Yesterday, Jonathan let you all in on the weird and not very secretly coded message plastered across a teaser site for Metal Gear Solid. The last code is mostly likely the power button for a PC–at least that is what the symbol on my power button looks like, but it also looks like the one for the Xbox 360. Then again, if you looks at the codes closely, you would also see other gaming symbols that looks very familiar to you. Therefore, one might think that the “i” is for the Wii, and the “!” is for the Xbox 360 and the last one is for the PC.  Yet, the Wii most likely would not be able to handle an exact port of Metal Gear Solid 4, therefore I personally think this had to do with the Xbox 360 and PC only.

So, if my deductive reasoning (and upon further investigation-most of the internet) is correct, MGS4 will no longer be a PS3 exclusive in the near future. That, or all the old Metal Gear Solid games will be heading to other formats–but it is best not to think on this too hard and instead focus on the obvious.

All of the speculation from yesterday is getting even more heightened today, with people chatting on all sorts of forums, but if you look back on the actual beginnings of these rumors, the teaser site just makes perfect sense.

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It figures all this happens the week after I cancel my cable subscription. Apparently, in the spirit of Halloween, G4’s Attack of the Show co-host, Olivia Munn, decided to appear on television wearing an assortment of costumes last Friday. In all she donned costumes of Sailor Moon, Sarah Palin, and the girl from Flashdance; but this Nariko outfit seems to top them all. Seriously, she looks more Nariko than Nariko. If a producer ever wanted to sell the idea of a Heavenly Sword movie to a studio, all they’d have to do is show them this photo and say, “That’s what a real-life Nariko would look like.” The movie would hit theaters in less than a year and start raking in cash.

There are more pictures below, and you can also hit the link to see some of her other costumes.

Via Popoholic

For gamers who enjoyed the wacky fun of controlling nonsensically devout minion’s in the original Overlord were probably rejoicing when Codemasters announced back in August that the sequel, along with two other titles, would be released next year. Today though, you have even more reason to be pleased, because Rhianna Pratchett is returning to write the script for Overlord 2 along with two more titles Overlord: Dark Legend and Overlord: Minions.

Pratchett is currently up for an award from the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain which will hold an awards ceremony on November 23 at BAFTA in London, England. She has been nominated twice in the category of Best Videogame Script for her work on the original Overlord and for her work with co-authors Tameem Antoniades and Andy Serkis for Heavenly Sword.

Besides working on Heavenly Sword, and the Overlord games, Pratchett also worked on SEGA’s Viking: Battle for Asgard, two unannounced projects and the upcoming Mirror’s Edge from DICE and Firefly’s Dungeon Hero. When asked about how she feels about her nomination and being asked to work on the next installment in the Overlord franchise, Pratchett has this to say:

“For a relatively new entertainment medium, it’s a sign of great progress that the industry is being recognized by the Writers’ Guild in this way. Writing for games is part alchemy, part narrative woodwork and part swimming in shark infested waters wearing ham pants, so it’s a real honor to be nominated for Overlord. The Overlord titles are fantastic creative projects and Triumph and Codemasters make a talented and supportive team who keep some of those sharks at bay. It’s a real pleasure to be back in the evil writing seat and taking the Overlord and the Minions to new lands and new adventures for the 2009 titles.”

With her competition being slim and the fact that she has been nominated in the same category twice, it would not be surprising if Pratchett walked home with such a coveted award next month. She is really starting to make a name for herself in the videogame industry, and we wish her all the best.

Overlord 2 will be made available for the PC, PS3, and Xbox 360 sometimes next year, and so will Overlord: Dark Legend for the Wii, and Overlord: Minions for the DS.

As if Littlebigplanet did not seem awesome enough to me, apparently one of the pre-order goodies you can get for the highly anticipated PS3 title is Kratos – or Nariko from Heavenly Sword if she floats your boat instead.

PlayStation.Blog has detailed the pre-order bonuses that are being offered with Littlebigplanet at various retailers – which retailers will have what has yet to be announced so check back with us or call your local gaming outlet. The coolest of these pre-order bonuses are the SackBoy costume of Kratos and the SackGirl costume of Nariko.

I only wish that these were real SackToys that you could touch, feel, and play with. I can just feel the inspiration that SackBoy Kratos would bestow upon me now if I were to be able to gaze at his silly face adorning my work station. The pure badassedness of the God of War would probably overwhelm my system though and turn me into a puddle of jello-like goo instead, then what use would I be?

If you were somehow clinging to the hope that Tomonobu Itagaki might return to Team Ninja, I think we’re pretty much past the point of no return between the lawsuit against Tecmo and their subsequent response. But, that doesn’t mean we have to enjoy any of Itagaki’s games or appreciate his work any less. With that in mind, Xbox 360 Fanboy put together a look back at his body of work — from the original Dead or Alive to the present day.

Page 11 is my personal favorite, as it recounts some of Itagaki’s most memorable quotes. Itagaki on Tekken: “I no longer can figure out what the hell they’re trying to do with the numbering, and I don’t know which one is which. I don’t know what they’re trying to do with all of these spin-offs, so this includes Nina: Death by Degrees as well. I don’t think it even needs saying, but people should stay away from Tekken. Nothing left to say. I just don’t want them to disappoint me any more. It’s so annoying. Please don’t annoy me any more.”

