Two Humans' Hands On with Too Human

Denis Dyack kept things short and sweet at yesterday's Xbox 360 Spring Showcase event. He wanted to make sure we had plenty of time to play through some co-op on Too Human.

The game is releasing on August 19 in North America, but the once four-player co-op has been trimmed to two because, after play-testing it for awhile, he realized that there was too much going on with that many players.

Later, Dyack told me that the engine still supports four player co-op, but that things were getting too confusing on screen once you factored in the four players, their special attacks and spider-bots plus the army of creatures that would spawn to deal with them.

None of the game's maps are randomized, he told me, but the creatures that spawn in them are. The game will take a player about 15 hours to get to level 30 and 50 to 60 hours to get to level 50.

"I don't know how long it would take to see everything, I don't even know if that's possible," he said. "Too Human may look like an action game, but don't be fooled—it's actually a very, very deep role-playing title."

Penny Arcade Game Impressions

After finishing up playing a bit of Too Human coop yesterday, I noticed a demo station of Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness sitting all by itself, tucked away next to the Ninja Gaiden II stations.

Since the game wasn't getting official demos, I decided to take our 30 minute break between games to sit down with the Penny Arcade game and take it for a test drive.

The game starts off by letting you customize your character's look and clothing. The selection isn't as robust as I would have liked to see (no luxuriously long hair guys? I'm hurt) but there's still more than enough to make the character feel like one of your own.

Viva Pinata: Trouble in Paradise and Pinata Vision Impressions

It sounds like Viva Pinata: Trouble in Paradise was designed to deal with one big issue the original title had.

"It looked like a kids game, but was quite difficult to play," said a Rare developer walking us through the game. "We kept the basic principal, you're in a garden and trying to attract animals to it."

But the team's done a lot to simplify the game and make it more accessible to a wider audience. Chief among the changes is a co-op mode that lets you play in the garden with friend. They've also added a fun mode which gives gamers the ability to buy just about anything in the game, removes the bad guys and turns the garden into an instant gratification sandbox.

Fable 2: A Glimpse at the Beginning and A Co-Op Surprise to Come

The always charming Peter Molyneux took some time during yesterday's Xbox 360 Spring Showcase to walk folks through Fable 2. Specifically he was showing off the game's entire introduction, talking up the free roaming in the game a bit more and showing a little bit of fighting customization.

"We're going to be talking about Fable 2 today of course, next time I meet you we will be talking about our next new project, but today it's about Fable 2," he said. "It's going to be full of bugs and you're going to write some pretty horrible things about it, but it's about time that I show you what the game will feel like from the beginning."

Banjo Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts Hands-On Impressions

It has been ten years and two console generations since the team of Banjo and Kazooie stormed the Nintendo 64 to rave reviews and not much has changed, at least not much for platformers, or so say Rare.

"We felt the platform genre hasn't really evolved much," said one of the developers showing off Banjo Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts to the press yesterday. "Up until recently things really haven't evolved much."

The team decided they wanted to tweak the formula, adding "fun physics" to the franchise and making it more about vehicles than traditional platforming. The change seems to be turning the franchise into what appears to be a sort of platformer on wheels that is centered more around challenges than a linear storyline.

I say appears to be because we were only shown a small part of one level of one of the game's five worlds. In it Banjo and Kazooie have to complete a short challenge for one of the game's characters. The challenge can be completed on foot, but it's not really meant to be. To complete it quickly you have to use a vehicle. It's the customization of these vehicles that seem to be the heart of the game.

Second Level Gears of War 2 Play Through

Today at Microsoft's Spring Event Cliff Bleszinski walked members of the press through the entire second level of Gears of War 2. Actually he played through the level, live, as we watched in rapt attention.

Gears of War 2 takes place six months after the first Gears ends, he said. It is fall and the last stand for humanity as the Locust Horde work to collapse the last major city on Sera. To fight back Marcus Fenix and his squad are asked to deliver a "grind lift" to a nearby lost city and ride it into the Locust underground home cities.

Level two starts off with Fenix and company boarding a giant combat truck and riding it as it makes it way to a nearby city. Dizzy, a conscript driver, maneuvers the vehicle as Fenix and the other members of Delta squad work to defend it. The platform the squad stands on is large enough to still make good use of the game's trademark cover system.

The level also showed off some of the other large vehicles found in the game, like helicopters and tanks.

Itagaki: No More Ninja Gaiden, This Was My Swan Song

In an interview with Kotaku earlier today Team Ninja's Tomonobu Itagaki said that he doesn't plan on making any more Ninja Gaiden games for any platforms following the release of Ninja Gaiden II for the Xbox 360.

