With the recent announcement that Crysis 2 will be going multiplatform, one can’t help but question how the game will perform graphically. Crytek CEO Cevat Yerli mentioned to Develop that the game will push the console’s limit, but gamers will not see a noticeable difference between the two.

As for the PC version, “…will outscale and outperform the consoles,” Yerli said. “Between each console I believe the experience will be finally both next-generation, but similar experience.”

“Our mindset, goal and approach was to look at deliver the best FPS when we ship, not just for a specific platform,” he said. “So that approach won’t be different, just this time the challenge is not only to lead, but to make sure that our leading FPS is accessible and enjoyable by the widest possible audience possible.”

Read (The Escapist)

In case you have the urge to get 8x optical zoom with your DSi, Nyko has a solution with their upcoming Zoom Case. The case itself offers protection from surface scratches, but the main idea is to have a budging zoom lens flying out of your “portable” system.

The camera itself is detachable so it doesn’t render your DSi to look permanently ugly, but one has to question what Nyko was thinking when they created this contraption. Nyko’s Zoom Case will hit American retailers later this year from $20-$40.

Read (Nyko)

Lionhead’s Peter Molyneux was promoted today to the Creative Director of Microsoft Game Studios, Europe. Although, Molyneux will still be assuming his responsibilites as the head of Lionhead.

“What you’re not going to see is ten Peter Molyneux games,” Molyneux said. “The value of this role is for someone like myself going in and making those little tiny lights of an idea shine as brightly as possible and ensuring everybody within the organisation clearly understands why we’re making those titles, the purpose of those titles and their importance to Microsoft overall.”

Molyneux will still be assuming the responsilibites as the head of Lionhead.

Read (Blue’s News)

Microsoft has revealed that Xbox Originals, the download service for original Xbox games on the Xbox 360, would be discontinued after the next game, and replaced by the new “Games on Demand” service, which will offer full Xbox 360 games to be downloaded. Microsoft has yet to announce what final the on the Xbox Originals will be. The new service will launch later this summer.

There has been a lot of Metal Gear Solid news at this year’s E3, and they seem to keep rolling in. Konami has announced that the original Metal Gear Solid game, which was released on the PlayStation back in 1998, would find its way to the PlayStation Network, and will be offered on June 18 for $10.

This E3 has been busy for Konami, where the publisher has announced several Metal Gear games, inclduing Metal Gear Solid Rising, Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, and Metal Gear Solid Arcade.

Huxley, the anticipated MMOFPS will be free of monthly subscriptions, according to publisher ijji.com, who revealed that the game will be supported through micro-transactions — and we assume some form of in-game advertising as well. The publisher also revealed that the game would not be cross platform playable with the PC and Xbox 360 versions. The game also received it’s official title, and will henceforth be known as Huxley: The Dystopia.

As the final day of E3 is underway today, the ESA announced that the event has indeed been a success, with over 41,000 attendees and 216 exhibitors, including developers, publishers, media exhibitors, hardware makers and many other. Although this is still a far cry from the golden days, where over 50,000 people would show up (in 2006 over 60,000 attended), and where the show was open to the general public.

The ESA also announced next year’s E3 would take place from June 15 to 17 at the LA Convention Center.

Los Angeles Lakers’ Kobe Bryant has come a long way since his first cover on NBA Courtside on the N64, and now 2K Sports has announced that Bryant will be the cover athlete on the upcoming NBA 2K10.

Bryant, a three time NBA champion and last season’s MVP, will be playing for another championship trophy today, as the first game of the NBA finals between the Lakers and the Orlando Magic tips off.

Recently, a game landed onto the Xbox 360 that left me a little cold.  It was called Red Faction; Guerilla, and was yet another sequel to the first person shooter original and first sequel.  And when I first laid hands on this one I sighed in the deepest resignation and dragged out my thesaurus hoping I could find a new word for “craptacular”.   Seriously, I’m so very tired of first person shooters.  There are so few good ones.

But then I got it in, and I’ll tell you, I was pleasantly surprised.  Surprised is almost too weak a reaction, but is it really possible to be pleasantly shocked?

Anyway, you play a miner whose focus is in demolitions freshly landed on Mars a while after the earlier events of Red Faction.   The Earth Defense Force, which for some reason isn’t even ON Earth any more, is acting as an occupation force on Mars, backing up pretty much ever evil move that the Ultor Corporation (THQ just loves the name Ultor, I guess) makes.  This is doubly odd since, originally, the Earth Defense Force was a collection of GOOD guys who assisted Red Faction.  So much for that, huh?

So now you’re on planet, and the EDF just wiped out your brother for “crimes”.  No one really bothered to tell you what they were before they blasted him with what looked like a vulcan cannon, or before they came after you and discovered that you had explosives in your trailer (you’re a mining engineer with a demolitions specialty, remember?) so you, in response, joined Red Faction out of necessity and the desire to get payback for your dead brother.

The game itself plays a lot like some other titles, especially Saints Row, Grand Theft Auto, Just Cause and Mercenaries, and offers many of the same elements.  You can steal cars, which look a lot more like moon rovers and have apparently enhanced suspension to handle the rocky terrain better.  You’ll roam around a map with multiple zones, blowing things up, knocking things down, and shooting holy hell out of the EDF in an effort to wrest control of Mars away from them and put it back in the hands of the people.

There is a truly incredible variety of things to do in this game, make no mistake about that.  Within my first few minutes I had blown up several abandoned buildings, collected scrap from said buildings to upgrade my weaponry and hardware, and shot about thirty five stormtroopers—err…EDF troops.  I do enjoy a game that’s about more than walk from point A to point B and shoot whatever wanders in front of you.  As a result, this may actually be my favorite Red Faction game just by the sheer fact that it actually includes something different to do.

Granted, it’s not that much different from a first person shooter—its biggest difference may well be just a matter of perspective (no pun intended), but with the addition of driving and setting explosives and collecting items, it does elevate the game slightly above its predecessors.  It’s a good rental, no mistake there, but whether or not it’ll be a good buy depends on just how much you like shooter games with some solid action.

Warhammer and Warhammer 40,000 are two of the most popular tabletop games in existence. Both involve large scale battles between armies at the beck and call of the armchair generals. Several video games have been based on these two series, but they have mostly been RTS games, simply a digitized version of the game. There is still so much potential left untapped however within the framework of these universes for many kinds of games.

That’s why THQ and Relic Entertainment are unveiling Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine. Amongst the various forces and factions of the futuristic universe are the human forces of the Ultramarines, foremost amongst their ranks are the Space Marines, the blue armor clad elite of their army. The action RPG game will have players controlling individual units in a ‘narrative-driven story campaign’ and of course in large scale online battles. Relic Entertainment is bringing years of experience developing games under the Warhammer licenses to the table along with THQ’s own history of success. The title is being developed for both the Xbox 360 and the PS3