Releases in July

Not many releases this month but I guess we'll see if whatever we get will surprise us. You all know the drill so let's list them down.

JULY 5

• Earth Defense Force: Insect Armageddon
• PS3, Xbox 360
• Developed by Vicious Cycle Software
• Published by D3 Publisher

JULY 12

• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2
• PS3, Xbox 360, Wii, Windows PC, Nintendo DS
• Developed by EA Bright Light Studio
• Published by Electronic Arts

• The Lord of the Rings: War in the North
• PS3, Xbox 360, Windows PC
• Developed by Snowblind Studios
• Published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment

• NCAA Football 2012
• PS3, Xbox 360
• Developed by EA Tiburon and EA Canada
• Published by EA Sports

JULY 19

• Captain America: Super Soldier
• PS3, Xbox 360, Wii, Nintendo DS, 3DS
• Developed by Next Level Games
• Published by Sega

• Call of Juarez: The Cartel
• PS3, Xbox 360, Windows PC
• Developed by Techland
• Published by Ubisoft

JULY 20

• From Dust
• Xbox 360 (will be released for other systems later this year)
• Developed by Ubisoft Montpellier
• Published by Ubisoft

JULY 26

• Catherine
• PS3, Xbox 360
• Developed by Atlus Persona Team
• Published by Atlus

• The Cursed Crusade
• PS3, Xbox 360, Windows PC
• Developed by Kylotonn Games
• Published by Atlus

• El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron
• PS3, Xbox 360
• Developed by Ignition Entertainment
• Published by Ignition Entertainment

My Pick

Frak me, I don't know which one to pick. Not because of too many choices but because of a lack of choices. Atlus has some stuff coming out and they've always published and developed some great stuff but I don't know much about Catherine or The Cursed Crusade so I can't really give a full opinion on those two.

In the end, I'm going to have to go with The Lord of the Rings: War in the North.

I've made my concerns about this game clear when I talked about it in E3 coverage. But it did get a positive reception at E3 from critics and there have been some fantastic Lord of the Rings games, and this is a new story that was only hinted at in the books.

Like I said, this is a difficult month to choose from but if I had to pick one game to buy for this month, it would be War in the North, with either Catherine or The Cursed Crusade following.

Brown v EMA Decision and Team Fortress 2 Free to Play

Two news items I want to touch on today, one just came out today and one is about 4-6 days old.

First up, big news out of the Supreme Court today, as the Supreme Court shot down the Brown v. EMA (originally Schwarzenegger v. EMA) in a 7-2 decision. Justices Clarence Thomas and Stephen Breyer were both in favor of the bill with the other Justices opposed though two of them were a bit on the fence.

The bill, if it had become law, would have made it criminal offense to sell an M-Rated game to a minor. At the moment it's something that just handled in-house by game retailers. The problem with the bill is that no other medium has that. If a ticket-taker at a theater let's a child into an R-Rated film without parental permission it's not a crime.

This would have created a very slippery slope. The arguments made against the industry generalized the medium and the M-Rated games using only extra controversial ones like Postal 2 and Manhunt and ignoring the positive ones such as Bioshock, Metal Gear, etc. And by extension I felt that it generalized the players of said games.

In closing, I'm the glad that the Supreme Court made the right decision.

In other news, Valve continues to show why they are awesome by making Team Fortress 2 free to download and play now. A nice sense of humor and a dedicated online community make this a great opportunity for those who have never played it before.

Like any package those who buy it get more but you can experience all the maps and classes for free now, just not quite as much if you paid for it. Here's the link and I'll see you in the game.

E3 2011: Ubisoft

Well this is it. My last article for E3 coverage. It's been over for two weeks so I needed to get this out of the way but I still want to go over a few Ubisoft games before I conclude.

Before I talk about the games, I need to go over Ubisoft's press conference. I didn't think it could get as bad as it was last year. And with no laser tag, it really shouldn't have been. But Ubisoft get but THE WORST HOST IN HISTORY: Mr. Caffeine. Dear god I hate Mr. Caffeine. I talked crap about Microsoft's press conference but that was a cakewalk to get through compared to Ubisoft's.

You remember those school assemblies about drugs and bullying, with the really fake hosts with canned enthusiasm? Yeah think of this guy just like that. Sexist jokes, dick jokes, and pop culture references that are nearly as old as I am. I don't get it Ubisoft, you guys have awesome franchises, you don't need to make yourselves look cool. Anyway, if you missed the fail of Mr. Caffeine, search for him on YouTube.

Mr. Caffeine = FAIL!!!!

Anyway on to the games.


ASSASSIN'S CREED: REVELATIONS

I've loved the Assassin's Creed series though the first one is definitely a chore to play through after the immense improvement of Assassin's Creed II which is one of the best games of the generation. Brotherhood was also great and Ezio is a great character but I'm a little wary of this one.

The demo looked really fun but not much different from the others and going back to Ezio again, after I really feel his transformation by the end of Brotherhood felt like a good conclusion to the character has me a little concerned about this one feeling stale.

That said, it's still Assassin's Creed and different looking environments have gotten my interest up as well as the prospect of making Altair a much more important part of the story, a nice way to connect the Ezio trilogy with the original game. So it's still another game to watch for come November.

KILLER FREAKS FROM OUTER SPACE

The last game that I want to talk about from E3 is Killer Freaks from Outer Space which will apparently be a launch title with the Wii-U. For those of you who were unsure about the Wii-U, this shows the hardcore element and third-party support that Nintendo is trying to bring to the table that wasn't there with the Wii outside of the games that they made.

Killer Freaks from Outer Space is essentially an FPS but has a very unique twist for the online component. For those of you who played Left 4 Dead, you know how the enemies are spawned at certain locations that are different each time you play through again? That's the AI Director which uses factors like player health, weapons, amount teammates, etc. to put strategic enemy placement in the game. Now the AI Director will be a Player Director.

The online component will work like this: player one will be the one shooting and going through the level. Player two will have a view of the map and use the touchscreen on the controller to place enemies onto the map for player one to contend with. We've only seen one enemy type in

GamesRadar said that it kind of combines an FPS with an RTS. I personally think it's more of a tower defense combined with an FPS but the comparison is still valid. This could be a game to look forward to and be good sign of things to come for the Wii-U.

