The artist formally known as Cliffy B doesn’t have the easiest job in the world. Being front-man for the Gears of War franchise is no joke. Luckily he’s man enough to take it.

“You’ve got to have a thick skin,” he said. “If I had a nickel for every time I was called a fag on the internet, I could retire. It’s just the way the fans are sometimes; you do a good job and they’ll hold you up in a chair and carry you through the streets. You screw up once and they’ll be the first to tart [sic] and feather you, and that’s the risk I take when I stick my neck out there.”

Full interview on CVG.

After the link. Just one shot of Rare’s Viva sequel, you lucky, lucky people. It shows a lovely camel thing in some kind of desert environment. See for yourself.

Just one. Someone, somewhere, must have all these on a disc and is just dropping them out from his internet castle in the sky, or something. After the break.

Banjo Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts dev lead Gregg Mayles reckons platform adventuring of old is over – and the new Rare game is the true evolution.

“It’s true that anyone wanting a carbon copy of the previous two games will be disappointed, so I’m not even going to make out that it is,” he said in a live chat with Rare fansites.

“What I believe it to be is an evolution of the platform adventure genre. The genre is too stale: it needed shaking up, so we’re trying something different, but within the framework of a ‘traditional’ Banjo game.

“It has a familiar structure, things to collect, characters to talk to and all the humour you would expect. I said on one forum that all we have done is to make the travelling fun. So that pretty much sums it up, we have taken the boring bit (travelling) and made it fun.”

Mayles went on to give an abolute ton of information on the upcoming game, which was announced earlier this week at the Microsoft Gamer’s Day in California. Fill your lunchtime with Rare bear.

“I’m very happy we didn’t get into it, because launching a handheld platform is like launching another Xbox 360,” he said. “You have to be fully committed, as an organisation, from a resource standpoint, to doing that.”

“Frankly we’ve got a lot on our plate with Xbox 360 and Xbox Live. We don’t have any experience in that space. Our content assets don’t naturally lend themselves to driving success in that particular market. So we’re happy to let Sony and Nintendo slog it out.”

Read the full Eurogamer interview here.

According to this Eurogamer piece, SiliconKnights boss Denis Dyack’s confirmed that a demo of Too Human will be released on Live before the game’s August 29 release.

“We haven’t announced a date yet. Our goal is to try to get it out obviously before the game releases, and we’ll announce the specific timing of that shortly,” he said.

“But a demo is absolutely planned. We think it’s critical for the game. If things go as planned, gamers should get a demo well in advance before the game’s released.”

So there we are.

Have a look.

“[Sony] launched with Resistance and we’ve sold nearly 5 million units of Gears of War 1. I think we won that battle,” he told Eurogamer.

“That’s why I believe it’s going to be the biggest title this holiday. Killzone’s out of the holiday, despite some of the earlier statements that were made. We’ll see what happens with Resistance 2, but we’ve gone head-to-head before. I still feel very confident in the quality [of Gears of War 2].”

More through the link.

Nice. We were hoping someone could be bothered to put all this up. Thankfully, it was CVG. Hit this for 40 million images of Too Human from the Microsoft Gamer’s Day in San Francisco. Give them some page impressions. They deserve it.

Speaking at the Microsoft Gamer’s Day yesterday, Gears of War 2 dev lead Cliff Bleszinski has confirmed that Gears of War 2 will not feature unicorns coming out of his ass.

“A lot of gamers were somehow expecting Gears 2 to suddenly come out and have big bright purple flowers and rainbows and unicorns coming out of my ass or something like that,” he said. “It’s just not that game. It’s not a very saturated colour palette, but we are going for large, beautiful open vistas this time around, much larger scale of battle – so it’s not just grey pillars, right?”

He added: “There might be other projects coming out of Epic in which I may have a torrent of unicorn leakage from my ass. The horn’s the hardest part, really.”

The quote’s from a full interview on Eurogamer about the “game” and shit, but we’re far more interested in Cliff’s ass. Show us your ass, Cliff.

The Eurogamer massive got a Kim interview too, the first bit of which just popped up on GI. Speaking at the Microsoft Gamer’s Day in San Francisco yesterday, the Xbox boss refused to be drawn on the states of play between his firm and Sony, saying only that the figures will tell the final story.

“I understand that Sony has declared leadership already,” he said. “We’ll let the data speak for itself.”

He also stopped the tides and rippled the fabric of universal matter by telling the site he thought 2008 would be a successful year for Xbox 360.

“What we’re really trying to communicate is that this is going to be another landmark year for Xbox 360,” he said, “mainly because we are really focused on the strategy of tremendous exclusive content. Titles like Gears of War 2, Fable 2, Banjo, et cetera. as well as the continuing leadership we have in the online space with Xbox Live.”

Hit the link for more. CVG’s already posted a full interview with the exec this morning.

“We’re not announcing anything about co-op at this time, we’ll probably get around to it around E3 time, but rest assured, it will be bigger and better,” he said.

