Tart yourself up in the style of your favorite anime or video game character, ladies, and the lonely Tokyo Game Show hordes will eat you alive. Photographically, that is. When a largely bare-assed Cammy strutted her way out to Cosplay Alley, she instantly broke a dozen hearts, perhaps twice that number of zippers. Security was forced to insert itself into the situation, politely asking this top-shelf Cammy clone to move along, step to the side, attempting to stem the flow of bodily fluids from becoming a knee deep pool. It was gruesome.

Clearly, the full version of this photo could be considered not safe for work — and at TGS, safe for wank — so it will have to reside after the jump.

You can expect a bombardment of master class cosplay action later, perfect for you to Save As... and view in a slideshow at your leisure.

Sure, the core concepts remain exactly the same as they did in the original game. You play a character that clicks their way through levels, hacking, slashing, and spellcasting your way through hordes of enemies. You still upgrade your equipment, quaff potions, and identify magic items along the way. In essence it is the same game we've been playing and loving since the very start, only updated to the point where we can look at it on today's systems and still go "Damn, this is an amazing game."

The demo starts off by allowing me to select a class. Currently available are male and female versions of both the Witch Doctor and Barbarian, as well as the female Wizard, with the currently incomplete male unable to be selected. I went with the Wizard, partly because of my affinity with the mage class but mostly because I like to play as girls.

I begin in a burnt out village of Tristam, overrun with undead. Entering the village proper the first sight I see is a person trying to crawl out of a cellar doorway. Approaching them causes them to be yanked inside with a scream that continues as blood splashes out of the opening onto the ground. Oh yes, things are pretty fucked up round here.

Soon you come across your first enemies, your basic zombies. The power mapping is pretty simple. You have a standard hotbar numbered 1-9, a left button power, and a right button power that can be swapped on the fly with the tab key. I had an electrical melee attack on my left button and magic missile on the right, at least until I got the awesome disintegration ray at level 2.

I come across a wounded soldier laying near an open crypt who warns me....somehow the fires have awoken him - The Skeleton King lives again. Feeling uppity, I plunge into the depths of the dungeon, ready to click some ass.

The monsters come in waves, dying with that characteristically satisfying feel of all Diablo games. They do an excellent job of making you feel like you're causing the damage directly. These aren't spell effects and death animations - these are beams of magical energy shooting from your hands, committing your enemies to nothingness. As I fight through hordes of skeletons, they drop reddish heart containers, and running over them replenishes my heath. There are still potions in the game of course...the pickups just add to the action a bit.

Eventually I get my first rune. The rune system in Diablo III allows you to slot stones you find into powers in order to increase their effects in specific ways. The minor power rune I pickup adds a bit more damage to my disintegration ray, whereas a multi-hit rune might very well split the beam into multiples. The developers have not only had to create the powers for each class, but determine how each rune you can pick up effects said powers. Each run has a cosmetic as well as functional effect on each power. It's a very ambitious system that I cannot wait to see more of.

At know point during my 3-level dungeon descent do I worry about the bright colors ruining my experience. It's still moody and pretty dark. The spell effects, on the other hand, are vibrant and colorful, and the death animations for the creatures I kill seem to vary depending on the power I use. Disintegrate actually disintegrates my enemies. No caned death animations here.

Along with the requisite zombies and skeletons I run into a few bigger creatures, like giant, bloated, headless bodies that explode in a cascade of maggots as they die, with several groups of the worms attacking you, perhaps a bit miffed that you destroyed their home.

Eventually I descend to the final level, where the skeleton king rises in spectacular fashion. Gates all around him open, the area is flooded with undead, and my disintegrate ray quickly runs out of mana, leaving me relatively defenseless and definitely dead. Oh well.

When I first saw Diablo III in action, my initial thought was, "How is this different?" Now, having played the game I realize that it isn't all that different, and it doesn't really have to be. It's got upgraded graphics, a new leveling system, and some new classes, but this is still Diablo, and that has never been a bad thing. If it was the sort of game we got a new installment of every year than it would certainly be less impressive, but with it being seven years since we've entered this world, familiarity is definitely a good thing.

Hopefully they'll have some more of these little guys available for the holidays. Until that day, enjoy the gallery of the unboxing before the inevitable hand-humping.

"I don't know if we are going to tie ourselves to a spring fall release schedule as much," he said. "I think one of the things that I worked with the team with when I joined. Lets do a big release. Spring and fall sounds like there is a lot of distance between the two but there is an awful lot of... it's pretty hard to make a new dashboard because you have to certify it against every revision of the hardware, and there's a bunch of different specs. It's a pretty time consuming and challenging thing to do. Which is why we only did it twice a year."

"I like staying focused on bigger and more impactful releases, so maybe it will be twice a year, maybe less frequently. You know, to be determined. I think it's going to be more about: Whats the next big launch? What are we bringing? When can we bring it? How can we do it in a big way."

Schappert also said that new updates would likely include new content for avatar customization and that the company is still looking at the possibility of adding text search to the ever expanding Marketplace line up.

"Don't worry," he said. "We already have plans well into next year about what we're delivering next."

[Pic]

Close-ups of the five on the jump

Tecmo was surprisingly protective of its booth companions, asking that we refrain from snapping some of the girls. Booth reps didn't ask, so much as they threw up big "X" arms in our faces. Serious business.

