With Resident Evil: Revelations out in a week, Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City due for release in March, and rumours of Resident Evil 6 scattered over the web, I must say I wasn’t actually expecting an announcement AND trailer this suddenly. But it’s here – the official reveal of Resident Evil 6. And judging by the trailer, I’m excited.

Zombies, glorious zombies. While the Resident Evil series has moved away from them at late (in favour of the less dead-looking and agile Majinis), it seems that Capcom are finally bringing Resident Evil’s iconic zombies back to the core, numbered series – not totally unsurprising, what with prequels Raccoon City and Revelations also focusing on our skin challenged friends. Of course, people cry – how can zombies be threatening in today’s games considering how slow they are? Well, it seems the location of Tall Oaks has been majorly compromised – with 70,000 infected. It’s all about numbers with zombies, assuming you have the amount of ammo we saw in Resident Evil 5.

That’s not to say that zombies will be the only enemy in the game – with powerful BOWs (Bio-Organic Weapons) also popping up around the world, and it seems that the Majini threat is also still present, giving us the gun-toting parasitic threat as well as the zombie outbreak. While I wasn’t a huge fan of Majinis as a replacement for zombies, I can happily see the two co-existing nicely.

So who are the lucky ones to deal with this new threat? Well, it seems many of the fans will finally be getting their prayers answered – Chris Redfield and Leon S Kennedy are co-starring for the first time in the series, with co-op modes also confirmed to be making a return (although no real details have been given at this point). While it’s clear that the game will not be returning to Resident Evil’s survival horror roots, it seems that Capcom are trying to pull out all the stops in giving fans what they want while evolving the gameplay in a way that feels natural – the bioterrorism threat becoming ever closer to a zombie apocalypse. With a game-style executive producer Hiroyuki Kobayashi calls “dramatic horror,” it sounds as though we’ll be seeing a mixture of action and horror – so hopefully that means that although the game will still be action-based, we’ll be seeing a few more scares than in RE5, which was sorely lacking for a Resident Evil title.

The plot itself of course revolves around more attacks from bioterrorists, though who is pulling the strings is anyone’s guess. Ten years have passed since Raccoon City, and the President has decided to go public with the truth of the events. However, Leon is forced to make a tough decision when the President, who is also his personal friend, becomes infected. Elsewhere in China, another attack has taken place with Chris on the scene – and it seems that the world’s population has to unite under the common threat of bioterrorism, though filled with fear that nothing will now be able to stop what has been put into motion. That said, it’s a little strange as Resident Evil 6 seems to be set before Resident Evil 5 – set ten years after the Raccoon City Outbreak in 1998, while the events in Kijuju took place in 2009. Considering the scale of things happening in RE6, it seems very odd that everything’s been cleared up within a year. That, and I was fairly sure that Chris had never encountered a Majini before Resident Evil 5, though that might have just been my own assumption. Hopefully more light will be shed on this closer to the game’s release.

There are, of course, new characters joining the fray as well. An unnamed mercenary who fights bare-fisted is featured prominently in the trailer, his female companion stating “the world needs you”. He responds “no, no, not me. Just me blood. Well the world can have it, long as someone ponies up the dough.” Perhaps his blood contains an antidote for the zombie virus, at least that’s my guess. Sounds like he’s going to play a key role in the plot, but doesn’t appear to be taking a particular side – he’s featured fighting against BOWs, yet doesn’t seem in a hurry to relinquish his blood for whatever greater good it holds. There is also a woman who claims to be at fault for the outbreak, and Chris seems to have a vendetta against a certain woman – though it’s not clear if this is the same lady. Could she be a villain, or just a pawn?

Gameplay wise, Resident Evil seems to play similarly to Resident Evil 5, although with some changes. Firstly, it’s clear that Chris and Leon have a few special moves up their sleeves, such as shooting whilst leaping backward, and rolling manoeuvres. Also, melee attacks look as if they could be a little deepened, as Leon is shown planting an axe in the head of one enemy. Looks like enemies have been given a few new tricks, too – with one Majini extending it’s parasitic arm over the cover that Chris was hidden behind and grabbing him, yanking him up into the air.

