Well it's about time we heard more on Deus Ex 3. For those who are worrying for the third installment of the controversial series, put your minds at ease: the creators of the original game gave Deus Ex 3 their blessings. The latest issue of PC Zone reveals details on the game's story, protagonist, and gameplay. Details after the link.

Midway Games has been on a bit of a slowdown as of late with lukewarm reception on some of its releases, controversial resignations, and so-so financial results. The company seems to have felt the need for a change in leadership, prompting old CEO David Zucker to resign and for Interim CEO and President Matthew Booty to take over. Details on the move are available in the full article after the jump.

After assigning top-level executives to different assignments, Chicago-based publisher Midway has confirmed what it calls "routine" layoffs in its Austin outpost. Are the two moves tied to each other, or is this part of the company's normal procedures? See details in the full article and decide for yourself.

It's official: Blacksite: Area 51 (Sony PlayStation 3, Microsoft Xbox 360, PC) creative director Harvey Smith, one of the developers behind Deus Ex, and parent company Midway Austin have parted ways after Smith's "public resignation". This ends the partnership that the two began in 2004 after Smith bolted his old team by dishing out strong words in a recent interview.

Midway Studios Austin's latest game for the first person shooter genre, Blacksite: Area 51 (PC, Xbox 360, PS3), may have had much promise, but it failed to meet expectations of players and reviewers alike. Game designer Harvey Smith, known for his work on the memorable Deus Ex, looked back on the critical errors made while developing BlackSite.

Details and more at the full article.

Midway executives have revealed during the company's Q2 earnings call that the upcoming next gen shooter BlackSite: Area 51 (PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360) has been moved to a November 5 North American release date. European gamers will be able to get the game earlier on October 26.

BlackSite: Area 51 has previously been given a Summer 2007 release date. Various retail outlets have also pegged the game's release date for September 3 and 14 for the U.S. and Europe, respectively. This announcement places Stranglehold (PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360) as Midway's only Q3 release for next gen video game consoles.

A demo for the game has been confirmed by the executives, however. This reaffirms producer Harvey Smith's statements that a BlackSite: Area 51 demo will be released in the next few months. The demo will reportedly showcase a more cinematic story scene.

With all the hubbub about the effects of recreating an actual cathedral into a violent shooting game, it's not surprising that other game developers are talking about it as well. Such is the case with Midway's Austin Harvey Smith, part of the team currently developing the highly-anticipated title BlackSite: Area 51, which coincidentally is also a shooter and also pretty violent.

Citing the Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic novel written by Art Spiegelman, Maus, the developer talked about how he believes videogames will be dealing with more sophisticated and sensitive subject matter in the future, just as effectively and succinctly as today's comics and movies do.

And that the common belief that games do not have that level of sophistication needed to tackle such sensitive issues was, in fact, the same thing the public believed with comic books - until Maus, that is.

He then cites America's Army as another example of games dealing with a sensitive issue that's pretty much on par with religion, and that's politics. His statement:

America's Army is the most political game anyone's ever made. It is a complete commercial for the right wing. So, if that's a super-political game, what's wrong with making a game that questions the role of the US military in the world and the role of the military-industrial complex?

Compelling argument, and it's something that both parties in the Resistance: Fall of Manincident should look into. Yours truly can also cite a similar issue that popped up a few weeks after the release of the best-selling movie 300 - where the Persian government actually slammed the movie for its portrayal of the Persian empire. While they were certainly shown as the enemies of the movie, it really doesn't take much to realize that the movie itself was based on a graphic novel, one that takes enormous liberties with the source material.

Here's hoping it all settles down without anyone getting seriously hurt in the process.

"Some secrets cannot be kept."

Well, we're certainly glad Gametrailers didn't keep the two latest videos about Midway Games' BlackSite: Area 51 under wraps - it'd be criminal to keep something as jaw-dropping away from public view (not an understatement). The first video's all about gameplay, and it pretty much shows how real BlackSite: Area 51 plays like. The chatter of your team-mates actually feel natural and hardly grates on the nerves, in fact giving you a sense of comfort that you're not fighting this war alone (which is a good thing, considering the things you'll be up against).