Developer Level-5 hasn't exactly been open about the game. During the White Knight Chronicles Powerpoint event yesterday, the game's producer, Kentaro Motomura, remained tight lipped on key online modes like whether there will be voice chat or not. The game is supposed to be out in 2 and a half months.

I've had plenty of time to play Street Fighter IV both in arcades and at shows, but I'm still blown away with the game's seamless blending of 2D and 3D in an aesthetic that polishes the look of characters I've grown so accustomed to.

I'm typically a Ryu or Ken when I play SF, but Akuma is close enough to their move set that I've played around with him over the years as well. This new Akuma maintains the tattered look of previous versions of the character delivering relatively fast, relatively powerful blasts as he hops around the screen. His moves seem to have remain unchanged, which makes him a great middle option for those of us who tend to cycle between Ken and Ryu when they play.

I've never been a fan of Sakura in the past, but that's certainly going to change. Ignoring the pleated-skirt physics built into her character design which seem to be geared toward maximum up-skirts and panty peekaboos, ignoring the fact that Sakura's look has drifted from a very disturbing sexy 16-year-old to a slightly less disturbing, and barely legal, hottie Sakura's a straight-up bad-ass.

The budding teen pulls off fireballs (think Street Fighter Alpha) effortlessly, laying out backup attacks as the shimmering globes float lazily across the screen. Her uppercuts remain some of the longest reaching in the game and her spinning leg attack seems to be a cross of the hurricane kick and the spinning bird kick. Another attack in Sakura's arsenal appears to be a head stomp or mid-air grab that I never actually connected with. Its starts with a lunging hop toward the other character, feet first. Her Ultra starts with a split kick, knocks the character in the air and then wraps up with a two-footed stomp into the ground.

Add to all of that sizzle and speed a mini-skirt and a suspiciously large category of attacks that get her legs above her head and you've got one of my new favorite characters.

Hit the jump for a first look at the poster and her buns. Her hairy buns.

BlizzCon 2008 - The Kotaku Griffon Has Landed
Diablo III Playable On BlizzCon Floor, New Class Reveal
Inside The BlizzCon 08 Swag Bag
Liveblogging The BlizzCon 2008 Opening Ceremonies
Diablo III's Third Class - The Wizard!
Diablo III's Wizard - Behind The Magic
StarCraft II Single Player Is A Trilogy!
The Best Of Blizzard - Retro Arcade
StarCraft II Lead Producer On The Split Single Player Campaign
And BlizzCon 2008 Continues, As Foretold By Prophecy
Behold The New Diablo III Logo T-Shirt
When Talking Plush Murlocs Attack
The Obligatory BlizzCon 2008 Cosplay Post
Hands On With Diablo III: Everything Old Is New Again
Look Kids, It's The Cast Of The Guild

Wings of Liberty - Terrans
Heart of the Swarm - Zerg
Legacy of the Void - Protoss

Each campaign is treated as a fully fleshed out game, with each title ending the same way. The change will allow for more characters, more missions, and more complete experiences overall.

We ran a collection of interviews and impressions from the show that you'll want to check out if you haven't had the time yet to go back through the page. And keep in mind the show's public offerings kick off with two more days today and BlizzCon is just getting started. Here's a run down of what you missed from Japan:

Halo 3: Recon
Halo 3 Expansion Is A Prequel, Hits Fall 2009
Halo 3: Recon, The Trailer
Halo 3: Recon: Box Art
What Is Halo 3: Recon? Here's What It's *Not*

Peter Molyneux
A Fable II Primer for Dog Training
Fable II Coop Patch Getting Once Over By Msoft, Molyneux "Super, Super Hopeful"
Molyneux More About Emotions, Less About Trees
Molyneux Walks Us Through Fable II's Deep, Casual Combat
Yes You Can Ditch Your Dog in Fable II, But Only if You're Cruel
Molyneux Frets Over Dangers of Casual Gaming

News and Notes
Konami Whips Up Castlevania For Xbox 360, PS3
Goichi Suda Has Not Given Up On You Nintendo Wii
An Intimate Evening With The PS3 Chatpad, Headset
Bionic Commando Movie Is A Definite Possibility
How Erotic Games Influenced Platinum Games

Speaking with Kouno at TGS, we learned that, while the game's a space strategy game, it also contains a lot of dialogue. A lot. Loads and loads of 2D character chit-chat, and multiple, branching storylines to go along with it.

Which is exactly what makes up the bulk of an ero game. Talking, and talking, and having the plot advance because of what you just said. Indeed, the game's are so similar in this regard that Kouno said without the help of the company's custom dialogue system - built to handle the progression of the ero games - Infinite Space's complex story development and branching plot-lines just wouldn't have been possible.

Add to that the fact Kuono also said that the game's going to be as heavy on character growth and the "exploration of themes", and that like the tech, the team's experience in building characters for the ero games has been priceless in fleshing out the game's characters.

Sometimes, just sometimes, the world can be an amazing place.

Yeah, sure. I mean, we've already got action figures and a comic book; movies are a definite possibility. Capcom are active IP holders, they do a lot of turning stuff into movies, so...yeah.