Visually, the game is looking good and the animation looks clean – one gameplay scene shows Chris running through a street in China as civilians flee, pushing them out of the way and shoving a reporter’s video camera out of his face while making his way through the wreckage. One thing I also noticed was that the game seems to be set mostly at night – one thing that RE5 deviated from that did seem to take away some of that Resident Evil atmosphere.

While it’s unclear on exactly how the game will turn out at this point, the initial footage has definitely got me excited. It looks to me that Capcom have taken the Resident Evil 5 style and worked upon it, while simultaneously trying to put lots of fan-service into the mix. I do hope the game will have a good amount of scares in it, but I’m sure it can’t have less scares than RE5. I’ll definitely be keeping an eye on this one.

We’ve also been given a release date – the 20th November. A while off, yet – but better than some of the waits we’ve had to endure between announcement and release *cough*FinalFantasyVersusThirteen*cough*. Plus, we’ve got Operation: Raccoon City and Revelations to keep us busy till then – two titles I’m even more excited for now.

-Leon

 So Ziggy 2011 has been quite a year for you. What would you say the highlight has been so far?

The gigs I’ve done. Its been a great year for performing live… ever since February started I’ve literally had a massive surge of gigs and performances at really cool conventions. Including Summer of Sonic which was an absolute blast.

Aside from that I’ve managed to get a lot of material out. I’ve really expanded my career this year

Who’s your favourite Sonic character?

Aw, well, I’m going to be predictable and say no one beats Sonic, I mean, come on! He’s just a legend, he speaks for himself.

What age did you begin singing?

Basically I’ve been singing for as long as I remember, before I was 5 for sure. I always used to hum along to songs. Sonic the Hedgehog songs I used to listen to and sing along to…

 What was the first cassette you ever bought?

That was the Spice Girls album. I remember not having any pocket-money and saying to my mum “please let me buy the album”! *as a Spice Girls fan myself I decided to probe further* My favourite songs on it? I had a few ; ‘Wannabe’s a classic, ‘Say You’ll Be There” was great too and you can’t forget “Love Thing”!

You’ve been quite involved in the organisation of the London Gaming Con. Now the big day’s here, how do you feel its going?

I think its going absolutely brilliantly. A lot of us were worried, because it is a new convention, about the turn-out, plus its the first time the Anime League has branched off into gaming rather than just being an anime event, so its been a massive challenge for us. But its turned out absolutely brilliantly, and the guests have been absolutely amazing. I think everyone’s having a great time so we’re just really, really thrilled and hope it goes well for the rest of the day and that we’ll do it again soon.

What are your hopes for 2012?

Well I hope 2012 will be even better. Hopefully another run of gigs, more new songs etc. I’d like to branch out in travelling internationally if I can. I’ve currently got an EP out but I’d like to get the full LP out if possible…

2012 is also the debut of CamCon which is my own convention so it’ll be really challenging but amazing year so I’m looking forward to it

CamCon : Ziggy's con

Tell us more about CamCon

CamCon is a new convention taking place in Cambridge which I am personally organising. Its an anime/comic/sci-fi and gaming convention including, of course, lots of cosplay. We’ve got Sonia Leong and Emma Vieceli from Sweatdrop Studios attending aswell as Akemi Solloway.

Basically its a varied, one-day events, which is running at the Junction in Cambridge that is open to all ages. There are lots of cool things happening ; we’ve got talks from comic artists, workshops, karaoke and gaming events, including a tournament area and a massive tournament on the stage. There will also be live bands, so yea, it should be a really good event.

I hope its going to be a really big success and I’m looking forward to it.

To find out more about Ziggy you can find her on the following sites :

Website : http://www.zonicmusic.com/
YouTube : http://www.youtube.com/user/ArtyGirlZiggy15
Facebook : http://www.facebook.com/Zonicoffical

To find out more about Camcon please visit :

Website : http://thecamcon.com/
Facebook : http://www.facebook.com/CamConCambridge
Article on Anime Picks : http://animepicks.co.uk/2011/10/another-new-convention-camcon/

~HelenBaby

If this is all too emotional for you then you will be pleased to know that this trailer also shows us more of the new sky hook system in operation, with mid air combat in full swing. We also see a little more of the co-operative fighting style between Booker (you) and Elizabeth, and get a much closer look at some of the more mysterious inhabitants of Columbia, Songbird and the Handymen.

