SimCity Creator Screen Bonanza

Electronic Arts just dropped a ton o screens for their upcoming Wii sim, SimCity Creator. As with all past SimCities you'll get to have some fun building up and managing your cities and much more fun terrorizing your citizens and flattening your megalopolis with surreal-chains of absurd disasters. This time around it looks like those disasters include things like a giant human hand giving your downtown a nice belly scratching and waves of dinosaurs and giant robots.

The Alphabet... In Halo Corpses

Wow, just wow! Bungie points readers to this amazing collection of Halo screenshots over at I <3 Halo 3 Screenshots. What makes this particular collection so amazing is that it uses the contorted and rigored bodies of fallen Spartans and Elites to sell out the alphabet. Now, thanks to their hard work, people can use dead digital bodies to do silly things like spell out Kotaku, or simultaneously teach their children to both understand and fear the alphabet.

Halo Corpse Alphabet

Mirror's Edge Impressions, New Screens and Trailer

Cannabalism, Slavery and Sex in Fallout 3

Fallout 3 maybe the game I am most excited about going into this E3. I say maybe, because there are some other titles up there that have me pretty psyched (Left 4 Dead). But Fallout 3 for me is a wonderous mix of nostalgia and clever game design.

I can't talk about what I saw yet while playing through a chunk of the game last month, but the Bethesda folks took the time to throw together a massive fan-driven 25 question and answer post. In it they touch on everything from child killing and drug addiction to AI and dialog trees. Here's my favorite question. Hit the jump for one on the AI and two more screens. Make sure you check out the full post if you're interested in the game.

1) Which of the following, if any, will be featured in Fallout3; Romance, Sex, Homosexuality, Nudity, Prostitution, Slavery, Cannibalism, Children, Child killings, drugs, addictions? And of the things that won't be featured, can you explain why they won't be included in the game?

It touches on most of those. Slavery, children, drugs and addiction more than the others, as those factor for into the setting more. In regards to nudity and child killings, no, it features neither of those, as they don't really add to the flavor of the game (I'll get into children in the next question more). I think if you look at Fallout 1, and the footprint it has with the topics you ask about, Fallout 3 is pretty much the same, in that it features the types of things you mention at about the same rate, no more, no less. Drugs and drug addiction play a larger role perhaps, as it's a key gameplay device. I think the heart of this question is "has the harshness and maturity of the world of Fallout 3 been tempered from the earlier games?" and I can certainly say "No, it hasn't been."

Last week's MLG San Diego was notable for its debut of the Cold Storage map for Halo 3. It also gave people a look at a "very early test phase" version of Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X., the arcade flight combat sim forthcoming from Ubisoft by the end of the year. The game was a demo playable by anyone in attendance. A reader who was there said the Ubi rep didn't care if anyone took pictures, so he did, and he gave them to us. The full size pics are after the jump. Our reader also took notes of what was said and sent back a report.

Sierra Online just sent us a fact sheet and some screens for upcoming Xbox Live Arcade title Interpol. The puzzle game is set to hit the Xbox 360 this fall. The full Fact Sheet is on the jump.

Midway released two new screens of their upcoming open-world driving game starring Vin Diesel. Not a whole lot to see here, besides the sparks.

Action film megastar Vin Diesel and his Tigon Studios are again blurring the lines between entertainment mediums, this time collaborating with Midway in the design and production of Wheelman to ensure an edge-of- your-seat gaming experience. Diesel's voice and likeness will appear as the game�s main character, expert Wheelman Milo Burik.

Combining spectacular Hollywood-style stunts with a gripping storyline, Wheelman provides an adrenaline-fueled, cinematic thrill ride guaranteed to leave you breathless. Vin Diesel stars as an undercover agent and highly skilled driver who must infiltrate the Barcelona underworld to gather intelligence surrounding a covert heist. Posing as a driver-for-hire, he ends up caught in a crossfire of corruption and chaos while trying to stay one step ahead of local law enforcement and rival gangs.

The game is set to ship this fall for the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3.

Dungeon Runner's Gold-Excreeting Bling Gnome Spotted

Starting in June people who pick up the box copy of Dungeon Runners at a store will get an in-game Bling Gnome.

The Bling Gnome is a pet of sort that runs around in the game as you play picking up all of the gold dropped from the baddies you kill while playing the free-to-play massive game. The gnome can also be told to pick up dropped items that aren't rare and eat them. He then poops out gold as a reward... seriously.

I love this idea, it saves all of the hassle of having to go back to town and sell off the crap you horde while out in the wilds adventuring.

