Tabula Rasa game designers have always stressed the significant role of weapons in the game. After all, you play an armored soldier with an arsenal so huge even John Rambo would turn green in envy.

With so many weapons to choose from, picking the right one would depend on the combat situation you intend to get involved in. The weapon system is said to be quite intuitive that combining weapons, ammunitions and using them on different enemy type sets the stage for varied combat situations.

The weapons/equipment include: Standard AFS Rifle & Pistol; AFS Machine Gun; AFS Staff; AFS Torque Shell Pistol; AFS Grenade Launcher; AFS NetGun; AFS Polarity Gun; AFS Grappler; AFS Injection Gun; AFS Target Painting Rifle; AFS Density Field Gun; Shell Bot and Turnaround; and Pyro Launcher.

Though not yet confirmed, the weapons are said to feature weapon decay, which means they'll become useless depending on the frequency of use and weather conditions. This wear and tear feature adds more realism to the game.

NCSoft has released artworks for the weapons and equipment you'll soon be using when you take on enemies from the evil race known as Bain. We know your trigger finger is itching just looking at these concept artwork.

More weapons await after the jump!

Pre-order: [Tabula Rasa]

Twenty-six artistically-inclined members of the Tony Hawk's American Sk8land online community will be able to showcase their artwork in Activision's forthcoming DS title, Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam. This is what Activision announced today as the company unveiled the winning images in their recently-concluded art creation contest for Downhill Jam.

The winning images were chosen from among more that 66,000 pieces of logo and skateboard deck artwork submitted via the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection. They will be included as design options in Downhill Jam alongside artwork created b developer Vicarious Studios. The winning pieces can be viewed over at www.american-sk8land.com.

For those who want to make their own artwork for use in Downhill Jam, the game will employ a next-gen art editor with a slew of exciting features, giving players unprecedented levels of control over their skater's look and clothing design. Players can also use the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection to share their outfit designs with other community members.

Pre-Order: [Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam (DS)]

Tokyo is home to lots of intriguing museums -- John Lennon, Edo Tokyo, Met Art, Fukagawa and Meiji Jingu Treasure Museum, just to name a few. Nintendo sees this as an opportunity to transform its consoles into more than just gaming devices. If you've heard of the PSP's reported GPS capability, then you now have a fair idea of what the DS Lite has got to do with museums. Nintendo has come up with a new system to guide museum visitors using the DS Lite. The software is currently in development and its first tests in real art galleries will start in Tokyo next month.

It seems like a paradox that if visitors are going to see the artworks on their DS Lite anyway, what do they need to go to a museum for? Of course, you've been to art exhibitions and know most artworks aren't really openly displayed. Some are especially hidden inside glass frames. Just pointing the stylus to the DS Lite screen will show the artwork in full detail. Nifty, eh?

Let's start with the issue that most of you have probably been wondering about: why Too Human, the action-adventure game based on the future of technology, didn't show up at the recently held X06.

According to Denis Dyack, a member of the Silicon Knight team, the reason why they didn't bring Too Human to the X06 was that they simply weren't ready to show the game. Denis also says that their main goal in showing the game was to give the people a real feel of what it will be like when it comes out, and that includes story, audio, gameplay, artwork, and technology.

At the time of X06, they weren't ready to show the game in all its goodness so they decided to hold back. But Denis also assures us that everything's going well with the game's development and that there will be a preview of the game soon. Alright, now that we got that out of the way, let's move on to the gameplay.

Control Scheme: the right analog stick is used to perform your basic melee combat attacks, allowing you to instantly attack in any direction and flow attacks effortlessly between targets.
Different patterns and combinations of the conventional buttons and triggers will give you access to ranged gun combat, juggle attacks, air combat, finishing moves, and tons of advanced combos and moves.

Other than the control scheme, Denis doesn't provide much other detailed info on the action elements of the game, which has only led to further speculation about the game's content and gameplay. But Silicon Knights says that the reason why they haven't revealed much info is because they believe that the game should be played and experienced for it to be fully understood.

