Ninja Theory's co-founder Tameem Antoniades gave a progress update when talking with Eurogamer recently, informing us that Heavenly Sword is 90% complete, and will be ready for its September release later this year. The full interview will be up tomorrow, but Eurogamer released this small piece of news to report on Heavenly Sword's multiplayer status:

"There's no multiplayer mode in Heavenly Sword as our focus was always to create an intense personal experience; it would have been too damn complex to deal with that as well. We did, however, develop the combat system using multiplayer test levels, as it's a great way of soak testing and balancing it. So who knows? Maybe we will decide to go down that route sometime soon. And when we do, it won't just be slapped-on to please marketing tick-boxes. You can be assured that we have our sights on multiplayer."

Well that's a big "maybe" to be talking about when it's one of PS3's most anticipated titles. Although for an action adventure game like Heavenly Sword, I don't think most players would even expect a multiplayer mode. Skipping it at the game's launch to ensure the story and controls are perfected, and then giving us a free, ahem, FREE, update on the PlayStation Network later would be great. If you haven't been following this game, be sure to check out the pictures and videos from the past and catch up.

When there's problems with a game, you either stop and fix what's broken, or move on and pinch off the parts that don't work. Both decisions should be acceptable choices if they don't destroy the destination the game company promised the fans that it would reach, and Dylan Jobe is admirably completely honest about Incognito Entertainment's decision to abandon single player gameplay. Warhawk was one of the first PS3 title we ever saw, so it really does hurt to know that after all this time they had to take away content, when they have had time to add content instead. But Dylan admits the faults and stresses their corresponding advantages, which all equal a much more solid multiplayer experience. He confidently tells you that single player on Warhawk sucks, and that we shouldn't worry about losing it with all that multiplayer will offer. If single player was all you really cared about, then there's no reason to even watch the video. If you're still excited though, the video gives us some incite on the games massive environments and complex air attack strategies, and I'm still looking forward to this game despite not being big on the flying genre of games. Thanks to G4TV for the video.

IGN spoke with Square Enix yesterday about the PSP remake Final Fantasy Tactics: The Lion War. Turns out there's more than just cool graphics to look forward to:

"The Lion War will feature multiplayer battles. The two-player skirmishes will paint one team red and the other blue so you don't mistakenly attack your own Monk, and will have a set number of turns so as to prevent one player from simply avoiding the other forever."

The Lion War comes out in Japan in two months, and Squeenix won't comment on an American release. It's region free, so feel free to import it if you can read Japanese, but they'd be foolish not to bring it over to America. Perhaps this will arrive in the United States as the first PSP2 game? Either way, this is a great addition to an already classic game.

Sony continues to impress people at the Game Developers Conference today. They've just announced a whole new game for the PlayStation 3 that could easily win over Nintendo fanboys. Think Viva Pinata meets Pikmin and you've got their new game LittleBigPlanet. Labeling it as a sidescroller or a platformer wouldn't do it justice, Sony is calling it a "community-based" game. Developed by Media Molecule, the only goal in the game is to get every player from the start to finish of each level as a team. Almost everything in the level moves and features physics that beg to be played with, and the majority of the obstacles involve pushing, pulling, jumping, swinging, and throwing each other around the screen. The screen is set at a side view, but you can move your cute little creatures further or closer to you in the depth of each level. Add to that the ability to make your own little movable monsters and you've got quite the addictive game to look forward to this fall on the PS3.

I haven't enjoyed the recent Mario Party games too much, but I'm convinced Mario Party 8 on Nintendo Wii will be the one to revive the series. I've got over a dozen pictures from the upcoming game here, and now we've got some official gameplay details to go along with them. The game's story is as simple as the rest - a ringmaster invites Mario and his friends (and even enemies - Dry Bones, Blooper, Hammer Bros, etc) to a carnival, and you search for stars and coins in six new levels as any one of the fourteen characters. Gameplay will now focus on Wiimote motions, pointing, and good ol' button coordination and mashing skills:

