A savePoint at storpi.com

News! Tuesday, July 10th (Last Update 4:20 PM):

1. USAToday has the first ever in-game screenshots of Killzone 2! Looking pretty good. The background textures seem a bit simplistic and flat, but it might have been done so they could cram in all the effects goodness. The unveiling’s tonight!
2. Square Enix has opened a US branch for their store. Yay for swag!
3. Kotaku’s got highlights from an interview with Jack Tretton talking about a video and other media download service that’s being worked on for the PS3. The news was almost an aside to the announcement of the 80GB PS3, so it kind of got lost yesterday. Other sites guess that the service will probably be mentioned at E3, but not shown.
4. [UPDATE] Trama Center: New Blood is revealed for the Nintendo Wii. Looks about the same, but now there’s two player co-op. All right! When do we get a brow mop attachment for four player action? The new game follows two new characters and features a brand new story. In additon, it’ll also be fully voiced and run at 480p in 16:9 widescreen. Look for this one before year’s end.
5. The Playstation Network was down a little while ago [update: for routine maintenance, says the official blog]. While it has been restored, the Playstation Store is still undergoing some work. Massive updates coming? [UPDATE] Well, the Playstation Store is back up with a little bit more user feedback, ie. the tabs have rollover effects now, and a bit easier navigation with L1 and R1 enabled as back and forward, respectively. Hopefully to allow us to better browse the massive updates tomorrow. Yeah.
6. New units are being featured on the Starcraft II website: the Colossus and the Warp Ray. The site really needs to be seen by oneself, so I’m not going to describe it. While Starcraft II won’t be playable at E3, it will be shown. It’ll be playable for the first time at Blizzcon in August.
7. The news isn’t coming as rapidly yet today, so… news from Smash Bros. Dojo. A new stage from Twilight Princess was revealed this week, in addition to a new supporting character, Dr. Wright, from the Sim City game on SNES. Screenshots of the new stage and Dr. Wright’s supporting attack are below.
8. According to Playstation Universe and confirmed on the Playstation Underground boards, there will be a lot more Killzone 2 screens released in the coming days. What’s more interesting is that there’ll be a Killzone 2 gameplay trailer on the Playstation Store. No word on when, but exciting news nonetheless.
9. A link has emerged via Threespeech to a slightly higher quality version of the Gamer.tv Heavenly Sword feature. It’s the same as the one I have embed at Storpi.com on the right, so it’s worth checking out. Internet Explorer required.
10. IGN’s got a hands-on report on Assassin’s Creed. Click here to read it for yourself.First of all, Assassin’s Creed is an action game that has stealth elements. You character is almost always on the move, and it seems that quick reflexes will be a must. However, there’s no platforming as movement throughout, whether it be climbing walls or bounding across rooftops, is automatic as long you’re holding down the right buttons and tilting the analog stick in a direction that Altair can move in. So if there’s a place to step or a ledge to grab onto, just point the analog stick, hold the buttons and off you go.Fleeing from guards involves only breaking line of sight, either by hiding or blending in with the crowd. The guards are smart though, so once they know you’re around, they’ll be more suspicious of any situations you might precipitate. Animations are fluid and natural looking. In fact, the whole world seems that way as IGN didn’t run into any situations in which they felt limited by the game world. Everywhere they wanted to go, they could go (except indoors). There’s some bugs, but come November, hopefully they’ll be fixed. Watch for this one.
11. New details on GTAIV from Destructoid.com
    

    - The cell you saw in the trailer appears to be a big part of the game. Instead of buying weapons at Ammu-Nation you can call “Little Jakob”, a Caribbean weapons dealer, who will provide you with guns.
    - There is a men’s wear store called “Perseus”
    - The “Tw@ Café” internet Café from GTA III is back. You can surf the Internet from every computer in the game.
    - You will be able to use taxis to get around. You can watch the drive from the ego-perspective or you can skip the whole thing by pressing the proper button.
    - Every crime committed increases the wanted level. As soon as you reach a certain level a search area appears on the radar. If you escape from such an area without being spotted by pedestrians/cops, the wanted level falls back. If you are spotted by a witness, the area changes to the place where you were last spotted.

12. Like Lego Star Wars? Lego Indiana Jones might get announced.
13. The brand new Metal Gear Solid 4 trailer will be up on the Playstation Store immediately after the Sony press conference tomorrow morning. Sweet! I think I’ll be using Remote Play tomorrow.

Check back for more updates throughout the day.

Words cannot not express my excitement over the news that Starcraft II is coming out. No one even knows when, and already I can’t wait. I can’t even remember the last time a PC, no, any game has made me anticipate its release so. (more…)