Alrighty, that ends my coverage of E3 and there are still quite a few games that I didn't get to primarily from the last three publishers with the ones. There was one that I completely forgot to talk about for THQ: Warhammer 40K: Space Marine. I'm going to revisit that one in a very quick blogpost later this week so don't consider it an official part of my E3 coverage.

Anyway, there was some great stuff shown. There were good-looking new IPs shown though I would have liked a stronger showing of new potential franchises than what we got.

But the biggest offense was no announcement of Bayonetta 2. Hopefully they'll make an announcement of it at the Tokyo Game Show later this year. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed my E3 coverage and hope that it was informative for you. Thanks for reading.

E3 2011: Square Enix and THQ

Well E3's been over for a while and I'm still writing articles on it. I want to get this over with, so I'm going to write two more blogposts on it. The first will go over Square Enix and THQ and the second will go over Ubisoft and conclude my coverage. I'll be doing a selection of games rather than all of them.

So let's start with Square Enix.

DEUS EX: HUMAN REVOLUTION

I'm currently in the middle of the original Deus Ex and loving so far. I do know that the second game was definitely not as loved by people with its more limiting style and so Eidos Montreal is trying to make this one much more like the original in that regard.

So far, this one looks fantastic and also looks like its sticking to the original style of very open-ended choice in how you tackle each obstacle. It's also a prequel designed to allow new players to jump into the story while still having characters from the original. It looks very promising and I can't wait to try it out.

HITMAN: ABSOLUTION

Another controversial game among fans of the series, Hitman is returning after six years in hiding. A lot of people have been comparing this to Splinter Cell: Conviction and based on what I've seen, it's not hard to see why. I'm not saying that's a bad thing as I enjoyed Splinter Cell: Conviction though it was a big and somewhat unasked for departure from the series and taking that route here would be the same thing. Graphically it looks gorgeous though.

TOMB RAIDER

This did not make my Top 10 of E3 because I'm a little divided on what I've seen. Storywise it looks excellent and they really seem to be trying to drive the survival aspect home. However, the amount of QTEs that I saw in the demo still worries me. This is definitely a game that I'm anticipating and I will definitely check it out when it's released but I'm still a little worried.

Hopefully next year, they'll bring a little bit more gameplay wise to really sell me on this.

SAINTS ROW: THE THIRD

Saints Row may be a clone of the GTA series, but it's a damn good clone with a style of its own that keeps it feeling fresh. Saints Row: The Third looks awesomely over-the-top. Sure it rips an enormous amount of elements from San Andreas but is that really a bad thing?

Just watching the demo made me laugh my ass off, whether it be the purple dildo, the description of the jet have laser beams (JETS WITH FREAKIN LASER BEAMS), the Apocofists, or the Manapult. It's releasing in November of this year making November that much more difficult in terms of purchase choices.

E3 2011: Namco Bandai

Namco Bandai showed off a good amount of games at E3, seven in total. I'm going to be going over the non-ports and the ones that got extra details at E3 this year. So let's dive in with Ace Combat: Assault Horizon.

ACE COMBAT: ASSAULT HORIZON

It has been a LONG time since I've played an Ace Combat game. The last time I played one was back in the PS1 era. I remember them being really fun but they just weren't games that I continued to play after that, I don't really know why. Because of this I can't really know too much about the changes that have been made over the series.

What I read from Wikipedia is that one of the main changes is that they're taking away the effectiveness of spamming missiles when you fight other ace pilots. You have to either take them by surprise or defeat them in close combat. That sounds cool but then again it's been a while. Here's the trailer anyway.

DARK SOULS

One of my most anticipated games of the year, this is the spiritual successor to Demon's Souls one of the best games of 2009. Known for it's exceptional difficulty but also for being completely fair, if you died it was because you frakked up. It was not cheap and there were barely any bugs that you could blame. It was hard as hell but not by accident.

From Software, the developers of Demon's Souls, have promised that Dark Souls will be even more difficult but still have the fairness of the original. I was fully convinced of this by some of the demos that I saw at E3 this year. I can tell I'm going to need a lot of extra controllers while playing this game.

INVERSION

This is a third-person shooter from Saber Interactive that will feature destructible environments and involve a lot of manipulation of gravity. It's set to come out on February 7, 2012. It kind of reminds me of Fracture. Hopefully it will turn out better than that game which was mediocre at best. It doesn't look too bad but it's probably not something that I'm going to be picking up right away.

RIDGE RACER UNBOUNDED

Only a trailer shown for this game but I'm still not sure of the details besides that it's set for a 2012 release.

SOUL CALIBUR V

I've never been a huge fan of the Soul Calibur games. They're fun but I feel that there are much more rewarding and fun fighters out there. I don't have the love for it that I do Street Fighter, Tekken, Killer Instinct, Virtua Fighter, or Mortal Kombat. Still they're good games even if I never got into them that much. Soul Calibur V, as many know, had some gameplay shown at E3 and I've got the gameplay trailer here for you.

E3 2011: Electronic Arts

EA is one of the biggest third-party publishers in the world and they showed off some great stuff at E3 including two of the more anticipated games in recent memory. So let's see what they brought to the table.

BATTLEFIELD 3

There were two big games shown from EA that are crazy-anticipated by both myself and millions of other gamers out there. We'll get to the second later but one of them is Battlefield 3. We've had quite a few spinoffs, most notably the Bad Company games, but it's been six years since Battlefield 2 was released. My #4 pick of E3, Battlefield 3 looks outstanding from the demos.

The new Frostbite 2 graphics engine combined with almost completely interactive and destructible environments is outstanding and the game looks beautiful. Obviously the console versions won't look quite as good as the PC version but they still look really damn good. Of course, it's the gameplay that will decide this game's fate and the gameplay looks incredibly fun.

I already mentioned the tank gameplay but everything that I've seen in the demos look awesome. I can't wait to see what other vehicles look like in the game and how they'll use them to keep multiplayer balanced. This is a game to look forward to.

