Art Director Tramell Isaac, who worked at 3D Realms for the past two years on Duke Nukem Forever, has, like the rest of his teammates, been let go with the closure of the studio. He posts several screenshots of the uncompleted Duke Nukem game, alongside some art as well. It certainly looks impressive, check out the rest of the gallery on his blog.

During Activision’s recent earnings call (which went really well, by the way), CEO Mike Griffith said that the next Tony Hawk game will be revealed at E3, a game which will feature a skateboard peripheral of some sort.

A few months ago, the man Tony Hawk himself almost confirmed the new “board” accessory, and several leaks have since suggested that it was the real thing. We’ll see at E3.

There’s been a lot speculation over the multiplayer element in BioShock 2, and now 2K Games have revealed that the multiplayer element of the game will be done by a separate developer; Digital Extremes, a known developer of several FPS titles.

The multiplayer of BioShock 2 will include features such as leveling up (experience point based), and make it possible for players to experience the city of Rapture before its downfall. More details are sure to be released at E3, with gameplay footage as well.

It’s not every day I get my hands on a game like X-Men Origins: Wolverine.  Having just covered the movie version of same mere days ago over on our sister site Screenhead, I knew that the game was going to be a baffling little package for plenty of reasons.

Perhaps the biggest of these reasons is that, the movie was a greatly flawed beast that had a lot of wild action fun involved with it.  It virtually ignored canon and went off on a truly bizarre tangent that only resembled in passing any of the previous events.  So knowing what we all know about movie-to-game translations, how would the game version, the Wolverine Uncaged Edition (now available for Playstations two and three, Xbox 360, PC, Wii, PSP, and the Nintendo DS) play for us?

First, the plot—basically, X-Men Origins: Wolverine—Uncaged Edition will follow the movie plot, somewhat, as we follow Wolverine through his military service to where he joined the Weapon X program and beyond from there.  He’ll fight government supersoldiers of every stripe, including his “brother” Sabertooth (which even casual fans will know is a crock of the highest order) to get revenge on the government that betrayed him.

Now…on to the game itself; I don’t remember the last time I played a game involving Marvel characters that was this extravagantly blood-soaked.  And I definitely don’t remember the last time Wolverine did quite this much killing.  Seriously—by the end of the first level he’s going to have a body count higher than any Marvel enterprise I’ve seen lately, and probably higher than the last time Jason Voorhees took a run at some campers.  When Wolverine’s outkilling the undead juggernauts of my favorite horror classics I know something is GRAVELY wrong.

And the plotlines of the movie and the game will actually be somewhat divergent.  How divergent, you wonder?  Well, let me put it to you this way—the game will involve Sentinels.  You see so much as a robot in the movie?  No?  Well, neither did I.  I’m having a hard time with this game—most movie translations to game at least TRY to look like the movie they’re translated from, but this is just ridiculous.  And sure, I’m glad that a Marvel property actually tried to be mature for once, but all this blood is actually sort of out of place.  I remember thinking, this is why Wolverine pretty much had to be a good guy.  If he were evil he’d be an unstoppable killing machine.  And this is actually the biggest problem of all.

Wolverine is supposed to heal up from pretty much any damage, up to and including being shot in the skull with adamantium bullets.  That’s canon.  We saw that in the movie, too.  So how do you translate this into a play mechanic that doesn’t end up with the character being invincible?  Sadly, you can’t—thus, you have to water down Wolverine—give him a health bar and force him to regenerate by not taking damage until you can recover.

So really, the movie to game translation of X-Men Origins: Wolverine—Uncaged Edition is much bloodier, and yet at the same time much less substantial than the movie.  And the movie wasn’t saying much to begin with, so it’s safe to say unless you’re dying for that sweet Wolvie Berserk Style in your gameplay, this one isn’t worth a snikt.