The graphics look astounding, with every object reacting to gunfire as they should. Your team responds to your every command convincingly and realistically, their personalities coming into play - watch out how one of your mates try to kick a door down, and failing that, he blows it open with an explosive charge - and how everything is done is just so seamlessly, you're left wondering just what can happen at any given point of time in the game.

The developer interview is pretty much a gameplay video in itself as well, but with an informative voiceover courtesy of Executive Creative Director of Midway Games Harvey Smith. It's a more visceral playthrough of the game, and Harvey Smith gives a lot of details away about the game, as well as explaining most of the game's features. We won't spoil it all for you, again, so here are the videos. Enjoy!

The developer interview after the jump!

In an interview earlier this year, Harvey Smith of Midway Games had a thing or two to say about their upcoming BlackSite: Area 51 (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PC). To develop more on what he touch on before, he's back in another interview, this time with FiringSquad. One of the intriguing aspects of the game is its unique Morale system, which he previously explained as a system which affects how your team acts around you.

More on this, Smith elaborate just how exactly this Morale system plays out:

The game should react dynamically to three different scenarios. First, if the player runs into a combat situation, doesn't really fire his weapons much, doesn't issue squad commands, and just plays ineffectually, the squad starts to freak. They go through various stages of low morale. First they complain, then they start using more conservative tactics, taking cover more often, blind-firing from behind cover, and finally just going into a purely defensive stance... Scenario two revolves around the average player, not incredibly effective, but moderately skilled. Morale fluctuates a bit and the squad helps some. The third scenario involves the skilled player, making headshots, giving commands, focusing the squad's fire on one target, and working to avoid any squad mates going down. In this (high morale) state, the squad gets much more aggressive; team members run out into the firefight and melee, they inflict more damage, etc.

Ooh, that's a bit of a mouthful, however, at least, explained that way, it's actually making us reel in anticipation for the game's release (hopefully sometime this summer). Here's when we can finally distinguish the men from the bio-genetically engineered mice. It's part good leadership, part control, and part aggressiveness. Peter F. Drucker, step out of the way, please. Now for some reason, I'm reminded of Overlord... Either that or Kane & Lynch.

Click the Read link below for the full interview.

A legend known for his single most addicting puzzle game Tetris, Alexey Pajitnov demonstrates how the most simple of solutions can be the most attractive of all. It's no wonder he'll be receiving the First Penguin Award at the 2007 GDCA.

Pitting him up against game designers Harvey Smith (Midway Games) and David Jaffe (God of War, Twisted Metal), the contest was called "The Game Design Challenge: The Needle and Thread Interface."

In honor of the innovative control interfaces for games today, the contest armed contestants with a needle, some thread and a piece of fabric to be used as the input device. All three designers were to conjure up a hypothetical game, which should use all three instruments as an way of input for the game.

Pajitnov's design, called Stitch & Cross, was a basic sewing racing game where two players have at each other in an effort to reach the one side of a common playing field. One player stitches horizontally, while the other stitches vertically. A player could thwart the other's efforts by crossing the opponent's stitch with his own.

Smith involved a much more elaborated version for a control interface, dividing the fabric into different patches of cloth which would represent a certain task of control. When the player poked the any patch, the corresponding command would be called - like a joystick with needles for fingers. His game concept was called The Tailor's Daughter, an action adventure game with an actual story.

Jaffe devised a game that would allow the player to manipulate the fabric into paper airplanes, which can be flown to see which travels faster or further. In the end, Pajitnov was able to steal the win from reigning champion Smith, after the audience supported him with cheers right from the beginning of his participation. The friendly contest was hosted by GameLab's Eric Zimmerman, who said:

There’s nothing stopping us from conceiving of games and from having exercises like the game design challenge. There’s nothing to stop you from making a game inspired by what you’ve seen today ... it’s up to us at the Game Developers Conference to make games better.