KINGDOMS OF AMALUR: RECKONING

You guys know Curt Schilling, the ex-star pitcher for the Boston Red Sox? Did you know he's a big gamer? It's true and he started a development company of his own, 38 Studios, and is in the middle of making Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning. This was another one of the runner-ups to my Top 10 of E3 as it looks great.

Ken Rolston, the lead designer for Morrowind and Oblivion, is acting as lead designer here which is why it has a real Elder Scrolls feel. Todd MacFarlene, the creator of the character Spawn, is doing the artwork for the game and it looks gorgeous. The game itself looks like a cross between Elder Scrolls and the combat of a game like God of War and it looks great.

This is one that really caught my eye with this E3 and I still know nothing about the storyline to it but I'm very anxious to learn more about it. RPG fans, this is one to look out for.

MASS EFFECT 3

My most anticipated game of all time, Mass Effect 3 looks amazing. The Reapers have arrived to begin their galactic genocide and the galactic war has begun. Everything has been building up to this and it looks phenomenal. RPG elements are being brought back while giving the shooting from ME2 a jaw-dropping upgrade.

I expected the shooting to be improved but not this improved. It looks outstanding. Jumping from cover-to-cover mixed with a roll option and really impactful weapons' fire make this one that could compete with Uncharted and Gears in the shooting department. Throw in the melee attacks with the "swiss omni knife" as fans have come to call it and stealth kills and you've got an excellent looking package.

But of course many are wondering about the RPG mechanics. Well we've got customizable weapons which you'll see in the demo below, powers that will evolve each time you level up and of course every decision made in this game and the last two will have an impact on the story. Also any weapons you downloaded will be transferred with your save-file. That's what I call an old-save bonus. I still can't wait to see more and see how this amazing will end.

NEED FOR SPEED: THE RUN

A bit of base breaker here as many don't like the look of the new Need for Speed. And indeed it's easy to see why with QTEs and looking a lot like GTA was thrown into the mix. I never really got into the series that much so I really don't know what to say in regards to this one. Here's the gameplay demo for those interested.

OVERSTRIKE

From Insomniac, the makers of Ratchet and Clank and Resistance, this game looks like it could be really cool. The trailer was both action-packed and hilarious and the visual style reminds me of The Incredible only with GUNS! A co-op game with four unique characters with unique abilities, I'm liking the look of this one.

There were a few other games shown by EA but I've kind of already given the updates on them so I'll leave it with this. We still need to get through THQ, Square Enix, and Ubisoft.

E3 2011: Tecmo Koei and Warner Bros.

Alright, I was planning on going over Konami but I really gave everything I needed to about two weeks ago. With that we've got two publishers so let's start with Tecmo Koei and Ninja Gaiden 3.

NINJA GAIDEN 3

The Ninja Gaiden series. The three NES games are legendary among old-school gamers for being strong contenders for the most difficult series of games EVER released. I still haven't beaten the first one (though I've come close, got to 6-2). And of course you played as arguably the most badass ninja in video game history, Ryu Hayabusa. They were also groundbreaking for pioneering in-game cinematics or as we call them, cutscenes. The series came back with a vengeance on the Xbox also being incredibly difficult.

As for Ninja Gaiden 3 here it's received significant backlash for statements about lowering the difficulty and making it more accessible. I'm generally not one to complain about accessibility, but an article from IGN that talked about how much easier it was than past Ninja Gaiden games has me a little worried. These are some of the most difficult games ever conceived and I'd kind of like them to stay that way. Have lower difficulty levels but don't lower the difficulty of the difficulty levels as a whole.

The gameplay looks cool although the cinematic kills are a little distracting from what I see in the demo and like the others it looks good and bloody. The problem is the demo is a little too dark to see much. But I'm still looking forward to this and hoping the difficulty will be there to kick my ass again.

Now for Warner Bros. Studios starting with Bastion.

BASTION

Bastion is an action RPG and a downloadable title for the Xbox 360 and PC and all I can say is it looks great. This could be this year's Limbo. I almost put this on my 10 best of E3. I really liked what I saw. The fact that these guys essentially made it from a basement is already impressive enough but the game itself looks outstanding.

I love the art style which is inspired by anime and while I'm not a huge anime guy, if done right the art style can really look unique and stunning and it does here. The gameplay also has me intrigued and looks excellent and I'm wondering what the full role of the narrator will play. With real-time action RPGs being one of my favorite genres, I cannot wait for this game.

BATMAN: ARKHAM CITY

My most anticipated game yet to be released this year, with either Skyrim or Dark Souls following close behind, Arkham City only made #8 on my 10 Best of E3. The reason for this is because they didn't tell me an enormous amount that I didn't already know and therefore didn't increase my excitement level too much from what it was.

What they DID show us was how they're handling the Riddler this time around. I loved the Riddler challenges in Arkham Asylum but my main complaint about them was that once you found them, there was no real challenge anymore. This time though you have to prove your worth to get at them. And once you've found enough, that's where the real fun begins.

The Riddler sets up death traps that you need to spring people out of and what you get are puzzle rooms that would make Portal blush. They're big and it looks like they require quite a bit of thought to navigate successfully.

THE LORD OF THE RINGS: WAR IN THE NORTH

The Lord of the Rings has some excellent games. The ones that came out alongside the movies were all strong hack-n-slash games and Battle for Middle Earth was an excellent RTS. So now Snowblind is attempting a co-op hack-n-slash RPG. What I saw (couldn't find a demo to put here) looked promising but I'm still not fully hooked by it.

The jump-in jump-out co-op is something that I've never seen done for an RPG, in fact I don't think I've seen co-op in an RPG since Secret of Mana. However, the gameplay that I've seen hasn't fully convinced me. I'm going to keep my eye on it as I really like the concept of taking the series to a place that hasn't been explored before but I'm still hesitant.


Tomorrow (or today), I start going over the bigger presenters at E3 this year with companies like Square Enix, Namco Bandai, Ubisoft and Electronic Arts. Keep an eye out for that starting soon.

FemShep in Mass Effect Marketing, Battlefield 3 DLC, and Box Art Reveals

A few news items I want to get out of the way in between talking about the E3 updates so let's get started with Mass Effect 3 and FemShep.


