Characters

Three characters were shown in the initial teaser trailer, Ivy, Mitsurugi, and Nightmare. Director Katsutoshi Sasaki has also mentioned that Create-a-Character will be playable in multiplayer mode. Electronic Gaming Monthly confirmed the return of Siegfried, Taki and Tira in its July issue. Sophitia, her sister Cassandra and the series staple Voldo were featured next in Famitsu magazine. A recently released trailer featured the first clips of gameplay footage, along with brief glimpses of a new character named Hildegard von Krone, Hilde for short, a female in knight’s armor (with a wolf’s head motif) wielding a red lance and a short sword. At that time the appearances of Raphael and Astaroth were also confirmed. On January 25th, it was confirmed that Maxi , Seong Mi-na and Yun-seong would also return. Furthermore, on February 28th, Kilik, Xianghua and Lizardman were confirmed to appear.[10]. On March 12th, the first of several new characters designed by famous creators was revealed: Scheherazade (designed by Yutaka Izubuchi). March 26th brought us another batch of confirmed characters, specifically Amy, Cervantes and Zasalamel. A new female character, Angol Fear (designed by guest artist Mine Yoshizaki) was also featured.

Also, Darth Vader and Yoda, characters from the Star Wars universe, are confirmed to be playable guest characters but exclusive to different platforms. Vader will be on the PS3 and Yoda will be on the Xbox 360, however it was stated in issue 179 of GameInformer magazine that “Namco was nice enough to concede that the second characters may be available for download on the respective consoles at a later date.”
Scheherazade, one of the new game characters
Scheherazade, one of the new game characters

Returning characters

So far, there are 25 confirmed characters for the series.

* Amy
* Astaroth
* Cassandra
* Cervantes
* Ivy
* Kilik
* Lizardman
* Maxi
* Mitsurugi
* Nightmare
* Raphael
* Seong Mi-na
* Siegfried
* Sophitia
* Taki
* Tira
* Voldo
* Xianghua
* Yun-seong
* Zasalamel

New characters

* Angol Fear (bonus character)
* Darth Vader (guest character on the PlayStation 3 version)[13]
* Hilde
* Scheherazade (bonus character)
* Yoda (guest character on the Xbox 360 version)[13]

Gameplay

Critical Finisher

Soulcalibur IV will feature an all-new Critical Finisher system. This time there will be another gauge under the characters’ Health Meter, known as the Soul Gauge. This meter will fill up when attacking and decrease when guarding. When the meter is empty, the opponent can do a strike that breaks off a part from the character’s armor, altering their appearance and making them weaker for the remainder of the match. There are also three green boxes below the gauges, reflecting the state of the characters armor: high, mid, or low.

If the character manages to empty out the opponent’s Soul Gauge again, they will get a short chance to perform a powerful Critical Finisher, which will kill the opponent instantly. Each character has their own personal Critical Finisher. Namco says that they developed the Soul Gauge to decrease the benefits from constant guarding, thus giving the game a faster tempo. [14] It subsequently would make the matches more offensive, as well.

Limited Premium Edition

According to a recent Gamespot article, Namco/Bandai confirmed there will be a limited Premium Edition of SCIV available which will include an art/comic book, a tournament kit that will “give fans the opportunity to document the battle amongst friends.” , will include extra in-game customizations and sell in a metal packaging on the same release date as the regular game.

Source:

Alone in the Dark, also known as Alone in the Dark 5 and Alone in the Dark: Near Death Investigation, is the fourth sequel of the survival horror video game series created by Infogrames (now Atari). The game will be released on PC, PS3 and Xbox 360.

Atari has released the E3 2006 trailer for Alone in the Dark: Near Death Investigation, the upcoming adventure game developed by Eden Games which will feature an episodic game structure. It will be splitted into distinct episodes in a season-style format. Eden Games has departed from the typical ten-hour game based on film-style scripts and structures and focuses on TV-season format. Each episode will offer approximately 30-40 minutes of gameplay. The episode will begin with a video summary of the previous episode to quickly re-immerse the player in the story, removing the need to remember where they were or what they were doing. Every episode will close with a nail-biting cliff-hanger ending to rattle players’ nerves, and if the player is leaving the game, a video teaser of the next episode will play to leave them wanting more.

A PlayStation 3 version was confirmed by Sony at the Tokyo Game Show 2005, however, it is noteworthy that that title has not been officially announced by its publisher, Atari. While the PS3 version seems to be apparently missing, various PlayStation publications (including Official PlayStation Magazine & PSM), have recently reported on the title as still being developed for the next-gen console. The official release date are still to be announ

Graphic

Visually, Alone in the Dark looks great, with a cinematic flair to it and shifting camera angles from third to first person. We do know that there are many run-ins with the brash citizenry of New York, survivors that will try to get into your car and out of the city at any costs. But we all know that won’t help them; only Carnby can. We’ll have more on the story and gameplay mechanics as soon as Atari starts returning our calls.

Story

Set during 2006, the story continues with Edward Carnby, the main protagonist from the original game, looking for answers to strange supernatural and bizarre occurrences while battling his way through the opposition in New York City’s Central Park. It has been mentioned that Atari wouldn’t reveal exactly how Carnby is still running around in present day considering that the first installment took place during 1926, but the game is most likely a franchise reboot. Condensed portions of the game were seen during the E3 2006 presentation.

Gameplay

Taking the fear to a new level, the next-gen Alone in the Dark features the macabre style of the series played with new gameplay mechanics and a broader-reaching, action-packed play style. Explore fully-interactive realtime worlds, interacting with physics and roaming the wide-open, fright-filled environments. Developer Eden Games has mentioned that they want the structure of the game to be in a similar manner as the television shows, like 24 and Alias. Nadal stated that the storyline will be presented as “episodic content completely structured to the gameplay.”

New Features

The game has been hailed by the producers and developers to be open-ended and expansive. One such feature is the hot-wiring mini game. In one dire moment, the character may need to commander a car by hot-wiring. This will initiate a mini game, where Edward will rip the wires out of said car and try to start the engine. He could either succeed and be able to drive the car, or blare the car horn loudly, alerting enemies to his presence.

Atari promises downloadable content after Alone in the Dark is released, including even more episodes to play with than the initial three. Today, in our brief demo, the focus is on the in-game inventory system, swinging and climbing, and moving and manipulating items.

Publisher: Eden Studios

Developer: Atari

Genre : Adventure/Horor