Despite some technical hitches, the News Rundown carries on regardless with a crop of Easter headlines. This week Rockstar gave us a first glimpse of 2007's big Xmas hit-to-be (GTA IV) and Insomniac explained why Resistance: Fall Of Man didn't quite match up to last year's (Gears Of War). Pick of the other headlines is an update on Microsoft's promising XNA Game Studio Express project, or 'YouTube for games' as they are clearly hoping it will become.
- GTA IV Unveiled
We don't usually cover game announcements, but Grand Theft Auto IV is pretty big news, and as early teasers go this one was actually reasonably revealing. Ignoring the rather lame Phillip Glass synth soundtrack, the presentation was up to scratch with what look like in-game visuals taking pride of place over flashy FMV. Reverting to a New York/Liberty City location seems a little cheap to me (I can't have been the only one anticipating country-hopping expansiveness), but if they focus on embellishing it with enough detail then maybe GTA will reign in on its obsession with scale in favor of the lick of polish and precision it always needed to add weight to its gangster drama (after all, players can add the knockabout fun factor themselves). That's just my opinion, of course, so feel free to have your say in our forum.
[Update: All-new GTA IV details were recently leaked and seem to confirm that the 'bigger is better' philosophy of San Andreas is being put aside in favor of greater depth of interactivity.] - Insomniac explains why Gears looks better than Resistance
It's worthwhile appreciating the honesty of Insomniac's Brian Hastings in admitting that Gears Of War clearly outperforms PS3's flagship shooter; it's rare for manager types to sacrifice some of their company pride for the sake of crediting gamers with a little intelligence. But was the scarcity of hi-res textures the only reason Epic's title looked better than Resistance? And is Hastings essentially implying that the two games are equals in other respects?
Other Headlines: - Is This YouTube For Games?
- PS3 Launch Leaves Parisiens Cold
- Daily Mail: Games are hurting kids
- Xbox for your gun? Mexico tries swaps in drug fight
- Crap Live Arcade games "trivialising" the service - Denki
- Diaper Wearing Gears Of War Players Shut Down Tournament
- Play WoW, Learn English
