The spectacular Killzone PS3 trailer at Sony’s E3 2005 press conference left everyone in disbelief: can it be done, said everybody. Well, according to Phil Harrison, it can be done and will actually exceed some aspects of the shown trailer.

In an interview in the Official UK PlayStation Magazine, the executive revealed that the game will be shown next year and that “some elements already exceed the trailer.” He continued, saying that both internal and external expectation is “very high” and that Sony will not show the game to public until it’s going to “exceed people’s expectations.”

He also talked about achieving real-time, sharable gameplay recording, a feature that they will use in an upcoming game in a “very innovative way.” Apparently, it will be done by recording game input and then share that with other users. No other details were revealed.

A new studio has popped up, consisting of industry veterans from Raven Software, Radical Entertainment, GarageGames and Astral Entertainment. Titled Frozen Codebase, the developer announced that it has been approved by Microsoft to code games for the Xbox 360.

The company is led by President Ben Geisler, who has worked on a number of big titles such as Quake 4, Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction, X-Men: Legends and Soldier of Fortune 2. It is based in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The studio is yet to announce its first title, though the press release does mention that the project has been “receiving fantastic feedback” and that it’s “poised for success.” The Xbox 360 was mentioned as the only platform of development.

Southpeak Interactive has announced that it has signed a two-product publishing deal with TopWare Interactive. The first title is Two Worlds, a RPG slated for release in March 2007 for both PC and next-gen consoles. The second game was not revealed.

“We were looking for a publisher that would focus on giving our titles the aggressive promotion and distribution they deserve,” said James Seaman, managing director of TopWare. “SouthPeak was at the top of our list and we look forward to partnering with them to bring out titles to market.”

“TopWare is creating premium games - Two Worlds is a perfect example of the passion they bring to the medium,” said Katie Morgan, Executive Vice President of SouthPeak Interactive. “We have immense respect for their creative vision and can’t wait to work with them.”

AGEIA sends word that BioWare is integrating its PhysX technology into its next-gen Eclipse Engine for PC and next-gen consoles. The development studio will be using the physics solution in Dragon Age, as well as in future titles.

Those looking forward to upgrade their physics can purchase the AGEIA PhysX processor available now in computers from Dell and Alienware; it is also available as add-in boards from ASUS and BFG Technologies.

EA sent out word that Carmelo Anthony will grace the cover of NBA STREET Homecourt, the fourth game in the 3-on-3 basketball series. This will be Anthony’s third time, as he has appeared on the covers of NCAA March Madness 2004 and NBA Live 2005.

“I credit a lot of who I am today as a player to my days playing on the streets in Baltimore,” said Anthony. “My homecourt in Baltimore will always be a part of who I am, because that’s where I gained the skill and desire that has made me successful in basketball. NBA STREET Homecourt represents real street basketball and the place where it all started for me.”

NBA STREET Homecourt will be available for the PS3 and Xbox 360 sometime next year.

Gamers can look forward to quite a few titles at the PS3 launch next month. According to Sony’s official announcement, the following games will be available during the console’s “launch window”:

• Blazing Angels: Squadrons of WWII
  
• Call of Duty 3
  
• EA Sports Fight Night Round 3
  
• The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
  
• F.E.A.R.
  
• Full Auto 2: Battlelines
  
• Genji: Days of the Blade
  
• Madden NFL 07
  
• Marvel: Ultimate Alliance
  
• Mobile Suit Gundam: CROSSFIRE
  
• NBA 2K7
  
• NBA 07
  
• Need For Speed Carbon
  
• NHL 2K7
  
• RIDGE RACER 7
  
• Resistance: Fall of Man
  
• Sonic the Hedgehog
  
• Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07
  
• Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Vegas
  
• Tony Hawk’s Project 8
  
• Untold Legends Dark Kingdom

Sony also announced an official HDMI cable ($50) and listed the prices for the Sixaxis controller ($50), the Blu-ray remote control ($25) and the Memory Card adapter for PS1/PS2 memory cards ($15).

Pledging support for the PS3 is none other than EA, who announced that it has more than 30 games in development for the console. The publisher will release eight to ten games on the PS3 by late March 2007 including Fight Night Round 3 and Def Jam: Icon.

Paul Lee, President of EA Studios commented on the launch of the PLAYSTATION®3, ” Each game has been custom designed to leverage the hardware power of the PlayStation 3 and serve as a launch pad for EA’s next generation of HD gaming. This is only the beginning. In the months and years to come, developers will take greater advantage of the PlayStation 3’s cell processors and blu-ray storage capacity to create games of stunning depth and texture.”

Frank Gibeau, EA Executive Vice President of North America Publishing noted, “This is a very exciting time for gamers. EA’s games on the PlayStation 3 will help propel HD forward. Over the course of the next 18 months, EA will roll out groundbreaking new original properties and spectacular new versions of perennial hits that will further maximize the power of the PlayStation 3’s unique cell processor and outstanding blu-ray disk capacity.”

