Some new screenshots from Ubisoft’s upcoming flight combat sim HAWX. The game is due out on PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 this Fall.

A new video detailing the cell phase of Spore has been released. The video shows the evolution of the creatures at the very basic level.

Spore is due out this September on PC, Mac and DS.

Not much is known about Guitar Hero 4, which is slated for release sometime later this year. But some new information has popped up, courtesy of none other than legendary guitarist Ted Nugent. In an interview on the Detroit Radio Station WRIF he mentioned that he is involved in the production of the fourth game in the series, using colorful language to express the motion capture work he did.

While he did not mention his level of participation in the game, he did mention one song specifically - “Strangle Hold”, though the game might feature more songs, or maybe even another different song. You can hear the whole interview here; just jump to the 12:30 mark if you want to skip the rest of the stuff.

Sega Europe sent out word that Football Manager 2008 will be released for the Xbox 360 this Spring. The upcoming installment in the renowned sports simulation series has been developed by Sports Interactive and is fully updated for the new season, including transfers being made in the mid-season stransfer window, allowing players to select their favorite club or international team and guide them to the title.

The game, as expected, will feature online play via Xbox Live, allowing players to challenge friends to one-on-one matches and even host tournaments. Football Manager 2008 will kick in to stores on March 28.

The promised demo for LittleBigPlanet, the cute sandbox game that is in development at Media Molecule for the PS3, will not appear this year, according to SCEA PR Manager Ron Eagle who confirmed this to MTV.

“I can officially confirm that there won’t be a demo this year,” Eagle told Totilo, as reported on MTV’s Multiplayer blog.

He said that the game is still on schedule for release next year and that more of the game will be shown off in January. Eagle also claims that he has played through 60% of the game’s 50 pre-designed levels.

Hoping to knock out the competition, 2K Sports has announced the Spring 2008 release of Don King Presents: Prizefighter, an upcoming boxing simulation, for the DS, Wii and Xbox 360.

“The combination of real-life fight scenarios, story-driven gameplay and photo-realistic graphics will set this title apart from the competition,” said Christoph Hartmann, President of 2K. “Our goal has always been to deliver the most engaging and realistic titles, and Don King Presents: Prizefighter will exceed these expectations. Based on the game’s innovative features and high-profile fighters, this title will be a ‘must have’ for any sports gamer.”

It is being developed by Venom Games, who are hoping to deliver the realism of live-action match-ups and the tactics of boxing. Players will be charged with building the career of their boxers, balancing between training and promotion, and other stuff related to boxing.

Apparently, Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister of United Kingdom, resorts to Democracy to make sure he’s making the right decisions. Or at least that’s what Ascaron, the game’s publisher, wants us to believe anyway.

The game is due out February 2008 and lets players take on the role of a country’s leader, running the country and choosing between policies to maintain the majority vote.

With mounting pressure from the back benchers to review unpopular policy, the PM needs to carefully assess political strategy to gain the largest share of the vote to stay in power. But you won’t be able to keep everyone happy all of the time, so tread cautiously as popular policy may not be in the best interests of the country.

With an unpopular war being waged in the East and financial meltdown coming from the sub prime markets in the West, the UK government needs to take a firm and steady stance to appeal to the mass vote and win through. Tough political decisions lie ahead…

Do you withdraw British troops from Iraq to gain approval from the masses back home but expose the world to the increasing threat of terrorism? Do you maintain the unpopular increase in interest rates to safe guard from recession or opt for the more popular cut in interest rates and risk increasing the level of consumer debt in the UK? Winter bird flu is back on the agenda - do health services need a boost?

This forum post on the BeyondUnreal forums offers a look at changes planned for the first patch for Unreal Tournament 3, offering fixes in almost every part of the game. No release schedule was offered though.

In actual patch releases, a v8.0.1 update for Football Manager 2008 was released for both PC and Mac versions of the game. Grab them from Gamer’s Hell and Strategy Informer.

Following up on word that Spore is ’six months’ away from release, game designer Will Wright let it slip that the title is also in development for the Wii. “We’re doing Spore on the Wii,” he mentioned casually in a talk with Guardian Unlimited. It was previously declared that the game would arrive on “all platforms,” though it was never for the Nintendo console till now. Portable versions of the game are also said to be in development.

Wright expressed his love for the Wii, terming it as the only “next-generation” console on the market. “The PS3 and the Xbox 360 feel like better versions of the last, but pretty much the same game with incremental improvement,” he said. “But the Wii feels like a major jump–not that the graphics are more powerful, but that it hits a completely different demographic.”

He also expressed his love for the PC: “Every generation it’s like ‘the PC’s dead! The PC’s dead!’ But it carries on growing when consoles are flat for five years. At the moment I can get better graphics on my PC than I can on the PS3.”

To make Gran Turismo 5 even more awesome than it should be, Polyphony Digital and SCEI have partnered with BBC’s Top Gear show to be made downloadable through Gran Turismo TV (GT TV) that will be included in the PS3 game.

