Before you get too excited, the Halo movie produced by Peter Jackson is still dead in the water. This concept art, however, is from a draft of a movie based on The Fall of Reach, a prequel novel written by Eric Neylund. The movie script was written by Stuart Beetle, whose credits include Collateral and two of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies. Everything is still very much in the preliminary stages, but at least some progress is being made.

So, what do you think? Could a Halo movie be a Star Wars style epic or would it be more of a Doom-style disappointment?

[Halo: Fall of Reach Concept Art - LationReview.com]

Just a quick little post here to make sure everyone knows that there is a very good chance that Sony will be debuting the next installment in the hit action-adventure series, God of War, at E3 this year, according to Eurogamer. And why wouldn’t they? Microsoft has already announced its AAA title, Gears of War 2, for the upcoming holiday season. Sony needs to give its fans something to put on their Christmas lists this year as well. As for me? I need to get my ass in gear and play God of War II…

[Via Kotaku]

Over at Softpedia, there are rumblings that Microsoft could announce the release of a new 360 model as well as a price cut for current models at E3 in July. Microsoft is likely hurting as the PS3 sold more units in May than the 360 (about 208,700 and 186,600, respectively according to the NPD) and this trend is expected to be the case in June, too .

Part of the reason for Sony’s success as of late is the recent run of PS3-exclusive titles on the system (MGS4, we’re looking at you) according to EEDAR analyst Jesse Divnich:

This is likely due to the exclusivity factor as exclusive releases on Sony’s platforms have historically shown to be a better hardware driver than that of multi-platform releases. On average, PS3 exclusive games sell 45% more, throughout their lifetime, than multi-platform titles available on the PS3. Exclusive titles for the other two systems, the Wii and Xbox 360, only boast a small increase in lifetime sales over multi-platform titles.

With E3 less than a month out, we’ll know soon enough whether this holds any water or not.

[Via Evil Avatar]

According to Kotaku, rumor has it that a new system is in the works to allow PC gamers to emulate console games on their computers.

The system, named “Trioxide,” may, as you may have well guessed, represent the three major consoles (360, PS3 and Wii) and the ability of the system to play all three consoles’ games. The only other tidbit of information that comes with this leak is the strange price range of $49 and $299, which nobody seems to be able to make anything of.

If this rumor rings true, which I highly doubt it will, it could put a major damper on console sales. Honestly, I don’t think Microsoft, Sony or Nintendo (or their respective lawyers) would ever let such a thing happen. Will this actually happen? Only time will tell.

The PAL version of Grand Theft Auto IV for Xbox 360 supposedly leaked earlier today, and has shown up on torrent sites across the internet as a 6471 MB (6.32 GB if you don’t like big numbers) file released by iCON. The NFO file warns not to connect to Xbox Live until the game is released to the masses (three full times in ALL CAPS, so you better heed the warning), and even encourages people to buy the game anyway since “R* deserves it.”

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I’ll give you a minute, because that image likely made your head-spin as much as it did mine.

It seems that Mortal Kombat Online recently received this teaser image from “a source within Midway” that seems to subtly indicate that a Mortal Kombat vs. DC fighting game is on the way. According to the folks over at MKO, the game is officially titled Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe which is great because if it were only superheroes, Jimmy Olsen couldn’t get a piece of the action. While the image looks real enough, this should be taken with a grain of salt until Midway makes an official announcement.

I don’t really know how this makes me feel. On the one hand, that image is a gateway to a world of sweet possibilities, each more nerdy and violent than the last. On the other hand, DC likely wouldn’t have beacons of civility and justice such as Superman getting torn apart in the kind of brutal ways that the MK series is known for. On the other, other hand (I had a rough time in middle school with the three hands and all), how could it get any better than Justice League Task Force?

[UPDATE: It's official. Check out the announcement trailer here.]

One of my contacts at Activision (I can’t say exactly who for liability’s sake) recently leaked information as well as the possible set list for the unannounced upcoming game, Guitar Hero: Fall Out Boy. The game is set to follow the escapades of lead singer Patrick Stump, bassist Pete Wentz and guitarist Joe Trohman as they play various locations, including such venues as emo/underground pop theater CBGB & OMFUG in New York City. Rumor has it that you’ll be able to customize the make-up that each member of the band wears at each performance, choosing just exactly how much eyeshadow Pete Wentz wears on stage. Also, you can customize the design and severity of the cuts that each band member has on their forearms! Kinky!

Like Guitar Hero: Aerosmith, the game will include other smash hit artists similar to the likes of Fall Out Boy, including Panic! At the Disco, Paramore, Gym Class Heroes, The All American Rejects, Linkin Park and many more!

Want to see the rumored (and probably incomplete) set list for the no doubt blockbuster hit? Hit the jump!

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Word of a very pretty tech demo on the PS3 hit the internet a few days ago and a bit of buzz started swarming around it. Of course, pretty and PS3 go hand in hand as we’ve seen with plenty of games coming out for it. Good, complete, non-glitchy and best version are all totally debatable descriptions of games on the system, but pretty is something that the PS3 has down pat. Still, this tech demo was rumored to be truly impressive as all the graphics were gorgeous and totally in game. Today we get some video of it, which you can see above, courtesy of Youtube and Gametrailers, and a name to go along with it: Linger in Shadows.

