This new video shows us the many ways to torture the other people inhabiting the underwater city in BioShock. Had you been wondering how to electrocute  a nurse or how many hits to the head wit ha wrench it takes to kill a janitor, this videos of short clips edited together has examples for every bloody and fiery death in the game. I like how you can use wet spots in a level to electrocute several seemingly harmless enemies all at once. If the goal of Irrational Games is to make us feel like an aquatic asshole before even playing their game, they're doing a great job. The flooding levels look intense though, I'll kill as many big daddies as it takes to beat this game when it comes out in August for Xbox 360. For more brutal imagery, check out the new pictures below.

Ninja Gaiden: Sigma is here to once again deliver great graphics in this PS3 gameplay video. It starts strong with Ryu Hayabusa surrounded by burning walls and fiery floors as he fights several enemies. Heads fall and fireballs fill the rooms, forcing the battle outdoors where a boss awaits. Dramatic scenes filled with flames like this always remind me of the infamous Sephiroth cinema in Final Fantasy VII. It's great to look back and see how far graphics and gameplay have come in just a decade.

I'm headed off to a party now, so posts will continue later tonight when I return. Have fun everybody, and stay safe.

We've read lots of details, and seen lots of pictures, and now that the game is exactly one week from its American release date, we've finally got some video examples of what to expect. The game course we see in this video is the DK Treetop Temple level, which focuses more on vertical height than horizontal paths around a playing board. If you watch carefully, there's a row of stars in the background at the start, so there might only be a set number of stars on this map, with stealing them from others being your only alternative method of winning once they've been divvied out. To tie the Donkey Kong theme into the course, you can use Donkey Kong barrels to blast higher up on the map, or use warp pipes to slide back down to lower areas. They even have traps where rowdy monkeys slide barrels down the level and push players back a few spaces, like a less violent version of the original Donkey Kong arcade game.

One more week and we'll have our hands on Mario Party 8 for the Wii. What character have you usually played as in the past? I always pick Yoshi and manage to piss all my friends off by finding every hidden block in the game.

Update: There's one two new gameplay videos up, that show the actual mini-games in action, the skateboarding 1vs3 game is a clever use for the Wiimote.

Last week at Sony's Gamers Day we got a sneak peak at Folklore, a new PS3 game that looks promising, and this new video trailer solidifies it as the next big game to keep track of. The setting and story starts off like a less serious Silent Hill 2 and quickly evolves into a fantasy game filled with magic. The few spells we get to see in the trailer show a beautiful battle system, and the lands you explore are equally intriguing. I get the feeling that the dialogue in the game will be both overly simple and hoky, and that the plot could be equally ordinary, but the visuals and gameplay draw from so many different types of appealing games that I can see PS3 owners being very forgiving and eating this game. As long as Folkore can surprise us with something new and imaginative taped around fundamentals that are old and trusted, then it should be enjoyable to a variety of different gamers.

Halo 3 is still months away from coming out on Xbox 360, and fans are already having fun finding all the tricks and glitches in the multiplayer. Players goatrope and DevinOlsensBack have recorded their exploration of the three beta maps as they find the strategic hidden limits Bungie tucked into each level. The first half of the footage is all focused on Highground's several perches around the perimeter of the environment, and how you can leapfrog your way to the top of the surrounding cliffs.

Valhalla has a few spots where collision clipping allows you to perch yourself up in a corner on thin air. They've also used grenades on each other and vehicles to catapult over huge distances and glitching the death code. And in Snowbound they show how far you an push the height limits of each map. The buildings reach far into the sky, yet they've already found a way to get more than half way up each structure. My main reason for liking Halo 2 more than the first Halo was because of the maps, and so far I'm loving Halo 3's maps.

Most of the video is smooth, but the person filming made the most sloppy zoom in possible to show that MajorNelson is actually one of the people playing in the Halo 3 match. You'll get to see more of Last Resort (the updated Zanzibar map) multiplayer gameplay action. The audio is supposed to be loud and obnoxiously NSFW, but there's another videos that you can watch here after the jump. (click and scroll down). Thanks to reader Stoney for the tip!

A few weeks ago we found out Resident Evil 4 was being remade for the Wii, and that a completely new game, Resident Evil Umbrella Chronicles, was also coming to the Wii. TechEBlog found this Capcom interview video that shows off some of the Wiimote gameplay, including the new knife controls we already knew about. Both games seem to be pretty far along in development, although I don't believe the director of marketing when he says these games will look more graphically advanced than Resident Evil 4 on the GameCube. However, if you found Resident Evil 4 to be too challenging to play before, then you might actually want to give it another try on the Wii. It looks like the Wiimote on-screen instructions walk you through most of the game, making for a fun, but less less authentic experience.

The GTA IV rumors in the past haven't turned out to be too successful. A leaked music listing that meant to confirm a 1980s New York setting turned out to only get the location right, and not the timeframe. A lot of people still think Rockstar's keeping some big surprises secret for now, and are convinced that early rumors still hold merit, so now there's another claim to add to the pile. Someone posted a page worth of story and gameplay details here on the GameSpot forums, and if you'd rather not know what was written in the off chance that the information turns out to be true, then stop reading now.