Commander Shepard is a woman. Don't even try to tell me otherwise. I've made it no secret on here that I consider FemShep (as she's called by the fans) to be the definitive Commander Shepard. This is primarily due to her incredible voice actress, Jennifer Hale, who is one of the most talented voices in the business (actor or actress).

And now this woman who can kick our asses is getting recognition.

Mark Meer is good but he doesn't hold his own against the rest of the cast whereas Hale gives arguably the best performance in Mass Effect 2 which is saying a lot. She gives the character something that I feel MaleShep lacks: vulnerability. I mean that in a good way in that she feels human and not just like a blank slate.

But we have yet to see her in a trailer or in any promotional item besides one image for the first game. Even Hale herself has noted how little recognition FemShep gets in the marketing. Well that's about to change.

The head of marketing for the series asked on Twitter if fans would like to see FemShep in marketing for the final entry of the trilogy and woke up to thousands of responses asking for it. So FemShep will now be getting her own trailer and will also be on the box art for the Collector's Edition. Well played BioWare. My Shepard is licking her chops waiting to kick some Reaper ass.


Now for the controversial Battlefield 3 pre-order DLC. A lot of people complained that some of the weapons and items were going to be held back as pre-order DLC for Battlefield 3. DICE has heard your complaints and has addressed them by putting them in better context.

The weapons and items that they chose to make pre-order DLC were specifically chosen because they were not remarkably powerful so that it doesn't give players any unfair advantage. All of these weapon packs will be released to everyone for free later down the road. They noted that this was a timed-based exclusive only and not meant to tip balance to those who pay a little extra.

That's good enough for me and I'm going to trust DICE to make it work properly. The game looks like it's going to be badass.


Finally box art for two big October releases were released. First up is the box art for Dark Souls.

It could be a little more dynamic though I like the composition of it the reflection and everything. I just wish there was a little more going on than what is shown especially since I want them to drive home the difficulty of this game partly through the box art. They don't really do that but it's not terrible.

This one I also have some problems with. The placement of the logo just feels off and it's just an uninspired pose by Batman. It doesn't look like an enormous amount of effort was put into it. On the plus side though, I love the color scheme for it almost giving an old comic style/noir feel. Once again however, could be better.

E3: Deep Silver

Deep Silver showed off two games at E3 this year starting with their zombie co-op game Dead Island.

DEAD ISLAND

Now I know this formula sounds incredibly familiar and really it is. It seems like a Left 4 Dead clone. However there is one key difference between the two: Dead Island will have more of a focus on melee attacks than just shooting. There is shooting but kind of like Condemned melee will be the main offense.

I also like the tropical setting that they're using. At the end, this game does look a lot like a clone of Left 4 Dead but it looks like a clone worth checking out and since when is killing zombies not fun?

RISEN 2: DARK WATERS

The second game they showed was Risen 2: Dark Waters. The game is an action RPG but without classes just allowing you to level up the way you wish to I'm guessing. Sounds a little like Demon's Souls in the regard only in Demon's Souls you picked a starting template and could build from there. I never played the first game so I can't give a full opinion on this one.

Unfortunately I can't find a good E3 video for it but I'll try to keep you updated as to the progress of the game as more updates come in.


This evening I'll be going over at least Konami, Warner Bros, and Tecmo Koei so keep an eye out for those.

E3 2011: Capcom

Well Capcom is one of the big third-parties companies responsible for franchises like Street Fighter, Resident Evil, Mega Man, and Devil May Cry. What did they bring to the table here? Well let's start with Asura's Wrath.


ASURA'S WRATH

Capcom revolutionized the stylish 3-D beat-em-up action game with Devil May Cry 10 years ago. It led to the relaunch of the Ninja Gaiden series, and the creation of God of War and my personal favorite from the genre, Bayonetta. So what will Asura's Wrath, a new IP, bring to the table?

Well from what I saw is that it's going to utilize cinematic camera angles even during the gameplay which is kind of what God of War does but it has a style that reeks of Devil May Cry and Bayonetta with huge and insane boss designs. I'm a little worried about how many QTEs I saw in the demo (which unfortunately I can't find) but there's still no release date which means a lot of time for them to finish things up.

DmC DEVIL MAY CRY

Speaking of Devil May Cry we come to by far one of the most controversial games at this E3: the new Devil May Cry with the redesigned Dante. For those who don't know Dante, here are two images one showing what he looked like in the first four games and what he'll look like in this one.

Dante before redesign

Dante after redesign

Okay, now I'm not going to rage...YET! Capcom has said that this is an origin story so I'll see how they handle it before I go up in arms. The problem though is that the trailer just wasn't all to appealing to me. Now it is just a trailer but they need all they can get with how pissed the fans are about the redesign.

I'm not necessarily expecting it to be as revolutionary as the original or as awesome as Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening or Bayonetta, but Capcom needs to really deliver with this if they want to keep fan loyalty to this series. I guess we'll see what happens.

MEGA MAN LEGENDS 3

I'm not going to go one with this one for to long as I'm not a huge Mega Man fan. Oh sure the first three are among the best games of all time and the first three in the X series were awesome. 9 and 10 have also been good. But the Legends I could never get into. It's an action RPG with Mega Man and on the 3DS, that's really all I know about it.

RESIDENT EVIL: OPERATION RACCOON CITY

You know, I did not enjoy the Outbreak spinoff for the series. They just weren't very fun. So the problem with this one is that it looks a lot like those just with the new design style that the series has. Okay, we're playing as Umbrella but it still doesn't look very different from what I'm imagining. Maybe I'll be proven wrong but I'm not feeling this one.

RESIDENT EVIL: REVELATIONS

Since this is a 3DS game I can't get a demo for it but I will show the trailer. What I can tell is that it takes place between Resident Evil 4 and 5, right after the creation BSAA. Chris goes missing and Jill has to find him. Wow, that sounds a little familiar doesn't it. Kind of like a certain other Resident Evil game that came out two years ago. Overall I'm kind of expecting this storyline to be a little pointless in the grand scheme of things.

What is interesting is that I've read that they're going to kind of be doing a cross between the two Resident Evil designs. It will use a 3rd-person over-the-shoulder camera but have more survival-horror elements mixed in. Whether it will work or not, we'll have to see. We have yet to see a solid Resident Evil game on a handheld, hopefully this will be a good one.