Hit up the jump for the full explainer as well as some more pics of the gnome in action.

Midway just dropped seven new screens for the upcoming Xbox 360 version of Unreal Tournament III. The 360 version, if you don't recall, will include five new levels, two new characters, a splitscreen mode and all of the previously released downloadable content.

Afro Samurai Screen Blast

Bandai Namco just sent over a batch of fresh screenshots for Afro Samurai. The upcoming hip-hop, Samurai, action-adventure game for the 360 looks to feature an interesting blend of hand-drawn and cel-shaded art. It's very pretty stuff. Hit the jump for a clutch of dazzling screens. I hope the play lives up to the fidelity.

It's embarrassing how anxious I am to play Fallout 3. I can't tell if it's more because I was such a fan of the Fallout ideal, going back to when I used to play it on my old computer, or because this new Fallout has so many neat ideas all wrapped around those same concepts and topped with some amazing graphics. OK, I'm going to stop gushing now. Hit the jump for two more images.

Good Reviews First Please

Over at MTV Multiplayer, Stephen Totilo is hip-deep in Reviews Week, his week-long look at all things having to do with game reviews, from advertising concerns to stupid PR tricks, such as the following
response former GameSpot reviewer Alex Navarro received when asking a PR rep when the review for a certain Wii game could be posted.

If the review is 9.0 or higher you can post immediately. Lower than 9.0, could you please hold until launch day, November 19th? Thanks.

Based on communications I've had with PR people over the years, yeah...I could definitely see this happening. In this case the GameSpot folks opted to just buy the game at a store and review it, but it makes you wonder, doesn't it?

Video Game Company To Wii Reviewer: Save The Panning For Later, Okay? [MTV Multiplayer]

Earlier this morning Electronic Arts officially announced the long-rumored Lord of the Rings meets Battlefield title, Lord of the Rings Conquest.

The game, under development by Pandemic Studios, will give gamers a chance to fight some of Tolkein's greatest battles as either the good guys or the bad when it hits this fall.

“We’ll freely admit that we’re rabid fans of The Lord of the Rings fantasy,” says Josh Resnick, co-founder and general manager at Pandemic Studios. “Our experience creating massive, rich, action-packed games means that The Lord of the Rings: Conquest will give fans exactly what they want: full control of the blade, bow and magic to fight its epic battles any way they want – even if they choose to play from the evil side.”

Hit the jump for the official press release.

Two New Screens for Golden Axe: Beast Rider

Atlus just sent over this batch of fresh new R-Type Command screens. R-Type Command is set to hit the Playstation Portable on May 6, but you can grab a demo (which includes a taste of ad-hoc multiplayer) for free on the PSN store. I don't know if it's a good idea for me to own an R-Type on a system that I can easily either throw through a window or smash on the ground. Not that, that would happen, but it is R-Type.

I'm hanging out at Volition in a cozy darkened side room, waiting for their presentation on Saint's Row 2 to begin. Producer Greg Donovan (right) is with me and we sit there a bit awkwardly, waiting for the game's Lead Designer, James Tsai (left), to join us.

It's not Donovan's fault that things are weird. Someone has painstakingly setup a small table filled with various drinks and snacks that, as Donovan explains, "aren't there everyday."

Things are weird because I have an absurd headache on top of an even more absurd head cold making me a complete bitch to talk to. Donovan breaks the silence again.

I am ashamed to admit that I'm a bit of a closet SpongeBob fan. Really, you can't blame me. When you have a child, and spend time with him watching television on occasion, you're going to eventually get drawn into liking one or two of his shows. SpongeBob, actually, can be quite funny at times.

As I mentioned before, one of my all-time favorite episodes is the one featuring the inordinately creepy DoodleBob, the creation of a artistically-lacking SpongeBob and a real-world pencil.

THQ contacted us after I posted about my reserved anticipation for the game with a couple of screen shots. I have to say they don't really assay my fears that the developers will entirely miss the point of what makes DoodleBob so awesome. In a nutshell? More creepy, less kiddie. Don't underestimate the SpongeBob adult fan club.

Hit the jump for a couple more screens and some of the game's details.

By now you've probably figured out that not one Kotaku writers, but three of us have actually played Street Fighter IV... extensively. And yet we still haven't written a single impression. I can't speak for everyone, but I'm betting they feel just as much at a loss for where to start as I do. I promise to get something up on the site, hopefully several somethings, by the end of the week. Until then, be content with these spiffy new screens.