Splinter Cell: Conviction will take 12 hours to complete on normal says the game's creative director, Maxime Beland, in the latest issue of OXM. There will certainly be a harder difficultly level for folks that are into trial and error for 30 hours, but the "normal gamers" will get a well-sized adventure. Beland says this was done because he wants people to actually finish the game. That's quite a good idea.

Also, at around 12 hours of gameplay, Badass: The Game won't wear out its welcome -- if it keeps the action going. Of course, there'll be multiplayer to extend the experience, but we likely won't be able to crack skulls in urinals there ... or maybe we will, which would then confirm Splinter Cell as game of the year.

[Via 1UP]

Awesome news for No More Heroes fans: creator Suda 51 told Edge that he wants to continue the series. "I really want to make NMH a big franchise," he said, "and with this second episode have bigger success."

Slightly less awesome news for certain No More Heroes fans: if the series does continue past Desperate Struggle, it probably won't be on the Wii. "I think this is the last NMH that is going to be developed on Wii," Suda said. "To expand NMH to new possibilities, we need a new platform. Wii is a great platform, but we've done everything we can with it now."

Recent comments from Suda suggest that he's looking toward the Natal-enhanced Xbox 360 for at least one future project -- and No More Heroes was originally planned as a 360 game. Perhaps he's realized that charging Travis Touchdown's beam saber could be made even more embarrassing without a Wiimote prop.

In any case, it may be a bummer for Wii-only gamers, but at least if No More Heroes comes out on one of the other consoles, the "hardcore" types will be able to admit it's wonderful without having to say something nice about the Wii.

The fate of Heroes over Europe was in question when the agreement between publisher Red Mile and developer Transmission Games dissipated, due to an unfortunate lack of money on Red Mile's part.

Ubisoft is now the hero of every prospective Heroes of Europe player, having just announced that it will publish the World War II flight simulator on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC. The Heroes Over the Pacific sequel, which features online play for up to 16 players, is currently scheduled for a worldwide release this September. You can check out new screens, only one of which includes a blimp, in our gallery.

Let's face it, Splinter Cell's Sam Fisher has traveled a rocky road. For a while he completely disappeared from the console scene. Sure, we saw him every once in a while, lurking in magazines or in a few videos (complete with Emo makeover). Now Sam has reemerged from his beloved shadows, and the developers at Ubisoft are here to share everything about his new abilities and the new features in Splinter Cell Conviction.

Check out the video above for a look at the new "mark and execute" feature as well as the "last known position" silhouette. And, of course, you can just admire Sam being a badass. Get to the watching.

Running Tigon Studios is a bit of a strange job to have. Ian Stevens, the man in charge, is responsible for not just organizing development talent to make games like this year's Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena, but also working with Hollywood. And, unsurprisingly, he says it's a bit of an uphill battle, telling GamesIndustry.biz, "It's really hard to take something that's native to a certain medium and just draw a line, which is what people are usually trying to do [with games based on movies.]"

He equates the attention Hollywood has been giving to game versions of its films with "action figures, pictures on cereal boxes, and [themed] pajamas," saying it's just part of the "licensing and merchandising" of a property, rather than creating something unique and well-crafted from the start. Furthermore, Stevens says that the development studios who are working with nothing (think Ben 10) and making something -- anything -- out of it, are the real talent in the industry. "If you gave that team in Newcastle [Midway Newcastle] - through all that they've struggled with, technology, corporate business, all these different things - the kind of opportunity that someone like Valve has," he says, leaving us to postulate on the ending there. We'll let you guys fill that in all by yourselves.

Even back in the old west, cowboys knew how to throw together a solid multiplayer match. Evident in this trailer for Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood, the cattle rustlers and other denizens of the wild west partook in the staples of a multiplayer experience, including traditional survival and team-based combat modes. Back then, they didn't call it "multiplayer," though. To them, it was all a part of Manifest Destiny.

After you've checked out the trailer above, be sure to hit up the gallery below for some screens.

GameStop is giving away the Palazzo Medici with a pre-order of Assassin's Creed 2. The bonus location for the stealth game is available with the purchase of either the Xbox 360 or PS3 versions. Both online and in-store customers will receive the code when the title releases.

The Palazzo Medici Ricardi is, like, a totally famous place and stuff. So, exploring it in the game for treasure is far more liberating and cheaper than flying to Florence and checking out the real thing. We also believe that, in the real building, they won't let you climb up the walls and sneak around.

So far, all we've known about "Codename Eden," the project Tetsuya Mizuguchi's Q Entertainment is working on with Ubisoft, is that Mizuguchi is involved, and that Ubisoft didn't think it was worth cutting into its E3 press conference's Cameron Time to bring Mizuguchi up to talk about it. As a result, all we got was a brief mention of the project and an awkward wave from Mizuguchi's seat in the audience.