“The multiplayer is incredibly robust. We’re not saying too much about it right now due to embargoes and whatnot, but lots of multiplayer maps, lots of modes. We’ll have the multiplayer functionality that gamers have come to expect this day and age.”

More through the link.

Speaking to Kotaku at the Microsoft Gamer’s Day in San Francisco yesterday, Team Ninja’s Tomonobu Itagaki said that he doesn’t plan on making any more Ninja Gaiden games after Ninja Gaiden II.

“Personally I think we were able to create the definitive 3D game in this series so I’m not planing on making any other games in the series,” Itagaki said through a translator. “So I hope fans treat this as a swan song for the franchise.

“I think we were able to achieve everything we wanted with this game so anything else would be extraneous.”

More through the link. For complete news coverage on the Gamer’s Day itself, hit this.

Update: Sorry, our major bad. The Leipzig reference in the interview was to the game’s German showing in 2007, not 2008.

Xbox boss Shane Kim confirmed in a CVG interview last night that Ensemble RTS Halo Wars will be shown at Games Convention in Leipzig this August, but that the viewing will be in a “controlled fashion”.

“We’re not showing Halo Wars here today because we wanted to focus on these titles,” he said at yesterday’s Microsoft Gamer’s Day in San Francisco. “When we show titles we want to show them when they are ready. We’ve learned that from a few games we showed too early, like Too Human.

“I’m excited with the progress we’ve made, Halo Wars is a lot of fun to play but it’s not ready to show yet,” he added

“Here we wanted to do more hands-on time and Halo Wars isn’t ready. And I think you’ll see when we show it again, it’s evolved a fair amount. And it’s a mix of multiplayer and single-player and we want to show them at the same time.”

For the full Kim interview, see here.

Looks like an exclusive. CVG interviewed Xbox boss Shane Kim at yesterday’s Microsoft Gamer’s Day in San Francisco, in which he reiterates that Gears 2 is 360′s biggest game this year, the console’s life cycle in general and confirmation that Halo Wars will be at Leipzig. Must-read.

“I’ve never heard of a motion sensing controller,” he said. “I don’t know what you are talking about.”

The rumour of a Wiimote rip off for 360 originally came from MTV, and 8bitjoystick reckoned it was codenamed “Newton”. Just goes to show.

“I will say, look, we have a lot of research and development going on all over the place, in Live and in Hardware and we have a ton of success in the accessory business – and that’s probably a story that doesn’t get told enough,” Kim added.

“We’re going to continue to look at new ways we can introduce different things – the third parties are doing this as well with the music controllers. So there’s opportunities for us there too. We’re an R and D company at heart.”

Consider yourself told.

Cliffy B, the man with the best hair in games development, showed Gears of War 2 being played at yesterday’s Microsoft Gamer’s Day in San Francisco. People wrote about it on the internet. There are previews on 1UP, Eurogamer and IGN. Lots of detail about the demo in all of them, so that should keep you happy for the morning.

We just chanced across the full PR introduction to Banjo Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts’ plot in this Amazinhiddenbanjofolder on Rare’s site. Sneaky buggers.

“Tired of the feuding between bear, bird and witch, a new player has stepped in: the mysterious Lord of Games (LOG), said to have been involved in creating every videogame ever released,” says the blurb. “He whisks the rivals away to his creative HQ in Showdown Town, and into an elaborate series of challenges held within his hand-made worlds. The winner gets the ownership deeds to Spiral Mountain, the loser an eternity of toil in LOG’s videogame factory. The game is on!

“However, things are a bit different this time around. The core gameplay mechanic – and the method by which worlds are traversed, challenges tackled and progress made – is the creation and customisation of vehicles, using components found, bought and won throughout Showdown Town. From wheels and weapons to springs and wings, all of which can be combined in any number and style, there’s a staggering level of experimentation and personalisation for those willing to dabble. If you can imagine it, you can probably build it. But any adventurer with less confidence, experience or time on their hands can still jump in and take on the game with a pre-built range of vehicles. The Lord of Games might be heavy-handed, but he’s big on equal opportunities.

“However, it’s not all change in Banjo-Kazooie country, as Banjo will still compete for Jiggies to unlock new destinations and hoard the musical notes that serve as legal tender. Familiar figures on hand to help include everyone’s favourite shaman down at Mumbo’s Motors and newly appointed tourist information officer Bottles; new faces on the block include porcine police chief Pikelet and overly competitive braggart Trophy Thomas. Outside Showdown Town you might just meet them all again, persuaded by LOG to turn thespian and act out hilarious themed roles in different worlds. You’ll also have to take on Grunty’s shiny army of mechanical Gruntbots, riding roughshod over Banjo’s efforts to save the day.”

Read the full thing after the link. We properly want this now.

Introduction
Build a better bear car
It’s Honey Bear and Breegull time again! Join them as they take to the sky, sea and land to save Spiral Mountain…

It’s been a long time coming, but Banjo and Kazooie are back in action – and so, to their exasperation, is dedicated arch-foe Gruntilda. The stakes have been raised, and Grunty’s out to redevelop Spiral Mountain into tower blocks and shopping malls. Banjo and Kazooie’s future is on the line!