Far from a done deal, sure, but not far enough to stop you coming up with ridiculous casting ideas.

This comes minutes after Molyneux explains to me why he asked reviewers to get casual gamers to check out Fable II before writing their review.

I point that out to Molyneux and then say that I agree with him about the dangers of separating the "core" games from the "casual." It's the Wii effect, I say. I don't say this to attack the Wii, but it was from Nintendo that I first started receiving requests to have "casual" gamers check out their games and not hardcore gamers. It was Nintendo that, I think, was first to argue that hardcore gamers didn't "get" their Wii games.

Molyneux seems to agree.

"I wandered around the show floor yesterday and I kind of realized it was like walking back in time a little bit," he said. "I'm sure I saw that ten years ago, that approach to little groups of people, not worrying so much about the animation, but worrying about the mechanics.

"It's a big shock. It's a big worry for me as a designer. I think this industry needs to move forward and make these opuses for a much broader audience not just the casual audience."

Instead Molyneux sees traditionally hardcore games adding things to appease to the casual gamer, something he doesn't think Fable II is doing, exactly.

"Here was the design problem," he said. "You sit down with Fable and there are an awful lot of influences you have. Your publisher is saying one thing, your audience is saying one thing, your team is saying one thing and all of those sort of come together in the mixing pot.

"The thing we realized, we could build that combat function and say that foundation we laid down in Fable one was right or we could ask ourselves what we could do with combat. What we chose to do is to make it much deeper and while making it much deeper, make it much simpler as well."

Instead of making Fable II more casual, Molyneux hopes the Lionhead game expands the genre in a way that doesn't hurt it.

"I think the pigeon hole of RPG is not doing Fable any favors," he said. "We have to persuade people it's not an RPG, this is an experience. Ultimately i think we are hoping to broaden (the genre). I think the way i happens is to get people playing the game.

"The whole of the coop mechanic is actually because we want to get more people to play the game. My theory is you or I are playing Fable and our partners or friends walk in and we have to turn the game off. Wouldn't it be brilliant to just give them the controller and say give it a try. And that's I think is probably going to do more for than casual audience than anything else."

"What's with all the secrets? Making another No More Heroes game doesn't seem outrageous," I said. "It seems rather obvious." Grasshopper Manufacturer doing No More Heroes 2 should come as big of a shock as Grasshopper Manufacturer doing, says, No More Heroes 3.

"People would get angry at me," Suda said. "Marvelous would get angry at me." He's signed a contract, and most likely a big chunk of that contract included stipulation that he was not to discuss the game.

In film, some directors talk eons in advance, letting everyone know what type of project they're working on, thinking about or even writing. But film is not gaming and gaming is not film. The game industry is different. (Take, for example, the other day when we asked the Ninja Blade producer what the hero's name was, he turned to the Microsoft staffer asking if it was okay to answer. Who cares, really.)

"There are always secrets in the game industry," Suda said, "which is why there's so many rumors." He is right, but things should change. Why not announce that you're working on a new game? Why not say what the game is? Or what's it about? Is the one-two-punch of announcing the game and then showing screenshots or a trailer really the best way? Would it be better to release a trailer much closer to the actual sale date instead of years in advance?

People are waiting for those first images. So make them wait. And drawing that out them, instead of starting with them and literally showing them for years makes a lot more sense.

For the way it's done now, there is a logical progression Suda assured. "You don't simply watch a game," he said. "You have to actually play it, and it takes time to explain that. Players might feel cheated if they don't know exactly what they were getting. Play time is important." No one is disagreeing. It is important. Though, whether or not it's necessary to wait to even talk about a title until there is a batch of screens or a new trailer is another issue altogether. Announcing a new title is no big deal. Announcing what that new title does is.

"I met a couple of people downstairs the first time who played Fable, I didn't know them before, and one guy was super fanatical about his dog," Molyneux said. "He just asked me a million questions. 'Am I doing this right?' and 'Can I find this book and train the dog?' and 'How come I've seen other people's dogs?' and they're better at finding treasure.' He was talking all about the dog, he really cared about the dog.

"The other bloke standing next to him said, 'Ah, you're such a wimp. I just left my dog and he was hurt and he had to crawl around and I found it funny. It just made me laughed he was so injured all of the time.'"

"That was a fantastic moment for me because I realized that's what I wanted. Some people are going to be fanatical about the dog, but I didn't want to ram him down your throat. I didn't want to insist that you had him."

But does that mean you can play through Fable II without the help and companionship of the game's emotional anchor, the dog? Sort of.

"If you don't use those dog treats to heal your dog he is going to stay sick and if he stays sick he is not going to be able to keep up and you're not going to be traveling with him," he said.

Not only is that built into the game, but the Lionhead team was so aware of the possibility that some gamers may want to go it completely alone, they created that opportunity very early in the game.

The first time you fight with the dog in fact, he gets injured.

"If you don't want your dog you just leave him injured. Thats it," Molyneux said. "Eventually, he's going to catch up to you, it may be in half an hour's time and you may be in a pub. But you can leave him way behind."

The decision to not include some sort of toggle for the dog and instead force gamers to abandon the dog to be rid of him was born of Molyneux's design philosophy for the game.

