This year is going to be great for indie games, and when you combine that with cute, what you end up with is ilomilo. This Swedish platform puzzler rivals Little Big Planet in its cuteness and yet I still have no idea what the gameplay is like other than using two cute characters to move blocks back and forth.

The summer trailer helps to alleviate some of the mystery around the game, giving us a glimpse at the “ilomilo shuffle” which reminds me of the old tile shufflers in which you move tiles around to solve a puzzle. Still, the healthy heap of adorable Southend Interactive is piling on is making ilomilo a must try title for Xbox LIVE later this year.

In the run up to E3 next week, Ubisoft has launched a new teaser website for the forthcoming new entry in the Driver franchise. Tentatively referred to as Driver, the game will mark the first Drivertitle in four years since Driver: Parallel Lines and the first to feature on the current generation of consoles. Details are scarce for the moment, but the website includes a countdown for Ubisoft’s E3 press conference, so expect full details to arise at the event.

In a knowing nod to both the opening cinematic and first level of the original Driver from 1999, the live action trailer features a lone driver putting a classic Ford Mustang and Dodge Challenger through a timed challenge around a deserted underground car park.

As a keen follower of the series that brought movie car chases to video games, I can’t tell you how much I’m anticipating its next generation debut. Let’s just hope it has more in common with the original than its increasingly lacklustre successors.

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GoldenEye was a landmark time in the industry’s history.  For many, it marked the success of the FPS and it certainly was a defining moment for the N64.  Likewise, many of us can recount the days when parties would consist of four friends huddled around a 14 inch TV screen to play one of the four player modes.  Gawd, those were the good ole days.

At this very moment, it just kind of dawned of me that GoldenEye is the best and most successful film to video game crossover we’ve ever seen.  On an unrelated note, according to leaked sources, Activision has decided to flog it til it’s dead remake the game that Rare made so popular.  Read more… »

EA has announced that a third VIP Map pack for Battlefield: Bad Company 2 will be available on June 9th, bringing new modes to Nelson Bay and Laguna Alta – Squad Death match will now be accessible for Nelson Bay and Laguna Alta will be playable in Squad Rush.

As before, the pack will be available free of charge to those who entered the VIP code included with all new copies of the game, and will also be available for a fee on the in-game store.

To be honest, I can’t help but feel slightly underwhelmed by these updates. Being able to play these maps in extra modes is all well and good, but they should have been accessible from the outset and, now that the game has been out for 3 months and I have played it for more hours than I care to admit, I’m starting to hanker for some brand new map designs. Still, there’s always Onslaught mode on its way soon to look forward to.

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Today publisher THQ announced that the fourth title in Volition’s Red Faction series, dubbed Red Faction: Armageddon, will hit the PC, Xbox 360 and PS3 March 2011.

Set fifty years after the events of Red Faction: Guerrilla, Armageddon sees the Martian colonists going back into the tunnel systems featured in the first two Red Faction titles. To shake things up this time around, the colonists accidental stumble upon some sort of alien life lingering in the mines. Read more… »

If you are one of those people who wait for the best deals before you buy a game, this is the week for you.  Microsoft has just discounted some of their best titles for this week’s Xbox LIVE Deals of the Week program.  The list includes critically acclaimed hits like Worms 2: Armageddon, Serious Sam HD, Duke Nukem 3D, and Battlefield 1943, as well as many more, for crazy discounts of up to 50% off.

If you haven’t picked up any of these games, now is the time.  For a complete list of all the titles on sale, as well as their prices, hit the jump. Read more… »

The first in game footage to be taken from Platinum Games and Shinji Mikami’s shooter has just hit the net.  Boy does it look all kinds of messed up!

Coming from the insanely creative minds that have bought us Bayonetta, Okami, God Hand, Resident Evil 1 & 4, Onimusha and Devil May Cry to mention a handful of titles.  This cover based 3rd person shooter looks set to shake things up just as Bayonetta did earlier in the year.  Up until now we have only seen stills and pre-renders but actually watching this title in motion takes away that dreaded “Oh great, another Gears clone!” feeling and replaces it with school-boy glee.
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The world of Peanuts is one that I know next to nothing about. The name Charles Schulz is one that I had to Google to ensure I had spelled it correctly (I hadn’t). An obsession with root beer flies over my head like the Red Baron, which I also had no idea Snoopy shared any connection with. So you can understand that when I see a game with Snoopy in the title, I’m not likely to put on a red scarf and jump on my doghouse.

But just one look at Snoopy Flying Ace at PAX East this year was enough to pique my interest, as its clear connections to the Crimson Skies series brought back memories of long multiplayer sessions and indiscriminate airplane chaos. If anything, experiencing a few moments of nostalgic air combat would make this a worthwhile $10 purchase.

Imagine my surprise when I found that the game is actually quite fantastic.

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There are a lot of clichés in video game stories. Too many. It seems that for every original, well-written narrative, there are ten cookie-cutter stories churned out.

The other day I came across a fill-in-the-blanks story and decided it might be fun to implement a generic RPG storyline into it. I then filled in the blanks with what I thought was a more accurate depiction of RPG narratives. This is the result.

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Hints of a sequel of developer Sucker Punch’s Infamous have persisted for good reasons.  The ending of the game was reason enough to believe a sequel would come, and Sony’s registration of Infamous2TheGame.com speaks for itself.  Finally, Game Informer officially confirmed it.  Infamous 2 is being developed by Sucker Punch for the PlayStation 3.

Game Informer hasn’t released too many details about the game, but old hand Cole McGrath returns, as do his electrical powers.  Infamous 2 will also reportedly take place in a new city and feature a new antagonist.

Source: Gamespot

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With games having an increasingly narrative focus, it’s natural that some common storytelling themes have begun to emerge. No, I don’t mean themes like “saving the world.” Games are beginning to be about things, tackling themes that are more personal to both the game’s creators and its audience. They’re demonstrating a level of personal involvement in the narrative that seemed to be absent from gaming for quite some time.

It’s only natural that some of these themes overlap, and that the industry as a whole might follow some sort of narrative trend, putting games on the same path, though their journeys may be quite different. I’ve already noticed some that recur in some wildly different games.

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We all know you have been sitting at the edge of your seat, on pins and needles, waiting for this. Don’t lie. Especially since it is at this moment that Madden aficionados begin to narrow down their go to team choices.

Not a Madden fan? Fine! I don’t like you anymore. OK I’ll love you again under one condition: hit the jump for a full breakdown of Madden NFL 11 team ratings!

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