RESIDENT EVIL: THE MERCENARIES 3D

Yes, three goddamn Resident Evil games at this E3. I think that's the most games I've ever seen from a single franchise at E3. This looks a little cool though but there's also a little problem with it. The cool part comes from all the characters they've got: Chris, Jill and Wesker obviously but there's also Hunk, Claire, Rebecca, Krauser from Resident Evil 4 and the king of craptastic and awesomely awful dialogue, Barry. If you don't know he's the man behind some of the infamously hilarious lines in the series. If you want to see, search "Barry Resident Evil quotes on Youtube".

The problem is this: making an entire game set around the Mercenaries side-game. Yeah, I know it will have co-op but I just don't see it being a lasting game that will be worth full retail price. The only way I could see it working is if they made it really tactical and teamwork based like Left 4 Dead, otherwise I don't see it lasting long.


STREET FIGHTER X TEKKEN

Obviously Capcom revolutionized fighting games with the release of Street Fighter II. That is undeniable. Capcom can also probably be credited with the recent resurgence in popularity of the fighting genre with Street Fighter IV. So why not cross Street Fighter over with another one of the great fighting franchises, Tekken? Well that's what Capcom and Namco are doing and it looks badass.

The game will play like a 2D fighter with the traditional fighting system that we know from other Street Fighter games. How the Tekken characters will fare fighting with that system, I don't know but I guess we'll find out.

Best part of the video below: seeing Cammy and Chun-Li fighting against Nina. My fantasy has become a reality. CATFIGHT!!!! Also seeing Ryu deliver a few uppercuts and a Hadouken to Bob is awesome.

Sorry for not talking about more today, I got a little busy with a few things. I'll make it up by posting about as many small presenters as possible. In other words the companies that didn't show off as many games and I'll go over the ones that DID show a lot over the weekend.

E3 2011: Bethesda

Bethesda showed off three games at E3 this year. So like the last ones let's go in alphabetical order starting with Prey 2.

PREY 2

I never played the first game but what I saw in the demo for Prey 2 looks absolutely awesome and it looks like the developer is giving a lot of flexibility on how to play the game which is a big thing. Like I said over a week ago, I may have to give the original Prey a whirl before Prey 2 is released.

The visor and the platforming look very cool and the bounty system is something that I really want to try. Apparently you'll play as a different protagonist than in the original and that currently has no effect on me whatsoever.

RAGE

Whenever id is involved it's something to keep an eye open for and Rage looks awesome. I'm still a little worried about it being too similar to Fallout 3 especially since it's published by Bethesda but the gameplay trailers that I've seen all look so ridiculously fun. It just looks like an asskicking time.

The AI promises to be excellent and the weapon system looks great especially with the multiple ammo types. The crossbow brain controller in particular is both hilarious and sadistic and I wouldn't have it any other way. I'm still curious to see what the main storyline is as the guy in the video notes, id has never been much for storylines and I want to see where they take it.

Anyway, gameplay is below and I can't wait for this release. Though it's releasing in October with Arkham City, Dark Souls, and Battlefield 3. WHICH TO GET?????

THE ELDER SCROLLS V: SKYRIM

And finally my #1 game of E3: Skyrim. They didn't show an incredible amount of gameplay but what they did show made me ridiculously excited about it. This is quite impressive as I'm not even a big fan of Oblivion. I may not be looking forward to it quite as much as Mass Effect 3 but now I don't know which one to pick up: this or Uncharted 3.

The dragons still have me intrigued as to how they're going to fully utilize them in the game and well basically everything about the demo they showed made me excited to get my hands on this game. Well played Bethesda, well played.

At the end of the day, Bethesda did an OUTSTANDING job at E3 this year. They made all three of their games look amazing from the demos that they showed and I'm eager to play all three of them now. I hope the games live up to what they showed.

E3 2011: Activision

So Activision, the whipping boy of the industry, and also a company that practically prints money with a certain franchise. From what I saw they brought four games to the table with this E3 starting with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3.

CALL OF DUTY: MODERN WARFARE 3

Modern Warfare 3 was basically the first game shown when E3 kicked in at the Microsoft press conference. I posted a gameplay demo the other day from the press conference so I'm going to post a different video.

This one shows the American military fighting through the streets of New York attempting to get to the Stock Exchange. It's standard stuff but I'm a sucker for fighting in recognizable cities so I'm curious to see what they do with this one.

As I said, when it comes to military shooters being released this, Battlefield 3 is the one that I'm looking at but Modern Warfare 3 is still a Call of Duty game. And while the series gets a lot of hate on the internet they're still solid games, just without much innovation which is why Battlefield 3 gets my pick, but this will be a good rental for me.

PROTOTYPE 2

I posted about this one a few days before E3 started. Like I said, I haven't finished the first one though I have played some of it and I've enjoyed what I've seen. I wouldn't say it's masterful but I've liked it.

The game looks like a cool sequel but unfortunately it doesn't look like they've really changed much design and gameplay wise. Storywise it looks like a big shift with a new protagonist but I can't fully know obviously.

In other words, it looks cool, but it's probably not a game that I'll be shelling out $60 for on day one.

SPIDER-MAN: EDGE OF TIME

The second Spider-Man game that will be developed Beenox, with their first being last year's Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions. While I haven't played it, the game received positive reviews for some of its concepts and voice acting. It also received criticism for bugs in the game and some people felt that they didn't fully follow-up on the crossover between four Spider-Man universes.

Well Beenox is taking another stab as they are now responsible for every Spider-Man game that Activision publishes. Will it outdo its predecessor and will it outdo the greatest Spider-Man game ever made, Spider-Man 2. I guess we'll find out this fall.

X-MEN: DESTINY

Finally, X-Men: Destiny from developer Silicon Knights. This is a developer that has made some great stuff but is also behind one of the biggest busts in recent gaming, Too Human. It's sad because other than that they've done awesome work like Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain, Metal Gear Solid: Twin Snakes (the PS1 Metal Gear Solid brought to the GameCube), and one of the best horror games ever Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem.

So I'm hoping that they'll bring the great stuff that they did with those games to X-Men: Destiny which will be a third-person action game that will be introducing three never-before seen characters and I'm guessing the main draw of the game is how they interact with the X-Men. Not really sure on this one yet. I'll keep looking into it.

