Welcome to our newest little project here at Ani-Gamers. For a new way of covering the news, we will now be changing our format so that bigger news stories get bigger coverage, and smaller news stories are placed in these "News Briefs" articles. After the break you'll find links to news articles and quick summaries for those of you too pressed for time (read: lazy) to click through and check them out.

Today, we've got an interesting slip of the tongue that may have just confirmed Ubisoft's current development of Assassin's Creed 2, Konami's continuing desire to bring Metal Gear Solid 4 to the Xbox 360, and a new national law that might spell doom for internet pirates everywhere. Read more after the break!

Assassin's Creed's Altair learns to swim for future project (Joystiq): In an interview with AusGamer, David Wilkinson (animation director for Prince of Persia) was talking about Alex Drouin, animation director for Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time and Assassin's Creed, when he was asked what Drouin is up to now. Wilkinson, in a classic moment of slipped tongues, replied, "He's busy making Altair even more beautiful. Last thing I saw him do was getting Altair to swim." There's pretty much nothing that you can glean from this except that there is a sequel to Assassin's Creed coming (as if that wasn't clear), and that the main character Altair will indeed be able to swim this time around.

U.S. Copyright Law That Allows Equipment Seizures Signed (Anime News Network): President George W. Bush recently signed into law a bill called PRO-IP (Prioritizing Resources and Organization for Intellectual Property), which will create a position known as the "Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator," in charge of tracking down and dealing with copyright infringers, much in a similar fashion to the War on Drugs.

An earlier version of the bill would have allowed the government to sue on behalf of rights holders, something that would put anime fansubbing in grave, grave danger. The most important point about the law is that it allows the government to seize any and all equipment (i.e. your computer) if there is evidence of copyright infringement, and sue again if any more infringing material is found therein.

Konami: 'We're actively looking' into MGS4 on Xbox 360 (Joystiq): According to Japanese investment research firm Morningstar, game developer Konami is "actively looking into a [Metal Gear Solid 4] release for the Xbox 360." We've known for a while that the developers of the hit game were thinking of bringing it over to the Xbox 360, but the recent multi-console movement among big games like Final Fantasy XIII just might push Konami to finally make the jump.

Oh snap. Grand Theft Auto IV was shown no sympathy today, on the day of its leak. Yes, leak. All today, the file started popping up all over Bittorrent websites and trackers. How? I don't know for certain -- but I've heard rumors being spread of simple explanations, such as just stealing a copy and passing it over to the scene rippers.

Interested? Well, unless you're living in UK/Europe, you won't be able to play. The group responsible [iCON] clearly states that this release is not region free; and on top of that, mock any American Xbox 360 owners who so avidly crave a slice of the sanbox heaven. Frankly, though? I wish it were a bit more insulting... "bushlovers" is kind of silly.

The group also made is very clear that staying off Xbox Live until its original release date would probably be a good idea. Obviously, though, if one is clever enough to go through the trouble of hacking an Xbox -- this shouldn't be too much of a shocker. The final note was kind of peculiar, but expected: "and guys, seriously, go and buy this one! R* deserves it..." Not surprising, really. I've always figured scenesters do this kind of stuff to find a small source of sympathy if anything bad were to happen. But hey, that's just me.

Now off the subject of GTA IV leakage, and onto something directly related... videos of it! It's not at all uncommon to see gameplay videos -- that's particularly true with leaked games, and GTA IV is no exception. As soon as possible, people were off and filming themselves (well, the television) playing, and put their footage on YouTube as soon as possible. Take-Two, however, was also on the ball, deleting all the gameplay footage they could find. Not all of it, mind you, but whatever they could. There's a couple of videos rummaging throughout the web, and yes, I've seen some myself (including a Stickam broadcast of it). I'm not going to list any of them here, that's just not my job to do, and I'd feel nasty doing it if it were.

Just know the game looks scrumptious, and we're certainly in for a treat this coming Tuesday.

Note: Image used taken from Joystiq.

[via Joystiq]