There's no pictures to go along with the news like in the Halo 3 preview below, but the newest issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly has these new details towards the end of the magazine:

"If you're hankering for a virtual fistfight, top-quality options about -- the Virtua Fighter, Tekken, and Dead or Alive franchises all offer satisfying punch-up action. But if you're truly looking to give your opponent something to cry about, it's all about wielding sharpened steel, and nothing beats Namco Bandai's Soul Calibur series for weapon-based fighting thrills. In our world-exclusive preview, we'll reveal the future direction of this beloved series."

We still don't have any confirmation of when to expect the fourth game, or which consoles to expect it on, so hopefully the new EGM issue offers even more insight. I haven't received my copy in the mail yet, so feel free to give us an update if it's already arrived at your place.

The newest Gamepro magazine issue has more than a dozen preview pages showing off Halo 3's updated weapons, vehicles, equipment, beta maps, and the levels Shrine, Epitaph, and Last Resort. The most exciting new feature they reveal is the ability to extensively customize your player armor:

"Tired of staring at Master Chief's mug? Halo 3's online mode offers new armor permutations that allow players to customize their personas from head to toe. Will the Covenenat Elite player models be eligible for similar upgrades? Only Bungie knows."  

Create-A-Spartan opens up many questions, none of which Bungie is willing to talk about yet. Will the armor permutations affect your online health meter? Do different sets of armor portray different ranks of any sort? Or is it all just for a fun change of appearance to visually set Halo 3 apart from Halo 2? We'll have to wait and see, Bungie doesn't want to spoil all their secrets, but it's obvious they've still got at least a few more they're keeping from us. Check out the high quality scans from Arrogantics below.

Despite the Wii bringing new life to Nintendo, its game magazine sales are still plummeting thanks to countless sites like my own. According to IGN, the end of Nintendo Power might be near: 

"the company may be planning to close or restructure its official Nintendo Power magazine. Sources close to the publication tell IGN that mass layoffs are underway and that employees are being told to look for new work by September of this year."

It's not official yet, although Nintendo Power started back in 1988, so a huge change definitely wouldn't hurt. Did they honestly think that stretching Nintendo images across the spines of several continuous issues would be enough to keep us interested? Even as a young gamer I could tell the magazine sucked, the writing wasn't even effective enough to make their obvious bias have any impact on the readers. I'd just flip through the pages looking at the pictures and then toss it for Electronic Gaming Monthly's articles. And even EGM went through a large layout change a few years ago, so I doubt Nintendo Power will call it quits.

If they've lost their magazine mojo then all they need is a little boost to keep surviving. They should start writing with power gloves and actually give us previews that help. The last time they offered anything we couldn't get on the Web first was an early look at Twilight Princess. Dozens of Wii games later and they're still being useless. When Time Magazine has more popular gaming stories than your gaming magazine, you know you're in trouble.

The newest issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly magazine has some interesting stories in its rumor section, check this out PS3 gamers:

"The biggest is that Team Ninja apparently have an exclusive new Dead or Alive game in the works for the Sony console. Also interesting is that Capcom is apparently remaking the original Mega Man with new graphics for download on PSN. And for RPG fans, Nippon Ichi is working on a new Disgaea for PS3 and Square Enix has a new Kingdom Hearts coming -- though it won't be Kingdom Hearts 3 (that will be coming later)."

If all the rumors turn out to be true, then that's great news for several different genres. It looks like Kingdom Hearts will be ripped to pieces as much as every installment of Final Fantasy has been recently. I remember when I heard about Final Fantasy X-2 and could barely grasp the concept of another FF game without it being FFXI. For the most part I'm glad to see them continue their stories past the scope of just one game, and if FFXIII turns out to be multiple games that are all the same story from different perspectives, then I'm all for it. I'm just afraid it's their excuse for working on ten different games at once, and giving us only 1/10th of the content and story we expect in each installment. These are all just rumors though, so only time will tell.

Time Magazine has nominated 200 people for their 2006 "100 Most Influential People of the Year" list, and Stephen Colbert has already soared past President Bush in the ratings. At the age of 54, legendary Shigeru Miyamoto might make the top one hundred list for the first time in his life thanks to the Wii's success last year. Here's his listed pros and cons:

PRO: Most successful game designer, creator of Super Mario, Donkey Kong and The Legend of Zelda, whose new platform, the Wii, is currently the top-selling game console.

CON: His perfectionist tendencies often result in games being significantly delayed and, despite the Wii's gameplay innovation, its graphics are far behind the competition.

As the game industry has grown older, Miyamoto has remained a master game designer and his childish imagination has become even more enjoyable over the years. While he might not be as productive as he once was, he's still responsible for over a hundred different video games and has made his Wii intentions clear. At the time of posting this, he's currently ranked at #6, although he hasn't had an overwhelming amount of votes like many others have, so a lot could change. Whether you like the guy and his games or not, I highly suggest taking the time to give him a rating and helping even out the list with a spokesman for the entertainment industry we're all immersed in.

