StealthBit: Recent Episodes
Juan
This week let's watch the Assassin's Creed: Revelations GamesCom demonstration, look at some screens and find out why Thief IV might be one of the best stealth games in years.
Thief IV
* Thierry Nguyen from 1UP suggests that Thief IV will only be an improvement to what we see in the recently released Deus Ex: Human Revolution. They call it "one of the best stealth action games in years" which really can only mean good things for Thief IV. This is assuming, of course, that most of the Deus Ex development team moves over to work on Thief.
Dishonored
* Kotaku has posted some new screenshots of Dishonored's dark world.
Metal Gear Solid
* Watch some narrated gameplay of Metal Gear Solid 3 in HD from the upcoming HD collection.
* If that HD video wasn't enough for you. Check out these screens of all three games for the HD collection.
* Konami is listing Metal Gear Solid 3DS as having a winter release in Japan.
Batman: Arkham City
* A few weeks ago we saw Batman's extra skins for Arkham City, this week we get a look at Robin's skins right here.
* And if you need even more skins for Batman then find out how to get his Green Lantern costume too.
* If you're at PAX these past few days you may have won one of these Batman: Arkham City Xbox 360s.
Assassin's Creed: Revelations
* Gamestop will be selling a Revelations Ultimate Edition. It'll include the signature edition of the game along with a Da Vinci flying machine, and Assassin's Creed Brotherhood 7-inch Ezio Collectable figure.
Shinobido 2: Tales of the Ninja
* Namco will be publishing Shinobido 2: Tales of the Ninja as a European launch title for the PS Vita.
In this week's Stealth update we watch some gameplay trailers, learn about a new Assassin's Creed coming to the Vita, and find out about the very limited Metal Gear Solid Ultimate HD Collection. Plus a ton of screenshots from a variety of games.
Assassin's Creed
* Straight out of Gamescom comes news that there will be a Assassin's Creed game for the PS Vita.
* This month Ubisoft held an art exhibit in Japan featuring a Japanese take on Assassin's Creed. Very nice art indeed.
* Assassin's Creed: Revelations just got a slew of screens from Gamescom.
Batman: Arkham City
* Mr. Freeze proves to be a formidable foe for Batman in this new trailer.
* Arkham City's Robin will soon have his own action figure for all you toy fans.
* Just like the first game, Batman: Arkham City will support 3D right out of the box.
Dishonored
* Four new screens are out for this highly anticipated stealth assassination game.
Metal Gear Solid
* Online retailer, Zaavi, will be the only seller of the super-limited (only 4000 copies) Metal Solid Ultimate HD Collection. It includes PSN code for MGS, MGS 2: Sons of Liberty, MGS 3: Subsistence, MGS 4: Guns of the Patriots, MGS: Peace Walker, 5 art cards, and steelbook packaging which is individually numbered.
* Here you can see some new screens of the MGS HD Collection.
Splinter Cell HD Trilogy
* Watch 16 minutes of Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory from the HD trilogy, in HD!
Batman: Arkham City is for Teens this week, Assassin's Creed: Revelations' beta is launching only on the PS3 and Splinter Cell HD Trilogy launches on PSN but not in stores.
Batman: Arkham City
* So Arkham City will be rated T for Teen just like the first, no surprise here.
* The game will also run a long 165 minutes of cut-scenes. Rocksteady is definitely packing this game with content.
* Want to see Solomon Grundy zombified fighting Batman? Here you go.
Splinter Cell HD Trilogy
* Splinter Cell HD Trilogy is now available on PSN but is not yet available in stores.
Assassin's Creed: Revelations
* PS3 will exclusively get the AC: Revelations beta starting on September 3 for Playstation Plus members of Uplay members. On September 12 it will be accessible by everyone else.
* NECA will launch AC: Brotherhood figures this October.
* The AC trailer that spans EVERYTHING.
Metal Gear Solid
* Metal Gear Solid HD Collection will include both original Metal Gears, Metal Gear and Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake.
* MGS fan film, Escape From New York is coming out this October and looks... fun.