But rest assured that the game will live up to both the action AND adventure genre when this game comes out -- an intense action based combat game with deep RPG gameplay. Your character's play style will be defined by the choices you make and the skills and abilities you gain. As Baldur, the main hero, embarks on the task of saving humanity from a horde of robots gone haywire, these skills will definitely help out in slaying beasts with sword attacks, hammer smashes, shootouts, and tons more.

Thus, the weapons you choose and how you combine them to issue kickass attacks will change the experience and combat possibilities. Add to that the co-op multiplayer mode that the game will feature, you can only imagine the endless combat possibilities you'll be getting yourself into. We mentioned in an earlier article that the game's release date has been pushed back, and according to IGN, the game is now scheduled for release April next year. We'll keep you posted for more info.

Before your brains go into overdrive, Coversutra is a shareware application that deals with album artwork. This means you don't have to tire your eye out reading through gazillions of files. Instead, you'd have the ease of browsing through colorful and artistic album covers.

However, even if this application has been conceptualized long before the iTunes 7.01 with pretty much the same function came out, the Coversutra must incorporate something in its design and build that will make users take a second look.

The application isn't released yet, however, private beta testing is now on its way and hopefully we'll be able to check out this application soon.

Here comes the latest batch of screenshots for one of Capcom's most enduring titles, Devil May Cry, which is now at its fourth reincarnation. Devil May Cry 4 is bound to be released for the Playstation 3, though no exact date has yet been announced. It is, however, expected to be out before March 31 of 2007 which is the end of Capcom's fiscal year.

In any case, we have two pieces of artwork which shows two of the new stages that players will be able to explore in the game. One looks like a cathedral corridor while the other is an outdoor area with a view of the city below. Could this mean that Dante will be free to roam the said city? We also have several screenshots of what seems to be a big, fiery boss, as well as Nero (or is that Dante...?) fighting blade-wielding cousins of Tim Burton's Oogie Boogie in a courtyard. They were previously seen as tiny, little pictures in magazine scans, but we now have them in all their 1080 x 608 glory.

What intrigues me the most about this game, however, is while watching the official TGS trailer of the game, Nero is shown going up against Dante, and then pointing a white gun which is covered in what seemed to be engraving. Recalling Devil May Cry 1 where Dante is never seen without his pair of pistols Ebony and Ivory, is it possible that Nero was using one of Dante's own guns? "How so" and "why" are the two foremost questions running at the back of my head.

And then there's the aria-singing girl in the trailer as well. Who is she and what is she doing, performing in what looks like an abandoned cathedral?

Hurry up, Capcom! We want to know!

Digital comic may be a fad, but so far, we're not seeing the likes of it becoming less popular. In fact, the only reason that new and more screenshots keep coming is because fans of digital graphic novels just can't have enough of it. So we got more layered animations here from Metal Gear Solid Digital Graphic Novel -- the freshest and the finest ones for you.

In the game, players can gain a whole lot of insight into the Metal Gear Solid universe using the Mental Search and Memory Building modes. Again, the artwork was inspired by Ashley Wood so we're seeing only the best of every page in the digital comic book. Check out a load of screens here and have a blast.

More screens await after the jump!

Buy: [Metal Gear Solid Digital Graphic Novel]

Pardon us pussyfooting around the subject, but hosting alleged, supposed, inferential, hypothetical and presumptive images of Ubisoft's projects for next-gen consoles is like walking on thin North Pole ice. However, we're not going to deny that it's almost a guilty pleasure looking forward to further "updates" on these games.

Rumormongers will have their fill of would they or wouldn't they with this list of release dates of the games included in the said Ubisoft leak, courtesy of Vooks.