There's been a rumor going around that Final Fantasy XIII is no longer a PS3 exclusive. It's a rumor we're used to hearing by now, but this time people have been speculating that Square Enix will instead make new FFXIII games for other consoles and handhelds. I took the time to track down some new overseas info, and here's what I found from an Australian PlayStation magazine. FFXIII's director Motomu Toriyama said this:

"In fact, the Fabula Nova Crystallis Final Fantasy XIII project isn't just limited to three titles - there are many different aspects. In terms of the formats we're reaching, as well, it's not simply exclusive to the PS3 and mobile phones. In Latin, Fabula Nova Crystallis means "New Crystal Story" and we're using that as a base for the project, but there are many characters and legends that are branching off from this main story and universe. It's a huge project."

You can read the whole interview from the scans below(I think there's a few new pictures too), but this is what it covers. All the FFXIII games take place in the same universe, although they're not directly related. The story in Fabula Nova Crystallis comes from the clashing factions that inhabit planets Cocoon and Pulse, and the lead character is Lightning, the girl we've seen so much of. Gameplay stems from a high speed Active Timer Battle that slows down opponents when overclocked. Magic will be included in FFXIII just like we've always experienced, and combat breaks into four choices: attack, shoot (Lightning's gunblade), defend, and V Strike (effects her overclock limit strike). This is stuff we already know, and I'm guessing that since they've also mentioned that each gun will have it's own camera controls and gameplay mechanics, that it's safe to assume "shoot" attacks will vary greatly depending on which weapon you have equipped.  Or, each character will only have one main weapon, and the variety of other characters will bring the differing shooting controls - Motomu made it clear that other main characters have been deliberately kept secret so far, and will be revealed in a certain order.

Other things Motomu Toriyama touched on were online play and mini-games. They're still considering online PS3 functions, but aren't positive if they'll include them or not. And they've got pretty much the same feeling towards mini-games, saying that if they have them, they'll just turn them into whole separate games. In other words, make you pay more for what you already expect from them.

In other Final Fantasy XIII related news, Shinji Hashimoto from Square Enix has that Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers "will exploit the Wii controller fully," as well as mentioned that the entire Final Fantasy XIII series (isn't it fucked up when you have to call ONE game a series nowadays?) will take place over TEN years. The only other way to interpet "the world of Final Fantasy XIII will be spread out over 10 years" is to hope (and I do hope) that it actually means each of the three, five, or ten million FFXIII games actually skip ahead a year or two in the FFXIII timeline, to tell a much longer story than we're used to playing through(which is pretty damn long to begin with). That, or Square Enix just wants to take all of our money for as long as they can before they have to figure out what Final Fantasy XIV will be about.

And the last FFXIII update of the day, is that Square Enix trademarked "Dissidia" in North America. The FFXIII games have already claimed "Versus" "Agito" and "Haeresis" as subtitles, and since Dissidia means "to disagree" in Latin, it's a good bet that it's the name for one of the newly confirmed FFXIII games. If there's any more FFXIII news today, I think I'll shoot myself.

Many thanks to Demologik and his girlfriend for taking these pictures for everyone who's still awaiting their copy of the newest Game Informer magazine. Here's all ten pages of the in depth article cut into 26 different sections so that they're somewhat legible for us.

Rockstar North has confirmed that Grand Theft Auto IV is smaller than GTA San Andreas in size, but there's no huge empty areas like there's been before. They assure us that all four main areas of New York City that they've transformed, plus a fifth New Jersey area, are filled with detail and worth an adventure. Brooklyn has become Broker,  Manhattan has become Algonquin, Queens is now Dukes, Bronx is Bohan, and New Jersey has become Alderney. "The world is not designed to be a video game. We are trying to make a video game that feels like the world, but still plays like a video game." The more you explore, the more missions will open up, and everything in the game was created for a reason. That includes special building design details and a variety of quirky pedestrian behaviors that are context sensitive and dependent on their surrounding environments.

The next thing Game Informer spent time discussing with Rockstar was the new physics system that the character animations use. It's not just a good looking character in third person view that looks stiff, your character's balance will sway as you take him over varying terrains, and he knows when and what he's bumping into along the way. The lighting is equally amazing in the game, portraying New York City completely differently in day and night, and Rockstar's tried to capture the freaky nightlife by offering entirely difference experiences in different areas depending on what time of day you visit them.

The story comes from Niko Bellic receiving emails from his cousin Roman who claims to live a great life filled with women and hot tubs in his home. Too bad he's lying about everything, and is actually about to involve you with everyone of his extensive list of problems. So your introduction to the city is filled with helping your cousin out of debt and keeping him, as well as yourself, alive. It's a pretty basic setup, but Rockstar also mentions that Niko has a few of his own problems he's run from in his homeland that might come back to haunt him later in the game.