In this week's stealthy update we get a look at Batman's many skins, as well as multiplayer videos of Assassin's Creed: Revelations, all topped off with a sprinkling of Dishonored screenshots.
Batman: Arkham City
* Arkhamcity.co.uk explains how to get all the different (and weird) skins for Batman in the upcoming Batman: Arkham City.
* Nolan North (the guy who voices Desmond from AC, Nathan from Uncharted and too many other characters) is voicing the Penguin. Guess it shows how talented he is?
Assassin's Creed: Revelations
* Ubisoft is going to be making some AC clothing with Insert Coin.
* Check out the three Revelations multiplayer videos here.
Metal Gear Solid HD Collection
* If you live in the PAL territories you now have the cover art for this HD collection and a price of £39.99.
I'm thinking that a weekly podcast about the stealthy videogames news of the week is probably not the best way to expose this information. So instead I'm going to try a weekly update in which I lightly cover all the stealthy news of the week in one blog post.
We have some release date delays this week, along with an absurd amount of videos, and a videogame that's been turned into a board game.
The Batman: Arkham City collector's edition has been announced and will include a "Batman statue, collectible art book, early DLC access, the Batman: Arkham City soundtrack, the DC Universe animated original movie Batman: Gotham Knight and four collectible cards." All for $99.
Multiple retailers are now listing Splinter Cell HD Trilogy as releasing on September 27.
While Assassin's Creed will eventually make its way onto Nintendo's new hardware, the Wii U, AC: Revelations won't be on the Wii U.
Take a look at Batman: Arkham City and Metal Gear Solid figures straight from San Diego's Comic Con.
Some are worried that Hitman: Absolution is going to be way too action oriented, that perhaps it's loosing its stealth roots. But the developers are trying to quell your fears saying, "Most of the classic mechanics from the old games are back with a vengeance in addition to many new game mechanics, abilities and traits. Absolution is a huge and diverse game, being on the run is only one part of it. A core value for any Hitman game is freedom of choice and we believe we are going beyond anything we have done in the past. There will be more replayability and features in Absolution than in any Hitman game ever."
Amazon has bumped down Metal Gear Solid HD Collection to release November 8.
Metal Gear Solid is being combined with the board game Risk.
Metal Gear Solid HD Collection will run at 60 frames per second according to tweets from Hideo Kojima and Jiroo Tsubuyaki.
Batman: Arkham City Penguin trailer threatens to kill Batman.
Leaked Assassin's Creed concept video tortures an Animus user with dialog from and old movie.
Fun litte cell-shaded Assassin's Creed animation by Mitch Pecqueur.
Watch Ezio be 8-bit and a jerk.
Assassin's Creed: Embers is a 20 minute short film that will be included in the Assassin's Creed: Revelations collector's edition, I think.
This week I talk about Dishonored's first screenshot, the Batman: Arkham City Riddler trailer, Ghost of Moscow: Death To Spies, and more.
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First Screenshot of Dishonored
New Stealth Game Ghost of Moscow: Death To Spies
Assassin's Creed: Lost Legacy Scrapped for Assassin's Creed: Revelations
Assassin's Creed: Lineage Coming to DVD/Bluray
Shinobido 2: Tales of the Ninja Info and Screens
The second episode of the StealthBit podcast is up and better than ever... or worse, I can't decide. So listen to it and be a judge for yourself. Just don't judge too harshly, it might hurt my feelings.
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Show links are below:
Look at last week's Ezio figure from different angles!
Some nice Assassin's Creed concept art
The price and release date for MGS HD Collection
Kojima will never be satisfied and is also wrong
Assassin's Creed: Revelations goes up the charts
Buy this AC shirt while you can
Some low-res Batman: Arkham City screens
Why Arkham City's Robin is bald
The reveal of Arkane's new stealth game Dishonored
So I'm starting this podcast because things have been become rather busy in my day to day life. Instead of updating the blog every day or so I will update it once a week with a podcast. Hopefully this will prove to be less time consuming. So let's jump right in.
