Rumor: Portal 2 Will Be Released on PS3

Ever since the PS3 “Orange Box” debacle, developer Valve has pretty much refused to put any of their games (“Left 4 Dead”, “Portal”, etc) on PS3.  So it’s surprising that the newest issue of PSM3 magazine will feature a preview of Valve’s next project “Portal 2”.  When Portal 2 was originally announced, Valve said that the game would be released for PC and Xbox 360.  Later they said that the PC version will also work on Macs.

Since Valve has yet to officially confirm the news, so we’ll leave this one in the rumor column for now.  That said, PSM3 is a reliable source, so it’s relatively a safe bet as far as rumors ago.

“Late Night with Jimmy Fallon” Pushes Back Cliff Bleszinski Project Unveiling

Bad news for “Gears of War” fans:  “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon” co-producer Gavin Purcell tweet today that they will be postponing tonight’s unveiling of Cliff Bleszinski’s “new project” (lets call it… Gears of War 3).  Purcell said that a scheduling conflict made it necessary to push back the announcement at the last minute because of a “Scheduling Conflict”:  Instead, Bleszinski and his new game will make their grand debut on Monday, April 12’th.

Fallon originally tweeted out that Bleszinski would be showing off an unnamed project last week. Most people, myself included, believe that the mystery project will be “Gears of War 3”.  Word is that “Gears of War 3” is already in development and is currently on schedule for an April, 2011 release. (Alongside “Killzone 3”?)

Nintendo President Says “Monster Hunter Tri” Has Best Visuals on Wii

In a publicity segment called “Iwata says”, where Nintendo President Satoru Iwata talks to developers about their Nintendo projects, the prez said that he thought the visuals in Capcom’s upcoming “Monster Hunter Tri” are the best visuals in a Wii game to date, and that the game has drawn out Nintendo’s competitive side:

“I can tell Nintendo’s staff has really been galvanized by you. I can tell they feel like you did what they hadn’t yet…  Looking at the graphics objectively, I feel like the game’s visuals are one of the representative examples of what can ultimately be done with Wii. I think it has placed the “Zelda” team under a considerable amount of pressure.”

This may be a matter of translation or  my having seen to many movies with sinister executive, but that last statement about the Zelda team sounds more like a threat than a simple comment.  Either way, in my mind, the gauntlet has been thrown and will now be comparing the two from now on.

As for “Monster Hunter Tri”, you can see for yourself how nerve-wrackingly good the visuals are when the game is released on April 20’th.

NCAA Basketball 2010 Sim got the Gist, But Came Up Short

Earlier tonight, we talked about using EA Sports’ “NCAA Basketball 2010” to predict the outcome of tonight’s NCAA Championship game.  The sim picked favorite Duke to beat unlikely finalist Butler by a whopping 23 points, 84-61.  Now that the game is over, we know that Duke did in fact defeat Butler, but by a much smaller margin in a lower scoring game.  The two teams traded the lead for most of the game, with neither team ever leading by more than 6 points during the whole game.  After a missed Butler three, Duke was declared the victor:  The final score was 61-59.  In short; “NCAA 2010” called the winner, but did not analyze and predict the outcome of the game by any stretch of the imagination.

What does this mean?

It means NCAA Basketball is not great at predicting live sporting events.  Admittedly, college basketball, and March Madness in particular, is incredibly difficult to predict:  Just ask all the experts that said that either Kansas or Kentucky would win the tournament.

NCAA Basketball 2010 Sim Prediction: Duke Goes Home a Winner, 84-61

Video game simulations of popular sporting events are all the rage, these days.  While it’s not as accurate as the Annual Madden Super Bowl prediction, a simulation in NCAA Basketball 2010 has predicted that Duke will squash underdog Butler, 84-61.  The simulation, set up by Kotaku, used updated statistics and was set to reflect tonight’s official roster.

Duke is 33-32 at Halftime…  Will EA Sports get to put another notch under its belt?

Super Street Fighter IV Trailer

Check out the new TV spot for “Super Street Fighter IV”, showing off the “Super” new characters as they pummel each other to a Just Blaze beat.  While the preview isn’t really persuading enough to make me endorse buying the game if you already have SFIV:  The game is more expansion than sequel, featuring 10 new characters, an additional costume for each original character and additional “bonus rounds” a la “Street Fighter 2”.  Then again, it does make me wish I hadn’t bought the original so I could get this version now.

“Super Street Fighter IV” will start kicking ass and taking names on April 27’th.

Cliff Bleszinski to Announce “New Game” Next Week on Late Night TV

Jimmy Fallon tweeted yesterday that “Gears of War” series mastermind Cliff Bleszinski will be unveiling his new game, presumably “Gears of War 3”, on his talk show “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon” next Thursday.  Bleszinski said that he planned to show his “newest project” to the public this Spring; most assumed that meant a big show at E3, but apparently the boys at Epic Games have other plans.

Even though there hasn’t been any official word yet on Gears 3, there’s almost no doubt that this new mystery game is the next entry in the series.  Word on the street is that Gears of War 3 is on track to go gold some time in April 2011.

Australian Zombies Protest Video Game Censorship

Approximately 500 people gathered in Hyde Park in Sydney, Australia to dress up as zombies and protest the fact that the Australian government won’t create an “Adults-Only” video game rating.  Australia is well-known amongst gamers as having very strict censorship laws and very little tolerance for violent imagery; rather than using notices or age restrictions for mature games, the government chooses to censor any game it deems too violent.  Most recently, Australian government officials attempted (and failed) to ban “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II”, over the game’s controversial “No Russians” sequence.  Other games like “Left 4 Dead 2” are banned from the country in their original form, but are released in a censored, less violent form.

GO ZOMBIES!

Metroid: Other M Trailer

This new trailer for Metroid: Other M is the first to have actual gameplay.  On that subject, two things stick out during the trailer:  First, the gameplay looks super-fast.  Significantly faster than any of the “Prime” games…  Or any game in the series, really. Second, the trailer shows that, while you generally hold the controller the old-fashioned way (Sideways), aiming the controller at the screen like a remote changes the perspective to the first person for precision shooting.

Between this and “Mario Galaxy 2”, it’s going to be a great spring for Nintendo fans…

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: The Video Game

Unless you live under a rock and/or haven’t entered a bookstore in the past year, you’ve heard of Seth Grahame-Smith and his literary mash-up “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies”.  It’s a New York Times bestseller that has already generated two similar titles, (“Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters”, “Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter”) and a prequel (“Dawn of the Dreadfuls”):  Plus, there’s a movie adaptation on the way, starring Natalie Portman.  In short; this book is phenomenon.

Knowing all that, it makes total sense that developer Freeverse is jumping on the “PP&Z” bandwagon, making an iPhone game based on the franchise.  According to Kotaku, Freeverse has described the game as “a rollicking action title with the perfect blend of zombie slaying action and touching romance narrative”.  Based on the picture, that means Victorian-themed zombie killing with romantic cutscenes.  “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies” will hit the App Store some time in April.