"I could have put into the menu, I could have put something that said disable dog, but how does that make you feel anything?" he said. "I wanted people to realize this dog loves you. There has to be a consequence to your action. The consequence is he is going to catch up to you and that's when he is going to make you feel guilty. It's an emotion consequence rather than it being a GUI tool."

He, and the rest of the familiar Halo cast, won't be popping up for cameos. They're busy "relaxing" on the Delta Halo, saving the world and stuff. So what is Halo 3: Recon?

Halo 3: Recon is a first-person shooter, one that's going to feel very much like a Halo game; if it ain't broke, don't fix it, basically. Instead of playing a super space marine, however, you'll play an Orbital Drop Shock Trooper (ODST), one who's not quite so burly or bad-ass.

That means you'll have to pick and choose your battles a bit more carefully than one faceless Spartan would.

Recon is a standalone release, not part of a title update or downloadable content. It will come with new Achievements totaling 1000 Gamerscore and a new aesthetic. The single player campaign, in which your ODST will clean up a Covenant infested city in New Mombasa, will feature plenty of dark, nighttime play.

That said, Bungie says "We're not viewing this as a full game." How that affects Recon's pricing, however, is still to be decided.

Should gamers view it as Bungie's metaphorical Half-Life: Opposing Force, giving Halo fans an alternate look at the events of previous games or merely a contract obligating Guitar Hero: Rocks the 80s?

"I would think of it as our Frozen Throne," Luke Smith told us, pointing to Warcraft III's expansion as the best comparison.

Recon's multiplayer, however, is essentially Halo 3's multiplayer. That means saved films, four-player coop and the map editor Forge will work seamlessly with the expansion. But outside of a new bundle of maps, expect the proven same-old, same-old online play that currently satisfies some 900,000 unique Halo 3 players a day.

And now for the bad news: it appears that there are no plans for a Legendary-style Orbital Drop Shock Trooper helmet that one can trick out their cat with. Shame. What will our nation's retailers clog up their warehouses with, come Fall 2009?

I spoke with Dead Rising Wii producer Mino Nakai yesterday. Having read Amanda's less-than-glowing impressions of the game from last week, I asked whether the stuff told Capcom her - mainly that a new, improved build would be playable at TGS - checked out. Know what he said? He said no, aside from a few minor bug fixes, this was the same build, because the game was nearly done.

Oh boy.

This game is a complete waste of time.

The whole point of the first Dead Rising was that there was hundreds of zombies. Because they were slow, and stupid, and slow, it was the sheer weight of numbers that provided not only the challenge, but the enjoyment. Zombie survival fantasies don't involve evading/killing 2 zombies, they involve evading/killing thousands of them.

You know how many zombies I saw on-screen at one time? Six. Six zombies. And that's not in a room, or a store, that's across the massive concourse at the start of the game. Yet they still shamble. There's no urgency, there's no danger. There's no fun. To compensate, Capcom have added a few new enemies: killer poodles and killer parrots. They're vaguely ridiculous, and do very little to make up for the lack of more shambling corpses.

What's worse, the controls are woeful. To pick up a dropped item, you don't press a button. You press the Z button and the A button. They're on opposite sides of opposite controllers. It's stupid. The Wii Remote aiming controls are woefully twitchy. and to switch weapons you need to us the d-pad while aiming. Meaning you can't use the Wii Remote at that time, requiring you to aim with the nunchuk while reaching with your other hand. It's messy. It doesnt work.

Look, the game's not out yet. There's time to fix some of the more minor things (control setups, for example). And the graphics, in the game's defence, look pretty good, especially the cutscenes. But none of that matters when the Wii version is missing the only thing that made the 360 one worth playing.

It was meant not to dictate how reviewers to do their job, but instead offer some insight into what the people behind the upcoming game would find interesting. It's also a reflection of the designer's shifting design philosophy, one that worries less about giving gamers more mechanisms of play and more about connecting with that audience of one or two.

"I think there are two reviews you could do and you could be very objective for," Molyneux said. "You could review this as a gamer's game and I think it will do well as a gamer's game. But really it has been designed to be a casual game as well, to be accessible and that would be interesting for me."

"This is what I was trying to say in the letter: Why don't you, after you've done the review give a copy of the game to someone who doesn't play games and see how they get on. Because you may find that is a completely different experience they are getting that of course us as gamers couldn't hope to ever get because we've been polluted by years and years of games. That's what I was kind of saying, I wasn't trying to steer you in to review it this way. "

The letter was spurred by Molyneux's belief that Fable II, while a game built in a genre traditionally most appealing to hardcore gamers, is trying to attract a more mainstream, perhaps even casual market.

"I think increasingly now we are making games which are trying to appeal to not just us but a wider audience," he said. "That's certainly what Fable is trying to do. It's interesting when I watch (a non-gamer) play, they just obsess about completely different things than what I as a gamer would. They are far less interesting in leveling up their character and far more interested in making sure the dog's OK. And that is quite a bizarre experience to see."

"I'm not being critical of Fable but I do think that Fable is quite a distance away from what people in Japan are used to (in terms of role-playing games.)," he said. "There isn't a million things you can configure for every battle, there are just those three simple buttons. What we are trying to do is make the experience of having your own hero, we're trying to open that up to a broader audience as well as keeping our core audience happy."