For the many anime buffs out there who love to get a hold of characters used in gaming consoles, here is a new one for you. Thanks to D3Publishers, ASTRO BOY: The Video Game is coming this fall for Wii, Nintendo DS, Playstation 2 and PSP.

Based on the upcoming feature film which itself is inspired by one of the most beloved characters of all time, ASTRO BOY: THE VIDEO GAME will allow players to become Astro Boy, a young boy robot with incredible powers. ASTRO BOY: THE VIDEO GAME is slated to ship worldwide this fall to coincide with the North American and international release of the movie in October 2009 from Summit Entertainment.

“We are confident that the ASTRO BOY: THE VIDEO GAME will be a faithful adaptation of the movie by successfully blending action gameplay with immersive storytelling,” said Alison Quirion, vice president of marketing, D3Publisher. “Players of all ages will interact with the much-loved characters from the movie and square off against powerful foes from the movie for a rock solid gameplay experience from start to finish.”

ASTRO BOY: THE VIDEO GAME for Wii, PlayStation 2 system and PSP system is under development by High Voltage Software and Nintendo DS by Art Co. Ltd. The game is currently rated “RP” (“Rating Pending”) by the ESRB.

(Source) Press

EA working on 30 iPhone games
Hack enables Bionic Commando multiplayer
Guitar Hero: On Tour bundle for under $15
Game engines used to recreate movie scenes
Flashback hits App Store
Activision reveals DJ Hero controller
Guitar Hero: Van Halen officially confirmed
Microsoft prepping to buy BigPark
Google exec joins EA board
Activision Blizzard reports huge profits
New Astro Boy game in development
Virtua Tennis 2009 delayed to June
Nintendo Reporting Record Sales, Predicting Future Slump
Leisure Suit Larry: Box Office Bust Game Review–Well, At Least It Tried
JCE Launches First MMO Basketball Game
EVE Online turns 6, celebrates 300,000 users
THQ loses $431 million in 2008
Richard Garriott sues NCSoft
Duke Nukem developer 3D Realms shuts down

Just yesterday we heard the seemingly ridiculous rumor that Apple was prepping to buy mega-publisher Electronic Arts and now this — Word has recently gotten out that during an investor call EA announced that they were working on an extensive iPhone lineup of 30 games.

Now this may just be an attempt by EA to mend the $1 billion they lost last year or perhaps its a conspiracy between the two companies to keep their newfound alliance under wraps.

Okay I may be jumping the gun a bit but it could happen, right?

Read (Destructoid)

If you’ve found yourself ready to throw your controller at the screen due to time limit enforced on the demo of Bionic Commando, you’re in luck.

Destructoid recently got their hands on a work around that lets you create a private match, play with friends, and change the time limit. Below is how you go about doing it:

1. Go to the main screen and hit start. Stay in that screen.
2. Get a friend to send you a game invite, any game will do
3. Accept that invite, and when it asks you to exit your game, say NO
4. You can now select private matches and invite friends

We haven’t tried this work around yet but what harm can it do? It is only a demo.

However, it is noted that selecting Game Mode or Frag Limit will crash the demo, be warned.

If you’re prepping to go on a road trip or just looking to pick up a Nintendo DS version of Guitar Hero, GoGamer.com is holding a special event that will have you interested.

Priced at just $14.90, this deal with net you the Guitar Hero: On Tour bundle (complete with controller) for 63% off the normal $39.99 offered by retailers.

I mean common, it’s less than $15, what do you have to lose? You better act fast though as at the time this article was wrote there are only 31 hours of this deal remaining.

Now here’s something really cool, GameArtist recently held a competition called ‘Scene from a Movie’ in which participants were tasked to recreate a scene from their favorite movie using nothing more than game development tools.

Well, the competition has come to a close and winners have been announced. The movies used for the top 5 contestants include Blade Runner, Hook, X-Men 2, I Am Legend, and Alien.

My personal favorite? I Am Legend, pictured above.

You can check out the rest of the winners here.