The Next Level Update- 10/5/08!

As we begin to work out exactly what and how often little things will appear on this blog, here's a round up of things that happened in the past week which caught our attention:

Not Quite Phil

So, Playstation day happened, at the O2 arena, with President of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, David Reeves, being the main presenter. After being used to the bald tall guy Phil Harrison, for however many years, Reeves comes across as a slightly less enthusiastic speaker and presenter. Not sure why, but Phil always seemed to show a massive enthusiasm for games, whether he believed in them or not. But as hes scooted off to Atari, Kaz 'Riiiidddgeee Racer' Hirai and Reeves have become primary speakers for these events. Playable games included Killzone 2 and Motorstorm: Pacific Rift, but many of the games, minus LittleBigPlanet (which still looks awesome) are all sequels. Lets hope they can improve massively on their predecessors, as Killzones textures were the most boring in existence on the ps2, and motorstorm's mud got a little tiring after a while.

Banjo's finally coming back

After Microsoft's acquisition of Rare, makers of popular N64 titles such as Banjo Kazooie and Goldeneye, their titles have been a bit thin on the ground. Now apparently next week, we will get the chance to see properly for the first time 'Banjo Kazooie 3' at Microsoft's San Francisco media summit on Tuesday.







COD5 not going back to the 1940's

After it was revealed that Treyarch would be taking control of the Call Of Duty series after Infinity Wards brilliant 2007 released COD4: Modern Warfare, rumours on the internet have been going around saying that it would be going back to old World War 2. Obviously, this displeased many fans, who believed the modern day setting had given the COD series as massive boost over its rivals. Now, Activision CEO Mike Griffith has revealed that it will take place in 'A new theatre of war'. No one is quite sure what yet, but according to Gamespot, Griffith said that '...[COD4] significantly increased our user base, and we want to engage those users who enjoyed the modern setting. Also revealed that the new James Bond game, being produced by Treyarch, will use the COD4 engine, meaning it could be a new classic.


And Finally...

Saturday morning saw the release of a new Gears of War 2 trailer, with a 'personal introduction' from the big man himself, Epic games design director, Ciffy B, GOW 2 promise to be '...more badass' than the last instalment. According to Microsoft, features of the trailer will include chainsaw duels and a look at the 'stunning new visuals'. More details should be unveiled at MS's media summit next week.