E3 2011: 2K Games

So 2K Games had a few that they showed off at E3 this year. The first one up is Bioshock Infinite.

BIOSHOCK INFINITE

My #3 best of E3, Bioshock Infinite may not have shown a large amount of gameplay but what they showed looked outstanding. Again Ken Levine is back on the series after not really being involved with Bioshock 2 which should definitely mean that we can expect good things from this re-imagining.

Now, thanks to IGN, I've got a video showing an interview with Ken Levine where he talks about the central conflict of the game as well as their decision to re-imagine the series from a new angle. He talks about Elizabeth and the mysterious Songbird and other topics.

THE DARKNESS II

Next is The Darkness II. I'm going into this one (and the next one) kind of ignorant as I never played the original. What I do know is that it is an FPS based off of a comic series. The game received good reviews for it's campaign, story, and effective use of powers but was criticized for its multiplayer which was consider very laggy.

There are two vids that I've got for this one. The first is a trailer that they showed for at this E3 courtesy of Machinima and the second is a demo with commentary courtesy of IGN with one of the developers behind the game. Let's check them out.

Apparently we can quad-wield in the game. Whether that was in the original, I'm not quite sure and the design with the light sounds like an inverse of Alan Wake though I've read that was in the original which came out four years ago.

The trailer kind of made me laugh at some point due to the voice acting. Whether it would sound better in context, I can't really say. Looks okay, probably not one that I'm going to pick up but still cool.

XCOM


For this I'm probably not going to have a wealth of information. What I know is that it's an FPS reboot of the X-COM series, a series of strategy games made by MicroProse Software back in the 90s and early 2000s. The first one is generally regarded as one of the greatest PC games in history.

Unfortunately, I've never played them so I really don't know what the full story behind the series is. I couldn't really find a solid demo for the game from the E3 videos I went through, just a trailer. All I can say though is that it's supposed to be released on March 6, 2012. This means I'm probably not picking it up since there's only one game I'm looking at for March 6.

Later today I'll post about Activision, Atlus, and Bethesda.

E3 2011: The Big Three; Also Homefront Developer Closed, Bethesda Hacked, and Robin in Arkham City

Well now it's time for me to go over as much about E3 as I can. Over the next 5-7 days, I'll try touch on as much as possible to give a full rundown on what went down at E3.

First I want to start with the most obvious of targets: The Big Three. In other words: Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo. At E3 2010, Nintendo was the OBVIOUS winner of the three. What about this year? Well, might as well go in the order that they presented in, so let's start with Microsoft

MICROSOFT

Microsoft's press conference started relatively strong with some demos for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 and Gears of War 3 (though that wasn't the most impressive but the Horde demo later delivered). Then Kinect started to be the main focus and everything kind of went downhill from there with the exception of the announcement at the end for Halo 4 and a new trilogy, though I'm still on the fence about that.

Let me try to explain why Microsoft's press conference was a failure in my eyes. I don't want to sound like I'm just hating on the Kinect because it's a fun thing to do. I have reasons for hating on it. The big problem is that Nintendo has had the hooks in the motion control aspect for over five years and they've done it far better than Kinect has. Sure there's shovelware but the Nintendo developed software for the most part has been phenomenal.

Microsoft hasn't really shown anything new that really works and adds to the experience. That's why I felt that the time spent on Kinect was kind of wasteful. IGN wrote an article on a Sega published game called Rise of Nightmares for the Kinect which is meant to be serious but because they were flailing about while playing it, it became hilarious. Everything that I've seen with Kinect so far seems that it would pull someone out of the experience.

I'll admit I found the Sesame Street game a little charming but it's not for me and the other family-friendly stuff there isn't going to do a lot of good. Sesame Street will because it's a recognizable brand for children but for the other stuff, it just isn't marketable. So Microsoft started out okay and then weakened from there.

SONY

Sony's had a rough year this year. That's probably putting it in the lightest terms possible. So how did they do with their press conference? Pretty damn well actually. I enjoyed this press conference a lot more than Microsoft. It of course started with an apology for all the hacking crap and PSN outage. They kind of had to do but I'm still glad that they did.

As for what they showed off, the big one they showed was obviously Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception and it looked damn good. It doesn't look very different from Uncharted 2 which is why it wasn't on my Top 10 of E3, but they really didn't need to change much from Uncharted 2. They also showed off a new Sly Cooper, Resistance 3, Starhawk, and the HD remakes for the Metal Gear games, the God of War PSP games, and the Ico Collection.

Of course the Vita was the big one they showed. Sony's new handheld showed some real power with a new Uncharted title for the system as well as a new ModNation Racers. It appears that they are also getting nice 3rd party support which is definitely a plus. Sony also went into the Move but they didn't into anywhere near as much as Microsoft into the Kinect. So Sony, had a good E3 this year.

NINTENDO

Nintendo also had a good press conference though nowhere near as good as last year's. The good came from a few big announcements and updates on games that we heard about last year and then kind of disappeared. We've got Kid Icarus: Uprising, Super Mario 3D, Luigi's Mansion 2, Star Fox 64 3D and others either newly announced or backed up for 3DS, Link's Awakening now on Virtual Console and Four Swords Adventure coming free.

Another good thing was Shigeru Miyamoto. You could say I'm cheating with calling him a positive but the guy is just such a joy to watch. He takes so much pleasure from his work and he deserves to. I could enjoy watching that guy's enthusiasm all day and when he was on stage, everything was just much more enjoyable.

As for the bad, it overlaps with another good thing: the unveiling of the Wii U. Yes that is what it's called. A lot of people made judgments on this but I can't because of the bad thing about the press conference. Nintendo just presented it very poorly and it made it impossible for me to make a judgment. New details have come to light which make it easier for me to judge it but I'm speaking from the mindset of someone who just watched the press conference (I know it was a week ago).

However, the Wii U has a lot going for it. First of all a new Super Smash Bros. (called it) for both the Wii U and 3DS which will both function together in some fashion. Second and very important, 3rd party support. Nintendo seems to be attempting to gain good 3rd party support for the system in many genres which is one thing the Wii had trouble with and some of the games coming to the Wii U, like Aliens: Colonial Marines, Batman: Arkham City, etc. look great. An important move by Nintendo.

