Proving there’s fighting life beyond Street Fighter.

The good news has been trickling in for the past month or so, but Capcom has finally unveiled this sweet poster for their new upcoming arcade brawler. It’s a 3D in graphics and 2D in gameplay tag-based fighter that clearly brings to mind classics such as Marvel VS Capcom 2. The roster is fairly small so far and all that’s been shown are stills of the action, but with how well SF2 Remix and Street Fighter 4 are turning up, you’ve got to have faith in the company that was once the powerhouse of versus mayhem. For those unfamiliar with the other side of the battle, they’re all characters from classic Japanese anime such as Gatchaman (G-Force in the states) and Tekkaman. While on the Capcom side, you have the familiar favorites, as well as surprise inclusions like Soki from Onimusha 4.

How will it play? What consoles will it hit after its arcade run? Those are still in the unknown, but Capcom has promised to reveal all in the near future. In the meantime, you can keep checking the game’s official site: http://www.capcom.co.jp/tatsucap/

Prequel to the most immersive FPS of all time.

Welcome back to the dust-choked Zone, set in the fictional aftermath of the Chernobyl disaster.  Set one year before the first game, take the role of Scar, a mercenary fighting for survival against the rival factions vying for control as much as the hostile wasteland of the Zone itself.  It’s a war of territory, artifacts, and true power, with Scar as the deciding factor.

The original S.T.A.L.K.E.R. was lush in its ruined detail, creating the feeling of a real environment, cast in a lighting system that still hasn’t been surpassed.  Direct X 10 support in Clear Sky results in truly spectacular visuals, including dynamic transitions between day and night, detailed landscapes, and lifelike animations.  Though it’ll naturally still work with DX8 and 9.

The AI of the original could be dangerous and downright amusing, flanking you when you least expected it and giving you a helping hand when the odds suddenly turned against you.  That’s also been improved for the prequel, so enemies and allies make situation-based decisions to create the sense of a real struggle.  To take this further, very little in Clear Sky will be predetermined.  Battles will play out in real time with the player there to tip the odds in favor of one faction over another.

Everything you loved from S.T.A.L.K.E.R. is making its return, from vast areas to a wide assortment of quests, quirky NPCs and an arsenal of realistic weaponry.  New levels, movie-quality cut-scenes leading up to the original, fast travel, weapon modification, and other welcome features have also been thrown into the mix, for what’s certain to be a grotesque beauty of an experience.

Mega Man 9, Niko Bellic is a rapist, and more.

Busy week?  No worries.  Here are the most noteworthy news items of the past week.

Monday: Kotaku’s Stephen Tolito wrote an interesting piece on figures now available from the Wii’s Nintendo Channel.  He highlighted some surprises, the greatest being that people actually enjoy Wii Play to the tune of nine hours logged per person.  Carnival Games was another unexpected winner.  Most compelling, indeed.

Tuesday: EGM’s Quartermann is reporting one hell of a rumor this month.  If their sources are correct (and their hit-to-miss ratio is decent), Microsoft might be looking to farm out Xbox 360 hardware production to third-party manufacturers.  So… if respected Japanese companies started producing these units, could that change the landscape over there?  Probably not.  But it sure as hell would be interesting. (more…)

Fresh from Bethesda Softworks’s underground bunker.

Testing your tolerance for big plastic controllers.

Guitar Hero: Aerosmith is nearly upon us, coming with either just the game or bundled with yet another guitar, though it’s only a superficial reskinning of GH3’s all mighty axe.  So if you never got the GH3 bundle, or wrecked the guitar imitating the Who, then you can pick up this replacement, though I honestly think the game is overpriced with the skimpy amount of tunes it includes.  Worse, the guitar is going to be a relic come this fall.

That’s not the big problem though, looming ominously on the horizon like a Transformer fan’s plastic robot army.   The problem is one of space.  This autumn is going to see the release of Guitar Hero: On Tour and Konami’s Rock Revolution, with Rock Band 2 likely close on their heels.  Look, I’ve got a good sized condo.  I’ve even got a garage, and no way do I have room for three full sets of plastic instruments, which of course aren’t going to be compatible with their competing titles.  My Rock Band drum set sits in the corner collecting dust, occasionally dragged out for a drunken fumbling session.  The drum kit with GH:WT looks much nicer, but where am I going to put it?  Not to mention the new guitar it also comes with, whose special features make previous models obsolete.  I’ve got three plastic guitars already.  I didn’t buy these fake music games to be forced to go into a real instrument store to pick up a guitar rack.

Oh, Konami?  Too little, too late.  For years, you had the music genre pretty much to yourself, and plenty of time to bring over Guitar Freaks, but someone beat you to the punch.  Now you’re offering another set of instruments and no master recordings?  Are you out of your mind?

On the other hand, there’s Ultimate Band, which is exclusive to the Wii.  I have no idea how it’ll turn out, videos make it seem a little on the simple side, but it has the great advantage of not forcing you to buy more plastic than what already came with the system.  Sure, I’d have to actually buy a Wii, but when it’s smaller than a Rock Band guitar, I think I could find the space for it.