Namco has confirmed the inevitable, while simultaneously releasing as little information as possible. This evening the company quietly released [url=http://www.gamevideos.com/video/id/12170]the teaser trailer[/url] for Soul Calibur IV, the upcoming sequel to 2005’s PlayStation 2 exclusive. While little is known about the game, the short video does set expectations for the game to debut for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 sometime in 2008. It will also witness the return of the top heavy vixen Ivy and the sword wielding Mitsurugi, both shown in the short teaser as high resolution character models. I suspect we’ll see an official announcement with more information at or just before E3, which kicks off on July 10.

The PC community’s seminal city building franchise is about to get a makeover. SimCity Societies, the latest game in Electronic Arts’ long running SimCity franchise, is notable not only for adopting a new naming convention, but also for being handed off to a new developer for the first time since the series was created by Maxis in 1989.

The game, which was first showcased as part of a cover story in the July issue of Games for Windows magazine, is now being helmed by Tilted Mill Entertainment, a much less proven studio known for lesser strategy titles such as Caesar IV and Immortal Cities: Children of the Nile.

However, the studio is not without talent, having been founded by several developers who left Impressions Games, and who have worked on previous iterations in the Caesar franchise, as well as 1999’s incredibly addictive Pharaoh. So, while SimCity Societies promises a somewhat questionable shifted focus on “social energy” on top of constructing your dream metropolis, there are plenty of reasons for this game to keep your strategy compass pointing north.

According to a statement released by EA, the upcoming game will allow players to create “cultures, societal behaviors and environments” for their cities, which will be able to take a variety of forms. Examples offered by EA include artistic cities, haunted towns, green cities, and spiritual communities. Sure, this is a step away from the pure armchair city planning that we are used to, but this actually sounds like it will draw the game closer to EA’s hugely successful The Sims series, which if accurate could make SimCity Societies terrific…and terrifically addictive.

The trick will be striking a balance between the old and the new, and deciding what elements players have come to love about SimCity can be cut without alienating the vast majority of long time fans. Key to this will be the game’s continuing focus on city building, with SimCity Societies supporting more than 350 building types, each of which will be able to be combined, connected and re-arranged freely. As each city evolves, players will be able to unlock new buildings that “can help advance – or regress – their society,” says the EA statement.

Another feature players can expect are resources called “social energies,” that can be mixed and matched in order to decide their city’s overall direction. These energies are divided into six different categories, including industry, wealth, obedience, knowledge, devotion, and creativity, and together drive the behaviors of a city and its inhabitants.

We will report more on this game as we find out anything else. SimCity Societies is currently expected to ship in November 2007.

The Wii is still somewhat of an unproven piece of hardware, still testing its legs and acting as a kind of test bed for developers to act like mad scientists in order to see who can pull our arms out of socket first. My bet is on Nintendo, which just handed me the upcoming [i]Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree[/i] with promises of cephalic fortitude. I don’t know about all that, but this degree they included with the game is enough to make a journo’s head swell.

Look for our review soon.

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[img]http://snackbar-games.com/images/news/2007/06/brain_2.jpg[/img]

I enjoy the [i]Need for Speed[/i] series. The franchise is not without its shortcomings, but I cannot help but look back fondly on iterations like [i]Hot Pursuit[/i] and hell even to a lesser extent [i]Most Wanted[/i]. Now EA is bringing a new sequel (already?), following up on the last game, [i]Carbon[/i], with [i]Need for Speed ProStreet[/i]. There was a teaser not too long ago for it which showed a sleek car on what appeared to be some sort of drag strip, but today the company officially announced the title, as well as the game’s first details.

In development by EA Black Box in Vancouver, B.C., and expected to ship this fall for multiple platforms, [i]ProStreet [/i]is siad to focus on “head to head” street racing competitions. The game will also build upon the previous game’s “Autosculpt” technology by allowing changes you make to your car to “directly impact your car’s performance” as well as make it look nifty. Online play will also be a focus, though it remains to be seen if this will have a footprint in all versions of the game.

Says Executive Producer, Larry LaPierre, “[i]Need for Speed ProStreet[/i] accelerates street racing culture by providing the ultimate stage for the pursuit of street racing supremacy… This is a game about building the ultimate performance-tuned battle machine, taking it to multi-disciplinary showdowns all over the world and pitting your skills and reputation against the very best street racers.”

[i]Need for Speed ProStreet[/i] will be available for the Xbox 360, PS3, PS2, Wii, Nintendo DS, PSP, PC, and mobile phones.