EA has announced the soundtrack for The Sims 2: Seasons, which will feature songs from Lily Allen and The Veronicas, among others, in Simlish, the native language of the Sims. Below is the soundtrack list:

• Government Mule - Mr. High And Mighty
  
• Lily Allen - Smile
  
• moe. - Blue Jeans Pizza
  
• The Breadbox - Band N
  
• The Chris McCarty - The Next One
  
• The String Cheese Incdent - Close Your Eyes
  
• The Veronicas - When It All Falls Apart

Sony unveiled its Game 3.0 vision at GDC, saying that games will become more interactive and socially-connected than ever before. Supporting this, they announced LittleBigPlanet, a community-based game with an innovative concept behind it. Players are left on a blue and green planet scattered with individual plots - they must use their characters’ abilities to play, create and share what they build with other gamers on the PlayStation Network.

The LittleBigPlanet experience starts with players learning about their character’s powers to interact physically with the environment. There are obstacles to explore, bits and pieces to collect and puzzles to solve - requiring a combination of brains and collaborative teamwork. As players begin to explore, their creative skills will grow and they will be ready to start creating and modifying their surroundings - the first step to sharing them with the whole community.

Characters have the power to move anything in this glued and stitched-together 3D landscape; they have the power to design, shape and build both objects and entire locations for others to view and play. There’s no complicated level editor; all of these skills can be learned by simply playing the game. Creativity is part of the gameplay experience and playing is part of the creative experience. Players can make their world as open or as secretive to explore as they like. When it’s ready, they can invite anyone within the LittleBigPlanet community to come and explore their patch - or can go and explore everybody else’s.

The game is being created by Media Molecule who were the guys behind Rag Doll Kung-fu. A demo for LittleBigPlanet is slated for release this Fall; the full game is expected early next year.

Below are the first screenshots from the title. More information on the game after the jump.

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The first licensee of Crytek’s new game middleware - CryENGINE 2 - is Avatar Reality who will be using it to create their recently announced massively multiplayer virtual world (MMVW). Set in terraformed Mars, the MMVW will allow players to create personalized characters and live in a “beautiful environment.”

“CryENGINE2 is able to render the most beautiful images, in real-time, that I’ve ever seen in my 20 years in the computer graphics industry,” said Kazuyuki Hashimoto, president of Avatar Reality. “We are certain that the quality of these stunning, realistic images stemmed from the technology and not just talented artists. After viewing the images, there is no question that CryENGINE2 is the perfect engine for us to use to build our massively multiplayer virtual world.”

The engine was first demonstrated to the public at GDC. CryENGINE 2 features includes a next-generation real-time renderer, multi-threaded physics engine, character animation system, integrated WYSIWYP sandbox editor, sound editor with interactive dynamic sound system, advanced AI system, resource compile and a network client and server system.

Autodesk announced that it has licensed HumanIK middleware to EA for next-gen game development. HumanIK is a development library that enables game developers to create animated characters to interact more realistically with digital environments. It has been used, alongside Maya 3D and MotionBuilder, in EA’s Def Jam: Icon, FIFA Soccer 07 and NBA Street Homecourt.

“Through our partnership with Autodesk, we were able to achieve a new level of character animation in DEF JAM: ICON, FIFA Soccer 07 and NBA STREET Homecourt,” said Glenn Entis, EA’s chief visual and technical officer. “Part of the reason EA consistently delivers innovative hit game titles like these is because we rely on extensive internal and external R&D. Autodesk HumanIK middleware allowed efficient porting of game data to the various platforms on which we shipped our games. Autodesk R&D team was highly responsive, quickly providing us with customised builds of the HumanIK solution.”

Built from the HumanIK character technology found in the Maya and MotionBuilder software, Autodesk HumanIK middleware provides an on-target intelligent inverse kinematics (IK) animation system. It lets game developers control the animation of a character’s body and limbs at run-time, resulting in a much higher level of realism in the game. Artists are empowered within the game authoring environment, as HumanIK delivers a what-you-see-is-what-you-get (WYSIWYG) workflow. This also reduces artists’ reliance on integration programmers, who typically port the game data into the game engine.

Some new screenshots of Halo 2 for Windows Vista straight frorm GDC:

Continuing to sell tons of copies, Blizzard announced that The Burning Crusade, the first expansion pack for World of Warcraft, sold approximately 3.5 million copies within one month of its release throughout the world. This includes nearly 1.6 million sold in Europe, 1.9 million in North America and more than 100,000 in Australasia.

World of Warcraft’s worldwide subscriber base now stands at more than 8.5 million; it continues to grow as both new and returning players join the game.

Following up on their Wii announcement, Vicious Cycle Software sends word that its Vicious Engine, an easy-access suite of tools for cross-platform development, is now a licensee of SCEI’s PS3 Tools and Middleware License Program.

“By taking advantage of the advanced processors and rendering capabilities of the ‘PLAYSTATION®3,’ the Vicious Engine can maximize a game’s potential,” said Eric Peterson, president at Vicious Cycle Software. “The Vicious Engine allows developers to create stunning and visually rich game content without having to worry about engine specifics.”

