking up the controllers and knocking your opponent around the ring, smashing faces, and having a riot.”

Expect more information to be released in the following weeks, with an exclusive detailed look in next months issue of EGM.

With Microsoft’s Xbox Live dominating the discussions of what a consoles online experience should be, many Playstation 3 owners have grown weary. With the Playstation Network, they are provided a free community to connect them with fellow gamers, but one that is often considered disjointed and detached in comparison to Live.

When the PSN’s social space Home was announced at last years GDC, many felt that Sony was finally going to step up their game and give them a viable community. One that not only rivals Live in scope, but surpasses Microsoft in ambition.

The Beta of Home has been under way for quite some time now, and details of what’s changing have been leaking out for awhile. At the Imagina conference being held in Monaco, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe’s John Venables and Ron Festejo showed some new screens of an advanced build of the “game” that showed the Home Square newly revamped as an open-air outside locale, with tables scattered all about containing fully functional games like chess and checkers, as opposed to the previously shown indoor facility.

Also, it seems the Theatre and Bowling Alley have changed in order to make them a little easier to recognize. The Theatre has been relocated to the ground floor after beta testers complained about the length of time it took to walk up the stairs. An estimated 12 seconds. Lazy avatars! Continue reading this story..

Kokatu has compiled a list of recently leaked screenshots of the Japanese localization of the recently delayed upcoming Wii title, Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Many surprises and no doubt sighs of relief are to be had by the fandom, many of whom found the scarcity of updates to the official character roster on the official Smash Brothers Dojo to be indicative of their favorite character’s disappearance from the series.

Get ready for some spoilers after the break.

Continue reading this story..

Here’s something for all of you who are itching to get their hands on the frequently delayed Haze - over four minutes of co-op footage with a developer explaining a few things on top. The quality of the video is pretty horrible but hey, beggars can’t be choosers.

In a press release issued today by Majesco, the company states that the Cooking Mama Franchise has now sold 1.6 million copies in the United States. With over 1 million copies sold, the majority of cash has been brought in by the original DS game. But naturally Cooking Mama: Cook Off for the Wii, and Cooking Mama 2: Dinner With Friends for Nintendo DS did their part as well.

Majesco CEO Jesse Sutton had this to say about the success of the franchise: “The success of Cooking Mama has been akin to catching lightning in a bottle. A unique concept, iconic main character and gameplay execution that fully utilizes the stylus and Wii Remote have proved to be a winning combination. We appreciate the continued support from all of mama’s fans and look forward to launching the fourth title in the franchise later this year.”

There’s also another Cooking Mama game in the works right now. No details have been released yet the company is promising to cook up some info shortly.

The art director of Duke Nukem Forever, Tramell Isaac, has said in a recent interview that several aspects of the game are currently being polished. “Well, we’re doing a lot of polishing of set pieces, environments, and characters,” he said. Could this mean that after 10 years of development, the biggest vaporware of them all is actually, trully nearing completion ?

With the recently released trailer and now this, it would certainly seem that 3D Realms is quietly reaching a point where they could blow the lid on this game. A big media blowout during E3, perhaps even GDC, doesn’t seem very unlikely at all.

In the interview, Isaac also said the majority of the game will take place in a near-future Las Vegas setting and that we can expect gameplay footage to appear “soon”.

[See also: Duke Nukem Forever gallery]

We all know the specs on the Wii which is supposed to be a bit more powerful than last gens Xbox. But with the exception of a few titles (I’m looking at you Super Mario Galaxy and Metroid Prime 3) there hasn’t been much software to support those claims.

Well have no fear! New images have been released from Grasshopper Studios’ upcoming Fatal Frame game as it has just been officially announced by Tecmo at a press conference held in Tokyo. Not 100% sure if they’re in-game shots or from cut scenes, although with the amount of detail and AA they show, they’re most likely the latter. But one thing is certain - they sure do look nice. Check out the rest in our newly opened Fatal Frame: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse gallery.

[See also: Fatal Frame: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse gallery]

With the Wii being sold out for 14 months straight and still selling like water in the desert, I would think Nintendo executives might be hard-pressed to find a reason to drop the price on the goose that lays golden eggs, but that’s exactly what superstar analyst Michael Pachter, of Wedbush Morgan Securities, suggests they do.

In his opinion, to stay competitive Nintendo should stop bundling-in the cultural phenomenon that is “Wii Sports”, and sell the uber-popular console for a cool $199 dollars. He figures that 80% of new customers will buy a game to go with their Wii’s anyway, and that Nintendo would only lose $10 bucks in process. He says this should help stem the advances of the more grown up HD systems, with their higher tech specs and multimedia capabilities, that are more likely to end up as the center pieces of a families living room, than in the kids playroom.

Additionally, he goes onto say that Nintendo should have nothing to worry about until Wii owners decide to pick up a second system to compliment their Wii’s, and that he expects 3-to-4 million more Wii’s to hit the market worldwide this year with an estimated 1.5 million of those coming to the U.S.. With big-box retailers like Target and Wal-Mart finally keeping some units on store shelves with increasing regularity, this year is shaping up to be just as big as last year.

And then there’s this…

“I don’t perceive a big threat [to the Wii] until late 2008, with the impact felt in late 2009. By that time — as I’ve said before, Nintendo will likely combat the perception of “HD video inferiority” by introducing a “Wii-HD” model.”

So there’s a Saw game in the works, it seems. The announcement was laid on a bunch of reporters by the Jigsaw puppet himself in a teaser trailer that was showed during Brash Entertainment’s recent press conference.

Not much at all is known about the game except that it’s powered by Unreal Engine 3 (so PS3, Xbox 360 and PC versions are likely) and is currently scheduled for a release in October ‘09. The game will include some of the plotlines from the movie(s) and there will be tight collaboration between the developers and the filmmakers.

Brash Entertainment is also promising the game won’t be just another failed movie-to-game conversion.

And that’s actually their whole purpose as a company - to create high-quality theatrical based games. We’ll see what they’re capable of soon enough as Brash is also working on another movie-based game right now — Jumper — which is set for a February ‘08 release on Wii, PS2 and Xbox 360.

The development of Just Cause 2 has been no secret, but Eidos has finally acknowledged the game with an official press release the company sent out today, announcing the game itself and a few of its features, with a number of screenshots packed on top for flavor.

Developed once again by Avalanche Studios, Just Cause 2 brings back Rico Rodriquez who will this time around blow up a significant chunk of the South East Asian islands of Panau. As is usually expected with sequels, Just Cause 2 will have more of just about everything - more weapons, more vehicles, a new stunts system(air, land and sea), and an overhauled grappling hook.

The graphics aren’t exactly top notch when compared to the top dogs these days but since the game world is 1000 sq km in size, we’ll let that one slide.

Alex Price, Brand Manager: “Remember everything you loved about Just Cause, then take it to the next level: vehicles, stunts, weapons, freedom, grappling hook, action, everything. The game world is even more incredible in Just Cause 2 and Rico has done a bit of growing up, so expect quite a few new surprises up his sleeves.”

Just Cause 2 is set for an ‘08 release on Xbox 360, PS3 and PC, leaving Xbox and PS2 out in the cold this time.

[See also: Just Cause 2 gallery]