WINNER

As for the winner of the three, it's between Sony and Nintendo. In the end, I'm going to have to say Nintendo because of their new console unveiling (even if the presentation was kind of weak) and the plethora of titles announced for both it and the 3DS. The concert at the beginning with Zelda music and a montage was also enjoyable and Miyamoto is always fun to watch. So Nintendo takes it home again.

Agree or disagree? Give your thoughts in the comments below.


In other news THQ closed Kaos Studios, the developer behind Homefront. I can't speak to the quality of Homefront itself nor can I give reasons as to why Kaos was closed down. It's always sad to see a developer go unless the game that resulted in their demise was REALLY crappy but from what I've heard, while Homefront may have been very flawed, it wasn't that. It also seemed like it sold reasonably well so I'm stumped as to why Kaos was shut down.

So good luck to those who worked at Kaos Studios. Meanwhile, this does not mean that Homefront 2 is not coming as it has been handed off to THQ Montreal.


Bethesda Softworks joins Epic Games and Nintendo in recent hacking attacks against video game companies. The hacking group known as, LulzSec (no I'm not kidding), hacked into the network and stole information and have apparently made admin passwords public.

LulzSec has made it pretty clear that they hack sites, pretty much just because they can which somehow makes them seem even douchier than the guys stealing information. They aren't posting customer information because apparently they like Bethesda so what the hell is the point? They're just being dicks now. This hacking thing is getting WAY out of hand and it's annoying to me to see these asshats hack into a site just for the fun of it. I hope this is the end of it but unfortunately it probably won't be.


While I predicted as soon as Catwoman was revealed as playable that Robin wouldn't be in the game, I might have been wrong. Apparently a pre-order bonus from Best Buy will get you a code that will allow you to play as Robin. How will this work? I'm guessing it's going to be similar to how the Joker was playable in the side-challenges.

But it makes me wonder if Robin is involved in the story at all. If they create the character for the challenge mode, then it would seem logical that he's in the story somewhere. Hopefully there will be an update on this and I'll keep you guys informed.


THQ Closes Homefront Studio
Bethesda Confirms Brink Site Hacked, Personal Info Risked
Bethesda Hacked, Details About To Be Leaked
You Can Play as Robin in Batman: Arkham City According to Best Buy Ad

Top 10 Best of E3

Well, E3 has pretty much ended at this point and we got a good look at some of the stuff that was coming. Nintendo's got a new console, a bunch of new games or updates on games for the 3DS, Sony's got the Vita, and many others.

But the big star of E3 are the games themselves. The most important thing for a company to do at E3 is raise the excitement level for their game and that's what this list is about. Which games most effectively raised my excitement level from where it was before at E3? This is not a list of the games that I'm most excited about as there's a lot more that goes into that than just E3.

Keep in mind that I wasn't at E3 and therefore didn't play any of these. But I did watch as many demos and trailers as I possibly could in order to judge this list. Whether you want to take my thoughts above other peoples' is your choice.

I'll be going into more detail as to what we saw with these games among others throughout the weekend and next week but these are games that most successfully presented themselves. This is my list of the 10 best of E3.

#10. Star Wars: The Old Republic

Two Star Wars games were shown at E3 this year: Kinect Star Wars and Star Wars: The Old Republic. Kinect Star Wars has stayed with the tradition of unfortunately making the player look like a bit of tool and the main character looks sluggish as hell, whereas Star Wars: The Old Republic is being made by BioWare. Guess which one I picked (well you can see it up there).

I criticized this on the first day for just giving another cinematic trailer but they showed quite a bit more gameplay as the days went on, which is one of the reasons I decided to delay E3 "coverage" until now. While we may have seen this kind of gameplay and more quite a bit, I'm a sucker and I got suckered in. I'm very much anticipating seeing what's going to happen in this MMO.

It's low on the list due to the reasons mentioned above. Mainly, they didn't really show us anything new and didn't raise my excitement level much higher than it was but it did to a degree which makes it eligible for this list and I'm eagerly anticipating hearing a release date.

#9. Rayman Origins

It's been nearly a decade since we've had a decent Rayman game. Following in the footsteps of companies like Capcom and Nintendo, Ubisoft seemed to decide that it was time to bring him back to his 2D roots with Rayman Origins. They showed it off at the Ubisoft press conference and it looked excellent.

It looks just like the original Rayman with co-op mixed as well. I wonder if this will be like New Super Mario Bros. where you can screw with them in every way possible. The levels have a big scale to them causing the camera to pull back at points to let you see it all and the graphics are pleasing to look at.

I didn't even know about this until this E3 but apparently it's been in the open for a while. Originally meant to be released as downloadable content in episodes, it was eventually made to be released as one full game at retail. Now that I know it's coming and I saw the demo at the press conference, I can't wait to get a chance to play it.

#8. Batman: Arkham City

My most anticipated game yet to be released this year. So why is it so low? Well, because they really didn't give me any major information that I didn't already know. So why is it on here? Because of the one major thing they did go over that I was still curious about: the Riddler challenges.

In a 20-minute demo that I watched, it was shown that you'll have to work to get the trophies and when you get enough, you get the location to a death trap that the Riddler has put an innocent into. The one that they showed was devious and looked like a trap from Saw. In Arkham Asylum, we got the impression of a threatening villain in the Riddler from the audio tapes. In Arkham City, we're going to get it from the puzzles he sets up.

They also showed off a new gadget: the Double Line Launcher. While in mid-line-launch, you can aim and fire another line to glide on. It appears to require precision but it looks awesome. I'm already crazy excited for the sequel to the best comic-book game ever and while this E3 didn't expand on that enormously, it did a little bit with the Riddler challenge. I can't wait to see more.

#7. The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

I really hadn't seen much gameplay footage for Skyward Sword before this E3, with the exception of very tiny tidbits. What I saw at this E3 definitely upped my excitement for the game and I was already quite excited to see what they were going to do with this game.