The Vicious Engine is now tearing it up on the PS2, PS3, PSP, Xbox, Xbox 360, Wii, Gamecube, DS and finally, the PC.

The booster pack for Hearts of Iron II: Doomsday, dubbed “Armageddon”, will be released as a download-only product via Gamer’s Gate towards the end of this month. To retail for $4.99, the pack will contain two new alternative history scenarios and the following new features:

• New attachments for Naval units; do you scrap or upgrade those old ships
  
• Land units can now be built with brigades already attached.
  
• An Air Naval combat system that radically alters the combat balance
  
• New damage algorithms for the Air combat system, making organization more important and allowing air units to fight longer.

Proving that people actually like testing how stupid they are, D3Publisher has announced its plans to publish PQ2: Practical Intelligence Quotient for the PSP. To be available this Summer, the game will help players see how stupid they are calculate their intelligence by using the PQ scoring system based on the number of moves and speed with which they complete more than 250 puzzles. It will also let players upload their scores online to measure themselves against other stupid people.

PQ2 will also let players create their own puzzles and share with friends using the handheld’s gamesharing mode, or utilize the infrastructure mode to upload puzzles and download new ones.

If you’re one of those people who love simulating ships, then this is for you: Lighthouse Interactive and VSTEP have announced Ship Simulator 2007, saying that the sequel to SS2006 will offer improved graphics and the following features:

• Ocean waves, with realistic ship motions
  
• Advanced day/night/weather system
  
• Large-distances trips between harbours (open sea missions)
  
• Multiplayer
  
• Walkthrough options on all new ships
  
• Mid-mission save function
  
• Visible damage on ships after a collision
  
• New navigation instruments, like a depth meter
  
• Advanced towing and mooring rope operations
  
• Complex and challenging missions, like chasing other ships, container loading, fire-fighting, rescue operations
  
• Three brand new exciting sailing areas: San Francisco, Southampton/Solent incl. Cowes, and Marseille
  
• At least nine new vessels, under which several ferries, a hovercraft, a massive container ship, an offshore drilling rig, an oil tanker, a rescue boat and a jet-ski
  
• Two cranes for container loading and unloading, which can be controlled by the player

This Halo 2 blog on IGN covers the game’s support for achievements, stating that a Gold account for Windows Live will be required to earn achievements for both single-player and multiplayer matches; Silver account-holders will be able to earn achievements in the single-player campaign and play in multiplayer games, though they will not be able to earn achievements in the latter.

The rest of the blog post covers the designing aspect of the achievements, as well as detailing the achievements themselves.

Q Entertainment has announced that it plans on releasing Every Extend Extra Extreme on Xbox Live Arcade later this year. Basically a sequel to the PSP title, E4 extends on the original by bringing the explosive action to the big-screen with HD support and 5.1 surround sound. The game will also support multiplayer and leader boards via Xbox Live, along with a custom soundtrack option for gamers.

No other details are known at the moment.

Another report from FiringSquad: Funcom project director Jorgen Tharaldsen informed the press that the company is “already deep in development” of yet another MMOG for the PC and Xbox 360; he said this during the company’s demo for Age of Conan. He also revealed that the game is using the same graphics engine as Age of Conan, and it takes place on Earth in the present day. He also mentioned that the game is being shown to publishers at GDC, though not to the press.

From GDC comes word that Linden Labs has licensed Philips’ amBX technology to Rivers Run Red to produce a dedicated amBX-enabled environment. This will offer Second Life users the opportunity to feel the virtual world in the real world through environmental hardware which involves light, air movement and rumble. This agreement also extends to “all-new commercially driven experiences for future brand marketing campaigns” between Philips and Rivers Run Red.

Philips also mentioned that it will be working on the development of solutions for open source Second Life client software to enable users to create new real world effects.

The amBX platform lets developers use light, color, heat, sound and air flow in the real world to add life to their game. This is done through various peripherals that range from LED color-controlled lighting to desktop fans, all of which are now available in the market.

FiringSquad reports from GDC one game that is sure to get gamers intrigued: Urban Mysteries from Denmark-based company Zeitguys Game Development. The studio was co-founded by former Io Interactive member Morten Iversen who, according to the article, was the scriptwriter for the Hitman series as well as the company’s other action title Freedom Fighters. Urban Mysteries is an action game powered by Unreal Engine 3, having players travel through time to change the future. Here’s a bit:

We got to see a brief and very early demo build of the game running on Epic’s Unreal Engine 3. The first part of the game showed our player character as he explored Urban Mysteries’s vision of 2052 with gothic and Victorian architecture. We were told that we would even see Zeppelin like blimps in this future that the player can control and even use in combat. The demo got really interesting when we time traveled to the 18th century version of this city. Here we had to use native weapons like a one shot musket to battle an invasion. The game allows the player to either shoot or attack melee style with the musket to take out enemies. At one point in the demo we have to make a choice. Two people are in a burning building but you can only rescue one. You must decide which one to save and then head back up in time to 2052. The final part of the demo showed our character back in his own time line but we saw the future city change right before our eyes (in-game morphing of the level; not a cut scene) to something totally different.

Zeitguys were showing the game at the event to attract publishers. They are considering either an episodic release or an entire conventional game; either way we can expect it in late 2008 or 2009.