Perhaps the most interesting thing to take from this trailer is the fact that it was made entirely from in engine footage, meaning that if this is anything to go by we could be in for quite a treat.

There is still no confirmed release date for Infinite, but personally I am hoping that a date for 2012 will be set soon, really soon please… tomorrow would be great…

Until next time,

24

x

Irrational Games

2K Games

www.bioshockinfinate.com

A new trailer revealed at the Spike Video Game Awards 2011 on Saturday has now come to light - along with a smattering of new information on the latest entry in the Metal Gear saga - and it’s been very interesting. First off, the game’s name has now been revised, now known as Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance. Secondly, the game will now be set after Metal Gear Solid 4, effectively making it the next chapter in the Metal Gear series. While it’s speculated that part of this change was made in order to set the game in a more futuristic scenario with more cybernetic enemies (due to Japan’s unease at the portrayal of dismembering human beings), the changes to the game’s name and plot make me wonder whether this will be the start of a new “Metal Gear Rising” saga.

Perhaps the biggest announcement was that the game is now being co-developed with Platinum Games, the developers of Bayonetta and Vanquish. Seeing as the game is going to be oriented around fast-paced sword combat, Platinum should be a perfect fit, having shown their expertise with their previous work (including their history with Capcom and Clover Studios before they became independant).

The trailer shows Raiden fighting against military opponents, as well as Gekko and Metal Gear RAY units as seen in previous Metal Gear titles. The trailer shows a mix of the regular combat, as well as the cutting ability and other more cinematic moments (such as grabbing and throwing a RAY) that look as though they could be QTE or something of a similar style. It also appears that Raiden will have a sword-wielding rival, although it’s unknown who he is at this point. The trailer ends with Raiden talking in a gnarled voice, saying “I think it’s time for Jack to let ‘er rip!” – referencing Raiden’s darker alter ego (Jack the Ripper) that he dealt with as a child soldier, suggesting he may be regressing into his more psychopathic nature at some point.

The trailer has recieved a mixed reception, and I myself have similarly mixed feelings about the trailer. On one hand, and most of all, I am excited. Playing as cyborg Raiden is appealing, and the idea of Platinum Games taking the reins of a Metal Gear hack ‘n’ slash title sounds fantastic. The idea of Jack the Ripper making a return is also exciting – as the darker side of Raiden is something we’ve only really heard about in the past tense so far. As a standalone game, Revengeance is looking amazing and I’m sure it will be a great game with Kojima and P* working in conjunction. The issue that I have in the back of my mind, however, is how the game will reflect upon the Metal Gear series as a whole. The title is looking very over-the-top (in true Platinum Games style), while the series usually feels more serious, albeit with a few strange individuals in the mix. While I’m looking forward to playing as Raiden, there’s a worry that the title won’t have that gritty, almost realistic style that the series is known and loved for, and I fear that the storyline might undermine the events leading up to it and how the story concluded with MGS4. That said, I have a great deal of trust in Hideo Kojima watching over the project, so I think I’ll need to hear more before jumping to any conclusions.

We’ll supposedly be hearing more information on the game this week, so keep an eye out for more news soon. In the meantime, check out the trailer below for the first real trailer for MGR: Revengeance.

l

- Leon

There have been a couple of FPS games that I have sworn by ever since I was bitten by the shooter bug. Doom, Quake, Duke Nukem and Halo are the main games that I love coming back too, but there has been one game that has been buried in my game collection which I have been meaning to come back to for a good while now, and that is the first Serious Sam game, Serious Same: First Encounter. The title which I thought was trying to be like Duke Nukem after a couple of Red Bulls. It was quirky and fun, the fact that you just shot aimlessly while headless bomb men ran at you screaming what pretty epic. Even though it sounds pretty skill-less you would be surprised, it was fast a paced non-stop rollercoaster ride.