Here is your direct download of the podcast.
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Links from the show are below:
Splinter Cell Trilogy Delayed Again
Batman: Arkham City Box Art Unveiled
High Quality Ezio From UbiCollectibles
Assassin's Creed: Revelations Trailer Made With Lego
Other Ezio Figure
MGS HD Reimagining
Extra stories that didn't make it into the show:
Robin Is In Batman: Arkham City
Assassin's Creed: Revelations Special Edition Removes Encyclopedia
Splinter Cell Fan Series Gets Teased
Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker is coming to the PS3 and Xbox 360 sometime in the future. You can't play it yet but at least you can watch someone else play it in glorious HD.
There is something bad about this video. The bad being the graphics. They're incredibly blurry. I don't how annoying this will be on a 50 inch screen. Maybe it can be ignored, who knows.
Robin's appearance in Batman: Arkham City has been confirmed by Sarah Wellock, European community manager but what hasn't been confirmed is if he'll be in the single player story or if he's just an unlockable for the challenge maps.
The rumor began when fans spotted Best Buy ads that stated that you could play as downloadable character Robin in two challenge maps when you preorder at Best Buy. The @arkhamcitynews Twitter later revealed that more information would be coming soon. Finally, Wellock confirmed that Robin will be playable in the "new and improved" challenge mode. But who knows, this doesn't rule out the possibility of a playable Robin during the single player.
Source: ArkhamCity
The video isn't just gameplay, it's also mixed together with the E3 trailer but what we do see is sneaking, taking hostages and smashing a bust on someone's head.
Batman: Arkham City was one of the best games at this year's E3 and will probably go on to win multiple Game of the Year awards which is a good reason why you should watch this gameplay demonstration presented by Geoff Keighley and Arkham City director Sefton Hill. The demo seems to start at the beginning of the game in which Catwoman is captured by Two Face. There's some playable combat on her part and then we get to see Batman glide across the open city.
Tags: GameTrailers.com, E3 2011: Catwoman Gameplay Walkthrough, PC Games, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360
Shown off during Ubisoft's E3 press conference this beautiful trailer embodies the Assassin's Creed: Revelations experience. With gorgeous vistas, climbing and awesome ass-kicking, there's nothing missing.
Metal Gear Solid HD Edition will include Metal Gear Solid 2, Metal Gear Solid 3 and Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker. It will be available on PS3 and Xbox 360. While the resolution is being increased considerably the textures don't seem to be getting any improvements. That's all right for MGS 2 and MGS 3, but MGS: Peace Walker is a PSP game and the end result is not pretty.
(Click on the images to enlarge)
| | | PS2-SD |
| | | PS3-HD |
| | | PS2-SD |
| | | PS3-HD |
| | | PSP-Less than SD |
| | | PS3-HD (Low polygon count means blocky characters. Look at his hands!) |
| | | PSP-Less than SD |
| | | PSP-Less than SD |
| | | PS3-HD (PSP textures means blurry textures on PS3) |
Source: Kotaku
This Hitman: Absolution trailer comes to us straight from E3 with Agent 47 taking out guards and finally reaching his nude target that happened to be showering.
The demo starts off with what seems like will be the very beginning of Assassin's Creed: Revelations. Ezio blows some bombs, stabs some guys and burns some ships. All in a day's work for an assassin. Watch it for yourself and comment below.
Accessibility is one of the biggest challenges game developers face. That's why IO Interactive took so much heat for saying the next Hitman game in the series was going to be more accessible. For a lot of games this often means that it's tailored for the lowest common denominator. So how will IO make Hitman: Absolution accessible but still challenging? With instinct.
Absolution will bring more insight into, series protagonist, Agent 47's thoughts and motivations by using a new gameplay mechanic, IO is calling "instinct". "Instinct is a new ability that actually manifests itself in the game a number of different ways. It allows you to see the world through Agent 47's eyes. For example, Instinct will allow you to sense enemies and predict their patrol paths, so you don't have to sit and watch your surroundings for a very long time in order to figure out what's going on. If you screw up a little bit by making a loud noise or something, you can actually use your Instinct to see if anyone is alerted to your presence. This gives you a chance to make some decisions such as moving a dead body to avoid raising alarms or kill the approaching enemy before anyone notices. That's just one way of using Instinct," said the developers in a recent interview.