He’s also taken shots at Devil May Cry 4 and Heavenly Sword, both of which you’ll find in the story. But don’t forget the comments he made about Ninja Gaiden Sigma recently, when he claimed the game was “no good.”

As a fan of Itagaki’s, I’m upset to see him go, but hopefully we’ll see him do something radically different now that he’ll be working elsewhere.

Earlier in the month, Jenni Lada over on Gamertell listed eight great video game role models for women. Jenni’s main focus was on the RPG genre, and while I thought her list was fantastic I thought it would be great to compile a more comprehensive list that would span all gaming genres. Not knocking her post in anyway, I promise – it actually inspired what I set out to do with my own. So a hearty thanks goes out to Jenni for inspiring me.

Lara Croft and Samus Aran, in my opinion are overly exalted in gamer’s eyes and many other female gaming characters could and should be considered better role models than some. Usually female characters in games can be put into the same category of those Dead or Alive girls – of course, they are not meant to be role-models but are instead the video game equivalent of soft-core porn. What I would like draw attention to, are the unheralded female heroines that grace our PCs and consoles that seem to always get the short end of the stick when it comes to being adulated by the gaming masses.

Here, in my opinion are great female role models in gaming and while this list omits many that should get the acknowledgement they deserve, they can’t all be listed – so if you feel I omitted anyone, please feel free to mention said “wonder woman” in the comments section.

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Over on Gamertell, Jenni Landa has listed what she considers underappreciated female heroines. I tend to agree with her on Lara Croft and Samus Aran being overly exalted in gamer’s eyes and I also agree that many a female gaming characters could and should be considered better role models than some, however I have to point out a few omissions on her list.

If I were to have compiled this list, I would have mentioned Joanna Dark, Alyx Vance, Jill Valentine, Jade from Beyond Good and Evil, and of course Nariko from Heavenly Sword. How could you be anymore of a heroine than her? I guess sacrificing yourself for the greater good is not considered a role model.

I am not knocking her choices in any way, mind you, because I have to agree with the majority of them. However, she could have made a more comprehensive list instead of just eight, because “eight” is just too small of a number.

Maybe I need to compile my own list.

Via: Gamertell

Despite rumors to the contrary, Ninja Theory is not working on Heavenly Sword 2. Instead, they’ve started work on a new project is an original IP being developed for both PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. The company’s co-founder and chief developer, Nina Kristensen, stated that the company is contemplating working on a CGI movie to go along with the new game. Anyone who played Heavenly Sword knows that Ninja Theory certainly has the talent to pull off a CGI flick.

“We’re certainly targeting a triple-A blockbuster, with two and a half years in production – a big game that builds on our core strengths of story-telling, cinematics and combat. But we’re actually looking at something in addition to that – we’re considering opportunities in creating a CGI movie using the game engine alongside the game itself,” said Kristensen, according to GamesIndustry.biz.

“The game’s certainly the most important thing, and we haven’t decided for sure to do this, but it’s something we’re looking at. It’s an interesting idea,” she added.

Ninja Theory worked with a number of experts from the movie industry during development on Heavenly Sword. Kristensen believes that doing so is essential if you want to have the best possible results, and also claimed that many of those relationships will continue on into the development of their new game.

“If you want to make something that’s really high-end, really engaging, if you get the best talent from the movie industry and you’re able to integrate effectively into the game you’re going to end up with the best possible results,” she explained.

“There’s a lot of these relationships that we intend to maintain going forward into our new game.”

I’m interested to see what they have in the works, if only to see how good the cinematics turn out. I wasn’t overly impressed with Heavenly Sword from a game standpoint, but the cutscenes were undeniably beautiful.

Buy a PS3 at Target between 2/17/08 and 2/23/08 and you’ll receive a $40 gift card.  In addition to that, they are offering a $10 gift card with the purchase of any of the following games:

• Heavenly Sword (PS3)
• Unreal Tournament III (PS3)
• WWE Smackdown vs. Raw 2008 (XBOX 360, PS3)
• Assassin’s Creed (XBOX 360, PS3)
• Devil May Cry 4 (XBOX 360, PS3)
• Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (XBOX 360, PS3)
• Lost Odyssey (Xbox 360)
• Mass Effect (Xbox 360)
• Mx Vs ATV Untamed (XBOX 360, PS3)
• Turok (XBOX 360, PS3)
• Halo 3 (Xbox 360)

Check the via link below to make sure this is available at your local Target:

Via Target 

Bad news, fans of Greek mythology and ultra violence. Seems a “reliable Sony source” has stated that God of War III isn’t going to make its way to store shelves until winter of 2009 at the earliest. This overshoots previous predictions of a late 2008 release by another full year. Basically, we’re not going to get to see Kratos tearing into yet another rampaging god for another two years. Hope you enjoyed Heavenly Sword, PS3 owners, because it sounds like another hack-and-slash game of that caliber isn’t coming out for a long, long time.

Via Games Radar