Better graphics, better animations, better lighting, and a chance to live the American Dream in our living rooms. Add to that plenty of tempting violent diversions, and you've got the Grand Theft Auto we all know and love, but better than ever and on the Xbox 360 and PS3. The blurry images released so far are just gameplay pictures on a 360 debug unit, so it'll just continue to look better as the game's October 16th release comes closer. This will definitely be a must buy for both consoles.

The May issue of Game Informer is starting to reach the homes of subscribers, and while we're waiting for the high resolution scans of the ten page article that was devoted to Grand Theft Auto IV, here's the brief details of what's been revealed, which doesn't look like much:

• The protagonist's name is Niko Bellic.
• Multiplayer is to be announced.
• You can use a cellphone to call your contacts.
• No planes..?
• "You have a lot of choice over what you want to do."
• Game Informer played the Xbox demo.
• Dan Houser explains that "a big part of New York life is walking the streets and meeting lunatics", and this is something they definitely tried to put into the game.

Multiplayer? Like, you hold the cop down, I'll steal his car? We talking split screen versus mode, or co-op? It's also been jotted down, that the music is better than usual, and that cell phones will help shape the story so that you're not just a slave running around and following orders. A small portion of it was actually read off and audio recorded, I think some geek had his girlfriend read it to him over the phone as soon as the issue arrived. You can get a hard to understand sound file here if you're that desperate. Check back later for more details.

Every year I look forward to Electronic Gaming Monthly's April Fool's joke. My favorite one was when they told their magazine readers that they could unlock Sonic and Tails if you devoted enough time to Super Smash Bros. Melee. It was the easiest photoshop job possible, yet everyone believed them for a month and wasted dozens of hours trying to open the extra character slots on the play select screen.

This year they've come up with something more creative, and even put in the time to make convincing 3D images to sell their lie. I'd love to play a Mushroom Kingdom Hearts game, but it's pretty obvious that this is their cruel joke in the April issue of EGM.

The image on the left is the page scan, and I typed up the blurry text from the article:

 

The original idea for Kingdom Hearts was absolutely absurd. A role-playing game featuring characters from Final Fantasy and Disney? Hell, that's as asinine as combining Legos and Star Wars (wait - scratch that). But the only dumb ones were the ones who doubted it'd work - the unlikely combination actually toucheda helluva lot of gamers' hearts. So now that we're used to seeing Mickey Mouse and the rest of his cartoon clowns muck it up with the Final Fantasy crew, we thought we'd seen the last of these oddball pairings. Boy, were we wrong - publisher Square Enix is ramping up a radically new Kingdom Hearts sequel . . . only this game isn't set in under the sea, but rather under the pipes of the Mushroom Kingdom. We don't know much of the juicy deets right now (all Square Enix gave us was this early logo) but we were able to squeeze out some helpful intel.

First off, Mushroom Kingdom Hearts is a We [spelled wrong on purpose] exclusive and will feature a cast of over 41 Nintendo characters. Not only that, but it will also feature Sora, Mickey, and a flock of other favorites from the first two Kingdom Hearts. And as far as the story goes, all we know is Mario will get his hands (and feet) dirty hammering down the Heartless . . . oh, and apparently some princess needs saving, too.

So, basically a glorified Paper Mario game. Since this isn't just some hidden feature fib that EGM made up, it'd be cool if Square Enix actually gave this idea some thought, but I'm not getting my hopes up. Or maybe this preview is actually real and EGM still has us tricked - Halo 3 actually doesn't exist at all. That would be quite the bloody Sunday come April 1st. Thanks to Pedro for the scans. 

Wii Sports - number one? Huh? Time Magazine decided to make a million Top 10 lists and figured it knew enough about video games to give it a go. Time might be able to woo healthy people and politicians into changing their opinions on issues, but they should know better than to try satisfying gamers around the globe. The Zelda game is an obvious choice for best game of the year, but it's like a virgin who waited too long to release, and now can't get married. Resistance? Fuck off Sony fanboys - no. Let's also take Table Tennis off the list. Mario on the DS? Fun, but let's move you down a bit and Guitar Hero II up quite a bit. Gears? It didn't cause as much controversy as Bully did, but it managed to top most peoples' game of the year lists despite being relatively cheap to make. But Wii Sports?

Please, let's not be foolish - it was fun despite looking terrible, but there's no reason at all for it not having online play. And it wasn't the game that was really fun - it was enjoying the Wiimote game play. So yes, Wii > PS3 for now in the fun factor, but that doesn't mean that a 'free' game that comes with a $250 GameCube-on-steroids gets game of the year. Gears of War even managed to set up what will most likely become a trilogy - winner!

Time Magazine's list:

• 1. Wii Sports
• 2. Gears of War
• 3. New Super Mario Bros.
• 4. Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
• 5. Resistance: Fall of Man
  
• 6. Prey
  
• 7. Rockstar Table Tennis
  
• 8. Guitar Hero II
  
• 9. Lego Star Wars II
  
• 10. Bully