Metal Gear Solid creator Hideo Kojima presented the first-ever game play demo of Solid Snake’s new sneaking mission with Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots.

The 20-minute demonstrations at the Japanese press event – PlayStation Premiere 2007 – reveal some interesting features. These include:

• Solid Snake can take weapons from enemies.
• He can hide under metal drums, which are more effective than cardboard boxes.
• However, rolling too much in the drum causes Snake to get sick and puke…
• But looking through bikini magazines will help him refrain from puking! Snake can actually read several pages.
• Snake can roll himself sideways.
• Two view points are available – first and third person.
• To aim with the crosshairs, the player needs to use the SIXAXIS controller.
• When in stealth mode, Metal Gear Mk II, which is hard for enemies to detect, is alo controlled with the SIXAXIS.

More details on this exciting new game can be read here. Metal Gear Sold 4: Guns of Patriots will be launching simultaneously worldwide in Spring 2008 only for the PlayStation 3 system.

This coming Fall, Japan will have the unique opportunity to watch their favourite television shows in digital on the PlayStation Portable.

The 1seg add-on digital tuner will cost ¥6,980 ($57) and will be on sale alongside the slimmer PSP on September 20th. This new add-on reminds me when Sega did something similar with the Game Gear system. Hopefully the picture quality will be better without draining the battery life…

As for portable console itself, six colours will become available. These are: Piano Black, Ceramic White, Ice Silver, Rose Pink, Lavender Purple and Felicia Blue. As for the price, yours for only ¥19,800 ($162).

These fantastic-looking images are the latest instalments from photographer Helga Steppan, which is on display this month at the Man&Eve gallery in London.

Her work is conceptually driven and often – as with See Through, the colours series – subject to pre-defined parameters that are documented through photography. Here, her possessions were arranged by colour and in accordance with classical compositional values.

In Belongings Apart, Steppan has invited her friends to lend her something they own which is transparent. These objects are presented as a large sculptural installation, shown together with photographs of the different locations where they previously belonged and a written piece by each owner.

It’s wonderful to see everyday products arranged as one single colour. Be long a part runs until the 29th of July. Click here for more details on the exhibit.

Information:
Title: (Angel-a)
Certificate: (15: UK, 15: IRE)
Released by: (Optimum releasing’s Optimum world brand)
Run Time: (88 Minutes: PAL)
Colour: (Black&White)
Origin: (France)
Language: (French)
Subtitles: (English, pre-rendered)
Vintage: (2005)

It’s been some serious time since I last graced my readers if indeed I have any with my thoughts in regards to a film from the roads that are currently called “Europe”. I actually Wrote a small preview of this film way back last July, was at the time my second posting onto eMagi, it was all too blunt. Anyway I’m here today to Review a film known as “Angel-a”, so called because one of the lead characters is called “Angela” and is in fact an angel. This film written and directed by French Film legend Luc Besson grabbed my attentions before it had even arrived in the cinemas on this fair island, but until now I’d not seen it, why was I waiting?

We’ll start in the place that I move often start which is the plot of the film. The Film stars Jamel Debbouze as swindler André, A Moroccan with a US Green card who is stuck in Paris with no papers and several larges debts to various nasty types. With these criminal elements on his case and with no help from the US embassy (Not surprising?) or the French police André decides that the only solution to his problem is the leap into the Seine to his watery and tragic death, I’m reliably informed from wikipedia that this bridge which he intends to leap from is the Pont Alexandre III. As he turns his head up to the heavens as so many bridge jumpers do he is joined on the side of the bridge by a woman who will later be known as Angela, a woman who has supposedly joined him in his quest for some watery death. André, being like any other closet Casanova promptly saves Angela from this watery death. This is where the real story beings as Angela endeavours to save André from his mountain of debts and anxieties as well.

This is in fact the first film to be directed by Luc Besson for about seven years or so, now I’m sure everyone knows who Luc Besson is; I doubt there is a person who hasn’t at least heard a bit about his films “Léon” and “The fifth element”. If I’m being honest I’d have the say that Besson directed, produced and written films have been on my list of favourites for quite some time and I doubt they will leave that list for an absolute lifetime.