That doesn't mean, Molyneux said, that Fable II wasn't created for fans of role-playing games, but that they way they approached the genre was more about emotional connection and less about game play mechanics.

"It all comes down to he experience at the end of the day," he said. "How it makes you feel. I've come to learn more and more as a designer that it's all about how it makes you feel and less about the mechanics of whether you have growing trees or all of those things."

"I have been guilty in the past, I think, of shoving in more and more of these mechanics in the thought I would be making a better experience but actually... I've forgotten to ask does that mechanic make you feel any better or more involved, or more into the game."

"It's still not 100 percent at the moment. It's in certification. They are checking to make sure everything is OK," Molyneux said. "We have never had anything fail certification before so that's a good sign.

"I'm super, super hopeful. That was our plan to make it a day one patch."

But why wasn't the much talked about cooperative play able to make the retail disk? Molyneux explains that the issue was in the way multiplayer was so tied to the single player experience.

"The problem is when you are dealing with multiplayer very often, and especially this was the case with Fable, the whole of the single player experience has to work perfectly," he said. "Because if you link two single player experiences up and anything goes wrong than the games just fall out of sync."

"That's why you need this extra bit of time because you need to finish the whole of the game. This is actually something we did on the PC for years. You always did a patch, so it was very accepted that you went back home and you loaded the game up and it was patched."

The timing for all this is just too damn good. When asked if this was a moved engineered by Microsoft, company exec Aaron Greenberg said, "Oh, it was totally legit. The demand for the console shot up suddenly. How can you plan for that?" Even now, the situation is so bad that apparently there are only roughly 18 or so consoles in the Japanese warehouse. "Everything we're making, we're selling straight through," Greenberg said. "That's why we're selling out. The only machines we're not selling have dents in them or have been accidentally damaged."

Microsoft's optimistic that this isn't a flash in the proverbial pan. "I see no reason this sales trend won't continue," said Xbox Japan boss Takashi Sensui (pictured). "We have the third party line-up." Sensui doesn't think the sell out was necessarily a plus. "It's not good when customers cannot buy your product," he said. Though, it certainly hasn't hurt Nintendo! The Kyoto-base company has profited from product scarcity.

With the Xbox 360 gaining momentum, are there any Japanese titles or franchises that Microsoft still wants on its console? Greenberg didn't specifically point out any titles in particular, but did add, "We want more." Agreeing, Sensui stated, "I'd like the see Final Fantasy XIII on the Xbox 360 in Japan." Square Enix has announced the game for Xbox 360 and the PS3 in the West, but only for the PS3 in Japan.

DSi Not Bound for US Until Well Into Next Year
EA May Have Gotten Early Look at DSi, New WiiWare Announcement Today
Tetris Party, Boingz Coming to WiiWare, World of Goo Dated
MadWorld Still Not Playable (In the US at Least)
The Conduit - Still Going Strong
Boingz: The Game Where You Play as a Condom
Dead Rising: Chop Till You Drop Makes Me Sad
Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon - Not a Looker, But She's Got Heart
Cave Story - Everything That's Old Is New Again
Call of Duty: World At War - None Dare Call It Call of Duty 5
Tetris Party - Old Dogs Can Learn New Tricks

While all that was making my head explode going on, I also got the chance for some quality time with Mirror's Edge and Gears of War 2. Oh, and I also got my hands on NXE - it was pretty sweet.

I'm going to go feed on something else now - preferably pizza. Fahey got me stuck on pizza.

By plugging in your AV-output capable PSP (2000 and 3000 models) and connecting the PSP to the PS3 via USB, you'll be able to switch on PSP Plus control through Resistance 2. Doing so adds DualShock 3 control support, letting you play PSP games on your television with a PS3 controller. It disables aim assist in Resistance: Retribution and lets the player alter their control layout to take advantage of the PS3 controller's extra inputs.

The option requires that gamers have a copy of Resistance 2 in their PS3s, but will not require a firmware update for either the PSP or PS3.

UPDATE - aaaannnddd we have a trailer.

Note the constant offering of bits of paper and keep in mind how easy it is to walk around... today. Come Saturday that will not be the case. Now enjoy on the jump. As a total nonsequitor there were four women preparing their swimsuit outfits in the press room as I was writing this. Forgive the typos.

The percent breakdown of titles by platform at this year's show is:
DS: 18.7
Mobile: 18
PC: 17.5
PSP: 7.8
Wii: 7.1
Xbox 360: 7
PS3: 3.5
PS2: 1.7
Others: 18.8

Hit the jump for a glimpse of what's to come through the weekend.

We're going to take advantage of our booths being side-by-side, because both the Square Enix and Microsoft booths are working in tandem. This time around, we're putting the greatest importance in getting the largest number of visitors to play our games. At the Microsoft and the Square Enix booths, we're holding a lottery. The winner gets to go to the Square Enix booth and play... You'll have to wait to that day to see what happens. (laughs)

He's not kidding about getting a large number of visitors to play Xbox 360 games. Microsoft is rolling out over 140 demo kiosks at TGS.

【TGS2008特報！】ゲームを遊びまくり！ 140台以上の試遊台を用意するマイクロソフトブース [Trendy.net Thanks, Mike!]

