Slow news days make for great little snippet updates.

Seems the boys over at Project 51 Productions have been brainstorming quite a bit, and have some exciting news. There’s not to be just one animated Castlevania movie – but three! A trilogy of animated movies, all telling the extended take of Castlevania 3: Dracula’s Curse. While this might not be what some fans had in mind, as I know I can hear some saying “But why can’t they just make separate movies for each game in the series?”, I can only say this – you want it done, or do you want it done right?

It also appears that series head, Koji Igarashi, is also involved in the movie as well. Of course, he was also supposedly ‘involved’ with the Castlevania comic books too, and those only got half-hearted reviews. Again, more news as it develops on that one.

Oh, and just as a smaller note – Castlevania: Dracula X Chronicles for the PSP will now be released in September.

As you no doubt know, Spider-man returns to theaters this weekend in a big way. In honor of his return, this week’s extended Lost Classics and $20 GOTW will take a look at some of the best games featuring the web slinger. So click below for some interactive web slinging action.
[Read the rest of this entry…]

Almost forget that Devil May Cry 4, the newest installment in the acclaimed Capcom series, had been shoved to the wayside in terms of development news? Well thankfully, it is not so. Seems some new news about the game has leaked out.

Newcomer Nero has gotten a little more exposure this time around, and some additional info. Nero, a member of the “Order of the Sword” whom greatly resembles the Demon Knight Sparda, whom the Order worships, is on a quest against Dante after he witnessesthe son of Sparda killing off members of the Order. Packing his doubel-barrel revolver “Blue Rose” and his motorcycle-hilted sword “Red Queen”, as well as the mysterious demonic arm known as the “Devil Bringer“, Nero would seem like a decent match for the half-breed demon Dante.

Apperently the Devil Bringer is not just for show – as shown in the new fully playable demo released – but will couple as a weapon and a mechnism used for juggling opponents during combos, earning more red orbs for the player. Devil Bringer will also be key in ascending to multiple pathways by using rappeling actions and grappling onto higher ledges. Another secret revealed by game producer Hiroyuki Kobayashi was that, indeed, Dante will be playable in DMC4. Whether or not he’ll be an enemy of Nero’s throughthe entire game or will only be opposed to Nero for a portion of ithas not yet been established. IGN has more on the article HERE.

Devil May Cry 4 is slated for a release sometime late summer/early fall of this year for PS3, as well as Xbox 360 and PC. (thank god)

…but just barely. Shigeru Miyamoto comes in at #92 in Time Magazine’s list of the most influence people of 2006. Who can blame them for including the Father of Modern Video games? As one of the main creative forces behind the phenomenally popular Wii, Miyamoto has secured a spot on the list by making video games less threatening and more accessible to everyone, (especially to the senior set, they can’t seem to get enough of the system at assisted living communities).

Although ranked #9 by the public, the fact that a game maker was even included on the list during the newly revived, post Virginia Tech, video game “witch-hunt” really says something about the power of the medium.

Read the feature here

WARNING!!

Taking a by-memory based map of your school, and turning it into a Count-Strike level is, apperently, a very bad idea.

A highschool senior has been suspended from Clements High School in Fort Bend, Texas, after it was found out by a fellow classmate that he had created a level on his PC-version of Counter-Strike that was based around his school’s design and layout. After word got out amongst students, and more imporantly their parents, school officials took action, and removed the teen to be placed in an “alternate education campus”. Stating that the level was considered a ‘terroristic threat”, local police also became involved and searched the boy’s home, though found no evidence of criminal activity.

Duh.

This comes not long after the Virginia Tech shootings, therefore awareness for implications of school violence is back on the high. What doesn’t add up is, why hasn’t this happened before? How do you think such great maps for games such as Counter-Strike are made? People visualize a place they can create from simply memory, and use it to map out a level that’s unique and provides a challenge. Why is this any different than a person making a level out their workplaces from memory? With Columbine, it was obvious that the individuals were disturbed to begin with, but this kid seems to be a normal teen who simply likes video games, as implicated by a fellow student.

“I think he just did it for fun,” said student Maaria Faoqi. “I mean, he goes here. He probably didn’t mean anything.”

The ABC News article can be read HERE.

I give it a week tops before the anti-gaming advocates raise in arms to shout out at this.

Seems that news regarding the PSP-exclusive upcoming chapter of the Silent Hill mythos kinda slips by unnoticed recently. However, it seems a bit of new info and new additions to “Origins” has hit the web for Silent Hill enthusiasts to decend upon.

As a recap, Silent Hill Origins is a prequel to the rest of the games in the series, particularly numbers 1 and 3. Until now, only some character information has been sprinkled about, with some screenshots of over-the-shoulder gameplay, ala Resident Evil 4. Now, it seems the SH team scrapped that concept in favor of the oldschool 3rd person. In this game, you play as newcomer Travis O’Grady, whom finds himself in the misty town of Silent Hill after saving a mysterious girl from a burning house. (series fans should pick up on this right away) After which, Travis tries to investigate what happened to the little girl, only to be thrown into the chaos that permiates from deep within the town itself.

According to Game Informers, despite the smaller screen size, the game itself is no less creepy than it’s large-screen predecessors. Gameplay is simple, with some new features thrown in such as being able to charge your attacks and the ability to lock onto several targets and toggle between them.

Have we mentioned the creepy?

Silent Hill Origins is slated for release in fall of later this year.

IGN has released the first trailer for the upcoming Transformers movie tie-in game. The footage comes from the Xbox 360 version of the game and shows off Bumblebee, Optimus Prime and Barricade in motion. We see them driving, fighting, scaling buildings and we get a good glimpse of Prime transforming! The character models are very impressive and need to be seen in motion to be appreciated. Best of all the trailer is narrated by Optimus Prime himself, Peter Cullen!

Source:Transformers the Game Trailer

E3, the once great video game Exposition, has been reduced to a shadow of its former self. What was once a never-ending cacophony of lights, sound and swag is now an invitation only press event. While we can still expect industry-shaping keynotes from the big three hardware developers, the show floor is barely recognizable. Industry giants, Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo, Electronic Arts, THQ and others have been relegated to a 20’X20′ space.

Quite a contrast to previous E3s where developers battled each other for total show supremacy. After last year’s expo, which was completely dominated by Nintendo and the newly revealed Wii, Sony and Microsoft decided that paying millions or dollars for little or, worse yet, negative press coverage just wasn’t worth the effort. They basically took their ball and went home. The other big companies followed suit and now we have, what I’ve dubbed, Neo-E3, or the E3 Media & Business Summit.

Moved from May to July, and Los Angeles to Santa Monica, the newly redesigned expo is meant to create a smaller, more intimate environment for developers and publishers to talk shop. Neo-E3 is also designed to make it easier for independent developers to roll out their wares to potential publishers, (even though next to no indie devs are on the roster).

Hopefully we can expect more direct feed footage and one on one interviews with the movers and shakers of the industry. The E3 Media & Business Summit will take place from July 11-13th.

What are your thoughts on the redesigned E3 expo?