Serious Sam II wasn’t as great as its predecessor, you could tell it was trying to rip off the more successful FPS games of the time (mainly Halo) and did it in a way that just made you cringe more than laugh out loud. So after Serious Sam II, I felt like the lid has been closed on what could have been a great spoof series.

With the recent announcement of Serious Sam III I was sceptical, but after watching the latest trailer and eyeing up some of the screen shots my interest in the 3^rd instalment has shot up. It looks like the developers, Devolver Digital, have gone all out on this, so what has been announced so far?

Titled Serious Sam: BFE (No one knows what the BFE stands for, honestly) this game is a prequel to the first title Serious Sam: First Encounter. Interestingly the game has dropped the classic cartoony look and feel that both Serious Sam 1 and 2 had making for a more nitty-gritty realistic look to the game with piles of blood added in for good measure, luckily though the fast paced crazy gunplay which was most prominent in First Encounter will be back, so I will be looking forward to taking out legions of headless screaming bomb people once more.

Not much else has been announced sadly, whatever Devolver Digital and Croteam have up their sleeves they are keeping very hush-hush about it. The latest announcement had Croteam officially announce 4 player split screen on the PC where one gamer will use the mouse and keyboard and the other three will use game-pads, an interesting announcement to say the least but apparently it is what the Serious Sam community wanted. We should ask for a free Xbox 360 with every game released and see what happens.

So what was Croteam’s reason for adding 4 player split screen to the PC platform? Here is their official list posted on their website:

• Visual identification of opponents allows for more accurate racial and gender slurs during Deathmatch and Capture the Flag games.
• Close proximity allows for unwanted sexual advances towards opponents without fear of reprisal due to their fear of losing the lead in Team Deathmatch.
• Leon’s mom usually walks around the house in these ridiculously short shorts that show the very edge of her butt. Seriously dude, you should see these things.

Right… if you want to do that surely get a games console? Anyway multiplayer split screen aside, this game looks pretty fun, just awaiting more info on it really. It is due for release this summer apparently, bear in mind this game was first announced in 2007 so let’s hope this is not another ‘Duke Nukem Forever’ situation.

As we await more in for, please enjoy the latest trailer. Also have a think about what BFE means.

Did you enjoy the trailer? Well here is a 10 minuet gameplay video whet your gaming whistle.

Garv

[This article has been updated with the Sega Announcements from yesturday and the Big announcement that went live at midnight last night.]

About a month ago I gave the gaming public a brief insight into the latest announcements that had surfaced for the Eurogamer expo 2011. Some exciting titles had cropped up like Battlefeild 3, Rage and Ninja Gaiden 3. Now nearly a month on some exciting news has come to light about the expo as a whole and a bucket load more announcements have been made. So here is the latest.

Firstly the expo gained a new partner. For a long while now the expo has been supported by HMV and still is to this day, however Alienware have stepped in to become official partner of the Eurogamer Expo this year, which is fantastic news for the expo as a whole. HMV, PS3, Xbox 360 and Nintendo are still partnered with the expo but with Alienware now added into the mix this is going to make for an awesome expo.

Other news that has come to light is that the Expo has changed venue’s. Last year saw the expo in Brompton hall which is part of the earls court venue. This year however the Expo has been upgraded to Earls Court 1, which is double the capacity than last year which is fantastic news. Possibly meaning more games, more people and generally more stuff happening over the 4 day extravaganza.

At midnight last night Eurogamer made a huge announcement for the Eurogamer Expo. The official UK Launch on OnLive will happen on the 22nd of September at the Eurogamer Expo. OnLive has been said to be the next step up in online gaming. You can stream games straight from the net to you HDTV, PC, Mack, iPad and Android Tablets giving a lot of opportunities for online gaming. Some gamers remain sceptical bout this but to be at the official UK launch on the first day of the expo is massive! There will also be thousands of the OnLive consoles given away for free at the expo.