Yes, I'm working on a new IP.

We've heard from sources that it may be an Xbox 360 title. Wonder what it is...

The lights have gone down. And a dude behind the mic asks us how we are doing. His name is Josh Keller. I do not know Josh Keller. Do you know Josh Keller?

Now, Naruo Uchida has taken the stage, and he is the International Business Dept manager. He’s telling us why Namco Bandai is holding this pre-TGS press conference. Namco Bandai has a “world-wide view”. That’s nice.

He has left the stage, and people are clapping.

Today, Josh Keller, tells us that they will be showing us new trailers and other stuff

Afro Samurai trailer showing with a hip-hoppy soundtrack. Clips of slicing and dicing. WOW. There is a smoke effect, and some Japanese dude dressed as Afro Samurai has taken the stage. Three ninjas enter the room with swords. And they fight. Each swing of the sword gets cheesy sound effects on the loud speaker. It’s like dinner theater!

Show other dude appeared and shot an arrow. Now, another dude has a gun. The lights go down, and the screen goes blood red. I wonder if these are Namco Bandai execs cosplaying and sword fighting for shits and giggles. Damn, I hope so.

This is the first sword fight I’ve ever seen at a press conference. Well, planned sword fight.

More smoke effects. More sword fighting. Endless.

And it’s over. There’s clapping. Josh Keller is back on the stage. He tells us that this end of the Afro Samurai stage show.

There’s now going to be a ceremony so the game gets good luck. Guy comes out on stage, kneels, stands back up and raises his sword, and then he takes it out of the sheath. It’s a real sword. Dude’s cutting what looks like rolled tatami.

The gentlemen who did the sword stage show are introduced. Bravo, these dudes did a good job.

There’s a slide on the screen for Afro Samurai, and Josh Keller is reading what sounds like a press release.

Next up, Takes of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World for the Nintendo Wii. It’s an exclusive title, and it’s out in the U.S. next month. PAL is not yet dated.

Eternal Sonata for the PS3 now flashes on the screen. It’ll be out in the U.S. on October 21st and next Feb. for PAL territories.

PowerUp Forever is an Xbox LIVE Arcade shooter that’s coming out this November. It’s an overhead shoot ‘em up with a techno-style soundtrack. Looks nice.

Josh says that National Geographic PANDA lets us “play with and nurture your panda.” It’ll be out this November in the U.S. We’re watching the clip, and the clip is AWESOME. A girl tells us she likes her stuffed panda, but she loves her DS panda. You can dress up you panda in various outfits. Animal cruelty? No, never.

We Ski & Snowboard is announced. This Wii title is dated for March 2009 for the U.S. You can use the Wii-mote, nunchuk and the Balance Board. It’s out in Japan next month. It’s a sequel to the previous skiing Wii title Namco Bandai released in Japan.

Mr. Shimada from the dev team is now showing us a demo. Picking up speed, doing backflips... until he hits a pole. Game seems to have solid integration of Balance Board and Wii-mote.

Dragon Ball: Origins. It’s a DS title and “faithful” to the anime. Touch pen controlled and yep, looks like the anime — man, my kid is gonna love this. Out this December in the U.S.

The second title is Dragon Ball Z: Infinite World, which is the last entry in the Budokai series. It’s for the PS2.

We’re on to Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm, an exclusive for the PS3. It’ll be out in November 4th in the U.S. and Nov. 7th for PAL. The Japanese release is TBA.

And the last title shown is... Splatterhouse. The PS3/Xbox 360 title will be out in 2009 for the U.S. and TBA for PAL territories. The trailer: Shows a light bulb flashing, blood splattered tools like a hack saw, drills, and hammers. A panicked woman’s voice plays over an answering machine. It’s Jennifer, Rick’s girlfriend. A mallet covered with nails at the end of the table, and a hand grabs it. The footage is not in game, but live action. Then we get a look at an updated in-game version of Splatterhouse killer Rick — complete with an new mask. “Repulsive and disgusting,” says Josh.

That’s it, and we’re done.

And who should be there but Dude Huge – in town to promote his new game, Gears of War 2. At first I didn’t think it was him, but after spying the Iron Maiden shirt and confirming with other games journalists, I waltzed up to the man. And apologized that I wasn’t halfway across town, playing his game.

“Yeah, shouldn’t you be playing your own game, Cliff?” a passing PR rep quipped.

“Play my game,” Mr. Huge said to me. “You’ll like it, I promise.” He elbowed the PR rep. “Give me a controller!”

I’m not sure if they let Dude compete (I’m not even sure who won, since I had to leave early), but the four players with the best times went home with engraved iPods, while the rest of us scored sweet messenger bags and two MP3s off the soundtrack.

Time Trial mode in Mirror’s Edge is interesting because it 1) forces you to rethink a level you’ve played in the story mode and b) you can see how other players thought it out. For example, you’ll run through the level and slide below a railing. Then you hop a fence and race up a ramp to nail a cross-building jump. You score a time of, say, 1 min and 3 sec. The next time you play the level, you can turn on the ghost mode and race against yourself – maybe vaulting the railing, skipping the the ramp for a shallower angle on the jump to the building (padding it out by pressing the slide button so Faith rolls on impact instead of smacking into the side of the building).

