It was no surprise the multi-million selling PGR franchise would come out with another sequel. Project Gotham Racing 4 (PGR4) will be released by the end of 2007, or in the first half of 2008, on Xbox 360.

At Microsoft’s X06 event this week, PGR4 was unveiled in a teaser trailer. The latest addition to the best-selling franchise, made exclusively for Xbox 360 by Bizarre Creations. PGR4 promises to continue the series’ pedigree of innovation by introducing new experiences to racing fans worldwide. No real details yet then, take a peak.

Click on the bottom-right corner arrow to view it full-screen.

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The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion was first released on PC and Xbox 360 back in March 2006. After unofficial Oblivion rumors last week, now developer Bethesda revealed Oblivion will be coming out as a PS3 launch title on November 17th 2006 in the U.S. and in March 2007 in Europe.

Now the developer is adapting the game for portable play in the form of The Elder Scrolls Travels: Oblivion for the PSP, due for release in spring 2007 in both the U.S. and Europe.

No word yet on how different the new versions will be from the original. The plot will likely remain the same, so you’ll jump in the game after the mysterious and untimely death of the Emperor, the throne of Tamriel lies empty. With the Empire ready to crumble, the gates of Oblivion open and demons march upon the land laying waste to everything in their path. To turn the tide of darkness, you must find the lost heir to the throne & unravel the evil plot that threatens to destroy all of Tamriel.

If the game is new to you, be sure to watch the 20-minute introduction below to see what the gameplay is like:
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Alan Wake is a bestselling horror writer, who writes a novel about his darkest nightmares. In the Xbox 360 & PC (Windows Vista only) game by the same name, those nightmares come true… At E3 developer Remedy showed a teaser to give a feel for the game that features a massive open world for the players to explore, with mission based exploration in the single player adventure. (set for 2007)

The below demo video was taken during the keynote presentation at the Intel Developers forum last Tuesday, but the game will run just as well on equivalent AMD processors (as well as Xbox 360). As you’ll hear in the presentation, the game needs multiple processor cores to show its magic.

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The Rag Doll Kung Fu team recently formed their own studio Media Molecule. Turns out for the past six months they’ve been working on a new game exclusively for PS3, which will be published by Sony Computer Entertainment Europe.

A quote from, creative director at Media Molecule, Mark Healey: “Working together on Rag Doll convinced us that a focussed and efficient team had the ability to deliver exciting and innovative content. The ambition for Media Molecule is to take that a step further and prove that a small and passionate team can deliver a world class, triple-A, next generation product. Sometimes the very unwieldiness of a massive team renders it much less efficient.”

Alex Evans, technical director for Media Molecule, added: “I think it is fantastic that a massive company like Sony has the vision to see that a smaller outfit can create a world class game.”

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As Altair, a medieval hitman with a mysterious past (he’s not a time traveler), you have free reign to explore vast cities and countryside. You will investigate your targets by exploring, eavesdropping and even picking pockets for clues on his whereabouts. When you have three clues (with more to discover) you can then move to the assassination stage, using “social stealth” to blend in with crowds, searching for handholds to scale castle walls, using killer’s intuition to hone in on the target and go for the kill of justice.

After the Xbox 360 demo of Assassin’s Creed at X06 there wasn’t much more news out of Ubisoft’s camp, except that the team is trying to put together a package of downloadable content that Director Raymond could only say is “something ambitious.” She hinted slightly at extended gameplay and possibly even some kind of multiplayer, as the team did create a prototype multiplayer and co-op mode. But, as of now, there is still nothing to announce.

The interesting part of the quote from IGN says that while the PlayStation 3 and 360 versions of Assassin’s Creed are virtually identical, Raymond did say that on the Xbox 360 the team is putting a special emphasis on achievements. The hardware also allows for improved threading, which will improve even further the crowd AI.

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Introversion today released their third game titled DEFCON (after Uplink in 2001 & Darwinia in 2005). Inspired by the 1983 cult classic film, Wargames, DEFCON evokes the tension, paranoia and suspicion of the Cold War era, playing on the fascinating aspects of psychological gameplay that occur during strategic nuclear warfare.

You can download the PC demo of DEFCON here, which is 59MB in size, and includes a tutorial, rolling demo, and two-player multiplayer. On that same page you’ll find the full game download from Steam at a price of $14.95.
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Thanks to Reetesh for sending in a report from Gamespot that mentions after the original Kingdom Hearts was released in 2002, Square Enix took the liberty of releasing its English-dubbed version in Japan so that Japanese Disney fans could enjoy the game with its original American voice actors. And now Square Enix will be doing the same with Kingdom Hearts II, but this time there’s going to be an extra incentive for Japanese gamers to pick it up.

At the Tokyo Game Show, Square Enix announced it will release Kingdom Hearts II: Final Mix + in Japan. The game will be based on the American release of KHII, meaning that all the voices are dubbed in English with Japanese subtitles. The game will also feature a few extra updates, such as additional event scenes, battles, and map secrets.

Fans of the Kingdom Hearts series will be interested to hear that Square Enix is releasing the game as a two-DVD set. The second disc will contain extra bonuses, including a complete PS2 remake of the Game Boy Advance game Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories.
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After about 3 million sales of Lara Croft’s Tomb Raider: Legend (or as we call it Wallet Raider) the series will be returning next-gen, as a first PS3 outing is announced today.

Eidos revealed its plans to release a brand new Tomb Raider title during its 2008 financial year (July 2007 to June 2008), “including a PS3 version” it’s stated in a recent financial report.

C&VG also mentions that Eidos as part of its “2008 and future product pipeline” said to expect new projects from Tomb Raider: Legend developer Crystal Dynamics and Hitman and Kane & Lynch dev IO Interactive.
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Thanks to Michael for sending in this Comscore Media research about the U.S. gaming audience spanning all ages and walks of life. Of course you savvy gamers already know why you buy sequels of your favorite games and that more and more people around you start playing video games, but there’s a lot more changes happening…

Contrary to popular belief that gamers are primarily teenage boys, results of the study indicate that video games have much broader appeal. On average, gamers are 41 years old with an average annual income of $55,000. Further, females account for 52 percent of the gaming audience. The average gamer has been online for nine years and 84 percent have broadband access at home.

Experience and Word-of-Mouth are top drivers in game buying. When asked about their primary reason for purchasing their last game, the two most prevalent responses among gamers centered on previous gaming experiences, regardless of gaming device used. More then one-quarter of those using each type of device stated that they purchased their last game because they had played it before and enjoyed the experience. Read more…

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That’s right, at X06 this week Rare announced Banjo & Kazooie are making a welcome return on Microsoft’s Xbox 360. It’s not surprising considering how many fans (including myself) there were of the Nintendo 64 games Banjo Kazooie and Banjo Tooie. I like how the pair of platform adventurers are drawn in their latest outing. Here’s the first teaser footage of a tentatively titled Banjo Threeie.

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