The Music of the film does interest me and in search I’ve managed to ascertain that the music was indeed produced by Anja Garbarek, Daughter of European jazz legend Jan Garbarek. This went a long way into explaining to me why I liked the music so much and indeed adds a good deal of prestige to the mixture of Romance and sophisticated supernaturalism. It is actually quite relaxing for me to enjoy a film with this level of Romance and Music as it does wonders for my neurotic personality.

The Cinematography of the film has been done by Thierry Arbogast which isn’t by any means a good start as Arbogast’s previous attempts at this job have resulted in the much lamented “Catwoman” staring Halle Berry in 2004, fortunately I don’t think that had much to do with Arbogast’s skills as Angel-a is a perfect piece of cinematography and indeed I’d say good enough to be used as an advertisement for Paris.

I stated in the earlier section that Jamel Debbouze of Indigènes (Days of Glory) Fame is the lovable Moroccan “André” but I didn’t state who played Angela who must be said to be more important considering she’s the title character, partly because I forgot to put it in and am too lazy to rewrite it, actually that’s the whole reason so I should just get on with it because it’s pointless to continue padding out the review with useless information. Rie Rasmussen is the model come actress in question, now when I was watching the film I thought she was very, very tall; in fact it’s Debbouze who is very small, standing in at 1.65m compared to Rasmussen’s 1.78m. Rasmussen isn’t the best of actresses but who cares when she looks that beautiful in Black and white wearing than dress? Incidentally, Debbouze is actually not bad as an actor and I do hope to watch Indigènes when it finally is released on this Fair Isle.

It doesn’t seem to me to have won or indeed been nominated for any kinds of awards which seems more than a shame considering its amazing visual style and story, I lament that films of this kind are considered only to be a film for the experimentalists and world cinema buffs as I genuinely think that Angel-a would be of considerable interest for anyone who likes light and fluffy films with a bit of vodka thrown into the mix. And, yes I did use three variations of the word “Consider” above.

Now we’ve entered that stage of the review process which involves my opinions of the films I review, I actually do like this film more than most people would think I would when you take into account the fact that it is a love story in which a Moroccan who thinks America is the be all and end all of human existence falls in love which an Angel come down from the all to fictitious “Heaven” to save him when he decides to chuck it all in. The first problem of it is the assumption in three world countries that America is the best country in the world to live in, This in my opinion is not the case but since I’ll be axed if I went too far with this I’ll just say that Claiming to be an “American” when confronted with Gangland types living in Paris whether they happen to be French of indeed Spanish in origin. But then Claiming to be an “Arab” anywhere these days is probably a lot worse…

Despite all of that I enjoyed this supernatural romance film mainly because the lead actress is so beautiful and indeed because Besson knows how to make a decent film unlike all of those Hollywood mugs working towards a goal of endless orgies and orange skin, that is not orgies of food though as most of them can’t eat more than 4 grammes of food per year. I know many people if you ever get the information will be annoying me on the subject of how I can call Rasmussen beautiful when she lives in America, something that should be the deathblow to any actress. She is though of Danish origin and speaks French, which balance her credit in the black for me. And considering that my Sardines are of Moroccan origin, André’s nationality I’ll think of it as a good omen.

I have been for the most part joking about in the last two paragraphs so maybe it’s time to say something serious about Besson’s work. It is no doubt a high quality piece of eccentric Romance for me, fits my tastes like a glove and even provides comedy in the form of André as the pint sized Moroccan swindle machine. The Black and white look makes Paris look extremely beautiful and indeed made me a bit sad that I’ve never been to Paris, It’s made my decision that I have to see this city before I’m twenty, that incidentally gives me three and a bit years to get my act together and get my arse in Paris and maybe find the beautiful arse of a Frenchwoman? The cinematography, the direction, the acting, the scene, the story, it all adds to the beauty of this film.

I sometimes do wonder why I bother with these European film reviews considering they are plastered onto an animé and videogames website, I’d get more attention you know if I tattooed the review to my chest and jumped off a rather tall building. (9.9/10 for the jump, 8/10 for Angel-a)

Bad news I’m afraid. Sony has announced that they will not be cutting the price of the European PlayStation 3 console but instead offer free games and accessories.

In addition, there is no word whether the 80-gigabyte version will be available. So what do you get with the so-called ‘Starter Pack’? Well, the console is still the standard 60GB. But what you get is Resistance: Fall of Man and MotorStorm, plus an extra wireless (but without the vibrating) controller.