How it will be represented in the game is a little unclear but it does sound interesting. The ability to essentially think like a trained assassin with a button press is an intriguing concept but can IO pull it off without making the game lose a lot of its challenge and player discovery?
Source: GameMarshal
This trailer for Assassin's Creed: Revelations shows us what happens to Desmond at the end of Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, which is apparently getting trapped in the Animus. What this would mean Desmond and the game as a whole is a little bit unclear. He may just be there for the beginning and manage to escape or he may be there, trapped, for the whole game.
The stealth action game that we knew nothing about back in March turns out to be a sequel to the ninja-stealth game Shinobido. Shinobido 2: Tales of the Ninja is a PS Vita (still not used to that name) exclusive and looks to follow the same formula of bloody stabbings and sneaking, Acquire is known for, in these two videos straight from E3.
I just wish there is an option to kill without blood spewing everywhere. It's actually quite un-stealthy when you think about the mess you're leaving behind.
These Batman controllers were created to celebrate the future release of StealthBit darling, Batman: Arkham City. It's too bad that the controllers are some of the ugliest I've ever seen. Despite there obnoxious design Power A (the creators) have managed to sell out of the darn things.
If you try to buy them from Power A's site you'll notice the "Out of Stock" text at the top of the page. The inverted stick layout on the PS3 version is nice for those who prefer the 360's stick layout but the color, the placement of the lights, the overall design is just terrible. I get it, you're a Batman fan and you want a controller that reflects who Batman is but you can do better than the color grey that was chosen for a character over 50 years ago. There's a reason why modern Batman doesn't use that color for his suit. That's because it looks terrible.
Source: Joystiq
These screenshots clearly show Agent 47 sneaking through buildings. The screens have clear and sharp graphics, maybe a little too sharp. Perhaps they're from a prerendered trailer that we'll see at E3? Either way they look great.
(Click on the image to enlarge.)
Source: Gamespur
So that's why Kojima isn't at E3. He's too busy working on Kojima Productions' new engine, the Fox Engine, which he hopes will become the best in the world. He also reveals in this video that the next Hideo Kojima game will be multiplatform.
The Fox Engine is designed to be a multiplatform engine: this currently includes Xbox 360, PS3 and PC. Work on it was started after MGS4 and continued on through Peace Walker. Kojima says he can't tell when his next game will come out or what it even is, but he does say that it will be multiplatform and will be designed for a global audience.
Source: Kotaku
E3 hasn't even officially started yet and we're all ready seeing some amazing news come out it. For example, this new MGS: Snake Eater 3D trailer which shows off the convenient touch screen inventory as well as the ability to take pictures in the real world using the Nintendo 3D's camera and use the image as a camouflage pattern. Watch it till the end for a little surprise.
Konami announced in their pre-E3 press conference that Metal Gear Solid and Zone of the Enders will be getting HD collections. The Metal Gear Solid HD collection will contain 3 of the latest non-HD MGS games including Peace Walker.
The MGS collection will be available on PS3 and Xbox 360, making this a real treat for Xbox players who haven't been able to play the MGS games before. The collection will include Metal Gear Solid 2, Metal Gear Solid 3 and Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, which I didn't play so I'm very excited to play this one. Peace Walker saves will be transferable between both versions of the game. The games will, of course, have HD visuals along with achievements/trophies and is expected sometime in November.
On a non-stealth note, the Zone of the Enders collection will include both PS2 games and is expected to release in 2012.
Sources: Kotaku, Kotaku
These detailed shots of Assassin's Creed: Revelations display (old) Ezio's ability as he jumps, ziplines and stabs his enemy. We also get a closer look at art of his hook-blade and the city. Click on the images to enlarge.
Soure: GameInformer