Now moving on to the all important games, some epic titles have been added to the list so here is the list updated as of last night:

• Ace Combat: Assault Horizon – Namco Bandai
• Anarchy Reigns – SEGA
• Assassin’s Creed: Revelations – Ubisoft
  
• Batman: Arkham City – Warner Bros.
  
• Battlefield 3 – Electronic Arts
• Binary Domain – SEGA
• Dark Souls – Namco Bandai
  
• Driver: San Francisco – Ubisoft
  
• FIFA 12 – Electronic Arts
  
• Final Fantasy XIII-2 – Square Enix
  
• Guild Wars 2 – NCsoft
  
• Inversion – Namco Bandai
  
• Just Dance 3 – Ubisoft
  
• Mass Effect 3 – Electronic Arts
  
• Need for Speed: The Run – Electronic Arts
  
• Ninja Gaiden 3 – Tecmo Koei
  
• Pro Evolution Soccer 2012 – Konami
  
• Rage – Bethesda
  
• Rayman Origins – Ubisoft
• Renegade Ops – SEGA
• Resistance 3 – Sony
  
• Ridge Racer Unbounded – Namco Bandai
  
• Saints Row: The Third – THQ
  
• Silent Hill: Downpour – Konami
• Sonic Generations – SEGA
• Star Wars: The Old Republic – Electronic Arts
  
• Tekken Tag Tournament 2 (arcade cab) – Namco Bandai
• The House of the Dead: Overkill Extended Cut – SEGA
• Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Future Soldier – Ubisoft
  
• UFC Undisputed 3 – THQ
  
• Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception – Sony
  
• Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine – THQ
  
• WRC 2011 – Ubisoft
  
• WWE 12 – THQ

As you can see there has been some epic titles added to the list such as Arkham City and Final Fantasy XII-2 with still more titles yet to be announced.

Keep up to date with PlusXP for the latest announcements as we get them.

-Garv

Let me start off by saying I was a massive fan of Spiderman Shattered Dimensions. I was impressed with what Beenox had done with the game design and the gameplay itself. So I when I found out that Beenox had announced that they will be making another Spiderman game, I was excited to see what they would do this time. Garvaos wrote about the announcement and gave us what they had at the time about the game and now I’m here to tell you the latest news. Oh and believe me, this is something to look forward too. So first things first and I cannot stress this enough, this is NOT a sequel to Spiderman Shattered Dimension and is a game in its own right. They have created a brand new story just for this game and my God, is it an awesome one.

Walker Sloan, who is basically a mad scientist from the Alchemax in the year 2099, goes back in time to the present day to build the evil Alchemax company years before it was meant to be created. To do this however he must kill Peter Parker aka Spiderman, so he can change the present altering the future drastically in order to become incredibly rich and powerful. Oh and here is something to make you even more interested in this game. Anti-Venom is a villain, and a major one too.

Now for those who don’t know about Anti-Venom here is the short version. Anti-Venom is as another symbiote suit and is worn by Eddie Brock. Eddie Brock wore the original Venom symboite suit and due to this he was a bad guy. The Anti-Venom suit however is the complete opposite of the Venom suit. This is for many different reasons but two of them are more significant than the rest. Firstly Anti-Venom is a good guy. This is because Eddie Brock no longer wants to hurt anyone after the Venom symbiote suit left him. Secondly, he has the ability to cure ANY illness or disease, this means that he is an Anti-Venom to everything, hence the name.

So going back to the plot, the only person who remembers what it was like before Walker Sloan changed the future is 2099’s very own webslinger Miguel O’Hara. Alchemax rules the new future with absolute control, and it is your job to team up with the Peter Parker in the past and change the future. With this being the storyline the game, I personally think Spiderman Edge of Time has the potential to be even better than Shattered Dimensions.

As I mentioned earlier Anti-Venom is a bad guy in this game. I know I said he is a good guy in the comics, but Walker Sloan is somehow controlling him. As he can cure any aliment, Sloan uses him to cure Spiderman’s radioactive blood. Now since doing that would make Peter Parker lose his powers, Anti-Venom can kill him with ease.