And as for the price, all this can be yours for only £425. That’s the same price as it is right now, without the free stuff… Sony claims that the extra £115 worth of items justified the need of this Starter Pack.

So no price reduction or the 80-gigabyte version, unlike those American gamers who have both… Thanks Sony.

EA and Harmonix’s new Rock Band game will feature two important elements that will make it even more special to wannabe rock stars. First, the rhythm-based title will have entire albums available to download such as The Who’s Who Next. And secondly - and the most exciting - Metallica will fully backed the game with Enter Sandman to ship on the game’s pack-in disc.

This means you can rock out with one of the most famous heavy-metal band in the world! Not only that, when Rock Band goes on sale sometime this year, new downloadable content will be available every single week after its initial release.

Forgot about Guitar Hero III, the stage is set for Rock Band!

The new tactical espionage action game from Hideo Kojima will remain only for the PlayStation 3, ending the countless rumours that Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots might be ported onto the Xbox 360.

So good news for Sony gamers but unfortunately, the game won’t be out until early 2008 and it will be the last in the series.

“So all the story plot, the characters, the mysteries, will be revealed,” Kojima said through his translator.

Hideo promised that he will make MGS4 the best as a fitting finale and judging by the new trailer – see below for YouTube version or click here to see in HD - it certainly looks good in particular the duel between Vamp and Ninja Raiden. The highly anticipated game is still not playable during the E3 show, but the game designer admits it will be during the Tokyo show next week.

[youtube]I3xdzi6F1lg[/youtube]

During the Sony media briefing in this year’s E3, the Japanese electronic giants reveal a new slimmer version of the PlayStation Portable.

The basic shape remains the same but the portable console is now 33% lighter and 19% slimmer. In addition, there is a new D-pad, better battery life plus a faster UMD drive meaning quicker loading for games.

The only new feature on the PSP slim is TV-output. This means you can now watch video content straight off your PSP, though the visual quality might be affected when projected from a small screen to something like a HDTV…

Three new PSP bundle packs with be available to purchase, with a special themed Star Wars edition (see picture above). The new portable console will cost $170.

Thanks to the popularity of Wii Sports available on the Nintendo Wii console, the Japanese gaming giant has reveal a new vision for non-gamers with a fitness-based title.

Wii Fit will allow players to become fit and healthy by offering a range of activities to stay in shape. This exciting new game will be bundled with a touch sensitive step-platform named Wii Balance Board, which measure your weight and balance.

By using the Wii Balance Board, you will take part in exercise games including push-ups, step aerobics, goalie defence and dance.

Shigeru Miyamoto, the legendary game designer who created Mario, The Legend of Zelda and Donkey Kong, believes this title will attract non-gamers to have fun.

It’s unclear whenever this step aerobics-type game will catch on with hardcore gamers, who prefer to use their thumbs rather than the arms and legs… But it’s interesting how Nintendo is trying to design games that are entertaining and interactive, as well as tailoring towards a new audience who are not familiar with video games. Thanks to the success of Brain Training and Wii Sports, this gamble to produce a title to stay in shape might go down well in the video game industry.

In other related news, Nintendo has revealed two new controllers – the Wii Zapper (which incorporates the Wii remote and nunchuk to form a gun) and the Wii Wheel (which will be bundle with a new online version of the popular racing game, Mario Kart). In addition, Super Mario Galaxy will go on sale in the US on November 12th followed by Super Smash Bros. Brawl on December 3rd.

Great news for European gamers, Microsoft’s Xbox 360 Elite will be available on sale on August 24th. The console will feature a 120-gigabyte hard drive and HDMI output, offering a true high definition experience for watching videos and playing games.

In addition to the Elite, Microsoft has also reveal that Europe and Canada will have access to the video downloads currently available for the US. This means you can now download a range of movies, TV shows and music videos all in high definition. In fact, the whole Disney catalogue is available on demand.

In other related news, there is a new special edition Xbox 360 based on Halo 3. Gears of War and Viva Pinata (originally exclusive to the console) will now be ported to the PC, as part of Games for Windows. Plus a Buzz! like controller for multiplayer party games entitled ‘Scene It!’ Microsoft hopes this fun, family title will entice the casual gamers just like what Nintendo are doing with the Wii.