I'm not quite sure what the story is but I do know that it's a prequel to Ocarina of Time. It will involve how the Master Sword came to be, but that's all I really know. As for the gameplay, it really looks excellent. The sword really looks like it follows the Wii-mote, which is a very good seeing as that's what they advertised. All the other stuff looks like it's there from ranged weapons to bombs and exploration as well.

Stuttering Craig, the co-founder and owner of Screwattack.com, also gave it his approval and when it comes to Nintendo products, I generally trust his opinion. All of these make it one of the games that I really got excited about after this E3. The game will come out sometime later this year for the series' 25th anniversary and I can't wait to play it.

#6. Deus Ex: Human Revolution

I still haven't played through the original Deus Ex, although thanks to the power of Steam, I have begun playing through it. Part of the reason was because I loved what I saw from what Eidos Montreal showed of Human Revolution at E3.

A great mix of FPS and RPG gameplay from what I saw (and from what I've played so far with the original) and a story set-up that has me intrigued. It's a prequel for the series and we will not be playing as JC Denton, but Adam Jensen. Where this fits into the overall series, I can't say as I haven't finished the original yet but characters from the first will appear in this prequel.

I saw a few demos and trailers and greatly enjoyed what I saw. I know quite a few of the fans are curious to see what will happen as I know many fans were not pleased with the sequel to the original. So far, I've been enjoying the first and when this comes out, I eagerly await playing it.

#5. Dark Souls

The spiritual successor to Demon's Souls, one of the best games of 2009. That alone is a good sign. For those of you who never played it, Demon's Souls was a PS3 exclusive developed by From Software, known its relentlessly punishing difficulty yet also for being almost 100% fair. If you died, you were playing stupidly. It took a lot of practice.

Well the new game is Dark Souls, and it's no longer a PS3 exclusive as it's also being released on the 360. The demos that I saw showed that From Software is really serious about keeping the controller-destroying difficulty. Seriously, if you don't believe me, find their fight with a giant armored boar. However, the game also looks satisfying as all hell.

The first game was a surprising success that a lot of people didn't expect much from due to its unforgiving difficulty. Now that Demon's Souls is a commercial success, it's going to be very interesting to see where From Software will take it. They've already decided to make the world much more open, but what else are they doing with this successor?

#4. Battlefield 3

If you ask me which military FPS I'm looking forward to in Q4 of this year, Modern Warfare 3 or Battlefield 3, I'm going with Battlefield 3, especially after the E3 demos shown for it. While Modern Warfare 3 looks cool, it doesn't look all that different whereas it's been six years since we've gotten a true numbered sequel to Battlefield 2.

The tank assault shown at the EA press conference kicked ass and I also got a look at some of the other vehicular gameplay as well as a look at the regular infantry gameplay for the single-player campaign and multiplayer. Emphasis in the demos was placed on the quality of the gunplay, the animation (which DICE got help with from the FIFA design team), sound design, and the destructible environment and it all looks excellent.

October is going to be a very difficult month with Arkham City, Dark Souls, Rage (it got delayed yesterday), and this. While I may have my sights set on Arkham City and Dark Souls, this still looks like an incredible FPS and I may have to think about how I'm going to pick things up in October.

#3. Bioshock Infinite

The first Bioshock was an outstanding clone of one of the greatest FPSs in history, System Shock 2. It had an incredibly well developed universe with Rapture which still stands as one of the best gaming worlds ever created. The problem with the second one was that it was too similar to the original. It was a good game but not a modern classic.

But now Ken Levine, one of the main guys behind System Shock 2 and the creative director of the original Bioshock is returning for Bioshock Infinite and changing everything up. The game will not take place in Rapture nor have anything to do with the first two but it will take place in a sky city called Columbia, held up by hot air balloons. The demos that I saw teased at a relationship between a giant bird called the Songbird and Elizabeth, the character you escort throughout the game, as being the driving force and it was very interesting to listen to.

Of course another cool thing is the skyhook system which you will use to navigate through Columbia. A protagonist who will actually speak will change things up. One of the big changes is that rather than seeing the aftermath of the collapse of the utopia, you'll be right in the middle of it happening. I can't wait to see more and I can't wait for it to come out.

#2. Mass Effect 3

We've come a long way since Mass Effect began in 2007. The first game had clunky combat and some poorly implemented RPG mechanics. It was the story, characters and universe that made it a modern classic. Mass Effect 2 had improved shooting with less RPG mechanics and again it was the story, characters, and universe that made it my favorite game of this generation. And now comes the conclusion to this amazing trilogy.

I knew BioWare was going to be improving the shooting again, but I didn't expect them to do it THIS much. It doesn't just look good, it looks phenomenal with a much more refined cover system, better pacing and more intelligent AI. BioWare stated that they wanted to match up with Uncharted and Gears of War. It really looks like they might.

As for the RPG elements, they're back. They're not as complex as in the original but this is a great compromise. Customizable weapons without a ridiculously clunky inventory? Hell yes. Powers that evolve multiple times? Count me in. Add grenades back in with a new class-specific melee system which looks absolutely badass and BioWare's golden.

But of course, it's the story and emotional impact that have these games apart from most other series. The Reaper invasion has begun and I'm expecting a lot of powerful emotion in there. I got a good sense of it as well urgency from the demos and I can't wait to see what BioWare delivers. Add everything up and you're looking at my most anticipated game OF ALL TIME!

#1. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

So if Mass Effect 3 is my all-time most anticipated game, why isn't it at #1? Well remember this list is about how much of an impact E3 made on my excitement for a certain game. I was already really looking forward to Mass Effect 3. Skyrim, on the other hand, wasn't really an incredible blip on my radar. I wasn't a big fan of Oblivion, but what I saw from E3 really had me salivating.

While they showed the same demo everytime, it looked absolutely stunning. The entire world looks beautiful and I love the ability to control each hand. You can have a weapon in one and a spell in the other or a spell/weapon in both. The game just looks incredibly fun and the dragons and dragon encounters look amazing.

With over 150 dungeons and a completely open world, this is going to suck so many hours from my life. While Mass Effect 3 may still be my all-time most anticipated game, Skyrim was the game that most benefited from me being at E3 which is why it takes the #1 spot on this list.

Like I said, I'll be going into more detail about what was at E3 as the week goes on. Hope you enjoyed reading and I hope you look at my E3 thoughts this week.