And taking us out this evening is 90-second behind-the-scenes video from Gametrailers showing the combat overhaul Shaba Games has in mind for the latest Spider-Man title. They're keen on unifying the web-swinging with the fighting, and ground, wall and air attack moves. It also promises switching between different costumes (and their abilities) at will. Not sure how that fits into the storyline. In the video you see Spidey taking on Hobgoblin (or Green Goblin, couldn't get a clear look), and the Vulture.

Spider-Man: Web of Shadows Behind the Scenes -- Combat Redefined [GameTrailers, thanks Tyson B.]

This sounds like it'll dog Resident Evil 5 right up to the release date. We had Capcom/RE5/Microsoft exclusivity rumours going back to February and they were shot down then. Well, Videogaming247 this past week said a little birdie told them Capcom had "some big things to reveal at E3", in mid-July. PlayStationLifeStyle.net citing "from what I have been told" said that Microsoft had offered wads of lucre to get an exclusive crack at it a month ahead of Sony. Christian "Sven" Svensson knocked it down over on Capcom Unity. "The assertion is false. RE5 is a multiplatform release that fits with our oft-stated crossplatform strategy".

Back when I was your age, we played games that sucked and were no fun and we liked it, because it built character, and building character was fun (it was an early form of achievement farming). In fact, we used a slide projector to create finger-shadow combatants for Mortal Kombat, and it was a hoot when granddad had to roll the dice correctly in the correct order to get a fatality.

So that's a big brown blip on the bullshit radar, isn't it. Yeah, thought so. Instead for you, GamesRadar has a comprehensive timeline of all of the video game consoles of the 1970s and I was surprised to learn just how many there were besides the 2600 and the Pong console. Oh, some family friends had the Fairchild (above), that made visiting their home like going to a foreign country where the toilets flushed backward. Except for the Odyssey (actually, we only saw the Odyssey II) I don't think anything other than the Atari retailed in my hometown. Then again, we didn't get a McDonald's until 1980. We had to have our birthday parties at a typewriter repair shop. And we liked it!

Consoles of the 70s [GamesRadar]

Ok, so don't hit play if you don't want to spoil the ending of Limbo of the Lost, the game accused of grand theft assets from a lot of different games. Reader Ryan M. tipped us off to the two videos, the one above and the one that implies that there could be more Limbo in store; over at Rock, Paper, Shotgun, Kieron Gillen notes that "The pianist is possibly the scariest thing I've seen in my life". I'm simply left speechless.

An alleged insider allegedly with Infinity Ward allegedly told TalkPlayStation.com that the Call of Duty 4 developer is "currently working on a new sci-fi title". And then they clam up pretty fast, saying no more info is on the way and, conveniently, we "may or may not announce it at E3".

So there's a 50 percent chance this tip's got legs. As in, they're either making the game, or not. Computerandvideogames.com goes so far as to speculate it's a CoD/SciFi shooter. Granted, CoD is the studio's only title but come on. That's still like saying the guy that brought you "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" is now making an Indiana Jones movie with aliens in it. Oh wait ...

COD4 Developers Making Sci-Fi Title [TalkPlayStation.com via Computerandvideogames.com]

We've mentioned Jason Rohrer's weird little works before, in the form of Passage and Gravitation; now with his 'Game Design Sketchbook' column at the Escapist, he puts up new little games monthly. This month features the theme of life, death, and immortality (appropriately called Immortality):

We generally assume that immortality is good, just as we assume that death is bad. Of course, universal immortality (all six billion of us) would be physically impractical. But what about individual immortality? What about for you? If you could become immortal, would you?

Immortality is a game about that question, and it's also about the converse of that question: Does death have some fundamental value that we usually ignore?