In an interview at E3 associate producer Kevin Umbricht also announced that of course there will be other villains in the game. Amazingly some villains are being created purely for this game, but of course there will also be classic Spiderman baddies. During the demonstration at E3 they showed off their brand new gaming system for Edge of Time, they called it the Cause and Effect system.

What this means is that they designed it so every action taken in the game has an opposite and equal reaction somewhere else. So what this means, is that if you were to blow up a building in the present time (that’s the Peter Parker timeline), in the future (2099 Miguel O’Hara timeline) that building would either change completely or not even exist.

The potential for this system in this game is unbelievable, as they have thought about every little detail. Plus they are using the same team at Beenox that gave us Shattered Dimensions, which for me means that they have the chance to produce yet another great game. I think that this is a game to follow and when it is released, defiantly one to buy.

- Random Man

When I think of hack and slash games there are only two games that cut the mustard. Devil May Cry for its awesome story and stylish combat and Ninja Gaiden for its fantastic game play and its steep learning curve. The amount of time I have spent trying to complete Ninja Gaiden II is unreal. I still go back to it every now and again just to see if I still have the skills to beat the game. That and I just love chopping the limbs off of enemies with a huge scythe.

Now Ninja Gaiden III has been announced I am once again looking forward to playing as Ryu Hyabusa and ridding the world of demons knows as the fiends.

So what are we expecting from Ninja Gaiden III? Well story wise not much is known, Ryu has been has been requested by the Japanese self-defence force to make a trip to London, England to fight a terrorist threat and a mysterious hooded opponent, it will be interesting to see how Team Ninja portray England’s’ capital in the Ninja Gaiden world and how the fair city ties into the overall story line. This time round Ryu’s right arm has been cursed, this will more than likely play a big part in the game’s story line and game play, Is he turning into a fiend himself? We’ll have to sit tight and find out.

After doing a bit of research on the game I have found out that there have been one or two changes that can swing the game one way or the other. In Ninja Gaiden II, I loved the fact you could chop your enemy limbs off and watch them try to take you down even though they would be missing a leg or an arm. There was a lot of blood, but it wasn’t too excessive and gave the game a unique and appealing feel which, in my opinion, other games haven’t quite got the grasp of.

Ninja Gaiden III however may have taken a step back when it comes to dismembering your foes, this time round Team Ninja really want the player to feel the resistance when it comes to lopping off a limb. They have implemented a cutting mechanic where you have to saw through your enemies bones with your sword. Sounds cool but Ninja Gaiden is well-known for its fast paced combat, so this could slow things down somewhat.  Team Ninja have also removed the classic flying swallow move from the previous games that enabled Ryu to take out a legion of demonic foes in mere seconds (when used correctly) and they have now thrown in some Quick Time Events, which again could slow down the pace of the game. In all honesty this has made me slightly nervous but I am remaining open minded, this could possibly be a good thing as Team Ninja stated they want the game to be more accessible to gamers.

Update: After looking at Team Ninja’s twitter feed (http://twitter.com/TeamNINJAStudio) The Quick Time Events in Ninja Gaiden III won’t be a key feature in the game, they were added as a limited tutorial feature for demo purposes only. Making me feel alot better about the gameplay.

It isn’t all bad on the new game mechanics front though, it appears that Ninja Gaiden III has taken a page from the Kratos’ (from God Of War) book. Ryu can now climb walls armed with a pair of kunai. A neat little trick which I always admired in the God of War series as it brought nice element of platforming to the game.

What I am hoping is that Ninja Gaiden III will give you the same variety as its predecessors did. Ninja Gaiden was great for the sheer amount of weapons you could wield and the different skills you could learn. I just hope the changes aren’t to earth shattering.

Ninja Gaiden III will be playable at this year’s Eurogamer Expo, I will be sure to get some hands on time with the title.

Garv

When the original release of Marvel Vs Capcom 3 (or MvC3) was first announced I was pretty excited. It couldn’t have come out at a better time either as my love for fighters was in full swing (and it still is) and my love for Marvel comics was growing bigger.I was glued to every single announcement that was released but when the game finally came out, I felt a bit underwhelmed.