Above: Doesn't this view just make you wanna jump off something? Like, in a Parkour way?

Soon, you’ll find all sorts of shortcuts, bypassing stairs in favor of wall-jumping or discovering a different way to jump the fence from a higher spot. The only thing that’s hard to think around is the cross-building jump; if you miss it, you’re fucked. Luckily, you can pause and restart the trial, if you come a point where you know you’ve blown it.

The level we played was broken into four parts tracked by a line on the right side of the screen. While running, when I hit a check point, a time was given to me – turning the bar for that portion of the level red if I was behind time or green, if I’d gained time. I only got green on one part, where I found a path that lead straight up over an air shaft. If I caught enough air on the jump, I’d clear the railing and the stairs, arriving at the jump to the final building a whole two seconds faster than if I’d taken the stairs.

After three tries, I got my initial time of 1:10 down to 1:03. This was nowhere near good enough to be in the top four as I saw guys getting as few as 53 seconds (the time to beat was 50 – set by one of the programmers, I think). I think Dude Huge eventually got his time down to a minute flat.

A cool feature about Time Trial is that you can go online and upload your best time and also download other people’s ghosts to race against. Seeing how other people handle the course in completely different ways really makes you re-think a level you’ve played a billion times.

I’m just happy this game is coming out at all. I even dragged producer Nick Channon aside for an “interview” just so I could tell him how happy I was to play a game where the main character was 1) a chick and 2) an A cup.

“That was the biggest thing for us,” Nick Channon says, prompting me to stifle a laugh. He quickly realized the pun and added, “We wanted someone who stood out – but in a normal way.”

I suppose that’s what Time Trial is – a game mode that stands out because it’s so “normal” (like, standard, with every racing game), and yet it feels… new. Dynamic. Awesome.

The game hits shelves November 11 for Xbox 360 and PS3. PC should arrive in late January.

Tristan has become a indie developer and he doesn't even realize it. He spends hours sitting in front of the television adding to his level, figuring out ways to torture gamers, defending his creation. Last week he called me to the television for a play through. At one point I decided to break from the obvious path and drop down to the floor of his level, far from the beaten path. Once there I realized I couldn't get back up. I'm stuck, I said. Oh, I'm going to add scorpions there dad.

Watching his interest in game development grow, I suggested that he write up a letter asking for advice in game design, which I would then email off to a few developers I know.

Hit the jump to read what David Jaffe, Matrk Pacini and Cliff Blezinski had to tell him

Tristan's Letter

Hi my name is Tristan. I am 7. I am making a level for LittleBigPlanet.

I have already started my level and it has flames. It has a giraffe with a tree. It has crabs. It's really fun. When I'm finished I want it to have flames everywhere and some ghosts in it. I want it to be really scary. I was thinking of making the whole level underground. I also want people to have to jump a whole bunch. I think I will call it The Tristan Level.

Do you have advice for me about building it?

Thanks,
Tristan

Cliff "Dude Huge" Bleszinski - Epic Games Design Director: Gears of War

Sure.

When in doubt, add zombies and exploding barrels. Your review score is guaranteed to go up by at least 3 points across the board.

David Jaffe - founder EatSleepPlay: God of War

Tristan, hey!

Well, it sounds like you are off to a great start with your level. Very eager to give it a play. I love to jump!

As for advice, I would say the following:

a- make sure you give the player lots of rewards for trying cool things...little treasures and rewards for exploring your map, battling all the ghosts, helping the giraffe reach some fruit on the tree, whatever. Just make sure the player feels like you have gone in before he/she got there and set up lots of cool surprises for him. The player is looking to YOU to make sure they have a good time. Don't let them down.

b- at the same time, if you are not having fun, then change your level. You should do creative work mainly for you. So make sure you enjoy your level first and foremost, otherwise, what is the point?

c- Tell your dad to make commenting on his website easier. It really is a right pain in the fucking ass. I hope he will not show you those bad words.

d- put in more jumping. Man, I love to jump!

Good luck on The Tristan Level, man! That is so cool that your are enjoying the game! Looking forward to your creation!

David

Mark Pacini., Game Director Armature Studio - Metroid Prime

Hey Tristan!

I heard you are building a level for LBP and so far it sounds really cool! (who wouldn’t like fire and giraffes) If you are looking for an easy way to make your level as fun as possible, I wrote up a little level design tidbit that was often used when we were building the environments for the Metroid Prime series. I hope you find it useful!

Try to not show the answer before the player knows the question – If you have a simple puzzle in your level, do not show the player the solution before they know what they are trying to solve. Here is a simple example: You have fire in your level, right? Well, imagine you had a pit of fire that the player could not cross. (It is too long to jump safely across) The only way to cross it is to shut it off by pressing a button. Well, where do you put that button? If you put the button right in front of the fire pit, (See ‘A’ below) the player will probably push the button and shut off the flames before knowing that’s what he needed to do. One place you may want to put the button is above the fire pit, on a platform that the player can reach. (See ‘B’ below) That way, the player is more likely to run into the pit and realize he cannot get across. When he finds the button above the pit, he will probably feel more rewarded because he figured it out on his own. This is the basic principle behind building good, rewarding puzzles.