Immortality [The Escapist]

The Behemoth aren't fools, they understand that adding ninjas not only adds awesomeness, it compounds it. (Seriously, try it out. Take any noun, say "plus ninjas", and tell me if it's not awesome. Christmas. Oregon Trail. My cousins' confirmation. Told you.) So word's out via the official blog that you can count on Ninja as another character, and Skeleton as still another.
Ninja carries a sai and a coffee mug, described in a pureley def4. That has to be an inside office joke. The mug is purely defensive. There's also a haze/halo around Ninja in the screens provided by The Behemoth, so does that include invisibility, camouflage or teleporting, or is that just a motion effect? Dunno.

Second character just announced: Skelly, whose weapons seem to include a sword and a bow-and-bone arrow. Plus from gameplay screens, he's either blocking or projecting some kind of energy attack.

Full screens after the jump.

We mentioned the new Sony Playstation-edu initiative when it was announced; now, Senior Manager of Developer Support at SCEA Mark Danks explains a bit more about the program and it's goals (and the cost). If colleges and universities enter into this sort of relationship with Sony, they will have lovely legal language to follow, but can get access to PS2 and PSP dev kits for $AU 2,100 and $AU 1,055 a pop, respectively:

"The server I found myself on was an odd, unsettling place", writes Alec Meer, exploring Team Fortress 2's "Achievement Servers" for Rock, Paper, Shotgun. "The tiny, custom map placed the red and blue spawn points right next to each other, removed the wait period between respawns, dropped a single capture point in the middle and placed intelligence briefcases at either end. A small pool of water was placed awkwardly in a corner, and health packs scattered in bizarre columns. No-one could ever win this map - it was set up to repeat forever".

Gamasutra has an interesting interview up with some of PopCap's people — co-founder John Vechey, CEO David Roberts and PR director Garth Chouteau — talking about the PopCap model and structure and the casual market at large. It's a reasonably lengthy interview with a couple of gems contained within:

It is very much a multiplatform, multichannel, multipartner business where our goal is to get our games anywhere they're going to be great, anywhere we can. If your fridge can make a great Bejeweled experience, by god, we'd have your fridge playing Bejeweled.

Back in February we spotted a rumour that a GTA movie starring Eminem almost happened. It was knocked down the same day by Rockstar's Dan Houser, who said "we never entertained proceeding with the project". Maybe the story pitch was crap, but even if it wasn't, now we know at least one reason why.

I'm still on a semi-enforced vacation from academia, but I couldn't resist reading some of the essays found on electronic book review. The essays are a selection from two MIT Press books, First Person: New Media as Story, Performance, and Game and Second Person: Role-Playing and Story in Games and Playable Media. There are a bunch of interesting essays (and some not-so-interesting ones, I'm sure), on topics ranging from IF to WoW to more general ruminations on narrative, stories, gaming in general:

So yesterday we had the announcement that THQ would be releasing UFC 2009: Undisputed sometime in the spring of 2009. Gametrailers has the above debut trailer up and, from other sources, Voodoo Extreme has culled 10 screenshots and some fun facts about what the game has to offer.

Not my cup of tea, but I know how bent-out-of shape MMA enthusiasts get when you suggest the sport is anything less than the fastest growing sport in the world (I always imagine John Cusack in Say Anything: "Kickboxing: Sport of the future",) to say nothing of that "human cockfighting" label that never seems to go away. Still if you like squatting over another guy and jackhammering his skull off a virtual canvas, looks like it'll accommodate you nicely. And you don't have to do it as someone in the stable of UFC combatants. A deep "create-a-fighter" and career mode will make this almost a (wait for it ... wait for it) MMARPG.

Hit the jump for more details from Voodoo Extreme:

Nexon has revealed its very first North American-developed game (for the North American market), Sugar Rush Arena, which is now in closed beta. The game is a casual MMOG like other Nexon titles, but was developed in Vancouver as opposed to South Korea. Like Nexon's other titles, the game is free to play, but will offer virtual items and upgrades for purchase:

The title will allow players to fight against each other while trying to collect virtual coins ....