GT TV will be an online dedicated channel that will offer the latest news and content from the motoring world. It will launch worldwide on the PlayStation Network sometime next year. BBC will offer 40 episodes from their revered Top Gear show for download.

Additionally, the Top Gear Test Track - the track featured each week on the show, where the show’s team test the latest cars - will be digitized and made available in Gran Turismo 5.

“We at Polyphony are great fans of the world’s best motoring programme, Top Gear, so we’re delighted to be collaborating with BBC Worldwide to deliver Top Gear content via Gran Turismo,” said Kazunori Yamauchi, President, Polyphony Digital, “We’re sure that players will be as thrilled as we are when they get the chance to put their own driving skills to the test on the Top Gear Test Track in GT5, as well as enjoying classic episodes of Top Gear via GT TV.”

Below are some images from the Top Gear integration in GT TV.

Hoping to redeem itself for doing so much evil to the gaming masses, EA has collaborated with BP to include climate change education within SimCity Societies, the upcoming entry in the city-building franchise. The collaboration attempts highlight the impact of electricity generation on the emissions of carbon dioxide that are linked to climate change within the game. Here’s the deal:

The game does not force players to power their cities any specific way, but allows them to make choices, each of which come with advantages and disadvantages. Similar to real-life, the least expensive and most readily-available buildings in SimCity Societies are also the biggest producers of carbon dioxide, an invisible gas that contributes to global warming. Should players choose to build cities dependent on these types of sources for power to conserve their in-game money, their carbon ratings will rise and, at reaching critical levels, the game will issue alerts about the threat of the various natural disasters like droughts, heat waves and others that may strike their cities.

Alternatively, players can strive to create a greener environment and avoid hazards caused by excessive carbon emissions by choosing from a variety of BP Alternative Energy low-carbon power options. Using hydrogen and natural gas plants to wind farms and solar power, SimCity Societies encourages people to learn about some of the causes and consequences of global warming in an engaging, educational and meaningful way. While these power sources maintain nearby property values and keep the cities’ citizens safer from disaster, they also mimic real-life in that they cost players more of their funds, and do not produce as much power as less green options that take up similar space. Informative real-world snippets about power production and conservation will also be available in-game, informing players of global warming issues both virtually and in reality.

The game will be out on November 15. To demonstrate the importance of the collaboration, some screenshots were released to show off the gas emission.

Get your Wii Remote and Nunchuk and go fishing! Sega has announced Sega Bass Fishing for the console, the latest addition to the “most successful fishing game franchises of all time.”

In development for release early next year, the game will utilize the aforementioned Wii controllers and will offer over 20 different types of lures to choose from, time-of-day and season during play, 15 environments and multiple game modes. As expected, it will make use of the motion-sensitive controllers, having players toss and move to catch their fish.

No, they did not forget about Gran Turismo PSP, according to an interview with Kazunori Yamauchi, producer of the racing simulator series. He said that the PSP incarnation is still on the cards, though it has taken a back seat to the upcoming PS3 installment.

Gran Turismo 5 is expected to arrive sometime next year on the PS3; it will be preceded by a demo that will highlight the major features of the coming game.

As reported earlier, the freeware BMW M3 Challenge game has been released via its official website. Racing fans can download the game, which offers only the new BMW M3 Coupe in a variety of modes, including multiplayer.

With the game due out next month, Konami released further details regarding PES 2008, the highly anticipated entry in the football series. Here’s the whole deal:

Following the announcement of Cristiano Ronaldo as the European face of the new game, Konami has also extended the number of officially licensed national and club teams in the game. PES 2008 will boast more licenses than ever before, with Brazil, Portugal, Greece, Scotland and Ireland amongst the new officially licensed National teams on offer. Similarly, the roster of licensed club teams has also been bolstered, with Newcastle, Tottenham, RSC Anderlecht, HJK Helsinki, IFK Goteborg, Panathinaicos, Spartak Moscow, Fenerbache, NK Dinamo Zagreb and FC Basel amongst those added to the ranks.

The new licensed club sides join the likes of Juventus Turin, AC Milan, Celtic, Porto and more, and demonstrate Konami’s commitment to adding the world’s greatest teams to what is regarded as the most realistic football game for any system. The new teams also combine to ensure PES 2008 has over 3000 licensed players realistically replicated within the game, and over 250 teams.

PES 2008 will mark a quantum leap forward for the Pro Evolution Soccer series. An all-new AI system entitled Teamvision has been designed to actively monitor the player’s onscreen movements and adapt accordingly. This means players cannot resort to overly-familiar tactics, and forces them to change their movements if they are to pose offensive threats. New set pieces have also been implemented, with players selecting key players to receive free kicks, and tailoring defensive walls to their specific needs. Coupled with a massively enhanced aesthetic upgrade that includes facial animation and shirts creasing, plus an extensive edit mode, and PES 2008 is already shaping up to retain its footballing crown.

PES 2008 will be released for PS2, PSP, PS3, Xbox 360, PC and DS this October.