StarCraftWire.net continues to delve into the System Requirements of StarCraft II, and looks further into the physics engine used by the game. Havok will potentially bring previously unseen physical effects to the game:

“Havok Tools make up a portion of what will feature in the Blizzard engine that powers StarCraft II. What exactly Blizzard developers will do with the tool is completely up to them and some effects could be as yet unseen, but it is likely to have a focus upon the unit models and wrapping that emulation of real world physics to their movements, and it is likely to feature in the terrain and objects destructibles, that is the character models and the world environment.”

As I am sure many of you are aware by now, Rockstar recently teased us all in the latest issue of the Official Playstation Magazine. Rockstar stated that they are working on a “cool” new project based on a license so could this cool new game be Max Payne 3 - a game renowned for its icy setting?

Enough speculation, lets look at some facts.

The last Max Payne game was released to critical acclaim but average sales back in 2003 but since then there has been nothing but rumors suggesting a possible sequel - even one suggesting it will be out as early as next year. The ending sequence in the PC version even teased at the idea:

“Max Payne’s journey through the night will continue”

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id’s post-apocalyptic open-world shooter Rage (PC, PS3, 360, Mac) will look worse on Xbox 360 due to the compression needed to fit the game’s assets on two DVDs, programmer John Carmack revealed at tonight’s QuakeCon keynote.
According to Carmack, the royalty fees to include a third disc in the Xbox 360 version would be so high that it simply isn’t a feasible solution, with the programmer hoping for Microsoft to make a concession. He stressed that the issue is merely a storage problem and has nothing to do with the power of the Xbox 360 hardware, while adding that the PlayStation 3’s Blu-ray format is Sony’s one leg up on the competition.
Carmack also noted his belief that neither Doom 4 or Rage will be digitally distributed online, as id isn’t looking into that sort of distribution for its major titles at this point.

Ok John, what about installing games on 360’s HDD to improve performance and minimizing loadings? Sounds weird, because Microsoft said you will be able to install games on your HDD, and it’s not joke. Why don’t you use this? Just like optional features, wanna get less loadings and more stable framerate - install game like you got PS3, don’t want or don’t have free space - play regular DVD’s with bigger loadings and less stable framerate?

Here are five latest gameplay videos from upcoming third person shooter Red Faction: Guerilla.

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Microsoft has just announced that the long-awaited title from Silicon Knights, Too Human, has gone gold. After years of speculation and constant speed bumps, the development team at Silicon Knights has managed to finish Too Human.

Well, it looks like the years of development have finally come to a close and the game will begin shipping to stores on August 19th.

Gametrailers have released another Dead Space developer diary, where they talk about and show scary moments of the game.

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Mythic’s Paul Barnett confirmed the news hundreds of thousands of pre-orderers will be thrilled to hear: Warhammer Online is finished and ready to ship.

“The game’s finished,” said the developer. “It’s just being polished and cooked.

“We’re in a position now where every day we get to polish it it polishes a little nicer. At some point you say, ‘That’s polished enough now. See you later.’”

Barnett wouldn’t be drawn on a specific release date, but said he would be comfortable if the game shipped now.

“We just won Game of the Show from IGN, G4 and GameSpy from E3 and they all said the same thing: they’ve never seen an MMO prior to launch that’s as polished and slick and ready to go as our game is. Our game looks great, feels great, plays great.

“Is it in a shippable state? Yeah, we could ship it now.”

Nintendo, as you might expect, is approaching things a bit differently. President Satoru Iwata freely admits the company is already working on the Wii’s successor (something Microsoft’s Shane Kim refuses to concede). However, he adds that he doesn’t view the hardware as particularly interesting.

“We are always preparing for the next hardware,” Iwata says. “We are under development. … But the hardware is a kind of box that consumers reluctantly buy in order to play our games.”

To that end, Nintendo will keep its development well under wraps until Wii sales dry up–in other words, not anytime soon–and developers run out of ways to utilize the system’s interface (ditto).

Nintendo, though, is in an unusual position. With the company’s huge success with the current-generation console, consumers are going to expect a lot from it whenever the successor to the Wii is unveiled.

“Every hardware needs some revolutionary features,” Iwata says. “This time around, it happened to be we had a revolutionary user interface. Will it be the same for the next generation? I really can’t tell.

It wasn’t long ago that Killzone 2 was a video game punch line, the sort of thing you talked about when referencing a game that could never live up to the hype. The first title in the series failed to be the “Halo killer” many believed it could become, and an ambitious “visual target” trailer shown at E3 a couple years back nearly doomed the project from the start, when it couldn’t replicate the same details in-game. All of that is about to change though, as Guerrilla Games has Killzone 2 primed and ready to fight, and the joke will soon be on all those who dismissed this title too soon.

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The editors of 1UP.com and Electronic Gaming Monthly have recovered enough from this year’s videogame preview overdose to place their votes for the best games seen at E3 2008. Some games, like Gears of War 2 were naturally expected to leave a big impression, but this year saw its share of unforeseen knockout punches with high-concept surprises like Flower, or the every-bit-as-good-as-promised showing made by Little Big Planet, which took Best of Show, and surprises like FF XIII announce on Xbox360.

Best E3 Game by Platform

Best E3 360 Game - Gears of War 2 ; Runners up: Resident Evil 5, Mirror’s Edge, Fallout 3, Fable 2
Best E3 PS3 Game - Little Big Planet ; Runners up: Killzone 2, Resistance 2, Infamous, Valkyria Chronicles
Best E3 Wii Game - Mad World ; Runners up: Mega Man 9, Animal Crossing: City Folk, Defendin De Penguin, Wii Sports Resort
Best E3 PC Game - Left 4 Dead ; Runners up: Spore, Dark Room Sex Game, Warhammer 40.000: Dawn of War 2, Fallout 3
Best E3 DS Game - Chrono Trigger ; Runners up: Rhytm Heaven, Ninja Town, Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia, Tecmo Bowl: Kickoff
Best E3 PSP Game - Resistance: Retribution ; Runners up: Super Stardust Portable, Yumi’s Odd Odyssey, N+, Valhalla Knights
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