In an interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Ubisoft executive director Alain Corre offered substantial hints that the new project may be a music game. First, he described Q as "very advanced and specialised in how to exploit the music genre."

GI followed up by asking about Ubisoft's interest in entering the market and competing with Guitar Hero and the like. "We have been researching the music genre a lot," Corre said. "We know some iterations of music games are working very well in the music category. There are a lot of new things to invent in the future with voice or dance, so we're very much looking at what we can do in that respect."

This is no absolute guarantee that "Codename Eden" is some kind of music game, but the proximity of the two statements is interesting. And the prospect of a new music game from the creator of Space Channel 5 and Rez is wonderful.

This week, the Nintendo Channel has been flooded with a variety of interviews about big upcoming Wii titles. There are interviews with the folks behind FFCC: The Crystal Bearers, Red Steel 2, Cave Story, and, as you can see above, Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles. So, hit up the video above, then if you want more E3 interview goodness, be sure to boot up your Wii and check out what's on the Nintendo Channel.

Now that the third-party playing field is supposedly "level," Microsoft looks to be making a play for the advantage, as Ubisoft continues to insist that Splinter Cell Conviction is "a true Microsoft exclusive title." We've heard this before, of course, but this time it's with more *ahem* conviction, as an Ubisoft UK Forum Manager declares there are "no plans to have Splinter Cell Conviction on other [console] platforms." The sentiment echoes the long drama surrounding Metal Gear Solid 4's exclusivity, and we have to imagine doubts about Conviction's exclusivity won't go down quietly, either.

Just as Metal Gear Solid has been associated with PlayStation (though not always exclusive to Sony platforms), Ubisoft calls Splinter Cell and Microsoft "historically linked," explaining that Conviction's exclusivity is based, in part, on "a 'link of heart.'" Aw, that's sweet -- and so is the check that Microsoft must have cut.

[Via VideoGamer.com]

Despite his comfy Jason Bourne-like turtleneck and new 'tude, Sam Fisher hasn't been able to reinvent himself as far as his aging body goes. Splinter Cell: Conviction will see our stealthy superdude slinking around in his 50s, an age mostly associated with dust and Werther's Originals. "He's pretty old, actually," a game dev told VG247 back at E3, further adding that Fisher would definitely be in his 50's for Conviction. Heck, we could only hope to look that good when we hit our 50s!

So, Sam, what's your secret? Centrum Silver?

Speaking to CNBC, Ubisoft big cheese Yves Guillemot says that development costs on the next generation of games are going to be huge. With large games currently costing up to $30 million to develop, Guillemot believes that cost could rise to $60 million by the time the next hardware cycle arrives.

Regarding Natal, which Microsoft is treating like a new console, Guillemot says that consumers will soon "take the other step - pushed by the environment." Guillemot is happy to keep working with current hardware, saying, "I'd like to stay with this generation as long as possible, but my customers will want the best machine possible."

One thing that might push the next generation of games out sooner than expected, according to Guillemot, is the potential of new online consoles like OnLive. "If OnLive manages to make this work," said Guillemot, "we will have a next generation of systems sooner than currently planned."

Still, Ubisoft is in no hurry and plans to develop motion controlled games for all the current consoles -- up to 80 percent of Ubi's lineup will likely be motion controlled, actually. That's a lot of Rabbids.

RUSE is shaping up to become a nice addition to PC gaming, and also to the vacant market of real-time strategy games on consoles. Halo Wars and Red Alert have pretty much been the only standouts, but where's the real depth and longevity of a title like StarCraft? Ubisoft's RUSE is hoping to fill that gap, and based on the time we spent with it recently, it may be just the thing. That is if it'd stop with the gimmicks like showing it at E3 on a Microsoft Surface table and just give us the console goods. Not all of us have a spare $15,000 sitting around.

Head beyond the break to see a (very, very) long demo from the Tunisia setting in RUSE, and to read our thoughts about it. It's not something you can pick up and learn in a scant few seconds, but it offers you enough to keep coming back to it. Find out why inside.

E3 was brütal! If you blinked, for a split/second, you missed something. Even if you were trine to keep up, it was a blur -- staying a.wake like that, you only pushed yourself to the brink of your own dark void. That's where Joystiq comes in; to crackdown on the madness; to reach out ... with conviction -- phew! Crysis averted.

We've scoured the dark corners and survived the inferno to piece together this roundup of all things Xbox at E3. Why? Just 'cause we love you. So, draw nier and shift your eyes past the break.