Peoww News

The fifth entry in the Hitman series, Absolution, was unveiled at this year’s E3 and judging from the two minutes of gameplay footage , it seems like IO Interactive have done to Agent 47 what Ubisoft did to Sam Fisher. Transforming the patient, calculating silent assassin into a reckless man of action.

These changes can probably be put down to the fact that the original developers of the franchise departed the company in 2008. Presumably the prospect of making another Kane and Lynch game was the deciding factor. I don’t blame them.

In addition, David Bateson, the voice and face of 47, won’t be bringing his softly menacing performance to the role. Most disappointing, however, is the news that long-time series composer, Jesper Kyd, will also not be returning. In a series without much in the way of plot or characters, his music brought a hell of a lot gravitas to each hit.

Disclaimer: The game could still be good.  Adam

Peoww News

I don’t know what the eponymous creed in Assassin’s Creed is, but if I had to take a guess, I’d say it was something along the lines of, “Bring out an Assassin’s Creed game every year; preferably with a subtitle instead of a number after it, in order to curb expectations as to what a sequel should entail. Also, stab people in the throat if they don’t agree with you.”

It seems Ubisoft have taken at least the first part to heart and so unveiled Assassin’s Creed: Revelations. The cryptic teaser trailer merely contains the the name of the first game’s protagonist written in Arabic, implying a return to his era, just as Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood continued the story of Ezio.

Whether this also implies a return to the Holy Land is a different matter, but I for one won’t be interested unless it turns out he discovered a way to time-travel to Revolutionary France and become the Scarlet Pimpernel. (Or one of The Three Musketeers, I’m not fussy.)  Adam

Peoww News

After teasing the announcement a few weeks back, Ubisoft have released a trailer for the aptly-titled TrackMania 2: Canyon, featuring TrackMania larks (i.e. lots of fast cars, loops and loose physics) in a canyon. Suffice to say, I came.

Currently a PC exclusive, due to it’s heavy reliance on user generated content, it’s expected to be released late 2011. If you haven’t sampled the delights of this modern-day Micro Machines, there’s a free version of the original available to download through Steam.

French developer Nadeo also have ShootMania and QuestMania in the pipleine, and if they bring as much joie de vivre to the FPS and RPG genres as they have to racing, then… tres bon!  Adam

Peoww News

With Sonic’s 20 year anniversary fast approaching (not that Sega needs an excuse or anything), a new, next-generation Sonic game has been announced for late 2011, apparently taking us across his “three defining eras” – the Robotnik era, the Eggman era and the current, post-Cream the Rabbit era.

Similar to Sonic Adventure 2, stages can be played with either Modern, green-eyed Sonic or Classic, chubby Sonic, with appropriate moves depending on the era. It certainly looks like classic Sonic (more so than Sonic 4, at any rate) and 2010’s Sonic Colours was well received, so let’s just hope Sonic Team seeks to emulate the good times, rather than the bad.  Adam

Peoww News

Yes it is. It’s a magic number; at least, that’s what the producers of newly announced threequels for the Serious Sam and Ninja Gaiden series are hoping.

The trailer for NG3 is short and vague, as is the fashion these days, and features world’s least stealthy ninja Ryu Hyabusa noisily stabbing a man in broad daylight (tut) and getting blood all over his gammy arms. With half-man, half-biscuit, all-awesome series creator Tomonobu Itagaki having long-since left Team Ninja, I fear the series will falter without his self-assured direction. But then you could argue that already happened with NG2, so whatever.

Meanwhile in Croatia, Croteam confirmed Serious Sam 3: BFE (Bright Friendly Environments?) for release on consoles and PC this summer. The game is apparently a prequel set in 22nd century Egypt and looks bloody gorgeous. Along with Bulletstorm, Bodycount, Duke Nukem Forever and (potentially) Postal 3, SS3 could be the hightlight of 2011’s resurgence of more lighthearted first-person shooters. God knows the genre could use a bit of levity.  Adam

Peoww News

When PEOWW interviewed the CEO of Polish developer Reality Pump about their upcoming sequel to WRPG Two Worlds, one of the questions we didn’t feel the need to ask was, “Will this game actually be coming out in the UK, (you know, the former imperial superpower, permanent member of the UN Security Council and world’s second largest consumer of videogames) or will it keep getting delayed to the point where it isn’t even funny, and eventually just pushed out quietly through Amazon.co.uk and NOWHERE ELSE?” In retrospect, that probably would have been an apt question.Since its release in Europe last year and the US in January, Two Worlds 2 has garnered far more praise than its predecessor and sold over two million copies.

As a fan of the first, I’ve obviously been eager to play it, but a combination of legal troubles for publisher Southpeak, disagreements with co-developer Topware over the release date and at least one act of God have managed to keep it off these shores. It’s finally expected to be released March 1st, exclusively through Amazon (at least they didn’t pick Zavvi).  Adam

Peoww News

After being announced yonks ago, open-world zombie survival game, Dead Island, has managed to generate substantial hype with a bleak, stylish CG trailer. This, at a time when the public should by rights treat the announcement of yet another zombie game with the same apathy of a George A. Romero fan hearing he’s just started work on Car Insurance of the Dead, goes to show just how easily gamers are impressed with CG trailers.

The lack of gameplay footage can probably be traced to the Polish developers previous works including the blaverage Call of Juarez series. If you’re expecting Valve-quality, L4D-style co-op, you’re a more optimistic man than I. But regardless of quality, at this point I’m so utterly done with the undead that, frankly, if the zombie apocalypse were to happen tomorrow, I’d probably die of boredom before they had chance to eat my brains.  Adam