Forum member Jadex9 claims that Nikko Bellic is not the main character . . . for long. Early on in the game you get murdered during a drug deal and your cousin Roman Petronov becomes the main character for the rest of the game. Roman is greatly disturbed and expects his death may not be far away either, so he decides to at least become as rich and powerful as he can before meeting his end, and from there you get to choose which gang you want to join and use to rise to the top. Although it might not be that simple, Jadex9 also mentions that you will be mugged/jacked/jumped/begged to join three different gangs. So it's still very unclear how non-linear GTA IV will turn out to be even if this rumor is true. As far as that mysterious backstory goes, Nikko fled Estonia to escape an angry "paramilitary/Mafioso hybrid" and the story revolves around a clash between the Italian and Russian mafias, which should easily tie into Nikko's backstory. Jadex9 also believes that there will be six motorcycle vehicles in the game, and there will be aircraft in the game, but it will only be three helicopters. Take this all into consideration and feel free to further predict what we'll actually see when the game comes out in October.

Two new Lair videos are out, and it's time for you PS3 owners who are stuck at work to extend your lunch break, close your office doors, pull down the blinds, and crank up the volume. We've seen a lot of breathtaking Heavenly Sword pictures, but Lair is the next gen game willing to slam its dragon fist down on the table with lengthy video proof of how impressive it is. The first video above is basically one map that's the size of the entire Shadow of the Colossus game, and you'll see the player send his dragon swooping anywhere and everywhere he commands, without lag or glitchy graphics. It's hard to tell how good the textures are in these videos, although don't doubt that they're stunning, we've seen them up close before. The only complaints I have are the lack of sound effects for the slaughtering of hundreds of soldiers and the decapitation of the behemoth beasts. And I'm also not a big fan of the rocket launcher firebreath attack ammo, I would have liked to see smooth trails of arcing flames instead. Nothing bad enough to ruin the gameplay experience though. 

If you're skeptical of how well the gameplay will actually hold up on multiple zoom levels, the next video, which you can watch here on GameVideos, takes you to several different heights, including down at the water's surface for a boss battle. It's not fair to compare many games to Shadow of the Colossus, but once the humongous sea serpent showdown begins, you'll start forgetting all about the wingless Agro mount that you once cared so much about. Shadow of the Colossus is one of my favorites, and I'm sure this game won't be nearly as fulfilling on any level, yet flying around should still be a really invigorating experience.

Despite all the exciting dragon action, I'm looking forward to the environments the most. Opening up the horizon so much will be a tricky thing to pull off successfully, and it should also limit how varied each level is since they'll all have to contain mountains and buildings to some extent. The small amounts of destructible environments in Xbox 360 and PS3 games so far haven't satisfied my need of next gen breakthroughs at all, I'm hoping Lair will offer more in that game feature area. In the first video there's a fun looking night battle around what looks like the long lost family of Legends of the Hidden Temple's Olmec talking Nickelodeon statue, and I can't wait to see if I can throw dragons through its walls. Even if Lair ends up being a short game that doesn't meet all of its goals, it should at least be an enjoyable game from what these videos show.

Update: You can see these videos in better quality here on IGN.

Probably way too long for you to watch now, but it's here for you later when you're not busy. I'll sum it up for yuh, it gave me some mixed feelings. I've talked about this game a lot before, and seeing the beginning of the game play out for half an hour polarized the two things I was hoping Nintendo would deliver.

First up: story and atmosphere. I'm not going to defend any of the Paper Mario storylines or plot progressions as being profound, these games are made for kids, and are mainly enjoyable for all ages purely because of their solid game mechanics. Paper Mario 64 might not have Final Fantasy character building cinematics and baptismal imagery, yet its party system was still done smoothly and the whole cast of characters turned out to be fun. Then there was the Gamecube Paper Mario game, which was retarded at times, but had the possibly the best thought out atmosphere in the series - the levels were filled with people to talk to, puzzles to solve, and secrets to discover. The story was more goofy than usual, but you could tell it was Nintendo just trying to get you to laugh. And it worked. Will Super Paper Mario make you laugh? Not so much. The villains and characters are all disappointing, and the first twenty minutes drag terribly. One part of the level design mechanics in the first two games that I loved was how you got to explore Mario's world of networking sewers, that tie everything together. Not in Super Paper Mario though, they just give you a teleportation pipe and use their "dimensional" gameplay to write it off as being plausible. Lame!

So can its gameplay save it? I'm not too hesitant to say yes, you only get through the first two chapters in this clip, and the extra dimension to gameplay is completely refreshing. I was really worried at first when Nintendo ditched the tight, RPG turn-based combat, that it would just be a dumbed down game for kids. That's not the case though, this definitely looks like a great example of taking a sidestep in a series to try something else without injuring the series as a whole in the future. I think I'll have a lot of fun playing the game when it comes out on Monday, but I bet it's the one I remember the least. I'd say the first in the series is still my favorite.

Oh yah, by the way, if you live in Europe you're screwed. This game still doesn't have an announced release date over there yet. Don't worry though, there's a big list of games coming out in the next few months. For space reasons I'll trim it down to just the ones that look really good:

Yup, you're screwed. Sux 2BU. Ok, I lied. There's Mario Strikers for the Wii and a few cool DS games too. Also, Metroid Prime 3 won't be coming out before June for the Wii. Reggie blames us though, the nerve of Nintendo, wow. He says that the sales for Metroid Prime 2 were shitty, so expect number three to get pushed back to a Christmas release.