Tired of the feuding between bear, bird and witch, a new player has stepped in: the mysterious Lord of Games (LOG), said to have been involved in creating every videogame ever released. He whisks the rivals away to his creative HQ in Showdown Town, and into an elaborate series of challenges held within his hand-made worlds. The winner gets the ownership deeds to Spiral Mountain, the loser an eternity of toil in LOG’s videogame factory. The game is on!

However, things are a bit different this time around. The core gameplay mechanic – and the method by which worlds are traversed, challenges tackled and progress made – is the creation and customisation of vehicles, using components found, bought and won throughout Showdown Town. From wheels and weapons to springs and wings, all of which can be combined in any number and style, there’s a staggering level of experimentation and personalisation for those willing to dabble. If you can imagine it, you can probably build it. But any adventurer with less confidence, experience or time on their hands can still jump in and take on the game with a pre-built range of vehicles. The Lord of Games might be heavy-handed, but he’s big on equal opportunities.

However, it’s not all change in Banjo-Kazooie country, as Banjo will still compete for Jiggies to unlock new destinations and hoard the musical notes that serve as legal tender. Familiar figures on hand to help include everyone’s favourite shaman down at Mumbo’s Motors and newly appointed tourist information officer Bottles; new faces on the block include porcine police chief Pikelet and overly competitive braggart Trophy Thomas. Outside Showdown Town you might just meet them all again, persuaded by LOG to turn thespian and act out hilarious themed roles in different worlds. You’ll also have to take on Grunty’s shiny army of mechanical Gruntbots, riding roughshod over Banjo’s efforts to save the day.

For the first time in the Banjo universe there’s also the opportunity to go online with players across your own world. Combine this with the riveting new solo adventure, and it looks like 2008 really will be the Year of the Bear. You might want to book a seat. When the comedy rattles and clanks die down, the garage door rolls up and Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts finally purrs into view, you’ll be glad you did.

The cast list for Banjo 3: Nuts & Bolts has been revealed on a top secret Banjo site that we fell over earlier.

Aside from the obvious, the game will feature all the familiar faces: Gruntilda, Mumbo Jumbo and Bottles.

Intriguingly, there is a mysterious character called Lord of Games. Lord of Games is described as a “mysterious widescreen deity not only claims to have had a hand in every videogame ever made, he has taken it upon himself to build entire worlds to host the latest Banjo vs. Grunty showdown. The feud must end once and for all: the deeds to Spiral Mountain go to the victor!”

Check out the hush-hush Amazinghiddenbanjofolder. Don’t tell anyone though: they’ll all want to visit.

By Mike Bowden

Amazing what can materialise out of thin air when you least expect it. Hit the link for three brand new screens of Banjo Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts, in lovely high resolution. Don’t say we don’t do anything for you.

“We’ve got the full complement of Star Wars vehicles, all working,” he said.

“We’ve even built the USS Enterprise and a space shuttle with the boosters detaching. It’s amazing that you can make all these things: that’s when we knew we’d nailed it.”

Sorry, but we think that’s pretty amazing. Full interview through the link.

By Mike Bowden

Having recently made the trip over to Lionhead in Guildford to see Fable 2, Danish site Xboxlife tells of how your actions at the start of your journey in the game could have dramatic consequences for entire towns later on.

“Actions that you make early in the game can affect large parts of the town that you start in,” writes the site in a language you most likely couldn’t understand unless we translate it for you. “Under the demonstration we arrived at a mission where we had to gather incriminating evidence against some villains.

“If you choose not to give this evidence to the police the criminals will take over a certain part of the town, and the town itself will be affected by this action. The opposite is also true: if you choose to give the evidence to the authorities…”

We’re hot for Fable 2. Check out all our stories on the game here.

By Mike Bowden

“One of the main focus points in the game has been the dialogue,” said the site, translated by your friends here at videogaming247. “This time round the story and dialogue has been written by professional Hollywood writers to make sure that Fable 2 is a fantastic experience.”

However, these Danes aren’t that easily impressed:

“But dialogue isn’t always enough to secure a good story,” the article rightly pointed out. “Good voice acting is also an ingredient and Fable 2 delivers the goods. What we heard under the demonstration was convincing: it seemed as though it belonged in the Fable universe, and it made sure that you will drawn into the game world.”

In case you hadn’t heard, Fable 2 has been pushed back to holiday.

By Mike Bowden

According to this Kotaku report, Too Human will no longer have four-player co-op, and instead will ship with only two-player.

C’est la vie. There are some new screens over there as well. Have fun.

They’re on GamersHell. No idea if this is going to be shown at the Microsoft Gamer’s Day today, but it’s not on the list. Heading for 2009? Take a look at the screens.

Update: Apparently these were released in January. Still, pretty, aren’t they?

Missed these earlier. XboxLife.dk’s published a ruck of new screens and artwork from Fable 2, and very pretty it looks too. Take a look.