The development team working on Sugar Rush Arena is based in Vancouver, Canada and includes former Electronic Arts Worldwide Studios Group vice president and creative director Steve Rechtschaffner, as well as studio Klei Entertainment.

Headed by Jamie Cheng, Klei Entertainment previously developed and published Eets, a 2D puzzle game for PCs which was later revamped for Xbox 360's Xbox Live Arcade.

I presume if this is a successful move, we can expect to see more games targeted at the Western market being developed in the West; perhaps this is heralding a new trend?

Nexon Reveals First Western-Developed Title [Worlds In Motion]

We linked to last week's MLG San Diego coverage that unveiled the remake, for Halo 3, of Halo:CE's popular "Chill Out" map. Bungie has now dropped two screenshots of "Cold Storage" and they're muuuuuch better quality (read: higher res than cell phone vid of a projection screen.) One's above. Full resolution after the jump.

Eidos yesterday launched an official Tomb Raider: Underworld Web site and sent out a couple more screenshots, including the one above. More importantly, it confirmed the game is due out in November for the 360, PS2, PS3, DS, Wii and PC. Screenshots and other discussion follow the jump.

Sunday's major security breakdown in a marketing research firm's website opened up a flood of info and set Kotaku Originals off to a strong start early in the week. McWhertor then came up for air from leak coverage to give you a full breakdown of the epic (in scope, and in length) Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots.

Also, Tecmo asked everyone to be extraspecialcareful with rumours, and denied Team Ninja is bolting and suing everyone in sight, expecting that to be the end of that. Bash responded by digging up lawsuit docs and other reportage, with voluminous translation, that shows, yes, this is in fact about more than two semigruntled coders.

Major news week here at Kotaku, people. It pays to stay informed, and here's a roundup in case you missed anything. Full list follows highlights after the jump.

Hard Proof That Tecmo Japan Is Lying? (This Seems Like It)
Tecmo Says Team Ninja Exodus Rumours False, Calls Out U.S. Media
Microsoft: Leaked Concepts "May Or May Not" Be Real Products
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots Review: Kept You Waiting, Huh?
SCEE: We're Dedicated To Our First Party Studios, No Problems Here
Legal Mess Over Euro Alone In The Dark Reviews
"DS Hardware Demand Has Now Peaked Globally, Software Downturn To Follow"
EA: Best Of Luck To Former EALA Head Young In Amicable Parting

Civilisation Revolution Review: Compromise, Or Compromised?
Guitar Hero World Tour Drum Controller Outdoes Rock Band
Guitar Hero World Tour First Look
Pac-Man T-Shirt Spreads The WordTake-Two Settles FTC Compliance Issues In EA Bid
Sporepedia: 350,000 And Counting
My Trip To Ninjatown
Russian Gaijins Go Anime-Style With X-Blades
Behind Enemy Lines With Velvet Assassin
Source: Leaked "Crucible" Is Oblivion Designer's New Console RPG
Riccitiello: Take-Two Bid Focused On Holiday Season, Not GTA IV
RZA Keen To Checkmate New Wu-Tang Game
No End In Sight: EA Extends Take-Two Offer Again
NECA's Gears Of War: Series 2
Wii Update 3.3 Kills Freeloader Too?
Alrighty Kids, Pick The Best Snake Stache
Blast Works Review: Build, Trade And Destroy
Massive Leaks Are Rumours, Says Marketing Company Responsible
Interview: D3P's Takenaka Talks Coraline Game, Universal Pictures Agreement
Microsoft/Activision News Leak: The Round-Up
XNA Games "Most Likely Less Expensive" Than XBLA Ones
You Don't Know Jack Probably Announced For The Wii
Racing Equity Probably Announced
New Tony Hawk Game To Employ Motion-Controlled Peripheral?
Microsoft Avatars Will Be Playable, Licenced?
Marvel: Ultimate Alliance II Details, Platforms
Powers & Titans Probably Announced For 360, PS3, PC
Rumour: "Trioxide" To Allow Console Games To Be Played On PC?