Brief Kazunori Yamauchi Interview

I'm not a big racing game fan aside from Mario Kart. But, I have to respect Gran Turismo for its sheer attention to detail. I even had the chance to play through Gran Turismo 5 Prologue for PS3 thanks to an associate of mine. Absolutely stunning visually and the game is quite fun if you're into cars. Even if you're not, I suggest you give it a try. I did, and while I'm not going to go out and buy up every game in the series or even buy GT5 when its released, I will say that its well worth a rent. But, why the hell is it so damn hard to give the cars damage in-game? I understand there have to be tons of licensing agreements to go through, but goodness... its just a video game. Thankfully, Kazunori Yamauchi, the creator of the Gran Turismo franchise has said that they're planning on including car damage as future downloadable content. He also said that Gran Turismo 4 would include damage. It never showed up. Period. But, the game flew off shelves regardless, just because of the sheer number of vehicles available. His supposed reason for not including damage is because he feels that the damage should look authentic enough to their standards. Respect. So, for the Gran Turismo fans out there, please enjoy the following brief interview with the series creator courtesy of YouTube user Team GT.

"Dinobots, destroy Devastator!"

Apparently Micheal Bay and company have decided to follow suit on some unfulfilled expectations and promises for the upcoming Transformers sequel set to be in theaters next year. For those who are unaware, the sequel is officially in production and various fans and professional journalists have already spotted the likes of Optimus Prime and Barricade in their vehicle modes. The word is that a few of the new Decepticons and a good amount of human characters have also been revealed, but not visually. Fans of the actual robots as opposed to the humans will be glad to hear that all of the Constructicons will be in the film this time around and the Decepticon in tank form previously known as Devastator will have its name switched back to Bonecrusher. Hopefully he'll have healed form a previous face injury caused by a red-hot sword courtesy of Optimus Prime after a ridiculously short fight sequence by the time he shoots his scenes. Aside from that, you can also expect even more stereotypical humans characters. Thats enough about them. And as you should know, Bumblebee and the rest of the Autobots will play much larger speaking roles. Optimus was the only Autobot that I feel didn't get shafted in the first flick. Maybe that red dot on Michael Bay's forehead during filming had something to do with that. Let's just hope it shows up again this time around, maybe then we'll get some actual fight scenes, minus the ridiculously large bloom effect and quick cuts to something almost entirely different.

"Sorry. My bad."
-Optimus Prime

Dude, ummm... no.

"You don't know the power of the dark side!"

LucasArts has been kind enough to continue wetting our appetite with some more gameplay footage of its upcoming "Star Wars: The Force Unleashed". The following video will give you another glimpse at some of the more guilty pleasures I'm sure we'll all get out of the game, especially the Star Wars fans. Besides, we all know the dark side is more fun.

More GTA IV Gameplay Revealed

In the following trailer, which involves who I'm only assuming is either a new character that you'll be able to control at some point, a ready-made online character or an online-made custom character that Rockstar put a silly voice to; you get to see a few a Grand Theft Auto IV's new gameplay features. One of which is the ability to become drunk by consuming too much alcohol. You can even drive drunk. Jack Thompson is gonna be up somebody's ass on this one. But, you gotta love it. It just goes to show the level of freedom you can have in video games. Besides, its brilliant marketing in a sense, Rockstar knows that the game is going to get a lot of attention because they put that in their and they're showing it off proudly. If you're an intelligent human being, you should know that you should never, ever drive while drunk in real life anyways. Enjoy!

Halo Spec Script Complete

Word on the street is that the Halo movie is in fact back in productions. We've known about that for a couple of months now, but now we're hearing that there is an actual script out there written by GI Joe scribe, Stuart Beattie. Apparently, instead of just dropping us straight into the story of the first game, we'll be going with The Fall of Reach storyline first and then transition into the first Halo game for the second movie, with the last movie taking bits of Halo 3's story. We'll get the answers to many questions involving Master Chief's origins and the story is apparently very character-driven. Also, in a strange little twist, the Covenant don't show up until about halfway through the movie, to keep their appearance a mystery for non-Halo fans, all 3 of them. Unfortunately, it is unknown whether Neill Blomkamp or Peter Jackson are still going to fill their former duties and director and producer on the film. But, Halo is still set for release in 2009. We'll see how it turns out.

"I like to keep this handy... for close encounters."

OK, so maybe the following video doesn't involve Hick's own personal shotgun or even the super-badass USCM rifle, but its the next best thing, the motion tracker. Be real, tell me you didn't want one of those once you saw Aliens for the first time too. I can, because what I really wanted was a flamethrower and an Armat M41A. Hmmm... radar or bad ass weapons? Hard decision. Anyways, the following comes complete with the authentic bleeps, working display and all. I'm sure you can find one on eBay for about 2,000 bucks. Not that much considering its a prop from the most badass of all science fiction movies; not to mention the inspiration for any game involving space marines and aliens in the same vicinity.

Metal Creed

The guys at Ubisoft and Konami have teamed up to give the fans a bit of service on April Fool's Day. I'm aware that this is the day to be tricking folks, but don't be surprised if this turns up as one of the unlockable costumes in MGS4. Enjoy!