On Friday, Sierra Entertainment announced a new game called Prototype. Developed by Radical Entertainment, the game is set in New York and follows the story of Alex Mercer – who was part of a genetic experiment that went wrong. Since the experiment, Alex develops “shapeshifting” powers that enable him to take the shape, form and abilities of anyone by absorbing their DNA – which involves killing them.

According to the press release, it will be a “completely new kind of open world game” - and it’s set for release in Summer 2008. Here’s some screenshots for you…

Bit of a round up, starting with…

Reviews on Three Speech. Yep, we can understand if any of you have reservations over us featuring first party titles but, equally, we don’t censor our writers and view reviews appearing here much the same as them appearing in the official magazine. Let us know your thoughts - if it’s apparent you don’t want these reviews, we’ll steer clear.

Leipzig. We’ll have Leipzig Gaming Convention news to tell next week, including some clarification on the digital TV tuner.

3Rooms. We’ll be back there again shortly. Most likely with a Warhawk competition evening, at which we’ll also offer a sneak peak at a few other titles, in September.

In a recent interview with Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu, game creator Kazunori Yamuchi said that he was hoping to have it ready by next summer. Of course, he’s probably talking about the Japanese release – and as Eurogamer points out, previous GT games have taken three to four months to show up in Europe.

If you’re dying for some next generation GT racing before then, download the GTHD Concept which is available free from the Playstation Store. If you’ve already finished that, then you’ll have to wait for GT5: Prologue, coming later this year.

[Eurogamer]

As one of the games showcased pre-launch, Heavenly Sword, developed by Brit outfit Ninja Theory, has always been hotly anticipated. However, we’ll admit to being slightly worried about it – it always looked great, but would its sword-fighting gameplay cut the mustard? At last, we’ve got hold of pretty complete preview code and from the moment we popped it into our debug, our worries melted away. There’s no doubt it will be held up as an example of the sort of killer games the PS3 so badly needs when it arrives in the shops in September.

Read more…

We’re interested to hear your opinions on a topic which has been touched on quite a lot recently – digital downloads. With the advent of virtual stores like the PlayStation Store, times are changing – if you want to check out a new game you no longer need to buy a magazine with a demo disc, you just download it off the store for free.

We’re seeing mini games such as Super Stardust HD that wouldn’t have been economically viable to distribute before being able to use an online store. Soon, the barrier between retail and downloadable games will be broken down further with the release of Warhawk and SOCOM: Confrontation – both of which are being released as a download on the store and in retail on Blu-ray disc.

Would you prefer to download all your games and keep a digital copy – or are you a fan of retail disc based versions? Do you think it’s unfair on the high street retailers to switch to digital distribution? What do you like / dislike about digital distribution?

We look forward to hearing your points.

Eidos Interactive announced today that the first set of downloadable content for Ninja Gaiden Sigma will be unleashed onto the Playstation Store on September 6. The content, called ‘Survival Mode’ will be in three parts – the first of which will be available on the store on September 6. Here’s a description of the first part straight from the press release:

“The first of the three batches of downloadable content, “Weapon Master” is scheduled for release on September 6th 2007. This content includes five survival modes where you can use only a limited array of weaponry. The player’s objective is to master the feature of each weapon and wipe out as many enemies as you can.”

The head of technology for BBC News Online, Darren Waters, visited the Killzone 2 developers (Guerilla) in Amsterdam last week. As well as giving some hands-on impressions of the game, they filmed an interview with the MD, Hermen Hulst, and the producer, Steven Ter Heide. Take a look at what they had to say:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6937058.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6929484.stm

Here’s a quick update on what’s being uploaded onto the PSN today:

- Gran Turismo - PS Premiere Event Trailer
- Heavenly Sword - Legend of the Sword video
- Heavenly Sword - Making of video
- Ghost Rider - Blu-ray movie trailer
- The Covenant - Blu-ray movie trailer

In a recent interview with MTV, John Koller - head of PSP marketing at SCEA - hinted that there are plans to tie in Home with the PSP.

“Intuitively, if you take the PSP with you, you would want to take some of Home with you”.

While he did say that there aren’t any definite plans just yet, it does sound promising.

He also touched on other hot PSP discussion topics – including what’s happening in terms of playing PSN games over Remote Play, and why Sony didn’t add a second analogue stick. Check out the rest of the interview by following the link below.

[MTV.com]

Konami announced yesterday that Hideo Kojima will be demonstrating Metal Gear Solid 4 at the Leipzig Games Convention. According to the press release, they will also be showing off the latest trailer which Kojima will use to “detail key plot points while also revealing exciting news about forthcoming Metal Gear projects from Kojima Productions.”

Here’s what Hideo Kojima had to say himself:

“When I last came to Leipzig, I promised fans of Metal Gear Solid they would be able to see a playable version of MGS4 – and, to celebrate the special nature of the occasion, I can confirm, that I will bring a special guest with me. I love the enthusiasm European games players constantly show towards our titles, and look forward to showing METAL GEAR SOLID 4: GUNS OF THE PATRIOTS at the most important European gaming event of the year.”