As a tech demo the thing is pretty impressive. Graphically it looks strikingly good and the physics are spot on. The dog looks a bit funny but it still seems really interesting. But rumor now has it that this is more then just a tech demo and is actually a game itself. If that is the case…What!? I don’t even know what could possibly be going on here to make a game. My best guess is you’d play as one of the characters shown in the beginning of the video and that the dog and the cat were just there to show off how well the system can handle hair (a true sign of any great game). Otherwise would you be battling shadows the entire time, or just robots who can’t seem to stop bumping into things? I guess it doesn’t really matter, tech demos are set up to show stuff off not make sense and the reliability of the source for this being an actual game is a bit in question. Nothing wrong with watching a very interesting tech demo though and hoping it turns out to be a truly interesting game.

While the game hasn’t been technically announced yet, all of these delicious, high-resolution images have been found on SEGA’s ftp site. Hit the jump for all of ‘em, plus a few other details that have surfaced.
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Watch the above YouTube video. Did you catch it? Near the end there. That’s right, 0708. What does that mean? Why are they covering it up? Could that be a release date for an upcoming Insomniac game? Sure looks like it. And what upcoming game does Insomniac have? Oh yes, the sequel to Resistance: Fall of Man. Would be a pretty awesome present around that time of year when games aren’t always flooding the market per se.

In more important news: How amazing would it be to work at Insomniac? Pinball machines, putting greens, weekly massages! How do these guys find time to make games, and really amazing games at that? Plus they write some pretty catchy music too. Of course, keep in mind that this is all rumors, especially the weekly massages, those couldn’t really happen. Hit the jump for a screen cap of the date in question.

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I’m not going to pretend I really understand what any of this means but here we go anyway. Rumor has it that the XBox 360 will be getting two more motherboard/chipsets code named “Opus” and “Valhalla.” Put those together and you’ve got something that sounds like a really epic opera, “The Valhalla Opus.” We already have the Xenon, which was the original chipset, the Zephyr, which came in that fancy Elite you picked up, and the Falcon (Punch!), which is in the current systems with a 65 nm CPU. Plus there is the Jasper, which has both a 65 nm CPU and a 65 nm GP together, but isn’t in systems yet. Put those together and you get Jasper’s Xenon Zephyr Falcon, which is a strange bird that can breathe fire.

Digressing from sticking together 360 chipset names and figuring out what they are, these two new chipsets look to pretty much clean up on their predecessors. In fact the Opus will literally do this as it is a Falcon generation motherboard designed to fit in a Xenon case, sporting a 90 nm GPU and a 65 nm CPU. This is a bit less powerful then the other chipsets and so would probably be used simply to refurbish old or busted 360’s, which is good for the environment and for no longer having to worry about RRoD.

The Valhalla on the other hand cleans up in every other way. It is basically the unified Jasper but more powerful, more energy efficient, more reliable and cheaper. It will also do your homework, walk the dog and if you’re really desperate perform oral sex. The Valhalla seems to be the dream 360 chipset, incorporating everything you’ve been wanting and booting out everything you hated, plus allowing for a cheaper selling price. Too bad you’ll have to wait to get it, as they won’t be coming out till 2010. This really makes the Jasper, rumored to be coming out next year, look bad. It has a lame name and is in second place even before it comes out.

According to a thread on ScoreHero, the latest Rock Band DLC pack, (Arguably) Punk Pack 2, contains a list of every song in the game, along with quite a few songs we haven’t heard about.

I’m just going to say that if these are really showing up soon, Rock Band is going to continue to f*cking rock us and have the best downloadable content of any game I’ve seen.

Hit the jump for the full list. (Thanks Joystiq for saving me the time it would take to pair up all of the songs with their respective artists.)

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Whether you love the PS3 or hate it, you can agree on one thing: It’s a big piece of hardware, weighing in at 11 pounds. Sony has a track record of turning their PlayStation consoles little, and while we all knew that eventually there would be a “PS3 Slim,” it now seems the wait may be shorter than we suspected. T3, the UK tech website, has talked to a “particularly well-informed insider” in the industry that assured them of the existence of the PS3 Slim. The system is speculated to be released in fall of 2008. As expected, Sony has declared “no comment” on the whole situation.

Now, I’m not really sure what to think of this. I mean, we knew it was coming, but this soon? Both the PSOne and the PS2 Slimline were released years and years after the original versions had been released. The PS3 is still in its infancy being about a year and a half old. While it would be advantageous to people like me who have not yet had a chance to pick up a Triple, I see this as a swift kick to the balls to the Sony loyal who already have theirs.

In case you haven’t heard, Burnout: Paradise is pretty frickin’ sweet. One of it’s greatest strengths is the Freeburn online mode, which tasks players with various challenges to perform within the giant sandbox of Paradise City. These tasks range from crashing in midair, to drifting around fountains, to jumping over each other. They’re outrageously awesome fun.

Besides being certain about Freeburn’s high awesomeness levels, I’m also fairly certain that Burnout fans will be receiving more challenges from downloadable content. How do I know this? The answer is extensive years of detective work. By ‘extensive years‘ I mean ‘5 minutes‘ and by ‘detective work‘ I mean ‘glancing at the game’s achievements‘. One of the game’s achievements reads as follows:

Block Party
Complete 2 whole sections of online Challenges (excluding PDLC)

PDLC, huh? I’m guessing that translates to “Paradise Downloadable Content”. On the other hand I could be completely wrong, and it translates to “Police Department Likes Candy”. Who doesn’t, right? Given that Electronic Arts is publishing, I can guarantee that the content won’t come without a price tag.

This is Masahiro Sakurai, and I am his bitch:

To find out why, hit the jump!

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