Explosions, destruction, mayhem! Any shooters won't go anywhere without these ingredients, and LucasArts clearly knows that. With the help of Day 1 Studios, Fracture will be hitting the PS3 and Xbox 360 with a promise of delivering everything that an outstanding action-packed game needs.

Here's the twist - explosions and destruction mean a lot different in Fracture. Grenades don't simply frag people, they make holes in the ground. Why destroy enemy structures with brute firepower when you can just flip them over with a bang?

Terrain deformation is where next-gen is at, or so LucasArts believes. Aiming to revolutionize how people look at action games, Fracture is set to be a complete package of adventure, shooter, and strategy genres. Here is Mike Webster, LucasArts product marketing manager, telling us all that plus more.

Anyone who thinks card games are boring are in for a shock. Eye of Judgement for the Sony PlayStation 3 takes the genre to a whole new level and it shows in this trailer from E3 2007.


Originally slated for the launch of the PS3, the Eye of Judgement was delayed and is now waiting for Fall of this year to ship. It looks like the wait will be worth it, though. The graphics look pretty good and the song playing in this video's background sets an intense mood.

The game will be one of the first PS3 titles to use the Eye peripheral from Japan. Along with it, players will utilize a special playing mat and cards which use CyberCode. This allows them to gain the full "real" card experience while seeing beautiful spells and creatures onscreen. We'll be watching out for the Eye of Judgement and we'll update you all the way.

  
With the E3 event now winding down, we're letting the readers know about several bargains retailer GameStop has just announced, beginning last Friday (July 13). Highlights for the promo include a US 499 PlayStation 3 package, which will come with five free Blu-Ray movies.

For the more game-specific promos, Dewy's Adventure (Wii) pre-orders will include a free Dewy plushie, while Conan (PS3) will include a free figurine of the game's namesake Cimmerian. Another deal to take advantage of is the US 10 cut down for certain titles, such as Supreme Commander (PC), and Bionicles Heroes (Wii). The promo runs until July 19, with the PS3/Blu-Ray offer began on July 1, and will end on September 30. Just click on the read link, or the promo details we've got posted here for more info.

The PSP homebrew community has seen a certain number of great programmers out there, Mathieu Hervais of Noobz being one of them. 22 years old and still a student, he is know by most in the PSP homebrew scene as Mathieulh. Today, the Exophase Forums has posted an interview they've conducted with the homebrew developer and a couple of interesting tidbits surfaced.

Now in light of hearing about Dark AleX leaving the PSP scene for good (supposedly due to possible issues with Sony), it seems that Mathieulh might be following suit. Not that he's leaving-leaving, but he says he'll quit working on what he's know for most: custom firmware.

Mathieulh: I will continue to be in N00bz and perhaps help a few friends of mine developing softwares but I am done with anything related to custom firmwares.

This bit of news might prove to be a slight hitch at homebrew development, to say the least. However, our sullen feelings were quickly replaced by something from out in l...

Online gaming seems like a very viable market that game consoles can get into, so game makers and hardware firms are going all out to capitalize on the situation. In this year's E3, Sony Computer Entertainment and NCsoft have announced that they're forging ties to bring exclusive content for the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Portable.

The deal they entered provides that NCsoft shall develop several titles which may be original or drawn from the developer's existing work which has a roster that includes hits like Lineage, Guild Wars and City of Heroes.

"Their track record of creating successful online games is exactly what we are looking for as we grow the PlayStation Network, delivering new, rich experiences on both PS3 and PSP," says Sony's Third Party and Developer Support Vice President Riley Russell.

According to NCsoft, their games are at a global standard and have been deployed everywhere from the US to Asia. They also claim to have a 70 million-strong ...

There's been a bit of wheeling and dealing gone wrong in Europe as betting outfit Paddy Power held a game letting bettors stake bids on what the price scheme for the European Sony PlayStation 3 will be following the US price drop.

Paddy Power representative Sharon McHugh said in an earlier statement "We can only apologise and maybe we should have made it clearer in the press release."

GamesIndustry.biz reveals that the firm cancelled all the bets placed on the stakes and instead are offering patrons a free novelty betting option for the same amount in place of the cancelled contest.

The cancellation is a result of Sony announcing that prices will stay as they are, at least for the time being in the market, prompting Paddy Power to do its move despite having the scenario as one of the options.

The European version of the PS3 console arrived in the European market earlier this year and carries a different set of specs from its American and Japanese co...

While the success of the Guitar Hero franchise has never been in doubt, the popular rhythm game is currently up for some heavy competition with the coming of Electronic Arts' Rock Band for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.
In a recent interview with Next Generation, Activision Senior Vice President of Marketing Bill Kassoy had a few simple words to back up Guitar Hero III (PS2, PS3, Wii, Xbox 360).
"Don't underestimate Red Octane's hardware," said Kassoy, referring to the fact that Harmonix, who developed the first two Guitar Hero titles for Activision and is now working on Rock Band for EA, only has experience in software. Kassoy also pointed out the price differential between the two titles. Rock Band is expected to cost gamers more since it has more additional controllers than Guitar Hero III.

During the interview, Kassoy also mentioned that Activision will be ramping up infrastructure for all its online-capable titles using the recently-acquired DemonWare. Casual gam...

On the LucasArts website promoting their new Star Wars game, publicity shots show images of an unseen controller with the Sony branding. In this redesign, the left analog stick has been swapped with the D-pad (in a similar fashion to the 360 and Gamecube controllers). So is it real?
At E3, Kotaku received confirmation on rumble returning to the PS3 controllers from an unnamed third-party publisher. We posted Sony responding to the rumor here. If Sony were to give rumble back to their customers, it would also seem like the only good time for a controller layout adjustment, since packaging the redesigns together would prevent a potentially hazardous third SKU on the market. So logically it could be real, but if this shot is actually a leak, we're calling it intentional. [kotaku]

The developers at Pandemic Studios showed off some of the new titles from Electronic Arts' line-up during the E3 Media and Business Summit 2007. What was shown to players about Mercenaries 2: World in Flames (PS3, PC, Xbox360) was a sandbox world full of destructible structures, flammable forests, realistic vehicles, and uber fun gameplay. The devs showed off the fact that players were free to do what they wanted, so long as they got the mission done in time.
Through the demo, we saw a lot of improvements over its predecessor. For instance, trees will not become an obstacle to the player any more, water won't drown the mercenaries, and anything in the world can be destroyed. The dev took us from flying a scout chopper, to tearing down a bridge, blowing up an oil rig, hijacking an APC, and calling in an air strike on a base, all the while trampling over cars, towing semis, and unloading a whole lot of ammo on the environment.

With NO loading screen between zones,...

The E3 Media and Business Summit 2007 may have come and gone, but there's still a ton of important post-E3 tidbits that deserve every gamer's attention. Mostly because in addition to new videos and screenshots of the latest upcoming video games, there are things you probably haven't heard of yet.

For instance, you might have heard about the conflicting reports about the 60 GB PS3 getting phased out, but did you know that the advent of the PSP Slim may also herald the death of the old PSP model?

How about the strongly worded remarks Peter Dille made against the Xbox 360? You probably heard him say that HD-DVD is as good as dead. Did you know, however, that Peter Moore has a rebuttal to that? Even more importantly, it's a civil one!

You also probably know that the Nintendo Wii is selling oodles of units, but how about the possibility of the Wii outselling the grandmaster of gaming, the PS2? There's certainly some merit in that assertion, though it'...