The July 2010 issue of Xbox Official Magazine has rumored that Perfect Dark 2 will be hitting holiday 2011 stating “With Gears of War 3 out in April 2011, what will Microsoft have for holiday 2011? The Ball sees a redheaded girl in a spandex suit.” Certainly this could only be talking about our favorite fire crotch, Joanna Dark.

Whether the next iteration will have realistic graphics, Natal support and all of our dreams come true is completely unknown but we eagerly await more information. Hope for an e3 announcement next month. We will keep you updated on any news!

According to the IGN E3 schedule, another Microsoft title is going to be annouced tomorrow at 2:00 PM PST. Rare has been a no show so far and I think this is a good indication that we will hear from them tomorrow. As I predicted, this is Microsoft’s way of fighting Sony’s conference hype. Keep your fingers crossed everyone!

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Microsoft’s E3 conference is scheduled for today and anything could happen. They have really hyped up the show this year and some big things are expected. If any Perfect Dark news drops, I will be reporting everything I can find. I am very confident we will, at the very least, see an announcement for the next installation to the series. Here is when it all goes down:

Monday June 1st, 2009
Microsoft Conference: 10:25 AM PST / 1:25 PM EST / 6:25 PM GMT
G4 (Also on TV)
GameTrailers (HD)
Official Xbox Site
IGN
GameSpot
Gaming Vice (CoverItLive Liveblog)

9. Give grenade its own button.
The grenade is a weapon that needs to be readily available. You cannot use one properly when it takes more than 5 seconds to execute a throw. It is no longer practical, in a first person shooter, to have to switch to a grenade in your inventory before using it. There should be a single button assigned to it. Press that button once and your character should instantly switch to it. People accuse this method of being unrealistic but you can avoid that by having a weapon pull back animation follow by a pin removal animation to slow it down.

8. Bring back Elvis.
Elvis, being one of the series most memorable characters, needs to make his return. We loved running along side our little Maian buddy. Actually, bring back the whole alien crew, diversify our interactions and expand on the story presented in the original game.

7. Vehicles that don’t suck.
There have been 3 usable vehicles in the Perfect Dark series; the hover bike, jetpack and hovercraft. We were sad to see the absence of the hover bike in Perfect Dark Zero. Maybe it wasn’t invented yet? Regardless, all of the vehicles have been lackluster. The jetpack was a fair addition to multiplayer but depending on the mode of play, had issues. Deathmatch allowed an unlimited amount of people to have the jetpack, while DarkOps made it almost too difficult to afford. The hovercraft was a pathetic excuse for a multi-person vehicle and handled poorly. If these vehicles were removed from multiplayer all together, they wouldn’t be missed. However, if they can fix the mechanics they will be a worthwhile addition. Limit the number of vehicles at a time and make them fun to control.

6. Enhance the cover system.
Perfect Dark Zero was the first Xbox 360 game to use the cover system. At the time, it was implemented well. We have seen a lot of innovations since then and hope that Rare makes the appropriate changes. The game simply made using the cover system too complicated. You first had to find an open spot on the wall. To attach yourself, wait a moment for the “Press A” confirmation and engage. Sure, this doesn’t sound like too much but it breaks up the flow of the game. The next game should allow you to hold the cover button and automatically attach you to that object. Something similar to the Rainbow Six Vegas series would be applicable. Oh, and while we’re at it, please don’t make us press “A” to climb the latter, auto attach us.

5. Bring back Counter-Ops.
Counter-Ops is the idea that a single player is the hero while the other players replace the artificial competitors. This mode was included in the original game. Since online console gaming didn’t exist, this mode was brought down by split screen. Being able to see your opponent’s location took the element of surprise out. In today’s world of online gaming, a mode like this could add a lot to the experience. Playing through the story in Counter-Ops would add worthy opponents and unpredictability. This mode could be particularly hard to balance but we have faith in Rare. The mode was actually planned as an auto update for Xbox 360 version but was cut shortly after release. The potential for this mode is fantastic. In a 1-4 players match (or more), 1 person plays as Joanna and the other 3 play as the competition. A single player will play the roll of Joanna while the other 3 players randomly spawn as the AI. Competitively there will be 3 real players and a mix of artificial competitors. Joanna’s player will never know if she is about to face a real opponent or AI, creating a dynamic experience every time.

4. Fix the character animations.
Characters looked awkward when running and had even worse death animations. Dead characters would flop around appearing as if they were break dancing. The original game was ahead of its time in this department. Enemies would react to the specific locations they were shot, something still lacking in today’s games. Perfect Dark Zero’s animations were less than convincing and helped ruin the overall experience. After seeing some of Banjo Kazooie’s great animation and physics we think Rare can turn this issue around.

3. Customizable multiplayer characters.
The original Perfect Dark on Nintendo 64 features an expansive character creator. It allowed you to mix the body and heads of every character in the game and customize them with accessories. Rare took a big step backwards with Perfect Dark Zero by removing this feature and allowing just a few characters that aren’t customizable. Another downfall of the characters in PDZ is that they use the same two voices, one for males and one for females, with a very limited amount of dialog. When the game initial released there was only one voice for all characters, a female voice. Nothing like watching a burly man talk like a sissy. It was good for comedic value, but we’re glad Rare fixed that in a patch. Here’s what we should be to customize:

• Character model
• Clothes
• Accessories
• Voice

This will add variation to the characters so we don’t see the same faces on our teammates and our enemies and in the mirror.

2. Lengthy, more epic story.
The single player campaign was a tad on the short side and lacked epic set pieces. Dialog and cut scenes were scarce and the overall story telling was poorly executed. Tell the story through interactive cut scenes and let us feel the immersion of the world. Keep the difficulty tiers with different objectives, this adds a ton of replayability. Most people will play through the game on Agent or Secret Agent, giving each difficulty different objectives makes multiple plays through appealing. Last, but definitely not least, make the end boss a memorable and fun experience.

1. Change the art direction.
The fan’s biggest complaint for Perfect Dark Zero is its art style. Shiny, plastic character models in cartoony environments. The next Perfect Dark needs to return to its roots with a darker and more realistic style. There are some great textures to be seen in Perfect Dark Zero but imagine a realistic world you can relate to. Not only would it be more commercially appealing but it would be more fitting to the story and environment.

Microsoft seems to be placing its cards on the resurgence of Rare this year, word has it that the company that has assisted several internal projects from Microsoft will show the projects it has been working on for a couple of years. There are strong indications of one being a first person shooter(read Perfect dark) and the other an online brawler(Killer Instinct 3), both games are expected to be announced by E3 2009

What do you guys think? Perfect Dark is a definite posibility and Killer Instincts has been hinted at and teased for years. Will Rare finally make our dreams come true? I hope so.

Perfect Dark Next Concept Art

Some of you may have seen this, but it’s new to me. A while back 1up released some concept art created by Rare’s senior concept artist Ryan Firchau. The art featured images of wolves, aliens and various other creatures for unreleased Rare games. Above you is the image of an alien and in small text you can see the words “Maian – Elvis …(unreadable words)”. Could this possibly be art work for the gritty Perfect Dark sequel? Certainly Rare would have to change Elvis’ looks. The aliens have the Maian look; short bodies, big oval heads, same positioned eyes and mouth. The left aliens could be the standard alien look, while the right could be Elvis’. Makes you think, doesn’t it?

Source: 1up – Peek at Rare’s Unreleased Games