We already knew that Ubisoft’sRed Steel 2wouldboast integrationwith the Wii’s new MotionPlus accessory, but it has since come to light that the extra control will not be an option —it’s mandatory. According to creative director Jason Vandenberghe, the gameplay just “isn’t there” with a regular Wii remote, so the risky decision has been made to make this game MotionPlus only. “It’s a huge risk,” he confesses in a recent interview withNintendo Power....

Remedy has been hard at work on some supposedly impressive facial animation technology for an upcoming project. According toEdge, the Helsinki studio is confident it can come closer to crossing the “uncanny valley” effect than others have done before. The technology created by John Root — who was a lead animator at Midway, Epic Games, and id Software before moving to Remedy — builds upon motion capture by using it as a starting point for generating up to 0....

A new trailer forResistance 3has been unleashed upon the world via the PlayStation Experience in London. If you know anything about the series, you’ll know what to expect — hideous aliens and loads of things blowing up. Looks suitably action-packed and violent, which is what one wants in a man-versus-ugly-aliens shooter, I should think. What do you reckon? Looking like something you’ll pick up, or do you have something better to buy?...

Shield the Beatis a rhythm action game now available on Xbox Live Indie Games. Chased through space by enemy ships, you have only your shields to defend you from bullets raining down to the beat of the music (from the likes of Franz Ferdinand and DJ Champion). Each of the sticks on the 360 controller control a shield which blocks either blue or red shots. The trailer makes it look pretty fun, so I’m looking forward to trying it out this weekend onSaturday Morning Hangover....

It’s a fact that Electronic Arts needs to get off its ass and employsomeone(anyone!) to make a true next-generationSSXtitle. What if that “someone” wasGuildford, England-basedBurnoutdeveloper Criterion Games? That’s the rumor, coming straight from the latest issue ofOfficial PlayStation Magazine. The title is said to be in development alongside the already confirmed“action”Need for Speedtitle that’s set to ship this holiday. Word of a Criterion-developedSSXstarted floating around awhile back when the company’s official Twitter account dropped a mysterious message referencingSSXannouncer DJ Atomika, as well as the “Peak 3....

According toWired(viaHooked on Spore), aSporeexpansion briefly appeared on two online retailer’s websites today before mysteriously vanishing. Both GameStop and Amazon had the expansion calledCute & Creepy Parts Packslated for November 18th. Obviously fearing the wrath of Will Wright and Electronic Arts, the two retailers pulled the set. Wired attempted to contact EA about the alleged expansion, but only received the “we don’t respond to rumor and speculation” line that we know all too well....

When we heard that actress Scarlett Johansson was email pen pals with presidential candidate Barack Obama, it made us so happy. What a cute couple those two would make. We even wrote fan fiction. But today,our dreams were crushedwhen Obama came out and said “I barely even know that crazy b**ch!” Needless to say, we cried a lot today, and we might have forgotten to tell you about this stuff:...

Alright, we get it already —Brütal Legendis coming out and we justhaveto play it. Sure, the intro to the game — six minutes’ worth, just sent to us by Electronic Arts today — makes us want it even more. But we’re not sure if that was possible, considering how pumped we got just readingthe game’s ESRB listing. The video introduces Kabbage Boy, the fictional pop-rock band that appears in the game....

SCEE president Andrew House has confirmed the thing we all knew by now, that physical media will still be an important part of the games industry for at least a few more years. House has also added that digital distribution has a set of issues that need to be overcome before it becomes the norm. “The reason retail has been around for thousands of years is because it works really well at showing you a range of content,” he says, “having experienced store staff that can find the game you are looking for, tailor choices to your needs and up-sell you something you hadn’t thought of....

Yoichi Wada, president of Square Enix, says that they are neutral when it comes to the platforms they publish games on. They managed to raise eyebrows at E3 with theirannouncement thatFinal Fantasy XIIIwould come to the Xbox 360, but gone are the days of Square Enix picking a “home console.” “We always consider the territory and hardware for titles, and I just want to ensure that we’re neutral about dealing with companies,” said Wada toGamesIndustry....

A study performed by the University of Rochester has reached the conclusion that people who play videogames of the first-person shooting ilk have faster reaction times than those who do not. Researchers on the project tested two groups of people, having one group play 50 hours ofCall of Duty 2andUnreal Tournamentwhile the other played fifty hours ofThe Sims 2. Following this, both groups performed simple tasks to test how quickly and accurately they could respond to visual and auditory information....

Anyone in attendance at PAX Prime would have noticed a heavy Astroinfluence not only on the show floor but also within the Destructoid camp. With brilliant design, high quality and a the ability tocustom make tagsthey were the ultimate gamer accessory this PAX. I break Stan Press’s interview cherry as we talk about the Astro A30 headsets, Astro A40 headsets and mix amps as well as Stans very best PR run through of what makes Astros so damn popular....

KATAMARY DAMACY!!! We already knew the series was heading to the PlayStation Vita and Namco Bandai was finally able to let out some info about the new game. Don’t get your hopes up too high though, as the only thing that was revealed to us was a simple little teaser video. The teaser sees the Prince rolling his Katamari along until he comes up to a human character. The person then grabs the Katamari from the Prince and starts to expand and squeeze the Katamari around like a crazy maniac in varying sizes....