The game mechanics were pretty good and the game as a whole was good fun. But I couldn’t help that they were missing a lot of characters. Over time I chose to accept it and got on with playing the game.

It has now been five months since the release of MvC3 and Capcom this week have made the announcement that Ultimate Marvel Vs Capcom 3 will be coming out, not entirely sure when mind, but the announcement has given me mixed feelings.

First of which this is another rehash of a fighting game. Capcom seem to making a habit of this as technically Street Fighter IV has been released about three times now with constant updates. When Capcom rehash a fighter I can’t help but feel that they should have included all of these updates in the initial launch of the game, making me think it’s just their way to get more money.

Ranting aside though what has been announced is quite interesting. Firstly MvC3 will feature a Spectator Mode, eight new stages and various improvements to the game’s balance and online functionality. Secondly twelve new characters have been leaked, four of which have been confirmed by Capcom: Strider,Firebrand the villain from ghosts ‘n’ goblins, Ghost Rider and Hawkeye have been confirmed. Some good announcements but the leaked characters make it a little bit sweeter, here is the character list that was leaked to the masses:

Capcom:
Firebrand
Strider Hiryu
Phoenix Wright
Vergil
Nemesis
Frank West

Marvel:
Hawkeye
Ghost Rider
Dr Strange
Iron Fist
Rocket Raccoon
Nova

Capcoms official statement about the leak further proves that the character list is official:

“Today we announced Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 for PS3 and X360 as well as the first four characters and a playable build for this week’s San Diego Comic-Con. As part of that, you may have seen some of our new characters for the game pop up on the Internet a bit earlier than anticipated.

“We are very happy with the positive response to the lineup, but at this point we’re only going to focus on the four characters (Strider, Firebrand, Ghost Rider, Hawkeye) we have officially revealed. As for the other eight additional characters, we will have a ton of info, videos, screens and playable code in the coming months. Stay tuned!”

I can’t wait to get my hands on Vergil, Nemisis and Ghost Rider. These announcements and leaks whet my appetite for some more MvC3 action. Stay tuned for updates.

Garv

Bungie’s community manager Eric “urk” Osborne wrote on Bungie.net;

“As we prepare to become fans of the universe our studio began creating more than ten years ago, it’s nice to know that we’ll be counted among such esteemed company.

“Some might consider the upcoming transition a bittersweet occasion punctuated by a sense of loss and sadness. We feel otherwise. Halo is in great hands… yours.

“Halo is yours now. In many ways, it always has been. Its new caretakers will strive, just as we did, to be worthy stewards but you have the package. Hold these characters and stories and worlds to the same unflinching standards you did while we were at the helm, but allow them all to blossom and change and grow in the ways that they must.”

These were just some of the emotional words that were posted on Bungie.net as the studio bid their final farewell to the FPS franchise they created.

Bungie celebrated their 20th anniversary last week and believe it or not it was 10 years ago we first saw Halo: Combat Evolved grace our original Xbox consoles. Today Bungie officially stated that the future of Halo has now been passed to the internal Microsoft development company 343 industries, who are now developing Halo 4 and Halo: Combat Evolved anniversary.

With Halo: Combat Evolved celebrating its 10^th anniversary this year, 343 could not have picked a better project to kick start their new affiliation with the Halo franchise. Not only are they revamping the original FPS classic but they are, in a way, starting where Bungie began 10 years ago, with the first ever Halo game to be released. I think this is a clever move and even though a part of me is going to miss Bungie being a part of the Halo franchise I welcome 343 with open arms.

So what’s in store for Bungie next? Well they are now working on a project with Activision, but that is all we know thus far.

Bungie have not fully abandoned ship just yet Halo playlist management will be changing hands on August 2^nd. The same day they will be giving us their parting thoughts of the last 20 years through a vid doc called: ‘O Brave New Worlds’.

So this is the last curtain call for the partnership that is Halo and Bungie. I’m looking forward to what the studio will produce in the future.

Garv