Let's officially welcome Dan and Fei Long to SF IV...

Fei Long and Dan have been confirmed for the console versions of Street Fighter IV for a while, but Play Magazine has the first scoop on them along with the first pics of the two characters in their cover story. I'm curious to see if any significant changes will be made to either of them, but I'm guessing they will fundamentally stay the same from previous games. Fei Long should likely remain his special moves with the SSF2T HD Remix movelist and have two versions of his super from ST with his Ultra being the better version with his crazy anti-air flame kick to end it. Dan's Ultra could be a mixed bag. It can be possibly his self-destruct like super from Marvel vs. Capcom 2, a crazy taunt that leads to a deadly combination, or even a better version of his weakling fireball. Anyway, they're now official with pics as proof, but now they need to confirm Cammy or Karin and they should stop expanding the roster from there.

Thanks to the Street Fighter Blog and Shoryuken for the pics.

Re-Emergence Day draws closer...

Gears of War 2's "Launch" trailer has surfaced and some later parts of the campaign were revealed by quick flashes ranging from huge boss battles, Reaver chase scenes, and more. I probably said this already, but I'm way more excited for the campaign than the multiplayer, even though I will play MP like crazy for the first month. This game is going to be filled with so many Oh S*** moments that will be amazing. November 7th is getting closer and closer than u think...

UPDATE - More multiplayer footage, this time in Stasis. Check out this user's page for more MP ranked matches like this.

Lara Croft shoots more animals again... TRU Demo Hands-On

A demo of Tomb Raider Underworld came out today on Xbox Live Marketplace (PC demo coming later in the week and who knows if this demo will be out on Thursday for PSN) and its also a big download of 1.3 GB showing off the Thailand level. For fans of the franchise, this sequel won't disappoint maintaining the Tomb Raider formula of platforming puzzles, shooting combat (especially against some animals in this demo), and Lara herself looking good. I do however have some nitpicky issues with it that ranges from the camera being too close at times especially at times when I try to angle jumps. Also, when you first swim around at the start of the demo, the world may seem open, but invisible walls do make that section a little annoying. Another thing I'm annoyed about is Lara taking damage after taking a fall. It does seem realistic at first as even medium distance falls can kill Lara especially if a jump is misjudged. The trial and error mentality of tackling the puzzles can be annoying too especially for non Tomb Raider fans like me, but the checkpoint system is pretty generous. As expected with TR puzzles, these require some observation that takes some time to figure out, but the hint system does help a bit. Graphically, the game looks pretty good with the water effects, Lara's player model, and the environments themselves.

The combat is pretty standard for the franchise of gunning and evading in which the demo has birds, tigers, and annoying insects to shoot. Other than that, I can see why Tomb Raider Underworld is will be great for fans of the genre and the franchise. As for non-fans of Lara's adventures, it is a good rental to try out, but this demo is worth a shot to see if the game is worthwhile to you despite taking a GB of hard drive space on 360.