"Personally I think we were able to create the definitive 3D game in this series so I'm not planing on making any other games in the series," Itagaki said through a translator. "So I hope fans treat this as a swan song for the franchise.

"I think we were able to achieve everything we wanted with this game so anything else would be extraneous."

When asked if he plans on making a "swan song" Ninja Gaiden title for the PlayStation 3, Itagaki replied " that would be ridiculous."

Instead, the creator of the beloved franchise said he wants to make something that is "totally new, completely unrelated to anything I've done before. Not any part of any existing franchises."

Itagaki said what he'd like to do is work on another action title or perhaps a war themed game, perhaps something set in the Pacific Theater during World War II.

More Too Human, Ninja Gaiden II Gameplay Video

New Viva Pinata Vid Shows Candy-Filled Animals In The Wild

Banjo-Kazooie: Hot New Bird On Bear Action

Shane Kim: Rare Hasn't Realized Their Potential on the 360

During my dinner with Shane Kim and Kudo Tsunoda I started talking with Kim about Rare's relatively checkered history with Microsoft.

In the late 90s Rare established themselves as a top-tier studio, producing such classics as GoldenEye and Donkey Kong Country for Nintendo. But in 2002, Microsoft bought up the company and prepared to have the studio start work on some of the marquee titles for their upcoming Xbox 360.

I told Kim that back before the Xbox 360 launched I had heard that Rare's Perfect Dark Zero was meant to be the platform's launch title, the reason gamers would take notice of the 360 and decide to buy into the new platform.

When the game finally hit, with the launch of the 360 and Rare's other title Kameo, it was met with a mixed reception, certainly not the sort that Microsoft had bet on.

Is Rare, I asked Kim, a developer that better suited to the audience and platforms of Nintendo gaming?

Ninja Gaiden II Trailer Scythes Outside The Box

Too Human Co-op Scaled Back To Just Two Humans

Gears of War 2 Getting Meat Shields, But Does it Need Romance Too?

Last night Microsoft hosted a dinner with Shane Kim and Kudo Tsunoda for myself and four other game journalists after the Electronic Arts gathering. For most of the dinner our group huddled around the table talking games and eating Hawaiian fusion food.

Tsunoda, who was unfortunate enough to be sitting right next to me, spent much of the evening trying not to answer questions about Gears of War 2 and his new role as the game's general manager. He said he felt fortunate to be working at Microsoft Game Studio and in particular to be working with Cliff Bleszinski and the folks at Epic Games.

MTV's Stephen Totilo and I tried to pin Tsunoda down on how the game would fit into the Gears universe. Was it, Totilo asked, part of a trilogy. We haven't decided yet, Tsunoda responded and then tried to change the topic, saying that the game has plenty of things to do in the way of improving on the original title.

Fable 2 In Action, Dog Included

It's very official, as Microsoft has announced the existence of Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts, Rare's fuzzy follow-up for the Xbox 360. Lucky Banjo fan that you are, you've been subjected to leak after leak, giving you a glimpse of the new-gen bear and bird adventure all weekend. Out of obligation, though, we've put together a handy gallery of the available Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts screen shots, which you can find below.

A handy fact sheet, courtesy of Microsoft, explains how the Lord of Games has crafted a ridiculous excuse to pit Banjo and Gruntilda against eachother in a battle that can only be settled by vehicle creation and customization. Seriously! You'll find it after the jump!

The first episode of Penny Arcade Adventures: On The Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness has been officially dated for May 21, 2008, coming to Xbox Live Arcade and Windows, Mac and Linux. Cost to you? $19.95 USD or 1600 Microsoft points.

As you recall, there's no PlayStation Network version because PSN doesn't support Torque, with which the game is built. Full fact sheet follows the jump.

Microsoft Shows Off Fall Lineup In San Fran

Microsoft is showing off their biggest titles at the Microsoft Game Studios showcase event in San Francisco today, and you're invited! Okay, so you aren't technically invited, but we'll be bringing you the latest news, screens, and videos from the biggest Xbox 360 titles of the year as the day progresses.

What are they showing? Ninja Gaiden II, Gears of War 2, Fable 2, Too Human, and several games without 2 or Too in them, including Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts, Viva Piñata: Trouble in Paradise, and Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness, Episode One.

Crecente will be there all day for the event, so you can expect all sorts of fun stuff from him later in the day. While we busy ourselves setting up galleries and processing videos for your enjoyment, feel free to read through the official press release, after the jump.