Hoping to attract movie-goers as well as gamers, Microsoft and New Line have partnered together to offer advance screenings of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning followed by the chance to play Gears of War. This chance is being offered in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and San Francisco, with all events taking place on October 4 in unspecified AMC Theatres.

To sign up for a ticket, head on over to the Match Made in Hell promotional site. However, the announcements were quick to point out that the receipt of a ticket does not guarantee admission; tickets will be entertained on a first-come, first-serve basis. The other condition is that guests will have to be at least 17 years of age.

Bethesda has confirmed this 1Up report, which states that Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion will be a launch title for the PS3 and that the November issue of OPSM contains the first preview of the title. In addition to the PS3 version, Elder Scrolls Travels: Oblivion for the PSP was also revealed; it’s due for release in Spring 2007 in North America and Europe.

Set to release alongside the PS3 console this November, and March 2007 in Europe (by Ubi), the game will essentially be the same as the one released last year on PC and Xbox 360. However, it will introduce a new faction: “Knights of the Nine” which is described by the developers as “the good Dark Brotherhood.”

“Oblivion has these really good character archetypes for evil,” says executive producer Todd Howard. “It has the Dark Brotherhood: You get your outfit, you feel like an assassin, you feel like an evil guy, [and] you role-play like an evil guy. We [didn't] have the opposite end of that. There [was] very little reward for being a goody two-shoes.”

Looking forward to it!

Three desktop resolution grabs from the Halo Wars cinematic:

Quoting SCi Entertainment CEO Jane Cavanagh, Tomb Raider Chronicles reports that Crystal Dynamics is hard at work on a new Tomb Raider game set for release in 2008. Responsible for the fabulously fantastic Tomb Raider: Legend, Crystal Dynamics is working on “new versions of Tomb Raider (including a PS3 version);” it is also working on a completely new franchise.

Can’t wait till 2008 for more Lara Croft goodness? SCi is set to release a special Tomb Raider 10th Anniversary Edition game in the second half of its 2007 financial year. It is also going to release Tomb Raider: Legend on Gamecube, DS and GBA.

Rockstar Games has announced a partnership with Team Bondi to publish the next-gen crime thriller L.A. Noire. The game is described as an “interactive detective story” set in the classic noir period of the late ’40s. L.A. Noire will make use of action, detection and “complex” storytelling in an open-ended challenge to solve a series of gruesome murders.

Although no platforms were revealed, the PS3 is a safe bet for the game since the Aussie studio has been founded by Brendan McNamara, who worked on The Getaway at Sony Europe.

A teaser trailer for the game has been released, along with a teaser website offering nothing but a logo of the game. The full trailer is said to debut on October 5.

The Tokyo Game Show this year saw Epic’s Tim Sweeney speak on various topics including the challenges of multi-core processors and PS3’s Cell processor, as well as some new details on Unreal Tournament 2007 for the aforementioned console.

Sweeney talked specifically about the difficulties of programming for multi-core processors, saying that it takes “about twice the effort and development cost” for these processors when compared to a single-threaded one. IBM, Sony and Toshiba’s custom-developed Cell processor is no different: the PS3 Cell chip “required about 5 times as much cost and development time than single-core.” He also said that the complex Cell architecture “introduces some economic difficulty for developers.” The Xbox 360 processor wasn’t part of the discussion.

However, he was full of praise for Sony when it came to the company’s open network scheme for the PS3’s online service. “Enlightened business model” were the exact words he used to describe the console’s online capabilities, as opposed to Microsoft’s closed platform Xbox Live which seems to be “quite negative toward user-created content” as the company has encountered.

Having praised PS3’s online network, he then proceeded to mention that users will be able to create Unreal Tournament 2007 levels and mods on the PC and play them on the PS3. After noting that the mod community was an “essential part” of the company’s success, he said that the company would love to transfer this mod community over to consoles, letting modders and mappers create content on their computers and then have them distributed online, as well as on the PS3.

As for Unreal Tournament 2007’s release date? Epic’s Jay Wilbur disclosed that they plan on shipping the game to PC and PS3 in Q2 or early Q3 2007.

In related news, Kotaku reports that Koei’s Fatal Inertia, initially pegged as a launch title for the PS3, has been delayed to Winter 2006. The company cites problems with the Unreal Engine 3, though they do mention that they being helped by both Sony and Epic on this. When asked about multiplayer by the site’s editor, the game’s producer said that he was “dreading this question,” as they’ve been having issues with their middleware platform. As noted by Kotaku, it seems that multiplayer is planned, but not set on stone yet.

The report also discloses that both Fatal Inertia and i, the company’s new PS3 title, will be in 720p, with the former making use of the console’s tilt controller. Koei also indicated that they are in discussions with Microsoft to bring over the titles to Xbox 360.

No more!

Heavenly Sword

Metal Gear Solid 4

Motorstorm

Resistance: Fall of Man

Ninja Gaiden Sigma

Uh, more screenshots?

Flow

Lair

Final Fantasy XIII

Ridge Racer 7

Monster Kingdom: Unknown Realms

Warhawk