Game	Console	Release Date
Tom Clancy’s Firehawk	PS3, Xbox 360 PC	March 2007
Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six 5	PS3, Xbox 360, Rev, PC, PSP	November 2006
Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon 4	PS3, Xbox 360, PC, Xbox, PS2	March 2007
Assassin's Creed	PS3, Xbox 360, Rev, PC, PSP	March 2007
Lumines 2	PS2, PSP
Game 5	PS3, Xbox 360, PC	Spring 2007
Alive	PS3, Xbox 360, PC	Spring 2007
Naruto	Xbox 360
Rayman 4	PS3, Xbox 360, Rev, PC, PS2, handheld	November 2006
Dark Messiah of Might & Magic	PC, PS3, Xbox 360
Brothers in Arms 3	PS3, Xbox 360, PC, Nintendo Revolution, DS	February 2007
Ninja Turtles	PS3, Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii, PC,handheld	Spring 2007
Highway Battles	Xbox 360
Enchant Arms	Xbox 360	July 2006
Blazing Angel 1.5	PS3, Xbox 360, Xbox	November 2006
Ghost Recon 3	PS3	November 2006
Ghost Recon 3 Mission Pack	PS3, Xbox 360, PC, and PSP

Prince of Persia

The rest of the images await after the jump!

Writing an article about an actual pack shot for Sonic the Hedgehog is no easy task. In times like these, you're left feeling like a magician trying desperately to pull a rabbit out of a hat. The challenge lies in making something simple into something incredible.

A catchy title perhaps? Sonic in the Flesh. And then followed by a popular quote with no particular relevance to the game, but has the word in hedgehog in it.  The Greek poet Archilochus once said "The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing" suggesting a profound distinction between two kinds of artist or thinker. This technique will however put some people off, so as the article's saving grace, a quote from the person who took the photo is needed.

"Here is the actual package for Sonic for the PS3. Thank god they have that blue on top to easily distinguish between ps3 and ps2 games," says =Metallic-Force=. Enjoy.

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Update:

As some of you have put it, the true test of a pack shot's legitimacy is a photograph of its back portion. There certainly isn't anything wrong for not immediately taking everything at face value. Completely understandable. So, to enforce his previous claim of the pack shot being legit (or of him being very good at photoshop), =Metallic-Force= has sent in a snapshot of the back portion of the Sonic the Hedgehog game.

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Update 2: Two real sweet pictures of pre-release Sonic love isn't enough for you? Must you get inside and pick apart every aspect of the official box and artwork... just like everything else you see? We will let it slide just this once (since we do too). Luckly for our sake we don't have to go sneeking around in Sony's headquarters again... since they didn't much appriciate us there last time... so =Metallic-Force= has saved us the restraining order while providing us with a internal picture of Sonic the Hedgehog's Box, including the Instruction Manual and Disk. Thanks for these great centerfolds =Metallic-Force=, now if only we could find a way to curb our excitement until the PS3's release.

Buy: [Sonic the Hedgehog]

Richard Garriott sat down on Thursday morning at GDC and gave a seminar about the history and future of Tabula Rasa, apparently his seminar was one of the more popular ones. Richard has been hard at work over the past few years working on several incarnations of Tabula Rasa. Richard is a legend in the MMO community making it nice to hear about the struggles and achievements the Tabula Rasa team has been through. Keep your eye open for part two.

GDC Panel: Designing Tabula Rasa

In the first part of our two part preview, we cover Richard Garriott's GDC talk

On Thursday morning at GDC, Richard Garriott gave a seminar about the history and future of Tabula Rasa. The seminar was one of the more popular. Richard is a legend in the MMO community so it was great to hear the struggles and triumphs the team on Tabula Rasa has gone through. Part two of this article will focus on the sit down interview I did with Richard after the seminar.

One of the main points that Tabula Rasa is trying to give individuals is the special feeling you get from solo player games. Rich’s point that MMOs are simply about numbers of players takes away from a persons individual experience. The other important element that Tabula Rasa is trying to implement is a system where both Asian and western players can join the same game with very few barriers in language or culture.

Click the jump to catch the rest.