The fact that this song isn't in Guitar Hero or Rock Band yet is eating away at me, so much so that I actually contacted Stan himself to see if there was anything I could do to help. When he actually answered me I just about died. Turns out not only would he love to have the song in either game, he even contacted Activision himself. His reply to my email follows!

Hey Michael,

Yes, it would be wonderful to get "The Touch" in either one of those games. I've written to Activision, but wasn't able to get anywhere on it. I'd really appreciate any help.

Thanks,

Stan

Note the "Hey Michael," at the beginning. I'm just going to stare at it a little more before continuing.

...
...
...

Okay. So, Stan needs our help. Specifically my help, but I figured I would let you guys in on it. We need to get this song into a game where we can play it with our friends, possibly while wearing giant robot costumes. To that end, we need to bug the living hell out of Activision and Harmonix. It is vitally important that we do so.

I will go as far as to say that whichever game gets "The Touch" first, will be the only band game I purchase for personal use from here on out. I mean, ideally we would want it in both games, but an element of urgency always helps.

For those of you who have never seen or heard "The Touch", here is the music video from way back in the day, courtesy of Seibertron.com, the most amazing Transformers community site on the planet.

See? It's rhythm band game GOLD. Okay Harmonix, Activision. Ready, set, go!

Lara’s latest tomb-raiding adventure will be expanded with the release of two sets of DLC exclusive to the Xbox 360, Eidos today announced. Tomb Raider: Underworld sees the lovely Lady Croft visiting Mexico, Thailand and the Mediterranean as well as getting to gripes with Norse mythology on her search for Thor’s Hammer.

The first – Beneath the Ashes - will hit Xbox Marketplace towards the end of December and continue Lara’s adventures after the main storyline of Underworld has finished. Featuring a new and exclusive area, players will be able to kill new enemies as well as uncover even more secrets.

The second pack with the even more mysterious moniker of Lara’s Shadow will be released in early 2009 and expand gameplay even more by introducing a new playable character. Lara’s Shadow …. Lara’s Shadow …. Hmm who could the new character be?

EIDOS AND XBOX ANNOUNCE EXCLUSIVE DOWNLOADABLE CHAPTERS FOR TOMB RAIDER: UNDERWORLD

First New Chapter Rolls Out in Time for the Holidays with Game Demo Available in October

Monday 6th October/... Eidos Interactive, creator of some of the world’s leading video game properties, today announces an agreement with Microsoft to release two brand new downloadable chapters in the continuing Tomb Raider adventures of Lara Croft. Containing up to six hours of new gameplay and content for Tomb Raider: Underworld™, the chapters will be available exclusively on Xbox LIVE® Marketplace for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft®. A demo for Tomb Raider: Underworld will also be available on Xbox LIVE Marketplace in October.

Offering entirely new content specifically designed to extend the Tomb Raider: Underworld experience, Tomb Raider: Underworld – Beneath the Ashes and Tomb Raider: Underworld – Lara’s Shadow will deliver two very different single player gameplay experiences. Tomb Raider: Underworld – Beneath the Ashes takes place after the Underworld story has finished and will feature an incredible new environment to explore, additional secrets to unlock and different enemies to fight. Tomb Raider: Underworld - Lara’s Shadow will introduce players to a new kind of playable character and create a unique Tomb Raider experience.

The first new chapter, Tomb Raider: Underworld – Beneath the Ashes, will be available for download exclusively on Xbox LIVE Marketplace this Christmas. Tomb Raider: Underworld – Lara’s Shadow will follow in early 2009.

“We are constantly looking at ways to extend our franchises, whilst developing a deeper relationship with our players. The retail release of any videogame is just the start of the player experience, from there it all depends where you want to take the player in terms of ideas and innovation,” said Sean Vesce. “With these additional chapters and the online reach of Xbox LIVE, we are able to deliver exclusive content to millions of gamers worldwide.”

“We’re thrilled that Xbox owners will be able to extend their Lara Croft adventures with exclusive ‘Tomb Raider: Underworld’ episodes,” said George Peckham, General Manager of Global Third Party Publishing for Microsoft’s Interactive Entertainment Business. “We look forward to continue working closely with our great publishing partners to deliver the most robust gaming experiences, only on Xbox 360.”

Tomb Raider: Underworld will release on Xbox 360™ video game and entertainment system, PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system, Wii™, PlayStation®2, Nintendo DS, and PC Games for Windows platforms. With development led by Crystal Dynamics, developers of the recent Tomb Raider blockbusters, Tomb Raider: Underworld™ represents a new advancement in exploration-based gameplay. As the fearless adventurer Lara Croft, players explore, raid and solve the mysteries of exotic locations around the world, each designed in breathtaking high-definition visual fidelity that creates a truly believable world and delivers a new level of challenge and choice. For more information, visit the official site at http://www.tombraider.com.

Xbox LIVE is the first and most comprehensive unified online entertainment network seamlessly integrated throughout the entire console experience, making it easy for people to find the friends, games and entertainment they want from the moment they power on their Xbox 360 system. Xbox LIVE connects more than 12 million members across 26 countries to enjoy hundreds of multiplayer games, downloadable games via Xbox LIVE Arcade, free and premium playable game demos, music videos, and movies as well as new game levels, characters and vehicles for all their favorite retail games.