For those of you who are keen fans of all types of fighting games you may want to take a deep breath before you continue reading, because it appears that the holy grail of beat-em-ups is set to arrive on consoles in the form of a Street Fighter vs. Mortal Kombat title.

The developer behind the new Mortal Kombat game said in a press statement that a meet up of two of the world's most popular fighting games was “inevitable”. He also mentioned that there would be a couple of conditions involved before it can ever happen.

For starters, the creation of a Mortal Kombat vs. Street Fighter game would depend greatly on the success of Street Fighter X Tekken according to NetherRealm producer Hector Sanchez. He also reported that the idea of such a meeting of fighting games was not new and the idea was first pitched by Mortal Kombat creator Ed Boon over 10 years ago.

Sanchez still said that there could be problems with the proposed game even if Street Fighter X Tekken proved a commercial hit, “Obviously there are problems with that," Sanchez added. "I'm not sure Capcom would be happy with Scorpion ripping Ken's head off.” Read the full story »

Gamescom opens today in Cologne Germany and Electronic Arts have confirmed its rather impressive line up of titles showcasing at the event. Not only will they be showing off their own games but creations by their partners too. Here is a full list of the titles that will be on show:

At the EA Booth
Crysis 2, Darkspore, Dragon Age 2, FIFA 11, FIFA Manager 11, Medal of Honor, Need For Speed Hot Pursuit, Rock Band 3, The Sims 3 on console, Star Wars: The Old Republic.

For the iPod
The Sims 3, The Sims 3 World Adventures, EA Sports FIFA 10, 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa

For the iPad
Need For Speed Shift, Command & Conquer, Red Alert, Scrabble, Mirror's Edge, Tetris.

Behind closed doors
Bulletstorm, Crysis 2, Darkspore, Dead Space 2, Dragon Age 2, EA Sports Active 2, FIFA 11, FIFA Manager 11, EA Sports MMA, Medal Of Honor, Need for Speed Hot Pursuit, Rock Band 3, The Sims Medieval, Star Wars: The Old Republic, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 1, The Sims 3 on console.

Madden NFL 11 for iPhone as well as Monopoly Streets will be available for hands-on play in the EA Business Lounge. In particular interest to most gamers will be the like of Dead Space 2, Medal of Honor and Dragons Age 2. Read the full story »

Details of the sequel to Batman: Arkham Asylum have been released announcing who the bad guys are and what the storyline contains. The Dark Knight's gadgets have also been described in detail for everyone that's waiting impatiently for Batman Arkham City to be released.

For starters, the story sees what amounts to a power struggle in Gotham’s underworld as Two Face attempts to assassinate Catwoman to increase his standing among the city's criminal network. This in turn drags all the players of Gotham’s seedy underbelly into the storm, and attracts the attention of the Batman.

With Arkham Asylum and Black Gate Prison unable to hold any more inmates, former mayoral runner Quincy Sharp (who has more in common with the city's criminals than anyone thinks) buys a giant slum in Gotham and walls it off to create, in effect, a new Arkham City that is administered by none other than Hugo Strange.

Batman himself will start the game with all the equipment that he donned in the first outing but will also gain a new toy in the shape of a smoke bomb, which will probably be employed in a sort of ninja vanish move.

The gameplay has been enhanced to allow you to counter two attacks at once and features more puzzles than the first title. Side missions will also be available to play and these will include attacks on the different gangs that roam Gotham, details of which Batman will have stored in his database. The Riddler will also be around with a gang of people working for him. Capture and interrogation of them will lead you to him. Read the full story »

For those of you who want to direct the creation of a video game, you should take note of Naughty Dog’s comments about computer game acting and basically how most game developers out there continually get it totally wrong. They have shared some of their secrets on how to do it right, and how they nailed it on their Uncharted games.

The most fundamental key is to not have your actors reading from scripts but to have them motion-capture the scenes. This is something that is hardly ever done in creating game titles. Creative director Amy Hennig has just released a book on developing Uncharted 2 and her advice is that any actor worth their salt will tell you that acting is reacting. This means that sitting in a recording studio with no real context and no other actors to play off is never going to work properly.

When creating the scenes for Uncharted 2, having the actors play them out made all the difference.

“It's really much more like a theatrical or on-camera performance in that way; it's sort of like going back to the actor's roots and doing black box theater. We're telling a character-driven story, so capturing the emotional authenticity of the actor’s performance is key,” she explained.

Strangely enough, it was also reported this week that the Uncharted movie that was starting to get off the ground has been jeopardised after negotiations to get a director on board failed. Read the full story »

The first concerns about the upcoming Microsoft motion control system have been raised by Ubisoft, whopoint out that the new Kinect system will be virtually useless for flying games. Not only that, but many gamers who have had the opportunity to test the control system have remarked on its seeming incompatibility with many hardcore games.

Narrative director for Ubisoft’s H.A.W.X 2 Edward Douglas has told CGV that losing button control in the flying genre risked its authenticity and the general view is that the peripheral motion control will struggle to replace buttons in air combat titles.

Rez and Child of Eden developer Tetsuya Mizuguchi recently spoke about the Kinect system, saying that he was not surprised by the casual focus of Kinect. Any motion game he is developing will not be aimed at either the hardcore or air combat camp. This has raised fears that more serious-minded developers will abandon the Kinect altogether and maintain a sole relationship with the normal methods of gaming control. Read the full story »