• Play with motion control: Players row their way through a river race, punch a statue to pieces, steer race cars, mopeds and go-karts and handle a balancing pole while walking a tightrope.
• Play using the Pointer: Shoot at Boos in a haunted house, rag and drop toppings in a cake-decorating competition, select the correct answers in game show challenges.
• Play using the Wii Remote's buttons: Players jump and pummel their way through a football brawl, hop and run across a field of spinning platforms
• In a series first, players can transform their characters into many forms, such as player-smashing boulders and coin-sucking vampires. Mario Party 8 also includes "extra-large" minigames like Star Carnival Bowling and Table Menace. One to four players can play Mario Party 8, each with a Wii Remote.
• In addition, Mario Party 8 includes four more minigame-infused kinds of board games, such as Tic-Tac Drop, where players earn the right to put the next mark on the board by winning a minigame.
  

Nintendo Wii needs a solid Wiimote game soon, and with these gameplay details, Mario Party 8 should be the perfect way to tide us over until Halo 3 and other highly anticipated multiplayer games that come out later this year. Hudson isn't just relying on new gameplay mechanics to sell the game though, they're also adding new features to the series:

• Players can transform their character using candy power-ups. Examples: When Peach eats Bowlo Candy, she'll turn into a Peach-faced ball and bowl over characters to get their coins. When Wario eats Vampire Candy, he'll sprout wings and fly off to suck the coins from all other players.
• A more engaging view of the action puts the player "on the board" with his traveling character, no longer far above the whole board looking down.

Changing the appearance of the characters might be mildly fun, but changing the player's camera angles could give the game an entirely different feeling. If they had one small level that let all four players play at the same time, it would be my favorite level ever - a race to finish 20 turns before your friends. With the top down camera angle view abolished, it would be exciting to bump into other players as everyone runs around the maze of routes in search of the stars. Making us play as mice on the hunt for a golden prize would be awesome, I hope the six new levels have a lot of replay value to them like some of the early Mario Party game levels. Mario Party 8 is still scheduled for a March 5th release, and with all of the picture and information updates recently, I doubt it'll get delayed.

No, not the virtual reality game that I'm working on for my class project with a local hospital - my instructor finally sent over the pictures and a post about that will be up in the morning. This virtual reality game is completely different. Setting up a ceiling camera to track their movements from above, these gamers play "Bomberman Evolved" wearing colored beanie hats so the camera can track their movements for the characters on the projector screen at the from of the room. With all the tables pushed aside, the two gamers run around the room and the characters follow their paths in the game. It looks like they have controllers for dropping bombs too, can you imagine the level of exertion this would take to play for some games? It would be worth it though, even if it meant pausing the game every time I reached the front of the room just to run to the back and unpause and keep playing my game, I'd love to use this for a dozen different games. Racing games and Geometry Wars is definitely not one of the ones that would be fun though.

1UP took a trip to Bungie recently and had an interview covering many Halo 3 multiplayer details. Gamers on Xbox Live have noticed that Gears of War's online service is nothing compared to Halo 2's, so 1UP Bungie with questions on matchmaking, custom games, cheating, the two different ranking systems, MVP assignment, and the new cool feature to the Halo series - being able to watch matches as a film after they are finished. You can read the entire interview here.

Gaming on TV, that embarassing zit on the face of every gamer trying to remain dignified. We long for a gaming show to be proud of, but we have yet to find one to support adamantly. Starting November 11th, at Saturdays at 10am EST/PST, the USA television network will be hosting a show that focuses on bringing competitive gaming tournaments to mainstream media. Luckily they aren't doing their own thing either, they are attempting to channel the best of the best by covering Boost Mobile Major League Gaming Pro Circuit, giving 90 million viewers a chance to see true champion gamers' skills. Ok, so you'll get to know pros like Team Final Boss, Team Carbon, and even 16 year old gaming girl Xena, the top woman Halo 2 player in the world, but 10am? Fuck it, this is the first time a TV channel has made a real attempt at giving gamers what they want to see -- call up your friends and party all night Friday to your games of choice and show some support to your industry, there's nothing wrong with sobering up at noon. First one to fall asleep pays for drinks next week!